The Most Beautiful Moments In Life

Chapter 1: Stigma

May 20th, Year 22

Taehyung woke up in a cold jail cell. This wasn't an unfamiliar sight to him; he often got arrested for doing graffiti. Taehyung knew it was wrong to vandalize, and he knew what he risked every time he did it, but still he couldn't bring himself to give it up. Graffiti was more to him than just rebellion, it was art. It wasn't just art either, it was a way to express the feelings he couldn't share aloud. Sometimes he painted faces, sometimes he wrote words, and other times he created chaotic messes that only he could understand. Sometimes mixing colors into each other without rhyme or reason was all he could do to express his pain.

Another thing he loved about graffiti was that others did it too. There were other people in this city that were just as hurt and troubled as he was. He'd go to graffiti covered walls and just stare at it all. It felt like he could almost connect with the other broken boys and girls who created those masterpieces. He'd gone last night to an old bus stop that he'd painted on before. It was pretty covered by others' art as well, and yet he still loved coming to this spot in particular. It was rather dangerous to do it here, and he knew that. It was only a block away from the police department, but he kept finding himself coming back here.

Taehyung couldn't really remember what he spray painted last night, and it didn't matter to him much either. He didn't regret doing it. He didn't regret spending another night in the precinct. It was better than spending that night at home.

Home wasn't safe. Home was never safe. He and his sister Eunhye both lived in a constant state of fear of their father. Their father was a miserable and pathetic man. He drank himself silly almost every night, and he rarely ate as he should. Taehyung and Eunhye had to beg him to eat many times. They had to take care of their dad, who didn't seem to care for them in any way. And for what? Father beat the two of them almost every day, and there was little they could do to stop him.

Taehyung couldn't understand his feelings. He hated his father deeply. He was tired of being beaten for things he didn't do, for reasons that did not make sense. He hated it even more when Eunhye was beaten. She was a kind soul who cleaned up after father and did nothing to deserve all the pain in her life. Taehyung understood to some degree why he would get beaten, being a delinquent and a trouble maker, but he never understood why father would want to hurt his sister. She didn't deserve it.

A few days ago, Taehyung'a father hurt his back at the construction site he worked at. He went to the emergency room with extreme back pains he got from falling off a ladder. Taehyung had worried for his father more than he liked to admit. Why did he still care for his father when all the man did was hurt him? The hospital bill was expensive, and he didn't know how on earth he was going to pay it off, but Seokjin stepped in.

That was another thing. Seokjin had been his friend back in highschool, and suddenly he was back in Taehyung's life. Taehyung couldn't explain why, but something felt off about Seokjin, like he was hiding something.

And then there were the nightmares. Taehyung avoided sleep as much as he could bear to. Each night he saw terrible things in his dreams. He saw himself breaking a bottle and stabbing the glass shards into his father's abdomen again and again. His hands were always covered in blood. He didn't just dream about himself anymore either. He also saw his friends dying over and over. Yoongi burning up in a fire, Jungkook jumping off a building, Namjoon rotting away in jail, Jimin drowning himself, Hoseok irreversibly hurting his leg, and Seokjin simply watching it all.

Something about his dreams felt eerily realistic, almost as if he'd lived them before. He'd had another dream like that last night, and he was still trembling and drenched with sweat. He brought a shaking hand up to his forehead and used his sleeve to wipe away the moisture.