Inward Beauty | Taekook

- Chapter 38 -

Taehyung sank back against the chair's plush backrest, reaching for his phone on the table. The murder case he'd been handling had drained him, demanding countless hours to gather evidence against the perpetrator. He craved a respite.

Unlocking his device, he idly scrolled through the apps, the exhaustion evident in his movements. Eventually, he tapped on the YouTube icon. His home page greeted him with a mix of daily news updates and a couple of jazz songs he occasionally listened to for relaxation.

Amidst the array of videos, one caption in particular caught his attention. Intrigued, he tapped on the short clip.

"A seventeen year old boy was sexually assaulted for seven months and ended up being raped by a middle-aged woman who was a teacher in his school. His..."

Taehyung's brows drew closer while he clicked on the comments. The words that caught his vision weren't anything pleasant.

"Bro got free phone to his charger hahaha."

"The teacher should've waited till the banana got ripped before feeding her monkey lmao."

"Bro was the chosen one!"

His grip tightened around the smartphone. He felt himself internally cringing at the comments. He felt utterly disgusted. He glared at the screen and was about to exit the app when his gaze fell on another comment.

"It's a guy. Men aren't to be taken advantage of. He must've enjoyed it."

Simple words but held deep meaning.

Taehyung's eyes that were filled with disgust and distaste earlier went blank. He turned off the gadget and slowly placed it back on the table. He inhaled sharply and looked up at the ceiling as the back of his head rested behind.

He stared vacantly into space as his mind began pulling thoughts to the centre of attention.

He saw himself as Lawyer Kim Taehyung. His ears caught the strict and clear voice.

"One who experienced it will understand how horrible and demeaning it feels to be in a situation where your body is being used against your will by someone for their own enjoyment. There's something terribly inhumane about it. Gender shouldn't matter. Whoever did it, how close that person is, a non-consensual sex is rape. The victim should be given justice and the culprit penalty."

Then he saw himself as Taehyung. But this Taehyung wasn’t the composed figure he presented to the world. This version was fragile, vulnerable, and riddled with guilt.

"This is our fault. The only culprit is ourselves. If we weren’t so weak, we wouldn’t have needed help from anyone, Taehyung. If we weren’t so weak, the initiated incidents wouldn’t have led him to fall in love with us. If we weren’t weak, that night would never have come. If we weren’t so weak, we would have seen through the lies we were fed. If we weren’t so damn weak, none of this would have happened. This is our fault. Forgive him. He helped you, and you were bound to repay him. With or without consent, it shouldn’t matter."

The voice he heard was frail and exhausted, and for some reason, Taehyung recoiled at the last remark. He couldn’t understand why.

It wasn’t every day that someone took advantage of his body without his permission. This was a new and harrowing experience for Taehyung. He had learned it not too long ago.

No matter how strong Lawyer Kim Taehyung appeared on the outside, there was still that shattered Taehyung within him.

He would have made the decision easily if it weren’t Jeon Jungkook who was behind it. Taehyung couldn’t deny that he still harbored affection for the man. Despite everything, Jungkook was still the person he had once relied on so deeply. The new knowledge of truth wasn't as heavy as he made himself on Jungkook's shoulders.