It was only after 30 minutes that Jungkook could gather himself and leave the rooftop, but class had already began.

His lateness earned him detention for the very first time. Adding to that, his history teacher promised to call his mother and report he had not done his homework.

Jungkook felt miserable for the rest of the day. His eyes were red and puffy, and anyone could almost guess he had been crying.

He had caught Taehyung staring at him when the history teacher had asked everyone without their homework to leave the class. He could have sworn he had seen an iota of guilt on Taehyung's face, but Taehyung had told him he was not going to feel guilty, so he dismissed it. Taehyung was proud himself; of breaking his heart.

After school by 3, he stayed back for detention. So, he had to go home by 4pm with a written letter from the principal for his mother.

At home, Jungkook didn't feel any better. He didn't bother showering. He only changed out of his school uniform and locked himself in his room, crying.

He hadn't had a single thing to eat since the previous afternoon at Jin's place when they had snacked on chocolate waffles while watching their movie. He felt hungry, his stomach grumbled but he couldn't bring himself to eat.

Jungkook drifted off to sleep and woke up when he heard a knock on his door.

"Jungkookie," Namjoon sang from outside his room.

He felt really tempted to ignore Namjoon, and just block his ears with a pillow.

"Jungkook, open up, please. I'm sorry about this morning, yeah?"

Letting out a sigh, Jungkook got out of bed, wiping his face with his shirt before opening the door.

"Hyung," His voice cracked as he leaned against the door frame.

"Did I wake you?"

Jungkook yawned and nodded at the same time.

"What is it with you and sleeping so much these days, are you pregnant or something?" Namjoon teased.

Jungkook didn't find Namjoon funny. He didn't even appear the least bit amused like Namjoon who was grinning from ear to ear.

"Anyways, I found this." Namjoon put up a familiar envelope.

"That's for mum, from my principal."

"I know, I read it. You actually want to give this to her? She's going to kill you if she reads this."

Jungkook stared at the letter, curious at what his principal must have written.

He took the letter from Namjoon and read through. Why was the man reporting him like he was a rebel of some sort? He had been a good boy up until that moment. Not like he wasn't a good boy anymore, but he was going through a really hard time and nobody was understanding him.

"This is only my first time in detention," Jungkook complained.

"You didn't do your homework. You went late to class and does she know you skipped school yesterday?"

"I was sick."

"Still. You know mum, Jungkook."

Jungkook felt his eyes start to water, so he pressed his palm into them.

"What am I going to do then, hyung?"

Namjoon sighed. "Don't worry about it." He took the envelope from Jungkook.

"Are you going to show it to her?"

"What part of 'she'll kill you' didn't you hear? Of course I won't show it to her," Namjoon said, shoving the envelope into his back pocket.

"But her signature."

"Leave that to me." Namjoon winked.

Jungkook trailed a hand through his hair, tiredly.

"Let's eat."

He shook his head. "I don't want to." What he wanted to do was lock himself in his room and cry.

"No, you have to. You didn't eat last night, this morning you only took a sip of your juice and I know you hate your school cafeteria food. So, if I'm correct you haven't eaten in almost a day. Your cheeks are looking sickly sunken. So, come on. Let's eat. I ordered pizza."

Jungkook didn't argue with Namjoon, he knew Namjoon would not let him off like that so he followed Namjoon to the living room where a steaming box of pizza was lying on the coffee table.

They both sat down on the same couch, and ate hungrily while drinking Apple juice and watching Animal Planet.

By 6:30pm their mother got back from work and headed straight to bed. She said she had a shift by 11 and needed to rest until then.

Jungkook fell asleep on the couch and was shooed off to bed by Namjoon by 10.

Once he got to his bed, he lay down and tried going back to sleep but his random insomnia had kicked in, causing him to lay wide awake on his bed for 20 minutes.

Counting down from 100 didn't seem to do the trick as he was constantly distracted by the events of the day. His mind was still trying to come to terms as to why he hadn't heard from Jin, yet. It was causing worry to stir in his body and he was tempted to go visit Jin in his dorm the next day.

He reached for his phone and tried to dial Jin's number.

"Hello?"

Jungkook almost jumped from his bed in happiness, a heavy sigh escaped his mouth.

"Jin hyung, I've been trying to reach you since this morning. What happened to your phone?"

"Ah, I'm sorry, this isn't Jin."

Jungkook frowned. "Sorry?"

"I'm his roommate. Jin traveled this morning to see his family, he must have forgotten his phone."

"He forgot his phone?" How then was he supposed to reach him?

"Yes. Probably when he was rushing for lectures early this morning. He woke up late and packed in a hurry."

"Oh."

"Do you want to leave a message for him?" His roommate asked softly, his voice sounding friendly.

"Uh, no. It's fine. When will he get back?"

"By Saturday."

"Oh." Disappointment was already evident on his face and voice. 3 days without hearing from Jin? How was he going to pull through? That day was bad enough for him, and now he was being crushed with the information Jin had travelled.

"Yeah. Are you sure you don't have any message? You sound a little unsure."

Jungkook forced a small laugh. "No. I'm fine. I was just checking up on him, that's all."

"Okay. If you say so."

"Thank you. Goodnight."

A strained groan escaped Jungkook's mouth as he ended the call. His heart was already hurting, missing Jin's voice, his hugs. How was Jin affecting him so much? His absence seemed to affect Jungkook more than Taehyung's drama earlier in the day.

He had never imagined to feel that way about someone. Whenever he was with Jin, he was able to live, to be happy, to be himself. Everyone he had come across in his life -everyone including his family- always saw him as an introvert, as an innocent, shy teenager.

No one knew the real him.

The real him that loved to laugh and tease, that enjoyed hugs and watching people smile, the real him that just wanted someone who would love him the way he was. The real him that only Jin had seen, that he only wanted to be around Jin. That free as a bird teenage boy; that was someone only Jin could bring out.

Not even any of his exes made him as happy as Jin could. All along he had been nervous, trying to mould himself to be 'the one' for them. He had barely sat down to think and observe who 'the one' was for him. The one that could bring tears of joy to his eyes just by smiling, that could change his mood from sad to happy just by calling his name, that knew when he was sad just by staring into his eyes. Was Jin 'the one' for him?

Jungkook knew he was falling hard for Jin, but did Jin feel the same way about him. Was he thinking about Jungkook too? Was his heart aching and body restless because he hadn't heard from Jungkook all day? Did his body yearn to be close to Jungkook just as Jungkook's body was hungry for Jin's hold?

Sighing, Jungkook sat on the edge of his bed, burying his bowed head in his palms.

He missed Jin so much.

------

"Goodnight, honey."

Jin leaned down to kiss her head, brushing her hair from her forehead. "Night, ma." He ruffled his sister's hair as he passed her. "Goodnight, kiddo."

His younger sister, chayoung, smiled up at him. "Goodnight, oppa."

Jin jogged up the stairs to his room, shutting the door behind him.

He stepped into his extravagantly spacious bedroom, his feet colliding with the soft, cloud rug on the floor.

It felt good to be home for the brief 3 days holiday from school; away from reading, waking up as early as 6; away from the madness in his room; away from the hurt and unappreciation. Just away from Seoul was enough to give him peace of mind.

Seeing his family gave him peace of mind. The peace of mind that he had found 2 years ago in the comfort of the love of his life; Hoseok.

His meeting with Hoseok had been unexpected and coincidental, at some point he had said it was fate.

First, he had sat next to him in his first class on his first day of University. Then they had bumped into each other, spilling coffee on their bodies on the road. After which they both apologized to each other, Hoseok saying it was his fault when it had been Jin who ran out from nowhere. Jin had thought it was sweet of Hoseok to try and take the blame, so he would feel better. So, it had been a thing of excitement when they got paired in the same group for a project.

Their falling in love process had been from the day of the coffee incident. Jin had known he wanted Hoseok to be his when Hoseok had smiled sweetly at him amd patted his shoulder reassuring him that all was well. He fell deeply, crazily in love with Hoseok. He was willing to do any and everything for Hoseok, and Hoseok in turn worshipped him.

Everyone in their classes knew they were together and envied their relationship. Jin had found happiness and peace in Hoseok. He had found forever in his eyes and eternity in his body.

But suddenly, like a quick jolt to the head; like a reset button; Hoseok disappeared. The Hoseok he loved disappeared; the one his family always wanted to have for dinner and on weekends was gone. And a monster came to play.

The Hoseok that surfaced after the 1 month holidays of the previous year, in November, that Hoseok whose eyes were always dark, angry and vengeful was born.

At first, Jin could not understand where the frequent anger was from. Why was Hoseok constantly snapping at the littlest mistakes? Even things not counted as mistakes, just things he didn't like on general, he would get angry at them and begin to break things. He had broken their flat screen television 6 times, all Jin had replaced with a more expensive one. All their kitchen wares, Hoseok would smash with a baseball bat.

He was going to change. It was only a phase, Jin had thought. Hoseok would change, he hoped truly. He believed in Hoseok. He loved him, he was not giving up on him yet. They were going to pull through.

So, whenever Hoseok hurt Jin's feelings or broke something, and he came to apologize, Jin always accepted. He was never mad at Hoseok for longer than when Hoseok came to apologize. He would give him another chance. He had changed, finally.

But he had been wrong. Hoseok never changed, he got worse. He grew angrier, his rage turned to fury and his breakings turned to beatings.

The first time Hoseok had hit Jin was in February of that year. Hoseok had come back from wprk that evening, angry about work. His boss was always shitty towards him and that day, the man had gone overboard and embarrassed him in the presence of customers.

Jin had thought of a way to make him feel better, he had gone to the grocery store to get Hoseok's favorite Vanilla Ice Cream. That would surely cheer him up, he had thought. After the Ice cream, Hoseok didn't look as angry as before, he looked calm. Jin felt all was well again.

Bu what he hadn't known was that mistakingly spilling hot tea on Hoseok would earn a slap to the right cheek.

Yes, the tea was hot.

Yes, a reflex response was expected. Like jumping or screaming or cussing, but not a slap. Jin had stood for minutes trying to comprehend what had happened. Had Hoseok just hit him?

For the first time in his life someone hit him and it was Hoseok, the love of his life. When Hoseok came later that night to apologize, to say sorry, crying and promising never to do that again, Jin accepted.

It was only a mistake. Hoseok was not that kind of person.

Again, he had been wrong. 2 weeks after that, Hoseok slapped him again; this time not once but four time. And when he apologized, crying, Jin accepted his apology. He was finally going to change.

Hoseok changed, indeed. He became a devil. He made Jin into his punching bag and became excessively possessive of Jin. Jin belonged to him. He was Jin's god. Jin could never talk with or contact any boy at all. Jin would never be loved by anyone but him. He was doing all of this just for Jin's good, just so he would be faithful to him. He never meant to hurt Jin. He hoped Jin understood.

Jin understood quite alright. He understood that Hoseok was possessed by an evil spirit. A spirit that always pushed him to be mean, heartless to the one that loved him so much. To cause pain to him and wipe away every form of happiness from his being. That was what Hoseok's spirit was made for.

He wanted to leave Hoseok. But he couldn't bring himself to. He still loved Hoseok. He still believed he could change him. He still didn't know what happened during the holidays that had made Hoseok to become the way he was, but he knew Hoseok was damaged, and he needed him. He couldn't leave him.

He was going to give Hoseok more time. Hoseok was going to change. Soon.

-

A/n: Your guesses in chapter 5 were right. Jin is getting abused by his roommate who also happens to be his boyfriend. I'll be giving more insight on Jin's life with his boyfriend, Hoseok, in the following chapters.

Tell me what you think, guys 💕