SHE GOT AWAY
QUARTER ➅
"do you love my mama, taetae-hyungie?"
excuse moi? ano? (what?) chocking on his saliva, the said man's eyes widened as his heart suddenly made somersaults inside his chest and fighting the threatening tears to fall because of the sudden bomb question, had been difficult. "oh dear holy unicorns! are you okay hyungie?" taehyung coughed as yeon became alarmed, the older was unable to control his shock as he sat on the available bench to recover his composure.
god, i wasn't prepared for that. what does this cute little thing wants to do to me?
patting his chest to regain control, the man tried to control his nerves all while holding the snacks and ice cream they had managed to buy. "i-i'm okay" not. the younger followed suit to the older as he made himself comfortable on the bench and started patting the older's large back, "are you sure hyung?"
i'm sure, i'm sure i'm going to die with you and your mother's antics - your mother's oblivious-ness and you, my dear little-honey-patootie who's an ever curious boy who never fails to drop bomb questions. let me live, please.
"y-you were saying, buddy?" oh mother of gucci, let's calm down. taehyung inquired, hinting the younger to repeat what he had just asked. "h-hyung-" eyes lacing to taehyung's the younger kept on opening and closing his mouth like a fish a countless of times, taehyung was beginning to feel at the edge with all of the suspense that jinyeon had brought. mother gucci, have mercy on me.
"hyung" finally, the boy started as the elder's nerves started thrumming again, "yes?" taehyung was nervous, he didn't know how to explain himself once jinyeon asked him and dropped another bomb question again. the man waited as jinyeon's eyes broke the intense staring session and began fiddling on his fingers as if to distract him and his confused, young mind.
taehyung waited, letting the younger gather enough courage to ask but as one minute becomes two then three until it reached five minutes, taehyung got immensely worried, "hey," the older softly murmured as he gently carded his hand to the soft black locks of the younger, only to be soon met with the glazed eyes of yeon.
oh my guacamole— panic rising through his veins as he saw how the boy started crying out of nowhere, taehyung immediately brought the younger to his lap, shushing the unstoppable tears that continuously flowed in the smooth skin. "hey, it's okay yeon. you're okay" embracing the shivering small frame, taehyung felt an immense sense of overprotectiveness wash over his veins. the man almost wanted to cry himself for the sight of yeon crying made his mind run into turmoil.
"i'm scared . . . i—i don't want mama and papa to . . . divorce" eyes widening as taehyung sucked a bountiful of air, he had to let the words sink in. how come—how did he—
slightly pulling away but still maintaining his grip against yeon, the man cupped the child's small face against his large hands, wiped the tears that painted those pink cheeks and carefully worded his sentence as he kept his gazes fixed on the younger. "yeon, how did yo—"
an ugly sob, "m—mama and papa, i-i heard them . . ." fighting. "i—i overheard them, p—papa wants to l—leave mama cause he doesn't l—love—" doesn't love mama, anymore. tears burning at the back of his head, taehyung could read the little boy like an open book as he unravels. the older knew how yeon struggled to voice out the words, how painful it must've been to endure everything at such a young age. the man knew how scared the younger was to speak those dreadful words as it would only make the situation more real.
tears a pool in his eyes, the younger whispered as he continued speaking his heart out, "y—yeon tried to help." a hiccup and an ugly sob, "i—i tried everything i could do to not let them divorce, i—i gave papa letters to make him realize what he's g—going to lose is a gem, 'cause mama is a gem! a—and i thought i was doing good but then—then, they argued again this morning and i—" lips quivering as angry and hot tears rolled on his cheeks, yeon choked out an ugly sob as he couldn't help but hide his face against the crook of taehyung's neck. the older could only listen.
taehyung wanted to take the pain if only he could.
"it hurts hyungie" the younger drawled as taehyung felt his dress shirt getting wet "i—i love the m both and i don't want to lose any of them but i can't help but think that this is my—" fault? no, no, not that.
immediately cupping the delicate cheeks before placing a finger on top of those bit-swollen lips, taehyung could not bear to hear yeon blame himself, "no" the older murmured as he let the younger meet his determined ones. "none of this. . . " the man struggled, unable to word his phrase properly.
"listen, yeon." he'd continue urging the younger to take every word he's going to utter, straight inside his heart. "none . . ." taehyung breathed, lacing their foreheads together, "none of this is your fault, love"
blinking, the younger's conflicted eyed turned softer and taehyung couldn't help but break out into a heartwarming smile. "yes, none. none of this is your fault." he'd paused, "even i myself can't explain the reason why but, when you grow up, you'll understand. it's not my place to speak of how and why your parents are in that situation but one thing's certain . . ."
wiping the tears in the corner of his own eyes, the younger murmured. "what is?"
"i treasure you and your mama the most"
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blood.
again? eyes wide with fright as her heart hammered inside her chest, the woman saw a smear of blood painting her shaky hands the moment she retracted it from covering her lips when she was coughing.
this has been happening non-stop for almost three weeks.
the woman had been peacefully waiting for the return of taehyung and yeon from buying a couple of snacks and ice cream in her son's school playground, when she suddenly started coughing badly and had to excuse herself on the bathroom. furiously wiping the blood in her cheeks and washing her hand to remove all traces of the blood, the woman marched to where she was supposed to wait for the duo.
this day is supposed to be spent happily. i have no time worrying over such trivial things, yeon must be happy today. yeon must have his well-deserved treat since he was the cream among the crop in his class and tomorrow . . . tomorrow's going to be the end of us. regaining composure as she sat diligently, she tried to diverge her attention away from her conflicting thoughts . . . only to fail miserably.
tomorrow's the day, tomorrow's going to be the end . . . of us.
us? was there even an us? remembering the way they first met, jiho couldn't help the lump from forming in the depths of her heart. tomorrow, tomorrow everything will be put to an end and what would only be left of the 'us' are memories. staring into the void, jiho didn't even notice a pair of worried eyes looking up to her as she coughed once more, blood shedding on her palms. memories, that's all we're gonna be.
"mama?" flinching as reality pulled her, she felt little fingers tugging the hem of her white long-sleeve dress shirt and almost immediately, she wiped the red stain, pretending as if nothing ever happened.
"y—you two are back? i thought i was going to wait a decade" dodging the question from the boy as she diverged the topic and tried to make the mood comedic, she let out a dry chuckle but yeon had none of it.
"mama, are you okay?" the little boy spoke with his wide doe eyes and jiho's heart couldn't help but melt at the adorable sight. "are you tired?" lips tight into a pout as his brows furrowed, the boy's face was contorted into worry and jiho couldn't help but lace her hand to yeon's small once, giving it a reassuring squeeze before gracing him a smile.
"of course not, love. mama's okay" lie. deep-down her thoughts jiho knew something was completely wrong with her body. for the past few weeks, even before the fourteen days started, she had been coughing up blood. the woman thought that it might be just a cough, that it would eventually pass and it was nothing serious. jiho had initially wanted to go meet a specialist but she was always occupied with something else (cough, stress and the cheating husband incident)
"you sure?" "yes, my little munchkin now i give me my ice cream before i die of starvation! i waited like a decade, you two are such slowpokes"
"such a drama queen, you dweeb" taehyung rolled his eyes as he murmured and with pouty lips, sat beside the woman. jiho couldn't help but let out a contagious giggle that brought sunshine. "point given hyung! we were only away for a couple of minutes that doesn't count as a decade!" chuckling with yeon's adorableness, jiho brought the kid to sit on her lap as she cuddled the said boy, blowing raspberries against his neck and earning a cheerful laughter.
a huff, "yah" the deep voice echoed as he rolled his eyes and sat beside jiho on the bench, "and like, we were gone for only a couple minutes. you're over-exaggerating it" the man handed jiho her chocolate ice-cream and the woman murmured a small thanks before breaking into a contagious smile as her eyes trailed on her watch and remembered their bet. i've won you big bear cub.
"you gucci-man owe me! we had a bet, pay up you doofus" jiho couldn't help but flash out her teasing smile as she stretched her hand and offered it to taehyung.
"what?! i thought-"
"a bet?" jinyeon murmured before scooping another spoonful of his vanilla ice cream, his innocent eyes blinking twice.
jiho nodded, chuckling. "you see honey, me and your hyungie had a bet, he said both of you'd be able to get back within fifteen minutes and you two came back like-" checking her watch, the woman beamed. "-an hour later?"
"oh" the little boy spoke and jiho couldn't help but coo, "yeah. oh so-"
"but—" the younger among the tree tried to reason out, only to be shushed by his own mother. "oh! instead of giving me the money, you should buy yeonnie his favorite iron man action figure!"
eyes glistening with excitement, the younger's eyes trailed from jiho to taehyung then to jiho and taehyung almost like a minute as if assessing the situation and then finally breaking into one of his hugest grins and jumped all around taehyung, "will you?! will you, hyungie?! you totally lost the bet so you should buy me! buy me! buy me the action figure, please please! pretty please?!"
this rottenly beautiful and cute and lovely— groaning in displeasure, taehyung could only comply. "fine, fine. i'll get it but—" there was a pause, "your mama should hug me first" what?! this deceitful gucci obsessed man! jiho wanted to scream in embarrassment but before she could do so, her son almost immediately agreed.
"mama will do it!" cheeks reddening, jiho could not believe how jinyeon could easily buy her just to have his iron man action figure. this little monster— "yah! don't i get to say if i even consent—" faster than the breeze, jiho soon found herself in the arms of taehyung as she sat frozen and stoic.
warmth enveloping her skin, the world seemed to stop all at once and jiho could only feel and hear the way her heart hammered inside her chest.
"i've got you, jiho. such a strong mother, such a strong woman, so good to all of us" at the mention of those words, the woman's heart couldn't help but melt into a puddle. strong? as if taehyung had heard the inside of her thoughts, "you've been so strong" jiho felt reassurance ran on her skin with the way taehyung carded a hand on her raven hair and soothingly gave encouraging strokes.
sucking a bountiful of air, jiho couldn't help her eyes from being glossy. everything felt so warm, she felt loved and cared for, with just a simple hug, her worries, pain and stress seems to dissipate into thin air.
jiho could stay that way all day . . . if it weren't for one simple incident.
"you slut!" heart dropping as she suddenly felt all the warmth being snatched away from her, the next thing she could feel is a hand meeting her cheek. the shooting pain of a thunderous and unforeseen slap made her stumble on her seat. taehyung was too shocked to response while yeon was trying to process everything.
mrs. ayame min – jeon? mother – in – law?
eyes wide in shock as her hand tried to soothe the way her skin throbbed with the sudden impact, before she could even regain control on her terrified state, she felt a harsh grip tug on the roots of her hair and soon enough only the anger-filled scream could enter her ears. "how could you?! how could you do this to my son?! after everything . . . after everything that jeongguk had done for you, you turn your back on him?!"
bewildered, jiho couldn't find it in herself to decipher where mrs. jeon was coming from, where was all the hatred rooted on. a lot of question ran unstoppable in her mind as she seek for answers, why is she here? why is she mad at me? what did i do? what—
"you're not even contended on seducing and ruining my son when he was such a foolish young man and now, in the broad daylight i see you flirting with some try-hard guy" pausing as the older woman eyed taehyung who was in shock too, "—and what's even worse is you're doing this ungodly acts in front of my grandson?! how dare you, you slut!" the woman continued as she screamed on top of her lungs as she caused an entire scandal inside yeon's school, attracting a lot of gossip-hungry-mothers as they started to flock the scene and whispered against themselves.
frightened and speechless, jiho put two and two together. you're accusing me of ch—cheating to jeongguk? jiho had wanted to explain herself but before she could do so, another harsh tug on her hair made her thoughts into turmoil.
tears a pool, "mama! let my mama go!" yeon cried, determined on pulling the iron hand that held his troubled mother but mrs. ayame could only see red as she pushed yeon to the ground, jiho felt her heart ripping into two at the sight as breathing slowly became difficult. "yeon!"
snapping out of his shocked state, taehyung picked yeon and cradled the weeping younger on his arms as an insurmountable amount of anger seeped into his veins. "you're cruel! how could you do this to your own grandson?!" he growled only to be refuted back. "shut up! this is none of your business you pompous fool! you home-wrecker!"
pulling the strands of jiho's hair, the younger tried to peel of the tight grip against her hair. "you have the audacity to bring your man in this event! how disgusting! you were never deserving of my son, you slut!" at the mention of those words, anger started boiling on her skin, now i'm the one who's in the wrong? after everything . . . after every heartache and—
"who are you to tell that to my mother!? mama is not the one who's at the wrong! it was papa! papa was the one who—" harshly letting go of jiho as if she was just a trash, the older marched towards taehyung and tried to get the child all while jiho was getting dizzier and dizzier by the second.
"what are you doing!? let go of yeon!" the man tried to shield the persistent hands only to be slapped with the harsh reality and stopped with the guards that escorted jeongguk's mother, "give me my grandson, you outsider!"
"no! put me down! put me down! i don't want you! let go of me, you monster!" yeon struggled in the arms of his grandmother as tears ran down on his pink cheeks.
vision hazy and consciousness almost slipping away with how hard it was to breathe, jiho felt her heart clench with sadness. no, i must get up. she's going to take away my son, no, no. take everything else away . . . just not yeon. not my son!
"mama!" an ugly and sad scream escaping on yeon's lips, jiho forcefully stood up to try and get yeon despite her disappearing grip to her surroundings, "let go of yeon!" she choked out, reaching out to touch the little hands of yeon . . . only to be held back by the men in black.
"mama! mama! no!" the desperate screams of yeon echoed in jiho's ears, the woman desperately wanted to knock everything away. no, no. no! as much as the mother wanted to run and take her son, the unflinching hold of the men who had her captive was one thing she couldn't get pass through.
"no, please." yeon, yeon. don't take him too, i've lost more than enough. yeon is the only thing left to me,no – she cried as her eyes started to become droopy, her legs and knees giving out on her as she couldn't breathe anymore.
"jiho!" yeon, no—jeongguk— the last thing she had in mind before everything becameblack was the image of his beloved husband walking away with her mistress and atear-stricken yeon desperately calling out to jiho.