Jungkook was having difficulty holding the chopstick and Mrs. Jeon expectantly looked at him. "Did you hurt yourself?" She asked, hands reaching over to hold Jungkook's palm and discern. 

"No, it's just a rash." Jungkook replied flinching back, not letting his mother catch him.

"Ggukie, let me see." The mother asked sternly, tilting her head and her brows curved in a warning. 

"I am fine, the only thing which is not fine is that you threw me out to travel by bus. I demand my rights be restored. I want to be taken to school in a car like a human." Jungkook's cheeks puffing up as he stuffed it with food and spoke through the bunched-up face.

Mr. Jeon looked at his wife. "When I was your age-"

"Yeah, yeah. You went to school by fighting a war and swimming in blood. I don't care. Time's changed." Jungkook stopped his father mid-sentence. 

"It did indeed!" Mr. Jeon wiped his face and his atrocious tone was not subtle, he stood up and threw the napkin on the table. "You are taking the bus. What's wrong with it anyway?"

"What's wrong with it?!" Jungkook's neck cocked around to trail his father's moving figure. "I will tell you what's wrong. I need air to breathe and the kids suck up all the air and there's none left for me. Dad!" He yelled. 

"DAD!" Jungkook yelled again seeing his father unbothered, walking out of the house. 

"I am not taking the bus." Jungkook whined immediately turning to his mother. 

"Sweetie," Mrs. Jeon's voice was mellifluous as she strived to make Jungkook understand why his father was doing this. "He wants you to experience everything a normal kid does. Next year will be the final year of your high school and then you will have moved out for college. You won't have all amenities as home and you should be prepared for that when the time comes." 

"Normal kid? Can you believe this woman?" Jungkook thought out loud and earned a beautiful smack on his head. 

"Mom! I will handle it, okay. It is like you are not letting me drink water now because of the drought that'd come after two years. TWO years." He punctuated the words while widening his round eyes rounder. 

"I will talk to him," Mrs. Jeon nodded her head, holding her hands up so Jungkook would pacify a little bit.

"Please. He is losing his mind, mom! I don't want us to have an unstable future. I say you take over his everything." Jungkook grinned. 

"You!" Mrs. Jeon twisted his ear after capturing it and Jungkook pulled away to run. "Come here, is this how you talk about your parents?" She chased after the boy who ran in circles around the dining table. 

"You know I love you guys and you treat me like a step-son. It's not fair." Jungkook pouted and it tugged at Mrs. Jeon's heart. They'd never have done it intentionally, but the thought that Jungkook might be afraid deep down in solitude of his own despondency from the past made the parents act as they did. They wanted Jungkook to feel he was every bit cured and normal, not sick anymore. They did not want the boy to see pity out of their love at any moment in time. 

**

Late at night, Jungkook slept in his bed, his finger was tingling a little bit and he remembered it again. The way Jimin just left without uttering a word when he started panicking a little in the lab earlier. "You really are a monster. I hate you Park Jimin." He mumbled through his gritted teeth. If he had fought, the entire school would have savored the show. He was glad his panic attack saved his ass this time.

His peace was gone as he thought over and over about Jimin and how instigative he was. "How in the cosmos would I spend two years with him?" Jungkook groaned when he could not sleep until 1:00 AM.

He peered at the glowing alarm clock that was sitting on the side table of his bed and picked up his phone so suddenly. As he hopped to the other side of the bed, it caused his body to bounce a few times after the springs in the mattress were expedited. He saw Taehyung online. "What in the world?" The mere thought of staying up till late was outrageous for him.

He dialed his best friend's number. 

"Jungkook-ah!" Taehyung almost screamed in his ears making Jungkook press the low volume button of his phone to the minimum.

"Are you home alone?" Jungkook asked. Taehyung paused for a moment as he tended to something while Jungkook waited for him to speak again. "Hello?"

"I snuck out dad's beers from home. I am gangsta baby!" Taehyung gulped the beer and grimaced with a high pitch din when the frothy and strong liquid thrashed his throat. 

Jungkook chuckled, "where are you?"

"In the backyard. Inside dad's car." Taehyung whispered as if he did not just now wake the entire neighborhood with his wails. "What about you? I bet you you can never do anything so wild."

"Oh yeah? Well, I did not put my laundry in." Jungkook replied and then thought about what he said, silence falling over both sides until Taehyung could not bite the laughter back anymore. He huffed out chuckling. 

"You know what? What about fucking up with Park Jimin?" Jungkook pitched in. 

"Damn bro! Now, this can earn you some points." Taehyung gulped another mouthful and shuddered right after. "Wild!"

Jungkook smugly gave a pat to his shoulders and brooded. 

"You gotta play by your strength, Jeon. You should have started with this." Taehyung did not know he was making a lot of sense to the younger. 

Jungkook lost himself to slumber in a few minutes after they said bye. When he woke up the next morning, he felt awfully lethargic. His neck whipped to see his fingers and they looked fine, just a little redness grooming them. The weather was surprisingly pleasant with the grey clouds hugging each other to form an ambiance most people called romantic. Jungkook never understood why?

He rubbed his eyes before he stretched his hands out to the max and moaned meekly. As he relaxed his muscles back, he sighed and did not want to think about Jimin the first thing in the morning but it seemed to him that this would be the modus-operandi. He suddenly wanted to study hard and get the hell out of school and the city. 

As expected, his dad was MIA again for the third day in a row and he knew he had to take the bus again. Jungkook reached the school, drenched a little because of his wait by the bus stop. He had adamantly left the umbrella back at home on purpose to supposedly make his parents feel the guilt of sending him out in the wild like that. 

The corridors of the school were dark as the curtains were dropped down to inhibit the water from getting on the rugs. He slowly moved and suddenly heard a noise, almost like a drum. He knew what was coming. 

This was the system that his classmates were so hell-bent on carrying forward for years. As curtains dropped in the rainy season, one senior would get into the radio room and played any instrument over the microphone. It acted as a signal for the students to start and run across the corridors while throwing hands on anyone that they found on their way, this was to mainly target the teachers.

It mostly started out when a teacher developed a crush on a girl a few years ago. He ended up harassing the girl to the point where she was most afraid of all the male teachers. The complaint against the teacher was not taken seriously as the class was famous for pulling up pranks every now and then.

One day, the students collectively decided to take things into their own hands and filled their pockets with stones for the attack. They pelted those heavy cobbles when the teacher had his back towards the class, as he wrote on the whiteboard. 

No one gave up any name so no one was suspended or put in detention. It was a big success. Since then, they started this and called it bootlegging. Jungkook ran to the closest window and climbed over the ledge. This way, the students would know that they were attacking another student. Everyone was supposed to take the window if they wanted to be safe. That was the rule. 

In the next moment, Jungkook felt like the grounds shook as heavily reverberated voices emerged and they neared. It was the stampede that could crush anyone who would come in the way. 

Jungkook was already too tired today to take any shit. He saw another girl climb over quickly in time to not get in the way of madly running classmates and seniors.

"PARK! This way!" He heard Jin's voice who was a final year senior, considered the most notorious one for a reason. He ruled the school for years and now he had stepped down, well almost. He still had many friends who worked for him, no one knew why, but Jimin was one of his closest friends. The school often saw those two along with Hoseok hanging out together. 

Jungkook remained there until the students moved to the lower floor and just as he stepped down, his body lurked back with such force that he crashed on the floor. The girl who was standing over the ledge yelped and started crying out of fear when Jungkook was taking a harsh beating. The sounds of kicks and punches were dominating Jungkook's begging and groans.  

22 Sep 2021