19.

| 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐧𝐝. |

"Because I murdered my mother with that gun."

The gun fell out of Yuri's hand, and her jaw dropped. "W-what?"

"Please don't make me repeat it," Taehyung said, looking at his feet.

"But. . . how? What? I'm so lost. . ."

Taehyung stared at Yuri's dumbfounded and horrified face. Of course, she wouldn't understand anything.

Taehyung's life was, is, and will forever be, complicated, difficult, full of hardships and misery.

It's never easy to explain.

Which is why he doesn't even bother with explaining it. But, something told him that he must do it. He had evaded it for long enough.

"I'll explain everything, but, before that, Yuri, you must promise me something; never bring everything I say up ever. Okay?"

Yuri saw Taehyung's grave and serious expression, and knew that he really meant it, and wasn't joking.

"Promise."

Taehyung took a deep breath, hoping against hope that it wouldn't be as bad as he thought it would, and divulged into the murkiest part of his past.

His lips moved, explaining everything to Yuri, but his mind drifted away. Everything around him changed, as if he was eleven years old again, and seeing the same events replay in front of his eyes.

Life was perfect.

To Taehyung, at least, it was. He had two extremely loving and pampering parents, who, despite having arguments too, loved each other dearly, and nothing could ever tear them apart.

That's what Taehyung thought.

The signs were always there, Taehyung was just too naive to notice them.

He always assumed that those days and nights his mother wasn't home with her 'Teddy' and Taehyung's father, she was out for a holiday.

His father insisted on that, and Taehyung had no reason to believe otherwise.

He trusted his parents more than he trusted himself.

Though he did start to feel a bit distanced from his mother when she stopped buying him stuffed toys, and even scolded him once for not growing up, and being attached to the soft toys.

All he had wanted was someone to cuddle and sleep with at night, because otherwise, he can't fall asleep.

Every time his mother wasn't at home, his father would let him sleep in their room, so Taehyung never really minded his mother's absence.

One spring morning, however, something was different.

The sun rose at its proper time, lighting up the world, the birds chirped peacefully, the wind blew normally, the flowers bloomed and swayed and looked pretty.

Everything was as it should be, but something felt off to Taehyung. He had an inexplicable sense of dread.

His suspicions were pushed at the back of his mind, when his father decided to show Taehyung a secret. He made Taehyung promise to be brave the whole time, and not to tell anyone.

Taehyung, ecstatic and over the moon about being trusted with a secret of his father's, didn't take any of his dire warnings seriously.

In the library, his father kept narrating his ancestors' stories, which, entertaining though they were, weren't exactly what Taehyung had expected. They were slightly disturbing, what with all the bloodbaths his grandfather had apparently made.

His eyes kept wandering all around the new part of the library they were in.

He hadn't been here before. There were less books here, and more antique showpieces and framed photographs.

"Son, are you listening to me?" Taehyung's father asked, when he noticed his lack of attentiveness. Taehyung hummed distractedly, back facing his father.

Mr. Kim sighed, before walking forward and spinning Taehyung to face him again. Taehyung yelped a bit, grinning sheepishly upon meeting his father's reproachful gaze.

In Mr. Kim's eyes, he saw the younger version of himself, goofy and innocent, meant to be protected.

He couldn't stay mad at him for long.

Handsome face breaking into a smile, Mr. Kim patted Taehyung's back, getting a sudden urge to hold him in an embrace.

Doing just that, he surprised Taehyung by pulling him into a hug.

The little boy cooperated, hiding his astonishment at his father's dislike for physical contact vanishing, and hugged his father back.

Taehyung loved this feeling.

Being with the very person he loved and looked up to, living in such a beautiful house, living luxuriously and having a good life in general, with nothing to worry. He didn't want it to end.

But, all good things must come to an end.

It all happened too quickly for Taehyung's mind to fully grasp.

One minute, Taehyung is in a loving embrace with his father, when a loud bang echoed in their ears. The next minute, his father is pushing him into the small cupboard nearest to them, telling him to stay put and not make any sound.

For one mad second, Taehyung thought that this was all some sort of prank, because this was exactly like what happened in a silly spy movie he had once seen.

He was even more sure that this madness was definitely a prank when he saw his mother enter the library. He could see everything unfolding through a tiny hole in the door.

Taehyung was fully ready to come out of his hiding place and greet his mother, when he saw a gun in her hands and her crazed expression, which made him stay put for a while more, to deduce what exactly was happening.

"Surprise!" Taehyung heard his mother scream maniacally. "How do you like my surprise?"

"Hyun. Stop this."

"Stop this? Why? It's so much fun!"

There was silence for a while. Taehyung was simply dying to know what surprise his mother had gotten, but felt put off by her attitude.

"For how long have you known, and for how long have you been doing this?"

"Since forever, you pretty idiot. Sure, you're handsome, but other than that, I had no reason to stay with someone like you."

Taehyung frowned.

"Was it all fake, then?"

Taehyung heard something sad and desperate in his father's voice, and he didn't like it.

He heard his mother say, "Of course, you mōthērfūckēr."

The profanity made Taehyung to cover his mouth and ears, so he missed out the next bit of the conversation. When he moved his hands, he jumped when he heard them mention him.

"Where's the clingy kid?"

"He's your child too, don't do this."

"I can make another child, anyways. Now, quit wasting time, and tell me where it is, or pay for the consequences."

"Wow, you really are a brilliant actor."

"Stop flattering me, it won't save your āss, or the kid's. And, anyways, I'm already aware of that. Now. . . hand me the information."

"What if I don't?"

Taehyung internally cheered for his father's bravery.

"That's simple. I kill you, and find it for myself."

"You wouldn't."

Taehyung was shocked to hear a bit of fear in his father's voice. He pushed open the door a bit, to peek out and give his father some support.

"Let's test that, shall we?"

His mother didn't even waste a second, raised the gun and shot Taehyung's father without hesitation.

The loud sound almost made Taehyung scream. He jumped a bit, and hit his head on the door heavily. But his mother didn't hear him, because Taehyung's father's body falling to the ground with a thump had covered the sound.

Hyuna walked forward, and bent down, patting Taehyung's father's face.

"Turns out I would. What a shame though, you really were handsome."

She straightened up and kept her elaborately designed gun on the nearest table, before walking around the room, evidently looking for something.

Taehyung might've stayed there, paralysed with shock, fear and denial, but when he saw his mother's chunky heel kick past his father's face, as if it were trash, anger took over him.

Taehyung came out of his hiding place, and grabbed the gun. It was so beautifully repulsing, because something so evil had no right to look so pretty.

The sudden noise made Hyuna whip her head backwards, to face Taehyung.

He saw something that looked like relief appear on her face. "Oh, there you are, my darling!"

Taehyung was appalled at his mother's fake sympathy and deceptiveness. If he hadn't just witnessed everything, he probably would've been fooled by his mother's sickly sweet smile.

Like every other time.

"What are you doing?" Taehyung asked, gripping the heavy gun more tightly.

"Me? I was looking for you, my Teddy Bear. And, now, I found you!" The smile on her face faltered when she saw her gun in his hands.

"Honey, give me that gun, right now. Please," she added, as an afterthought.

"Why did you shoot him?" Taehyung gestured at his father's body, which was. . . no, he didn't even want to think about it.

"Me? I didn't shoot him. What in the world would make you think that, you silly child?"

"I saw you do it. You said that if he didn't give you something, you would shoot him. He didn't give you what you wanted, so you killed him."

With every word that came out of Taehyung's mouth, Hyuna's face contorted with rage and impatience.

"Oh, go cry about it, for all I care, stupid brat, just leave me, and the gun alone." His mother dropped the act, and went back to her old self, excessively rolling her eyes, nothing like the woman Taehyung knew.

Nothing like the woman Taehyung thought he knew to be his mother.

"No."

Hyuna turned to look at Taehyung with incredulity. "No?"

"I won't let you find whatever it is you're looking for."

Blinded by rage, he didn't know what he was doing, all he knew was that he had to avenge his father's death. And he had to stop his mother from finding anything to do that.

No matter what it took.

"Oh, really? And how will you do that? Hm?" Hyuna asked, mockingly.

"Stop talking," Taehyung said.

Hyuna raised her eyebrows.

"Your voice irritates me," he continued. His mother now had her mouth hanging open, hands on her hips.

"Always telling me what to do, what not to do, what I can do, what I can't do, I'm sick of it!"

Up until now, Taehyung had never spoken back to his parents, especially not in such a manner. But, this felt good.

"That is not the way to talk to your mother, you insolent, mannerless, useless lump!" Hyuna wouldn't be disrespected like that.

"Whatever you've been doing is not the way to be a mother, mother," Taehyung said, sardonically.

"That's it, you're done!" Hyuna screamed, picking up the object nearest to her, which happened to be an antique glass piece, and flung it with all her might, at Taehyung.

His reflexes kicked in action, and he immediately bent down, as the glass crashed and broke into a million pieces behind him.

When he straightened up again, he saw his mother looking around for something else to throw at him.

Taehyung knew he couldn't escape his mother for long, and there was only one thing that would stop her, now that she was in a ballistic rage.

His mother was screaming curses, and the various ways she could torture Taehyung for his extreme delinquency, and so she couldn't hear Taehyung's soft apology.

Taehyung brought up the gun, pointing it at its owner's head. He had never even seen a gun physically in his life, but, somehow, he just knew what exactly to do.

Hyuna heard the soft click of the gun, and looked up to see her own son pointing her gun at her, with murderous intent.

She barely had time to register fear and anger, when a loud bang echoed in the room, a bullet flying into her head, instantly ending her life.

As her body fell limp on the ground, eleven-year-old Taehyung dropped the gun, and looked away.

Kim Hyuna was the very first person Taehyung had killed, the woman who had given life to him, to be followed by countless other murders.

x x x

A / N

WOW THAT WAS
W O W

an extremely dramatic, long, but very much necessary, angsty chapter. I loved it.

I have so much to say about this omg shdjsjjd this is why taehyung become the way he is, why and how he became a murderer and eventually joined mafias

Poor Taehyung, it seems like his life is not meant to be a happy one :(
but I'm there for that, and so is Yuri 😼

I hope the emotions were high in this chapter and that y'all are sad and pissed at the same time right now :D

Vote comment spam to give my Tae bby some happiness in his life </3

Ciao~

-xo-
:]