SEVENTEEN

Chapter 27

Chapter 27

      Everyone in the room was still stunned at this new realization. Joshua wasn't really sure what Bangtan knew about Jeonghan, but he knew what the rest of SEVENTEEN knew about Taehyung. Jeonghan never really talked about his past a whole lot. Not a lot of the members really know anything beyond vague details. And the ones that know more still don't have all of the details. And the ones that know the most (Him and Seungcheol) still don't even know the whole story. The only one who knows the whole story is Jeonghan and most of the time he tries to forget about it. The only things that he will sort of talk about are three things, one is his grandmother(The poor women died long before things really went to crap in his household.), his little sister(He loves her so much.) and a childhood best friend that he had growing up. And that friend was Taehyung.   

    Taehyung was one of the neighbors that lived in Jeonghan's grandmother's apartment building. He had met him one day at the local playground near there when they were kids. Both of them were out there playing with their younger siblings, and befriended each other. Jeonghan and Taehyung were close with one another, and they did everything together. They spent almost all of their free time together with one another. Jeonghan admits that even though he really liked Taehyung and thought of the other as his best friend at that time, he used him as an out. He knew that if he went to his grandmother's house, especially if she was busy then he would still have someone to play with. And looking back he knew that Taehyung was probably doing the same thing for him. Even though the other was an extremely friendly, and outspoken child to the point that Jeonghan was a little bit intimidated by him when they first met. He had told him one night that when they were little, they both slept over at his grandmother's unit. It was nice and they had fun, but it was broken by a loud noise. It was two people screaming at one another. It had gotten so bad that Jeonghan's grandmother had phoned the local police station to complain about it. As it turns out, it was Taehyung's parents that were fighting. When his grandmother had asked him about it, Taehyung had told her that they do that a lot, and it was part of the reason that they moved to the city.  

      Eventually it got to the point that his mother left, and it was just Taehyung, his father, and his two younger siblings. And even though he never outwardly said anything, Jeonghan knew that things were getting worse for Taehyung at home, just like they were for Jeonghan, though in different instances. He hardly ever saw him when his grandmother died, his step-father used that as a way to keep him home. Jeonghan used to sneak out at night and meet the other in the park. And they did that almost right up until he met Seungcheol. That was when things got distanced between them. Jeonghan didn't really know what was wrong at the time, the more that he tried to talk, the more Taehyung had pulled away. Looking back on it now he thought that Taehyung was being abused like him. He didn't know if it was to the same degree as him, but it was bad. And then he just stopped showing up at all to their meet-ups. Not long after that was when his step-dad attacked him and he had officially joined the group. He never stopped thinking about him though. He had convinced Seungcheol to help him look for Taehyung and maybe recruit him or something to get him and his siblings out or do something to help. Then one day he had gone to the grocery store with Chan to run some errands, and they had stopped at a convenience store on the way back. The clerk had a tv playing on in the background. There was a news flash about a murder in the same apartment complex that his grandmother had lived in. It drew his attention and his heart stopped. They had shown a picture of the victim, and even though he had never seen the man a lot, he looked exactly like his son. The rest of the way back to their old apartment was a blur, and Chan was freaking out the whole time because he couldn't get him to do anything. He had to call Seungcheol to come get them and take them home. From that day forward Jeonghan had just locked it all away.