2

"there has to be something we can do. maybe you can tell your aunt, or-"

"it's fine, jimin. just forget about it. i gotta go."

taehyung wasn't really in the mood for school anymore. he had a lot of anxiety and he just wanted the day to be over. the truth was, tae had a secret. he hadn't told anyone the truth about what he was going through and the guilt was eating at him for not telling jimin what was really going on.

jimin knew all about taehyung's past with his parents and how he was no longer living with them. he was under the impression that taehyung was living with his strict aunt, who didn't let him have friends over. what jimin didn't know, was that taehyung wasn't living with his aunt. hell, he didn't even know if he had an aunt. taehyung was living on the streets and sleeping on various park benches around the town. he didn't want to tell jimin because he knew that he would insist on taehyung moving in with him. he couldn't intrude on his and his family's life like that. he already felt like enough of a burden and that would just make it worse.

taehyung wanted nothing more than to leave, but he decided to suffer through the school day, anyways. besides, it's not like he had anywhere else to go.

after three boring classes, it was finally lunchtime. taehyung walked into the cafeteria with his earbuds in. he was wearing black jeans, a white long sleeve t-shirt, a black belt, and some simple black shoes. he didn't have a lot of clothes, so he would end up wearing that same outfit a lot more than he would like. he couldn't afford new clothes, so when taehyung needed something, he would either borrow from jimin, saying that he was bored of his wardrobe, or he would steal. he didn't enjoy stealing. it always left him feeling dirty and guilty, but damn was he good at it. he had never been caught and that was shocking due to all the food he would steal from the gas station.

taehyung stood in the middle of the lunchroom, searching for jimin. he finally saw him waving frantically at him, with a huge smile on his face. taehyung smiled big and started running towards him. he made it half way to the table, when he accidentally ran into someone, landing on the floor. he began to stand up, muttering apologies, with red cheeks. he didn't stop talking until he looked up and met eyes with the one, the only, jeon jungkook.

"you almost made me drop my food, cause you were so excited to go see your little boyfriend," jungkook said, clearly annoyed. "I'm really sorry, jungkook. It won't happen again," taehyung said, with fear.

usually taehyung would fight back, but he was honestly terrified, because the whole lunchroom was watching them.

"you're right. it won't happen again."

with that, jungkook pushed taehyung to the floor, dropping his food all over him, destroying one of the only decent outfits he had.

"whoops," he said with a laugh, walking to find his friends.

the majority of the lunchroom started laughing. tears immediately welling up in taehyung's eyes, desperately trying to hold them in. he pushed the tray off of him and ran out of the lunchroom. he could hear jimin running after him and calling his name, but he continued running through the school halls, tears streaming down his face.

"Taehyung!"

"just leave me alone, jimin," taehyung shouted, wiping the tears from his face.

he ran out of school as fast as he could. he didn't know where he was going, but he knew he couldn't stay there.

after getting his clothes ruined by jungkook, taehyung decided to go to the gas station. it was pretty close to the school, so the walk wasn't very long. once he arrived, he ran to the bathroom. he locked the door and began to rip all his clothes off. standing in front of the mirror, he looked at himself.

"so ugly" he muttered. his hand traced over his face, then down his arms, feeling the cuts in his skin.

he quickly rushed over to his backpack, opening up the front pocket and pulling out his pack of razors. he slid one out and threw the rest of the pack into his bag. holding his breath, he held the razor up to his arm and sliced ​​his skin.

letting out a deep breath, as a few tears escaped his eyes. he felt better. like he could go on. the razor gave him hope. but that hope only lasted a moment. that amazing feeling he got went away instantly.

as soon as the razor left his skin he felt weak, sad, and hopeless. with blood rushing from his new wound, he quickly grabbed some tissue and applied pressure. he sighed, throwing out the tissue, and grabbing his other change of clothes from his bag. taehyung put them on quickly and threw the food-covered outfit into the garbage. grabbing his bag, he walked out of the bathroom. his stomach growled loudly and he realized he hadn't eaten in almost two days. he really didn't want to eat anything, but he knew he had to. preferably he would go two or three days without eating and then he would reward himself with some food. he didn't exactly consider himself anorexic, but he would always get in moods where he would hate himself for eating. him not having any money also contributed to his bad eating habits.

tae pulled out his wallet from his backpack. flipping it open, he saw that he had a few dollars. he had been trying to get a job for a long time, but places weren't hiring him. usually it was because he gave off the 'homeless, dumb kid' vibe and most places didn't trust that he would be a good worker. in order to make money, he would just walk around the town and look for dollars or spare change that people dropped. usually he could find a lot by the local casinos, although it was pretty sketchy, so he didn't like to go there often.

taehyung grabbed an energy drink and a protein bar, and then made his way to the checkout counter.

"just the drink and the protein bar for you?" the man at the counter asked.

"yes, that's all."

"that'll be four sixty-seven."

taehyung opened up his wallet, pulling out the last of his money and handling it to the man.

The cashier handed taehyung some change back. Taehyung thanked the man, grabbed his food and headed out the door.

Taehyung sat down to the nearest benches and started eating. he just hung out for a bit and tried to savor everything that was going into his mouth. once he finished, he cracked open his drink.

"Taehyung?"

taehyung looked up to see jimin.

"jimin? what are you doing here?"

"the real question is, what are you doing here?" jimin asked, sitting down next to him.

"I was just hungry."

"so, you decided to leave school, and go hang out at the gas station?"

"yeah. if my aunt knew i ditched she would kill me," he lied.

there was an awkward moment of silence, until jimin asked the question that has been in his mind all day.

"how are you?"

"I am fine"

"don't lie to me. I can tell you are not fine, look at you."

"thanks" he said sarcastically

"tae, i didn't mean it like that. i'm just worried about you," jimin said, while putting a comforting hand on his back.

"well maybe I'm sick of you worrying about me," taehyung said as he pushed jimin's hand away.

"look, i don't know what's going on with you lately, but that doesn't give you the right to-" taehyung interrupted him.

"you're right. you don't know what's going on with me. so why don't you just leave me alone and let me deal with my own problems."

"because, you're my best friend and i fucking care about you, that's why," jimin said, raising his voice. jimin rarely ever swore, so taehyung knew he was serious.

"you wanna be a good friend? Then give me some fucking space," taehyung said.

"fine."

"fine," taehyung said.

and with that, the most important person in taehyung's life walked away from him.

-

after a long afternoon of walking around and feeling guilty about how he treated jimin, taehyung decided it was time for bed.

he walked over to a nearby bench and pulled a blanket out of his backpack.

using the bag as a pillow, he laid down and tossed the blanket over himself, just as he did every night. he shifted around for about twenty minutes, trying to get comfortable. so many thoughts filled his head as anxiety consumed him.

"what if jimin never talks to me again?"

"what if i get caught stealing food?"

"would i go to jail?"

stop

"this bench is so fucking uncomfortable."

"why does jungkook hate me?" "i just wanna fucking sleep." "i wonder how jimin is right now."

stop

"when i go back to school, will jungkook make fun of me for crying?"

"what's the point of life."

"i should just kill myse-"

"shut the **** up," taehyung yelled, sitting up from the bench, quickly.

his thoughts were spinning so fast, he couldn't control them. his heart was beating rapidly, as he tried to catch his breath.

"i can't do this anymore."

taehyung had reached his breaking point. he couldn't keep going on like that.

stealing food and sleeping on a bench every night wasn't working for him.

he needed to find somewhere to stay.

he decided to go with the only idea he had.

it would be risky and dangerous, but he didn't really have another option. taehyung's plan was to sneak into a huge house and stay in an unused room.

he would have a place to sleep and he would have easy access to food. although tae was very nervous, he decided to go forward with the plan. he grabbed his backpack, threw his blanket inside, and headed to look for the perfect house.

tae was creepily walking around the rich neighborhoods all night, trying to find someone who left their back door unlocked.

-

once morning hit, he only had a few more houses to scope out.

he finally came across this big brown house. there were no cars parked in the front, so he hoped that nobody was home.

he headed to the back door and twisted the knob. to his luck, it opened. he stepped in quietly, looking left and right.

tae tried to go in, but he couldn't move. he was terrified.

"what am i doing?"

"i can't just go stay in someone's house."

that's when tae's mind flashed back to all the restless nights he had.

sleeping on the cold park benches, waking up with migraines, always being so fucking hungry. tae composed himself, walked inside, and shut the door behind him. he slipped off his muddy shoes and held them in his hands, starting to look around the room.

it was a huge living room area with a bar and a long hallway. he quietly walked around, looking for a place to set up camp.

________________________________________________

SEE YA~

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