Chasing Butterflies

Our Person

"I'm so bored!" Taehyung yelled, hanging upside down on the couch the boys had dragged into their railway station.

"Well what do expect us to do about it?" Yoongi fired back at the younger boy, a scowl on his face.

"Chill guys, you don't need to fight over nothing," Namjoon tried to calm the bickering between the boys.

"I wanna do something!" Taehyung yelled again, drawing the attention of all the boys where they sat around the railway station.

They were all silent for a while, just sitting and relaxing. But there was no denying that their minds were racing. "I miss Izzy," Hoseok whispered the words that they were all thinking. All eyes snapped to him and six heads slowly nodded in agreement.

"Where could she be?" Jungkook mumbled, scuffing his boots across the cement floor.

"We should have followed her when she started running home." The boys nodded at Jin's statement. They had all known in the moment that they shouldn't just let her go. But they did. They had promised to keep her with them and they had broken that promise. And they had regretted it every day for the past two weeks.

Jimin's hands scraped down his face and his elbows rested on his knees. He hadn't been sleeping well the past two weeks, and he knew it was because of Izzy. Not knowing where she was or if she was okay was taking its toll on all of the boys. They never admitted it out loud but they all cared about her.

It was easy to see that she was struggling with something, and they can't pretend that their lives have been all sunshine and rainbows. They've all had days when they were alone, days when they couldn't find enough food, days when they had no place to sleep. But somehow they had found each other, and together they worked their way off the streets. They started off living in that railway station and now they had more money than they could ever spend. It wasn't easy getting there. And it wasn't always lawful. But they did what they had to do and they gambled their way out of the rotten lives that they had been dropped into. And after taking Izzy into their group, they were going mad not knowing what was wrong or how to help her.

Just as Jimin was opening his mouth to speak a phone rang. Namjoon's eyebrows furrowed at the unfamiliar number but he put the phone to his ear. "Hello?" The boys watched his eyes widen as a voice chattered rapidly on the line.

"She what? Is she okay? Where are you?" Namjoon scrambled off the couch and ran from the railway, the boys were right on his heels.

"Joon! What's going on? Who was on the phone?" Jin shouted as they ran, following Namjoon's pounding footsteps on the sidewalk.

Namjoon didn't stop running but he turned his head to glance back and make sure the boys were following him. "Izzy's in trouble," his words were swept up by the wind but they still heard his troubled voice. They pushed themselves to run faster.

They ran until their legs felt like they were on fire and their lungs nearly gave out. But they made it to a glass door with a horseshoe hanging over it. Namjoon slammed past the glass, running into the small cafe. Jungkook bent over, hands resting on his knees, panting heavily. The others were no better, clutching their sides and gulping air.

A tiny woman with graying hair rushed out from behind the counter. "Are you the Kim Namjoon from Izzy's phone?" She sounded as anxious as they felt.

"Yes," he sucked in a breath, "Where is she," breath, "What happened," breath.

"She's in the kitchen. Come on, quickly!" The woman practically sprinted into the cafe kitchen, the boys right behind her.

"Izzy!" The name left Jimin's mouth and before he even realized it he was kneeling at her side. "Oh Izzy, what happened to you," he hoped that no one heard the break in his voice. He cradled her head in his lap as gently as he could but a quiet whimper still escaped her mouth.