Jisoo squirmed in her sleep, trashing around as nightmares flooded through her mind. She’d been getting nightmares more frequently these days and it scared her how she couldn’t run away from the past no matter how hard she tried. Her eyes were shut tight and beads of sweat ran down her forehead as she tried to fend off the nightmare.

“You !” he snarled, kicking her ribs.

Jisoo coughed up blood and gingerly wiped , keeping her head down so her hair blocked her face from his sight.

“Get up right now. You think I don’t know what you’ve been doing behind my back? I know you’ve been sleeping around with other guys, you . Stop trying to hide it,” he shouted, grabbing her up roughly by her arm.

Jisoo winced at the tight grip around her arm. It would surely leave a nasty bruise. “I’m not sleeping around,” she protested feebly. “You’re drunk. Maybe we should talk when you’re sober…”

His eyes flashed with fury and Jisoo felt fear crawl through her body as he turned to her with feral eyes. “What did you say? You’re trying to make me out to be the crazy one aren’t you, you ,” he seethed. “You should be grateful to me for bringing in our income while you’re flitting around with other men. Damn you!”

He slapped Jisoo in the face and she fell back with a cry. Jisoo remained in a curled up position on the floor as he continued to hit her until he was finally satisfied. He stumbled out of the room and Jisoo stayed stock still until she heard no more shuffling movements indicating he probably fell asleep.

She was sore and bleeding in some places. A choked sob escaped as the bottle of emotions she’d kept to herself finally bubbled over. The tears wouldn’t stop no matter how much she willed them to.

“He’s a monster,” she whispered to herself.

A creaking noise in her apartment echoed throughout her apartment but Jisoo was still too absorbed in her nightmare to wake up. She feebly whimpered in her sleep and clutched her pillow tightly.

“I thought I saw your face,” a man’s voice said softly, brushing a hair from her face. “I’ve missed you so much. Why did you leave me? I’ve given you everything.” His voice took a lethal turn and rage overcame him. “You found yourself another man so quickly. I knew you were a . How dare you even think of leaving me for a bastard like him? I’ll show you…” he growled, his hands slowly reaching up to grab Jisoo’s neck.

A piercing scream from his neighbor’s room woke Taehyung with a start. He shot up from his bed and threw off the covers. He didn’t bother knocking and just barged into her room, breaking the door (once again) in the process.

He quickly crossed over her room to her bed and saw Jisoo sitting straight up with her hand touching . She was still sweating profusely and her eyes were wild.

“What happened?” Taehyung questioned, his eyes zeroing in on her neck.

Jisoo was breathing heavily and she just shook her head, unable to hear anything and still not processing that Taehyung was in the room with her. It couldn’t be real, she repeated to herself. He wasn’t here… he can’t be.

But the strangled feeling around her neck felt so real she couldn’t brush it off. Her hand her neck and it felt tender. She shuddered, willing herself to stop being paranoid. It’s just a nightmare, she convinced herself.

“Hey,” Taehyung said, his voice a little louder. Her head snapped up as she registered for the first time that he was sitting on her bed with her and he was staring at her intently. “Why’d you scream?”

“It was nothing… Just a nightmare,” Jisoo mumbled. “You can leave now…”

“No,” he narrowed his eyes. “You can’t just give me some lame answer and expect me to just let it go. None of the other guys will ask you to tell them the truth because they don’t want to push you but I don’t care. Tell me the ing truth.”

“No!” she burst out. “It doesn’t even concern you! I’ll deal w