Home (Taehyung x BTS)

V: Min Yoongi

Two years passed, and Taehyung feels sick. Maybe it's because of his horrible smoking habit, or maybe because of all the love happening around him. 

It's Valentine's Day, and the cold-hearted interior designer was sitting outside of a coffee shop, smoking his third cigarette of the day. He didn't care that it was eleven-thirty on a sunny Saturday morning, only a few splotches of snow here and there. 

Taehyung always acted this way after someone he loved died; this time, it was even sadder. 

"Excuse me, sir?" 

A young girl stood over Taehyung, hands on her hips and a not-so-friendly expression on her face. She couldn't have been older than sixteen. 

"I know that this is the smoking area and all that, but it's crowded inside and this table is the only one with three open seats available, and my dad really needs to sit down." 

She gestured towards two people not too far away; one man was much shorter than the other with light, rusty-colored hair, while the taller man had jet-black hair with few grey strands here and there. Both of them strongly resembled this girl, who tossed a black pigtail over her shoulder. 

"Oh, um, you can sit here. I don't mind," Taehyung said, crushing out his cigarette before the girl could instruct him to do so. 

She smiled gratefully and beckoned the two men over. "I'm Min Yeji," she said as she sat herself down. 

By then, the men had come to the table; the shorter one pulled out a chair for the taller one. Taehyung smiled to all three of them and bowed his head. "I'm Kim Taehyung. Nice to meet you."

The oldest (and tallest) of the trio didn't smile, but he gave a head-nod. "I'm Min Yoongi, and this is my son, Jihoon."

The younger man smiled and gave a brief wave. 

"I see Yeji already introduced herself. I'm sorry if she caused any inconvenience."

"Oh," Taehyung shook his head, waving Yoongi's comment off politely, "she's not an inconvenience. I need to quit smoking anyways. I'm thirty-eight, by the way." 

Yoongi smiled just a little. "Then call me hyung. I'm forty-five. Jihoon is sixteen, and Yeji is fourteen."

They continued talking for a while. The way the little family all looked at and conversed with Taehyung made him feel a tiny spark of hope flare up in his chest.

-------

"You know, I never wanted kids until Jihoon was born," Yoongi said about a month after his first encounter with Taehyung. 

The older man had invited him to Yeji's cheer practice at the high school; Jihoon was in an apprenticeship program at an entertainment building some blocks over. 

Taehyung frowned and turned to Yoongi, who kept his eyes trained on his precious daughter. "Why not? Kids are wonderful." 

Yoongi shook his head. "They are, and I love my kids to death. But I went down a very dark path in my younger days. I don't remember most of my twenties because I was an alcoholic." 

The upbeat music of the cheer team's routine had stopped; all the girls were having a water break. Yoongi finally turned his attention to the younger man beside him. Regret, sadness and something Taehyung couldn't quite place swam in those dark-brown eyes. 

"I accepted help when I was twenty-five, and I married the girl who supported me during my time in rehab. But she wanted kids and...I wasn't ready." He paused for a second, taking a deep breath.

"A woman can rape a man, and rape within marriage is a real thing. The court didn't think so; they wouldn't let me get a divorce or restraining order or anything."

Yoongi was nervous; he never talked about this to anyone before. But for some reason neither man could comprehend, Yoongi trusted Taehyung despite knowing him for such a short amount of time. So, he took another deep breath and continued. 

"After Yeji was born, my wife got arrested. They did an evaluation on her and decided she wasn't fit to be a mother. I was granted full custody of the kids, a divorce, and a restraining order just in case she ever got out of the mental institution."

The music started up again, leaving the two men to sit in a pop-filled silence. 

Taehyung broke apart all this new information, digesting it piece by piece before actually speaking. He wanted to think that he and Yoongi were similar, and perhaps they were, but he couldn't. 

In fact, he couldn't say anything at all; Min Yoongi was more of a man than Taehyung could ever dream of being. He admired him for that. 

"You know what, hyung?" he mumbled, locking eyes with the older man. 

"What?"

Taehyung's large hand slipped into Yoongi's cold, shaking one, their fingers lacing together. "I think you're a remarkable person, and that you shouldn't be afraid anymore."

They held hands for the remainder of Yeji's cheer practice.