Forever And Ever (BTS)

Chapter 10

A few days had passed since the incident, but Tae had not yet recovered, not a single bit. Then again, he was only a child, and besides, who could move on from such a thing? Who could move on from being so horribly abused by their own father? Tae was scarred, possibly for life. It would take him a long time to start healing emotionally, even if he finished physically. 

His morning routine was now longer, as he had to spend time hiding his bruises with concealer. Mrs Kim had seen the marks left by her husband the day after it happened, and passed Tae a tube of concealer as well as taught him how to use it to cover the evidence. So now, he spent an extra ten minutes in the bathroom making sure no one at school would see the colours on his face. His brothers had tried to help as much as possible, always helping him check that the concealer was still on in school or just sitting with him when he needed comfort. But he knew nothing could be the same, and their help was not enough. Nonetheless, he had been able to hide what happened thus far in school, as long as he continued, he could let it all out at home when his brothers were there and he wouldn't have to worry about how his classmates and teachers would react. 

He did not expect what would happen that day.

He was in class. The teacher was pulling his hair out over a student who had failed to hand in his homework time and time again. The boy was mischievous, and liked to rile the teacher up on purpose just for fun. The teacher was coming to his last straw. Yet the rebellious student kept talking back with a smirk on his face, until finally, the teacher lost it. He stormed up to the student and went to grab him. Tae was sitting behind the student. No one knew the reason for what happened next. 

As the teacher raised his arm, all of a sudden, Tae fell into a crouch, his hands covering his head. "No, no, please don't hit me, please," he whimpered. Everyone was puzzled. Why was Tae acting so strangely? He remained on the floor, tears dripping down his face. The teacher decided to take action. "Taehyung, come with me. The rest of you, do questions four to seven while you wait." With that, he led Tae into his office.

"Taehyung, did something happen? Why did you react that way when I wasn't going to hit anyone?" "N-nothing happened! I swear! I don't know why I did that!" But the teacher could tell that Tae was lying. He gently tried to coax it out of Tae, but to no avail. "Please, nothing happened..." the man sighed. He'd have to try and get it out of Tae another time. But he had to do it, because whatever it was, it was obviously very traumatising to Tae. "Tae, you know you can trust me, don't you? So you can tell me anything that's on your mind," he said. Tae nodded, but he knew he was not likely to tell the teacher. He didn't want to feel the humiliation as people looked at him with pity. He wanted everything to be normal. He would not get that if he told anyone outside his family. At least his family understood what he wanted and adhered to it. He couldn't guarantee that everyone else would. So he decided he'd keep it quiet. He was relieved that the teacher had stopped questioning him, and hoped he'd never be asked about it again. 

However, as he walked out of the room, there was something he didn't realise that the teacher spotted. A tiny spot of bruising on the side of his face.

During the break, Tae thought he'd get some time to himself by staying in the classroom. But not today. His classmates flocked over to his desk and started asking, "Tae, what happened? Why did you think the teacher was going to hit you?" The questions were relentless, all along the same lines of why he did it. But the problem was that Tae himself did not know. He knew that when the teacher raised his arm, he saw his father. He knew he got scared, got captured by the same fear he felt when the incident happened. But the reason, he did not know. Yet the questions kept coming, until he covered his ears and ran out of the classroom, leaving them behind.