warning: violence, tiny mentions of suicide

during his entire trip to school, taehyung felt like he was being followed. but every time he turned around, he would simply see the numerous groups of students behind him going the same way. telling himself to stop being paranoid, taehyung shook the weird feeling off and entered the education building. 

he steps foot into the classroom and frowns when he sees jackson throwing his arm around jungkook and laughing obnoxiously loud about something. shrugging and realizing that whoever jungkook wishes to befriend isn't his business, taehyung walks to his seat and sits down in silence, turning his head towards the window and entering a state of deep thought once again.

despite being in the safety of the school premises, he still felt extremely paranoid, as if he was being observed. 

feeling a light tap on his shoulder, he turns back and is greeted by a smiling jungkook. "hey," the other says brightly, retracting his hand. "good morning, tae."

"good morning," taehyung tries his best to respond with the same enthusiastic tone, trying to at least pull a half-hearted grin on his own face. 

either jungkook didn't notice his current tense mood or he decided to not question him because he soon quickly diverts his attention to the teacher who had began to check the attendance. 

taehyung didn't even notice the teacher come into the classroom.

nevertheless, throughout chemistry period, taehyung finds out where his paranoia might be potentially originating from. as he glances around the classroom out of boredom whilst the subject's teacher explains how oxidation-reduction reactions work, taehyung sees someone looking in his direction in the corner of his eye.

it was jackson wang.

but it wasn't just some ordinary glance — no, it was a full-on glare so deadly that it could be on par with a legitimate death threat.

gulping nervously, he forced himself to look away from jackson's gaze and attempted to focus on the lesson instead. 

chemistry ended at last and they were in their five minutes break between classes when taehyung uses his chance to get jungkook's attention by calling out his name softly. "what is it?" the ravenette asks in the middle of packing away his science textbook, tilting his head to the side in curiosity since taehyung doesn't usually talk to anyone during breaks and preferred to continue working on schoolwork.

"does jackson," taehyung trails off for a brief second. "hate me?"

jungkook stays quiet for a while before breaking off into a small laughter and taehyung wonders if his question was even supposed to be funny. "no, silly. why would jackson-hyung hate you?" he replies.

the older male glowers. "oh i don't know, he's been glaring daggers at me for the past hour and i just thought that maybe it meant something, y'know?" he retorted, sarcasm dripping from his tongue. 

jungkook playfully rolls his eyes. "you're thinking too much, tae. jackson-hyung isn't the type of person to hate someone who he doesn't know," he states, ending their short-lived conversation right as the next bell rung.

the following class went by drastically slow, with taehyung refusing to look anywhere else besides down at his own desk and occasionally at the professor scribbling down notes on the blackboard. soon enough, the lunch bell sounded and taehyung got up from his seat, about to talk to jungkook but was beaten to it by choi youngjae and im jaebum. scowling, the lavender-haired male strides out the classroom and towards the direction of the cafeteria by himself due to jimin being on the other side of the school right now. 

however, when he was about to turn the corner into where dozens of students are lining up to purchase food, he feels a hand latch onto his wrist tightly. spinning around in surprise, taehyung's eyes widen when he sees jackson standing there.

"what are you—"

"i have something important to tell you," jackson begins, cutting the shorter male off. he almost seemed panicked, and taehyung catches onto the wavering tone of his voice. "it's about jungkook."

as just as his name slips out of jackson's mouth, taehyung willingly lets jackson drag him to the men's washroom on the lower floor, where fewer people hang around at during lunchtime.

what a huge mistake.

"we have to be quiet," jackson mumbles, double checking if anyone was inside the stalls and nods to no one in particular when he's sure that no one was in there with them. "hold on," he said, walking to the door of the bathroom and peeking outside abruptly to check if anybody was in the area.

"what's wrong with jungkook?" taehyung cuts to the chase with furrowed eyebrows.

no words come from jackson for an entire half-minute or so and taehyung starts getting worried. but the blonde gang member suddenly starts cackling maniacally, heaving in deep breaths in between each cackle. 

"j-jackson?" taehyung stutters, reaching out in concern for the boy in front of him. 

"what an idiot," taehyung hears jackson mutter faintly before he feels a devasting blow down on his stomach, sending him flying across the length of the room and colliding painfully with the tiled wall. he groaned out loud as he felt his head hit the wall, his vision immediately becoming blurry at the immense agony that shot up his back. 

he lifts his head up and sees jackson casually walking towards his weakened body that slid onto the floor. plastered on jackson's face was a murderous grin, and taehyung starts shaking in fear. 

jackson roughly grips taehyung's chin. "looks like your prince charming won't be coming to save you anytime soon. it's such a shame that i'm going to have to ruin this pretty face of yours," he states in a mockingly pitiful manner. 

"p-please," taehyung chokes out through the throbbing racking all over his torso. "don't—"

a hard punch was thrown to the side of his face, followed by a kick to his abdomen, instantly drawing blood out of taehyung's mouth as he coughed out multiple times. dark red mixed with the hot, streaming tears down taehyung's face and onto his clothes. 

"you piece of shit," jackson curses, pressing taehyung's face against one of the stalls' cold doors as he wraps his fingers around his neck tightly. "no wonder why your dad despised you so much. heck, even your mom killed herself because she couldn't stand you anymore, what a shame."

what? taehyung's heart dropped. how does he know—

the hand around his neck tightened even more, straining his windpipe as he sobs, feeling oxygen being drained out of him as he desperately tried to cry out for help. 

jackson let him fall back down onto the floor and proceeded to throw more violent punches and kicks again and again for what appeared as an eternity for taehyung. it went on for so long that taehyung could no longer feel his own body as he eventually got accustomed to the pain. 

the blond grabbed a fistful of the other's purple locks, pulling the male up onto his feet briskly and prepared to toss him back down onto the ground when a shrill ding echoes through the washroom.

jackson clicks his tongue irritatedly and lets go of taehyung's hair, reaching into his jeans' pocket to fetch out his phone. 

taehyung collapses, coughing out blood and crying uncontrollably. 

"you're lucky i'm done with you today," jackson announces, shoving his phone back into his pocket. "get the fuck away from jungkook before i tear off your limbs one by one, kim taehyung," he threatens and stomps out of the toilet, letting the door close with a piercing slam. 

taehyung wanted to shout out for aid. he was barely holding onto his consciousness and wondered if somebody was going to enter the toilet anytime soon and witness him in this condition.

unfortunately, he couldn't do anything but motionlessly lay in his own blood as he waited for a savior, letting his eyelids fall slowly.

but right before he slipped into the welcoming pitch blackness, he could've sworn he heard a familiar voice soothingly whisper into his ear,

"it's going to be okay."