Save Me • Yoonmin

Pain

Park Jimin had always been a happy person. When you saw him walking down the streets with his family, there wasn't a time that he didn't have his lips curved up in a small smile. He was friends with every kid that he met at the parks or just in his neighborhood. He loved to be with other people, make them laugh and smile.

Then it all changed.

He remembers the day like it was just yesterday, when in reality it happened almost three years ago. He had stayed the night at one of his friends, Jung Hoseok. In the morning his father had called for him to go home as soon as he had finished breakfast. Jimin had no idea that something bad had happened as he got home and yelled a happy "Good morning!"

"Come here, Jimin." His father had said from the living room.

Jimin had went and sat down on the couch next to him. "Where's mom?"

His father had started to cry as soon as those words left his mouth. Jimin was confused, he had never seen his father cry in the eighteen years he had been on this earth.

"What's wrong?" He asked, feeling himself get emotional too.

He hated seeing his father like this, the pain from his tears affected Jimin too. He was on the verge of crying as he waited for his father to tell what was wrong.

"Your mother..." He finally choked some words out. "Got hit by a car last night."

Jimin let out a small laugh. "No she didn't."

For some reason now he didn't feel like crying at all. He felt like punching something as hard as he could, as many times as his body would let him before giving up due to the pain and exhaustion.

"She did." Jimin's dad let out a loud cry. "I'm sorry."

"She's okay, right? Is she at the hospital? I want to see her."

"I'm sorry Jimin."

The young eighteen year old boy stared at his father, his face stone cold. "Don't say you're sorry, I know what that means so just please don't."

He got up from the couch and brushed his hair back.

"I'm sorry, my son. I will make sure we get to live a happy life, let's do it for her." Jimin's father smiled sadly.

If Jimin had known just how big of a lie that had been, he would have ran away at the age of eighteen and found happiness himself.

He lost his friends during the first year as he started to keep secrets and lie about the bruises he got from home. Everyone wanted to help him but he just kept everything to himself and stopped seeing his friends just to avoid the questions he got every single day.

He left his smile behind with his friends. He didn't have any reason to smile anymore. He was in pain, but still couldn't cry. When was the last time he cried? He couldn't remember.

It's like the pain was just too much so it sucked all emotion out of him. Though sometimes he did feel angry. On those days he did what he loved the most- dancing.

For some reason even when Hoseok and Jimin weren't friends anymore, he let the depressed boy dance at the studio he now owned. Maybe he sensed that it gave Jimin some peace.

He would always dance as hard and as long as he could, until his whole body ached and the last drop of anger was gone. He didn't want to feel anything, if he did he would most likely fight his father back and that would probably end up in a death. Jimin's or his father's? He didn't know, but he felt like if he kept the anger bottled up, some time he'd just start fighting back and couldn't stop until he was taken down or his father couldn't fight back anymore.

•

It was one of those days again. His father had definitely been drinking. Jimin knew it as soon as he stepped inside. There was a strong smell of cigarettes and alcohol in the air. He hated that smell. Also it was a holiday. On holidays he always got beat up, always. Because his mother wasn't there with his father, his father felt like he needed to punish someone for it, and who would be better than his son, the weak man in in his twenties who was too scared to run away or fight back.

"Park Jimin."

"Father."

The drunken man was now glaring at him from his seat on the couch.

"I'm sorry I came home this late, I had to stay late at work." Jimin tried to slither himself out of trouble.

"Work? You were dancing again, weren't you?" He smirked knowingly.

"No, I was at work." The boy tried to lie.

"Lying just makes it worse. You know that, right?"

Jimin nodded, now looking down. There was no way he could get out of it, he never could and never will. He's stuck in this house, his own personal hell and there's no other way out than death. And he wasn't ready to die, not just yet.

He looked up, not even realizing that his father was already in front of him. His fist connected with Jimin's face, sending the boy to the ground in pain. He was way too tired to take the beating standing up, so he just sat there until his kicks were too much and Jimin had to lay down.