Caged (Jimin BTS)

XVIII = Torn

Pardon me, folks.u phone broke down yesterday. #SuckingItUp Here's the flashback!

---

"Hyung, you're so slow! Hurry up!" The young boy with unruly brown hair shouted from the peak of the small hill. His brother rested his hands on his knees, panting a few yards from his little brother's position. Junghwa looked up and grinned at that little brat.

"Shut up, you little roach! I'm coming already!" When he finally reached the top, Jungkook rubbed his brother's back. "You okay?"

"Who's the one pestering me to hurry up just now?" He took a deep breath of the morning's crisp morning air and put his hands on his hips. "What a view. Nice spot, man."

"And the air's great for your lungs, too. Just like Doctor Kim told us about." Settling themselves on the ground, Jungkook pulled out a container containing a few sandwiches and thermos. Junghwa blanched when he unscrewed the lid. "Herbal tea? Are you killing me with medicine now?"

"Hyung..." The older brother rolled his eyes at Jungkook's slumped shoulder. He snatched the cup from his hand and downed it in one shot, before gagging. "I'm going to beat your ass up for that."

"Anything for your health, hyung..." Even though Jungkook is only six at that time, he understands perfectly that his brother didn't have much time to live. His deformed lungs is a ticking bomb waiting to detonate. Every moment is precious, and Junghwa has vowed to make it worthwhile.

He pulled out a roll of paper from his knapsack before spreading it on the ground, using little stones that Jungkook scavenged as weights. The little brother didn't understand anything as he only started learning to read a month ago, but he could read one word on the map. It was circled many times with a red pen.

"The Caged Kid... What is that, hyung?" Junghwa snapped his eyes at his little brother and quickly rolled the papers again. "You can read, Kookie? Great job, man."

Jungkook smiled shyly as his brother ruffled his hair. The word mean nothing to him, but the day will surely stay in his mind.

Because that was the last outing they had before Junghwa fell so ill he couldn't even step out of his room.

"You... will really see them someday, man." Junghwa's last words haunted the eight-years-old Jungkook in his nightmares for years.

What should he see? What is Junghwa talking about? He only knew twelve years later.

---

The small girl woke up with cold sweats drenching her pillow and mattress. Yet it was winter. As her tiny hands groped around her comforter, she found out that the wetness is kind of overboard this time-

"Oh no..." Naomi gasped in the dark. Scooting off the bed, she tugged one end of the sheet and it came away easily. Well, if you wet your bed for practically every night and had been hiding it from your family long enough, you'll know how the things roll.

Wake up at night, bed's wet.

Pull the sheets off and chuck them in the washing machine.

Change pajamas and go back to sleep.

The girl had been doing this for almost a year, and never got caught. Even by her mother, who is a natural light sleeper.

Once Naomi woke up feeling so sick she could only cry in her bed. Namjoon squeezed her hand and she asked him what happened to her.

He blinked at his sister, his forehead creased. Namjoon always looked like that when he doesn't know what to say to Naomi. Then he spoke, "You got kidnapped by monsters in the shadows. They're everywhere, Naomi! We almost thought you were gone forever."

And since that day, the fearless Naomi was terrified of one thing: monsters. She was so scared of them Naomi won't go to the bathroom at night.

But the fear against them surely not as equal as her family finding out that she wets the bed every night. Wetting her bed felt like a sin she cannot confess to anyone, so Naomi kept it to herself.

"I wet the bed again..." A sigh escaped her when the little girl dragged the sheets all the way down the stairs to the laundry room. The hallway was dark and cold but the fear of her family knowing about her late night bladder problems surpasses her one and only fear.

She was already downstairs and opening the door to the laundry room when Naomi was met face-to-face with her blinking brother. Namjoon was holding a glass of chocolate milk and a pack of potato chips in his hands, eyes wide. They both opened their mouths at the same time.

"What are you doing here?"

"Why are you eating potato chips?"

The two siblings looked away from each other, tongue tied. Namjoon then looked at Naomi's hand, clenched around a white sheet. Her bedsheet.

"You wet your bed." He didn't say that as a question. No, Namjoon states that. His casualness in saying that made Naomi's whole body froze.

He's going to turn her in. Naomi knows that, she's sure of it. Her fingers turned cold, as cold as the wooden floor under her bare feet. The disappointment, the anger, Naomi could almost taste it. Her eyes brimmed with unshed tears.

Namjoon took the bedsheet from Naomi's hand and nudged her towards the staircase. "Go inside your room and open the window. Then change into a new pair of pajamas and go sleep in my room. I'll be up after I finish washing this."

What? "You... won't tell Mother? And Father?"

"Why would I?" Namjoon had this soft smile on his face. "You're just scared at night, that wasn't something bad. Go now. Or Mother will catch us out of our beds."

Naomi had learnt something valuable that night: she could always trust her brother. Whatever happen, he will always has her back, and Naomi had learnt to do the same with his.

But after knowing about the existence of Jimin, Naomi was torn between the freedom of the Caged Boy and her brother's love. She felt the need to tell Namjoon about Jimin, but she'll risk her plan if she did that.

Damn, she's torn. Big time.