#hg4

Chapter 4: Yoongi

Jungkook and Jieun had met Yoongi two years ago on the street. The two had planned to go to the arcade in celebration of finishing their first day of high school, but they had felt that something was off when they noticed that the usual busy place was completely empty. Yoongi, slumped down next to the arcade entrance, was bleeding all over his face. His breathing was irregular and he was ready to faint. Aside from having one eye open, his blonde hair and uniform had blood stains on it. Looking upon this, Jieun had gasped and rushed towards the boy. "J-JUNGKOOK!!" Jieun looked at Jungkook with a worried expression. She was near to crying; she already had tears in her eye. Yoongi couldn't make a facial expression, but if he did, he would laugh. Someone's helping me?? What a joke. Why is she even crying, she doesn't know me- "I'm calling for help, alright?" Jungkook remained calm and looked for a handkerchief in his bag and gave it Jieun for her to press on Yoongi's head. "W-wait!! Don't call.. please don't- ugh!!" Yoongi reached out his arms but he felt a pang of pain in his stomach, so he could not move. He cringed and slowly placed his hands on it. "What do we do... I don't have any medical supplies right now." Jieun whispered. "I don't want to leave him here.." Jungkook examined the boy and immediately realized something. He spoke firmly, "My home. We're going there. Jieun, help me. I'm going to carry him." She moved Yoongi slowly towards Jungkook and once he was on his back, they ran towards his home. 

"ACK!!" Yoongi screamed when Jieun had finally washed his face from the blood and wrapper his head in bandage strips after applying ointment. When she handed him an ice bag for him to place on his head, he mouthed the words, "thank you." Jieun nodded and sat on a chair on the left of Yoongi. She was still worried for him, a complete stranger, and fidgeted her hands as her eyes followed his every motion. "For your stomach." Jungkook handed him pain relieving pills and a cup of water. Yoongi nodded and proceeded to take it. He watched Jungkook walk to his seat which was right across of him. Each of the students were sitting relatively far apart from each other. Jungkook's studio was quite spacious and Yoongi wondered why nobody was home. There wasn’t much around the house: only several pieces of furniture was laid out. What a waste of space. He sat with his face expressionless and looked around the room to see the two students relieved. Before they could speak, Yoongi was the first to talk, "I always get myself in trouble. Trouble manages to find me wherever I go... haha...I’m sorry to bring you guys into this mess.." There was silence for few seconds until Jieun spoke up while playing with her fingers, "I know it's none of our business to know about it, but do you mind telling us what happened? We won't tell anyone. I’m just worried..." Her voice slowly trailed off. “But! It’s fine! That we’re able to help you! I would’ve felt bad if we left you like that..” "Ah, thank you.” Yoongi lowered his head and smiled. How can they be so kind to a stranger? He slowly lifted his head and spoke, “Oh, I don't mind. As you can see," Yoongi pointed at his face, still looking emotionless, "I always look like I want to start a fight with someone. I guess that's what happens when I'm the son of a thug." Yoongi moved this ice bag towards the other side of his head. "I don't know, people are always picking on me because I look intimidating." "You don't look scary at all. Honestly," Jieun and Jungkook said simultaneously. Yoongi's eyes widened, "Really?" "Yeah. It's such a pathetic excuse to fight though. Did you fight back?" Jungkook questioned him. "Of course. Well, it's the first time I fought back after being hurt for several years. I couldn't take it anymore." "Ahh... well it's a good thing you defended yourself. But you.. it seemed like a group attacked you.. that's not right.." Jieun said softly. "Oh!" Yoongi's face lightened up. Jieun and Jungkook looked at each other in amusement. He smiled?! "There were 6 guys. I managed to take out 4 of them during the first few minutes and after that, everything seemed blurry. I woke up with blood all over my face and that's when I saw you guys." "Such a strong man." Jieun clenched her fist and smiled. "So brave too!" Yoongi laughed at the sight of this. "Thank you for helping me, really." Yoongi looked down again and fidgeted. "I was afraid I was going to die. I wanted to to start a new life at a new school but I guess it didn't go the way I wanted to go." "Well you can start another life today," Jungkook smiled. He tilted his head and his earrings shook. "Speaking of school," he pointed at Yoongi's school uniform and made eye contact with him, "You go to our school, right? B High school. I realized this when we first saw you but it was covered in blood so I wasn’t sure." "Y-yeah.. I do go there. I'm in class 1-1." "The advanced class!!" The duo were so shocked. "We're in in 1-3," Jieun replied. "Probably not the brightest students but ya know. Well! I'm glad to see you getting better!” She stood up and gathered her belongings. “I need to go now so I'll see you soon! Don't go to school tomorrow with your head like that, okay? Rest s'more." The two boys nodded their heads and Jungkook offered to walk her to the door. Jieun got up from her seat and before she left, she yelled to Yoongi, "O-oh! I almost forgot!! My name is Jieun!! Nice to meet you!!" Yoongi laughed and answered back, "Yoongi; nice to meet you too!" "And I'm Jungkook. You can start a new school life with us, although we may not be as smart as you." Jieun and Jungkook smiled at Yoongi, and he felt a sense of relief. Jieun waved goodbye and Jungkook closed the door. It was silent for several seconds and Yoongi couldn't help but ask, "Do you live alone?" "Yup," Jungkook responded. "My father wanted me out of the house so here I am on my own. My dad doesn’t send me enough money, so my mother secretly sends me more for food." Jungkook went to the kitchen and took out some snacks for them to eat. "So, is there anyone who could pick you up? Or I can walk with you to your house." "N-nah, my brother will pick me up here.” Yoongi wondered what kind of situation Jungkook was in. Probably not worse than he was. “Thanks for the offer.” “No problem,” Jungkook grinned. Although it was the first time he had met these two, Yoongi felt safe with them. He felt like he could finally belong somewhere and he smiled at the thought of it. He was glad they had found and helped him, he was so glad that they didn’t abandon him.

Yoongi often came home to an empty house. It was the second floor of a small apartment complex; anyone could say it was a bit run down. The rent was cheap and as long as they had a roof above their head, they weren't complaining. If it wasn't empty, his brother Namjoon would be home, probably cooking or working on his music. His mother was rarely home because she was working two jobs: one at the hospital and another at the local convenience store. Yoongi loved his mother, and he understood how hardworking she was; he wasn’t too heartbroken if she wasn’t home. He was really hard working despite his thuggish appearance. Yoongi studied a majority of his time and earned the top scores at school. Because of this, students were quite envious of him and decided to isolate him. This bothered Yoongi because he didn't want to seem anti-social, but it couldn't be helped. He longed for friends, but he accepted the fact that it was impossible. When he wasn't studying, he watched self-defense videos on the internet. Yoongi didn't like fighting; he despised it but, he decided to learn to defend himself rather than actually fighting someone. Namjoon, on the other hand, loved it, so he taught him some techniques. The brothers were opposites, but similar in a way. Besides that, Yoongi never fought back the bullies in his previous middle school; he learned how to avoid and block them. Yoongi's family life wasn't rainbows and sunshines: his father left the family when he was a child. Yoongi especially hated how he inherited his father's intimidating appearance but he learned to accept it. His family wasn't exactly the richest nor the poorest, but they were struggling enough to live on each day. Because he knew how his mother worked really hard for him and his brother, she became Yoongi's motivation to work even harder. Namjoon worked really hard to advertise his songs as an underground rapper; what he earned was not enough to pay rent for his family but it was enough to put food on the table. He was set on his dream of becoming a musician, and no matter how hard it was, he wasn’t going to give up. Yoongi loved his family and he did everything to protect them because they were the only ones to accept him. After meeting Jungkook and Jieun, who accepted him for who he is, he felt like having a second family for the first time in his life. It had been two years since he befriended them and never once did they isolate him. Jieun and Jungkook often heard rumors about Yoongi but they shrugged it off. He loved being with them. Despite his expressionless face, they knew Yoongi was happy. Jieun and Jungkook loved him, and he did, too. It was the first time Yoongi felt accepted by other people besides his family, so he treasured his every moment spent with them. But everything was too good to be true. Towards the end of their second year of high school, Jungkook and Yoongi got into a fight after school. Jieun and Yoongi talked for a minute and they agreed she would go run after him. But he didn’t hear about them for hours until Taehyung had called Yoongi through her cellphone. And when he heard the news, he wanted to faint; he wanted to disappear from the world.

Yoongi rushed to the hospital to see his friends but it wasn't what he imagined. He ran into the hospital and into the room with sweat all over his face. He rushed to see his friends on the bed, with their eyes closed.