Beyond Saturation

T

16 July 2016

"Uncle Taetae told him not to wake up," Sumi said innocently.

Taehyung's eyes widened in horror. He knew Sumi was too young to understand the graveness of the situation and that she didn't know anything about holding secrets yet, but this was still a big doom for him. 

Carefully, he glanced at Jeongguk and stilled in more horror. He had never seen him look so pissed. There was a nerve ticking in his clenched jaw and there was a mad glint in his eyes. "Is it?" Jeongguk asked Sumi, who nodded innocently despite Hyuni and Jimin throwing panicked glances at each other and trying to stop her. 

Without warning, Jeongguk grabbed Taehyung's hair hard, almost pulling it out. "Arrgghhh," Taehyung involuntarily screamed, his hand jumping up to save his scalp from the pain. This was the first time that his A-Class jerk of a husband was hurting him physically and for the first time in many years, he felt a new kind of pain in his heart. 

The pain of being trampled all over again. 

"If you don't stop acting in the next three seconds, I'm going to keep hurting your Papa, Junha," Jeongguk said and Junha jumped up from the bed before Jeongguk could even finish his sentence. 

"What drama are you two playing behind my back, huh?! I did not expect this from you, Junha. Go out to the living room and greet the lady waiting to meet you. Call her Eomma, is that clear? She is a thousand times better than this useless shit here," Jeongguk gave a hard jerk to Taehyung's tightly pulled hair, making him cry out in pain again. 

Once Junha walked out, he dragged Taehyung out of the room by his hair. Taehyung stumbled behind him with both of his hands grabbing his scalp to soothe the pain a little. It didn't work, however, and rivers of tears flowed down his face. 

Jeongguk showed no mercy. He dragged him to his parents and threw him at their feet. Both of them had already been sitting on the couch with high tension, but the second their son was thrown at their feet, they shot up in horror. 

Hyungsik bent down and helped Taehyung up, throwing his arm around him protectively as Taehyung sobbed into his father's shoulder, hiding his face from everyone in the room. He had never felt as humiliated as he did at the moment. 

"What are you doing?!" Dahyun yelled, her eyes blown out wide in horror and fury. "ASK YOUR USELESS SON!! HE'S ONLY GOOD FOR LICKING YOUR FEET AND FOR NOTHING ELSE!! IS THS HOW YOU RAISE SOMEONE?! HE'S OUT THERE TURNING MY SON AGAINST ME!! HOW DARE HE ASK HIM TO PRETEND TO BE ASLEEP WHEN HIS MOTHER COMES TO SEE HIM?!"

"His what?" Dahyun asked, her eyes going wider if that was possible. Her husband looked about two seconds away from losing everything and bringing hell down. 

"His mother!! Why? Are you shocked?! You thought I would actually be with your useless son?! You even call that shit a human bei-" 

Hyungsik was almost ready to punch the daylights out of Jeongguk, but the first one to actually do it was Dahyun herself. She slapped him left and right until Jeongguk grabbed her wrists and gave her body a violent jerk. He lifted his own hand to hit her in his mad rage, but Jihyo and Yoongi ran forward to stop him from doing so. 

"LET ME GO!!" Jeongguk yelled as he jerked his arms, making Jihyo and Yoongi lose their grip around him. His eyes shone with a dangerously furious glint. He almost looked like a madman. "I'M GONNA SEE THE END OF HIM TODAY!!" he screamed.

He leapt forward to grab Taehyung, but Hyungsik swiftly shoved his son behind him. He had held a high position in the army until his retirement. He could go through a good amount of fight if he had to protect his son from the monster in front of him. 

With his body trembling in absolute terror, Taehyung stood behind his father, feeling ashamed for using him as his protection but having no other option to save himself. 

Now that he noticed it, his husband's eyes looked red-rimmed. As if he were high. At least that would explain his crazy behaviour right now. 

One glance at Aera told Taehyung that her eyes were just as red-rimmed as Jeongguk's ones. A corner of his mind felt relieved that he had not let his son meet her, but he felt bad now seeing as Junha was still standing shell-shocked in the living room, witnessing the scene going on with wide, terrified eyes. 

Jeongguk sought physical violence, doing everything he could to reach around Hyungsik and grab Taehyung, who was now crouching down on the floor with his forearms protecting his head and ears, chanting 'please, please,' over and over again. 

Just then, Seokjin and Namjoon walked in, arriving just then to offer condolences to Taehyung and his family. Seokjin ran to his brother's comfort while Namjoon helped Yoongi and Hoseok in holding Jeongguk back without even knowing what was happening. 

He didn't have to know, though. The scene talked enough. 

"Hyung, please take me away," Taehyung sobbed, "take me away, please take me away, I don't want to live here, please take me awa-"

"Shh, it's okay, I'm here now, I'll take care of everything, don't worry, it's okay, shhh," Seokjin comforted him until his brother cried himself to sleep. 

From his peripheral vision, he watched as Yoongi, Hoseok and Namjoon dragged a raging Jeongguk into the master bedroom and tried to calm him down as much as they could. 

He also watched as Jihyo approached a woman in the living room and politely but firmly asked her to leave. "You've done enough damage in our lives. Please leave now. And don't come back. I beg you," she said with her hands joined. 

The lady said nothing but left without causing any scene. 

Seokjin wondered who she was, seeing as everyone else seemed to know about her, but decided now wasn't the time to quench his curiosity. Now was the time to take care of his brother. 

He stood up and glared at Jihyo. "I'm taking him with me to a hotel. We'll not be staying here," he said, daring her silently to oppose him. 

Jihyo, however, did nothing of such sort. Instead, she bowed and looked at him with heavy guilt swimming in her eyes. "Please do that," she said and joined her hands again, bowing to Taehyung's parents apologetically. 

"Namjoon!!" Seokjin hollered. "We're leaving!!" he said and with a grunt, he picked his brother up in his arms. Having reached forty, his back and knees protested, but he didn't mind them. Anything for his little brother. 

However, before he could even take a step forward, he felt a weak tug at his pants. 

He frowned and looked down. It was Junha, crying hard. 

"What, Junha?" he asked. 

"Take me with you," Junha cried, "I wanna come with Papa. Please. Appa is bad. I'll come with you."

Seokjin's heart melted. His eyes teared up. If the kid was calling his father 'bad', this must not have been a rare occurrence. 

He felt horrible for his brother. 

"Joon, bring him," he said to Namjoon, who just nodded and held his hand out for Junha to take. "And book a cab," Seokjin said, to which Namjoon said, "already done."

Satisfied, he left along with his entire family, not wanting to spend another second in this household.