Caged (Jimin BTS)

XIII = Peuromiss? Promise.

Someone's coming. And I don't even have a place to hide! Panic poisoned my blood when Jimin got off the floor and cupped my face.

I blinked up at him and the bruised boy yanked me towards him and voila! I landed on his chest, inside his cage. My eyes blinked at the gap between two bars. I can fit through that?

Jimin didn't let my question be answered though, that he pulled me into the shadows and tucked me into the corner where he hid earlier. He took off the blue wooly cardigan and draped it all over me before crouching in front of me, completely hiding me from view. He might be made of skin and bones, but Jimin easily towers over me even from crouching in the ground.

Is he... hiding me? My breath caught in my throat when two figures stepped into the dark and dank place.

They're social workers from the government. I knew them, one of them is Father's highschool classmates! They approached the cage and Jimin stayed completely still. I still didn't breathe.

"Here is your bit for today." Father's former classmate, I think his name is Songhun, tossed a plastic bag into the cage. It landed just in front of Jimin, and he tore it before munching the leftovers inside. My heart breaks at the sound of him hungrily wolfing the scraps.

How can they do this... Have them no heart? This is even worse than being heartless!  It's like those who even did this are not human at all! Even animals have humanities in them.

"Look. He's at it again, look how he's eating." The other one, Kibum, pointed at Jimin and sniggered. The boy made himself look taller slightly.

"Don't stare at him the Caged Boy too long. You'll catch his curse." Songhun scolded his coworker, before turning to leave. "Our job for today is done. Let's get outta here. I might need another bottle of disinfectant from Namcheol to get rid of this stench."

Why did Father's name is mentioned here? "You took the scraps from the dinner outside with him today, right? He's going to check on this thing too this week. See that it caught something or not."

I think my bottom lip is bleeding. It might be, from the lip grounding I gave it to stop myself from screaming.

Father knew about this? Just how many people knew about Jimin? What is the world I'm living in all my life? Who can I trust after this?

When their footsteps completely disappeared into the tunnel, Jimin turned around and cupped my face. He still didn't say anything, just stare into my eyes and after a while, wiped the tears that were flowing down my cheeks.

I barked a laugh and helped him with that. "Sorry, Jimin. I wasn't supposed to be crying at this moment. It's not polite, but... But this..."

"Why would anyone do this..." And tears blurred my eyes as I silently sobbed in front of Jimin. This isn't right. No amount of sin would be enough to atone for this cruel of a torture. To keep a boy locked in this dark and dirty hole. With scraps to keep on living and rags to go through winter... How can he live all these years?

"I'm taking you out of here." Once my tears dried a bit, I held Jimin's shoulder and said that to him. "No empty promises. You will get out of here, and I will put my life up for it."

He tilted his head at me, and when a small wisps of moonlight shined over him, I gasped.

His hair is pink. Cherry blossom pink. It's him that I see in my dreams. My resolutions firmed, forming the foundation in my heart.

Jimin will escape from here.

But not today. I need to make it fast, but not something rash. I squeezed his hands again, and asked him slowly. "Can you wait for me? To get you out of here?"

"Wu... wu... Wueit?" He repeated my words, and I fought against the lump in my throat that's pushing my tears out of my eyes. I nodded at him and patted the slimy ground. "Here. Wait here and I will come back tomorrow. Promise."

"Peu... Peuromiss?" I hugged Jimin's bony torso and squeezed him gently. His body stiffen before his arms tentatively wraps around mine, and squeezed me too. "I promise, Jimin. Stay safe, okay? I will come back tomorrow."

He watched me as I wiped my wet cheeks and slinked out of the cage. I turned to head for the exit when Jimin's hand caught mine. He gave my hand a squeeze, looking at me dead in the eye. "Peu... romiss?"

"Yes, Jimin." I might be going into dehydration from the amount of tears I'm cracking up. Jimin tugged at me to him and wiped my cheeks with his fingers. I held his hand cupping my cheeks and braved a smile at the pink-haired boy.

It took a lot from him, but the boy smiled back. And I backed up into the tunnel and walked away as I furiously backhanded my tears.

This is serious matter. For as far as I can tell, the people governing Omelas is involved in this matter, and the original residents is also in it. Which is why I cannot tell Namjoon. Because Father knew.

The fact itself almost made me lose my footing, but it's no time to be a damsel in distress now.

I have no one on my back now, and that should be good. If people knew that I knew about Jimin, what would they do to both of us? No, this must stays a secret. From anyone, everyone.

The moonlight shined into my eyes as I found the exit of the cylindrical sewage. It's just at the outskirts of the town, a few yards from where I woke up a week ago. I wondered how I got there at that time but that can be solved later. In the shadows of the night, I walked back home.

=×=×=×=

So... There you go, Jimin in the frame. Uh-oh, Namjoon, Naomi is also in the team now, even if you didn't know about it. But for how many chapters can both of them keep this secret from each other?

This is serious matter indeed, Naomi.