Finding the Flower

Part 10

It was almost two weeks since the incident on the stairs. Although his ankle had almost healed, his mind had begun to crack. Jimin had not seen Yoongi since he stepped out from his apartment and he was beginning to worry that he'd done something wrong.

Initially he was on cloud 9, Yoongi had seemed genuine, and he felt like they were on the same page. Even his Grandma had noted a happier tone in his voice when he spoke to her that Monday to tell her about his ankle.

"you seem awfully happy for someone with an injury" she had said. Jimin had blushed and was glad it was a phone call. "I think I've made a friend" he had replied, hoping that would be enough information for the old woman.

However when Tuesday came around Jimin was hoping to bump into Yoongi again but he didn't see any sign of him all day. He knew they had completely different classes but was it really possible to not see your neighbour for the entire day?

It was around Wednesday lunchtime when the thick fog of fear swept over him in waves. What if this was a repeat of last time... The one time he made the mistake of thinking a guy was interested in him at a party...

Jimin physically shook himself but the memory refused to be buried again, his brain feeding the blackness of his fears. He had read the signs all wrong, the guy was leaning in to talk to him over the music and Jimin thought he wanted something else...

He had kissed him. Jimin remembered it was nothing major, just a light press of lips together but the aftermath... He shuddered in his seat and pulled his arms around himself, the food in front of him forgotten as he stared at the table top but not really seeing it.

He had been shoved rather roughly against a wall. The guy had spat in his face and grabbed his shirt as if to punch him. Jimin had closed his eyes but the pain never came,instead he was dragged from the house and shoved to the ground outside.

Threat after threat was thrown at him as he sat on the gravel path in disbelief. Once the door was slammed and he was left on the dark path alone, he picked himself up and blindly found his way to his apartment. Then the tears and the shock hit like a freight train.

That experience alone was enough to scar Jimin but the days and weeks to come were harder. It was the blank stares first, the dirty looks, the whispered comments... That's where it started. People turned away from him if he tried to approach and he quickly found himself isolated.

Then things got worse, the physical attacks were random and he never knew what was coming until it was too late. Being tripped up in crowded hallways, things being thrown at him, his things being stolen or hidden.

One of the worst things was when he was shoved at the top of a staircase and he fell the full flight down on his knees. That had hurt for quite some time. Luckily the person who did it had been seen by a teacher and it turned out to be the guy he had kissed.

The guy had been on his final warning and so his actions had caused him to be expelled from the academy, and without his presence to fuel most of the hate towards Jimin, things slowly began to fade out. And for the most part he was now just left alone.

No one talked to him, no one bothered him, no one was friends with him. He was lonely yes, but he preferred that to the constant bullying, he preferred to not be seen at all that to be the full focus of the entire student body. He was practically invisible.

Over time Jimin had learned howto defend himself, he had gotten into a fair few fights and gained a reputation of sorts. He may be small but he could pack a punch and wasn't afraid to do so if he was cornered. It was another reason he was left alone these days.

Of course it wasn't all floating around in his own world devoid of interaction, there were those who still enjoyed calling him names or physically harming him if they got the chance. The prime suspect was Jaesung and his three followers.