Hoseok

Sometimes I wonder how my life would have shaped up if I hadn't met Seokjin that day. On the verge of exhaustion, panting and dying for breath, my body was way beyond its limits that time. I still remember that day, as clear as hell.

"Get this, you fuck-face!" Youngchul screamed as he kicked me with his pointed boots straight on my stomach. The action doubled me over and I wheezed harshly, curling myself into a pathetic ball to curb the pain coursing through my body.

All I did was give him my lunch money a tad less than I usually gave him daily. It wasn't my fault I lost the money somewhere in school. Still, saying that wouldn't have stopped him into beating me because he would have found another reason to do it anyways.

One kick wasn't enough and he started kicking me relentlessly as if his whole life depended on it. The pain was becoming unbearable but I couldn't bring myself to tell him to stop. Fuck, I even refused to scream or shout in pain.

He would curse at me sometimes, grabbing my shirt and shoving me anywhere he deemed fit, when he would run out of breath after raining punches and kicks at me.

'Why don't you fucking scream, horse head?'
'Don't you feel any pain?'

I would just lay there, my body battered and bruised, with no energy left in me. A weak pathetic boy, with no self respect.

But I was determined in being stubborn. I vowed to myself that I would never make him feel victorious in abusing me. I refused to cry in pain. I would never allow myself to cry in front of him.

I fucking refused to give him that power, no matter how insignificant it seemed.

And that was the reason he wouldn't let me go.

Usually a bully finds himself a target and does whatever he wants with him. Sooner or later, he gets bored and moves onto the next one. Thanks to me, Youngchul never found a reason to get enough from me. On the contrary, he found himself a challenge in me and tried every fucking thing in the book to make me bow down to him.

Pushing me from the stairs, holding me down and burning my arms and legs with cigarettes, dunking my head in toilet bowls, parading me naked in front of his whores, almost killing me by hanging me from a tree and what else..I don't really remember.

Like I said, every fucking thing in the book.

And I never cried.

Just like now. He was getting tired and I kept looking at him. My eyes were closing from pain and exhaustion but I kept on looking at him.

"Fucking piece of shit! Die already!" He screamed when a few moments later I heard a sound of an object dropping on the ground with a thump. I turned my head and saw a silhouette of a person at the end of the alley. I couldn't make out who it was because my eyes were partly swollen due to the punches.

Slowly, the figure walked forward and I immediately recognized him the moment his face became clear to me. It was Kim Seokjin and he was in my school too.

"What the fuck do you want, bastard?" Youngchul shouted to him as he casually kicked me on my waist.

Seokjin just stood there, his hands by his side, wearing a clean uniform and his shoes were always spotless. I knew he was rich and a well behaved person by the amount of times I crossed him in school. He was a year older than me and I saw him many times walking to his classes with no one beside him. I always wondered why nobody hung out with him despite him being all rich and handsome.

Youngchul took some steps towards him, wanting to assess the situation at hand. His uniform was sweaty and wrinkled and blood was caking on his boots. My blood.

"Hey, aren't you Kim Seo—" He never got to finish as Seokjin shot him with a tight punch on his cheek which made him fall sideways and crash on the empty trash bins placed along the wet wall of the alley. He was disoriented by the attack, I could tell, but he got up nonetheless and charged towards Seokjin while roaring with anger.

Too bad he didn't see Seokjin coming at him and he got punched in the stomach this time. The action made him throw up liquids and he fell to the ground. The other two guys who were with Youngchul tried to fight him and ran towards Seokjin but he rained blows over blows at the three of them without stopping for a second.

I could clearly make out what was happening and it surely wasn't a pretty sight. Seokjin had rage in his eyes and he was using it to its full potential. The constant screams from the bastards, the cracking of bones and eventually their pleas to be let go were all over the place and it was evident they couldn't handle it for long.

Soon enough, they fell in a pile of bruised heap, groaning and bloodied. It was a delicious sight to watch. I somehow managed to crawl myself and take the help of the wall to steady myself into standing. My legs gave up and I fell down. I ended up leaning against the wall, my ribs hurting like crazy. At this point, even breathing felt like a chore.

Seokjin turned and walked towards me while dusting his clothes. He looked really cool to me. I immediately took a liking to him. There was something really magnetic about his personality. Even when he walked alone in school, his books under his arm and his eyes, brooding and dark, he looked like he owned the place and even the people there.

Like there was nothing that could bother him and if it did, he wouldn't hesitate to finish it off. 

He crouched down and sat in front of me, looking me in the eyes. He gave me a light smile, full of life and mischief. It almost bordered to a smirk. He then gave me his hand, for a handshake I presumed, and said just a single word. His name.

I couldn't help but smile largely at that even though my face hurt like crazy. I found him interesting because not, for once, he pitied me. His eyes never showed that I felt insignificant and weak to him. On the contrary, I saw him look at me like how a mother does when she gets proud of her child. That feeling, in itself, was quite liberating.

"Hoseok." And the moment I said my name, my lights went off and I woke up in a hospital room after a whole three days. My body was in a recovery stage and I heard my parents were called from work.

I felt strange that they would even bother to visit me right now.

It turns out that I was right.

My attending nurse, after a lot of insistence, divulged to me that they did visit me but were restless to leave for work after they saw that I was recovering. Seokjin saw that and yelled at my parents for being "fucking assholes" and even threw a vase at my father which missed his face by an inch and crashed on the wall behind him.

I listened to the nurse attentively, not believing my ears. She then went on to tell me that Seokjin was calm all along and even threatened to destroy my parents for being, well, bad parents. In the end, they couldn't press charges because he was Kim Hoojun's son..also my hospital bills were being taken care of.

"What? Who's paying for it then? Seokjin?" I asked.

The nurse was perplexed with her head lowered. It must have been confidential. Just then, the door to my room opened and inside strode Seokjin in a white T-shirt and black pants. He looked handsome.

"You're awake." He said to me and spared a glance to the nurse, only to signal her to leave with a casual tilt of his head. She scurried off quickly and closed the door behind her.

The room was painfully quiet and my eyes were feeling heavy due to the medications. I closed them for a while when I heard a chair scraping beside me and a gentle thump on it. I opened my eyes and saw Seokjin looking at me, leaned back and his hands folded on his chest.

"You'll be out in three days." He said calmly.

"You make it sound like the end of a prison sentence." I chuckled.

"Isn't that right, though?"

I stopped smiling. "Where are they now? The boys, I mean."

He simply shrugged. "I don't know. The last time I saw them was back in that alley, I guess."

"Wait..so you didn't bring them to the hospital along with me?" I asked quizzically.

"No. Why would I?" He was saying everything so calmly, like he was stating as something as simple as the weather. He never bothered to help them, not even a bit.

I started laughing but stopped when I felt a sharp pain slice through my ribs. I winced and laid my head down slowly, breathing softly.

"You are one character, Kim Seokjin." I said as I turned my head to look at me.

He smirked. "So are you, Jung Hoseok. I never thought you would laugh at that. You really did hate them, man."

"What happens if they're found out and decide to spill everything to the cops?" I couldn't help but worry about Seokjin getting tangled up in my mess. After all, he just wanted to help me.

"You dont have to worry about that. They aren't in the position to say anything, let alone rat us out. I took care of it, remember?"

Amazing.

"Why?" I asked. Even if he did help me, why go to such lengths. We barely know each other apart from the names.

He looked at me, long and hard. His eyes were real dark and reflected a shine in the black pools in them. Seokjin's eyes were the darkest I've ever seen and I found them fascinating for some reason.

"Because.." he stood up, put his hands in his pockets and looked at me in my eyes, betraying nothing.

"..you are fun."

What?

"I'd like having you around me. I don't have a doubt about that."

Of all the million reasons I thought of, this was totally unexpected. Like totally.

To the person hearing what he said, it may look ridiculous but the emotion in his eyes I saw at that time betrayed not a single thing. It would stay with me for years and I would witness that many times later in the days I spent with him.

The mutual feeling of admiration for each other. It was liberating and honestly, very fulfilling. The most I've ever experienced in my life.

It was then, at that very moment, I decided to sign up myself for him. And for every single thing concerning him.

You like having me around you? Well, your wish just came true, man. Good luck letting go of me. Because, for fuck's sake, you'll need a lot of it.