{if you don't understand korean/don't know the lyrics to this song (향기만 남아 by 허각 or memory of your scent by huhgak, please look them up. not only are they beautiful, they fit with the theme quite well.
it's a bit funny- around the time i was writing this (which was october) i was kinda obsessed with jeongin's cover of the song, and despite being able to understand the lyrics, i didn't make a connection between jeongin's backstory in this book and the song until tonight, like three months later :P }
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All it takes for your whole life to change is being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Jeongin knew that all too well; he'd known it all his life.
Now, within a matter of minutes, Seungmin would know it, too, though words alone could never convey the real, soul-crushing weight of this realization.
"Mama!" A tiny, fluffy-haired bean of a child whined and tugged at the hem of his mother's long skirt as he begged for another lollipop.
The woman smiled tiredly, telling him for the umpteenth time that he'd already had one and would spoil his dinner if he had another as she clutched two brown paper bags to her chest.
The child directed his attention to the man who walked on his other side."Daddy! Up! Up!" He attached himself to the man's leg, which made it difficult for him to walk.
"Not right now, bud. My hands are full. I'll hold you when we get home, okay?" The child whined, getting fussier with each 'no' he received.
"I told you we should've just driven to the store, hon," the woman laughed. She was more right than she knew. They really should've just driven to the store.
Passing by dark, slightly creepy alleyways was normal for this family of three (one got used to such things after just a few weeks of living in this town), however, seeing feet dragging on the ground, disappearing behind a dumpster in one of those alleyways was not. Silently, the man the child had been clinging to put a warning hand out in front of the woman, telling her to stop walking. The child stopped, too, gazing up at his father in wonder.
The man leaned in and whispered something the child couldn't hear into the woman's ear. She hurriedly set the bags on the sidewalk, and tugged her phone out of her pocket as she drew the child in, tucking him in at her side, protectively.
Pressing her phone to her ear, she backed away while the man approached, stepping into the alley, cautiously peering around the dumpster. That one choice would turn the rest of the small boy's childhood into living hell.
What happened next was not as clearly recalled. What was clearer, in Jeongin's memories, was feeling of panic, chaos, and deep fear, in a mind that was far too small to comprehend any of this.
There was yelling first. The man shrunk back on instinct as he met danger head on, with wide, surprised eyes as he became a witness. Then, there was pleading.
The child heard a grown man whimper, "Please, please help me!", and that was followed by muffled screaming, as if a hand or a cloth had been placed over the whimperer's mouth.
The frightened child began to wail, and he wasn't alone, because sirens began to cry with him off in the distance. Through blurry eyes he saw his father's body stiffen with fear, just before the man began to sprint out of the alley in retreat, and just before the child heard the deafening sound he would come to hate most for the rest of his life.
YOU ARE READING
hold me ♡ minsung
Fanfiction┌── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──┐ lee minho doesn't like to be touched. that's what he says, anyway. han jisung doesn't believe it. └── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──┘
