When Breath Becomes Air - Yoonmin

D

Every day he would wait. After waking up from two hours sleep due to the icy winds that rushed through the windows throughout the long night, he would always do the same thing. Get up, already rushing around, wash, get dressed and practically run out of the door after giving up hope of looking for his oh-so-precious glasses that would help pass the time. By the time he reached the train station platform, he knew he had plenty of time to spare. After a morning of rushing around in his small, cosy apartment, he arrived with thirty-two minutes to spare every morning where upon he would only sit and wait. Some days, when he remembered his glasses, he would read a book, his current read being one of Haruki Murakami's collection. However, on this very morning, his glasses had seemed to 'disappear', causing him to leave without them. He would then just sit and wait. Being November, the breeze was icy and the clouds were showing signs of rain, although he didn't seem to mind. He rushed around on purpose so that he could reach the train station early every morning. The reason was unclear. Maybe he didn't have a liking to his apartment; maybe he liked watching the trains rush past as he waited for his specific one. But as he ran his hand through his hair, eyes closed, all Park Jimin could think about was the cold. The numbness of his pink cheeks, the sniffles from his little nose, the hoping thought that it would snow. Although, unlike most, Jimin liked the cold. He liked the numbness, the shivers, the slight pain the tips of his fingers obtained. But, then again, one who has lost everything becomes so easily pleased, right?

Jimin often wondered why he got up in the morning. He had nothing to live for. He had an office job, an apartment with too many holes in the walls to count which therefore brought the cold air inside, no friends, no family nearby, and yet he still was there at the train station, sitting and waiting for the dreaded train to arrive, ready to take him to his least favourite place.

After High School had ended, Jimin had moved to Daegu, losing contact with his three friends. They had done everything together and so when Jimin had dropped his phone down the toilet, he lost everything including their phone numbers. He no longer was in contact with two of them. Taehyung had somehow found his number six months after Jimin had broken his phone. Taehyung currently lived in Seoul as a kindergarten teacher. Like Jimin, Taehyung didn't keep contact with both of their other to friends. One of them, Jungkook, had moved to America to continue his studies so Taehyung didn't really talk to him anymore. And then there was Hoseok. No one had had any contact with him since school ended. Every one thinks he moved to Daegu to continue his dance career, but as far as Jimin knew, they were all happy without him. He wondered if he was the only one who became lonely after leaving them.

And so, as he sat up slowly, the beeping of his alarm ringing in his ears even after he turned it off, his small fragile body shivering a little from the cold, Jimin started rushing around for another boring day.