Serendipity {Vmin}

1. The Thief

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It was Christmas Eve.

Decorated trees, Christmas lights, happy families everywhere, bright music and peace...

Rubbish.

Jimin raised his gloved, shaking hands to his mouth to warm them up – at least a tiny bit – with his breath.
He was out on the streets since early in the morning.
To others, Christmas meant happiness and peace, but for him it was the worst season of the year.
Most people stayed home to watch TV being eased into the cozy holiday-feeling, however, Jimin had to work.

The contrast between him and the rest of the world always showed clearly, but he only felt the gap
amongst the two worlds truly these times. He never asked himself why him, or it was and endless thought in his mind, he didn't know yet either.
The boy got off to walk around the Christmas fair once more, hoping that he will find one last ideal person.

Jimin was a thief.

He didn't remember his parents; he had been an orphan in his whole life. A homeless kid, who grew up amongst gangsters.

In his first memory he was just four years old. The older kids beat him up, because he didn't want to take part of their cruel game where they caught little animals and tortured them. So he became their toy himself. An older kid – Hoseok – saved him. Everyone was scared of that boy, even though he was surprisingly kind in reality. At least, compared to everyone else.

Hoseok's story was unknown, as it wasn't an unusual thing at the Estate. That was the name of the place where they all grew up.
The Estate ran by gangsters, who – for the most parts – stayed out of the dirty jobs, and they resided at their enormous mansions in the heart of the city – leastwise the bosses. The smaller thugs ran the Estate for real. They managed the money matters and ruled the others. Below them were the people who did the physical work. With baseball bats in their hands, they broke into shops, bars, entertainments from where they collected protection money. They gathered the usury and they kept in touch with the organ traders in case one of the cleanses would go bankrupt.

Another one of the system's multiple branches was child smuggling. Beggars, abandoned kids or those whom parents they murdered, the Estate collected them all. They trained the seized kids in the basement of the place. The children had to share clothes, bath and the few mattresses laying on the floor with the purpose of imitating beds.

Living in a basement was stressful, not everyone was able to survive. The place didn't have anything that would heat it up, so the kids' only solution was to find as much thick blankets as they could and they smuggled close to each other at the nights, even if they hated one another. When the cold was unbearable, they got a small heater to not froze to death, or they made fire in an iron garbage in the basement. When it rained the basement's old walls leaked trough, the children's clothes were always wet, they had to be in wet socks and shoes all day. Because of the leaks, the walls were black from the must, and the musty smell filled the room along the cheap weed smell, that become a usual addiction among the kids. With that trick they were able to hold back their hunger, and they could get a hold of it more easily than food.

Jimin got a hang of the method quickly. In the early times he was sick a lot and he was much smaller than the other boys in his age, so he became a target for them. The boys often tried the new tricks they learned on him. Hits, kicks, choking techniques and whatsoever. That made Jimin change too.
Hoseok was eight years old at that time. He didn't belong between the tall, or evil-looking kids, but he could easily beat up anyone. He took Jimin under his wings. Together they turned Jimin's disadvantage – his height – to his benefit. The boy was quick, small and he learned fast.