Wings

Lie - IV

“You see, Jimin is not his mother’s real son,” Hoseok said.

“Huh?”

“What?”

“Are you serious?”

The boys' reactions were varied, yet they all reflected the shock on Sohye’s face.

Hoseok sighed. “Jimin doesn’t want to tell you about this, but perhaps it’s time for you to know.”

Jin nodded, while the rest of the boys readied themselves for the things they were about to hear.

“Jimin didn’t know at first. He thought she was her real mother even though she was rarely there to take care of him,” Hoseok started his story. “But one day, he heard his parents fighting and his mother mentioning that he wasn’t her real child. That’s when Jimin realized why his mother never seemed to like his presence. He was just eight back then. He later knew that his biological mother left him when he was a baby. That she was just a woman whom his father spent his lonely nights with. A prostitute.”

“Fuck…” was the only word that escaped Namjoon’s mouth.

“That event changed him. He started to rebel against his parents, doing things he knew they hated. For him, it was a way of hurting them, a way of getting back.”

“His adoptive mother grew tired of him. To the point that she insisted they send him to a reform school. When that didn’t work out, she hired a psychiatrist who claimed that Jimin isn’t healthy. That he’s somehow crazy. They gave him meds and told his father that Jimin needed some help. His father, being the only one who cared for him, agreed. He was sent to a mental institution for troubled teenagers. That’s where I met him while I was on medication for my depression. We were released at the same time. They said we were already okay, but Jimin’s parents thought that if he continues to be friends with me, he might revert back to his old self.”

“You met Jimin in a mental institution?” Jin asked, surprised.

Hoseok nodded with a small smile on his lips.

Sohye stared at Hoseok in shock. V already told her that, but she wasn’t expecting that Hoseok was admitted in the same mental institution because of depression. Hoseok was such a bright lad. He always seems so happy, always smiling and laughing. It was hard to picture him that way.

‘Humans love ignorance.’ V’s words echoed suddenly in her mind. Perhaps, he was right.

Sohye thought Hoseok was okay because he was cheerful. She didn’t bother to look beyond that. Somehow, she was beginning to understand V’s point.

Now, she was beginning to see why Jungkook was hurt by Taehyung’s death. Like her, Jungkook thought everything was okay with Taehyung. He failed to see beyond the facade Taehyung put up with. He failed as a friend.

And it was not Jungkook alone who should feel guilty about it, but all of them.

The truth strikes Sohye harder than she thought. It was a slap in the face.

They all failed to save Taehyung. They all had the chance to save him, but they didn’t until it was too late.

Park Jimin! The name rang in her mind. She had been neglecting him these past days even though she knew he’s suffering from depression. What if it’s too late?

Without any second thought, Sohye ran off to Jimin’s house, mentally arguing with herself. How can she be so inconsiderate, leaving him behind all because she couldn’t sympathize with him?

She won’t forgive herself if anything bad happens to him.