Jin blamed himself, in a way. If he'd never needed help in that stupid class, then maybe he never would have wound up in this situation. Maybe if he'd told himself that Desung was and always would be off limits, then this wouldn't have happened.

After all, Jin had been the one to need help in the class, not wanting to struggle away at night by himself, spending late nights studying for tests he would most likely fail anyways.

After all, he had been the one to confess to his hyung, shyly telling the man his feelings even though he was perfectly aware that that kind of relationship was neither appropriate nor legal.

It was his fault then.

He must have deserved the things happening to him, there was no way around it. He did it to himself and so he had no right to feel the pain he did, yet he was selfish and did. At the age of fifteen, sixteen, seventeen...he didn't know any better. He had no one to talk to, no one to turn to. He couldn't talk to his foster parents, they wouldn't give two shits.

He couldn't talk to Taehyung, he had to be strong for his little brother. Taehyung looked up to him, and what would his brother think, finding his hyung was trapped in such a horrible and messed up situation that he'd put himself into?

No. He could imagine it, and he wouldn't because he would never talk to Taehyung about something like this, and there was no one else that JIn could even begin to think about being trustworthy and supportive enough to confide in.

So he took it. And took it.

There was no way out for him. Desung had begun to blackmail him, and any love the boy might have had for the man had long since turned into a deep and ugly fear.

He wasn't allowed to eat anything Desung didn't approve. Wasn't allowed to meet anyone knew, talk to anyone knew at all. He wasn't allowed to have friends, wasn't allowed to even look at other guys, even if they were taken already.

Jin was alone, always afraid, and growing weaker by the week, by the day, by the hour, by the minute, by the second. He was breaking. His millions of pieces shattering into trillions. Quadrillions.

Nothing more than specs of dust, easily moved by just a small breath of air.

He was nothing that he used to be. He had lost the life in his eyes, and he was little more than a ghost, moving through the motions of a living person.

Taehyung was the only one who noticed, wondering what was happening to his brother, but not knowing what to do, if he could do something to help the role model he'd always had in life.

He wanted to help, wanted to do something, anything, but everytime he even tried to, Jin would brush him off, tell him to work hard on his studies and then disappear off to somewhere where he couldn't ask anymore questions.

So all he could really do was stand there and watch as his brother withered away like a dying flower, once beautiful...but now holding nothing but death in it's image.

And then one day it all came to an end.

Four years of pure torture, of becoming nothing more than an empty husk, Jin suceeded in doing something. Something small, but something so, so significant.

He graduated.

He graduated, got his diploma and disappeared. He moved to Seoul and went to college, promising Taehyung that he would return to whisk him away from the home they'd been trapped in for so long.

When Taehyung went to school, he met Desung for the first time. The man had smiled at him and asked him for his name, if any of his siblings had gone to school there. Taehyung had nodded, loving how chill and lowkey this new young teacher was, until he told the man Jin's name.

Desung's face had contorted into something dark, and after class that day, he'd attempted to touch Taehyung.

And that was how the boy found out everything his brother had endured. Endured for him.

Just to graduate, Jin had put up with Desung for four years just so he could graduate and get Taehyung out of that house, and never had the boy been so disappointed in himself. He had been too weak to help his brother, too blind to know that something awful had been going on.

Taehyung had confronted his brother that night, and of course the man begged him to stay quiet, not wanting Desung to find him, not wanting the man to disturb what little he'd already managed to regain back of himself.

Taehyung had reluctantly agreed, simply transferring out of the man's homeroom and class, saying that some kid was bullying him and he didn't want to be in the same class and avoided Desung at all costs, making sure he was surrounded by people at all times when he was close to the man's classroom.

And so it was over.

So they thought.

Present ~

Yoongi quietly observed Jin, how the man seemed to be so lost.

He'd finished his work long ago, but had turned to find his lover pale and in another world. Jin had told him of all the abuse, his story, what had happened, but Yoongi was always left wondering who exactly had hurt the man. Who had damaged someone so kind and pure to the point that they thought they deserved it.

Yoongi would kill the man when the day came that Jin finally told him his name.

Yoongi would make sure he rotted in hell.

He would make sure of it.