Healing (KTH, featuring KNJ)

Chapter 23

It was about a month later when Dohyun texted Taehyung asking him to find time when they could connect for a chat. Taehyung offered to call during his lunch break, eager to know why Mr. Kim was reaching out to him.

"Hello, Mr. Kim? It's Taehyung."

"Oh hello Taehyung-ah, thank you for calling me."

"Is everything alright? Normally you text Clara and the two of us come to see you and Mrs. Kim together. Did you need me for something?"

"I just wanted to talk with you about Clara for a bit. Have you noticed anything off about her recently?"

Taehyung took a moment to think about it. "No, not really. Why? Is something wrong?"

He heard a sigh from the other end. "Taehyung-ah, I'm going to be direct with you. If you haven't noticed something is wrong, it means you really must not be paying attention. When is the last time you saw Clara?"

"Well, it's been a few weeks. I've been really busy, and Clara hasn't been able to visit because she's been busy with her work too. But we video call every day, usually several times, and she seems fine."

"Well, she isn't. She was really rattled by what happened when we went to see you film the variety show, and she doesn't seem to be getting past it."

"What happened at the show? I didn't know she had any trouble. Why didn't anybody tell me?"

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Three weeks ago

Clara was excited to see the boys performing on the national variety show. They were just going to do a couple songs off their new album, but she knew the amount of effort and practice they had put in. The boys agreed she should go with Namjoon's parents, which would allow her extra security without raising a lot of questions.

By now Clara fully understood that BTS was a big deal. She saw the constant coverage on every type of media. And she saw how incredibly careful Namjoon and Taehyung were about their every move. Taehyung had never been to her apartment for fear of being spotted. And even walking the dog needed to be planned very carefully.

By the time they started dating, Clara and Taehyung had given up on going on any dates outside of the safety of the dorm or his personal apartment. Taehyung's desire to keep his relationship highly secret, even from the company, meant that he either had to forego security when they went or stay at home so he could ensure they wouldn't be caught.

But when they got to the venue for the show Clara was not prepared for what happened next. There was a lot of media there to catch a glimpse of the boys. When Namjoon's parents arrived they became the next best thing, so the media and many of the fans immediately descended on them. While the parents were used to this and knew to ignore it and let security guide them, Clara was totally unprepared. She was suddenly surrounded by jostling crowds, flashing lights, and questions being yelled in her direction. The shove of the crowds acted like a tide, pulling her away from Namjoon's parents and the security detail that surrounded them. She couldn't have been apart from them for more than a minute, but by the time security had gotten back to her and helped her shove her way through, she was wide eyed in shock and had skinned her hands and knees from where she had been pushed down onto the sidewalk.

After finally making it into the building Clara asked to go to the bathroom to wash her scrapes. From what Mr. Kim heard later, while Clara was in the bathroom she was surrounded by more fans asking why she was with Namjoon's parents and trying to convince her to introduce them. She was surrounded by so many fans that she tripped and fell against the sink, getting a pretty painful bruise in the process. She felt trapped without a way to the exit and not knowing what to say. Eventually she shoved her way through and made it back to Mr. and Mrs. Kim, but by then she was shivering in fear and holding herself tight. Mr. Kim offered his coat to wrap around her, which she gratefully accepted, but she was very quiet for the rest of the evening.

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"Well, at first nobody thought it was a big deal.  Clara did ask to stay with us for a few days, but that wasn't so out of the ordinary. But now we are seeing that Clara has gotten very nervous around others. I know she told you she's busy with work, but I think the truth is that she's scared to leave her apartment, or even to open the door to deliveries."

Mr. Kim continued, "I don't think she has left her apartment for the last three weeks. She won't even come over to either of our apartments to visit or stay with us. After a few weeks of her telling us how busy she is, we went down to see her at her apartment and make sure she is still eating well. You can imagine our surprise when we almost couldn't get her to open the door for us. She was shaking when we first entered the apartment, but after a few minutes she was able to calm down."

"From there she refused to go out for dinner with us, and even when there was just a knock on the door with our delivery she flinched and ran to hide in the bedroom."

Taehyung just listened in shock. "I had no idea. Honestly, every time I've talked to her she seemed fine. I have missed seeing her in person, but it isn't so unusual that my schedule is hard to work around so we video call more often."

"Taehyung-ah, you know that Clara always does whatever is required to work around your life and schedule. This is just one more example where she's putting your interests first. She doesn't want to worry you or distract you from your work."

Mr. Kim added in a more serious tone, "I promised your parents that I would take responsibility for your relationship so I'm telling you now Taehyung-ah, you need to go see her and help figure out how to fix this. If you don't I'm going to ask her to come and move back to Ilsan with us where we can better keep an eye on her. As an added benefit, there is also less pressure from the media outside of Seoul. But it will also mean you'll see her even less since she'll be farther away. So I'd figure this out quickly."