He felt oddly out of breath. Normally, he could breath fine, but ever since he returned from his trip to visit his mom and siblings (which had been two days ago), Taehyung had been feeling worse for wear. As he danced with the other guys, he tried to keep himself from falling to the ground to rest, but his eyes started to seem blurry.
Just when they were about to finish, his legs gave up from under him and he fell to the floor. All activity in the room stopped as the other guys rushed to him. Jimin and Jungkook helped him up.
"I'm fine." he said, though his words came in pants.
"What's wrong?" Yoongi asked. "Does something hurt?"
He shook his head, thought that was the greatest lie he had told so far. His outsides hurt as well as everything inside. It was really all he could do to keep himself from vomiting and passing out. The manager was in front of him before he even knew what was going on. He lifted his head a little and examined him, then he took out his phone and put it on his ear.
Taehyung didn't know what happened next because his will was overpowered by his drowsiness.
...
When he woke up, he was on a hospital bed. His head ached, and his body protested as he tried to sit up.
"Ow!" He hissed as he laid back down to stop the throbbing pain in his head.
"Thank goodness!" He heard a vaguely familiar voice exclaim. "He's awake."
He heard a bunch of shuffling and before he knew it, he was surrounded by a bunch of people. He recognized all of them. Six of them were the other Bangtan Boys and the other three were his mom, sister, and brother.
"What happened?" He asked.
"You passed out during practice," Jungkook said. "You've been out for two days."
"I probably just overworked myself," he chuckled. "I'm fine."
"No, you didn't over work yourself," said another voice. One that sounded like his manager. "You had a slightly broken rib which was slightly poking your lung. What happened during your break Taehyung."
He bit his lip and shared quick glances with his mother and siblings.
"I took my brother rock climbing," He told the manager. "I slipped and fell a couple of times and I must have injured myself and not noticed."
The manager looked at Daehyun with a raised eyebrow.
"Is that true?" Daehyun nodded, though he avoided eye contact. "Ma'am."
His mother grabbed his hand and squeezed it, but she nodded all the same.
"Sir?"
His heart race picked up. His step-father had been in the room all this time. If he had slipped in the slightest, Taehyung didn't want to know what his step-father would have done.
"Yes."
"Very well," the manager said. "Taehyung, you'll go home with your parents for two weeks, but you'll have a lot to catch up on when you return."
His heart rate started speeding up again, causing the guys to frown. That damned heart machine...
"You okay, V?" Nam-Joon asked.
"Y-yeah." He smiled. "Just happy I get to spend some more time with my family."
The guys smiled, but his mother and siblings could barely force a twitch of the lips. He looked at his step-father who stood behind the guys and glared at Taehyung discretely. He looked away from his step-father and instead looked at his mother who leaned down to kiss his forehead. His younger sister laid down next to him and hugged his waist. His brother sat on the edge of the bed.
"Let's go," the manager finally said. "You six still have some preparations to do for the next event. We still have to rearrange the changes since Taehyung won't be able to assist."
The guys groaned and whined about wanting to stay with Taehyung longer, but they gave up when he told them that he wanted to be alone with his family for a bit. They bid him farewell in their own little way. Jin ruffled his hair, Hoseok pinched his cheek, Jungkook simply patted his shoulder, Jimin patted his belly a few times, Suga ordered him to get better soon, and Nam-Joon tried to give him a half-hug.
"You better heal fast," he said. "Because the event after this one is mostly full of your fans."
"What?" Taehyung asked.
"We gave a quiz during every online ticket purchase to see which members they were hoping to see," Nam-Joon explained, "and you were the one selected the most for two events. Jungkook won the other four, but that's because he's the maknae."
Taehyung stared at Nam-Joon like he was crazy. "But I was the last one to be presented."
"But you gain popularity the fastest." Nam-Joon ruffled his hair. "See ya later, kid."
The six guys walked out the room after yelling a 'get well soon' and the manager shut the door after himself after wishing Taehyung good luck in his recovery. When everyone was gone, his step-father scoffed.
"You actually have fans?" He asked in disgust.
"Not a lot," He stated carefully. "Jungkook has more than any of us."
"Pathetic," his step-father sneered, "you can't even do this right. Always last in everything."
"Honey," his mom said, voice feeble, "he's doing his best. You heard what Nam-Joon said. He builds popu-"
"Did I ask for your opinion?" He hissed.
His mom pursed her lips and looked away from him in fear. Taehyung balled his fist and tried to sit up, but his sisters grip on him tightened and his brother held his fist down. Taehyung took in a deep breath and calmed himself. In his state, he knew very well that he couldn't do anything to him.
...
He stared blankly at the wall across from him. His stay with his parents had gone from bad to worse as soon as he had stepped into the house soon after his release. He sighed and turned his head away from the wall as he swallowed his saliva. After staring at the ground for a few seconds, he got up, pulled the hood of his black jacket over his head, and began his walk home. Along the way, he picked up a stick which he grazed on a wired fence.
When he came across an empty can, he knocked it down with the stick and allowed the stick to fly from his hand. He tucked both his hands into his pockets and continued to walk. Occasionally he looked back over his shoulder, just in case a fan decided to follow him or someone for that matter. Thankfully, the sidewalk was empty except for himself.
When he arrived at his front door, he hesitated a bit but pushed the door open anyway and walked in. The first noise that reached his ears was a soft whimper. Cautiously, Taehyung inched towards the door that led to his step-father's "man-cave" and peeked in through the slightly opened door. His mother stood in front of his step-father, her hand covered one cheek and her lips were pursed as if to keep a cry from coming out.
Taehyung's step-father took a step toward his mom, grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her violently before slapping her once again. He couldn't hold it in anymore. His vision turned red as he grabbed an empty beer bottle from the table next to him. He pushed the door wide open, and raised his arm as he grabbed the disgusting man by one of his shoulder and brought the glass bottle down on his head.
He was breathing heavily as he backed away from his step-father, bottle still in hand, but more anger took over him. The pent up pain and suffering that his step-father had caused him since he was ten finally showed its ugly face and washed over the rational side of his brain. He felt like he was moving in slow motion he lunged himself at the excuse of a man that stood in front of him. Without thinking, Taehyung dug the broken bottle into the man's side multiple times, blood gushing out from the multiple wounds he had made.
His hands, shirt, and cheek were covered in blood when his mother pulled him away from the man. Once he realized what he had done, the bottle slipped out of his hand and fell to the floor, shattering in a hundred pieces upon impact on the hard and cold cement floor. In a numb sort of trance, Taehyung took short steps backwards until his back hit the wall. He slid down, eyes not tearing away from the unmoving figure on the floor.
His actions and their results finally sunk in, his hands grabbed his head as he began to cry in fear of what the consequences would be for him and his mother. His mother, also crying, sat next to him and tried to hug him. She grabbed his head and forced it upon her chest as she had done so many times when Taehyung was younger to protect him or give him a sense of security.
"Taehyung," she said, "Honey, it'll be alright. It's okay, Taehyung, it's going to be okay."
But no amount of comfort could fix what he had done. He felt out of breath, and the more he tried to grasp at air, the less he could. He pushed his mother away as gently as he could and stood up. He ran out of the house as fast as he could, and he eventually found himself in an abandoned shoe factory. He ran in and ran around randomly until he found the darkest section. He leaned on a wall and slid down. The shock of the crime he had committed returned to him and he began to cry again.
Once he calmed down, he noticed a half empty water bottle on the floor. He grabbed it and poured the water on his hands to try to clean them of the blood they had on them although V knew that noticeable or not, the blood would always be on his hands. He scrubbed them on his shirt and his chin, but bits of bloods would not come off. In a fit of frustration, Taehyung threw the water bottle as far as he could and took out his phone.
He called the first person he could think off, the person who he saw as an older brother to him. The phone rang a couple of times, until a deep voice answered in a worried tone.
"Hello,"
"Hyung," Taehyung replied, his voice cracking. "I need to see you, hyung."
"Where are you?"
And as best he could, Taehyung gave him directions on how to get to where he was. After an hour or two, he heard his phone go off, and footsteps in the next hallway. Not long after, Nam-Joon stepped through the opening leading to where Taehyung sat.
"What happened?" Nam-Joon asked.
Taehyung looked at him numbly. "I-I killed someone."
"I know what you did to your dad, Tae," he said. "Why?"
Taehyung looked away. "He hurt her."
"Explain to us what happened when we get to the dorm."
Nam-Joon took of his jacket and wrapped it around Taehyung. He wrapped one arm around his shoulder, and used his free hand to hold onto his arm in order to hoist him up. Together, Taehyung and Nam-Joon walked out of the abandoned building and towards the taxi that had brought Nam-Joon to his friend.
Throughout the ride, Taehyung stared at the passing objects and people while Nam-Joon stared at him occasionally in worry. When they arrived at the dorm, Nam-Joon paid for the ride and pulled Taehyung out the car and into the dorm. The five guys in waiting were sitting around the living room with worried looks on their features. As soon as Taehyung and Nam-Joon stepped through the threshold of the door, their heads snapped to look at them.
The first to snap out of his stupor was Jin. He took Taehyung from Nam-Joon's grasp and lead him to the couch where he sat him down. He left to the kitchen only to return with a bowl of warm water and a rag.
"Do me a favor, Tae," Jin asked. "Take of your jacket and your shirt."
As if in a trance, Taehyung obeyed Jin and gave him the blood stained clothes.
"Jungkook, could you...?"
Jungkook nodded as he took the clothes from Jin only to return with one of Taehyung's clean shirts. Once he put it on, Jin dipped the rag into the water and tried to clean the blood off Taehyung's face as best as he could.
"What happened, Tae?" Jin asked softly.
"We don't like rock climbing." He stated softly.
"What?"
"My brother and I," Taehyung said as he shifted his gaze to meet Jin's. "We're afraid of heights. The simple thought of going rock climbing scares us."
"Then why did you take him rock clim-" Hoseok didn't have the chance to finish his question.
"I didn't." Taehyung looked away once more. "I lied. He forced me to. I was afraid of what he would do."
"What?" Nam-Joon sighed. "Taehyung, you're not making any sense."
"The man I ki-killed." He swallowed. "He's not my dad. At least not by blood. My real dad died when I was ten while he was serving time in the army. Something happened at the base he was in and he died with some other men. I tried to help my mom out by getting odd jobs, but I couldn't do much because of my age. She married soon after my dad's death because she couldn't work either since she was expecting my little sister."
"The guy I killed is the guy she remarried with." Taehyung swallowed. "He was nice for a few weeks, but eventually, he began abusing all of us. To keep me and my siblings quiet, he threaten to kill my mom, and to keep my mom quiet, he threatened to kill us. So when I walked home today and saw him hitting her again, I don't know what took over me."
He looked up at the guys' horrified faced.
"I grabbed an empty beer bottle and hit him on the head with it," he swallowed. "And after that, all I saw were little scenes of his abuse. I remembered when he hit my mom when she was still pregnant with my sister, how he put my brother in a coma for a week and blamed it on me, how he almost raped my sister, how he tried to drown me, how he manipulated all of us into staying quiet. I realized I had had enough. I stabbed him once to scare him, but I couldn't control myself...I-I didn't-I wouldn't have-I just-I don't..."
Jin forced Taehyung's head on his shoulder. "It's okay, Tae, we understand.
"Hold on," Jimin held his hands up. The shock of everything probably not sinking in. "So, your back and your rib...it was caused by your step-father?"
Taehyung nodded. "That's why my heart raced at the hospital."
"What happened after you were released?" Yoongi asked, tone stating he almost didn't want to know.
"He took no pity." He replied.
"That's why you didn't want to go home on your break." Nam-Joon realized.
"He was pissed." Taehyung recalled. "I told him I had forged his signature as well as my mom's because if he knew she was in on it..."
"You did what you had to do, Tae," Jungkook said. "Your job was to protect your family, and you did it."
"Does the manager know?"
The six guys nodded.
"He's watching us as we speak." Jin looked over his shoulder to a corner in the room and then looked back at Taehyung. "The police is also waiting for the company to turn you in."
Taehyung pursed his lips and nodded. Then his eyes widened and his head snapped up.
"My mom," He said, "Where is she? Is she okay? Did I get her arrested?"
"No," Jungkook reassured him.
"From what we know," Nam-Joon said, "she told the police that you acted on self-defense."
Taehyung nodded.
Jin patted his back gently and pulled him up. He told him to go get some rest, and led him to his room. Not bothering to change out of his clothes, Taehyung climbed to his bunk and laid numbly until he fell asleep.