Jeon Areum's POV

"Holy fuck," Minji, my mum, exhaled deeply. "You're still alive."
"Did you really expect me to die that easily?" I retorted jokingly, but she kept on staring at me in disbelief.
"Who are your friends?" She asked me, gesturing to the seven taller guys stood behind me. I introduced them one by one, and watched as Minji's eyes glistened.

"I recognise a few of those names." She told us. "Jeno, Renjun, Haechan, Jaemin. The four of you met my daughter in a sand pit when she was five."
"We did?" I asked, turning to face them, then back at her.
"I remember the day as clear as anything." She explained. "You came running up to me, talking about the friends you made in the sand pit."
"Wow," Mark sighed. "Who would've thought, Huh?"

"So how old are you now?" She asked, inviting me to sit down on her sofa.
"Second year in high school." I replied.
"So how did you and your seven boyfriends manage to come and visit me on a school day?" She raised an eyebrow at me, but I could only scoff at her choice of words.

I told her about everything that had happened that led to our current situation. About Jihoon, Jinyoung, Chenle's adoption, the party, running away, living in a van, all of it. Minji sat quietly and listened to my drama, since she had technically missed out on the majority of my life anyway.

"Sounds pretty hectic for a bunch of teens." She sighed. "I can tell just by looking at you all that you're not handling it well."
"Well it's not like we've got anyone to miss." I retorted. "We're from an orphanage, everyone we need is right here."

"Except Hoseok..." Chenle trailed off.
"Who's Hoseok?" Minji asked.
"Jung Hoseok. A guy who works at the orphanage." Jisung told her.
"He was basically like a caring uncle to all of us." I explained. "I can't even imagine what he's doing right now."
"Jung, eh?" She smiled, pulling out a cigarette. "That guy promised me all those years ago that he'd take care of you. It seems like he's done a good job." She continued to pull out a lighter, holding the small flame over the toxic stick.

"You're gonna smoke in here?" Mark asked.
"Yeah, what's wrong with it?" She retorted.
"On the way in there was a sign saying no smoking." He told her. "It's kinda against the law."
"The law can suck my ass." She replied, taking a long drag. "The law took away my child."

"That's something I wanted to ask about." I butted in. "My past. Your past. No one ever told me anything about it."
"I don't think it's something you really wanna know about kid," She sighed, breathing out puffs of white smoke into the apartment. "It's not exactly a tale of romance."

"Please," I sighed. "I'm so sick of being kept in the dark. I need to know what happened."
"God, you sound just like him." She spat.
"Like who?"
"Your father."
"What's his name?"
"Park Jimin."

"Park Jimin..." I mumbled. "I remember that name."

"What's your name?" I asked the man sat on the bench in front of me. He had been sleeping until I woke him up.
"My name is Jimin, nice to meet you Areum." He replied, holding out his hand for me to shake.

"Where are your friends?" He asked me.
"In the sand pit." I replied, pointing over to the sand pit containing four boys throwing sand at each other.

"Where are your friends?" I retorted.
"I- I don't have any." He told me. "That's why I'm here alone."
"Can I be your friend?" I asked.
"You want to be friends with a big scary man like me?" He chuckled slightly, leaning back in his seat.
"You're not scary!" I giggled. "You're funny!"
"Okay then. Let's be friends." He chuckled again, this time turning to face me.

"I remember you telling me about how you met him in the park, along with your other four friends." Minji sighed. "I didn't think it could be possible that you'd met your father at the time, but looking back on it I don't know how I could've been so stupid."

"So how did you meet my dad?" I asked her.
"This story's gonna take a while," She sighed. "And your friends are looking restless. How about you all take it in turns to have a shower while you can." Everyone's faces lit up in excitement; we haven't showered in weeks!

Minji started talking about her fateful encounter one day on the street. She was just in high school, walking back home with bags of groceries in her hands when some guy bumped into her. She ended up dropping all the veggies and as an apology he took her out for some coffee. They started hanging out more, and sooner or later he asked her out. Sounds like an everyday high school relationship, right?

This Jimin dude was - and still is apparently - super rich. He'd pick her up from school everyday on his motorbike and would always buy her loads of things.

At home she lived with her step brother Jeon Jungkook, who was basically an older brother to her, as her parents were always out of the house for months on end working. Jungkook didn't like her dating Jimin, and one day they argued so much that she left the house to go live with Jimin.

Once she was living in his home Jimin became much more possessive over her, and would treat her more like a kid than a lover, but she just passed it off as some rich kid thing. One day Jungkook wanted to meet with Minji and ask her to come home, since their parents were coming home for a few days and had no idea about anything that had happened.

She lied to Jimin, saying she was meeting with friends, but Jimin saw through her lie and followed her. She agreed to move back home for a few days, but Jimin got so mad he ended up hurting her.

She ended up going back home anyway, and stayed until her parents left again a few days later. On her last meal her stepbrother confessed to her, that he'd loved her ever since he met her, and one of the reasons he didn't like Jimin was because he was jealous. He then kissed her, but ran away afterwards. She then packed her bags and left to go back to Jimin's place, but he wasn't in.

She refused to tell me what happened after that, saying it was something nobody needed to think about.

She woke up, three weeks later in a hospital bed, her arms permanently scarred. She showed me the marks on her arms, which brought a tear to my eye and hers. She told me her stepbrother was found with a broken leg, broken ribs, dislocations left right and centre. He said it was Jimin who did it to him, and that Jimin was put in a mental asylum. It was also the day she found out she was pregnant with me.

She managed to keep it a secret for a while, but her mum - my grandma - eventually found out. She insisted that she get an abortion, but Minji refused, saying she wanted the baby. Because of that she was kicked out, and Jungkook followed her. The pair lived together for a while, Minji gave birth to me, and Jungkook was studying at university and had a part time job.

They didn't have enough money, so she became a prostitute since it payed well. When she was there she met a guy called Tae; he was a regular at the place and also her favourite customer. Turned out that Tae went to the same university as Jungkook, and that the pair were supposedly dating.

When Jungkook found out her money was coming from prostitution he ordered her to quit, and on her way home she saw Tae stumble out of their apartment building, beaten to a pulp. She ran upstairs and then found me. That's where she stopped talking and started crying. She only said I had an accident, and after that she was called to the orphanage, where they took me away.

"So where is Jungkook now?" I asked her, shifting positions in my seat, that I'd been sat in for a while.
"In prison." She replied. "Last time I saw him, anyway. He might actually have been released now."
"What did he go to prison for?" Jaemin asked.
"For dealing drugs." She replied. "Our landlord's friend abused his power and had Jungkook transport drugs for him. Although Jungkook ratted him out, Joon had to stop his business and serve time too."

"Hold on." I stopped her. "Did you say Joon?"
"Yeah, why?" She stared at me, eyes focused.
"The man who gave us the drugs said his name was Joon." I told her. "He said he knew me, and knew you, and gave me your address."
"Oh my god." She sighed. "He knows where I live?"

"Have you lived here long?" Jaemin asked her. "He said he hadn't seen you in like thirteen years."
"Yeah, quite a while." She told him.
"If he wanted to do something he would've done it by now, surely." I reassured her. "You should be fine."

We stayed in her apartment for a while longer, everyone getting showers and washing their clothes. Minji even fed us and gave us some spare food she had in her cupboards.
"Do you little rebels want some alcohol too?" She asked, a smirk on her face. "My boyfriend gets back later and I promised him I'd stop drinking, so you guys better drink it before I do."

"Are you sure?" I asked, and she nodded, thrusting one of many bottles of vodka into my hands. "Just don't let the cops catch you with it. There's a field out back that you can camp in for a few days, no one gives a shit about that place, so you should be relatively safe there."

"Thank you so much Minji." I smiled. "You've really helped us out."
"Pleasure's mine, kiddo." She smiled. "And I'm sorry I couldn't be there to see you grow up into this badass, independent woman."

Before we left we exchanged numbers, and she also told me where her childhood home was. I asked about everything else, but she said she had no idea where Jungkook would be, and she didn't know whether her parents had moved out of that home or not. Anyways, it was worth a try, so we set off with bags and bags of things, thanking Minji once again.

I'm kinda glad my mum is such a badass. She's been through a hell of a lot of shit, but she still managed to keep going. Now that's one bad bitch.

Word Count-1827