...

III

BEEP ! A car horn blared, startling a tired Yoongi as he crossed the road. It was on green for him, he should've walked. Damn Korean drivers, he thought to himself. It had been 2 days since Yoongi had set fire to his books, watching them turn to ash but by bit before pulling a box out of his pocket to light a cigarette. He hadn't smoked in a while. He felt like he deserved that one. He was headed on a walk, seeming as he was free from uni and any other worries of his, he had time to himself. Cars piled in rows that morning, beeping and honking between each breath. Yoongi likes it. It makes him laugh. Its the collective road rage from morning workers and hurried mums who were late dropping their kids off at school. Yoongi missed it, the free time. Slowly, he kicked his feet forwards one by one, hands in both jacket pockets whilst looking at the floor. He was stressed, there was no denying it. He tried everything to fight off his stress growing up, being diagnosed with anxiety was more than enough of his troubles. It didn't stop him from curling up at night, sleepless eyes circling his room. He felt like the environment was no longer safe and that he was surrounded by nothing but strange walls, pulling themselves in bit by bit. That's when, one night, he climbed out of the window and walked to the near cliff, watching fireworks light up the night sky. Thats when it hit Yoongi. The light. The colours. The fire. Ever since that night, Yoongi would find ways to keep fire around him, anything which converted heat towards his body, light aswell. It started with a single candle, which then led to groups of candles. Then from candles to bonfires. All the way up until he found a new way to keep it close, extra close, apart of him. Smoking. He was aware of the damage his lungs were taking, the beating of smoke with each pull of breath. He knew he was hurting himself, inside. But Yoongi didn't care. Because that burning light was right there, next to him, it was apart of him. Yoongi loved fire.

     

                                 ^^^^

Yoongi slowed his pace as he walked towards the railings on the bridge. The early sun shone through him, through his pale body all the way to the roots of his hair. He sighed. The noise left in the background was easily blocked out by the touch of music which entered his ears. Earphones. He watched over the river. Over the movements from the soft wind. The way the rays of sun left glistening marks above the rippled water. He loved it. He wanted to paint it. But he couldn't. Yoongi hadn't painted in a long time, the last time he tried...he failed. And failed again. He kept failing all the way up until his last straw. His patience had grown thin over time, and gradually piles of his artwork grew bigger and bigger next to the bins outside. People questioned it at first, he heard them speak. His apartment was empty now, darkness replacing every bit of colour that once danced along the walls in the sunlight. It had been a few minutes before Yoongi takes his arms from resting ontop of the bridge rails, and turns away facing back to the path he came from. In the distance, everything was blocked by the sun. It grezw brighter and brighter, blinding the boy until his vision was covered completely by the brightness. He placed his head to the pavement and watched his feet simultaneously step one by one, further and further away from the spot he was just in. With the music still playing loudly through his earphones, Yoongi drifts into a daze. He liked it. Music was the only other thing that calmed him down the most. He knew fire was dangerous and that he shouldn't play with it, and that he should also quit smoking, but every once in a while it got to hard to drain out that part of him. He's still focused on the song lyrics, bopping his head, relaxed at last. Thats when a sudden jolt against his back made him freeze in his place and take his earphones out. He slowly turned around to see a boy passed out behind him, cold.