"I THINK THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU LIVE A LONELY CHILDHOOD.
YOU GET TOO ATTACHED TO PEOPLE WHEN YOU GET OLDER,
IN HOPE THAT THEY'LL GIVE YOU THE CARE AND LOVE
THAT YOU MISSED OUT AND NEVER LEAVE YOU."

Seokjin was never fond of children. He only saw them as immature and troublesome creatures. He was baffled by their messy, irrational and demanding emotions. Not that he hated them, he only didn't find them very amusing. He was the kind to only hold a baby for the first time and never hold it again.

He remembered some of his members were attached to children. They would make these weird facial expressions and go crazy to hold a baby. Jimin always had a soft spot for babies. Jungkook and Taehyung were cool about children. As for Namjoon, he loved children so much that he even confessed he wanted to be a dad. His reckless confession made the fans think he had a secret family.

But he wasn't interested. He was certain he didn't hate them, it's just he thought he had almost no connection with them, despite having once been one. Neither did he find their charms cute or felt sympathy for their helplessness.

Up until now.

"It's okay. Calm down, please don't cry," Yoon Min was kneeling in front of a 4-year-old boy, trying her best to stop him crying.

He didn't like the kid's interruption in their peaceful walk, full of interesting conversations. She left early from her work today which enabled them to meet in the afternoon. Everything was going so well while they were walking by a riverside, engaged in their stories until they saw a little kid crying at a distance. And the thing that bothered him more was the busy citizens who had no minute to take a look at the kid.

It was his newly blessed friend who ran to the kid and poured all her concentration on him.

"Can you tell me your name? Is that okay? What happened to you?"

The boy shook his head and cried louder.

Seokjin wanted to scoff at his whining. However, he was very curious about the health of the kid. The boy was bleeding from multiple sources, red bloated face and wounds on his limbs. He gulped down in fear, sweat forming under his chin.

"Okay, how about I introduce myself first? My name is Yoon Min. And this is Seok Jin," She pointed her finger at him. "We are no longer strangers now, are we?"

The little boy was still crying, but his eyes were unexpectedly locked with hers.

"Can you tell us your name now?"

A name spewed out of his mouth. "Ji-ho..."

She smiled and cupped his face in her hands, wiping the tears away. "That's such a cute name, Ji-ho. Just like you."

Seokjin was standing stiff with his hands inside his pockets and watched her trying to interact with the kid.

"So Ji-ho...why are you crying? And what happened to you?"

Ji-ho wanted to continue crying which led him to have a hard time breathing. He was cautious, unlike other kids who didn't hesitate to share everything with strangers.

She tried again, "You can tell Noona (sister), Ji-ho. I'll not hurt you."

A little bit of promise and caring words did the trick. The boy momentarily stopped crying and confessed,

"My father hit me."

Both of them were taken aback by his confession. "Your father? Does he do this often?"

He nodded his head, face as red as the sun during a sunset.

She glanced at Seokjin for some sort of help. But it was his first time facing a situation like this. He was already awkward in the first place. He only shrugged his shoulders as a gesture to ask what he was supposed to do.

Sighing, she knew she had to do all the talking. "Ji-ho, can you tell us about your father? What does he do? Why does he hit you?"

He replied after a hiccup, "He comes home every time with a bad smell. He sometimes breaks things. He hits me when I don't bring him those green bottles."

Seokjin didn't realize his eyes softened unknowingly.

"That's awful! Your father is a bad person. You shouldn't stay with him. Where is your mother?"

He answered, "Eomma left our house 2 days ago. I wanna go to her," he started sobbing again, this time much more quietly.

Yoon Min glanced at Seokjin with a sad expression. He surely felt bad for the kid but he had no idea what they were supposed to do for him. Clearly, his father was a drunkard. His mother must've gone through abuse as well, causing her to leave once the limits were crossed.

But how could she leave her son behind?

"Ji ho-ah, let's take you to the police station. They can find your mother and take you to her," she suggested.

The boy sniffled and asked with hope glimmering in his eyes, "Really?"

Seeing him getting his hopes up at the thought of reuniting with his mother made her smile a bit. She nodded her head and stood on her feet, took the boy's hand.

When the three of them started to make their way to the police station, Seokjin whispered to her,

"Are you sure that's a good idea? What if the police don't help? They may send him back to his father."

She only replied with a nervous sigh, "Let's hope not."

✦✧✧ - ✧✧✦

After reaching the station, they told everything to the chief officer and advised him to contact his mother first. He paid heed to their words and assured them he'd do his best to take care of the boy. His mother arrived there after an hour. She shed a river of tears upon finding her child waiting for her as she hugged him tightly and apologised to him a hundred times.

She claimed she couldn't endure the torture her husband was bestowing on them every day. She walked out of the house without a clear mind, without a second thought. She was trying to reach her son but her drunkard husband didn't allow it. Until Ji-ho ran away too and came across them.

Both Seok Jin and Yoon Min were happy to see the reunion of the mother-son. They were mostly happy because of their efforts. Especially Seokjin; he never felt this before. When the mother thanked them, he felt like he saved someone's life. He was praised by the world for many things but it was the first time someone praised him for bringing a boy back to his mother. It was evident he was feeling very proud of himself in his heart. Though he didn't do anything; it was all Yoon Min.

Helping a person might not change the whole world, but it could change the world of that person. That's what they did. They could've ignored the crying kid and could've left him there without looking back. But she didn't hesitate to step forward, reach out and help him.

"That was nice back there," Seokjin had to give a little compliment to her.

They were walking back home from the station. Night had already fallen over them. The street lamps shone light for their path in the dark.

Yoon Min smiled shyly.

"I would have never helped that kid, you know? I don't think I would ever find a reason," he didn't know why he confessed that.

She hugged her arms and lowered her head. "You don't need a reason to help people. We should help people even when we know they can't help us back."

He noticed it in her before: she liked to give more than she could receive. That was where her happiness lied. When most of us are focused on taking, she cared about giving selflessly.

"All my life, I've waited for someone who would help me. I prayed and wished for such a person who wouldn't think twice to rescue me. There must be thousands of people out there who had the same thought as me once in their lives. I figured I should be that person for them, even though they weren't for me."

He became curious after hearing her. "Was your father like that too?"

"Not him. My mother was."

Shoot, how could he forget that?

"It's okay. The whole world thinks women are much more likely to report victimization in domestic acts of violence," she stated calmly as if she read his thoughts again.

What she said wasn't wrong. In fact, it was his first time as well hearing her family suffered from domestic abuse from a woman who used female privileges. Usually, it is always the men who are responsible for their families breaking apart miserably. Just like Ji-ho's father destroyed their family.

Feeling a lump forming, he cleared his throat and quietly walked with her. His eyes secretly took glances at her face, trying to figure out if she was saddened by the mention of her mother. She never really talked about her parents that much. Whatever he heard till now, he was sure she left out the worst parts intentionally. She was hiding a lot of things.

She didn't have to do that. He was her bias and she once told him she wanted him to know everything about her. If she really meant it, then she should know everything means both good and evil.

"What was she like?" he bravely inquired.

"You don't want to know."

"Yes, I do. You know so much about me and I only know a few things about you. This isn't fair."

Being proud of his own defence, he tried to keep his smile a secret from her. As he continued looking at her, waiting for her to start talking, he noticed her eyes no longer lit up the glow of stars. It was then figured out one of her weaknesses, perhaps the darkest part of her.

It was none other than her own mother.

Yoon Min released a shaky breath. "I don't think I can explain my relationship with my mother. She was supposed to be my greatest supporter, but she was my harshest judge. I got excited to tell her about my days but I couldn't say anything to her. She made me lose my calm, made me want to scream and cry, but also made me want to be a better person. I got scared when I didn't see her, but I always wanted nothing more than to live without her."

Anyone would be puzzled by the way she started. He always thought she hated her mother. But it didn't seem that way in real.

"I love her. I know I love her. But it wasn't the same for her. I don't think she ever knew she hated me. But I saw I was hated. I saw it in her eyes. And I carried that hate in me all these years."

He knew it beforehand. He knew no baby can't hate the mother without the mother hating the baby first. It was just impossible. Now it made sense why a good girl like her would hate her mother. Though she claimed she loved her.

It didn't take him long to question. "Your mother didn't love you?"

There was no way to understand if she nodded or shook her head. As if she didn't know the answer. "My mother was very brilliant and talented in a lot of fields since she was a kid. Always topped every exam, achieved various awards, and got many scholarships. She was well-known for her educational performances and national accomplishments. That's why, her whole family loved her, and spoiled her often. Neighbours always spoke well of her. It was a small town so pretty much everyone heard her name and had a decent perception of her.

"But things changed when she met my father as a suitor. It was an arranged marriage. My grandmother personally liked him because he had a high rank in the army. But she didn't force her opinion on my mother. My mother reluctantly agreed to marry him.

"But they were poles apart. And the scariest thing is they realised their huge personality differences after they were married."

He never listened to someone else's story with this interest. Since she was sharing the details, he needed to remember them all.

"After their marriage, my mother found out a lot of things about my father that she didn't like. She didn't like his lifestyle so she wanted him to change. He wanted to compromise and agreed, but he had too many flaws inside him for him to change overnight. And that's what drove her crazy. She didn't have the patience to wait.

"Slowly, one small argument led to huge fights that lasted over weeks. Instead of him, she started to change into a ruthless person. She wanted to change him so much that she took control of his entire life. Thanks to that, he had a few positive changes but it wasn't enough. So my mother developed a violent hatred towards him and picked up a fight with him every day."

He started to wonder if her parents actually fought every day. It must've been terrible for her.

"After we were born, my mother took control of our lives too since the first day. She controlled and dominated every cell of my body, manipulated me, and expected me to live exactly the way she wanted. There was no scope for my own opinion or my voice. If I failed or protested, she h-hurt me physically and silenced me forever."

That's when he understood domestic violence can happen to anyone regardless of race, age, sexual orientation or religion. He concluded her mother assaulted her occasionally and instilled the fear of future violent attacks if any of the family members disobeyed her. This allowed her to take control of their lives and rule them.

Her mother frightened and terrorized her from birth, manipulated and hurt her whenever she preferred and fought with her father violently in front of her without thinking about the circumstances of her future. She was an eyewitness to her abuse.

Usually, Seokjin didn't say anything sympathetic to her. He always listened and remained silent. Because he didn't know what he should say. He had been with people who didn't have tragic pasts like her. But now, he wanted to say something. He didn't want her to continue as it would only make her remember the bad stuff. After all, she was all doing this for him.

Because he was the one who wanted to know her story.

"I'm sorry," he let out, grabbing her attention. "It just sounds horrible that someone you loved made you think it's hard to love you."

Yoon Min blinked slowly. Then as always, she let out a chill smile and didn't talk further on the topic.

And they walked the rest of the road in silence. Both thinking about her but not uttering a word about it.

☆THE FAULT IN OUR STARS☆

THANK YOU FOR READING
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