Love Heptagon | BTS Romance

Chapter 08: "Wounds"

warning about this chapter:

A/N: in addition to the presence of flashbacks, I think it's good to warn that, from this chapter onwards, there will be mentions of violence, as strong scenes in some future chapters, but I will try to signal every one of them.

good reading~~

"How mean," he said in an irritatingly sly voice as I heard his footsteps follow me. "Where did you learn to be that bad from?" He asked rhetorically, already walking in front of me with his back to the aisle ahead, and smiling stupidly amused at me. "Was it with your jealous little brother or with your stupid little friend?" He continued with a persistent smile that I tried to ignore, but that made me angry enough for him to notice by my expression.

"I probably learned from you." I replied at last, watching his smile widen further.

(***)

Taehyung had just been another boy with a reputation as a vandal at my school, and had been very well known for being a little delinquent in the neighborhood where he had lived. I had known about him since elementary school, but I had only ended up going to the same school as him when I had entered high school.

One day I had seen him being practically chased away from the principal's office by two other boys, the same ones who had barely waited for the door to be closed before restarting a fight with a boy who had already appeared to be badly hurt. I had watched the scene from a distance, together with several other curious students who had been in the hallway.

It had been evident that this had been an unfair fight; while the two big guys had kicked and pushed the boy who had been still down on the ground, Taehyung had only seemed to be paying attention to his, already exposed, wounds - which had seemed very serious, even for a gang leader - but it hadn't been long before he had turned towards those two cowards.

With astonishment, both I and the other students had seen the boy, who at once had grabbed the leg of the tallest guy among the two - from whom he had even tried to detach himself, but whose grip had seemed to be incredibly firm - and had thrown him over the other boy who had still been trying to hit him with his fists.

Both had ended up falling awkwardly onto the dirty floor of the school. There had been long seconds with an awkward silence around the audience of students, but, after a few minutes the cowards had moved away. I could still hear one of them muttering some curses, which I hadn't paid much attention to. However, before the big crowd had dissipated through the school halls again, I had seen Taehyung getting up slowly, ignoring everyone around him and going towards the courtyard in silence.

At that moment, watching the poor boy hurt and seeing that not a single soul - of student or any of the school staff - had moved a hand to help him - or at least, to care - and having seen him like that, being judged as simply an injured dog, it had left me feeling terribly pious for him, even though a good part of me had feared that I might have faced the same fate as those delinquents.

I had tried to push those thoughts away, even if I hadn't been someone close to him - as 99% of people at school weren't either - and I had had a great probability of the boy treating me harshly, but, as far as I had known, he hadn't had a reasons for that, after all, of all the rumors I had heard about him, none had been about him doing harm to defenseless strangers.

As soon as the corridor had been empty, I had gone to the courtyard looking for him - which had not been a very easy thing to do because it had been so full at recess time - and even though I had tried very hard, I couldn't find him anywhere. However, while circling the place, I had finally seen him in the corridor where the old drinking fountain used to be, and which was now the place used to store the cleaning materials of the school.

He had been leaning on a filthy wall of that abandoned wing of the school, and with the quick glimpse I got of his face - before he had noticed my presence - with its pained expression, which he had done the incredible job of hiding from everyone.

His leg had still been bleeding terribly, and I had seen how he had tried - unsuccessfully - to stop the bleeding with a dirty rag, his lips had been pressed together tightly trying to contain his moans of pain. The only thing I had thought of was that he should have urgently gone to a hospital.

Moreover, when I had gotten closer, and he had clearly seen the shadow of my silhouette, Taehyung had quickly turned around crouching defensively, reminding me of a caught and injured wild animal.

His eyes had been wide and he hadn't moved away from the wall he was leaning on - probably because he didn't have the energy to stand up - and when I had made the motion of getting closer, he had pulled away slightly, dragging himself farther away - which had given me an even more horrid view of how he was at that moment - as if he had feared something - and I literally hadn't believed this supposed fear was of me - but, to try to calm him down, if that had even been possible, I had raised my arms as a sign of peace, for who knows what, or who he had thought I was, to demonstrate in some way that I had not come to harm him.

I had approached him as slowly as possible, not breaking eye contact with him as he had watched me closely. When I had gotten right in front of him, I had lowered myself, both my back and my arms, patiently, having wanted to show that I had had no bad intentions. He jad still showed a countenance that had both been ironic and discredited, and after having stared at me for a few more seconds, he had allowed me to check his wounds.

I had been asking myself what had gone through my mind to have gotten involved with a person like that, but I had never thought that this meeting would have had such a big impact on my future.