1
Jimin was crying.
It is not the most dignified way to start telling his story but it was at that unfortunate moment of his life that it all began. Or it's over. As you can see.
So, Jimin cried. He sipped the snot and pride inside, so strong that they were going to reach his brain. He walked alone as he returned to the student residence through the dark streets of the city.
Classes had started just two weeks ago so all the newcomers knew each other and had parties, taking advantage of the fact that they were still very far from the terrifying Month of official exams. Like every first-year student, Jimin had been invited by a senior to one of the many parties in the many fraternities. And as a good first-year student, he had been teased. Of course he didn't know when that popular boy with black hair and a calm attitude invited him and he accepted with a smile. Not when he spent more than half an hour choosing what to wear so as not to look like a weirdo or when, excited, he get there just at the right time.
He knew it exactly when he saw "his friend" accepting someone else's money.
"Did that fool really think he would come to one of our parties?"
"Where did you get it from? Youngmin"
"You owe me two thousand, my friend
A joke. Take the most clown you can find and invite him to laugh for a while, whoever brings the most pathetic wins. That's how Jimin had been a jester in a kind of "idiot dinner" with those high school boys.
As anyone would do as soon as he noticed, he got out of there. His new life couldn't start worse.
He had spent all his childhood and adolescence in the shadow of his best friend in town; Jackson. And his good when he found out that they would not go to the same university his world fell broken at his feet, with the passing of the summer he had become aware that it would not be bad to raise his head and take flight on his own. But it had gone miserably wrong. Now his friend's voice was repeated in his head as if it were a fatal schizophrenia.
"They will try to make fun of you, Jimin. Don't let them do it. Don't let them do it. Don't trust the kids in the cities... they won't want to do you any good. You're a soft, don't forget."
As he repeated to him that he was right. He was always right. In those moments, Jimin had no choice but to accept it and continue slurping his snot.
So when he thought his night didn't get any worse, he heard the engine of a car slow down next to him. There was absolutely no one on the street at that time. So yes, a car stopped for him.
Without even looking at a joke, quickened his steps while the car was still circulating next to him. The co-pilot's window went down. Music and laughter of boys came from inside.
"Not now, please..." Jimin said, trying to wipe the last tears from his face.
"Hey, you!" They called him but he didn't turn around.
"Get down to the music that doesn't hear me" protested the voice to someone inside the car.
"You, dwarf. Wait, wait, wait!"
Jimin assumed that he couldn't go anywhere and stopped in his tracks. If they wanted to laugh more or even steal from him, he wouldn't be able to avoid it, so the best thing would be for it to happen quickly.
"Hey... Do you know how to get to...? Are you crying? Did your girlfriend break up you?" asked the co-pilot, a brown-haired boy, although he wasn't sure because of the little light there was.
Behind was one with white hair, or so he thought, and behind the wheel another one with black hair but with a slapped smile.
"Taehyung, leave him alone" said the one in the back.
"I'm just asking, it's not normal for him to be here alone"
"Boy, we're sorry that your girlfriend has left you but we need you to tell us how to get to the student residence" said the driver with a tone that didn't seem to "feel" very much.
"Jungkook, don't be insensitive"
Jimin scanned them. The course was already beginning. How could they not know where the residence was at this point? He wondered if they weren't students. He looked at the car better; it was black, neither too expensive nor too cheap and he couldn't say much more.
"Insensitive why?" protested the driver.
"Have you never been left or what?" Start, he won't tell us anything.
"There's no one else around here and..."
"No... no one has left me"
Jimin finally opened his mouth, tired of hearing the rhombus inside the car.
"And why are you crying?" asked the co-pilot.
Hobi ignored that cheeky question from his friend, peeked between the front seats and went to Jimin.
"Stop talking stupid things, could you tell us where the residence is? Please"
"Yes, in fact I'm going there" he replied with the utmost frankness. He would have liked to lie and get rid of them but he was too nervous.
"Perfect. Go up then"
No. He wasn't going to get in the car of some strangers, that's how everyone starts the movies about murders. He thought it would be better to give them the instructions and each one who went their own way.
"It's straight ahead, then to the right twice and when you arrive..."
"Look," said the driver, that Jungkook guy. "We're a little drunk for so many indications. Hobi will make room for you back here, he promises not to get his hands on you, ¿okay?
Hobi rolled his eyes.
Ah, they were drunk, much safer then that he wasn't going to go up.
"I'm sorry, I don't..."
"What's your name?" Taehyung interrupted, peeking out the window.
He had his hands resting on the glass and half his body out of th e car. Now his expression was totally different, more serious.
"Ah... Park Jimin"
"Jimin," he interrupted again. "We can't give you details but it's very urgent that we get to the student residence as soon as possible or something horrible will happen to someone... please"
Jungkook looked at Hobi in the rear-view mirror and they laughed at each other. Jimin didn't manage to see him because he was still hypnotized by the ridic ulously big eyes that the co-pilot was putting on.
He seemed sincere and anguished. Something serious could happen to someone. Was it that important? For a moment I forget that if he went up "something bad" it could happen to him and with the confidence of a village boy who accompanied him without further ado he got in the car.
"With a van and candy it would be even easier" Hobi commented sarcastically. Jungkook giggled again.
*
Jimin felt smaller than he already was and for a while even of himself when he found himself in such an unknown situation, but those three talked as if it were usual for them to get strangers into a car.
"I'm Hoseok," his seat companion greeted him. "The one who sticks his head out the window like a dog is Taehyung and the taxi driver is Jungkook.
"If I'm a "taxi driver," does it mean they're going to pay me for the trip?"
"¿What do you think if I pay you in the flesh?" Taehyung joked, faking a seductive tone.
"And it sounds tempting..."
Hoseok looked at them a little badly, just a little, those idiots always had to make a fool of themselves. But because of what Jimin was going through there in the middle. The trip was short; luckily. They arrived in front of the building, white and only three floors, but illuminated from the bottom up to make it look bigger. As Jimin wanted at that moment to look bigger too.
They had to ring the doorbell to be opened since at that time only the janitor was at the checkpoint. Jimin took out his resident pass.
"What about the three of you? Where are they going?" he asked grumpyly. "No one who is not a resident is allowed to enter after ten" the clock pointed out, it was half past eleven.
"Our friend was left by his girlfriend" Jungkook said, running an arm over Jimin's shoulders. With all the confidence.
"Yes, look at his face," Taehyung said. "We just want to accompany him to his room. Kiss on the forehead and go to sleep. Then we'll leave."
The sworn guard raised an eyebrow. The truth is that the boy had a bad face but something didn't fit him.
"Are they your friends?"
For a moment Jimin felt chills. Of course they weren't, nor did I really know why they wanted to enter. What if they were going to do some evil? He was putting them in... Jungkook made greater pressure with his grip and disguised a laugh very badly.
"Yes, they are... my friends"
"Ok then. Ten minutes. If they don't come down, I'll go get them..."
To ear that last probably reassured Jimin who somehow felt kidnapped. At a brisk pace, the four of them got into the elevator.
