(Flashback)

Author's POV

"Cheap pay"
Jin mumbled and placed the thin bundle of notes in his back pocket.

"What's the point of saving?"
As a construction worker with no security of regular pay, saving seems like a good option but how can he save money if there isn't any surplus.

"It has always been like this"
Jin thought about his father.
"Since the day he left me, with my empty self"

Jin belonged to a homeless family. His father and he used to live in a makeshift home underneath the bridge with a flowing river and a beautiful view of the rays.

He uplifted his mask and plug in his chewed and dirty earphone in his second-hand phone. He wandered toward his home drowning his surrounding by music and his mind by his memories.

But...

That didn't seem to stay for long.

Crack!!

Jin frantically turned around when his earplugs detached from his ears and his phone fell from his hand.

He downed his gaze at the broken screen of the phone which was due to someone bumping into him.

His eyes fell on the pair of shoes which were standing a few inches away. He hoisted his eyes to stare at the person.

A boy in school uniform was standing near his phone. His face didn't show any emotions. His eyes went toward the phone and then on the man (who was intensity starting at him). He bowed and went toward his way.

Jin signed and picked up his phone.
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It has been weeks but Jin couldn't forget about that tiniest incident. Aside from the fact that almost all his pay got wasted in replaying the screen, there was something in his heart which wasn't settling. And it was the rude boy who didn't even say sorry or give him money for fixing up his phone.

It was almost Evening and the construction worker was walking home when he heard loud laughing noises from the playground which he was crossing by.

"Yaaaa, don't you got a tongue, say something!"
A schoolboy shouted at the kneeling boy.

"He never speaks anything"
Another boy said as he brought a bucket full of something.

Jin immediately got an idea of the situation. These two schoolboys were bullying their classmate.

"Useless deaf!!"
The one with a loud voice lifted the victim's head shouting directly at his face.

Jin instantly recognised the suffering boy.
'Isn't he the boy who broke my phone'
He thought while waiting to see what the bullies were gonna do.

One of the boys threw a bucket of mud water at his poor classmate. Which made both the bullies laugh like hyenas.

"Hey, lets record it!"
One of them suggested and the other followed instantly started making a video from his phone.

"Yaaa, say something you deaf"
The one without the phone gripped the victim's hair and lifted his head.
"You want me to duck your head inside water. Then you will speak"

"Yaa that's too much"
The one recording said and shove the phone into the sufferer's face.

"It doesn't matter. He will never tell it to his teacher or parents"
Both the bullies giggled.

"Say thank you, You bored face"
The boy rapidly moved the head but the kneeling boy didn't utter a word nor did his expression changed to pain or anger.

"Aish, let's go, dude"
The recording one said getting bored from the apathetic boy.

The other bully nodded and grabbed some dirt in his hand.
"You should be happy that we even hang out with you, freak!"
He said and rubbed the dirt all over the victim's wet face and hair.

Both the boys clicked some photos, all while laughing like idiots.

Jin watched the whole scene getting unfolded in front of his eyes. He took out his phone and clicked on the camera app.

He zoomed in and clicked the photo of the dirt cover kneeling boy and went back to his way.

When he got some distance from the ground. He opened up his gallery and stare at the photo. His finger loomed voluntarily on the delete option.

~~~

(Present)

"What I felt that day wasn't pity nor the need to help you. Nothing like that"
Jin said. While the teenager stared intensely.

"You didn't even try to stand up, you were indifferent to everything, including yourself. It was like as If I was looking at my own stalled life. I..........."
Jin lowered his gaze and signed before starting back at the boy with same intensity.

"Hated you for that reason"
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(Flashback)

Jin laid down tiredly. His body ached from the construction work but his mind was still scratching somewhere else.

Somehow he couldn't get that boy out of his head. He stood up and went toward his laptop.

He attached his phone to laptop through USB cable and opened the photo folder.

His eyes roamed for a minute on the photo before he clicked print option.

The screech of the printer resonated through the room before the physical form of image was out of the printing box.

Jin took the photo and stick it on the wall near the sunset image.

He stared at it for a minute and moved his fingertip to trace the boys face.

~~~

(Present)

"It's always like this when I find something I hate.
'It's only until I get tired of looking at him. Someday, I'll forget this irritation'"

"That's what I thought"
Jin spoke out.
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(Flashback)

Its has been weeks and Jin couldn't control himself from clicking the photos of the boy, he hated.

He would wait for the boy on his usual route and capture his photos with his old fashion camera.

Sunsets would be his prime time. After the work gets over he would follow the schoolboy everywhere around the area.

Until it was night time and the boy went on his way home and so did the "stalker".

~~~

(Present)

" Forget about the irritation, the photos just went on escalating"
Jin mumbled. Thinking back in the past.
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(Flashback)

"If this doesn't make me a stalker........"
Jin signed to himself glancing at the wall which was half-covered by the photos of the expressionless boy.
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It was like a routine for Jin to follow the boy for a few hours, just snapping his pics. And today was no different.

Jin walked quietly watching the boy from the other side of the river. The schoolboy was lost watching the running flow to notice a stranger on the other side.

Jin took his camera and placed it near his face ready to snap a photo for his collection when he noticed something.

He zoomed a little on the boy's neck which has a small peeking black bruise. Jin was puzzled before zooming the camera on different visible body parts.

There were some bruises on his hand, forehead, neck and face. Some were fading while few look sizzling fresh.

He clicked the photo of every purple, black and red spot. And went on to hide in shadows when the boy started moving.

That night Jin followed the male to his home. He was a little shocked from the rich and respectful area of the town.
'So the boy lives in this resident'
He thought to himself.

He ducked behind a car when the boy stopped in front of a moderate but elegant house.

He unblinkingly watched the boy, who took out a test paper and smiled a little.

The boy opened the door and shouted for his arrival.

"That boy has a family. He is different from me after all"

Jin though. Finally, his irritation can sooth-

Crash!!

Jin jogged closer to the house when he heard a breaking sound. He noticed the curtains being pulled furiously before a muffled voice of a woman boomed from inside.

"Good of nothing!!!"
Those are the words he was able to make out before the angry footsteps were heard stomping on the wooden flooring.

His eyes were wide in realisation. Recalling the bruises and numb eyes of the boy.

~~~
(Present)

"I use to think that your eyes were apathetic but they weren't"
Jin said.

"At that time, I thought, those were the eyes of someone who has nowhere to go and gave up"

"You were observing me?"
Taehyung questioned but the older ignore and continue with his talk.

"I thought you already gave up on everything that you didn't even resist. I thought you were like me, wanting to die but doing nothing for it"
Jin mumbled staring at the wall behind the teenager.

"So you thought that-"
Taehyung spoke out.
"My situation at that time was just like your own life?
That's why you hated me?"

Jin didn't reply. Both the males stayed in eerily silence before the older one broke It.

Jin slowly walked down the stage with Taehyung's eyes following his movement. 

"I wondered If I should just die"
Jin mumbled talking sluggish steps.
"I always use to think, why am I living? For whom I'm living?"

"I couldn't do anything with my life. If I wanted to die so badly then why do I keep living?"

Jin stopped his movement, displaying his back to the younger.
"These questions were always on my mind......"

"However.......to tell you the truth"
Jin confessed.

"The truth?"
Taehyung asked when the older didn't continue talking.

Jim turned around watching the younger with unseen eyes.

"I don't have the courage to kill myself"

"I was the one who could do nothing but talk about dying. "

"I thought you were same as me. I thought that you too were someone who couldn't kill yourself like me"

"Until that time..........."

~~~~

AaaaAaaa!!!!!!
💥HAPPY NEW YEAR💥

Hope you all have a great and wonderful year.❤

Also, do you all like the chapter?

AND YOU GUYS KNOW THAT THIS BOOK WON 2ND PLACE IN SHIP AWARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!❤❤❤❤❤
I can't believe it~~~~

Do you like the new cover? I got it from  kpop_community.