SAVE ME (BTS): Last Breath (Taehyung)

Chapter 1: Taehyung

“21 years old”
It’s 30th December, again. “Oppa! (Korean saying of older brother) Close your eyes for a moment,” Taemi said with a bright smile. It’s still early in the morning, isn’t it too early to bring in the gifts? I still closed my eyes while hoping for something nice to appear. It has been another year, without mum, but still with dad. “Tada! Here’s your present! It’s your favourite strawberry cake! I wanted to bake it myself from scratch but realised I didn’t have time… so I bought a nice, pretty strawberry cake for you!” Taemi tried to explain with a forced smile, it’s obvious that she felt a little guilty, how cute. “Oh!!! Oh my god my fav! Thank you Mimi ah~” I thanked her sincerely. This birthday is definitely the one of the best, even though mum is not here, at least we still have dad. And even though he gets crazy especially during the night, he actually has a very good brain and a nice heart… I mean, there’s always a reason why my mum married him in the first place. 

So last year… What happened was, my mum was with another guy at the motel but I do not have any idea who it is and, is it just a male colleague or the love love relationship kind of guy?? I bet it's not the first one so… my dad found out in the end and apparently set the motel on fire. I do not want to know what happened in the room my mum and the “guy” is in but actually kind of understand why my dad is this angry… but it’s definitely over the line. 

Now… everything felt exactly the same but just without mum. During these few years, I couldn’t explain how I felt, especially when it always happened on my birthday… I bet Taemi felt even worse. I would proudly say I can control my emotions and try to sympathize with both sides but Taemi couldn’t even forgive herself from her past mistakes. Just why I feel like I should obey my mum’s “wish” and protect Taemi well…

“How’s the cake?” Taemi immediately asked me as she held her own forks tightly to stop herself from eating the cake first so that I could take the first bite instead. “It’s nice! Where did you get that?” I exclaimed as I scoop up a small piece of the cake and gesture Taemi to try it. She took a bite from the piece I gave her, her eyes widened, “I also didn’t know it would be this good! Or is it because we haven’t eaten a cake for years?” We both laughed. 

Life goes on as usual… In the morning, I would go to work at a nearby restaurant waiter till noon and head on to work as an assistant cameraman, which apparently gives the highest pay among the others. Then I’ll work at a convenience store till about 12.30am and bring home some almost expired food from the convenience store for breakfast for the both of us the next morning. 

As for Taemi, she usually wakes up earlier than me and heads to school super duper early to revise in school. (Cause you know she hates staying at home…) Then she studies and sometimes stays back after school to further revise and heads to a library or café to revise some more till night time. During holidays, she would sometimes work as well and would reach home about the same time as me. How about the daily expenses? Well, I usually gave her just enough to at least eat and drink every month.

During weekends, Taemi would either go out to revise by herself or go out to breathe some fresh air. Oh yea, please do not look down on her, she always gets top grades in school and attends lots of competitions and is also praised a lot by her Teachers too. For me, I would either do chores at home or go out to do some extra work only if anybody is absent from work. I couldn’t really say we're hardworking human beings because I feel that is what fate wants us to do. 

The next day,
It’s the weekend and I decided to go out to buy some lunch since Taemi decided to stay at home. I was scrolling around the neighbourhood for a breeze walk when suddenly a man walked towards me, “hey young man, looking for a foster home for your parents? We have a great range of prices and choices, even with people with mental disabilities!” Like this, he handed me a leaflet and left. I looked at it and started to wonder, would life be easy if we sent dad there? 

And so, we did. It was hard to convince dad at first… so we had to lie through our teeths by saying that Taemi and I will go on a vacation just to send dad there. First few months were pretty manageable until I realised that our household income has dropped due to the high price offered by the foster home. 

Long story short, we ended up not bringing dad there anymore and although life would be easier to send dad there, plus I believe we’re old enough to face any kind of situation in case dad goes crazy again. So, what did we do? I decided to buy a small, cheap (dirty) studio apartment not so near our place but also not so far from our area. That doesn’t mean our life is easier, I still have to pay the electricity and water bills for my dad and check on him from time to time… All our dad knew was that I told him Taemi wanted to study overseas and so I brought her there for her to study. 

And like this… we continued to live this way…