Beyond Repair (Min Yoongi) [UPDATED]

31. Damage Control

Not that he had much experience in this field, but Taehyung had never less regretted a decision to stalk one of his boyfriends. He'd seen Hoseok slink behind the group when he'd thought no one was looking and had the distinct feeling that something was off, so he'd followed him. Now he was trying not to think too hard on what would have happened if he hadn't listened to his gut.

Taehyung cringed, a nauseating combination of heartbreak and horror making him almost lightheaded. He gripped the door frame for stability as Hoseok let out a yelp of surprise and dropped the scissors. The makeshift weapon clattered loudly to the floor.

"Tae! I-I..." Hoseok stammered, his mind clearly blanking in his attempt to come up with a suitable excuse.

"No, don't answer that. I know what you were doing," Taehyung interrupted. He had enough on his plate, as it was; he didn't feel like being lied to, especially since Hoseok wasn't even good at it. He'd caught him red-handed, anyway. "What I meant was, why?"

Hoseok let out a humorless chuckle, a dark scowl taking over his initial look of surprise from when Taehyung had entered the room. "What do you mean, why? You...you know what he did. You were there when we...you saw it, just like the rest of us."

"I did," Taehyung conceded, "and so did Seokjin, and Namjoon, and Jungkook. And I can't help but notice how only one of us was holding scissors just now."

"Maybe because only one of us is willing to do what needs to be done," Hoseok argued. "How is this not getting to you?"

Taehyung blinked a few times, for a moment unsure of whether Hoseok was serious. "What on earth makes you think this isn't getting to me?" he asked. "I'm barely keeping it together."

"Well, you're doing a remarkable job of hiding it," Hoseok muttered lowly. Somehow, his scowl deepened.

Taehyung took a breath, trying to keep a level head. "Hoseok, I haven't slept since that night," he confessed. "I've tried. I've even gotten close a few times, when Jungkook was sleeping on me. But every time I start to fall asleep, all I can see is Yoongi being..." He trailed off, still unable to give a name to the horror they'd witnessed, though whether that was more for his own sake or for Hoseok's, he wasn't sure. "I keep seeing him covered in blood. And yeah, Lee was pointing that gun at all of us, but if Yoongi hadn't gotten in the way, I'm the one that bullet would've hit. The gun was aimed right at me. But Yoongi took the bullet instead, and that's something I'll have to live with, every waking moment, for the rest of my life."

"So why not do something about it?" Hoseok asked, bending down to pick the scissors back up.

Taehyung couldn't let that happen. He acted without thinking; one second, he was standing still in the doorway, and the next, he had already crossed the room and was crushing the handle of the scissors into the floor with his shoe. "Don't," was all he could think to say.

"Why are you trying to stop me? You know he deserves so much worse than anything I could do to him with a pair of fucking scissors."

"Yes," another voice cut in, its speech slightly slurred, "why are you stopping him?"

Taehyung froze, and he saw Hoseok do the same. Neither of them dared to look away from the other's eyes toward the man who now lay awake in bed. Both of Lee's wrists were handcuffed to the bed rails, but that didn't make the idea of him any less frightening—and depending on what skills he possessed, there was every chance it didn't make him any less dangerous.

Now, both Taehyung and Hoseok had to decide what risks they were willing to take to see this through, whatever 'this' was to them.

"Sh—shut up," Taehyung said after a long moment, trying and failing to keep his voice from wavering. "You don't have the right to speak to us after what you've done."