LITTLE KITTEN. ✔️ [editing]

76

JIMIN'S LIFE, PRE-ORPHANAGE

"Jimin, wake up!" The child's mother called as she shook the five-year-old violently.

It wasn't the first time she had used force on him unnecessarily and it definitely wasn't unusual for her to scowl at the little boy she no longer called her son, but a heathen and disease she was able to rid her body of.

Now, it wasn't far-fetched to declare Eunju hated Jimin because she wasn't afraid to say so. She made sure the young boy knew it everyday because she didn't want to let him live a good life when she couldn't because her only son was, as she believed, a faggot.

Youngjin walked into Jimin's room. He offered his son a sad gaze before walking up to his wife and giving her upper arms a loving, light squeeze.

"Leave Jimin alone, honey."

"Why do you always do this! He's a faggot! Why should I?" She screamed, shaking her husband's hands off of her.

Youngjin took his wife's hand and turned her around to face him. He rested his hands on her cheeks and ran his thumbs over her soft skin.

"Honey, we already know he's an- an abomination. But shouting at him won't make it go away. Just leave the boy to himself." Youngjin spoke calmly.

Eunju closed her eyes and nodded she opened them and gave her husband a small smile. "Okay. But he gets rice and eggrolls only! I'm not giving a dirty faggot more than it deserves."

Youngjin shivered inside but played her word's off with a light laugh. He knew his eyes lacked the sincerity his false laugh was filled with, he just felt lucky Eunju missed it. He loved her and he wanted to support her.

"Let me talk to him. Okay? You just focus on yourself and getting dressed okay? I know you have a long day ahead of you."

"Too right it is." The woman retorted before she pecked Youngjin's life and left the room.

Youngjin looked around the corner and checked to see if Eunju was there, which she wasn't, and quickly shut the door behind himself. He turned to face his son and immediately, his chest felt heavy with guilt and pain upon his chest which made it suddenly hard to breathe. He drew in a deep breath and held it as he noticed Jimin's eyes begin to water.

Jimin was hugging his knees with his small, chubby face rested upon them. He wore a mask of sadness and his body was shrouded in self-hatred that no person, let alone a child, should have to experience. Being told you're worthless and the scum of the world would take its toll on anyone, but much more a child who was still innocent to the cruelty of the world. With not guide and parental figure, he had no choice but to believe the abusive hate his mother hurled at him everyday.

Youngjin took a few steps towards Jimin, his eyes softening with sadness as he observed how small and helpless his little child looked on his bed. The helplessness he contributed to. Jimin looked up at his father with a look Youngjin couldn't decipher but it as clear what his eyes were saying when the boy suddenly stood from the bed and run to his father, hugging his father's legs as he burying his teary face in them.

"Appa..."

Youngjin lifted up his son and begun to spill his tears of guilt into Jimin's little shoulder as Jimin nuzzled his face into his neck as

"I'm sorry, my son. I'm so sorry Jimin." The father cried through his tears.

Youngjin felt sorry. He was sorry to his son to have a mother who hated his very existence and abused him to no avail. He was sorry to his son to have such a cowardly, spineless man as a father. Everyday it was the same thing; Eunju would abuse Jimin physically and mentally and Youngjin would only stand there and watch, offering his son sad eyes as he allowed Eunju to hurt their son in ways no parent would deem correct nor doable. The only times Youngjin could give his son the love and affection he deserved was when Eunju left him to deal with Jimin after the abuse she would inflict on him, and even then, that was only for at most ten minutes.

Jimin deserved better than himself and Eunju. He knew that much. He didn't even deserve to be called a father. All he ever wanted was to be a father and have a wife he loved and a son he cherished, but that was so much as a dream now. Everyday he watched Eunju hurt their little five-year-old son, his love for her faltered a little. It was his love for her that had him stand by and watch Jimin get abused, it was his love for her that had him pretending to hate his son because he was different from other little boys his age, and he hated himself for it.

"I love you, my son. One day, we'll leave here. Me and you. We'll live happily together away from him and I'll give you everything you deserve okay. Just hold on a little longer. I love you, my little baby."

Unknown to Youngjin, as he was wrapped up in his guilt and his son, Eunju had walked into Jimin's room and watched the heartwarming interaction between father and son. Her stomach churned and her face twisted with disgust. She couldn't lose her husband to a little faggot. She couldn't. He was her husband before anything to Jimin.

That day changed everything. When Youngjin had gone to work, Eunju dressed Jimin and helped him get ready for the day. She was unusually kind to Jimin which had the boy flinching every time she smiled at him or showed him a simple act of human decency. She took him out to the playground and watched him play then brought him an ice cream. All things a mother would do instinctively when they loved their son.

But Eunju was different.

She took Jimin outside an orphanage and bent down to his height, reaching out for his dark brown hair and ruffling it which made the boy flinch hard.

"Jimin. I'm going to leave for a little, okay? While I'm gone I want you to go into that building. If anyone asks you who your parents are or their names, say you don't know. If anyone asks for your name, you say your name is Jimin and only Jimin. Understand?"

"Eomma, why?" The boy asked desparately with an innocent gaze.

"Because I said so!" She whisper-shouted to avoid attracting attention to them. "Appa will come for you soon so just do as I say and he'll come quicker."

Jimin flinched a little before nodding his head same. Eunju smile and leaned into her son.

"Remember, you're nothing but a dirty little faggot who nobody will love. Not me, not Appa and certianly not anyone else. You're a revolting thing that is the dirt under my shoe."

With that being said, Eunju stood and smirked down at Jimin's teary face before turning on her heels and walking away from Jimin. She grinned to herself, glad she was able to rid herself of her burden and keep her husband whom she loved dearly.

Jimin stood there on the pavement, watching his mother leave until she was out of sight. Jimin then walked into the orphanage, doing as his mother instructed and losing his title as Youngjin and Eunju's son and now become just another orphan, victim to the care system.