Chapter Text
The past week has been the worst week of Jungkook’s life. Almost worse than the months after his parents died. Jungkook’s stomach tightened, the screams from his brothers kept echoing through his head.
What is wrong with you?! You could have killed him!
Jin-Hyung does so much for you, and this is how you thank him?
You’re the worst brother in the world!
I wish Eomma and Appa had taken you with them!
That last comment made his chest hurt so much he couldn’t breathe or think for a few minutes after, but he’d deserved it. He deserved all of the comments and silence for what he did.
He was awful.
He had to take a deep breath and refocus, looking at his passing surroundings. He was currently on a train to his Halmoni’s and was only three hours into the six-hour train ride. Jungkook hooked the loops of his backpack around his arms and held on tighter as he leaned his forehead against the cool window. This backpack was all he had to his name right now; he couldn’t lose it.
That was his last thought before he drifted off.
- 5 days ago -
“You’re pulling our whole class average down. No wonder your parents didn’t want you, you’re an idiot.” Baekhyun spat at him.
Jungkook bit his tongue hard to keep from pointing out he was failing because of Baekhyun.
He tried shouldering past the older boy, but he was shoved roughly against the tile of the bathroom and his head connected with the wall with a sharp crack.
Shit, that hurt.
Jungkook was so dazed he didn’t register Baekhyun rifling through his backpack, taking the lunch box Jin had carefully prepared for him and the homework he’d stayed up until 1 am working on the night before.
“Try a dumb move like that again and it’ll be more than just a headache next time.” Jungkook’s backpack was thrown roughly to the floor as Baekhyun left the bathroom.
Jungkook shakily walked to the sinks. Looking at himself in the mirror, he looked physically fine, but internally he was a mess. He tried to take deep breaths to quell his racing heart, and the cool water he washed his face with helped. He waited a few more minutes before leaving the bathroom, then hurried to his algebra class. He quietly put his head on his desk as Mrs. Park went around the class, picking up their homework assignments. His chest tightened at the thought of missing another homework assignment.
That’d been happening a lot lately.
At first, Jungkook stopped speaking up in class, freezing whenever he was called on or any attention was put on him. He just couldn’t bear the stares of his classmates anymore. They’d had a homework assignment where they presented a breakdown of their family finances, and he’d proudly worked on it with Jin-Hyung and Yoongi-Hyung—learning about how they successfully made their money to support him and his brothers, even though they didn’t have a traditional family structure. It was so much fun learning about how Jin-Hyung and Yoongi-Hyung budgeted the money they brought in. They set money aside for groceries, rent, and utilities. Jin-Hyung also set aside money from every paycheck for emergencies. It was interesting to really learn about how they stayed afloat.
It all went wrong when one of the students made the comment that the assignment was supposed to be about their parents, not their brothers, which led to an awkward explanation that his parents weren’t around anymore. From that day forward, he got odd looks from his classmates and odd comments from one classmate in particular.
This classmate was new to their school that semester. Jungkook had avoided him at first due to being shy. However, after seeing how Baekhyun interacted with other classmates, he continued to keep his distance. The boy was too rough with others, constantly making jokes that weren’t funny and taking things that weren’t his.
Unfortunately, after that finance assignment, Baekhyun turned his attention to him. It started with an odd comment here and there about his clothes, his hair, or his writing, but then the comments escalated. Baekhyun kept making fun of the fact that his parents had left. That his brothers were forced to take care of him. He was keeping everyone from doing what they wanted just because he existed.
Jungkook tried to ignore him, but then Baekhyun started taunting him with more than words. He took Jungkook’s homework assignments, shoved him when walking by, and hit him upside the head whenever he could get away with it, and passed it off as a hyung teaching his Dongsaeng a lesson.
“Jungkook, no homework assignment again? This is the fifth time; that’s unacceptable. I’ll be making a call home.”
Jungkook could barely breathe, and his stomach was in knots. He had a hard time focusing the rest of the day. All he could think about was that phone call. Jin-Hyung almost never received calls from the school, and now he was getting one because Jungkook screwed up. Anything Mrs. Park spoke about in class went in one ear and out the other, he honestly tried to pay attention but it didn’t work, and before he knew it the day was over.
Sitting on the steps outside of the school, Jungkook had his arms wrapped around his stomach and his head on his knees, trying and failing to calm down.
This had been happening a lot too. Sometimes it felt like he couldn’t breathe. His heart would start racing randomly, or he would get extremely hot and couldn’t focus on the world around him.
Jungkook didn’t want to tell anyone though. He didn’t want his Hyungs to know what was going on. They were so busy and he was already burdening them with having to keep him alive. He wasn’t a baby anymore, he was 13 and he needed to act like it.
Jin-Hyung's honking broke him from his musing. He very nervously climbed into the front seat and tried not to look at him. He could tell Jin was mad, his brother sitting rigidly in his seat. Maybe he was mad about something from work, Jungkook hoped.
“We’ll be talking about your teacher's phone call when we get home.”
Nope… not something from work. Jungkook sighed and sank further into the hoodie he was wearing.
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Jungkook tried to escape to his room, but Jin caught him by the arm before he could.
“Nope, you're going to explain to me why your teacher called me about 5 missing homework assignments.”
“It-It’s nothing.” Jungkook set his backpack by his door, avoiding looking at Jin.
“That’s not nothing, Jungkook! You’re almost failing her class. I know you understand how important grades are, why aren’t you turning in those assignments?”
Jungkook just shrugged, there wasn’t anything he could say.
Jin frowned. “Eomma and Appa would be so disappointed. They wanted us all to have a solid education, you can’t just not turn in these assignments.”
That was the worst thing Jin could have said. Jungkook suddenly felt like he couldn’t breathe- he tried to get air into his lungs but he could only take short, quick breaths.
Nononononononono, this can’t be happening-