Pls be loud and leave your comments because it motivates me to write the next chapter better <33 

....

Present

42| “Creeping emotions.”

Taehyung’s shoulders were taut under his white shirt and his fingers were curled into steely fists to evade the prickling sensation of tension around his skin. 

After so many years he was again standing in the same place— his childhood house. Every nerve of his body strained and wavered, sensing a ball of nostalgia galloping in the back of his head, slashing him open and leaving a scar anew. With a flick of curiosity, his eyes glide around the deserted garden that once was greenery and lively under Nabbi’s care.  

Taehyung recalled how his mother used to spend most of her time there, teaching him about gardening and new types of seeds. Nabbi loved flowers and he loved watching her smile. The mere thought of his mother anguishes him drastically, plugging his veins with utmost rage toward Hyeon. His sorry excuse of a father had ruined everything. 

A scowl toured across his face on seeing the condition of the brick house. The paint was chipped, the windows were cracked and broken in some places. It was visibly worn and abandoned, almost eerie that Taehyung was even having double thoughts about stepping in. 

Gathering enough courage and without any skepticism, he pushed the front door. It creaked open with a groaning noise, echoing in the old house, leaving a spine-chilling effect.  Everything was a mess just like the same day when Taehyung arrived home from the playground and found his mother and sister gone. 

Then Hyeon came the same night. He grabbed Taehyung by his neck as if he was dealing with some feral animal, not a kid and dragged him out of the house and tossed him in the car to cage him in his coop mansion with a tag of ‘Heir of Kim Empire’ — Just like the same day,  carrying the dread Taehyung stood there in the living area.

“Taehyung, Taehyung!” Taehyung was startled, the voice belonged to Nabbi as it was coming from upstairs. Slamming his trepidation shut for good, he walked upstairs. His every step was tentative and sluggish but natural as if his own legs were ushering him to go forward. 

Taehyung reached Nabbi's bedroom door,  sensing the eruption of violent shivers across his spine. Something told him to take his steps back and walk away, far from this forsaken hell. Too late, Taehyung was already there and he had to see what was waiting for him on the other side of the door. 

“Fuck it.” With shaking fingers, he twisted the doorknob and slipped inside the bedroom. The sight was enough to make his heart claw his ribs in complete agony— this should be a nasty joke because whatever he was watching was something that couldn't be defined in damn words. 

Hyeon was standing on top of Nina's body, a knife stuck under his fist and Nina was lying in the pool of blood, her blood. Every courage and thought had escaped Taehyung, causing him mindlessly to stumble against the door. Suddenly his bones were too cold and heavy around his limbs, his breathing was too loud in his own ears, and the pulse of the side of his neck was thumping too hard for his liking— everything was too much. Too painful. 

“Don’t touch her.” Taehyung mumbled, his eyes laser-focused on Nina’s body and the blood gruesomely spilling out of her. “I said, don’t touch her!” Taehyung snarled like a raucous beast, his body coming forward to shove away Hyeon on the other side of the wall.

“Nina!” Taehyung shuffled on his knees and crawled to her body. Her clothes were torn off, blood oozing out of her mouth and there was a long slash across her breasts to her stomach, it was so brutal and deep that her innards were visible through the flesh. 

“Baby?” Taehyung cradled her limp body in his arms, his expression was distressed and positively wrecked. At first, he couldn’t touch her, all he did was stare at his fingers that were stained with her blood. 

“Baby, please. Please, talk to me. You have to wake up and talk to me.” Swallowing a tight clot of emotions, he pressed his hand over her wound to stop the excessive amount of bleeding. He breathed hard, labored, like he was struggling for air. The muscles of his chest rattled with the urge to scream until it filled his head to muffle all the noises. 

“Open your eyes, look at me. I beg you,  please, please.” Taehyung choked on his words, gulping the saliva gathering in his mouth, floundering to suck the air into his lungs. God— No. This was too much, too cruel. 

The raw blood sliding from her ripped-open chest worsened the dark hole forming inside him. No, she couldn’t leave him like this. Their bond couldn't be ravaged so easily, not this tragically. Death couldn’t come between them— they didn’t even spend their whole life together like they imagined in secret. 

“I’m not letting you go.” Taehyung cupped her pale cheek, hating how the crimson shade besmeared her eerily pale skin, tarnishing her beauty. He hated how her red hair wasn’t as lustrous as it should be. He hated how her rosy lips were dry and bleak and unsmiling. 

“I knew, I knew I wasn't good enough for you but that doesn’t mean I deserve this. This punishment is excruciating, even for a monster like me. I don’t deserve to lose you, red. Not like this baby.” Taehyung pressed her head against his chest, hugging her closely, praying to the god that by some miracle she got buried within his ribs, tangled with his soul, curled around his bones so nothing and no one could tear her away from him. 

“Don’t… don’t you dare to fucking leave me. If you leave, I'll never forgive you this time, never. I’ll always hate you, never think about you, never want to kiss you and I’ll never call you red… so please don’t leave me.” A hectic sob cracked the air, bumped the space and came back to hit right across his chest— it belonged to Taehyung. 

“I want to love you my entire life, you have to stay with me.” The man was crying in full-fledged pain now, his eyes were bloodshot and his shoulders were shaking by the force of his weeping. 

“Red, you are so cold.” Taehyung’s eyes dilated and he leaned down to kiss her cheek. her forehead. her pale, dead lips, breaking his heart even more when he realized he would never be able to feel Nina’s smile through their kiss. 

“She is cold because she is dead. Are you blind? She isn’t breathing. She died because of you.” Taehyung heard a crude sneer floating in the space, the footsteps inched closer as he felt a cloud of presence hovering over him. 

“You killed her.” Taehyung smoothed Nina’s stray hair and pressed a chaste kiss on her forehead. 

“No, what are you saying?” Upon hearing the question, the violence brewing in his chest crawled to Taehyung’s throat as he snapped his crazed eyes up only to be flabbergasted by the sight. 

Taehyung was staring at himself, his replication was standing tall with menacing eyes and a sickening smirk. He waved the bloody knife at Taehyung and discarded a darkened look at Nina, his smirk turning into a potent grin. 

“Don’t hold her like this as if you aren’t the reason she is a goner. You killed her, Taehyung.” The replica Taehyung spitefully barked out, a mocking gleam in his golden iris that Taehyung wanted to claw out of his bare hands. 

“This isn’t true. I love her!” Taehyung screamed, hearing the echo hitting the center of his chest. 

“Did you forget? Whoever you love, they’ll snatch away from you, your love is their tragedy.” 

Taehyung’s body jerked, his eyes snapped open and he sat up in haste then calmed down upon realizing he was in his office. Just the weight of the silence in the space made his chest cold and hefty with gloominess. The trembling was still in his fingers and when he brushed them over his cheeks, hot tears were stained on his skin. 

Taehyung was crying in his sleep and if he thought about whatever gruesome things he witnessed in his so-called dream, he might break down— It was a nightmare, it didn’t happen but it shouldn't feel this real.

For a short moment, his eyes flickered at the screen that showed him the direct footage of the club. After checking all the screens and making sure everything was going smoothly in the club, he allowed his tensed body to sprawl in the chair. Taehyung did not remember when fatigue knocked him out and he closed his eyes, however, it seemed like the nightmares and the images from it had etched his head. Nina’s blood, the coldness of her body, and the words of his imposter were all inescapable. 

“Your love is their tragedy.” Taehyung’s dry lips moved and the harsh whisper whipped out of him, leaving the bitter traces in his mouth. 

His phone vibrated on his desk, an incoming message popped up on his screen. 

Talia : You are stealing my gf from me. Highly insulting and unacceptable you lil shit. 

The corner of Taehyung’s lips curled up in delight, there was no way he would dare to ignore her favorite person’s messages. Talia was one of those people whose presence Taehyung genuinely tolerated,  liked and even adored to some extent.

Taehyung : Little miss, you are in your losing friend era and it's not stealing, I call this taking back what is rightfully mine.

Talia: She is mine first. 

Taehyung could imagine her fiercely green eyes narrowing, challenging him to contend with her. 

Taehyung : You wish, Queen. You have an asshole fiance, go give him a headache. 

Taehyung :  By the way, where is he? Why isn't he snatching your phone after seeing my texts like an overprotective, overjealous bitch. 

Talia: He is in my arms and watching you being an annoying ass. 

Another text entered. Taehyung scoffed when he saw Jungkook’s text. 

Jungkook: Don't you dare to be mean to Tal if you don't want me to slam your head repeatedly into the concrete wall of your house and stop texting her, you are ruining her mood. 

Taehyung: Violent, I see. Your girl started that. 

Jungkook: You are stealing her best friend. 

Taehyung : Ex-fucking-cuse me? you pussywhipped bastard, so you are taking your female side yeah? You don't love me? 

Jungkook : You are my friend, of course I love you but she is the one I can't live without, I belong to her side. 

Taehyung : I also don't like how my Red spends her whole day with you cramped in your shitty office, you don’t see me complaining. 

Jungkook : Do you even know what you are saying? Seek help because I can tell that your brain cells are pink and heart-shaped. 

Talia: Hey, don't be rude with kook. Nina works for him, he's her boss. 

Taehyung : He is her boss and that's why I hate him even more, he gets to see her all day.

Jungkook : Feel free to hate me you poor cunt, the day isn't far when Nina will dump your crude ass for giving her hell. 

Taehyung: Stop jinxing, our relationship is very fit and flourishing. I know how to make my woman happy.

Talia : Tomorrow we are going for a girls night out and I expect you to not show your unsophisticated presence there. Let us breathe, will you? 

Taehyung: Don't you dare, queen.

His phone vibrated again but he couldn’t seem to enjoy their banter like he usually does because his whole attention was focused on the uneasiness tendrils between his ribs. Something didn’t feel right. The urge to run back into Nina’s arms and listen to her heartbeats was so strong, that he finally found himself grabbing his car keys and walking out of the club. 

Only the sight of Nina would put him at ease. 

“Hey?” As Taehyung reached the parking lot, a man approached him. Taehyung’s eyes skate over the man's figure. He was tall and broad and was clad in all-black with a mask, mounting Taehyung’s suspicions. 

Before Taehyung could simply brush him off, the man hit him right across his face. He was wearing a knuckle punch and from the force of it, Taehyung’s jaw rattled and blood flared out of his mouth. Taehyung stumbled against his car, his attempts to straighten himself were futile when the man had already grabbed his collar and hit him with the knuckle punch again. Every strike was violent, sleek and right on his cheekbone, leaving an ugly cut and trail of blood. 

“He didn’t order me to kill you.”

The man punched Taehyung’s stomach, with a brutal slam Taehyung’s upper body bent and collided on the ground in a pained angle. When Taehyung tried to get up, the masked man slammed his boot on the center of his back, pinning him down. 

“This bastard.” Taehyung's vision went blurry, hoping this was another dream hitting him out of nowhere so when this ended he could reach his Nina and breathe in her scent. 

The rash knocks on the door startled Nina as she put away her cats from her lap and climbed out of her couch. As soon as she opened the door, Taehyung’s limp body fell on top of her and she stumbled on her feet but managed to save both of them from falling.  

“Taehyung, what happened? Oh my god, tell me what happened?” Panic struck her and her eyes rounded. 

“Hey, baby. This is nothing.” The nasty bruises were freshly etched on his skin, and half of his face was covered with blood. Nina’s chin trembled when he cupped her face and grinned down at her, appearing devilishly handsome and unbelievably crushed. 

“Man, I'm utterly, completely and totally in love with you.” A brittle chuckle unleashed him, his eyes closing. “I’ll die without you, red. I’ll fucking die without you. Don’t ever leave me, promise? promise.” 

“Taehyung? Please don’t close your eyes.” Nina was sobbing, her voice was fading in his ears. He made an effort to open his eyes but darkness had already enveloped him and suddenly everything silenced. Complete silence. 

“Finally, some fucking peace, red.” Nina was crying even harder when she heard him whispering those words and dropped to her knees with him in her arms. 

+++

Uhm, well… they were too happy ig