Chapter 7
잡아줘 (Hold Me Tight)It had been two weeks since Taehyung had the talk with Hoseok in the classroom. He avoided them as much as possible and pushed them away whenever they tried to talk to him. Hoseok felt helpless; he couldn't get through to him. But all he knew was that he wasn't going to give up; he wasn't going to let him slip through his finger tips.
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It was Friday and Taehyung was starting to walk to the library for lunch time as per usual when he was slammed against the lockers "I'm sorry but homos need to pay to enter the library." Hyuk said with a voice full of fake sweetness.
Taehyung pulled out his wallet with shaky hands. He knew he couldn't refuse, if he refused they would still take his money but beat him up on top of that. There was no point. Jeongki snatched the whole wallet out of his hands, "You are just too kind Taehyungie!" he said with an exaggerated smile. "I hope your dad treats you well tonight." Jeongki gave a 'friendly' pat to Taehyung's shoulder which was really a hard smack. The group laughed before leaving Taehyung alone in the hall. Taehyung let out a sigh of relief, this was considered lucky for him. It was rare for Taehyung to only get his money taken away and to get less than ten hits.
When Taehyung was about to finish his way to the library he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. Taehyung flinched 'of course they aren't finished...' Taehyung thought to himself but he was surprised when a hit wasn't what greeted him but a sweet voice.
"It's okay Taehyung...it's Hoseok. I'm not going to hurt you."
Taehyung turned around to see Hoseok with a hopeful look in his eyes and the rest of his group behind him. "How about you sit with us? We really miss you..." Hoseok said softly.
Taehyung bit his lip "I already told you that I don't want friends." Hoseok visibly saddened and Taehyung had to look away. He felt terrible for treating him like this when he had been so nice to him but he just couldn't risk getting left behind later on.
"Taehyung, you can't do this to yourself. We're your friends; we miss talking to you." Namjoon spoke up from beside Yoongi.
"You can't keep using that excuse; you're not pushing us away because you don't want friends and we know it. You're pushing us away because you're scared. But you can trust us Taehyung. We're not going to leave you behind because you're our friend and we never, ever leave our friends behind. We promise." Hoseok said and Taehyung had never heard anyone sound so sincere before.
It was silent for a while; Taehyung didn't know what to do. He knew they were sincere but he also knew that they could change. There was no way he could be sure that they would be the same later on but they were right, he couldn't do this to himself. He couldn't live in fear. No one had ever been kind to him before them and he couldn't just let himself push them away. "I...okay." Taehyung said in a soft voice and was immediately engulfed in hugs.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Hoseok said happily and looked up at Taehyung with his beautiful smile "We'll never leave you Taehyung." Taehyung nodded as he blinked back the tears. For once in his life he felt loved and maybe just maybe he meant something.
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"Do you want to come sleep over at my house today? We all have sleepovers every Friday." Hoseok asked Taehyung once they were at the same spot that they had gone to before.
"Huh? What's a sleepover?" Taehyung asked shyly. He felt stupid for not knowing what a sleepover was. He expected them to laugh but they didn't, instead they nicely explained it.
"Ah it's basically when you come over to someone else's house and stay the night there. We usually watch movies and eat popcorn. It's really fun." Jin explained with a smile.
"But I totally understand if you can't because of your dad. We'll change the sleepover to a day you can." Jungkook added.
Taehyung's face darkened at that "What do you mean 'because of my d-dad'?" Taehyung couldn't help but stumble over the word 'dad'. He always had trouble saying that word because he couldn't possibly think of him as a dad. Dad's were supposed to be caring and supportive but his dad wasn't like that at all; he didn't deserve to be called 'dad'.
"I just meant you know..." Jungkook hesitated before continuing "how he's abusive towards you..." he finished off quietly.
"He's not a-abusive towards m-me." Taehyung mentally slapped himself, he hated how he always stuttered when he was nervous or lying.
"Taehyung...it's okay. We're not going to judge you." Jimin said comfortingly.
"He's not, 0-okay? Jeongki and all of them are lying... He loves m-me he would never do t-that."
"Taehyung...you don't have to lie to us. You can trust us." Hoseok said as he put a hand on his shoulder.
Taehyung took a shaky breath and stayed silent after that. "You can tell us these things; we're always here for you. Don't be scared." Yoongi said with a soft smile.
"Mm well...I'll let you know if I can." Taehyung said after a while.
"Okay. Can I see your phone to put our numbers in so that we can contact you?" Hoseok smiled.
"Ah...okay." Taehyung said handing over his phone for Hoseok to put his number in along with everyone else's.
"There you go. Now put your number in. I'll send it to everyone else later." Hoseok said, handing over his phone. Taehyung handed it back once he was done. This all seemed so surreal to him; he never thought that that he would be exchanging numbers with friends let alone have friends at all.
If this was a dream he hoped he would never wake up.
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It was 8:00 P.M and Taehyung was holding his breath as he cautiously made his way down the stairs.( Luckily, he hadn't gotten beat up too bad that night since Jin had given him the amount of money Jeongki had stolen when they found out. Taehyung had refused but they wouldn't let him so he was still able to get his dad the alcohol.) His dad was passed out drunk and Taehyung had decided to sneak out. It was the only way he would be able to leave the house and go to the sleepover. His heart was beating out of his chest; he had never done something like this before but he couldn't live in fear anymore. He had to take risks.
Taehyung let out a breath as he succesfully left the house. The tall boy reached into his pocket as his phone vibrated 'Are you sure you don't want me to pick you up?' the little screen read. Hoseok had asked about five times; he was worried about the brown-haired boy. Taehyung didn't have a license; there was no way his dad would pay for lessons and he didn't like the idea of him walking alone in the dark night.
Taehyung bit his lip, he really didn't want to bother him but if he asked five times already, he obviously wanted to pick him up. 'You can pick me up near the bench we sat at that one morning.' Taehyung responded.
'Okay! I'll be there soon. :D' Hoseok replied soon after. Taehyung waited at the bench and saw a car pull up less than five minutes later. "Hop in" Hoseok said with a smile after he rolled down the window.
Taehyung opened the car door and sat in the drivers seat 'His car smells nice...' Taehyung mused 'that's really creepy isn't it?'
"I'm really happy you could come." Hoseok brought him out of his thoughts.
"I'm happy too." Taehyung admitted, surprising himself.
"I'm happy your happy." Hoseok responded with a smile while keeping his eyes on the road.
"I'm happy your happy I'm happy."
"I'm happy your happy that I'm happy your happy."
"I'm happy that your happy I'm happy...wait what?" Taehyung said confused which just set them into a fit of giggles.
Hoseok was over the moon to hear Taehyung's laugh again "You're really cute you know that?" Hoseok commented making Taehyung blush a bright pink color. 'Oh no...I probably made him feel awkward didn't I? I shouldn't have said that. His blush is really cute though... Bad Hoseok.' Hoseok scolded himself in his head when Taehyung hadn't responded after a while.
"T-thanks..." Taehyung said softly, looking out the window to hopefully hide his blush. 'You're cuter though.' Taehyung thought to himself. Hoseok almost sighed in relief when he responded.
"No need to thank me. Just stating the truth." Taehyung felt like he was going to turn into a tomato from blushing so much "Ah we're here." Hoseok announced and Taehyung looked up to see a cozy looking house. Taehyung had never gone to someone else's house before and he was surprised he had made it this far. Taehyung felt his anxiety creep up on him and he looked down at his lap. "Hey...it's okay. It's going to be fun, alright?" Hoseok said, softly rubbing his back.
"Mm..." Taehyung hummed as a response and looked up from his lap with a small smile. It was going to be fun; he had come this far and he was going to enjoy it. This was all so new to Taehyung and it was both exhilarating and scary at the same time. But it was a risk Taehyung was going to take.
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Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Thank you all as always! Happy Valentines Day! c:
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