“SHE HAS SUNSHINE IN HER SOUL.
KEEP HER CLOSE, AND SHE'LL MAKE
THE WILDFLOWERS BLOOM
OUT OF YOUR DARKEST PARTS.”

Days passed along with the summer passing away. The duo never missed a day to meet up nor they failed to keep up their ongoing bond. In fact, Seokjin started to talk a little bit more than before. Learning about someone else's life urged him to speak about his own. And for the first time in his life, he was madly interested in another person's past.

To him, Yoon Min was a lot better than Dr. Han. He didn't know why he felt this but he could give quite a few reasons behind it. First of all, she didn't force him to talk. He really admired this side of her as she always let him listen. He himself talked on his own. The doctor literally forced him every minute to just talk. Secondly, she was friendly, cheerful, and easy to talk with. The doctor was a living Hitler to him, always scolded him if he didn't pay heed to his lectures, kept him on a tight schedule, and ordered him on what to do or not. Thirdly, she knew what to talk about or not. While Dr. Han always discussed that topic he didn't want to at all.

Also in these few weeks, he had learned some things about the girl as well. She was born into a family where she couldn't even breathe. She had to obey every rule from what to eat to how to sleep from the day she was born. She said her mother controlled her life as if it didn't belong to her. She felt like a dead puppet inside that house. She wasn't allowed to step one foot outside her home except for school times. She was banned to use makeup, colourful clothes, dolls, social media and more. She wasn't even allowed to talk or meet her father though they stayed in the same house. She was almost like a caged bird who was restrained to do anything of her own will. If she disobeyed any of it or forgot to do something, her mother beat her until she bleed.

He honestly pitied her and finally could understand why she ran away from her house. He would've done the same.

✦✧✧ - ✧✧✦

"Who did you hate more?"

Yoon Min was trying to climb up a huge willow tree while Seokjin was resting under it, his back leaning against the trunk. Sometimes she's so youthful when it came to doing weird things. Who climbs up a tree these days?

"What did you say again?" as expected, she didn't hear him since she focused on which branch to hold.

He sighed a little. “You said you hated your parents. Who did you hate more?"

There was a few seconds of silence before she said, "I didn't say I hate them. I said I didn't like how dominating they were."

He knew she didn't speak the truth. He could at least say that much after spending time with her.

But he chose to believe her.

She successfully managed to climb to the top branch and sat on it, swinging her legs down. There was a giant smile on her face. The sun was calm today as it spread its sunshine everywhere happily. The smooth wind touched their skins as it merrily filled around.

He flipped another page from the book and smiled a little when he read the lead showing off the cigarettes he buys as a metaphor. Well turned out, he decided to read the book. He couldn’t say he wasn't enjoying it.

He heard her asking him. "Jin-ssi, what did you tell your mother when she wanted to know about your dream?"

He smiled contently at the mention of his mother's name. There's no doubt he loved her the most and she also loved him.

"I didn't know what was my dream. To be honest, I found my dream after I debuted as an idol. Back in my childhood days, if anyone asked me what was my goal, I said I wanted to be handsome."

She chuckled at how straightforward he was.

"Eomma used to scoff whenever she heard my answer. She would then say, Sure, go ahead and be handsome."

His mother never doubted or controlled him. She always supported him in every possible way and adored him preciously. She knew letting his son take decisions for himself was the right thing to do. She was there to guide him to the right path.

He glanced above to take a look at her. "You?"

She glanced down at him with raised eyebrows.

"What did you say when your mother asked about your future?"

She smiled, but it did not come out of happiness. It wasn't even a sad one. Sighing lightly, she replied, "She never asked me.”

Yoon Min began to climb down the tree. It took her some time but it was less than the time she took to climb up. After landing, she flopped down on the ground in front of him. Pulling her knees to her chest and resting her chin on them, she sat like an ordinary human.

"There are parents in the world who never ask their children about their dreams. Not even once."

Seokjin didn't know this. He wasn't even aware that young people had to choose another path rather than following their gut to follow a path of their own. Not until they released No More Dream back in 2013. He never knew dreams were so important to children.

There was no meaning of this if a parent didn't care what their child attempted to be in the future. He blinked in sorrow, not knowing how it felt.

She looked at him. "You remember I told you my mother wanted me to become a doctor?"

He nodded. Her mother was a doctor herself so she was convinced if her children didn't become doctors in the future, then her name would be ruined.

"Most parents want their children either to become a doctor or an engineer or a prosecutor. A few want their sons to take over their businesses in the future," she paused to take a breath. "More than half of them at least ask their kids once about their own dream. While the others don't even bother to ask them."

She continued, "It actually doesn't matter if they ask their kids or not. Either way, the children have to do what their parents want them to do. However, if a child is asked about his dream by his parents even once, I think he will be aware that his parents care about his opinions too."

He didn't find a single word of her wrong. She spoke from her heart and they were facts. Children have to know what is right or wrong for them. Having a dream of their own isn't wrong. They need to know that. However, parents like hers had changed the world by making them believe it was a sin.

Clearing his throat, he asked, "Why didn't you want to be a doctor?”

"I didn't have the courage," she replied easily. “Studying medicine seemed difficult to me from the beginning. And my Mother forcing me, pressuring me somehow influenced me not to take that job. It was like I started to hate medicine because of her endless efforts on me.”

Seokjin didn’t talk on this topic furthermore. He couldn’t think straight or touch on deep topics for a while. He never was a serious man, but now he became one. He returned to his book with a sad gaze, millions of thoughts circling his brain for the first time.

He somehow lately had been thinking about subjects he never was interested in. Maybe his boring life brought him to this state. She was introducing him to so many unknown topics. And like a black hole, he was being sucked inside.

He shifted his eyes from the book to her face and he couldn’t help but notice the black faded spots and greyish-red marks on most parts of her skin. She always covered her legs and arms completely but it didn’t help completely.

With a little attempt, he asked curiously, “W-What's that mark?” he immediately thought if he had asked the wrong question.

There was a silent breakdown in her expression. She stared at him for some seconds quietly until she began to roll up her hoodie's sleeve. As she did it, he saw that it wasn’t a mark at all. It was a scar.

His eyes were glued on her right arm, unable to say anything.

“I got this from my mother when I didn’t receive good marks in maths,” she stared at her scar with a weird smile. “When I was in 3rd grade, I once got 89 out of 100,” she smiled nervously and scratched the back of her neck.

“She was so mad that time that she hit me with one of those metal rulers that time. It hurt so much that I remember washing the blood away.”

Seokjin glanced at her face, no sign of sadness or pain. “She didn’t talk to me for a week. Sometimes, she would come out of nowhere and just slapped me, pulled me by my hair and abused me verbally.”

Then she began showing some scars and marks on her body without any hesitations and told him the story behind every pain.

“See this?” she removed her hair strands from her forehead and showed a round, light indigo bruise over there. “This was when I got 99 once. She pushed me towards a wall and bang! It hit me.”

The idol in front of her gaped at her joyful face in the most puzzled expression. Wasn’t she supposed to cry and look pained?

He closed the book and wanted to yell at her for keeping the pain all to herself. But he still wasn’t as free as she was with him. She knew him from her childhood. But he only got to know about her for a month. There was a big difference in feeling the other person.

As far as he knew, girls tear up whenever an emotional topic is on air whether it’s about their past, families, ex-lover or future. They cry out muffled sobs every time, but Yoon Min never once cried in front of him. Sure, he did find himself on the sharp edge to burst into tears while listening to her from time to time. But he was a man. His heart couldn’t be swayed that easily.

He wasn’t even that close to her that he should hug her and tell her to forget everything. He knew she could easily console him. But he couldn’t. He never had that ability.

Sighing, he leaned against the trunk again and shut his eyes, trying to brush off all thoughts of her own mother physically abusing her. Even trying to imagine a scene like that brought his heart to a state to wrench pain.

☆THE FAULT IN OUR STARS☆

THANK YOU FOR READING
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