Date: October 14th
Time: 9:15am
Location: Home, the kitchen table
Mood: So confused. So very, very confused.
<><><>

Life was not kind to Y/n and never had been.

At six the man who she had grown up with, looked up to and adored, abandoned his family, leaving her and her brother without a dad and her mom without a husband or best friend.

At seven she became so bashful and once fainted when having to read a finished report in front of her entire classroom.

At eight she'd broken both ankles when she became convinced that she could fly away if she jumped from a high enough distance—that being the roof of her dad's garage.

At nine she realized where meat came from. After crying for three weeks the decision to never eat an animal again had been an easy one, and one that she swore to never go back on.

At twelve she'd developed her first crush, and nearly died from overworking her heart every time he came near. After she had been admiring him for more than two years, she heard him call her a loser and her first love came to a sad end.

At fourteen she came down with bronchitis, ignored it forever as she tended to do whenever she became sick, and left untreated it had turned into pneumonia, which had very nearly killed her.

At sixteen she'd been hit with her second crush. Jackson. His family had moved in across the hall in their apartment building and he was everything her teenage heart couldn't handle. Never treated her different, even though she was definitely different. He always had a smile and kind word for her and he smelled really nice. Then the next year he'd moved on to a college far from home and she hadn't seen him since.

Now at nineteen she was still terrified of society, her birth father remained AWOL, her self confidence was all but nonexistent and to top it all off, she had a stalker.

At first she thought he was simply a strange guy and they'd shared an odd experience. Maybe-hopefully-she would never see him again when he came off of whatever drug he was obviously on. Sure he was weird, sure she felt more on edge last night on the way home, as if someone was watching her every step of the way. Those were normal feelings—for her anyway. To someone who hated catching anyone's attention, it always felt as though there were eyes on her.

This, however, was not normal.

Nine am on a Sunday morning, this tiny blond man should not be standing in her kitchen with the biggest eye smile she'd ever seen.

"His dad and I went to school together." Her step father explained, as if that was any excuse for why this tiny man was now in their kitchen.

Exactly five minutes ago her mom had called her out of bed to join them for breakfast. So with an unwashed face and mouth, and no bra or socks here she was, thinking she was safe in her own house in the early morning. But no, life was not kind to her and it wasn't about to let anyone forget it.

At least she had the forethought to put on an over sized hoodie, a bright pink, sparkly affair decorated with a unicorn's horn on the hood. It had been a parting gift from Jackson. Normally she'd never wear such a thing, as it drew too much attention, but since it was from him it was now considered sacred.

In reality, it did nothing to shield her from those eyes shaped like half moons or that bright smile with a single crooked tooth. It did nothing to make her feel less exposed in the one place she was supposed to feel safe.

Why was he here?

"He went out of town for a night and asked if he could stay with us." Her dad moved on to explain as though her thoughts were on display. "We've got a spare bedroom so I couldn't say no."

Yes, you could have. Y/n thought desperately. From the corner of her eye she could see her mother's head turned in her direction, worry evident on her face, probably already knowing how uncomfortable she was with this situation. But her step dad's heart was always compassionate and he would help people, even if he hurt himself in the process. It was the main thing she admired about him and wanted to emulate in her own life, and the one thing she hated him for right now.

Seo-Joon, her older brother, sitting next to her had yet to take his eyes off of the new addition to the house, his face suspicious as he scrutinized him from head to toe.

"One rule." He spoke up without looking in any direction other than Jimin's. Feeling his gaze, the blond finally looked away from Y/n to regard Seo-Joon. Then Seo-Joon smiled, but his eyes were dangerous. "Don't touch my sister." he nodded to where she sat, trying to shrink into her hoodie because she already knew where he was heading. "She's my baby sister. So if you touch her, or even look at her funny-" his eyes flashed while his voice dropped ominously, "I will strangle you with your own intestines."

All this said with a smile on his face. Seo-Joon was never scary, not until it came to her. And when it came to his little sister, he was psychotically overprotective.

The kitchen rang in silence, the only sound to break it being the toddler Rosie's incoherent babbling as she stuffed her mouth with strawberries.

Finally their father clapped Jimin on the shoulder as though his stepson didn't just threaten his life, and then invited him to join the family for breakfast, because this was totally normal.

Yes, normal. That's exactly the word to describe all of this. Sitting around, having breakfast. Y/n, her parents, her crazy older brother, little sister and her stalker, just hanging out eating waffles.

...Now go back and read that in a sarcastic tone.

Sarcasm aside, this seemed all good and natural to her dad as he jovially shoveled food onto Jimin's plate and asked him about his life.

"Your dad tells me you're attending the police academy. What year are you?"

"I'm in my second year, sir." Jimin politely replied, his eyes now carefully avoided Y/n so she was at least thankful to her brother for that.

The middle aged man's mouth formed an 'o' of understanding before he turned his gaze to Y/n, pride shining evident in his features. "That makes you two the same age, then. Y/n should be in her second year, but our half-pint is so smart she skipped the tenth grade so she's ahead a year."

Momentarily forgetting the threat on his life, Jimin's attention made it's way back to her, eyes wide in admiration.

Was her family trying to embarrass her to death? It wasn't because she was smart. It was because she had zero social life and nothing better to do than study all day. Face burning, she kept it as low to the plate of waffles as she could get without actually touching it and wished she could melt into the floor right about now.

Why was life so mean to Y/n?

"Unnie!" Rosie, her two-year-old half sister suddenly shouted out for her, her little hand holding onto her baby spoon waving in the air.

Rosie had been a surprise, but a welcomed one. When their mother re-married three years post abandonment, they'd decided to settle with the two kids she'd already brought into the world. The adjustment hadn't been easy, mainly due to Y/n and Seo-Joon's distrust of any father figure. It had taken longer than it should have for all of them to get used to the idea, and in the end what had brought them all together had been Rosie.

"Unnie gesh what!" Rosie squealed and kicked her legs a little as she squirmed in excitement. "I sawa pwincess!"

"Y-you saw a princess? Where?"

"At da weshwant."

"The restaurant?" She inquired, hoping she was interpreting the toddler babble correctly.

"Ahuh!" Her head nodded in excitement. "But she go to winta fell."

She looked to her mother in question and she explained that Rosie mistook the hostess at Chili's for a princess, but that the worker had been nice enough to play along.

Definitely a good thing because if anyone were ever mean to Rosie, Y/n would need to hire a hit man. And that would be a real problem since speaking to anyone was next to impossible.

"Unnie!" Y/n looked to Rosie to find the little girl offering her spoon with a half eaten strawberry. "Say ah."

Ever since Rosie had learned to talk, Unnie had become the most frequently used word in their household. Her big sister was undoubtedly her favorite person and unbeknownst to her, she had Y/n wrapped around her finger. Nothing and no one could tug on her heart strings the way Rosie could. Rosie was the first person to ever cry when she left, the one who said 'I love you' fifty times a day, the one she could always count on to greet her when she came home and blow her kisses when she had to leave.

All that, and she was the one Y/n could think of on her worst days and feel better. Even if she felt like no one needed her, she could always think of her baby sister and feel some semblance of peace and belonging.

So without complaint she accepted the partially eaten food.

<><><>

10:01am

At this point, Y/n was starting to wonder if her father, and maybe even the rest of her family, were trolling her on purpose. Seo-Joon and her step dad both worked together at the mechanic shop and left the second breakfast was through. Her brother didn't forget to place a hand over the top of her head and send a menacing glare Jimin's way, but that small amount of security she felt with her big brother was gone with the wind as soon as they left.

Without being asked, Y/n scooped up Rosie and darted off to get them both ready for the day, something the toddler was more than happy about. Anything she got to do with her unnie always brightened her spirit. Only after she'd dressed her sister and the little girl had covered them both in Pororo stickers was she able to escape to the bathroom.

The mirror reflected someone much larger than she felt. She was smaller than the average. Even the tiny man Jimin towered at least eight inches (20cm) taller. Yet the desire to be so small that no one would ever be able to see her again was real. On the other hand, being super tall and so muscular and intimidating that no one would ever think of approaching her was also a tantalizing idea.

How on earth was she supposed to live with him? A stranger. Didn't parents teach their children not to talk to strangers? Should she say something to someone? Someone specifically meaning Seo-Joon. He would save her, no doubt, but did she need saving?

As she washed up, her mind was preoccupied with this scary Jimin man and what his end game was. Coming up with a mental list in her head of pros and cons was a given.

Pros: The tiny man hadn't hurt her. He was nice, except for when he growled (that was was still something she had yet to wrap her head around), but she'd only known him for less than a day so that probably didn't hold as much weight.

Try as she might, more pros weren't coming forth.

Cons: He was a stalker.

The con list was shorter than the pro, but the singular point on that inventory was a major.

But then—maybe she was misinterpreting him. It was likely. She made a point of ignoring him, and other people as much as possible. Perhaps he was a normal guy who had a crush on her and was unaware that his actions came off creepy, as opposed to normal.

Maybe.

The door to the bathroom creaked the slightest amount when she opened it just enough to be able to peek out into the hall. Straining her ears, she could make out the sound of clinking dishes from the kitchen, along with the voices of her mother and Jimin in the midst of conversation.

Not knowing why it was necessary, she tiptoed down the hall and into her bedroom, abruptly shutting the door once she had reached her destination.

Even after getting dressed for the day in the biggest sweater she owned, the stalker was still on her mind. Although the last time she had a stomach cramp and googled it, and the search engine had determined that she was either pregnant or dying, she still turned to it now with this question. Was Jimin a stalker?

She typed in the phrase, 'stalker behavior' and her eyes nearly popped out when it came back with nearly two million results. Randomly tapping the first link available, she scrolled down and scanned the results with growing anxiety.

Stalking Sign #1: Lurking Around Your Workplace or Neighborhood
Are you constantly bumping into the same guy after work or at the grocery store?

A gasp escaped before she could stop it. That was it! Clearly he was a lunatic out to get her! Despite the answer to her inquiry being obvious, she continued to read, for some reason hoping that it was all a misunderstanding.

Stalking Sign #2: Watching You

This was a definite.

Stalking Sign #3: Repeated Phone Calls

Feeling grateful that he at least didn't have her phone number, she hardly noticed it at first.

Eight legs. Eight eyes. A hairy body. Forty thousand different poisonous species. And there was one in her bedroom, on the floor, coming right at her.

Spider.

Her biggest fear. They were worse than people. Worse than attention. Worse than a stalker.

It was an automatic reflect, one that she didn't realize was happening until after the fact. Scrambling to stand on the bed and screaming for her brother—the one who always saved her from these eight-legged demons.

"OPPA!!! OPPA HELP!!" After the words came the nonsense—the type that consisted of aimless screaming and begging for the evil entity in her room to go away.

The door flung open so hard that the doorknob slammed into the wall and remained there. On the other side was Jimin. But not Jimin, the tiny, sort of creepy but still sweet and smiling, Jimin. This was a new man. His frame seemed to fill the doorway, eyes so fierce they could cut through lightening scoping the room for the reason of her stress. If looks could kill, the spider would have disintegrated on the spot.

Y/n didn't notice—she was too busy standing on her bed and screaming bloody murder, whilst pointing accusingly at the spider.

Faster than she could see, faster than should have been humanly possible, he was across the bedroom and sending the spider into the next oblivion. He only had to step on it once.

Not stomp thirty six times.

And not with so much aggression that it would make a Pitbull look like a newborn lamb.

And definitely not while telling the arachnid to burn in hell.

When all was said and done, the floor was splattered in blue spider blood, Rosie and her mother were looking on from the doorway, both donning matching shocked expressions, and Jimin was looking to her and asking if she was ok.

But out of everything, the one thing that stood out to Y/n the most was the phone resting on the comforter. Facing up and displaying a startling message.

Stalking Sign #4: "Rescuing" You

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Edited 6/23/22