Secrets | BTS ✓

4

Flashback - July 2015

Taehyung hangs up the phone after a long and boring phone call with his parents; it doesn't help that he is far from sober, but he had to do his best to pretend he was in his right mind because his parents would never be okay with his alcohol and drug use.

Taehyung knows that he is heading down a dangerous path, but he's very careful about his way of getting high; he only smokes marijuana and steers clear of the hard drugs such as cocaine and meth. Though he has been tempted plenty of times since he's started college, he knew that was a road he wouldn't ever want to go down.

So he drinks alcohol and he smokes weed in his free time; while that may not be a big deal to most of his fellow college students, he knows that his parents would never forgive him for doing things like this when he should be dedicating himself to his future career as a doctor.

Taehyung shrugs off his worries by taking another shot after walking back inside the bar after his phone call. Becoming a doctor is a huge responsibility; it's something that Taehyung never wanted for himself, but since his parents are paying for his education, they insisted on him becoming a doctor.

So here he is, working his ass off in his never-ending classes as he gets wasted and high on the weekends to drown out his stress and the burden that has been put on his shoulders.

"You look upset," a female voice rings out from beside Taehyung and he turns on his bar stool to see a beautiful girl seated next to him, holding out a shot for him to take. "Here. You seem to need it."

Taehyung laughs and quickly downs the shot, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "Hell yeah I do."

"I'm Nari," she says, holding out her small hand for Taehyung to shake.

"Taehyung," he replies, his much larger hand engulfing hers in the handshake. "Your hand is cold."

"I was just in my car with the air conditioning cranked up," she says nonchalantly. "It's hot as fuck outside but I really needed to smoke." Taehyung's ears perk up.

"Smoke?" He asks, raising an eyebrow.

"I have some left if you want to join me?" Nari asks, smirking at him and he grins at her in return.

"Hell yeah! Let's do some more shots first," he says and she nods enthusiastically in return.

Taehyung orders some more tequila shots for them, insisting that he pay for them, and Nari kisses his cheek in appreciation.

"Drink up, baby girl," Taehyung smirks, Nari's cheeks blossoming into a rose red color at his choice of nickname.

After the shot glasses are all empty, Taehyung and Nari get up and head to Nari's car, getting inside, the interior still cooled down from Nari being in there with the air conditioning blasting earlier.

"What's got you so stressed, baby?" Nari asks as she pulls a joint out of her jacket pocket.

"Everything, honestly. College is brutal; I'm studying to become a doctor, which is something my parents have forced on me. They're the ones paying, so I can't really protest. I drink and smoke on the weekends to let some of that stress melt away, but if my parents ever found out about it, I'm sure they'd never speak to me again. So really, in a way, this stresses me out too. But once I'm not sober anymore, I can't bring myself to care."

Nari hums. "I know a great way to relieve some stress, you know." She reaches over and places her small hand onto his thigh, massaging the muscle gently.

Taehyung laughs softly before pushing her hand away. "Thanks for the offer, but I'm good. Not really the kind of guy to sleep around."

Nari frowns. "Are you implying that I'm the kind of person who sleeps around?"

Taehyung's eyes widen. "Shit, no. That came out wrong, baby girl."

She scoffs. "Yeah, don't call me that anymore, asshole. Let's finish this joint so I can go dance with someone who doesn't think he shits gold. Just because I like to hook up doesn't make me any less of a human being; I still have feelings."

Taehyung frowns at the girl's sudden change in behavior, but decides to just ignore it since he's getting high for free. He stays silent, staring out the passenger window through the growing cloud of smoke engulfing the enclosed space.

His phone vibrates, and he rolls his eyes as he pulls it out of his pocket to check it before haphazardly tossing it onto his lap.

"Fucking parents," he says quietly to himself before Nari snatches the phone off of his thigh.

"Wow," she breathes. "So many texts from them."

"Hey," Taehyung snaps, grabbing his phone out of her grip. "Don't be so fucking nosy."

Nari laughs humorlessly. "You're smoking MY weed right now. Stop being such a prick to me."

He takes one last hit before handing the joint back to Nari. "Not anymore I'm not."

He gets out of the car and, without a second glance, slams the car door and stalks off back into the bar.

After about twenty minutes of more shots and increasingly blurry vision, his phone begins to vibrate again and he groans before jogging outside to answer the incoming call from his mother's phone.

Immediately, he's startled by both of his parents screaming into the phone. He's fairly drunk, so he can't completely wrap his mind around what's being said. He hears something about marijuana, being a disgrace and something about a picture from an unknown number.

Taehyung can't even respond; his mind is so foggy and even underneath the haze of being under the influence of alcohol and marijuana, he's confused. What in the world are they talking about?

"You are no longer our son, you ungrateful piece of shit," his father snaps before the line goes dead.

Taehyung stands completely still, not even daring to breathe as he continues to hold his phone against his ear.

After five minutes of stillness, his phone vibrates and he slowly, almost robotically, pulls the phone away from his ear to check the message.

Mom: "Send our thanks to the person who sent us this and opened our eyes to what a failure you are."

Attached to the message is a picture of Taehyung with a joint in his mouth, his profile barely visible through the smoke surrounding him. He is wearing the outfit he is currently in, and he recognizes the interior of the car as the car he was just in earlier that night.

"Nari," he breathes. "What have you done?"