Serendipity {Vmin}

2. The persecute

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Snow started to fall from above.

The Christmas fair’s air smelled like fresh cookies while slow, cosy music filled the streets.
As it became dark, the crowd started to dissolve. Everyone wanted to spend the Christmas Eve at their warm, comfortable home.
Jimin paused for a moment next to the enormous tree at the middle of the square, what was rickety from the loads of decoration. Under the pine, laid a bunch of fake gifts in glittery, fussy packers, with big bows on each of them.
The boy never understood, why people found it good to put fake things under a tree. All the boxes were empty anyway. Quite similar to rich people, really. Just the wrapper.

Jimin hated rich people more than anything. Not only he thought that they were arrogant and empty, but he hated their falseness, what consisted of clothes and jewelry from expensive brands and unaccusable manners.
What made them better than him even a bit? Why did they got to live a life Jimin was never able to? Even the common people, who didn't get the chance to buy anything at the fair got loved ones with them while they took a little walk around, and enjoyed the feeling.

Jimin's eyes landed on a boy from the Estate who was dragged further from the stalls by policemen. At least, not the boy was the only one who had a rough day. The little kid tried to escape from the men's grip, but they didn't let him.
“You have to understand, I didn't try to steal! I was only wandering around!”  Jimin heard, as they went past by him.
The little boy looked up to Jimin, and his face instantly showed that he recognised him, but he knew the rules; he couldn’t ask the older for help, so he let himself to be forced out from the fair.
The kid looked at Jimin for the last time desperately, then disappeared, becoming one with the crowd.

Jimin threw his blue-red gridded scarf around his rosy face, and continued his walk, like nothing happened.
A woman came from the opposite direction with her phone peeking out from her coat’s pocket. She smirked from under her dyed, curly blonde locks when she noticed the boy's gaze on her. Jimin locked eyes with her, then as close as he could he walked past the woman. As the scent of the other's awfully sweet, expensive perfume hit him, he fished out the phone with two of his fingers from her pocket, then as fast as he could he slipped it to his own safety. He even turned back to smile kindly, prevent the other’s suspicion towards his acts. This gesture sometimes caused the exact opposite reaction, but this time the woman just winked at Jimin, before continuing her walk.

After a while, Jimin got bored with walking around pointlessly. He couldn’t find anything interesting. At Christmas it was honestly really tiring to find the right victims. His toes got completely numb, and as he stroked down on his black jeans, his thighs seemed like ice blocks more than human parts.
He only got one last chance, if he didn’t want to wait for the people who attended on the midnight-mass. The Christmas carol.

On every Christmas Eve this play was on at the biggest theatres at the city, and one of these theatres were only a few corners away from the square.
Jimin never saw the play, but Hoseok once brought the script home when he was already the leader among the kids and read it to them for days. Jimin sat between the kids with Jungkook in his lap, having no idea what was the older’s intention with all of this. Jungkook sometimes clapped excitedly at the story’s most interesting parts, but Jimin wasn’t able to concentrate on it properly.

“What is that for?” he asked one day from the elder.
“What?” Hoseok drew his eyebrows together.
“Well, this.” motioned Jimin towards the book, making the other laugh.
“This is a book about the evil realizing; they shouldn’t be evil. It helps the poor, abandoned kids, and the little ones likes to look at the pictures in it. This is a nice story, Jimin. Not everyone has to be grumpy.”
“I don’t understand…”
“You see, the problem is” sighed the boy, knowing that the other won’t understand it anyways “that you and a few others here see the things the way they are. The dirty basement, the cold, the beatings. While I only see that Christmas is coming.”
“Hyung, we don’t celebrate Christmas.”
“You don’t celebrate it. I do. And I want to make others’ life less miserable too. This book was only a few hundred won anyways.”
“You bought this thing?” Jimin’s mouth hung open with a surprised expression.
“I won’t steal from a poor old lady, Jimin.”
“You’re crazy!”
“I’m just normal“ shook his head Hoseok, then went to sleep.