Issues • Kim Taehyung x Reader

xv.

(Name) drove past the car parked on the street beside the mailbox and into the driveway, putting the car in park and turning off the engine. Then she looked over at Taehyung, who was pale.

"It's okay," she said kindly. "You can do it. Just take some deep breaths right now."

Taehyung did as instructed. After a few moments, he opened his door and got out, closing it after himself. Then he went up to the front door and let himself in.

"Ha Ra," he said, his voice tough and quiet. "Ha Ra," he said again, a little bit louder.

She came out of their room wearing some sort of necklace and stopped when she saw him. "Taehyung." She looked confused and shocked at first, but then she smoothed out her face. "I saw them. The pictures, the videos. You're everywhere."

Taehyung nodded. "I know."

"And?" she asked incredulously. "I told you not to keep meeting with them! That they'd mess up your life! And look! They already have you dancing. What's next? You quit your job? You stop making any money? You go broke and lose the house?"

Taehyung stood there silently, taking it all, just focusing on what (Name) had told him. Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out...

"Well?" Ha Ra spat. "Where's the apology? Where's the 'Sorry, dear'?"

The words sickened Taehyung. They sickened him to the point that he forgot about trying to stay calm and focused on his breathing "Sorry, dear," he said, but his tone was off.

Still, Ha Ra seemed to stand a little taller, thinking she had won yet again. "That's-"

"Sorry, dear, that I let people pressure me into marrying you," Taehyung went on, his fists clenched as his lungs started hurting. He had to talk fast before he ended up unable to breathe. "Sorry, dear, that I was never the person you wanted me to be, that I was actually myself until you broke me apart year by year and made me into the ugly thing I am now.

"Sorry, dear, that I had dreams that weren't your dreams before you decided to rip them all down and throw them out with the trash.

"Sorry, dear, that I tried to hard to do what you wanted, thinking it would make you happy, but it just made living here together in this house even worse.

"Sorry, dear, that you wasted eight years of your precious life on me and that eight years of my life were spent being tortured for not being submissive enough to everything you wanted.

"Sorry, dear, that I've never been enough to please you, mentally or physically, even though I've spent the past eight years looking at no one but you while you fucked anyone but me in our bedroom.

"Sorry, dear, that you weren't happy, but I wasn't happy either so I guess that makes us even.

"Sorry, dear, for wanting to have actual friends, friends that you pushed away and crowded out until I couldn't go to anyone but you for anything.

"Sorry, dear, that I waited so long to get all of this out, but I've been drowning all this time, unable to breathe oxygen or think about being above water again because your cold hand has been on my ankle this whole time, dragging me down.

"Sorry, dear, that I'm weak, that I have issues, that I'm not perfect and beautiful and strong. That I'm human.

"Sorry, dear, but no matter how long you hang onto me, you'll never have my heart, if I ever was so foolish to give it to you in the first place.

"Sorry, dear, but you can't keep me trapped by your side anymore because even though you tried to isolate me, my family came back for me, and they love me more than you ever could. Not by tying me down and shackling me to them with chains but by tying us together and shackling me with hugs. You tried to break me. You did break me. But no matter how broken I am, I'll always have people behind me who will want to put the pieces back together. You made me forget about that, about them. But not anymore."

Taehyung fought for every word. As he'd expected, he was having another anxiety attack, and he could barely breathe. But these were words that needed to be said. Ha Ra needed to hear them, and more importantly, he needed to say them. Not just for her. For himself.

Ha Ra just stood there in shock. He had thought that she would be angry, but she just looked as broken as he was. She fingered her necklace, her eyes on Taehyung as a man came out of the bedroom and put an arm around her waist.

"Who's this bastard?" he asked. "It's my turn. Tell him to leave. I don't like sharing." He noticed Taehyung's condition. "Woah, shit. Is he going to die or something? Do we need to call an ambulance?"

Ha Ra's lips twisted into a scowl. "He's fine. Bam, meet Taehyung. My husband."

"Oh." BamBam stared at Taehyung for a moment with a slight look of guilt. "You're sure he's fine?"

"He's screwed up," Ha Ra said sharply. "But he won't die. Not yet."

"Nice...m-meeting you," Taehyung coughed out, his arms wrapped around his chest. Breathe in, breathe out. But he couldn't feel any oxygen coming in.

BamBam flinched. "Y-yeah. You too." He hesitated as though realizing how strange the situation was and looked at Ha Ra. "What am I supposed to do here? Fight him? Because I think he's pretty much already beating himself."

"Just go back to bed," she muttered, not looking at BamBam. "He's leaving." She looked back at Taehyung as though waiting for something. A goodbye. A last kiss. A look of anger and jealousy toward the strange man coming out of her bedroom.

But Taehyung just coughed, wrapping his arms tighter around himself. After a second, he looked back up at her, and she couldn't move or look away from his eyes. They'd been empty and broken for so long, but there was a little bit of life returning back into them. Not exactly like the old Taehyung, but reminiscent of his younger self. "I gave you my everything," Taehyung said roughly, pausing to breathe, "and you gave yours to someone else." His eyes glistened with withheld tears.

In that moment, Ha Ra didn't know how to feel. She should have felt happy that the farce had finally come out, that everything was in the open, but now someone else had opened the door to her precious butterfly's cage, and he was flying away. Even if she had other butterflies, there was only ever one she had truly wanted. And now it was gone, leaving her behind with an empty cage and an empty heart.

"Don't be stupid," she muttered. "You didn't give me your everything. I stole it." Her own eyes glistened with the truth of her words, but she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry. The butterfly could never be allowed to know just how beautiful and precious he was to her.

And that was it. Taehyung walked out the door with a small nod, a sad smile, and tearful eyes.

Ha Ra wiped her own eyes before going back into the bedroom.

last chance for you to post questions in the q&a! answers will be posted after this chapter so hurry!!
also, as this is almost over, we have a few new works getting ready to come out, including a j-hope story and a namjoon sorry! more info to come!