HE SAW HER on the news recently. Briefly, but she caught his eye.
Bright, ginger hair; dull, dark eyes; pale, freckled face. Nineteen. Kidnapped and raped for four years in Daegu. Managed to escape with her three-year-old son.
Devastating, he thinks. A full-fledged trauma.
Meanwhile, he laughs with a carefree air, deciding that those depressing matters won't chain his mind and endlessly sadden him, just so long as he can live his own life. He knows this sounds selfish, but he also knows that these tragic things unfortunately happen to people every day. When he thinks about it like that, the world suddenly becomes too large for him to breathe and live, and he really doesn't want to live every day with a soul too drained to keep moving forward. To him, the least he can do is live thankful that he hasn't experienced the worst of the world.
And hopefully never will.
Soon, he forgets about what he saw on the news once and moves on. Slows down. He breathes in deeply through his nose.
He sits on a park bench with his head tilted up high, reveling in the still air. No breeze. The flaming sky is clear, the evening is quiet, and the streetlights flicker on as the sun gracefully sets behind him. The stars peek out through the orange paint like little lights through blanket holes when you kick it up in the air and lock your legs in place.
"God's masterpiece," he sighs, smiling with his eyes fluttered closed.
She has such a hard time.
Judgmental gazes plague her life. Being born unwanted and having to live constantly pitied in society forces her to stitch the corners of her lips up, smiling through it all. Whenever she wants to break, she pulls the thread and smiles again. "It's getting better," she says to herself. Something always cracks inside whenever she says that.
She holds onto his small hand, thumbing over his ever-growing palm, letting go for a moment to let him free. Her child races no one with stubbly legs to the swings. She trails behind him as she thinks to herself. It is a rare sight to see him so eager to explore since he loves tight spaces and enclosed areas.
Where he feels safe.
"Mama!"
Her hands find her arms at the sudden chill that courses through her body. There's no wind around. She just suddenly, painfully remembers that she is a mother.
An unfit, unready mother, just barely holding on to get up every morning to give her child breakfast and work to earn the money for the food, the books for him to read, and everything else, so that her life now revolves around him in hopes that he will grow up to be a normal, healthy, appreciative child with a bright future.
There sits a stranger on the bench, a human she wants to ignore. "Orion," she hears him mutter.
His voice thrums low against his throat and causes a disturbance inside her.
A man.
"Mama!" Jihoon shrieks excitedly again.
The stranger's eyes crack open to roll his head to the side. His entire face brightens at the sight of a small child, who can't be more than three years old, kicking his little legs on the swing with little patience to his mother's lethargy. Adorable.
A tiny being with rosy cheeks, peculiar eyes, and chubby fingers. Baby feet. High-pitched voice.
"You're a beautiful thing," he says out loud, standing up and glancing at the child's mother, as if to ask permission to play with her child, when he stops. His smile freezes on his face.
What he sees isn't a mother, but a girl— a young girl who has seen motherhood too soon, with trembling arms wrapped around herself and eyes focused on her feet. Bright, ginger hair; dull, watery, dark eyes; pale, freckled face.
It wracks his brain.
It scares her, the way he's looking at her, scrutinizing her like he's trying to piece together a frustrating puzzle. I'm terrified enough, she thinks.
With one more look, he mutually gazes at her and can see the wear and tear. Clear as day. The guilt, the pain, the father, the shame, the daily life— completely different from most of those her age.
She's knackered down beyond relief, a faint smile gracing her lips to force a mask poorly hiding her shame and fear. He offers a smile of his own, also forced, just to pretend he didn't nearly give her a pitying look earlier. Then they both look down at their shoes, as if they're the most interesting things in the world.
Jihoon, ignorant of this tense exchange, hops on his seat, trying to swing on his own with no success. Blowing a raspberry, his doe eyes start to glower at his mother. He hates it
when she's deathly still... like a lifeless statue.
"Ma," he whines for her for the third time. She blinks at the ground.
Slowly, she walks over to him, wary of the man now openly staring at them. He doesn't mean to come off as creepy or dangerous— although any typical person would view this as endearing, with his growing smile at the small child that crinkles his eyes in a pure way— but she's not in her right mind.
She refuses to look his way when she feels his eyes on her, as she awkwardly pushes her son's back and watches him swing, gradually pushing him harder for him to fly up higher.
And he soars up and away.
But he always comes back down to meet her.
Taehyung's eyes crinkle again, the urge to approach them getting stronger by the second. He doesn't want to alarm her, but he subtly wants her to get the message that the worst in her life is more than likely over. That she's going to be okay. That she shouldn't stay in the past, however much it blatantly appears to sting her.
He doesn't really know how, though. He doesn't want to come across as insensitive.
His hands fall limply at his sides. But his back doesn't rest on the metal behind him. He's still thinking, wracking his brain over this, and then his attention instantly shifts when the child swings a little too high.
Jihoon screams, and something about the tone of it is off. The mother freezes.
Taehyung flies off his seat and holds his arms out, as the child lets go of the chains, just as he suspected.
Nari rushes over a second later, mentally shrieking in horror at her hesitation. Jihoon plunges into Taehyung's arms, safe, if not a thrill's breath from wailing, his little heart shooting up his throat. Taehyung rocks the toddler, brows knit in concentration, gently cooing at him before he lets out a sound between weeping and laughter.
"I am so sorry," Nari wails out, breathless in mind-numbing fear. "I don't even— I can't believe—"
"It's okay," Taehyung assures her softly. He swears he can hear her heart beating rapidly from where he's standing. "Everything is okay."
Jihoon peers up at his saviour, a comforting coat in his feeble grasp. The stranger's presence is so warm against him, so secure and rigid, and so different from his mother's touch.
With trembling hands, Nari meets him halfway. Taehyung's arms stretch out with her child, and she brushes hands with him. She shivers, teeth clamped together, as she forces a small, "Thank you."
"It's nothing," he says, keeping a fond gaze over Jihoon. "How old is he?"
No.
She can't think of doing this, of keeping up a conversation like this. But he did just save her child from harm, possibly hospitalization.
"Three years," she replies faintly.
"He's so cute." Taehyung's head tilts from side to side, entertaining the baby. "What's his name?"
"It's... Jihoon."
"Ah, hello Jihoon-ah."
She peers up at the sky. The fiery orange flames have cooled into the night, and she bites her lip at how summer's bright edge is fading into the chilly autumn, where the days get shorter and the darkness comes quicker. And winter, her least favourite season, rolls in next. With glowing, haunting snow.
"Are you okay now?"
She thinks the question was directed at her son, but instead, she glances up and meets his eyes. Fear creeps into her body once again. She's unable to speak.
He's... nothing like she's ever seen. And like nobody she's ever met either, for that matter.
His gaze is piercing and direct, but warm and earnest. It's like his face rests in a smile, his large cat-like eyes always slightly crinkled, sparkling with curiosity and interest. His expressions seem boyish and innocent, never presumptuous or pretend.
But most of all, Nari wonders if he's ever seen her on the news before, or heard about her. She's aware she is a big topic going around the country. To everyone, she's a walking true crime survival story.
She despises going out to the big city for that very reason.
Taehyung steps back, giving her space. He can be a little dense sometimes, but right now, he notices every little reaction the young woman would make. She's so uncomfortable. A part of him wants to get to know her better, even though it's not his business at all. A part of him is honoured to meet her.
"What's your name?"
She shuts her eyes so that she can breathe. It's a simple question she can answer. She doesn't have to think too deeply about it. "Nari," she tells him. "Eleanor Lee. Lee Nari."
"Eleanor?"
"My— my father, um... is from the United States." She can barely think, much less speak. "That's my English name."
"Pretty," he says earnestly. "My name is Taehyung. Taehyung Kim. Kim Taehyung."
For the first time since she was freed and had to talk to men, she laughs briefly at him. It startles her more than it startles him, and it soothes Jihoon more than anything to hear his melancholy mother let out a sound that can make a heart flutter.
For a moment, Lee Nari feels a little at ease.
It's a beautiful thing.
//
a teenage mother with a fear of men meets a man who loves children.
『 started: III.XXIII.MMXVII.
completed: 』
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STATUS—REWRITING PROCESS
NOTE—hello!! i am an aspiring writer who dabbles with kpop fries on the side. it's a large side of fries.
this story will contain mature themes and explicit content such as rape, death, violence, trauma, and family issues. it'll also have light comedic relief, some romance, a teenage mother, a cute little child, a man-child, and a lot of fun stuff.
njoi! ╰(*'︶'*)╯♡
- elmisa
IMPORTANT UPDATE—I AM REWRITING THIS I REPEAT IT'S IN THE PROCESS! you will notice if a chapter's not rebooted if the chapter title is not numbered; otherwise, they are still available for you to read if you want lol. but the old chapters WILL die i'm sorry.
thank you to anyone who's been sticking around since its first draft! please note, there will be many, MANY changes to the story!!!
DEDICATED TO—my friend who nari is based on. he will never read this but ok.
FEATURED PROTAGONIST:
「 LUCA HOLLESTELLE as LEE NARI 」