Stigma Love's Algorithm [ A BTS x Reader Poly ]

Chapter 44: Every Mark, Etched in Skin ⚠️

⚠️ Content Warning: This chapter includes explicit depictions of physical and emotional abuse, violence, trauma, manipulation, depression, revenge, and mental health struggles. Reader discretion is advised.

Taehyung isn't here.

Not really.

His eyes are far away, staring at something we can't see.

His fingers clench the fabric of his jeans so tightly that his knuckles turn white.

His breaths come slow, controlled, but too controlled-like if he lets them slip, if he lets himself slip, he won't be able to pull himself back.

His voice comes, low and flat, void of all emotion.
"They weren't there."

I stiffen.

Yoongi's fingers twitch against his knee.

"I stood in front of that house, the same one I used to live in, the same one I used to dread walking into after school, and-"

A sharp inhale.

"It was abandoned."

A chill rips down my spine.
Yoongi's whole body locks up.

"It was rotting. The door was barely hanging onto its hinges, the windows were shattered, weeds had started creeping through the foundation. It was empty-like no one had lived there for years."

Taehyung laughs.
But it's hollow.
Cold.

"I needed them there."
His hands shake.

"I needed them to see me. I needed to look them in the eyes, I needed them to feel it-"

His breath wavers.

"-I needed them to understand what it was like to be helpless."

Yoongi flinches.
His chest rises and falls in uneven breaths.

"But they were gone."

My heart aches at the way his voice breaks around the last word.
Because I can see it.

Taehyung standing in front of that house, standing in front of everything that ruined him

Just so he could finally make them suffer.

His breath catches.
His body shudders.

"Taehyung?" A voice. Soft. Cautious.

He jerks around so violently that whoever it is takes a hesitant step back.

Recognition flickers in his eyes.

She's older now. Her hair streaked with silver, eyes filled with something warm. Something sad.
Something that knows.

"I knew it was you."
Her voice is laced with something almost like relief. Like she's seeing someone she thought she'd never see again.