WARRING HEARTS ○ YOONMIN FANFICTION

8. PAST

When Jimin was five, his mother took him to a big house in the suburbs of Seoul. Memory was such a fickle thing. Jimin didn't remember a lot of things that happened more recently, but he did remember that cold, rainy evening with perfect clarity. He remembered the chill seeping into his small body as he stood, clutching his mother's thin hand. She was shivering, her grip on his hand painful. Jimin thought she was scared. He was scared, too.

"I'm cold," he complained. "Hush. You'll be warm soon," she said before coughing violently. She let go of his hand to cover her mouth. She always did it, as if he couldn't hear. As if he was stupid. Jimin averted his gaze for the minute it took before her coughs subsided and the sound of her breathing became less scary.

A gust of wind blew into his face, almost knocking him off his feet and temporarily blurring his vision. He hated this.

"I wanna go home," he muttered, even though he hated their home: the tiny, cold room that was crawling with things. Sighing, his mother turned and leaned down so they were eye to eye. Her face was gray, thin and ugly, her eyes dull with pain. Jimin hated her face, too. She used to look so different.

She used to be the most beautiful woman in their neighborhood. The illness made her ugly and Jimin hated it and hated her.

"Baby," she said hoarsely. "Remember you used to ask about your dad? This is his home—one of his homes. You're going to live with him now." Jimin's eyes widened. He glanced at the big house.

"Dad?"

"Yes," she said, taking his hand again and pulling him toward the house. "He's—he's a very important person and he can give you anything you need. He'll—he'll take care of you." As her words sank in, Jimin snatched his hand away and ran ahead of her. A dad. His dad! Dan had a dad. Ha-Joon had a dad too. Even that stupid Choi Do-yoon had a dad. A dad. He had a real dad. And maybe his dad would fix whatever was wrong with his mom, too! Jimin banged on the front door.

"Jimi—" his mother admonished, but a terrible coughing fit interrupted anything else she intended to say. The door opened, revealing a man on the other side. He wasn't very tall, but he looked...nice. He didn't look like Jimin —everyone said Jimin looked like his mother—but he had eyes just like him. The man—his dad—stared at him in confusion, a polite smile on his lips.

Jimin heart thumped in his chest. He smiled. "Hello."

"Hello," his dad said gently. "Can I help you, young man?" Jimin beamed at him.

"I'm Jimin." Looking puzzled, his dad glanced over Jimin's shoulder. Behind Jimin, his mother finally stopped coughing.

"Hello, Baek-Hyun," she said, her voice still terrible from coughing. His dad stared at her, his face...empty. As the silence stretched on, Jimin got a funny feeling in his stomach.

"I'm sorry, sir, I didn't hear the knocking," an apologetic male voice said suddenly. "You shouldn't be answering the door."

"That's all right, David," his dad said after a moment. "It's no one important. You may go." Jimin frowned. Maybe he just hadn't recognized her? She looked so different now that she was...sick.

"I'm your son, Jimin," he tried again, trying to give the man his nicest smile. Dan's mother always said he was "a pretty child" and "irresistible" when he was nice.

His dad gave him a very strange look. Before he could say anything, there was the sound of someone running, and then, a blond boy, about Jimin's age, came crashing into Jimin's dad's legs.

"Daddy, we didn't finish playing!" he said, grabbing the man's hand and tugging.

"Wait for me in the living room, Jungkook."