In His Dreams - JiHope

Don't Cry

Warning - Bad language, emotional abuse and angst

Hoseok opened his eyes. The first thing he noticed was that he was standing, and he can't remember when he stood up. The last thing he remembered was lying on his bed, trying to stop thinking about Jimin crying over that stupid doll, and now he's standing.

And what's stranger is that he was standing in a room that didn't belong to him, a room he didn't recognise at all. He was very sure he had never been to this place before, and he had no memory of how he got there.

He looked around, taking in the details of the room, spotting the thread-bare patches on the furniture, worn spots on the sideboards. There were two doors in the room, one opened onto a hallway and he could see the bottom steps of the stairs, the other opened into a kitchen, and he could hear a woman humming and dishes rattling from that direction.

He took a step towards the kitchen but ran into a barrier, a glass wall stood in front of him, and he was trapped between it and the wall of the house. The wall wasn't tight against his body, there was room for him to stand, and take a step or two before hitting the barrier. Reaching up Hoseok confirmed that it continued far above his head, and turning his head left and right, he could see that it ran down the length of the room.

He was trapped! What's worse was that he was trapped in a room he didn't know, behind an inescapable barrier and he had no idea how he got here.

But strangely he wasn't panicked. He wasn't even worried or upset, he knows that should be freaking out but the whole thing felt a little surreal.

He leaned against the wall of the house, closing his eyes, hoping when he opened them again he would be back in his bed. A thud and a whimper had his eyes flying open. A tiny dark haired child was sitting at the bottom of the stairs, almost in the doorway of the living room. He looked to be maybe 4 years old, still a little clumsy, with roly poly baby fat and big dark eyes that seemed to seemed to fill up his entire face.

From the way he was sitting it looked like he had fallen down the stairs, his leg was already bruising, his foot instantly swelling, and it seemed to be sitting at the wrong angle. The boy was grasping his knees to his chest, whining with each breathe.

Hoseok stared at the kid, wondering vaguely why he wasn't screaming or crying. He watched as the little boy tried to stand up and immediately collapsed as his ankle gave out under him. Finally a single tear rolled down his cheek.

At that moment, a door opened somewhere in the house, and heavy footsteps walked into the hallway. The tiny child flinched, and tried to stand again, trying to move out of the way of whoever was coming into the hall. He made it to his feet wobbling dangerously on his injured leg. The footsteps were getting louder, and a man stopped in front of the boy.

"Are you crying again?" the man growled down at the pre-schooler.

The child winced, "No daddy"

"Are you sure? Because I'm sure I can see a tear on your stupid girly face."

"No daddy, I'm a boy, I don't cry"

"Good – then be a big boy and go and get me a beer from the fridge" the man snapped.

The child swallowed and turned towards the kitchen taking a single step before his injured foot gave out again, forcing the child to the floor with a tiny moan.

"You ARE crying, you brat!" The man leapt to the child, grabbing his arm and forcing him to his feet again.

"Such a whiny baby girl" he held the little boys collar and half shoved, half carried the boy, forcing him to stumble along on his injury

"I don't know how I ended up with such a wimp as my child ," he let go of the boys collar, watching him fall in the doorway of the kitchen " Dammit – STOP CRYING!!!

"You should have been born a girl with all your crying over tiny things....Now get off your useless ass, and get me my goddam beer" he shoved the raven-haired child onto the wood floor of the kitchen with his foot before turning and taking a seat on the couch and switching on the TV. He didn't glance once at the whimpering child behind him.

As Hoseok watched, the child took a deep breathe, and then another. Tears were running down Hoseok's face as he watched the defeat creep across the child's face, and his heart broke when the boy started to crawl across the cold flooring, leaving a trail of blood from his injured knee

When Hobi woke up he was still crying, sobbing in the darkness of his room. He was back in his bed, sweat soaking his pyjamas.

What was that? He asked himself.

Who was that kid? Why was he dreaming about him?

What the fuck was happening right now?

Clutching his pillow to his chest he tried to calm himself. Glancing over to the other side of the room he was actually glad to see that Jimin wasn't sleeping in the room with him.