"I used to be nice, soft, and tender
but if I keep going crazy like this
you'll change me into something bad
I have put a spell again on a puppet that looks like you
I beg you to break up with her
Break up with her" – Abracadabra by The Brown Eyed Girls, 2009

"I've been getting fucked over since I was able to understand the world, what's your price?"

"I like your attitude, kid. You're hired."

"Seriously?"

And that's how it all started. That's how Jimin got his job at Club Cream.

Jimin didn't grow up in the best of households per se. Instead, he grew up in a quite dysfunctional one that ended up influencing a lot of decisions and behaviors in the future.

It started with the suicide of his father. After he lost his job for sexual misconduct and was sued for everything he was worth. His family lost everything, including the father figure in the house.

Jimin was left to take care of then 3 years old Jihyun. Jihyun was much too young to understand anything that was going on, but Jimin understood just fine.

Their mother started slanging drugs around their city, and sometimes stayed overnight in a trap house and got high off other people's supply. Jimin didn't mind taking care of Jihyun when he got home and his Mom left. It gave him a lot more time to bond with his baby brother.

2 years later, Jimin cried and begged for his Mom to stop getting high, but he was pushed aside like he and his brother didn't matter. He pounded at the door but didn't even get a look back from his Mom.

For the next month, he was locating his Mom's supply and hiding it from her. He did everything he could, like flushing it down the toilet, throwing out the windows, and burying it under the trash in someone else's trashcan. He almost got someone arrested by doing the last method, but thankfully they were released, and they ended up ok.

His mother hurt him a lot when he just wanted to try and protect her from herself. In the end, he ultimately ended up making the situation worse. She took her anger out on him because he didn't want Jihyun to experience what he was experiencing.

Jimin began to work under the table and do risky things for money. He even took up street dancing to cover up his tracks. He was going to run away from Busan and take his little brother with him. He wasn't going to let him become a victim to their mother's terror.

Jimin put his money in a jar that he put onto the shelf in his closet, hidden by an obnoxious amount of clothes. Jimin could feel his hope rising as the jar filled up more and more, day by day.

Jimin came home late at night and was instantly met with a broken glass jar at his feet. Jimin's hands shook as he looked his mother in the eye for the first time in years.

"You've been making all this money..." she rolled a tidy stack of one's, five's and the occasional ten or twenty in her unkempt fingers, "And you weren't even telling your mother or your dear little brother?"

Jimin had to watch as the rest of his world was taken from him. Jihyun looked up at Jimin, his eyes twinkling with unshed tears.

"No... Don't look at me like that..."

"Hyung, I thought you said you were going to take me with you... I thought we were going together."

"We are! Just-Just give me more time-."

Jimin didn't remember anything after that. All he knew was that Jihyun most definitely hated him now. Jihyun wouldn't even look at him the same way anymore.

For the next 5 years, Jimin kept his money at school. He couldn't trust anyone at his house to keep his money safe, and Jihyun doesn't even trust him anymore...

All he wanted to do was keep his brother safe... When did his dream turn out so rotten for him?

It wasn't fair...

For five years, he had accumulated enough money to run away. He bought a bus ticket and a train ticket. He was going to go to Seoul and he wasn't going to look back.

He wasn't ever going to go back to that wretched place of a home... Never again.

|-|-|

For the next year and a half, Jimin lived on the streets. He kept his money close to him like it was his own child. He wanted to enroll in school, but he couldn't because it would only distract him. He started working in a restaurant, working all the hours he could so he could buy his first phone. It was an apple phone, expensive, but it was worth the money.

He didn't have anyone to call or text, so he simply used some of his paychecks for music to put on his phone, so he could dance. He had to teach himself to dance, but he would have preferred for someone to teach him how to dance and tell him if he was doing it right or wrong.

It only seemed by chance his wish was granted. After a night full of dancing in the streets of Seoul, his manager came up to him. Jimin was absolutely stricken with terror as he saw him come up to him when he was gathering his things. He was on the verge of tears as he didn't even let the man speak. He was all too worried about losing his job at the restaurant than he was about his dancing or living on the streets.

"You have a place to stay, kid?"

Jimin shook his head, "N-No sir..."

"I saw you dance too. Tell you what, I teach dance classes on the weekends. I think you have a real talent here, Jimin."

And so Jimin went. Every weekend he went to the contemporary and ballet classes he was placed in and he flourished. He felt so free with the music in the dance studios. His manager even let him stay behind so he could dance just a little bit longer.

He had never been happier. He went to his manager's place and he let him stay there. Jimin was sleeping on the couch, but it was much better than getting hassled by the police to leave where he was and forcing him to find somewhere else to sleep.

Jimin should have known something was going to go wrong sooner or later. Sometimes, tomorrow just so happened to be a rainy day.

His dance teacher stopped teaching the classes and disappeared. All the workers were placed on leave and eventually, the restaurant shut down.

Once again, Jimin was on the streets, dancing his life away to make money.

Jimin was dancing within inches of his life, performing every song like it was going to be his last.

"I don't want to die... Please..."

Jimin collapsed on the ground after one of his dances, feeling like his internal systems were getting ready to collapse on themselves. Jimin was wheezing and gasping on the ground.

"Hey, Hey, hey you ok?"

In two days, Jimin woke up in the hospital, hooked up to machines being fed food and being helped to breathe. An unidentified male sat next to him, having some type of heated conversation.

"Yeah, Yeah, I know, but-but... I saw someone and-and..."

"No excuses!"

"They were gonna die if I didn't help! No one else was doing anything... And he dances really good, Yoongi... I think he would be a good addition to our club!"

"You know how much I hate dragging other people into Club Cream Taehyung-."

"But Yoongi, I'm sure about him!"

"... Fine. Bring him by when he's feeling better, ok?"

"You got it!"

It was easy getting hired at Club Cream. Yoongi gave him some time to recuperate and kinda sorta his life together. Jimin still didn't have a place to stay, but Taehyung lent him some of his first outfits.

This was before Namjoon before they were separated by a one-sided rivalry before shit began to fall apart.

Jimin had always believed he was unlucky, and this was just one of the many events that shaped him to be who he was now. He was now just a dancer who distracted himself from his problems with love and touches. That's exactly where Jisuk came in.

He found Jimin during his worst hour. He was on the streets in Busan again and he took him in. He should have known Jimin was going to cling to him like a leech. Jimin refused to go back to where his Mother was, especially when he knew there was nowhere to go...

It was weakness.

Eventually, Jimin fell in love with him and they had been dating ever since.

There was no doubt in his mind Jimin did feel something for him, but he knew good and well it wasn't love. That's why sometimes he went out and did things he wasn't meant to do after his shift. Jimin was usually asleep by the time he got home after a long night of dancing and breaking multiple sweats throughout the day.

He felt no regrets about the things he had done, which was why he had hooked up with Jiyeon mere hours earlier and then quickly deflected from the situation to avoid him finding out.

Was he a bad boyfriend? No doubt in his mind. Did he care though? Not at all.

|-|-|

These bad decisions had led him to fucking Jiyeon right on their bed.

"Jisuk?"

They both simultaneously turned to see Jimin staring back at them. They must have been so loud they didn't hear Jimin slipping his keycard into the door.

"I-I went to get some drinks and snacks for us and-and THIS is what I come back to?! Are you fucking kidding me?!"

Jimin was shaking, his fists shaking around the plastic bag in his hands.

"Jimin-ssi-."

"Quiet bitch, the adults are talking!"

Jimin narrowed his eyes at Jisuk, proceeding to drop the juices and snacks on the ground, "I'm just never good enough for anyone, huh? First my Mom and my little brother, then it was Taehyung and Namjoon, now it's you! And you're sleeping in bed with one of my best students!"

Jimin wanted to wrap his hands around one of their necks (either would do) and strangle them until they were begging for mercy, but he knew he would never do that. He could go to jail and he would lose everything.

Jimin sat on the floor, laughing to himself in a miserable heap.

Everything he touched got destroyed... Everything he touched got destroyed.

"Get the fuck out!"

"Jimin-."

"I said get the fuck out! You best find someone else to stay with because you're sure as hell not staying with me!"

Jiyeon was one of his best students, he didn't know what he was going to do with her. He couldn't exclude her from the competition, no matter how petty and bitchy he wanted to be. They had all collectively worked so hard on this routine and he wasn't going to let it go to waste.

He felt like he was on top of the world, but now he felt everything had crashed back into him with the force of a runaway train.

Jimin started to strip the mattress, not even beginning to be able to bare the scent of those two. He'd have to face them tomorrow and he wasn't looking forward to it.

The dance studio was supposed to be his serendipity, but with someone who helped destroy it, what was it?

|-|-|

Thankfully, the competition went without a hitch. The choreography was executed almost flawlessly and with no incident. They were given a standing ovation and flowers were thrown onto the stage. The music might have been a little bit basic, but it was loved anyway.

They won 2nd place in the group category and 3rd in the Contemporary dance category.

Jimin couldn't look any of his team in the eye while he plastered a fake smile on his face and thanked them. He knew everyone had heard what had gone down between him and Jisuk the night before, and it was no surprise seeing he hadn't shown up to the show either, and Jimin didn't blame him.

Jimin was ready to live on the streets again, he wasn't going to live in his studio...

Jimin was just getting ready to leave when a familiar scent filled his nose.

"N-Namjoon?"

"She holds your arm and she kisses your lips
And I hate it that you are in her imagination
This spell holds my desire" – Abracadabra by The Brown Eyed Girls, 2009