[Edited]
He takes a deep breath as he stares at the decrepit house in front of him. It's easily the most run-down house on the street, and its lawn is filled with empty beer bottles and crushed cans. The stained white paint is peeling off the walls, and the awning over the porch looks ready to cave in at any moment. The whole place gives off an eerie vibe that would chase most people away-- but he isn't most people.
The boy of average height and crazy mint green hair glares at the yellowing lawn and rotting wood; disgust oozing from his scowl. Yoongi hasn't been here in seven years, and he most definitely didn't want to come back. But he had to, for one reason, and one reason only.
I can't let her live here any longer.
The old building had been his childhood home. All his memories of youth, both good and bad, had been made inside the that house. Once--a long time ago-- he had thought of it as home. But now all he can see is a prison he escaped. He had left this place with his head held high, determined to live out his dreams. He'd left with nothing but his talent and his iron will, but at least he was able to leave.
Yoongi escaped this dungeon, but she hadn't. He had left her in there all by herself for all these years. He never wanted to leave her in the first place, but how could he give her all that she deserved when he could hardly pay to feed himself? He didn't want her to live off the streets, so he waited for the right time. He left her in that miserable house and worked his hardest, so that one day he could free her.
That day has finally come. The group is now semi-successful, and he can afford to support another life besides his own. So here he is, standing in front of the house he grew up in, gathering his courage.
Yoongi doesn't want her to live here anymore. It isn't safe.
Just five more minutes, Byeol-ah. Just five more until oppa's getting you out of there. Just hold on for a little longer. Please be safe.
Yoongi's hands clench into fists as he prepares himself to take the first step. His whole body tenses as he stares at his past, preparing himself to confront his childhood nightmare. A warm hand squeezes Yoongi's shoulder in support, and he glances over to see Jin, one of his oldest friends, looking at him with sympathy.
Jin is the only one he told about this. Yoongi didn't want to tell the younger members that he'd abandoned his own flesh and blood. He didn't want them to know how much of a coward he is. But Jin is his hyung, and Yoongi trusts him with his life, so he told Jin about her. It hurt to talk about her when he hadn't seen her precious face in year. It still hurts to talk about her, even though he hasn't seen her in seven years. Yoongi suspects it will always hurt to talk about her until the day they are reunited.
And that's what Yoongi's here for. Their permanent reunion. And after this, he's never going to abandon her again.
Yoongi had wanted to go alone, but Jin didn't let him. The two had fought about it for hour before they left the dorm, but now the pale man is grateful for Jin's quiet companionship. The deathly silent neighborhood sends shivers down Yoongi's spine, but his face doesn't give away any emotion. Yoongi gives a short nod in gratitude to his taller companion. Jin smiles weakly and nods back, then turns to look at the building in front of them with a frown.
"This is it?" Jin's voice is hushed, but it sounds abnormally loud in the oddly quiet neighborhood, "I know you described it as awful, but I still expected it to be a little less..."
"Horrid?" Yoongi blatantly offers with a grunt. He is never one to tiptoe around obvious truths, no matter how awful they are, "Pungent? Revolting? Decrepit?"
"Yeah." Jin agrees with all the options, shuddering as a rat scurries across the street and under the porch of the house. Yoongi doesn't give the creature a second glance, but Jin steps a little closer to his friend, "Did it always look like this?"
Yoongi shrugs and digs his hands into the front pocket of his sweatshirt.
"Sometimes worse." Yoongi's usually monotone voice brims with anger, and Jin's brows furrow worriedly, "It looks like he cleaned up the lawn, but he probably just threw most of his trash in the backyard."
Jin's eyes scan the neighborhood, uneasy about the sullen silence, but Yoongi's eyes are solely fixed upon the building in front of him. With one last deep breath Yoongi steps forward with Jin close on his heels. The pair trudge down the worn dirt and weeds lawn; Yoongi steps with purpose, his dark eyes sharp as tacks.
Jin warily follows his dongsaeng up the rickety steps of the porch, his much taller form hunched over as he grips Yoongi's arm. Yoongi doesn't notice the new attachment to his left arm as he pounds on the front door without hesitation. Yoongi's heart beats wildly in his chest as he finishes knocking, and his chest tightens in anxiety as they wait for someone to answer the door.
Yoongi knows who he'll have to face in order to win her freedom, and he doesn't know if he's ready to face them. He's seven years older, and seven years wiser, but the scars are still there. And Yoongi knows that they won't even truly fade.
Yoongi frowns when no one comes to open the door, so he knocks again; this time with twice as much force.
"Old man, I know you're in there! Open up!" Yoongi shouts, his scowl growing with every passing second. Jin glances at him with worry, but Yoongi ignores him in favor or yelling some more, "Now! I don't like waiting, and my patience is wearing thin!"
"Fine, fine!" A muffled voice slurs from somewhere inside the structure, "I'm coming ya stupid ******!"
The door swings open with sudden force, and both Jin and Yoongi feel the sudden urge to vomit from the vile smell emanating from inside the house. A short pot-bellied man with a face similar to a bulldog's slouches against the door frame. His cheeks are red from an overabundance of alcohol, and his breath is worse than a dog's. He looks like he could've been handsome decades ago if he wasn't quite so... brutish.
He scowls at the two people on his porch, his awful expression making his horrendous appearance even worse. His dark slanted eyes that are filled with so much hate look exactly like Yoongi's. But Jin isn't surprised.
It is his father, after all.
"Whaddaya want, punk?"The man growls, glaring at Yoongi with a look that would send most people off screaming in fear.
"You know what I want," Yoongi spits right back, his tone venomous. Although Yoongi is much younger and a hundred times more handsome than the man in front of him, he is somehow scarier in every way. Yoongi's glittering eyes promise death if he doesn't get his way, and Jin knows better than to doubt Yoongi's ability to carry out threats.
"I don't have any money, punk." The man drawls, a bit of his beer splashing out of his mug as he drunkenly sways, "You know-"
"I don't need your filthy money, you old drunk." Yoongi snaps, his temper flaring up even more, "Where is she?"
"What, your mother?" The man cackles, his dark eyes murderous, "Don't you remember? She ******* left. She left you. She left me. She left all-"
"No. Where's Byeol?" Yoongi growls, his tone even darker, "Where's my sister?"
"Oh? That little freak?" The man laughs, throwing his head back as if Yoongi had told the joke of the century.
"My sister's not a freak." Yoongi's fists clench in fury, and Jin's eyes widen in apprehension. The man doesn't notice their anger and continues babbling on.
"She never did what I told her to, the little witch." The drunk man complains with a growl, "Just like you and your ****** mother too! Always trying to defend herself. Who did she think she was?"
Yoongi's eyes flash, and Jin's grip on his arm tightens as he holds the younger man back. The words swarm through Yoongi's head as he imagines all of the terrible things the man could've done.
Defend herself from what?
"Did you touch her, you- !"
"Language." Jin mutters in Yoongi's ear.
"If you touched her, I don't care if I get thrown in jail!" Yoongi threatens, his eyes glinting like daggers, "I'll skin you alive!"
On any other day Jin would be scolding Yoongi for saying such things, but today he keeps quiet and simply watches as the younger boy deals with his childhood terror. Yoongi's eyes spark madly as he spits the words, but the man doesn't seem to feel threatened at all. He only laughs mockingly, clutching his stomach as his bellowing laugh echoes across the street.
"I told you she never listened to me," The man shrugs nonchalantly as his laughter tapers off, a wicked smile playing across his lips, "I never got the chance because she always ran off to her room whenever I tried. Freak. Plus, there wasn't much for a real man to appreciate about her anyway. She was too skinny."
"You-!"
"Language!" Jin mutters again, used to Yoongi's usually vile language.
"Where is she!" Yoongi growls, fire burning through his veins. It disgusts him that anyone would say such vulgar things about an innocent girl, but he reins in his anger. He doesn't have time to beat this useless man up. Yoongi's first priority is to get her out of here, "Just answer me already! Where's my Byeol-ah?"
"I don't know." For once, the drunken man's tone is actually filled with the smallest amount of honesty, "I don't have a clue where that useless thing is, and I don't ******* care where she is. End of story."
"What do you mean you don't know?" Yoongi's tone drops an octave, sending chills down Jin's spine. Yoongi's face remains as empty and cold as Antarctica, but his anxiety level raises another notch. His anger fades away in fear. Fear for his younger sibling.
"I mean just that, ya dense *******. I don't know where she is." The man drones, reaching to grab a half-empty beer bottle from off the counter before downing a large amount, "She stayed for a while after you left, always asking about you, and wondering why you'd gone. I got tired of her stupid little questions, so I told her that you'd died. Simple. Easy. She stopped asking questions."
"You told her what?!"
"Yeah, she cried for a couple of days after I told her that. *****." The man guffaws, not at all perturbed by Yoongi's furious tone, "For some reason I don't think that little brat believed me. She stayed for months, always staring at the front door as if you'd walk in at any moment. Truly stupid, she was. Who would come back for a little piece of **** like her anyway? After a while though, she gave up. She left about a year after you did. The little imp ran away; here one day, gone the next. I haven't seen the ugly things in six years, and I couldn't ******* care less."
Six years.
Yoongi can't take it anymore. All the blood drains out of his face as he abruptly turns away from the man of his nightmares, his eyes glassy. The pale rapper walks away from the drunkenly laughing man with Jin following close behind. Yoongi's breaths become erratic as he makes his way back, and he nearly stumbles down the filthy street. Jin rushes after him, gripping the smaller boy's arm to keep him from falling onto the cracked pavement.
"That's right!" The cackling man hollers after them, "Leave like you did the first time, and never come back you ******!"
Yoongi's face turns cold and hard, a perfect mask of no emotion, and he leads his companion out of the neighborhood without so much as a second glance. Yoongi's entire body trembles, but his fierce steps taking them further and further away don't show it. Only Jin can feel the fearful trembling of his usually calm and unemotional member.
Yoongi slows his fiery pace a little once they're out of sight and earshot, but his trembling doesn't stop. He stares blankly at the ground in front of him, his chest tightening painfully.
What have I done?
"I'm sure she's okay, Yoongi-ah," Jin reassures gently, his kind tone as soft as velvet. He smiles at Yoongi, but Yoongi doesn't seem to hear a word he says, "You told me she was smart, and I bet she's safe and sound in a much safer place by now. She knew the dangers of running away just like you did. We'll find her eventually, I'm sure."
"She was..." Yoongi mutters something so quietly that Jin can't hear it. Jin frowns and leans closer as he tries to decipher his friend's muttering.
"Can you repeat that, please?" Jin prompts softly, trying so hard not to set his temperamental friend off.
"She..." Yoongi's voice cracks, and he turns his head away in shame, "She was eleven."
"What?"
"She ran away at eleven." Yoongi whispers, his bangs shielding his eyes from Jin's worried stare, "All by herself. I left her all by herself with that monster when she was only ten!"
"You told me she was witty, and quick on her feet, right?" Jin reminds him softy, "She'll be okay. We'll find her, and she'll be okay."
Both boys fall deep into silence as Jin calls a cab, speaking only to give directions to the dorm. Yoongi's trembling worsens the longer they sit in the vehicle, and Jin's frown deepens as he worriedly watches his companion.
Yoongi has always been the most introverted member. He never likes to show too many emotions, and he especially doesn't like to look weak. Trembling is something Jin has seen him do only a handful of times, and it has always been in the comfort of their own home, where no prying eyes can watch. Yet here Yoongi is now, seemingly oblivious to their cabbie's concerned stares, shaking like a leaf. Jin frowns more.
Yoongi leaps out of the cab the moment it pulls up in front of their dorm, and he races through the front door before Jin has finished unbuckling. Jin hurriedly pays the cabbie before scurrying after his friend, worried out of his mind. Yoongi has always been unstable when he's upset, and there's no telling what he'll do after hearing what might be the worst news of his life.
Jin flies through the open door and into the living room to find all five of the younger members staring wide-eyed at the hall. The sound of a slamming down echoes harshly through the building, making multiple member wince.
Panicked, Jin ignores the bewildered eyes of the younger boys as he sprints past them into the hallway. Jin doesn't notice the others as they quietly follow him. He's focused on rushing through the hallway, his sights set on Yoongi's bedroom. Jin skids to a stop in front of the door, his hand shaking. He raises his hand, but before he can knock the soft sound of Yoongi's desperate sobs startle him.
Yoongi never cries. Never. He hates crying with a passion, and Jin and Namjoon are the only two who have ever seen him cry. But now they can all hear him sobbing through his bedroom door, and they've never felt more heartbroken.
Cue the cliffhanger...
And here we have the beginning of an epic adventure... Prepare yourself for a lot of drama to come! (I even have a few epic plot twists in store! *maniacal laughing in the background*) I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it!
~singformeangel
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