Trusting (KTH)

Chapter 34

The rest of the members were beginning to gather in the main suite and were busy laughing about something that had happened the previous day. They were surprised when Namjoons parents slipped into the room with grim faces and the twins in their arms.

"Well, why doesn't everyone sit down please". A manager motioned to the seating area taking a single chair at the head of the room.

Everyone was looking around in confusion. While it wasn't so unusual for Tae to roll in at the last possible moment, Namjoon was quite fastidious in his punctuality. And his parents had never joined them for the morning gathering.

"Where are Joon and Tae?" Yoongi asked the question on everyone's mind.

"They are together having a separate conversation. I don't expect to see them at our meeting today. Something happened that we need to talk about."

It seemed everyone leaned forward, anxious to hear what was coming next.

"Someone hid a camera in Taehyung's hotel room several cities back and created a video of Taehyung and Clara being intimate together. That video has been circulating the dark web for a few weeks and it seems it is finally making its way to the normal web. The company didn't discover it until it surfaced from hiding underground and they are busy scrubbing right now."

"Have you seen the video?" Yoongi jumped in to ask the first questions. "Like how bad is it?"

The manager paused before clearing his throat. "It was a high definition camera and also captured audio. Their faces were visible. The lights were dimmed but it wasn't dark in the room. Both of their bodies were fully exposed both individually and...um...coupled together. I think we can say that little is left to the imagination."

Yoongi dropped his head in discouragement.

"How is this happening?" Hobi was trying to stay calm but clearly losing his cool. "I mean seriously, is someone incompetent? The video from the hospital, the interview from Sooyun. Those things should never have made it online if you guys were doing your job correctly. And now this? You have to be kidding me."

Dropping his coffee cup to the side with a large clatter, Hobi stormed out of the room. Jimin popped up after him. "I'll see if I can talk to him." He quickly scurried out of the room to see if he could calm down his friend.

"You know he's right." Yoongi was becoming equally irritated that the company seemed to be providing little to no protection against these types of problems. "One could be forgiven. Maybe even two. But three?" Yoongi scoffed and dropped his own coffee mug before storming out of the room.

"How are Clara and Taehyung?" Jungkook was worried for his friends. This was the kind of thing that must be unimaginably devastating. Knowing how shy Clara was, this could only be agonizing.

"I don't know. Namjoon is with them now. I want to try to give them a bit of time to process the whole thing. Taehyung did see the video but Clara didn't want to." The manager didn't have much more to say.

Since they were largely alone at this point beyond Taehyung's parents and the babies sitting nearby, Jin returned to the business at hand. "What are we going to do about the schedule for today? I expect Taehyung isn't going to be up for much."

The manager acknowledged the concern and asked for a few hours. At this point everyone needed some time to settle down and absorb the information. It really was a lot to take in.

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Taehyung had gotten up to grab one of his hoodies for Clara, who was shaking in anxiety. She quickly pulled the hood over her head and returned her face to Taehyung's shoulder. She hadn't said a word but by now Taehyung knew she often needed some time to process when this kind of thing happened.

In many respects Taehyung didn't have much to ask or say. Obviously the company would try to find out who did it and punish them. They would scrub as much as they could to make it disappear. What else really mattered at that point?

Taehyung, Clara and Namjoon sat in dark silence, nobody with the will to break the quiet.

Taehyung heard a mumbling in his arm from Clara but couldn't make out the words.

"What's that sweetheart? I couldn't hear you."

Clara spoke slightly louder this time. "I want to go home."

"Oh baby," Taehyung rubbed her shoulder, drawing her closer to him. "I know. I know you do. You know we can't do that right now though. We just have to make it through a rough patch and then the rest of the tour and then we can go home. We'll figure something out, I promise."

Clara looked up at him with teary eyes and a trembling lip. "No Tae, I want to go home. You can stay but I want to go home now with the boys. I don't want to stay here. Please help us go home. We haven't gotten rid of my old apartment yet, I can just stay there."

Taehyung's eyes began to mist up too. The idea of Clara and the boys leaving him felt horrifying, he wasn't sure he could do that. Especially now when everything was such a mess.

"Ok my love, we can talk about it. Right now we just sit tight while the company manages this for us ok? I can't just put you on an airplane today."

"Ok" Clara whispered back, returning to hiding her face again.

Namjoon quietly got up to excuse himself, mouthing to Taehyung that he'd see him later.

Never in a million years had Taehyung thought this kind of thing could happen. He knew he needed to support Clara but first he needed to learn everything he could. Watching the video was bad enough, he needed to know how it surfaced, how far it got, and how people were reacting.

"Clara, sweetheart, I'm going to go and talk to the manager for a little bit. Are you ok or do you want to come with me?"

"I'll stay here," Clara whispered.

With a hum of acknowledgement and a kiss to her head Taehyung gently moved away and headed for the door. "If you need anything just knock on any door ok? They will help you find me."

Taehyung went down to the reception room which by now had cleared out except a couple of managers who were heads down over a screen.

"Tell me everything. Don't hold anything back. At this point I just want to know."