One Shot

You stared thoughtfully at the man chuckling with his group of friends. He was in the center, laughing boisterously and you could see that everyone watched with rapt attention as he described something amusing: an event of some sort that included biking, you speculated, judging by the wild gesturing of his arms, to which they all pat him on the back and shove him for. He looks up briefly and you both make eye contact.

That was the first time you really noticed Kim Taehyung.

"Must be nice to still be optimistic about the world" you thought with a sigh and turned back to your notebook, your mind already elsewhere as you continued reviewing your material.
——————————————————
Taehyung looked at the girl who shifted her gaze back to her work. One of his friends nudges him roughly, making Tae look away.

"Dude why're you staring at the freak? You know she doesn't talk right? Like ever?" He says with a snort and Taehyung narrows his eyes, not knowing why he grew pissed at the statement.

"Shut up, you don't know her so don't say shit." He snapped back seriously and his friend's eyes widened in surprise by Tae's harsh tone.

Tae realized his mistake and pulled back a fake smile, quickly changing the subject; no one questioned his strange attitude any further after that.
——————————————————
The second time you saw him was when he crashed into you in the hallway, spilling his hot coffee on your sleeve. You hissed at the familiar sting and you bit your lip, trying to hold back a whimper.

"Shit! I'm so sorry hold on!" He said immediately with panic and grabbed your arm frantically while lifting your sleeves to see how bad the burn was.

Quickly you snatched your arm away but not before he saw the burns; burns that didn't come from the coffee he had spilled, but were instead older; shaped similar to the end of a cigarette...

He stared at you in shock, quickly coming to a conclusion on what the marks on your arms were and he opened his mouth to speak but you stomped off before he could ask any questions.

You flushed darkly, embarrassed that the most admired and bubbly man in school saw the scars you've been trying so hard for years to hide.

Clutching your arm painfully, you don't look back.
——————————————————
A loud thud jerks you away from your textbook and you look up, only to see a smiling Taehyung looking at you happily as he flopped into the empty seat in front of you. You raised your brows and shot him a somber look.

"Shit... he's going to ask me about the scars... what d-" your thoughts, however, were interrupted when a cellphone was shoved in front of you.

"Your number. Now." He demanded, still grinning in a way that made his eyes crease. You blank out for a second.

You slowly shake your head in disagreement and Tae's smile dropped and for a moment he looked taken aback, as if he didn't expect you to refuse so easily.

"Wait, why?..." he asks, with genuine confusion.

"What's wrong with this dude..." you think while still staring at him weirdly.

You pull a pen and paper out and start scribbling messily.

"I don't know you and you don't know me... so why should I?" you finish and hand the paper to him. He glances over it briefly and laughs.

"Y/N. that's your name right? We've been classmates for almost 4 years and you live three houses down from me" he says confidently and your jaw dropped, because you didn't even know that...

He nudges you with his phone rudely once more and this time you snatch it while reluctingly placing your number in but when you finish, realization struck you.

Now offended, you grab his hands when he moved to take his phone back and you glare at him. He stares, surprised and wondered what he did this time.

Instead of writing, you grabbed his phone, opened the 'notes' app and began typing.

"Is this because of what happened the other day?... is the reason why you want to get to know me because of my sc-" you try to type out, but he snatches your hand casually and excitedly drags you off with him not bothering to read what you said.

You had no choice but to follow, flabbergasted at how easily he brushed off your accusation. "What in the world..." you think and he was already blabbering off about some store he stumbled upon the other week that he wanted to show you.

It wasn't impossible for you to stop him there and walk off but strangely enough, you were intrigued by the amount of happiness he was radiating.

He picked on something deep within you that you kept locked away; Hope.

Your curiosity was piqued.
——————————————————
You reluctantly walk back home after another day with Taehyung, your only close friend these days. Some time had passed since that day he demanded you hang out with him and you smile softly at how quickly he wormed his way into your heart and how contagious his grins were.

He never asked you questions about what he saw the day he spilt his drink on you and never pressured you to talk as well; so you both developed a comfortable relationship.

Opening the front door of your house quietly, you cringe hoping no one was inside. You hear a crash of plates and you jump nervously as you tried to pass by undetected so that you could be inside the sanctuary of your room.

That was quickly ruined when someone roughly shoved you against the wall. It seemed that your prayers went unanswered once again.

"What I don't even get a hello anymore?"

You shiver in disgust at the dark tone and pungent smell coming from the man you called your father, only by title.

"Oh wait... that's right... you're a mute bitch" he says sharply and your heart throbbed achingly at his cruel words.

"Isn't that why your mother passed away? Because she couldn't stand the sight of her child who refused to talk? You watched her and said nothing. Because that's what you are. Nothing." He said and each word cut deeper into you.

You blinked back the tears and tried to pull yourself away. A bad idea, you realized too late, when he hit you forcefully and then took out his lighter.

You sobbed silently.
——————————————————
Taehyung walked into class, looking around for you, but pauses when he saw your empty seat. He furrowed his brows worriedly but reluctantly took his seat.

He absentmindedly played with his pen while waiting and his thoughts drifted off to you. He knew how people thought of him. Happy-go-lucky, naive and unaware of the reality of the world.

But that's not true. He had been through his fair share of tragedy but the difference was that he took everything in stride; just the way his grandmother would have wanted.

It was the reason why he noticed there was more to you than met the eye.

He told himself that he would check up on you later so he mentally prepared himself for the boring classes ahead of him, all without you around.
——————————————————
After class, he went straight for the cemetery like he did everyday, smiling sadly when he approached the one grave that stood out most to him.

He put his sadness aside momentarily and brought up the brightest grin he could muster, dropping on the floor roughly while he leaned his body longingly against the cold stone.

"I told you 할머니 (grandma) that I'd keep looking forward and some days are easier than others but I still miss you, so so much." He says out loud and then rubbed the plaque lovingly.

A smile tugged at his lips. "There's this girl who I met that had the same look in her eyes that I did when you left me alone. I can't tell for sure but I think she's going through something and I can't help but be drawn to her. She isn't as lucky enough to have you in her life like I did so I'm going to be that person for her" he promised as he fondly gazed at the sky.

"You'd like her... she doesn't smile much so I try to make up for her part. There are those rare days when she does though and it really takes my breath away 할머니..." he says with a chuckle.

"I only hope one day she trusts me enough to talk to me..." he thought wistfully. "I think the last time I heard her speak was when I first moved to school four years ago... I don't know what happened though..." he trailed off and gently pressed his forehead on the gravestone while shutting his eyes. A tear trailed down his cheek and he let out a strained laugh.

"It still hurts though 할머니..." he whispered and clenched his fist. After a couple more moments however he took a deep breath and regained his composure.

With a final prayer he stood, stretching his, now, stiff muscles and then he looked around, noting that the sun was beginning to set

As usual he lost track of time.

He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and grinned broadly when he saw your name flash on the screen.

With a rapidly increasing amount of anticipation -even though he was always the only one who spoke- he answered the phone.

"Y/N~ Guess you couldn't hold yourself back from hearing my beautiful voice after all! Where were you toda-"

"T-T-Tae..." you croak weakly for the first time since you both grew close.

His smile immediately dropped and his phone slipped out of his hand, shattering the moment it touched the pavement.
——————————————————
You wheeze painfully, watching as the room gradually blurred.

This was it.

This was finally the beating you knew you wouldn't be able to recover from.

This time, you wouldn't be able to shrug off the pain and show up to your classes pretending like the world wasnt actually punishing you.

You were slowly drifting between the lines of painful reality and pure darkness; darkness that was lulling you in.

"Im so tired..." you sluggishly thought as a cough ripped out of you, making a faint line of blood drip down your chin.
——————————————————
Tae sprinted faster as he ran his hands through his hair in frustration while cursing for the hundredth time.

"FUCK! Y/N... wait for me..." he chanted to himself in worry as he continued to rush in the direction of your house.
——————————————————
Tae looked up at the household that he passed by everyday and peered up at the window to the room he saw you standing behind one day.

There was a ledge right below it so he hoisted himself on lithely and then slammed the window open.
——————————————————
You slowly look up to Taehyung, wishing he had greeted you with the smile that you had grown to cherish.

Instead, he had the same expression you usually made when you saw yourself in the mirror: one of horror.

He shuffled towards you numbly, unable to believe what he was seeing.

You're flopped pathetically on the floor and were leaning pitifully against the edge of your bed. You couldn't bring yourself to crawl on top of it, so you just settled for the cold floor instead.

You breathed unevenly and with every breath you took, your broken ribs would painfully stab your lungs.

When you coughed again blood splattered past your lips, making Tae snap out of his daze as he quickly kneeled before you while helping you up.

"Y/N! We need to go to the hospital... I'll call the ambulance! Give m-me your phone and I'll make sure everything is alright." He demanded but stumbled over his words in his panic.

Once the ambulance arrived, he joined you in the back of the van and not once did he let go of his comforting hold on your hands.

You looked back at him knowing that you wouldn't be leaving the truck with him tonight...

You only drew the strength to call him earlier when you realized that this time, you wouldn't wake up to see tomorrow.

Silently you cursed at the merciless world once again. This time for giving you the death you had begged for but only after you decided that it was finally worth living.

The irony made you scoff bitterly.

The resigned look on the nurse's face only further proved your hopeless state but it didn't seem like Tae noticed just yet so you gripped his hands weakly.

"Y/N everything will be okay now, I'm here and we're getting help..." he rambled and you sucked in another painful breath, aided by the mask attached to you.

You watched him sadly, trying to convey how your condition was already beyond saving.

His brows creased in confusion but then you felt him stiffen in your grasp once he came to the same understanding. His eyes widened for only a second before he gritted his teeth.

"S-stop! Don't look at me like that! You're going to get through this! Don't give up on me, you're not going to..." he trailed off, choking slightly and then he shut his eyes in pain.

"He's learned to read me so much better" you thought with a smile.

Tae gazed at your warm hands and even with all the tubes connected to you, he believed you were truly the strongest and most beautiful person he knew.

He choked back a sob and then laughed bitterly. "Why do these things happen to all the people who don't deserve it?" He whispered angrily and you couldn't help but silently agree with him, knowing that because of you, the man in front of you would be another step closer to becoming jaded.

With an incredible amount of effort, you parted your dry lips and ignored his comment. "Tae, smile for me everyday when I'm not here a-and don't stop okay? P-Promise?..." you whispered, struggling to get the unused muscles working one last time after all these years, as your tears trailed down your cheeks.

He teared up more at the sound of your voice and laughed but it sounded hollow and dead to your ears.

"Twice in a day Y/N? I'm r-really one lucky bastard to be alive in a time where I could hear an angel's voice" he tried to joke but it hurt himself to see you in pain and his tears flowed freely now.

You smiled at his words and his heart skipped painfully.

A frenzy of beeping suddenly went off however, making him look around in panic as he noticed that your heart monitor was acting up.

You looked up longingly with a serene smile on your face and you let out a soft sigh. "I'll see you soon mom..." you murmured with your last breath and squeezed Tae's hand one more time while shooting him his version of a smile; one full of genuine happiness.

And then the heart monitor flatlined.
——————————————————
Tae lost a piece of his heart the day his grandmother passed and another huge chunk out of it the moment you joined her.
——————————————————

One week later

Tae walked into school, an unreadable expression on his face and already he could hear whispers coming from students about the girl who's father beat her to death and how he'd be rotting in a cell for the rest of his life; as if that would change the fact that you were gone.

"The dead have no desire for retribution though" Tae thought somberly and his thoughts drifted off to you as they always did.

"할머니... I guess you got to meet her sooner than I thought... Take care of her for me until I can join you two again, okay?" he requested with his eyes shut.

A voice called out to him, making him pause and he took a moment to pull himself together before he turned around with a smile, brighter than ever at his friend.

He would make sure he kept his promise to you forever.

Smile for me everyday...

The ones who smiled the brightest, carried the heaviest burdens.
——————————————————
Hey loves sorry this is a bit late. I was struggling with this story for a bit until I got to this point.

It's probably not that great but I hope you still enjoyed it.

Let me know what you think 😅