iris

[10] navy

Taehyung didn't talk to anyone for his final hours of his school day. He kept his head down during class, not replying when the teacher would call on him. He knew he'd receive a detention for the behaviour, that made him scared in some way. But punishment was something he'd become so used to it by that time, he could almost pass it off as a daily scheduled event.

No matter how hard he was to try, his father would never be satisfied. There would always be something wrong, or something to fix. If not, it'd just be the usual degradation of his appearance. Words that stung like salt in a wound. Taehyung had tried his best to ignore them for so many years, until only recently did he start to feel truly affected by them.

__________

"Mr Kim, wait for me after class please." Taehyung gave no reply to his teachers request, continuing to doodle on his notebook whilst he waited for the work for the following lesson to be set.

After it was, everyone seemed in a hurry to leave, where as taehyung took his time, not forgetting to steal a glance at Jungkook who was far too distracted to notice the eyes that were observing him.

"Yes, sir?" Taehyung spoke up to the teacher who was collecting up everything that he owned. He looked up at the presence of someone there.

"Ah yes, Taehyung, sit down please." He did as he was told, taking his place in the chair opposite desk, feeling like the eyes of authority were scrutinising his every form. He carefully pulled his sleeves over his hands, strategically covering the marks. "What's wrong?" His teacher spoke eventually, his face screwed up in an expression of concern, as he waited patiently for the boy to reply.

Taehyung did not. He kept his mouth shut, turning away as he felt discomfort from the stare that seemed to taunt him with power.

"Look, under normal circumstances, I'd pass this behaviour off as being plain stubborn. But Taehyung, I've taught you for two years now, not once have I ever seen you so shut down. You have told me numerous times history is your priority, but today, you act like it means nothing to you." Taehyung bit his lip, thinking of what he could give as a reply. He wasn't certain on the reason he'd been so disrespectful and spiteful.

"Is something wrong at home?" At the mention of home his stomach tightened, body seeming to reject the nauseating word. He wished to hide the feeling of discomfort, but it was hard. Clearly, his efforts had not worked. "It's home?" His teacher continued, fingers curling around a pen.

"No," he responded quickly, only once had a teacher raise suspect to his father, when Taehyung had been constantly staying back at school, exceeding school hours. But it had taken weeks to shake the teacher off. After that time period, Taehyung had found a new definition of hell. "Sir... there is nothing wrong at home... I'm just..." he trailed off, trying to think of some lie he could come up with that would make reasonable sense.

"My best friend and I were in an argument earlier today... I've just been .... distracted with that." It wasn't a lie, so he didn't look overly guilty. The teacher sat back hesitantly, observing his student for a moment before speaking.

"Okay, but do you mind if I ring up home, just to make sure everything is okay there. I can let your parent know you are having a hard time if that will help?" Taehyung swallowed hard, shuddering as he could already feel sweat beads forming. He stood up before they became noticeable, grabbing his bag and slinging it over one shoulder.