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Taehyung’s P.O.V

I clean up as best I can, or I try to, but eventually Kookie untangles himself from the blankets he’s left on the floor. The other boys left hours ago, their parents would be expecting them, but my mum is working late and Jungkookie’s dad -

Hmph.

Something, I know, isn’t right there. That man that shouted at Kookie -

I try not to think about it while he’s standing in the doorway of the kitchen, my shirt slipping off his shoulder and his smile loose on his lips. I’ve always been told I wear my emotions on my sleeve, and a perceptive person like Kookie would be bound to notice it.

I do let my eyes linger on his bruises and cuts from the beat-up last night. A new gang, of course, someone for Bangtan to deal with.

There's more rage than anything built up inside me, it annoys me that I can't beat the people who even dared to lift a finger up against my Jungkook.

They really don't know who they're trying to mess with, Bangtan boys, Bangtan's Kim Taehyung.

I don't get his family at all either, like... not even one call? One text? Something really isn't right here, I mean he hasn't even mentioned anything about home yet, it really has me thinking, am I caught up in this boy's lie?

I look up, and I'm met with his hazel eyes staring into mine, he knows I've grasped onto something, I can just tell by the realisation written all over his face.

Those beautiful glassy eyes take to the floor once again, he turns around, so quickly, trying to make his way to the bathroom, but of course I know this house inside out and he hasn't even walked the corridor down to it.

Instinctively I clutch the end of his sleeve, grabbing his wrist in the process, pulling him back with so much force that his back is flat against my stomach, our body's now perfectly aligned.

“Speak to me Kookie.” I whisper soothingly into his ear, nibbling ever so slightly at ends, his wrist still held back by my hand. “What complicated excuses are you trying to come up with huh? Don't lie to me no more, don't let your lies swallow up who you really are, I'm here for you, I'll always be there to save you, no matter what.”

I take his wrist, and turn his whole body around, so he's facing me, what I don't expect is his lips trembling and a tear slowly starting to trickle down his cheeks which have a light shade of pink crawling up.

“Shh, shh” I gently wipe the tear from falling, he's shaking, shivering, he’s trembling.

I hold his shoulders tightly, and gently sit him down on the couch, I lace my fingers through his, and kneel down on the ground.

So now I'm looking up at him, looking up at the one that makes my heart race uncontrollably, looking up at the one I shared my first kiss with, looking up at my first love…

“It’s okay, I want you to know, no matter what it will always be okay, the world is unfair, I know, but if you believe in yourself, and believe in the people you trust, then only good things can come your way.”

I was once like him, exactly like him, but when I found Bangtan and the courage to protect my mother, I only ever looked at the goodness that was laid out for me ahead.

“Tae, I want to tell you, I want to believe you, but what can I do? I have nowhere to go, I long for the family I once had but now it's all gone, just tell me, tell me how I'm meant to believe in the good things in this damn life?!” He yells, his voice filled with rage resounding through whole room.

I'm so shook by his behaviour, that I don't even have time to react to his sudden movements, he's got me by the collar, and with such surprising strength he s me against the wall, you can hear the thump, echoing through the whole house.

“Why don't you get it Tae! While you have a family to go home to, a place to live and friends that support you to the fullest, I have nowhere, nowhe-” I don't miss the tears spilling down his cheeks.

“You have it all here! Right here where you are! This is your home, this is your family to come back to, Bangtan are your friends that support you to the fullest, why can't you see that? When did you become so blind?!”

I'm shouting at the top of my lungs at this point, why can't he see how much I care, why can't he see that I'm nothing without him, why can't he see how much I need him?

Slowly his trembling hands slip down, letting go of my collar, his whole body gradually falling, but I catch him before he reaches the floor and pull him into a hug, a hug full of emotions, that I'm hoping will reach him.

I finally open eyes, only to see my mother, staring at the scene spread out before her…

“Taehyung?” Asks both Kookie and my mother, one’s voice full of fear, the other’s full of surprise.

I cling tighter to Kookie, just as his fist clutches at the back of my shirt, his breath catching in his throat full of child-like fear. “Mum! Hi! I wasn’t expecting you home so soon!”

“Obviously not,” she says dryly, looking Kookie and I up and down. I know what we look like, me pressed against the wall holding up a bruised and beaten boy who’s got tears caught on his eyelashes like morning dew in cobwebs. I know what we look like, and I think I know why Kookie is grabbing me like he’s terrified. “Who’s this? Another friend?”

“He’s called Jungkook,” I say quietly when Kookie himself doesn’t answer. Slowly I begin to stand, my hand on Kookie’s elbow helping him to his feet. His eyes stare downwards again, his bottom lip caught by his front teeth.

Mum, thank god for her, knows something is wrong. “Jungkook? Well, Taehyung, don’t think you’re free yet, but if you give me a valid reason for why you’ve decided not to go to school today, I’ll leave you be for now. I'm not unkind.”

“Thanks, Mum,” I sigh in relief, squeezing Jungkook’s arm in reassurance. “You see, it was raining yesterday, and you had the night shift-”

“I’ve just come home from it, I don’t need a reminder,” she jokes, and I know I’m not going to be in any trouble.

“Yeah, well, I was coming along home but I saw Jungkookie here-”

“Tae,” Kookie mumbles.

“She can see you’re hurt,” I almost kiss him, but hold back - I don’t think Mum is quite ready for that. “I saw Jungkookie here covered in blood, Mum, and it was raining so heavy, and I think - well, we don’t know, but he’s new, and-”

Mum gasps, raising a small hand to . “Oh, darling!”

And I don’t even have to explain any more. She’ll be a mum to anything that doesn’t look like it has one at the moment, everything from baby birds to lost kids in the supermarket, so as soon as I say it she rushes over and parts me from Jungkook. “Oh, let’s get you looked at properly, Tae is so bad at it-”

“The hyungs helped,” I huff, seeing Kookie’s panic at being separated from me, my heart aches suddenly. “Kookie, it’s okay, she’s mum. She’s… she won’t. Okay?”

He nods, still worrying at the corner of his lip, only continuing to confirm my worst fears about the man I defended him from two days ago. A parent should be loving, not like that. “I - yeah.”

Mum misses this, totally taken up with worrying about yet another foolhardy teenage boy. “Your cheek! Your eye! Oh, Taehyung, you didn’t clean this cut at all!”

“That was Jin-hyung, actually,” I whine with a petulant tone to my voice. “Don’t blame me!”

“T-tae’s been v-very helpful, miss,” Kookie stammers, adorably polite with his eyes fixed on the tiled floor. “R-really, there’s no bother-”

“Nonsense,” chides Mum. “Taehyung, please tell me you at least got the poor boy some food.”

“Yeah! Namjoon-hyung bought groceries and Jin-hyung made soup and I went out and got medicine and -”

“And he g-got sick,” Kookie murmurs with a grin at me. It quickly turns upside down. “Sorry, I-I… it was my f-fault-”

“Taehyung’s always doing stupid things like that, Jungkook, don’t worry your head about him,” Mum tells him. She makes eye contact with me over his head, and I see the look I saw on her the day we saw an injured kitten. If you don’t agree to keep this one, we’re having the biggest of rows when we’re alone, young man!

“Jungkook smiles a little wanly. “That’s why. I mean. I kept them all off s-school.”

“School can wait, but this bruise can’t. Taehyung, make yourself useful,” she says, fussing and fluttering.

I see Kookie relax into the attention and smile, snapping to action and saluting theatrically. “Yessir! Yes ma’am! Make myself useful!”

“Oh, stop it, get the medicine.”

Kookie giggles despite himself, relaxing a little more, raising his eyes to look at me dancing across the kitchen for the medicine box. I’m making a fool of myself just to see that smile return, and normally Kim Taehyung would be seen dead before anybody saw him skipping around a kitchen with a box of medicines and bandages, humming a girly APink song.

The things I do for this boy, I swear.

“Thank you,” Mum mumbles, taking the box. “Hold still, Jungkook!”

“Now you’re in for it,” I tell him over her shoulder. “