Chapter Text
Angst, Romance, Mystery
TaeHyung x Reader
Prologue
TaeHyung hovered above the toilet in Yoongi’s bathroom, his stomach churning. Yoongi and Jimin stood in the doorway watching, but TaeHyung couldn’t even register them right now. He heaved again, his throat burning with the bile that came up. He’d already purged everything else in his stomach, but he couldn’t control the nausea overtaking him. After it was over, he fell backwards, his back hitting the tub and his head falling forward.
“Tae,” Jimin said softly… “…it wasn’t your fault. It was an accident.”
“SHUT UP!” Tae shouted at his best friend. He didn’t know anything… accident or not didn’t matter.
‘….your fault…’
“Hey!” yelled Yoongi, angrily. “What’s done is done… we’ve taken care of it.” TaeHyung could feel his eyes starting to burn, and at the same time, his mouth began to fill with saliva as another wave of nausea hit him. He felt a tear slip down his cheek as he kept his eyes on the bathroom floor. He knew he was falling apart. He knew his friends were doing everything they could to keep him from falling apart, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. What the hell had he done…? He couldn’t hold back anymore and quickly leaned back over the toilet, heaving more bile.
This time, he felt a hand on his back, slowly massaging in small circles. When he finished, he sat back on his heels next to Jimin and hung his head. He felt a tissue wipe his mouth and Tae could feel himself starting to break again.
“He wouldn’t blame you, Tae…” said Yoongi softly. Tae hadn’t noticed that Yoongi’d moved to sit on the edge of the tub behind him. It was the softness of his voice along with Yoongi’s hand resting on his shoulder… He barely registered that Yoongi’s hand was torn up...bloody and bruised. He couldn’t tell them… he couldn’t...
‘...your fault…’
TaeHyung began to sob.
Yoongi’s hand tightened on Tae’s shoulder as Jimin pulled him into a tight embrace. Tae’s fists pounded Jimin’s back, but Jimin didn’t move. He simply fisted his hand into Tae’s hair and pressed him closer. Tae was shaking hard with sobs that he couldn’t stop. He was loud, and his throat was already burning from the retching. TaeHyung sobbed until there were no more tears left, until his voice was hoarse and he was coughing from the sobs. When he finally pulled back, he could see that Jimin had also been crying. He looked up at Yoongi, whose head was hanging… his body shaking. A tear fell from Yoongi’s face and made a dark splotch on his jeans. What happened tonight had impacted them all, not just TaeHyung. He looked back at Jimin and lifted a hand to wipe the tears from his innocent friend’s face and froze.
His hand...
He’d washed his hands... over and over again… but he could still see it…
He could see the blood stains still inbeded around his fingernails…
Jimin’s hand reached up and grabbed Tae’s hand quickly, squeezing it as he brought it down to his knee.
“Stop it,” Jimin said, his other hand cupping Tae’s face. “It's alright… it's gonna be ok.” Tae thought all his tears were gone, but his eyes began to sting again.
“Chim… I…” he began, but Yoongi cut in.
“Don't say a word… You’re our friend…” he said in a firm voice. “We’re family, Tae.” TaeHyung took a deep shaky breath, wanting to argue but knowing it wasn’t any use. What they’d done… for him… Would they have if they’d known?
‘...your fault…’
What he’d done… was unforgivable.
“No one will ever know but us, Tae…” Taehyung looked up into Jimin’s shimmering eyes and he felt like a hand was gripping and squeezing his heart. “You just have to forget it…”
“Forget it!?” he whispered, incredulous.
“Yes.” Yoongi’s voice was strong, resolute. “It’s done. We can’t change what happened. We just have to move on. Move forward...” Yoongi’s voice broke and they were all quiet a moment. “He would want us too…” Yoongi looked down again for a moment, his hand gripping Tae’s shoulder with force enough he knew it would bruise, but he didn’t say anything. “From this point on…” he continued, “...it wasn’t you.” Tae met Yoongi’s eyes. Yoongi’s vacant watery expression betrayed him, and his bruised hands shook as he dropped them from his shoulders and wrung them in front of himself.
“Hyung…. I’m scared…” Tae said, his voice breaking. Yoongi cupped Tae’s cheeks with both hands, resolute.
“We’re in this together. Jimin and I took care of things… we were witnesses and we made our statements....” It should have made TaeHyung even more anxious… what his friends had done for him… but it actually eased some of the roiling in his stomach. He looked down at the floor and nodded his head slowly.
‘...your fault…’
He had been on the verge of insanity, but they’d pulled him back. He'd been to the edge of hell and they'd grabbed hold of him at the precipice. These two were family, his lifeline, his only hope. He would get through this. For their sakes, he would hold it together.
But would he ever forget?
Not for a moment.
He knew what had happened tonight would haunt him for the rest of his life. He closed his eyes and a familiar face filled his black vision... tears of blood running down his cheeks and his eyes bored angrily into Tae’s...
‘...your fault…’
TaeHyung jerked back to the toilet and wretched again.
‘...your fault…’
It burned…
‘...your fault…’
He was burning from the inside out and couldn’t stop it…. The pain was too much… overwhelming…
‘...your fault…’
He could never let them know.
It was his fault...
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