Stigma [Book 1]

Prologue

Flashback

(A/N : for the purpose of the prologue, Taehyung will have his name as Kim Jae Won)

"Catch me if you can loser!"

In a small park in Daegu, 6-year old Kim Jae Won was running through a dusty old playground, free of any other kids. Well of course besides his friends, Kim Seokjin and Min Yoongi.

"Hey that's not fair you get a head start!" yelled Jin. "Besides, how am I supposed to catch you by myself? You act like Yoongi is doing anything?" the eldest yelled, while glaring at Yoongi's direction, who was nonchalantly laying on a bench, dazing at the sky.

"I never said I wanted to play. Leave me alone and go run around or something," groaned Yoongi.

"Aissshhhhhh this little, why did you come outside if you weren't gonna do anything?" snapped Jin. "Were supposed to be a team, but as soon as you find out we have to run to find Jae, you decide it's the best time to nap? You are SO unfair!"

While Jin seemed to continue pointlessly shout at Yoongi, Jae got bored and decided to explore. The park was about 5 minutes away from his home and whenever he had friends over, he always brought them here since it was so secluded and nobody every really used it for anything. It became a hangout spot for the boys whenever they wanted to disconnect themselves from the troubles of the world. The abandoned playground was surrounded by trees, so naturally it was hard to find.

Jae Won began to slowly drift away from the two as he got tired from their bickering. While Jin and Yoongi were his best friends, they sure did seem to argue a lot. Jae sighed as he began to make his way farther and farther away from Jin's yelling, where he passed by various playground equipment that was left behind, such as old jump-ropes and loose pieces of basketball nets. At the edge of the playground was an old swing-set, which used to bear 4 swings but now only one. Whenever Jae Won came to wait for someone or simply came to the park by himself, he would often sit on the swing for long periods of time, enjoying the view or simply basking in his alone time. As he came closer to the swing, a sound startled him as he heard a twig snap from a few feet away. He looked in the direction of the sound and heard it originate from a large bush. Startled he wanted to turn back an call to Jin and Yoongi before investigating. Until...

"Mom... is that you" a young girl's voice whimpered.

Alarmed by the voice, Jae Won quickly ran to the bush. To his surprise, he found a small girl, probably younger than him, sitting crisscross applesauce behind the bush, wearing what appeared to be a schoolgirl's uniform. She had long brown hair and a beautiful face. She smiled at him, which showed her dimples. Jae Won was in awe and quickly began to blush.

"Uhhh-uhmmmm, are you lost?" he nervously questioned. 

"Nope! My mom said she would stand in line to buy me ice cream, but she was taking foreveeeeeeerrrrrrrr! So I decided to take a walk while waiting for her!" the little girl exclaimed.

Based on her accent, Jae Won could tell that she was not from Korea.

"How long have you been walking? Your mom might be worried about you by now... Where did you come from?" he questioned.

Just before she could answer, a pair of footsteps came stomping in the distance, hurriedly, crushing twigs, leaves and all sorts of things on the ground.

"CHOU TZUYU GET YOUR BUTT OVER HERE! IF I HAVE TO SPEND ONE MORE SECOND LOOKING FOR YOU, I WILL MAKE MY WAY HOME WITHOUT YOU!!!!" yelled an older woman's voice.

"Oh there's my mom!" the little girl exclaimed.

Suddenly a tall, slender woman dressed in a business suit emerged from the bushes, looking around frantically, until he eyes landed on the little girl.