If there was a contest for the guiltiest pea-brained best friend, Yoongi would have won by a long-shot. He stared back at the brown-haired boy in panic and racked his brain to wonder why he was so stupid. He was Min Yoongi, after all.

Park Jimin - the only person who could make him smile in his past, the boy who would comfort him everyday - was sitting right in front of him in a coffee shop by accident. Huh. A wave of emotion washed over Yoongi as he tore his eyes off of him and pulled his beanie down. 

He could run. He could get up from his chair and run out the door, just like he's been doing for the past years. It was a quicker way to get over troubles and not face them - why go through that pain when he could just get away from it? But Yoongi began to realize that everything he ran from was about to come crashing down anytime soon, and it would be a hard fall.

There was a reason why he forgot Jimin - and it wasn't an accident. Yoongi spent his time trying to forget everything from his childhood, and Jimin just happened to go with it. The fights between his parents that his mother always lost was apparent since the day he was born. The almost no freedoms he had. Being repeatedly beaten by his father and kids around the neighborhood. 

The last straw was when Yoongi's father went too far one day; a few days after Jimin had moved. It was a day that had stained Yoongi's memory and taunted him in his dreams, where he would find himself waking up in the middle of the night crying or screaming. 

It was the day that Yoongi felt like giving up.

  Yoongi quickly walked home from school, his heavy backpack in tow and uniform failing to protect him from the cold winds. It was a Friday, which meant spending the next two days with his family - something he never looked forward to. Family time wasn't something that really existed in his household. Yoongi didn't really like weekdays either, since he hated to study and he had no friends to complain to, now that Jimin was somewhere far away. He was alone, and that little ray of sunshine that gave him a reason to smile was now gone.  

He was shuffling his feet and contemplating how to fix his life, when suddenly something hollow hit his head. A plastic bottle clattered on the floor and rolled in circles, just as rowdy laughter bellowed from Yoongi's right. He turned, and three burly boys from school were snickering as the largest walked over to lean over Yoongi, and placed a grubby hand on his shoulder. 

"Hey Yoongi," his breath reeked of cigarette smoke and garlic. "You got any money?"

Yoongi looked down at the floor and shook his head, while trying not to let his voice shake. "No. My parents don't let me carry money." He tried to walk away from the group, but was pulled harshly by the boy and was shoved against a wall. 

"I know you have some money, punk."

Yoongi shrugged. "You can search me if you want. You won't find anything, though."

"What if we do find something, huh?" The boy in a red snap back behind him smirked. "We won't let you go if we do." He cracked his knuckles and walked closer to Yoongi. "Let's not make this difficult."

The big burly kid ripped Yoongi's backpack off his shoulders and tossed it to the kid in the snap back, while shoving Yoongi towards the third boy.

"Search him. If you find anything," he grinned, "then go ahead. We need some sort of stress-reliever after tall of those stupid tests, and we've got one right here. Let's have fun for once, huh?"

Yoongi squirmed as one kid shoved his hands in his pockets and searched for money, while his backpack was being emptied of its contents. Colorful notebooks, pens, and textbooks clattered on the dirtied blacktop, being rummaged through by sly fingers.

Yoongi tried to scream for help, but his voice was muffled when the guy searching his pockets shoved a balled up handkerchief in his mouth. Suddenly the boy in the snap back grabbed a black marker and walked over to Yoongi, who was being held back by strong arms. Yoongi growled meekly as words were being crudely being marked on his forehead, cheeks, and arms, spelling out names that could get himself severely punished by his father. The boy stepped back and began to shake the backpack once more, not before laughing and pinching Yoongi's cheeks.

"I don't see anything yet. You're lucky for now, you little fa-"

To Yoongi's horror, a single coin rolled out of the backpack and spun on the ground, taking its time to dramatically whirl to a stop.

The boy scoffed. He picked up the coin with two fingers and held it in front of Yoongi's eyes, rolling it back and forth as it glinted in the sunlight.

"What's this, huh? No money? You said you had no money, kid." He pulled on a fake frown. "You lied to us, baby. How could you? We trusted you and you lied to us. You're going to have to be punished for being a bad boy, okay?"

"It's just a coin. You can't even buy anythi-" A punch was sent to Yoongi's jaw, where a bruise was beginning to form. A small whimper escaped his lips.

"Aw, the little pretty little thing is crying,"

"What the hell, i'm not even-"

The largest boy kicked Yoongi hard in the stomach, sending him to his knees.

"Sorry, Yoongi hon, this is how the world works," Fake sweetness was tinted in the boy's voice as he grabbed hold of Yoongi and shoved him again a wall, and sent another blow with the others laughing in the background.

This continued for what seemed like forever, where Yoongi was shoved to the ground while the rowdy kids smiled and wore him down to the core.

"J-jimin. . ." Yoongi whispered, while tears began to pool in his eyes and slid to the ground. 

Apparently it was loud enough for the kids to hear, and the one in the snap back smirked. "Your boyfriend isn't here to save you now, punk." He crouched down to speak in Yoongi's ear. "He's gone." 

Yoongi let out a scream of frustration as the boys rose and dusted themselves off. 

"Come on, I think we've had enough for a day. I'm in the mood for a root beer float. Let's go, guys." He yawned and stretched while walking out the alley in his clunky sneakers, with the other two followed mindlessly followed behind after winking at Yoongi.

It was after he couldn't hear their footsteps or their loud guffawing that Yoongi attempted to get up from the fetal position he was laying in. The empty streets spoke no words of comfort as Yoongi cried and rolled over to sit upright and inspected his injuries. 

They were mostly bruises or scrapes that were slightly bleeding, and his back ached as if an elephant had been stepping on him. It actually wasn't too far from the truth. The only visible wounds were bruises on his cheeks and a scrape along the side his neck from where someone's had kicked him, which his father would question when he reached home.

 For now, Yoongi wiped any blood off by using water from his bottle, and forced himself to get up and shoved his supplies back into his backpack. He didn't realize that he was crying or that his thoughts kept wandering to Jimin; wishing that he was here by his side to give him a hug and Yoongi could melt in his arms, but there was no chance of that happening.

Yoongi slung his back pack over his shoulder and trudged home where he thought he could hide in his room, patch up, and take a long nap while listening to comforting music without any disturbance from anyone and at least a couple of hours of peace. But he was wrong.