HEARTBEAT | VKOOK - Chapter 7: Chapter 7

Jeongguk watched the male's retreating back disappear into the black car before driving away. A sigh escaped his lips as he glanced down at the concrete ground, hands placed flat on the ground to support him since he was too vulnerable to get up at the moment. He was glad he wasn't arrested like he had expected. That would be the last thing he wanted after achieving the freedom he never had in years.
The guards had left shortly after the CEO, the black cars trailing behind the Bugatti on their way back to the mansion.
The red haired male sighed once the car disappeared down the road before turning to look at the boy who was kneeling with his body hunched on the ground, hands supporting his weight.
The red haired male eyed him for a brief moment before deciding to approach him. He crouched in front of the boy and analysed his face, bangs falling over his eyes and covering his celestial gingerbread colored eyes. "Hey."
The aforementioned boy looked up at the unknown male crouching in front of him, offering him a soft smile, "I'm Hoseok, what's your name?"
"J-Jeongguk." The younger mumbled, staring into his eyes through the bangs covering his eyes. A smile grew on Hoseok's face once he acknowledged the innocent features of the boy, "Nice to meet you, Jeongguk. I'm sorry about my friend, he's actually an asshole sometimes."
"It's okay." Jeongguk muttered softly, dropping his gaze to the ground as a sad look flashed in his eyes. The male, or apparently, Taehyung was really protective over his son. He literally punched him after knowing that he dared to take away his child when in reality, it was anything but that.
However, his own dad, gave no fucks about his well-being, rather he kicked him out like a peice of crap. Now, he had nowhere to go, nowhere to be safe. He belonged nowhere, nobody wanted to put up with such a pathetic human being like him.
A small smile spread over his lips despite all the bad thoughts clouding his mind. He was happy for Minjun, he had a loving dad who actually cared about him rather than leaving him alone and treating him like a peice of shit. He was happy he wasn't as unfortunate as him.
"You seem injured, are you okay? Do you wanna go to the hospital?" Hoseok queried, a concerned look embedding on his bright features as he eyed the boy's wounded arms and bandages. Jeongguk snapped out of his daze at the older male's questions and looked up, meeting his gaze.
"I—" Jeongguk was interrupted by the mint haired male who had been watching the whole scene unfold between them with an amused look, "We should leave now, Hobi. We can't just waste our time on him." He stated, arms crossed over his chest, face stone-cold with a glint of hostility in his eyes. His gaze was fixated on Hoseok, completely ignoring the other male's existence as if he meant nothing.
"Don't be a meanie." Hoseok scolded, brows creasing to a frown as he pursed his lips. He then turned to look at the younger with a soft smile, "Let me introduce you to him, he's Yoongi, the head officer of our department.
He's a bit shy when meeting new people and has a grumpy face but he's really nice. Just buy him cookies and compliment him and he'll be satisfied for the rest of the day. He likes it when people praise him."
"Yah! Hobi-ah! Let's go already!" Yoongi grabbed the red haired male by the arm and dragged him away from Jeongguk, cheeks burning as a flustered look made its way on his face.
Once they reached their car, Hoseok snapped his head towards Jeongguk and yelled, "It was nice meeting you Jeongguk-ah! I hope we'll meet again!" Before disappearing inside the car and driving off.
Jeongguk sighed, getting up slowly, and hissing when an awful pain shot up through his back, the pain of the scars and wounds left by his dad, a horrible memory he'll never be able to erase.
His arms hurt too, due to the fact that the guards had practically dug their nails into his arms by holding him back when he wasn't even planning on doing anything on the first place.
Perhaps it was a thing of the wealthy people, to accuse a person for their pure actions and then turn away when its proved wrong, just like that, without an apology for the offensive behaviour.
Since childhood, he had always known that wealthy people were arrogant. They were never kind. They despised the people who weren't up to their expectations. The could purchase anyone with their money. Anyone can easily be manipulated by money. It's what turns them greedy for more and makes them forget about humanity.
No wonder he punched me then acted as if nothing happened. As if he didn't just accuse me of kidnapping his goddamn child.
Hell I didn't even know Minjun had a dad on the first place! Who the hell leaves their child alone at a park and leaves for work anyway?
He cursed under his breath as he attempted to stand back on his feet, excruciating pain shooting up his legs and spreading through his whole body, making him wobble in his steps and tremble violently.
He couldn't even stand, what a pathetic being. He was too vulnerable and that's what he despised. Maybe the universe was totally against him and his happiness, perhaps he committed a sin in the past to deserve such a miserable life.
Home. He placed his hands over the wall of a cafè building beside him, attempting to support himself. I've nowhere to go now.
An inaudible sigh escaped his parted rosy lips as he began to walk, dragging his hands over the dirty wall. He had no place in mind to head to. However, he kept walking wherever his legs were taking him.
His mind sank into his thoughts, all the thoughts he had once buried deep inside now popping up in his head which gave him the last thing he wanted, a headache.
It was sunset and the sky was a beautiful hue of orange and yellow with splashes of red. A small smile grew on his lips at the sight of the sky, he truly loved sunsets.
It was something that calmed him and made him feel at ease when the sadness drowned him. Jeongguk scrunched his nose a bit before looking away as he continued walking where his legs dragged him, towards the direction of the park.
His eyes fell over a group of children running around with a playful smile on their faces as he entered the park. He then glanced around at the people walking around or sitting on the benches, some staring at him with curious eyes while others were minding their own business.
Jeongguk then dropped his gaze to the floor, ashamed of himself. The unnecessary attention made him feel embarrassed and ashamed, he probably looked like shit, a broke boy all beaten up and filthy. No wonder they were disgusted by the unpleasant sight of the boy as his eyes met the gaze of an old woman who gave him a look of disgust.
He looked away with a blank expression and limped towards a lonely bench in the distance, surrounded by trees. Taking a seat, he leaned back and gazed up at the sky, parting his lips slightly as soft breaths left his pink lips. A tiny drop of water fell over his right cheek, making him flinch for a bit moment before realizing that it was drizzling. As though his day couldn't get any worse.
He just prayed that it wouldn't rain anytime soon as he gazed at the sky that now got darker by the clouds.
However, as always, luck was never by his side.
It began pouring heavily, huge drops of water now hitting his face and drenching his clothes as he closed his eyes, releasing a defeated sigh. He could hear the distant voices of people yelling for their children to come back to them in the background as the soft thuds of heavy rain drops hitting the ground hastily filled his ears.
Guess I'll just have to stay here for now. He thought to himself as he flickered his eyes open and lifted his head from the bench, glancing around at the now desolate park, not a single being in sight as people hurried to their homes in order to not get drenched by the rain.
Jeongguk slumped back in his seat and closed his eyes again, allowing the rain drops to hit his face as goosebumps rose on his arms at the cold breeze that swept past him.
At this point, he was too exhausted to cry over his miserable fate, he was too used to being hated by people for his pitiful life. Being born into this world was his mistake, he was a curse to his parents and having him as their child was a losing game. He was absolutely unwanted.
Having nowhere else to go, he decided to stay out in the rain, feeling the drops hitting his body in a haste, and although he clearly knew he'd be catching a cold the next morning, it's not like he had a choice.
If the universe wanted him to suffer terribly till he begged for death (which he already does almost every single day, yet never gets an easy death), he had no other choice but to grasp what life throws at him. Perhaps, if he suffered a lot more, he'd be near death soon.
He had lost count of the number times he attempted to commit suicide. However, all his attempts went in vain as life completely stood against his will of death. All his attempts were weak as his dad would say. He was nothing but a weakling who never had the guts to commit suicide.
He attempted to slit his wrist, and fainted however, woke up the next day with his best friend scolding him to never try that again. The entire morning consisted of a long unnecessary lecture that gave him a terrible headache for the rest of the day.
Yes, he forgot to mention that he had a certain someone who always had his back in the worst of times. I guess, life isn't so awful for him to grant a best friend. However, it surely granted him the most annoying person he had ever known.
The one and only person who kept him going with his so-called motivational speeches of life and healing him every other day he tried it again, always sneaking into his house through the window to check on him at night without him knowing, the one he began acknowledging as his only hope in the dark, Park Jimin.
He had met this extremely adorable and cheerful angel from heaven, at a cafè when he first attempted to search for a normal job, instead of working at a strip club he despised. It began with him exiting the cafè with a defeated sigh after he was declined to do the job since he wasn't up to their worker's expectations.
He was walking all alone down the streets of Seoul in the evening when suddenly someone tapped him on the shoulder softly, attempting to gain his attention which they successfully did.
He turned to see the boy, who was staring at him whilst sipping on his coffee at one of the tables in the distance. He gave him a baffled look whereas, the other judt offered him a smile, his eyes disappearing and turning into small crescents as he slipped his hands into the pockets of his hoodie.
It began with a small conversation of introductions which gradually grew into a conversation of interests before turning to a long term friendship. Although he never told Jimin about his miserable life, he somehow discovered it on his own by suspecting the bruises covering his arms and face almost every day.
Jeongguk never knew how the boy did it, how he knew almost everything about his life without him ever recalling saying such things to him. He was even more astonished when Jimin stated the date of his mom's death, and how it all happened. Although he tried asking a million times about how he does it, he never got an answer to his questions since Jimin would mostly change the topics or just say, "I have my own ways."
He had lost the count of the number of times Jimin had tried to convince him to run away with him, however, his plans were a failure because of his dad.
The moment his dad knew that Jeongguk was contacting someone, he immidiately closed the connections with him, by beating him up terribly that day as a lesson to never talk to that boy again. He also locked the doors and windows almost everyday at night since then so that the boy would never get a chance to sneak into his house.
Jeongguk was given curfews at home to be on the exact time right after his work at the god forsaken strip club. There were times he couldn't talk to Jimin because of his dad, however, Jimin always had his own ways to talk to the boy.
That's how their friendship grew in the past three years, now being an unbreakable bond between the two. A bond both of them never expected and now, couldn't deny. Jeongguk, never once in his life thought that he could make a friend, since he was nothing, but a mere boy from a destitute family.
However, his life granting him Jimin was the best thing to ever happen to him. Now their friendship grew so much in the years that they were almost absolutely inseparable.
Perhaps it was fate when all of a sudden, the rain drops stopped hitting him, although he could hear the distant sound of the drops hitting the ground, creating puddles here and there. A small frown settled on Jeongguk's face as he flickered his eyes open to look around, wondering if it stopped raining.
However, his frown crumbled to a puzzled look once he noticed a person— or more specifically, a man standing beside him- wearing all black with a black mask hiding his face, hand holding an umbrella over his head that prevented the rain drops from hitting his body, while the other was slipped into the pocket of his coat. His dark brown eyes pierced right into his ebony eyes with an unfathomable expression.