Upon hearing the stern voice of the two, Taehyung quickly got up and properly sat at the end of the sofa. However, Dahyun inched close towards him and held tight to his arms.

“Get away from him,” Yoongi furrowed his brows at his sister.

“Not when you’re trying to kill him with your glares!” Dahyun spat.

Jin paced back and forth at the living room before pausing to stare at Dahyun . He accusingly uttered, “How can you hide this from us?!”

“Because this is how you’re going to react!” Dahyun retorted.

“Do our parents even know that you’re being overly friendly with your neighbor?” Jin argued.

As Dahyun guiltily averted her gaze,  Jin quickly dialled a number in his phone. It didn’t take time before someone picked up.

There was fear that was beginning to bud in Taehyung’s heart. But when he glanced at Dahyun, he saw how worry was painted all over her face. He could tell that there was a storm going through her head, yet she was doing her best to protect him.

“Dahyun is dating the guy next door,” Jin said over the phone, making Dahyun chew on her lips. He glanced at her and added, “They want to talk to the both of you.”

He put the phone on loud speaker and laid it on top of the table at the living room.

Everyone flinched as Dahyun’s father’s voice boomed, “Kim Dahyun!”

“Y-Yes, dad,” Dahyun stuttered.

“How can you do this?!” her father scolded her, “We let you live alone and this is what you’ve been doing behind our backs?!”

“I’ve done nothing wrong!” Dahyun answered back but her eyes were already stinging. She could not understand why she was being reprimanded so harshly.

“How can you say that after breaking our trust?!” her dad continued chiding her.

“I know what I’m doing!” Dahyun insisted.

“That is what you always say! And yet you’re going to cry back home when you’re hurt!” he argued.

“I won’t hurt her,” Taehyung finally spoke as he saw how Dahyun was about to break down and cry.

But his reassurance did nothing to appease Dahyun’s father as the latter replied, “That’s what they all say! Your words are as empty as every promise made!”

“Taehyung won’t really hurt me!” Dahyun answered.

“As expected, you’ve been brainwashed,” her dad sighed, “This is why we shouldn’t have let you leave in the first place. You’re too young and too naive.”

Tears started accumulating at the corner of Dahyun’s eyes. She had been through hell in convincing her family that she could survive living in the city alone and seeing how disappointed they have become with their decision was making her chest ache. The worst thing about it was that they discounted everything that’s making Dahyun happy as a “wrong decision.”

“Why can’t you give me the liberty to choose how to live my own life?” she asked with her voice breaking. 

There was silence in the room and over the phone as she said those words with such a dejected tone. Taehyung said nothing, yet he took her hands in his, caressing it in a soothing manner.

“Dahyunnie, are you crying?”

She looked at the phone as she heard her mom’s voice. Then, she whined, “Mom! Mom. Please.”

They could all hear her mother talking to her father at the other end of the phone.

“What did you tell her? Why is she crying?” her mother asked with an authoritative tone.

“I told her what needed to be said! We allowed her to leave but she broke our trust by dating!” her father answered.

“What’s so bad about that?” her mother argued.

“She’s too young!”

“Oh please, it was at her age that you brainwashed me to sleep with you!”

Everyone on the other end of the phone widened their eyes as Dahyun’s parents started arguing.

“That’s why I’m trying to tell her not to make the same mistake as we did - “ her father started.

“How can you call our Seokjinnie a mistake?!” her mother raised her voice.

Jin’s jaw dropped at the mention of his name. Dahyun already forgot the urge to cry while Yoongi was getting annoyed with the conversation he was hearing. Taehyung’s gaze was going back and forth the phone and the three siblings.

Dahyun’s mother exasperatedly sighed before continuing, “If I made a mistake here, it would be marrying a narrow-minded man like you who can’t even let her daughter make her own decisions about her life!”

There was a loud huff at the other end of the call before her mom continued, “If you want someone who’d keep following your orders and would just keep staying at home, then get dogs, not children, you good-for-nothing piece of sh- “

Yoongi abruptly ended the call, refusing to listen to the rest of their parents’ fight.

“Okay. I think that’s enough consultation with our parents,” Yoongi exclaimed.

He sighed as he crossed his arms and stared at Taehyung and Dahyun, and their hands which were still intertwined with each other.

“Let’s handle this on our own,” Yoongi told Jin before his gaze fell back to the two, “We’ll talk to you separately.”

Taehyung and Dahyun looked at each other but Taehyung then nodded and told her, “It’s okay.”

“As if I am giving you the choice to refuse,” Yoongi scoffed before saying, “You stay here. Dahyun, let’s go to your room.”

Taehyung waited at the living room with numerous scenarios looming in his mind. There was heavy fear in his heart, and he couldn’t imagine how worse Dahyun must have been feeling at that moment. He couldn’t deny that at first, he thought that Dahyun was exaggerating about his family being overprotective of her but after witnessing it first hand, Taehyung was sared that he was about to lose her.

He straightened his back when he heard the door of the Dahyun’s bedroom open. He wanted to get a glimpse of her, to have a clue of how her conversation with her brothers went. However, Jin immediately closed the door as soon as he and Yoongi were able to go out.

Taehyung continued sitting at a stiff position as Jin and Yoongi took their seats at the two other small couches. 

“You do this,” Jin told Yoongi, “I’m already having a headache with that conversation with Dahyun.”

Yoongi shrugged before turning to Taehyung,  “How old are you?”

“Twenty-four,” Taehyung immediately answered.

“How many girlfriends did you have?”

“Just two,” Taehyung his bottom lip, “Dahyun’s the second one.”

“No lingering feelings with your ex?”

He shook his head, “No more. It was actually Dahyun who made me realize that I was no longer in love with Joo —  my ex, I mean.”

Yoongi nodded before he said, “Working?”

“I’m a civil engineer at a private firm,” Taehyung replied, “It’s a local branch of an international company.”

His answer seemed to pique Jin’s interest. The latter threw him a question, “Then how much do you earn?”

“U-Uhm,” Taehyung stuttered.

“Just describe. No need to give i