Work Text:
Jimin was peacefully laying in bed, when his alarm rudely woke him up, so he lazily got up to turn it off.
New day, but yet everything is the same as it has been for the past 7 years.
Same boring job, same hair, same old clothing, same apartment.
He sighs and gets up to get ready for work like he always did. Black jeans and a shirt that he always thought had been a bit too big for him. He combs his hair and brushes his teeth.
He spit out his toothpaste, washed his face and went to the kitchen to see if his stomach would let him eat anything this morning.
Cereal, yogurt, orange juice, or kimchi.. Any of these options could make a reasonable breakfast, but he almost never ate breakfast before heading out the door anymore, and now even if he wanted to, he would probably feel sick the rest of the day and throw it up before lunch anyway.
So instead of having breakfast like always, he puts the water to boil and sits down at the small table to absent-mindedly scroll through his phone.
Trending: #JusticeforChanmi
Out of curiosity, he clicks to see what everyone could possibly be talking about. Chanmi left him behind with their parents, but he always knew how much she regretted not taking him with her.
Oh my god, that poor girl, how could her parents treat her like that! They should be in jail!
Wow, who would’ve guessed that life hadn’t been so nice to her before reaching the charts? My best wishes to Chanmi, and I hope she gets the justice she deserves.
Her parents yelled at her and maybe smacked her a few times lol. I don’t get why everyone is being so dramatic 🤣
Jimin quickly closes out of the app and smacks his phone face down on the desk.
He closed his eyes shut and shook his head hoping it would somehow shake the thoughts out, his breathing became uneven, and his heartbeat became faster.
He could still hear them yelling
He finally opens his eyes to realize he’s still in his kitchen, in his apartment in Seoul, not back in Busan.
There were tears falling down his cheeks, was sweating, and hyperventilating.
I’m fine, this is fine he’s nowhere near me, he can’t get to me anymore
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“Ahjussi!”
“There’s probably another kid who’s lost again…” He mumbles under his breath.
“A-Ahjussi!” someone repeats before he feels something tugging his hand.
He groans and he looks back to see a little boy looking back to see who was tugging him.
It was a little boy, looked about 11 or 12, disheveled and crying.
“I’m really sorry kid but I’m not your dad,” he bends down to his level, “go find your parents, ok kid?”
The kid wipes tears away, “A-Ahjussi please help m-me, I c-can’t go back,” he says quietly,
Jimin takes a better look at the kid. He was pretty short. He had messy brown hair, and his clothing looked old and worn out. His eyes were puffy from crying for who knows how long. He actually reminded him much of himself when he was younger.
“I’m sorry kid but I don’t think I can help you, go find another old man to bother, ok kid?” He said as he walked away.
“I-It’s Il-Nam, L-Lee Il-Nam!” the kid yelled hoarsely.
He doesn’t look back; he didn’t need to be late to work today, or he’d probably get an earful from his boss. He had already had a bad enough morning.
He walked through the entrance, went in and got to work
.
Paper, after paper, after paper.
Why’d they do everything on paper? Do they not do anything electronically these days?
He lets out a low groan and rubs his forehead. He hated this, but he needed to be able to pay bills, so he just had to suck it up and do the work. He looks at the pile of papers he’d already gone through, and at the pile of papers he had yet to touch.
Great
He wasn’t even halfway through them.
This was going to be a long day, and he was probably going to have to work over-time, so he got up, and walked over to a nearby vending machine.
He pushes a couple of buttons, puts in some cash, and out comes an energy drink and a small pack of cookies. If he was going to work overtime, he needed to be able to stay awake.
He walks back to his desk, sits back down, and opens the can. He could sip on the energy drink while he went through the rest of the papers.
After hours of work, he finally gets up from his seat and takes a deep breath, he is finally done, “There you go Jimin-ah, you did it,” he said to himself with a small smile. His desk was a mess now, but he finally finished.
He picks up his things and cleans off his desk. He had gone through 3 energy drinks but hadn’t touched the cookies he bought, so he brought the cookies with him along with the rest of his things.
He walks out the door of the building and sees that it was dark outside. He might’ve stayed a little bit too late…
“A-Ahjussi! You’re back, how many hours do you work, I thought you’d never come out of that building!” A kid says as he sits up from laying on a bench.
Is that… Il-Nam, the kid from earlier?
“Are you dumb?” he says; half angry half sorry the kid was waiting outside for him, “Why are you here?”
“Well I didn’t have anything to do, so I waited out here for you…”
“Why did you wait for me? You could’ve gone with someone else!”
“That’s an extremely good question sir!” “Which I will answer when we get home!”
“We? What do you mean ‘we’, I’m not taking you with me!”
“B-But sir, I don’t have anywhere else to go, and it’s freezing outside, I promise I won’t bother you...”
The kid had a point, it was only going to get colder outside, and he didn’t seem to have anywhere to go, so what was the harm in taking him in for a few days?
“Fine,” he sighs, “follow me kid,” he takes out the pack of cookies from earlier, “take these, I don’t know when the last time you ate was, but I’m sure you’ll enjoy them either way,” he hands them to him.
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They had gotten home at 12, which was probably way too late, but there was nothing Jimin could’ve done about it unless he’d known that the kid was waiting outside for him.
Jimin had made some warm food for Il-Nam and gave him some of his old clothing that no longer fit to change into, and not too long after, the kid had peacefully drifted off to sleep.
“You were really tired waiting outside for me, weren’t you?” Jimin says as he ran his hand through Il-Nam’s hair, “I’m sorry about that”
Jimin looks at the kid's face again. His face looked pale, and he had multiple scars on his face, but you couldn’t really tell unless you looked closely.
Life hadn’t been fair to him, had it? He guessed that he could probably say the same for himself.
He sighs, and decides that he himself should also be getting to sleep.
“Ahjussi! Wake up! Your alarm is going off, you’re going to be late for work! Ahjuss-”
Jimin gets up abruptly, still half asleep, “ Ya! Calm down, you don’t need to be so loud, I’m sure I’ll be fine,” he says as he gets out of bed and rubs his eyes.
“Ah, sorry sir…”
“Aish, please don’t call me sir, it sounds weird and it makes me feel old,” he says grumpily.
“Well then what do I call you?”
Jimin thinks for a second, “Well, just call me Jimin-hyung I guess”
“Ah ok” “Jimin hyung, get ready for work!”
Jimin rolls his eyes playfully, finally starting to warm up to his uninvited guest.
“I don’t think I can just leave you here all alone though Il-Nam, who’s going to take care of you while I’m gone?”
“Actually, I should get along just fine, don’t worry about me Jimin-hyung,” Il-Nam says as he gives Jimin a smile.
Jimin’s heart broke when he saw Il-Nam smiling. He reminded him too much of himself, he too had to learn how to take care of himself at a young age, and seeing that Il-Nam had been going through the same thing broke his heart.
He gives Il-Nam a sad smile, “Alright, just don’t get into any trouble while I’m gone, ok kid?”
Il-Nam nods, and goes to the kitchen, probably to find something to eat, while Jimin gets ready for work.
“Aren’t you going to eat anything?” Jimin says as he walks into the kitchen and sees Il-Nam hadn’t grabbed anything to eat.
“I’ll eat something later hyung, I’ll be fine,” Il-Nam says before looking through his bookbag.
“Oh uh, alright then,” Jimin says as he puts water to boil.
He sits down at the table, and decides that maybe he shouldn’t touch social media for a good while, considering what had happened to him the other morning. He couldn’t risk having Il-Nam worry about him. Afterall, he was the one who needed help, and Jimin decided to take him in. Any problems that were his had nothing to do with Il-Nam so he shouldn’t have to deal with it, right? He’s just a kid.
He sighs and pours himself coffee. How long was he going to take care of Il-Nam? Was he going to be able to afford it? What if his parents came looking for him?
He finishes his coffee, sits his cup down on the table, and gathers his things.
“If you get hungry, take whatever you want from the fridge, if you need to call me, my number is on the counter,” Jimin says as he bends down to Il-Nam’s level, “and please, stay safe, though I trust that you'll stay out of trouble,” he smiles.
“You don’t need to worry so much hyung, now get to work, you’ll be late!”
“I guess you’re right, I’ll get going now,” He says as he pats Il-Nam on the head and walks out the door.
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Again, today a huge pile of papers he had to look over laid on top of Jimin’s desk. The funny thing is, that it didn’t stress him as much today as it would have normally have, so he sat down, put on some headphones and peacefully sorted through everything.
We really need to invest in some computers or something though, it’ll save money on paper too.
A few hours later, Jimin starts to get worried about how Il-Nam was doing, so he pulls out his phone to check if he had called him today. Upon seeing that there was nothing, he sighed in relief that he was doing fine. No missed calls, no messages, no problems.
After a few more hours passed by, Jimin was finally done with everything, so he gratefully gathered his things and made his way out the building's door.
He takes out his phone to see that it was 5:34 pm, which was later than he would have liked to have finished, but at least the sun had yet to start setting.
“Hey Il-Nam! Is everything alright? I’m just getting out of work, so I should be home in no time,” Jimin says through the phone.
“Jimin-Hyung! Do you always worry so much?” Il-Nam says through the phone, “I’m fine, don’t worry! Get home safely hyungie,” He says before hanging up, and before Jimin can say anything else.
“This kid is something else,” Jimin whispers under his breath as he puts his phone away.
If Jimin was honest to himself, since he started taking care of Il-Nam, he felt like his life had the smallest amount of purpose to it now, even if he had only been doing it for 17 hours. It was kinda nice knowing that when he got home, there’d be someone waiting for him. He wanted to promise himself to take care of this kid for however long he stayed with him, to show him the love and care that he himself had always craved for, because again, it looked like life hadn’t been fair to him.
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“Il-Nam-ah! I’m home!” Jimin says as he comes through his apartment door. He looks around and realizes that the apartment was cleaner now than it was when he left. He walked through to the living room and saw Il-Nam sleeping peacefully on the sofa while the television played cartoons.
“He did that because he was worried I would find him a burden didn’t he?” Jimin said under his breath.
He slowly walked over to where Il-Nam was sleeping, and quietly bent down to his level, “Il-Nam -ah, I’m home. Have you eaten yet?” He whispered sweetly with a sad look on his face.
Il-Nam lets out a small yawn and opens his eyes halfway, “Oh, Jimin-hyung you’re home,” he whispers quietly as he turns his attention to Jimin's worried face, “I’m fine, I ate lunch already”
His eyes were still heavy; he was fighting himself not to fall asleep again.
“Il-Nam, you need more than just lunch, wait here for me and I’ll bring you something to eat, ok?” Jimin whispers again as he gets up to go to the kitchen.
Il-Nam nods. He wasn’t actually hungry, but it was such a nice yet unfamiliar feeling being taken care of and talked to so sweetly. No one had ever really taken care of him or cared for him before. But yet here was Jimin; a complete stranger, doing everything in his power to make sure he was doing ok.
He had to admit, it did scare him a bit how much trust he was putting into Jimin, but something told him that he was ok to trust, that he would never do anything to hurt him.
After a few moments, Jimin walks back into the room with a bowl of instant ramen and a cup of apple juice, and sits next to where Il-Nam was laying on the sofa.
Il-Nam slowly sits up and gratefully takes the ramen, “Thank you Jimin-Hyung”
“Don’t mention it,” Jimin says as he again gives him a sad smile.
“Don’t feel so bad for me, being sad doesn’t look good on you,” he says before bringing a spoonful of ramen up to his lips.
Jimin was taken aback slightly, “How old are you again? I don’t think I got your age,” he asks.
“I’m almost 13 I think,” he replies, taking another spoonful from the bowl.
He’s a bit older than Jimin originally thought, but he was still surprised at Il-Nam’s maturity at his age.
“So um, what were you running from when you came to see me?”
“I was running from my parents, I ran away and they were after me,”
“Why? Why’d you run away I mean”
Il-Nam sighs and looks down, avoiding eye contact, “Lot’s of reasons, I hated it there, I hated the way they made me feel everyday. I guess I finally got tired and decided to do something about it”
“Oh,” he pauses, “I’m really sorry about the way I treated you back when we first met,” he says with regret.
“It’s ok, I know your first thought probably wasn’t to take in a random kid from the street. I forgot to thank you for taking me in yesterday, so thank you for that,”
“It’s alright, it was the right thing to do I guess,” he pauses, “and just so you know, I promise that you’ll be safe here with me, I know all too well how it feels to have parents like that, and if I can prevent someone else having to go through what I went, then I’ll take the chance”
Il-Nam is taken aback by this, because he had never heard such comforting words said directed towards him. And Jimin had just admitted that he’d gone through something similar, so now it felt like maybe he’d have someone to relate to, talk to, and trust.
“On that note, I think I’m going to take you shopping for some clothing at some point, because I don’t think you want to be walking around in my old ugly clothing,” he says with a small smile.
Il-Nam smiles back and lets out a small laugh at Jimin’s comment. It’d been awhile since he’d done that.
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“JIMIN-HYUNG WAKE UP!”
I don’t think I’m going to need my alarm anymore, this kid wakes up so early jesus christ-
Il-Nam had been staying at Jimin’s place for around a 2 weeks now, but he was still getting used to being woken up in the morning by a 13 year old boy.
“I’m up I’m up-” Jimin says as he gets up.
“You sleep a lot, I think you’re getting old,” Il-Nam says playfully.
“It comes naturally with age”
“Can we go clothes shopping today pleaaaase,” he says with a sweet ice cream voice.
“I think my schedule for today says I can’t due to the fact I need to do a lot of scrolling through social media and sleeping,” he responds sarcastically, “Yeah nah, of course we can,” he says as he pats Il-Nam’s head.
“Then get ready, you slowpoke”
He shakes his head and smiles, “You get ready too, so we can go, I’ll be ready in a bit”
Il-Nam shakes his head and goes over to Jimin’s closet, “No offense old man, but you really need help with your fashion choices, you have zero taste in clothing, “ he says as he goes through his clothing.
After a few moments of looking, he pulls out an old button-up shirt that Jimin hasn’t seen in ages, “This one, and also, your closet is a fashion nightmare, you need to get new clothes too,” he says as he hands Jimin the sky blue button up shirt.
Jimin stares at it for a moment and then takes it with a sad smile, “Alrighty then, I’ll change into this before you start insulting my fashion choices again,” he replies playfully and gets up to change.
Around half an hour later, they both head to the nearest clothing store to buy Il-Nam some new clothing.
They enter the store, and Jimin looks around with a sad smile on his face, remembering all those memories with Taehyung. It felt like it was just yesterday that they had snuck out to get Jimin some clothing to go out to prom, which ended in a nightmare.
Oh how he missed him so much, but right now wasn’t the time for that.
“Ok so I know you’re excited, but please cut me some slack and don’t get anything too expensive, if you can’t tell, I’m not exactly rich”
“Don’t worry I got this, I didn’t spend all my time looking at cheap fashion magazines for nothing back-” he cuts himself off, “back at home,” he says with guilt written all over his face.
Jimin puts a comforting hand on Il-Nam’s shoulder, “It’ll be alright, just enjoy yourself and try not to think about them, ok?”
Il-Nam hesitantly nods his head and they go on to find him some clothing. They agreed that he probably wasn’t going to need much, so they only got 3 pairs of shirts and pants for him, along with a new pair of shoes.
Jimin pays the the clothing, and Il-Nam hugs him as soon as they walk out the store, “Thank you Jimin-hyung”
“Don’t worry about it kid,” he replies as he pats Il-Nam’s head.
They get home, and Il-Nam immediately takes out his new clothing and puts it on. He comes out of the bathroom and shows Jimin.
Jimin claps and smiles, “A very handsome young man if I do say so myself”
Il-Nam smiles, “I’m going to have to take you clothes shopping another day,” Il-Nam stares at the clock, “I think we have some time before we head to the park, and before I can go hang out with Hajoon again,” he smiles.
For the past 2 weeks, Jimin decided that they were going to go to the park early in the evening. Before Il-Nam got here, Jimin went to the park every other day when work allowed it, but he decided that now that he had Il-Nam to take care of, having some routine wouldn’t hurt, and plus, Il-Nam had made a friend, Ga Hajoon, which he hung out with everyday which was a big plus.
“My dearest Il-Nam, as much as I would love to leave early to go to the park today, I am terribly tired at the moment from following you in the store all day, so please give me mercy and let me sit down for a couple of minutes,” Jimin says dramatically.
“Finee,” he says, slightly disappointed, but he knew Jimin was tired so he just had to find a way to distract himself for now.
He sits down at the table and takes out a piece of paper to start doodling on it. He was by no means an artist, he couldn’t draw a stick figure to save his life, but it was the only thing he could think of to pass the time.
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They get to the park, and Il-Nam immediately runs over to say hi to Hajoon, and Jimin sits down on a bench to scroll through his phone as always.
Jimin was peacefully sitting on the bench like he usually does, when all the sudden, Il-Nam came running up to him in distress.
“J-Jimin hyung, I have a question for you,” Il-Nam says anxiously..
“Ask away kid,” Jimin replies, distracted.
“Uh, how do you ask a boy out hyung…” He says as he lowers his head in shame.
Jimin’s head jerks up from his phone in surprise, “Oh uh, who’s the boy?” he asks curiously.
Il-Nam smiles sadly and discreetly points at a boy sitting on the swings, where Il-Nam was hanging around earlier. The same one he’d been hanging out with for the past few days.
“Oh,” Jimin replies, “Well, I guess you have to say something, right? Maybe you should uh- write him a letter or something,” He says nervously.
He wasn’t very sure how to help Il-Nam, if he was being honest. He didn’t have much experience with dating himself, with the only person whom he ever really ‘dated’ was a boy who he had to leave because he was scared of what his parents might do if they ever got caught. But right now wasn’t time to dwell on the past, right now he needed to help Il-Nam.
“I guess that’d be a good idea…” Il-Nam replies absentmindedly, “Can we go to a store? I want to get him something, even though I’m not really sure what”
“Yeah sure Il-Nam-ah,” he pauses, “and I’m sure he’ll be happy to be your boyfriend”
Seeing Jimin’s response, Il-Nam feels a little more confident and at ease to ask Hajoon out.
So they leave the park, and walk to the nearby store to look for something that Il-Nam could give Hajoon when he asks him out.
They search the isles of the store for a while, but nothing seems to satisfy Il-Nam, and when he starts to look visibly stressed, Jimin decides that they need to stop and calm him down.
“Il-Nam, what’s wrong?” he asks.
“I want to give him something that’ll let him know how much he means to me, but I don’t think we’ll ever be able to find anything…” he responds with a defeated look painted on his face.
“Il-Nam-ah, I know you really like this boy and only want the best for him, but remember that you can’t buy love, as long as you’re being sincere with him, that’s the only thing that you need to give him,” Jimin says.
Il-Nam looks at the ground, unable to make eye contact with him, “I guess you’re right,”
“Of course,” Jimin says with a small smile.
They look through the store for a few more minutes, when Il-Nam finally finds what he’s looking for.
“I think,” he says as he reaches out for a small mirror, “this is what I want to get him”
It was beautiful; a small, silver hand mirror, with small peices amethyst decorating the borders.
Jimin looked at the price, it was a little bit more expensive then he would have liked, but he was willing to pay for it.
“I’m sure he’ll love it,” he says, taking the mirror to make their way to the cash register.
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Hajoon throws the small mirror on the ground, making it crack and break, “I didn’t know you were a faggot! I thought the way you dressed looked off, but mom told me to be nice because you looked lonely,” He spits angrily.
Il-Nam breaks down into tears immediately, “S-So, you were only n-nice to me because your m-mom told you t-to?,” he says as he hides his face behind his hands.
Hajoon nods, “Wait until she hears that I’ve been hanging out with a faggot this whole time! I bet that old man by the bench is one too,” he says as he storms off back towards where his mom was sitting, “and don’t ever come looking for me with stupid face again”
Il-Nam nods his head, unable to speak. He falls to his knees while he watches Hajoon, the only friend he’s had, his first love, walk away with complete disgust of his existence.
Jimin stands behind Il-Nam, in shock, staring forwards in disbelief at the kid that was just yelling at Il-Nam.
He kneels down where Il-Nam was sobbing, “Hey Il-Nam, I know it hurts, but you’ll be ok, I’m here,” he says as he engulfs him in a hug before a small tear runs down his face.
They stayed like this for a while, and the whole time Jimin didn’t let go of Il-Nam.
After all this time of being alone, I forgot how awful people can be
“Il-Nam-ah, I think we should go home now, it’s getting dark,” Jimin whispers.
Il-Nam gives a small nod, and they get up. Jimin looked down at the broken mirror on the ground and then towards Il-Nam. Il-Nam nods again, and Jimin picks up the mirror by the handle and they go home.
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“Hey Il-Nam?” Jimin says as he enters the room to see Il-Nam hiding under a small pile of blankets.
He lets out a small sigh and goes over to where Il-Nam was laying, “Il-Nam, I know you’re really upset right now, but you’re going to have to come out to eat eventually,” he says as he tried to uncover Il-Nam’s head, only managing to partially take off the blanket off before Il-Nam pulled it over his head again.
“You can’t make me, I’ve gone longer without food before, I’ll be fine,” he replies with irritation.
Jimin shakes his head. Il-Nam wasn’t going to move, was he? He probably needed some more time to himself, so he quietly walked out the room and went to the kitchen table.
He took out the cracked mirror and looked at his reflection. Instead of the parent figure Il-Nam saw, he only saw a small child, who was quietly waiting for someone to come and find him, to give him the love and affection he craved for so long.
How was he going to help Il-Nam, if he couldn’t even help himself?
Jimin sighed and decided to give up on sulking and tried to find something to do that would be productive while he waited for Il-Nam to come out to eat.
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A few weeks had passed, and Il-Nam was getting better, he was eating again. Jimin could tell that a numb pain still lingered, but he was making progress.
“Jimin hyung, can we watch a movie pleaaase?”
Jimin shakes his head playfully, “I don’t know, should I?” he says as he smiles.
“I’m going to feel very betrayed if you don’t, and I’m not going to cook dinner for you when you get home from work”
“You’re bluffing”
“Watch me,” he smiles.
“Fine, go pick out a movie and I’ll be right with you”
Il-Nam nods and walks to the other room.
Jimin sighs after Il-Nam leaves, it was nice to have his happy and carefree Il-Nam back, but as much as it would be nice to have things go back to normal completely, he knew it was still going to take some time, so he was going to continue to take it slow with him for a little while longer.
He shuts his laptop and goes to his room to bring a blanket to the living room.
“Alright, what are we watching today?” Jimin asks as he walks into the living room.
“Aladdin”
“The one where everyone hates the Jafar guy?”
“I would really like to know why that’s the only detail you remember about that movie”
Jimin shrugs and sits down next to Il-Nam, covering the both of them in the blanket and they turn on the movie.
Around halfway through the movie Il-Nam had fallen asleep, and Jimin heard a quiet knock on the door. He quietly got up, paused the movie, and went to go see who it was.
There was a tall woman at the door; her hair was neatly made, and she wore a long sky blue dress with small flowers embroidered on the bottom. Jimin honestly would have thought that she was South Korea’s long lost princess if he didn’t know any better.
“Excuse me sir, I’ve been looking for my son, Lee Il-nam. He ran away from home a month and a half ago maybe, and we’ve been worried sick back at home. Have you seen him?” She says as she hands Jimin a photo.
It was, indeed, a picture of Il-Nam. He looked a bit younger and paler in the photo, but it was him. It made his blood boil that they just started looking for him, and that they were looking for him at all. If he didn’t know any better he might have turned Il-Nam in, because his mom looked like such a nice woman, but he knew better than that.
He stares at the photo for a few seconds and then hands it back to the woman, “I’m sorry, I don’t think I’ve seen him, I do hope you find him Miss,” he said as he gave her a sad smile.
“Oh, well thank you for your time, if you do find him, please do call us, “ she says as she hands Jimin a piece of paper with her number and address on it.
“Will do miss, have a wonderful day,” Jimin says as he closes the door slowly.
Jimin sighs and looks to where Il-Nam was peacefully sleeping on the couch, he looked so much more at peace than when he first got here, and happier than in the photo the woman had shown Jimin. Jimin wondered how long he was going to be able to keep this up, how long he was going to be able to hide Il-Nam. What if his parents found out he was staying here?Or if CPS found them?
He crumbles up the peice of paper and tosses it into a wastebasket.
There were still so many things he had to take care of.. How was he going to get everything done?
Aaaaand this is where Jimin thinks about it a second too long and realizes he’s basically adopted Il-Nam at this point.
He was completely fine with it, but the thought that Il-Nam was basically his child was a bit foreign to him. If you would’ve told Jimin that by the time he was 23 he would have adopted a kid, he would have probably tried to throw you across the room and fail because he’s vertically challenged.
He thinks for a few moments, and then decides not to tell Il-Nam that his mother came by looking for him, he already had enough on his plate with what had happened with Hajoon, he didn’t need more to worry about right now.
= - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = -
“Happy birthday hyungg!”
Jimin sits up quickly, still half asleep.
“Is it?” he rubs his eyes.
Il-Nam nodded with a smile, and Jimin was about to ask how he knew before he pointed at the calendar on the wall.
“Well I guess it is, isn’t it?”
“Yup,” Il-Nam hands him a small cupcake with white frosting and a small card.
Jimin takes it and smiles, “I’m assuming you made this?”
“Obviously, where else would I get it?”
Jimin nods and opens up the small birthday card.
Dear Jimin-Hyung,
Thank you for taking me in all those weeks ago, it’s been so nice staying with you!
You’ve done so much for me, and I probably won’t ever be able to thank you enough. I’ve finally been able to feel safe and loved, so again, thank you. I hope you have a wonderful birthday hyung :)
- Il-Nam
”Aw Il-Nam,” Jimin leaned in to hug Il-Nam, “you didn’t have to”
“I did,” Il-Nam says as he returns the hug. “And please, start taking care of yourself more, don’t think I haven’t noticed that you’re not eating breakfast each morning”
“I guess that’s something both of us need to work on, isn’t it?”
Il-Nam hesitates, and then nods, “Also, I have something to tell you hyung,” he says as he pulls away from the hug.
Jimin raises an eyebrow, “Which is?”
“I know my mom came looking for me the other day, I didn’t want to tell you because I knew you’d get worried. Please, don’t hide things from me, I can deal with these things, ok?”
Jimin hesitates, “Oh, so you heard me talking with your mom…”
“Hyung, it’s me, did you really think you were going to be able to hide that from me?”
Jimin sighs, “Fine, but you have to promise to do the same,” he extends his pinky out.
“We’re too old for this,” Il-Nam giggles and extends his pinky finger.
“We’ll be ok, I look out for you, and you look out for me”
“We’ll be ok, as long as we have each other”
Once I was seven years old, my mama told me
Go make yourself some friends or you’ll be lonely
Once I was seven years old
It was a big big world, but we thought we were bigger
Pushing each other to the limits we were learning quicker
By 11 smoking herb and drinking burning liquor
Never rich so we were out to make that steady figure
Once I was 11 years old, my daddy told me
Go get yourself a wife or you’ll be lonely
Once I was 11 years old
I always had that dream like my daddy before me
So I started writing songs, I started writing stories…