SAVE ME | TaeJin

The Trial

Jin's POV

It's been six months since my brother woke up. My fathers trial was today and I felt nervous down to my bones. "You'll do fine." Tae said as he caressed my shoulder with his soft hand. I still hadn't confessed my love to him but with everything that has been going on, I think it's best to keep it buried for now. I was prepped by my lawyer because I was going to take a stand as a witness to the years of my father's domestic abuse. "Our case's name was called and everyone involved entered the court. Not five minutes later, they brought inside my father, chained from his hands and ankles.  Just the sight of him brought me chest pains, his empty eyes reminding me of everything he ever did to me, to us. With my mother and brother siting next to me, I got enough strength to carry on. 

My mother and brother had already testified and I was patiently waiting to hear my name. "Witness Kim Seokjin, please take the stand." I stood up, walked past him without even sparing a glance and walked over to the stand. "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?" I was asked, "I do." I nodded.

The lawyer approached me. "You father is accused by many crimes, domestic abuse, battery and first degree murder!" he paused "How do you feel about that Mr Kim?" he added with a comforting tone in his voice. "I hope he rots..." I growled over my teeth. "Please, watch your mouth young man!" the judge warned me. "Those seem to be some strong feelings you have there. Do you mind telling us a bit about your life before you left your home Mr Kim?" the lawyer asked. "He was always abusive towards mom and us, even when he was not drunk he would hit us just for the laughs of it." I paused trying to hold my cool. The lawyer notice so he spoke again. "Tell us about the day that made you leave your parents home and search for you own." the memories from that day came back and pinched my heart. I was aching and my chest felt heavy but I had to talk, I had to make him pay. "Everyone in my family knew that I was into men, everyone but my father. All I ever wanted was him to look at me with love in his eyes. I decided to tell him, it was my birthday and everything was going great so I thought that it was now or never." I paused again as I felt a tear escaping my tear duct. My father scoffed, mocking me in front of the whole courtroom "I was wrong. When I told him, and introduced Taemin, he just snapped. He started calling me names and beating me. When my brother or Taemin tried to stop him, he beat them too, mercilessly." At that point streams of tears ran down my red sore eyes.

I looked down at the crowd and everyone wanted to cry at my story, everyone but my father who had a mean grin printed on his face. "Even now, this is clearly a joke to you..." I breathed to my father. "Mr Kim please don't address to the defendant directly!" the judge said while hitting his little hammer on the wooden thing on the table. "No, you come here, not giving a crap about what happens, as long as your family feels miserable, that's job well done for you!" I raised the tone of my voice. The judge warned me again to restrain myself but I just couldn't. "You are a monster! You deserve to rot in hell! You killed him just to get at me and then you rubbed it to my face. I HATE YOU! YOU DESERVE TO BURN!" I was shouting everything that I had built up inside of me all these years. I felt a small weight lifted off my shoulders but it still wasn't enough. "THAT'S ENOUGH! I will have order in this court room!" The judge got angry at me. "Mr Kim if you don't contain yourself I will have to remove you from my courtroom!" she warned me one last time. "No further questions your honor." The lawyer stated and sat back down. My father's lawyer stood up and took the floor. "You implied that your father killed your then boyfriend, Lee Taemin, right?" he ask, "Yes." I agreed to his statement and he continued. "What proof do you have that you father actually started the fight that got Mr Lee killed?" before I could answer he spoke again, "Mr. Lee could have initiated the fight in retaliation of what your father did to you and him that awful day. A day where your father wasn't in his best mentality, learning that his favorite son would never provide him with grandchildren." he added. I was speechless, how could he even say such a thing. "Your father is known to have temper issues, what happened that day was due to his poor mental health, something that neither you nor the rest of you family noticed which led to poor care of his problems." he was implying that my father had his reasons for what he did. That he wasn't at fault. That mental health made him do all those awful things. "I won't let you disgrace Taemin's memory like that. My father is a monster. I know it, you know it, even he knows it. Every person in this room knows it!" I growled towards the cocky lawyer. 

This time the judge didn't stop me. She was as shocked as I was by what the lawyer said. "We have visual evidence and solid proof. You won't win this trial." I grinned towards the lawyer, confident that my father would finally get what he deserved. Suddenly, my father stood up and walked towards me. "Mr. Kim I urge you to return to your sit at once!" the judge warned my father but he ignored him. I saw the two police officers that were standing by the front door slowly approaching him from behind. "You're right, I thought that if I beat you enough you would turn back into a real man." he grinned at me with a wicked look on his face. He was enjoying this. "I enjoyed beating your little f*ggot boyfriend to death. I felt his life fade away underneath my blood-stained hands!" he growled, scaring me, the judge and the jury. The officers grabbed him by the shoulders but with a rapid movement he hit them with his elbows and charged on me. I jumped off my seat to avoid him but he managed to scratch my cheek with his handcuffs. More officers came and restrained him. Three officers were on top of him and another two pointing their guns at him. The judge hit his wooden hammer once again. "That is enough, due to what I saw here today, I'm giving you Mr. Park the life sentence with no visitation rights." he commanded in a strict voice. Court dismissed. Hearing the last pound of his small wooden hammer, everyone got up and left the courtroom while officers dragged my father away.

I was in shock. I couldn't believe what had just happened. He actually risked life in prison just to make me feel the pain of what he did to Taemin all over again. He was a true monster and I was glad that he would spend the rest of his life away, not able to hurt anyone else. "Are you OK?" I saw Tae smiling softly at me with his cute box smile, making my heart feel better immediately. He hugged me, trying to take my pain away, to make me feel better. But his warm embrace made me cry even more. "What's wrong Jin?" he asked ever so lovingly. "Tae, there is something I need to tell you. I can't hold it in anymore because I'm afraid that I'm going to explode..." I whimpered . Taehyung didn't speak, he just looked me in my eyes and smiled. "Tae, I love you... I have loved you for a while now but with everything going on I didn't have the courage to tell you..." I paused, letting out a breath that I didn't even know I was holding in. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that... I know that you are with Rose and ... I want you to be with me Tae..." Taehyung's smile faded and he looked away. "Jin I..." he whispered. Regret immediately came to hunt me. "I didn't want to tell you until this was over but... Rose and I are getting married, I proposed last month, I've been waiting to tell you until after the trial." he paused, "I'm moving in with her... I-I'm sorry Jin." he apologized. "No, I understand, it was wrong of me to burden you with all this... I was just so emotional after what happened these last couple of months..." I muttered. "I'm glad you told me Jin, I was in love with you too but you were with Kai and you were happy. Rose was there to help me through that. You can have someone like that too." he paused, "It's probably not the best time for me to ask you this but... I wanted you to be my best man." he said and tears came back, running down my eyes. The feeling was not regret or misery or sadness. They were tears of joy. I couldn't be with him but at least I could be there for him. To see him grow happy. That should be enough.