Beyond Saturation

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23 July 2016

Taehyung's heart dropped to his feet at the sight that was on clear display inside the dustbin. 

He realized that Jeongguk had lied on phone. That Jihyo was right. That Aera did stay here all the days Taehyung was in Daegu. That Aera was pregnant again. 

However, this time, he surprised himself by not bursting into tears. In fact, his eyes didn't even tear up. His heart did feel heavy, however. He didn't understand this weird reaction of his. With a sigh, he looked up at the mirror in front of him. 

The man that stared back at him looked nothing like the Taehyung that he used to love at a point in his life. The Taehyung that was full of laughs and joy. The Taehyung that never stopped showing off his boxy grin every chance he got. 

Where did that Taehyung go? 

Where did that smile go?

Staring at the lifeless eyes in the mirror, he forced his lips up. The muscles around his lips strained as if they weren't used to the sudden foreign activity, but he managed to lift them up a little. 

The smile that his lips were now capable of creeped him out a little. He looked like he was possessed, what with his lips pulled up in a small, lifeless smile while his eyes bled tears of misery and agony. 

However, even that possessed smile fell like a victim to gravity when he heard a yell come from downstairs. He tuned the words out. He knew they would only be more insults about him taking too much time to come down. 

It wasn't until he cooked the entire breakfast meal that Jeongguk bothered to inform him that he was going out to have breakfast with Aera. 

'You were the one who rushed me to cook,' Taehyung thought internally. He didn't have the dare to say it out loud. He was used to it, after all. 

He lost count of how many times he had had to cook meals and then store them for himself in the refrigerator and eat them the following days just because his husband didn't bother to inform him beforehand that he wasn't going to eat at home.

He dutifully left out some food for himself and packed the rest of them in boxes and put them away. 

Once Jeongguk left, he sat down to have his breakfast, but not a single bite would go down his throat. Somehow, the muscles in his throat just wouldn't work in swallowing the food. After a while, he put that food in the boxes as well and settled on the couch, staring away listlessly until his phone rang. 

It was Yoongi and that was new. Yoongi never called him. Any news about Yoongi only reached him through his husband or Hoseok. 

"Hello?" his voice had no life as well and this time, he didn't care. 

"Papa!!" 

Junha's voice perked him up a little. "Hi, Junha. What are you doing? Did you have fun last night?" he asked, his voice gaining a little life. "Totally!! Hyuni noona and I built a pillow house and stayed up all night. Sumi didn't join us, though. She was busy playing with her own toys," Junha said. 

"Is it?" Taehyung chuckled a little, "nice, nic-"

"And we are going out today!! Guess where?? The amusement park again!! I mean, the one here should be different from the one in Daegu, right? I'm excited!! Uncle Yoon said he would buy us ice cream too!!"

"Oh, nice!! I hope you have fun there, baby. Don't trouble your uncles too much, okay?" 

"I won't!! I've been a good boy, haven't I, Uncle Yoon?" 

"Of course, Junha. He hasn't troubled us, Tae, don't worry. He's a sweetheart, just like you. I can't believe how he's like this when his dad's like that," Yoongi joked, but it made Taehyung's little smile fall off his face once again. 

"Okay, hyung, I have work to do. I'll talk to you guys later, bye," he rapped and hung up before the lump in his throat could become obvious. 

He looked around the house, wondering why he felt so miserable. The fact that Aera seemed to be pregnant again surely disturbed his entire roots, leaving him listless and lost in his own world. 

He remembered his brother's words. 

"Namjoonie knows a nice lawyer that can help you. Divorce that monster." 

"I would have reported him to the cops the first chance I got and then I would have contacted a lawyer and would have divorced him by the end of that month!!"

But what would he do after divorcing Jeongguk? Where would he go after divorcing him? He only studied until high school. There was nothing he would be able to do to support himself. How was he going to survive? What was the society going to say?

And what about Junh-

His phone rang again, bringing him out of his thoughts. It was his own brother this time. 

"Hy-ung."

His voice broke. No matter how hard he tried to stay strong, this time, he somehow couldn't control his overwhelming feelings. Not when his brother now knew everything that he was going through because of his husband. 

"Tae?! What happened?! Did that bastard do something again?! I'm hanging up!!" Seokjin hung up without any further word. 

Taehyung frowned at his phone with tears pooling up in his eyes, but the confusion didn't stay long when his phone rang once again, this time with an incoming video call. He hesitated to answer, remembering that he had bruises all over his face, but he decided to fuck it. He didn't care anymore. 

A gasp was what came out of Seokjin's mouth the second Taehyung answered the call and showed his face. "Tae, what the fuck?! Did he hit you?! Did he fucking hit you?! Tell me, Tae, did he do that?! Because if yes, I'm calling the cops right no-"

"What's wrong, baby?" Taehyung heard Namjoon's voice and before he could cover his face from his brother-in-law, Namjoon peeped into the screen and gasped hard. "Oh my god, Tae, did Jeongguk-ssi do that to you?! Oh my god, it must have hurt so bad!!"

Taehyung was sobbing uncontrollably by then. He couldn't even catch a breath to ask his brother to stop when Seokjin asked for Namjoon's phone so that he could call the cops. 

"Have some patience, baby, let's find out what happened first. We can't just jump to conclusions," Namjoon said and the two of them waited patiently for Taehyung to pull himself together. 

"Hyung," Taehyung called out after a while and hiccupped pitifully. 

"Yes, Tae?" Seokjin and Namjoon asked right away. 

"I-I...I want a divorce, hyung."