Taehyung
The next morning, Taehyung was awoken by the gasp of someone and the shift of the person next to him.
He and Jeongguk had fallen asleep on his bed, and they spent the night cuddling as they had before everything happened. Taehyung hadn't realized how much he missed being in Jeongguk's arms.
He forced his tired eyes open despite the headache he had developed during the night, mostly a result of him crying. When his eyes focused, he saw his parents in the threshold of the room. His father looked unfathomably angry, a vein popping out of his forehead. His mother had her hand over the lower half of her face, and he swore he saw shiny tears threatening to spill over her lower lashes.
He had been foolish, and now his parents knew he was gay. His life couldn't get much worse than this.
"You... you faggot!" his father practically shrieked, enraged. "I knew there was something wrong with you from the moment I saw him here." He pointed a sausage-like finger at Jeongguk, who was now standing next to the bed.
"Taehyung," his mother started, obviously emotional. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Taehyung wished he could disappear. He was still emotionally drained from last night, not to mention the impossible things he had been through in the last week. He pressed his eyes closed and simply shook his head slowly, not able to do anything more.
"Dad, please don't."
"Don't what?" his father replied. "You're sinning, and so openly at that! And don't pretend we haven't seen that tattoo on your chest! You became everything we told you not to."
Taehyung opened his eyes, allowing himself to look at his father. "Maybe I didn't want to be a boring, emotionally abusive ass when I became an adult. Maybe I wanted to accept people no matter what choices they made, because life is short and awful so we might as well enjoy what we can. The last thing I ever wanted was to be like you."
Taehyung was now sitting up straight, staring defiantly at his father, holding his angry gaze. His mother stared in fear at her husband, and her eyes told Taehyung that she was scared for her life.
"What did you do to mom?"
His father scowled. "This isn't about her. This is about you and the terrible decisions you've made."
Taehyung pressed his eyes closed again. His headache was only getting worse. "Can you leave?"
A low laugh met this. "And leave behind my faggot son?" He paused. "Maybe next time you're attacked, they'll actually kill you. They'd be doing me a favor."
Despite the deep, unforgettable pain that Taehyung felt deep in his chest at this comment, he said nothing. He would only make his father more enraged if he let his anger speak for him now. He just wanted his father to leave.
"Don't you dare come near him," Jeongguk snarled.
Taehyung opened his eyes slightly to see that his father was slowly approaching them, fists clenched. "If you lay a finger on him, I will kill you."
Taehyung could only watch as Jeongguk stood his ground, looking more furious than Taehyung had ever seen him before. His father approached slowly, until he stopped. Then, he grinned.
"After all these years, after all this money we spent on you to go to university-you repay us like this?"
"How can you say that to your own son?" Jeongguk finally flared.
His father shook his head, laughing manically. "This person is no son of mine."
Taehyung wasn't exactly sure what happened next. He had entered a sort of daze when he first saw his parents that morning, and it only increased with each second that ticked by. However, what he did know was that his father lunged at Jeongguk.
"No!" Taehyung and his mother both shouted, watching in horror as his father punched Jeongguk just above his jaw. Despite the loud thud it made, Jeongguk quickly wiped the blood from his freshly spilt lip and punched him back very hard. Taehyung's father hit the floor.
Taehyung had never seen this side of Jeongguk, and he didn't know if he was scared or impressed.
"That's what you get for being a shitty father and a shitty person," Jeongguk growled.
At that moment, a few doctors ran inside, one of them immediately calling security. The others began to tend to Taehyung's father.
"What the hell is going on here?" the female doctor shouted. She looked from Taehyung's father to Jeongguk before her eyes landed on Taehyung, who was cowering in the hospital bed. She then pointed to Jeongguk. "You! Out!"
Jeongguk turned around and shot a furtive, yet apologetic, glance at Taehyung before stepping over Taehyung's father's body and exiting the room.
After removing Taehyung's father on a stretcher, the doctor shut the door behind her and gazed at Taehyung. "Are you okay?"
Taehyung simply gazed back at her, dazed. Then, his body slumped back onto the bed, unconscious.
-
"You can't just punch people in this hospital, or any hospital for that matter!"
When Taehyung opened his eyes again, he saw Jeongguk was sat on a stool next to the door, the same doctor from earlier cleaning his busted lip.
"You didn't hear the awful things he was saying," Jeongguk prickled. "Besides, he punched me first."
"But you hit him back, no?"
Jeongguk mumbled something before turning his gaze downward, not even flinching as she cleaned his cut with a q-tip.
"You'll be fine, it's a minor wound," the doctor sighed. "Let us know when Taehyung wakes up, okay?"
"I'm awake," Taehyung said from the bed, his voice small.
"Oh, good. How are you feeling?" she asked. "I'm Doctor Jang, by the way."
"I'm okay," Taehyung replied. "My head really hurts."
"I'll get you something for the pain. Doctor Yeon would like to speak to you when you feel up to it, so just let me know whenever you feel well enough."
Taehyung nodded. "I'm ready now."
Doctor Jang gave him a small smile. "Okay, she'll be here soon."
Doctor Jang then got up and left, leaving Taehyung and Jeongguk alone once more.
"Are you okay?" Taehyung asked him.
Jeongguk laughed dryly. "You just went through all that and you're asking me if I'm okay?"
Taehyung shrugged. "I don't really think I've processed it yet. Besides, you took a punch for me."
Jeongguk's smile became genuine. "Of course I did. I would take a thousand punches for you." He then demonstrated his boxing skills by punching and blocking the air. "I've been practicing."
Taehyung chuckled. "It's very nice, Ggukie. Thank you for that."
Jeongguk opened his mouth to respond when the door opened, revealing Taehyung's mother in the frame.
Taehyung frowned. "What are you doing here, Mom?"
She simply looked at him, eyes hollow. "I wanted to see you without your father in the way."
"Just so you can get mad at me, too?"
She shook her head. "Can I come in?"
Taehyung nodded, and she entered the room, closing the door behind her with a soft click.
"You know that your father has always had some anger issues..." she told him. "I'm sorry for the way he talked to you. That was extremely inappropriate."
Taehyung gazed at her, wondering what she was getting at. She had always been notably homophobic in the past, but he knew that she loved him more than anything. He wasn't sure where this was going.
"So..." Taehyung started. "What? What are you trying to say?"
His mother simply looked at him, her lips pursed. "I don't know. I just wanted you to know that I don't think your father should've said any of that. So I guess I'm sorry things happened this way."
"Thank you for the apology," Taehyung told her, bowing.
His mother looked as if she wanted to say something else, but she didn't. She simply left the room.
It wasn't the bittersweet end he had expected, as he knew his mother still believed being gay was wrong, but at least she apologized for his father's behavior. It was a nice gesture, at least.
Taehyung couldn't wait to get out of the hospital and get back to his normal life, away from the constant berating and peering eyes of his parents and doctors.