Smoke And Mirrors (BNHA x Male OC)

7: Only This Once

Despite their height difference, Taiya was thin enough that the clothes would probably fit the dainty looking girl. 

Suddenly there was a knock on the hotel room's front door, that could faintly be heard from the bedroom. Taiya sighed, exhausted and made his way to the front door. 

He didn't bother changing out of the robe into real clothes, he knew it was just Mori. 

"I see you had a good time last night." The manager commented, looking incredibly disapprovingly at the hickies on Taiya's neck. The actor shrugged. 

"I suppose I did." He deadpanned. "Order breakfast for three people. Room service.". 

"A please would be nice every once in a while-wait did you say three people? Kid how many people did you-" 

"A girl and Han-gyeol." He assured the man. Did Mori not know? Did he not drive Taiya back here the night before? 

Oh, no he remembered now. It had been one of Han-gyeol's managers that drove them. Slowly the night was coming back to him. 

"Oh and contact Starlight's manager, tell them to come pick Dan-bi up.". 

"You act like I know every manager in Seoul." Mori sighed, pinching his nose. Taiya didn't reply. Mori probably did know at least a third of them at this point, with all the time Taiya spent in Korea. 

"Get the girl to call her own manager, I've never heard of Starlight before." The man admitted. 

"They're a sister group to ILY. I think. Same label. Probably." Taiya added. 

"Alright." Mori sighed, "I'll get breakfast, you get the girl to call her manager, and together we fix this all in under two hours.". 

"Do I have anything on my schedule?" The actor inquired. Mori shook his head. "Alright, I'll probably go out at some point, maybe with Han-gyeol if he's not too hung over. Honestly I don't even know how he ended up in the bed. I think he crawled in after Dan-bi got into the shower.". 

Mori just sighed, tired but understanding. It had been messier than this before. 

Messy meaning there had been crying from multiple parties, screaming, trashy articles, near physical harm (Mori had thrown himself in front of Taiya and thrown the asshole out of his ass) and a lot and Mori meant a lot-of unintentional nudity. Neither of them wanted to think of that though, those were both of their most embarrassing moments. 

With a game plan set out the two parted ways. Mori pulled out his phone and checked the news after that night to see what people were saying. 

"Fuck." He breathed. 

It appeared they were headed for disaster. 

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Taiya's phone lay next to him on the bed, face up with the top google results for his name. 

Tears dried on his cheeks as the city lights of Seoul illuminated the dark room just enough to make out his features. He would still be crying if he had any tears, or water of any sort, left in him. 

His head was pounding from the dehydration and his stomach was growling. He hadn't eaten since breakfast, but even that felt like too much. He didn't think he'd be able to even think of eating at that moment. 

Taiya's cynicism when it came to how society saw him and other celebrities was not unwarranted. For some reason despite being a minor he was constantly on the receiving end of criticism and commentary. Constantly ridiculed for any choice he made regarding anything. 

All because he hadn't grown up to be someone befitting the little angel they saw on tv when he was eight. 

In truth, Taiya had never been an angel. His mother's sudden shifts in mood had made him easy to startle and to upset. 

Maybe that was the reason reporters felt the need to comment on his every little action. Because he had already failed to live up to their expectations. 

Instead of the normal articles discussion him and Han-gyeol, or even his outfit, or his gap in activities for two weeks, reporters had chosen to focus on something else.

 His weight gain. 

Of course he had gained weight. Mori was insistent that he eat a certain amount to train and then they had trained nonstop for two weeks, it seemed obvious his body would change. 

But it hadn't been and right now he had decided that hero training be damned he was never eating that much again. 

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Seven chapters in and I finally put some of the content I gave a trigger warning for in here 😅

So yeah, Taiya's a very interesting and very extreme person. There are a lot of factors that play into his psyche/mental state. There's just so many factors that listing them all would be pointless. 

This is what I get for trying to create complex characters, they become too complex and suddenly you have to understand the inner workings of their mind to write the next chapter. 

Honestly, what I do in the pursuit of quality writing 

Remind me to start describing people's appearance in chapter one in the classic 'I look into the mirror at my reflection. My jade green orbs stare back at me, hidden behind a curtain of my sandy blond hair. I'm 5'9 with a slim build. I leave my hair down because people bully me for being pretty and I throw on my favorite oversized hoodie and ripped jeans' style

I got goosebumps just writing that as a joke.

Absolutely no offense to people that write like this tho. 9 times out of 10 they're literal children. Its just been done so many times its a horrible cliché. 

I'm overtired and rambling because right now I think I'm funny and the rest of the world needs to know that. If you're still reading the author's note at this point you get a gold star. Like I will seep though your floorboards as a liquid to deliver it to you. That's an author guarantee 👍

I need to sleep. Stay tuned!