Aftertaste | J.JK

Are You

"Mom—"

She holds up a single finger, her face pale with anger. Her eyes spark with unnatural violence, and I swallow anxiously as her grip grows tighter on the camera.

"Tell me what you are doing in this footage, Elle." She hisses, practically shoving the camera in my face. She doesn't even hear what I have to say before she cuts me off, her eyes two black holes of fury.

I have never seen her so angry.

"After all I've done for you." She growls, throwing the camera onto the floor of my room. The lens shatters into a million pieces, littering the ground with transparent shards.

I flinch as she clutches her hands into a tight fist, trembling uncontrollably.

"Mom, are you oka—"

"Shut up." She snarls, and I quickly close my mouth as she points a shameful finger at the broken camera.

"After the extent I went to keep you safe, you paid my efforts back with this? You could've died, Elle. You could've died. And then what am I to do?"

I'm shocked that she doesn't mention Jungkook, but then I realize that the front camera only covered the door. So it would've only caught the footage of me leaving the house, and not the rest that I really didn't want Mom to know about.

Oh yes.

I also couldn't forget that Jungkook wouldn't appear on camera.

"I'm sorry, mom."

"Sorry doesn't fix anything." Her face is completely flushed with red as her hand flashes, and a sharp pain stings my cheek.

Did she....?

"Clean this mess up. You're grounded— no leaving this room until I say so. The door will be locked at all times, and if I even see you try anything, I will have worse consequences."

Then she leaves, leaving me stunned and holding my stinging cheek.

She slapped me.

The pain brings tears to my eyes as I stare at the closed door in shock. For as long as I lived, she'd never raised a hand on me. The fact that she did just now shocks me more than the pain itself.

When I bend to the floor and my fingertips graze the shards of glass, I find myself crying. Tears stream down my cheeks, welling at the ends of my chin and falling to the ground.

Today has been the worst.

And the fact that Jungkook wasn't speaking with me made it even worse.

I sit there with my head in my hands when the air vibrates, and a startled gasp rings next to me. Judging by the light tone, I assume that it's Jimin, because the only person other than Jimin who has a light, soft tone is Jungkook and I'd currently made him sad.

"Elle!" Jimin speaks, his voice shocked as he instantly places me on the bed. He brushes the clinging glass pieces off my fingertips fervently as he watches me with startling anxiety.

"You're bleeding." He says worriedly, and only then do I notice that one of the shards had opened a large cut across my palm. Red drips out of the wound, and Jimin winces as it trickles to the floor.

I know this must be tempting him.

"I'm sorry," I quickly say as my tears keep falling. Jimin grimaces as the blood doesn't stop, his eyes flashing bright gray as he squeezes his lids shut.