Lost Souls

𝚃𝙰𝙴𝚃𝙰𝙴

''Okay listen up everyone! I have an announcement to make''

The classroom is crowded. Taehyung's classmates are boosted with energy: they play in the classroom as if it were a playground. The teacher tries to control the crowded classroom but simply can't. The kids are too excited to hear how they performed on their tests. They start to bet on who has the highest score and who has the lowest score, while Taehyung is patiently waiting for the teacher to reveal their results.

''Since y'all are not listening, I'm beginning. First up-''

The kids immediately sat down and listened curiously to what the teacher has to say. The teacher knew how to make her students quiet, but she never had to address Taehyung for being too loud. That boy was always calm and quiet, which isn't bad at all. Whenever he talked, he talked with confidence. He never disappointed one of his teachers.

''The first person who I'm calling out for did a very good job on his test. He got the highest score''

Taehyung's classmates started to whisper to each other. They were trying to predict who could have the highest score. The teacher is starting to get a little bit irritated.

''Silence!'' she shouts

It's quiet. Again. There's tension in the classroom. Taehyung looks around and notices how many people are nervous about their results: he sees a girl in the corner who's biting her nails, a boy who's carefully tapping with his fingers on his desk and a boy who looks like he's praying?? Taehyung looks back at the teacher. They suddenly make eye contact and she smiles at him.

''The first person has a score of 97. The person who got this grade is Kim Taehyung. Well done!''

Taehyung is not surprised at all. He always gets good grades on his tests, but he's never satisfied with it. On his previous test, he got a score of 98. He's disappointed in himself. He always wants to be better with every try. The teacher gives his test back and congratulates him again. Taehyung's friends hype him up, which makes Taehyung smile and laugh. One of his friends attempts to show his happiness to him to dance goofy. Their friends' goofiness makes Taehyung laugh. The bell rings at the moment when the teacher is finally done revealing their results and handing them back. While walking back home, Taehyung feels happy to be friends with such dorks. They genuinely make him smile a lot. He realizes how much he misses them whenever he's home.

As soon as Taehyung is getting closer to his house, his smile slowly disappears. The tiny sparks in his eyes whenever he smiles, vanishes. Everything becomes grey.

His body crashes onto the ground. His face gets beaten up which leaves a scar above his brow. He gets lifted and gets smashed on the kitchen counter. His face gets squished really hard on the kitchen corner and right after that, his hair is getting pulled so hard that he falls back and hurts his neck. At a certain point in this routine, he doesn't feel the pain anymore. That his mother beats him up every day after school, is normalized.

''You idiot! You never score good enough on your tests!'' she yells at him

Taehyung quickly runs to his room and hides under his blanket. He cries his eyes out. Mom promised she wouldn't beat me up when she was all over her boyfriend in the living room last night. She broke the promise, again. Doesn't she realize that I'm human too? Every night she gives me a goodnight kiss and tells me a funny storytime but the next day she's beating me like I mean nothing to her. Is it because she's drunk? Our 12-year-old Taetae always questioned himself this. Whenever he trusts his mom at a certain point, she uses his trust to beat him up to ease her own pain.

Taehyung used to paint to pour his thoughts and feelings into his art piece. His mom never knew about this because he hid them from her. She would throw his stuff away. To throw his feelings and thoughts away. To throw Taehyung basically away. She never saw her own son as a human being. She saw him as an object, nothing more nothing less. Instead of showing his art to his mom, he shows them to this stray dog, who showed up every night at his front door. Taehyung secretly fed him at night because he knew how much his mom hated dogs. After feeding the dog every night, they become friends, which is now known as Bear.

Whenever Taehyung is at school, he tries to keep his life as private as possible. He's embarrassed at the fact that a mom is supposed to be loving and caring, not abusive, and manipulative, like his. Every time when his classmates talk about what their moms did for them, he always keeps his mouth shut. He can feel the jealousy coming when someone brags about their mom.

When time passes, he goes through an extremely emotional rollercoaster, causing him to be angry or grumpy more often. There was this one time where Taehyung accidentally lashed out to one of his friends for the first time. Right after the accident, his friends unfriended him because of his anger issues. He was all alone. The only one he trusted was Bear. He felt stuck in this gigantic maze. Everything he does is never enough to prove something right. He wanted to escape out of his own thoughts. He wanted to escape the feeling of not being loved. He wanted to escape the feeling of being ignored by society. His mental health came to a point where he finally took action: to escape out of reality and create your own.

It was Sunday night. His mom was already asleep. He packed his clothes in his backpack. He sneakily took most of the food that was inside the fridge and put it in a plastic bag. He carefully opened the door to make less noise. As soon as he quietly closes the door behind him, he sees the stray dog in front of him. Please don't bark, as he's' hoping. To his surprise, the dog didn't bark. The dog somehow understood Taehyung without saying anything. Taehyung decides to give him a trait. Taehyung watches the dog eating his trait. He realizes he can take the stray dog with him. He's alone after all and the only one who's left who isn't disappointing him is this dog. He lifts the dog up and they both escape out of the town.

TO BE CONTINUED... ♡