(Long chapter, fam 3039 words~~~ Prepare yourself :3)
"I guess I will never have this again, even this precious time of loving you. I can't hold you within my memories, not even for a moment..."
~Broken Heart-Monsta X
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Inside the court, Taehyung had to go through a metal detector, and officers were going to pat him down. They did the same with Dr. Park, but by now, there was nothing on him that was illegal in any way, he'd thrown the evidence in the bushes, and chances were no one was going to find it.
There weren't any effects yet, he didn't feel much different besides feeling a little light headed, but it would come eventually. And when it does, will I die? Will that be it? Will it hurt?
While they were searching him for weapons, he cleared his throat, getting the officer's attention. The officer was a younger man, not a trace of grey in his hair yet like most of the police he'd dealt with, maybe he'd listen. Taehyung licked his lips before speaking, "That man I'm with, the doctor...he gave me too much medication, I'm going to--."
The officer smiled, "Hey, Hey, calm down, we already searched him, there's nothing on him like that, and he's your doctor, he wouldn't do that."
He doesn't believe me, he thinks I'm crazy, that I imagined it, that I'm just making things up. "No! You don't understand! He threw it before he came in, a syringe, you'll see it, it's in the lawn, just look for it, just check, please...!" Taehyung was on the verge of tears, the panic was setting in, he didn't know how much longer he'd be able to speak, able to move, able to do anything, he had to tell someone, and they had to find that syringe, he didn't care who.
The officer bit his lip, thinking it over, and Taehyung just stared at his eyes, taking in shaky breaths as he fought back the urge to cry, hoping he could see some kind of pity in them. He wanted pity, for the first time in his life, he wanted someone to pity him, just enough to believe him, just enough to do this one thing.
"What's your name?" The officer said eventually.
"K-Kim T-Taehyung."
There seemed to be some recognition in the name, his eyebrows raising. "The custody case... They're trying to prove you're sane..." He mumbled, scratched the back of his neck.
He doesn't believe me. He thinks I'm making it up. I'm going to die.
The young officer looked back and forth, looking around the small space. There didn't look to be anybody else, so he looked back at Taehyung. "Look, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, I'll look for it. It would be evidence, right?"
Taehyung's eyes widened. He almost didn't know what to say, but he managed a nod. This might not be in time for me to survive this, but at least...at least he won't get away with it, at least he can be charged with murder. That's good enough. Then if I die, it won't be for nothing.
"We're taking too long, if you're right, then he'll suspect something." The officer ushered him out of the room suddenly, shutting the door after Taehyung was out.
Taehyung was greeted with Dr. Park's smug look. He looked so pleased with himself, so pompous, so sure he would win, it was sickening. Why are you so willing to do anything? What's at stake? This can't just be to get back at Mrs. Park, it can't. There's more, there's got to be.
Dr. Park yanked Taehyung by the arm through the halls of the courthouse, the tall white pillars with gold etching marking the hall as if heading to someplace wonderful or sacred. Taehyung didn't know what to think about this place yet, how to feel about it, it could very well be the last place he would ever see, and he couldn't say yet if Dr. Park would be able to get away with this.
He led him into an elevator, and pressed the button for the fifth floor, the button lighting up as his finger left it. Taehyung glanced around the elevator, contemplating the escape toward the top of it, but he always came back with the question, what then? And eventually realized he couldn't do that anyway, he was already feeling weak. As soon as Dr. Park had injected whatever it was into his bloodstream, it began a countdown, there was nothing he could possibly do within the next 30 minutes that would make a difference.
On the fifth floor, Dr. Park pulled Taehyung out of the elevator, and Taehyung already knew where they were going, down the vast, empty hallway, he could see Mrs. Park, along with Jin, Jungkook, Jimin, Hana and her Family, and Kyung-mi with what looked like Min Yoongi, all of them wearing suits and formal wear.
He couldn't understand why Min Yoongi was here, but nonetheless, he felt a surge of what was either hope, or extreme sadness, perhaps a little happiness. He hadn't seen any of them in a month, and it seemed like the longest month he'd ever lived through. It hit how much he had missed them when he saw them, and suddenly he didn't even know what to think, or if he should say something.
Jimin had his head down, looking straight at his feet and nowhere else, his mouth set into a grim line, underneath his eyes looking dark, his regular demeanor gone, not even a trace of it was apparent on him. And it made Taehyung's heart constrict in his chest. Jimin, I miss your teasing, I miss your joking, I miss that light in your eyes. This is my fault, I caused this...
Hana was the first to notice Taehyung's presence in the hallway, frantically touching Mrs. Park's shoulder and pointing to Taehyung as he walked down the hallway towards them, being led along by Dr. Park.
Mrs. Park looked up, and immediately went right up to her Ex-husband, "You're an hour late, we're at intermission, if you're trying to stall for time--."
"Oh, Soo-young, I'm not stalling, Taehyung took a while to get...mentally ready. He has a very fragile condition, you know? It's very insensitive of you to bother him with his mental state." Dr. Park said, looking like he actually cared--acting like he actually cared.
"Bullsh*t." Mrs. Park said, then went to Taehyung, putting her hands on his shoulders, searching his eyes, "Are you alright, sweetie? I'm keeping my promise, I'm not going to let him win without a fight...Taehyung?"
He'd been blinking a lot, swallowing a lot, trying to hold back tears for a second. "Eo--Eomm--. I--." Sh*t. His tongue felt like it wasn't even his, like he had a rock in his mouth for no reason, it wasn't even working for him anymore, and now that he looked, he could see his hands at the very beginnings of starting to shake involuntarily.
"Mrs. Park, you should know better then to scare him with needless questions and false truths." Dr. Park said, yanking Taehyung's arm away from Mrs. Park.
"What the hell have you done to him?" Mrs. Park whispered, a fair amount of fear in her voice. "He barely looks alive, what on earth did you do to him?"
"Nothing, I assure you, Soo-young." Dr. Park said, before pulling Taehyung harder, toward the courtroom doors.
Lies, Lies, Lies, you're going to murder me.
Inside the court room was rows of backed Polished wood benches, all filled, people staring at him as he went past. He could hardly take in everyone that was there, Dr. Park pulled him right through all that and right toward the front, beyond a gate that someone in a uniform that looked police issue, but not quite, opened for him.
There were two thick wood tables on either side, and in front of him, what looked like a very high podium, along with a shorter one to the side that he could see a chair inside of.
He wasn't allowed a long look, Dr. Park pulled him to the right side of the room, where a man in a suit was sitting, looking over documents in a file with reading glasses hanging off the tip of his nose. Dr. Park made Taehyung sit in the chair toward the aisle, while he sat in the chair in the middle.
"Park, I could strangle you." The man with the reading glasses said, putting down the document, his voice rough and gravelly, and not all that pleasant to listen to, just the tone of it was intimidating. "Do you have any idea how hard is to clean up after you? You made me look like an idiot, showing up late as f*ck like this."
"Just make something up, say I was busy calming my mental patient down, he was... suicidal. Couldn't that work, Kwon?" Dr. Park said, smiling as he straightened his suit jacket.
"They're going to call him as a witness, all he has to do is say you lied, and that'll be thrown out the window." Mr. Kwon said with a sigh. "Their case is already good, we're losing this, the jury is already scrunching up their nose at you." He said, gesturing at an empty long oak divider filled with chairs. "Unless the kid says he likes to kill people in his spare time, you're screwed, you better hope they offer you an out. And if I was you, I'd take it."
Dr. Park smiled. "Have you stopped believing me too, Kwon? You think he's sane?"
For a moment, Mr. Kwon looked right at Taehyung, eyebrows knitting together in thought, "I've seen a lot of evidence I can't deny, Park."
Maybe Mrs. Park will win. Maybe it'll be okay. Then he realized that unless someone noticed how very sick he was feeling, or saw something wrong with how he was shaking in the next 15 minutes, he was going to die anyway. But...at least everyone will know, at least when I die, no one will think I'm crazy.
At least I won't ever have to see that white room again.
"Tae-Tae~!"
Taehyung looked back behind him where the voice was coming from, seeing Jae-hwa sitting in the front row of spectators, and his heart sank further. He already hated that she was calling him that, because as far as he knew, Jimin was the first person to ever call him that, and she had no right to so much as say it. I hate you, Jae-hwa.
She winked at him. "This is going to be fun."
Taehyung looked away, he didn't want to dwell on the fact that Jae-hwa was here, his head hurt too much already, his fingers feeling numb though they still shook. Looking to the other side of the courtroom, he could see Mrs. Park and Jimin being led beyond the small gate in the middle. Jimin still didn't look in Taehyung's direction, and Hana's father followed them through and over to the table on the other side of the room.
Beyond them, he could see everyone else sitting in the first row of spectators. Jungkook seemed to be having the same problem of making eye contact as Jimin, when their eyes met, Jungkook looked away, biting his lip.
"All rise." The man that had let them though the gate in the middle said.
Taehyung wasn't sure what that meant until everyone else stood, then he followed suit, though he realized upon trying to stand that his legs didn't want to stand anymore. So he used the table in front of him to help him a little.
A surprisingly tall woman with dark brown curled hair came in donning a black robe with a white long sleeved turtle neck under even though it was fairly hot. Or maybe That was just how Taehyung felt, his blood must be running through his veins like hot coffee, the way his whole body felt uncomfortably warm.
"You may be seated." she said, taking her seat beyond the tall podium. Taehyung nearly collapsed into the seat, and the judge watched him carefully for a moment. "I see you've decided to show up, Dr. Park, I'm sorry court is such a burden for you. Let's recap." She said, then looked over to the other side of the room at Mr. Lee. "The prosecution claims you're guilty of quite a few crimes, bribery, forgery, child abduction, assault-- but the last accusation, which I have seen a great amount of evidence for as of our recess, is an illegal drug you've been allegedly giving to a patient--All this out of a custody case, what is the defense's response?" The judge had a very to-the-point voice, there was no accent to any words, not stressing any word, no real emotion, she was just speaking. Plainly, slowly, like she had a lot of time on her hands and didn't care how long this took.
And I'm sitting here trying to keep track of this countdown until I die. 10 minutes, maybe less, probably less.
"The defense has no current response." Mr. Kwon said.
"The prosecution?" The judge asked.
"I would like to call Kim Taehyung to the stand." Mr. Lee said.
Taehyung blinked. He hadn't thought Hana's father was a lawyer, but then again, he'd never asked, it surprised him a little. The actual calling him to the 'stand' didn't surprise him, that was probably what they wanted to do all along, they were just waiting for me to show up. But I can't speak, my mouth won't work right, I feel sick.
The man in the uniform came up to Taehyung, looking down at him, waiting for him to get up. Taehyung grabbed the table again with shaky hands and stood up, he wasn't sure how he was going to walk, but the man in the uniform led him to the smaller podium--the stand. It sounded appropriate, what did people say, 'let's make one last stand' The officer led him to it carefully, a hand on either of his shoulders, that way Taehyung didn't have to work that hard to stay upright. Then, He helped him up to the shorter podium and to the seat.
It wasn't high, the floor of it maybe a foot above the regular floor, but Taehyung felt suddenly very dizzy sitting up there, like the room was spinning, blurring, blending. He wished he'd never gotten up, but there was nothing he could do about it, I have to be here. And from the way Dr. Park was smiling, he'd planned this, He wants me to die in front of everyone, have as many witnesses as he could, and probably claim it was a heart attack.
Taehyung looked to the man in the uniform that had helped him up, now standing in front of the podium and shoving a book toward him, Taehyung couldn't even read it, couldn't even hear what he was saying, though he seemed to be speaking loud. But the voice sounded muffled and foreign.
He heard the judge yelling something at him, probably to the tune of snapping out of it. I can't, I can't even hear, I don't know what you want me to do, I don't know, I don't know!
Taehyung rested his shaking hands on the ledge space in front of him, trying hard to at least understand.
But he couldn't, it was no use. I'm dying. There's nothing I can do about it, I'm dying.
He looked over to the side where Mrs. Park and Mr. Lee was, including everyone else he knew in the benches behind them, they all looked confused, they weren't sure what was wrong, they'd never seen him act like this.
Everyone of them was looking--except Jimin, Jimin was looking down at his lap, or the floor, he wasn't looking in anyway toward Taehyung.
Right around then, some kind of hope hit, a very last hope, Jimin had seen this before, he was with me when Kyung-mi made me overdose, he knows what this looks like, he could help, he could stop this.
If he would just look up.
He's not going to look up.
Look, Jimin! Just glance! Just a second!
Taehyung could feel his heart slowing, each beat getting further apart.
Jimin, Look! You're the only one who would know! Look!
Blood leaked out of the corner of his mouth, running down his chin. Jimin, please, it hurts, please...
He could see the Judge and the man in the uniform frantically asking him questions he couldn't answer, and right around then, Jimin looked up, his eyes widening, then he stood up, pushing the chair he was sitting in back so fast it fell backwards.
He turned to Mrs. Park, yelling something Taehyung couldn't hear, then pushing past the officer, and going right up to the podium Taehyung was sitting in, the whole of that seeming to happen in slow motion, as slow as his heartbeat, as slow as his eyes seemed to blink. Painfully slow as every fraction of a second, everything hurt worse.
Jimin went up to the stand and grabbed Taehyung by the waist, pulling him out of it, and sitting him on the floor and leaning him against the wall, trying to look in Taehyung's eyes. He looked like he was saying Taehyung's name, shaking him by the shoulders, his eyes wide and glossy with tears.
Then, like Taehyung had been underwater the whole time and suddenly got his head above water, he could hear.
"--You f*cking bastard!! You poisoned him, you son of a b*tch!! Murderer! Stop goddamn smiling!!" Mrs. Park was saying somewhere off in the background.
"--Order! Order!" The judge was saying.
"--Ambulance here right away, just f*cking get here!!" Jungkook was saying, probably on the phone.
Kyung-mi came running up, dragging Yoongi along with her, Hana following a little behind, and Kyung-mi looked like she didn't know what to say. Hana just stood back a bit, crying silently.
"Do you feel cold?" Yoongi asked, eyebrows meeting in the middle, the tone something he'd never heard out of Yoongi, something like he cared.
Jimin gave Taehyung's shoulders a shake when he noticed him starting to space out, "Tae, I swear to god, don't you dare close your eyes, don't you f*cking dare! Stay goddamn awake! Damn it, Tae! Don't do this! Don't..." The tears that had been welling up in Jimin's eyes finally spilled over, running down his face in streaks.
Even though he could hear the ambulance in the background, not far, he couldn't keep his eyes open, as much as Jimin begged, he couldn't do it, his eyes drifted closed, and as much as Jimin yelled at him, everything was already fading away.
Until everything became nothing, as empty and dark as outer space. As black as pitch, and without feeling, sound, or light.
This was it.
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A/N:
If it makes you feel any better.......
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The Book's not over yet O_O nOpE~ Hahahahaha, just like one chapter or so left though ;-;
My playlist hates me, but what else is new? It be like, 'Oh you're writing something emotional? Lemme play,
Butterfly-BTS
Tried to Walk - B1A4
Lost Stars - Jungkook
Broken Heart - Monsta X
I'm done with you too, playlist. \(^-^#)
~Neri~