Beyond Saturation

N

But, deep down, he was a nice man, unlike his own husband. Jaewan was just a highly misunderstood man. And extremely short-tempered. He had great values in life, followed them strictly and expected people around him to follow them too. And he had very rude ways of making sure people around him followed them as well. 

That was it. 

Otherwise, he was a nice man. He cared. Deep down, he loved. He just never learned and realized how to show it out well. Unlike his own husband, who still came home smelling of female perfume most of the time.

Either that or alcohol.

But Jaewan wasn't like that. 

There was a time a few years ago, when Jihyo's late brother's wife fell and broke her leg. Her son, Jimin, was too young to take care of his mother and thus, Jaewan had immediately sent Jihyo over to take care of her and the household. 

And Taehyung saw just how badly the man missed his wife during those couple of months. 

He was sure that wouldn't be the case with his own husband. His husband didn't even talk to Seokjin and his family much. He was sure he wouldn't let Taehyung rush to Seokjin or Namjoon's help if the same situation repeated.

Hell, the man didn't even let Taehyung talk to his parents freely. The only person he was allowed to talk to decently was Seokjin. Taehyung supposed that was because Seokjin and Jeongguk were of the same age. 

He could literally count the number of times his husband had personally talked to Seokjin in the entire fourteen years of their marriage.

Hell, the one time his husband grinned naturally in his presence was etched into his mind like a photographic memory. 

It was about seven years ago, when Yoongi and his family came over for Chuseok. They stayed over the weekend and decided to order pizza. Taehyung, for some reason, always hated pizza. He hated it with every single fibre in his body and thus, when the pizza arrived, he announced that he didn't want any and that the kids could enjoy his share. 

Hoseok didn't have it. He took a slice and tried to force it into Taehyung's mouth. Taehyung put up a strong protest, which unintentionally hyped up the kids Hyuni and Junha, who grabbed a piece each and tried to do the same to Taehyung. 

Screaming for his life, and begging for them to leave him alone, Taehyung ran all over the house, not minding any of the furniture that came in his way. 

Somewhere along the way, he began to laugh as he ran and everyone else laughed as well. By everyone, he meant everyone except Jeongguk. Because Jeongguk just sat there with his legs crossed and his lips pulled up in a huge grin, something that came on his face naturally and lighted it up. 

Taehyung stopped running and stared mesmerized at his husband, having witnessed him grinning for the first time in his life. Hell, he had never even seen him smile until then. 

Jeongguk's lips dropped and his eyebrows pulled into a frown at the speed of light when his eyes met Taehyung's lost ones, making Taehyung jump at the glare that followed. 

Taehyung cleared his throat and looked away, snatching the pieces of pizza from Junha and Hyuni as he did so. He stuffed both of them into his mouth one by one and gave them a smile. "Happy?" he asked and received two loud cheers and claps in return. 

That was it. The one and only time Taehyung saw Jeongguk grin (or smile, for that matter). 

"Taehyung?" Jihyo called out, pulling him out of his train of thoughts. "Uh, sorry, Eomeonim," he apologized and cleared his throat, "it doesn't make you bad, of course not," he said, "I can totally understand your feelings."

"I....umm....I never got to tell you this, but I'm sorry for destroying your life by marrying you to my son, Tae," she said. 

Taehyung scoffed internally. What was the use of saying sorry now when all the damage was already done?

"It's just.....Hobi is a very nice man, but we knew for sure that Aera isn't. We thought he would get over her if we forced him into a marriage, and I still regret it, but I'm happy he at least got over her after Junha was born. God knows how much I would have regretted pulling you into this mess if he was still with her," she continued. 

Taehyung just scoffed internally again but decided not to point out the fact that her son was pretty much still with Aera. Her husband was literally in the ICU. She had enough on her plate at the moment. She didn't need more. 

Not that Taehyung would have told her the truth even if she didn't have anything on her plate at the moment. 

He hated letting everyone know how pathetic his life was. He just hated it with his entire being.