24
"The old sticker pictures that I took out again. The pictures where you and I are happily smiling, I look at them by myself and--La la la..."
~Lonely-B1A4
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The house was quiet when they walked in. The door had been open when Jimin tried it. Mrs. Park must have unlocked it in advance. The house itself looked pretty normal, nothing was too out of place, at least in the living room. Though, there was a note on the coffee table.
Jimin was the first to pick it up, reading it, then passing it to Jungkook. Taehyung read over Jungkook's shoulder.
I took Kyung-mi outside to talk, she kept throwing things.
Jimin, please make sure if you see any glass to pick it up? Might be a good idea to vacuum, just to make sure. The main mess is in Taehyung's and Kyung-mi's rooms.
Taehyung, please, don't think this is your fault. Kyung-mi says things she doesn't mean, she doesn't hate you, she's a sweetheart, after she gets like this, she cries herself to sleep knowing what she said. Please don't blame her either for what she did.
XOXO
Taehyung swallowed. Maybe she did say things she didn't mean... She'd be one of the few who didn't actually mean it. He wanted that to be true, that she didn't mean it, that it was just something that took over and she couldn't stop it. Does she really feel bad after? Is Mrs. Park just making that up?
"Well," Jimin started. "Guess we should head upstairs and see how bad it is..."
"How bad could it be?" Jungkook asked, trying to be optimistic.
Jimin chuckled, obviously knowing something neither Taehyung nor Jungkook knew. Then he started up the stairs. Jungkook looked at Taehyung and shrugged before heading up the stairs with him. Taehyung followed the two of them.
Jimin stopped in the hallway, between Taehyung's room, and Kyung-mi's. "Damn, I can already smell the smoke."
Taehyung bit his lip. He could smell it too. It smelled like someone had a campfire. He only knew the smell because for Jae-hwa's 16th birthday she had a bonfire, invited all her friends, roasted marshmallows. Taehyung had only tagged along, sitting with them and trying to make everyone else smile, and laughing at the jokes they told. He was mostly ignored, except for Jae-hwa, who glared at him. He remembered mid-way through the party, Jae-hwa told him to hop on a spaceship back to planet Dumbass. All of her friends laughed, making similar jokes. The smell would forever be that memory. It would always be that awful pit in his stomach that ate away at him from the inside.
Jimin opened Kyung-mi's door, and the smell only got stronger. Taehyung had never really been in her room before, it felt weird. The bedroom walls were pink, the bed had colorful pillows and stuffed animals of all kinds, he noticed a lot of bunnies. The room looked like it was in a fog, the window open to let out smoke, but even then, he could still see the books of music laying around, along with her violin.
It looked like she'd ripped out half the pages of the music books, music notation all around the room. From the blackened scraps in the middle of the room, she probably started the fire with pages of it.
Where she'd started the fire had blackened the floor, though now the spot was soaking with water, she seemed to have a line of things she wanted to burn, A photo album, a few books, a stuffed monkey, a stack of files that looked to be Mrs. Park's, and Taehyung's lion. She'd ripped the arm off the lion and took most of it's stuffing out, probably using it as fuel for the fire she'd started in the middle of the room.
Taehyung just stared at the dismembered lion. He didn't own much as it was, and he didn't particularly care about things, but this was special, probably the exact reason Kyung-mi had taken it to burn. Even if he knew he couldn't have it forever, he'd rather Kyung-mi hadn't torn it's arm off like that.
Jimin took off his snapback and ran a hand through his hair. "I guess we could start by picking up all this paper..." Jimin said then pulled the rubbish bin by the desk over toward the middle of the room. "I think most of it is probably water damaged and smudged or burnt." Jimin continued.
"Geez, I thought she loved music..." Jungkook said, kneeling down and starting to pick up ruined sheet music and toss it in the rubbish bin.
Taehyung knelt down with him and helped. He wished he could save some, she'd probably be upset later about it, but most of the ones that weren't damaged weren't consecutive, just keeping those wouldn't make sense, you wouldn't be able to play the whole piece, there would be pages missing, so they just threw it all away.
"What's this?" Jungkook asked, picking up the remnants of Taehyung's stuffed lion.
Jimin looked up after dropping the stack of Mrs. Park's files on Kyung-mi's desk. "Oh...That's Taehyung's..." Jimin looked over at Taehyung. "Maybe mom could fix it, okay? It just needs stuffing...and a little stitching..."
Taehyung nodded, not looking up and starting to pick up the books Kyung-mi had scattered around the floor. It hurt. She doesn't mean it, right? She doesn't mean it... If she didn't mean it, why didn't she say sorry?
~~~
After cleaning Kyung-mi's room, they moved onto Taehyung's. Kyung-mi had pulled all the clothes out of the closet, took his homework and spread it around the room, pulled the sheets off his bed. Taehyung didn't have much to mess up, but it was apparent that she was looking for anything to burn. It took an hour to put everything away again. And Then Jimin fiddled with the vacuum for a while, not knowing how to work it, or empty it. Jungkook ended up vacuuming. After he'd finished with the vacuum, they took all the trash and walked it out to the bin outside.
When they came back, Mrs. Park and Kyung-mi had come back. Kyung-mi just looked at her feet, while Mrs. Park just held her hand, squeezing Kyung-mi's tightly. "Taehyung, Kyung-mi would like to say something to you."
He stopped in front of them, Jimin and Jungkook stopping too. Kyung-mi will say something mean, she'll call me a murderer again. Can't she understand I didn't mean it? What more could she want?
"Tae-Taehyung.." Kyung-mi started, still looking at her feet, it sounded like she was crying, or she'd just stopped crying, he could still hear her sniffling. "Oppa..." Kyung-mi continued, rubbing at her eyes with the backs of her hands.
Oppa? Taehyung was even more surprised when Kyung-mi suddenly came toward him, hugging him. What are you doing? What are... Taehyung tentatively hugged her back, hardly touching her as he hugged her.
"I'm sorry...I'm so sorry...Oppa, forgive me...I didn't mean it...!" Kyung-mi said, crying.
Taehyung glanced up at Mrs. Park. It didn't seem like she'd told her to say that, Mrs. Park was in a sense, kind of solemn in demeanor. His eyes went back to Kyung-mi. She was actually sick, not like everyone thought he was, but actually sick. But even then, Kyung-mi wasn't crazy, he wouldn't call her crazy, just...lost, lonely, confused, unable to stop herself from doing things she didn't really want to do in a moment.
"I...I forgive you, Kyung-mi..." Taehyung said she hugged him tighter when he said it, and Taehyung wasn't sure how to react.
How could he react? Tomorrow, she might act just the same as she always had, tomorrow, she might act how she was now. What was he supposed to think about that? He supposed, now he knew why Mrs. Park had said she was excited to meet him at first.
"Yeah, Kyungie, it's all good." Jimin added, probably feeling awkward just standing there.
Kyung-mi sniffled. "Shut up, Jimin."
Jungkook chuckled at that. Kyung-mi wasn't really any different, whatever she and her mom had talked about, it had calmed her down enough to apologize, and Taehyung was glad for that. Do you not hate me, Kyung-mi?
Taehyung bit his lip and looked up at Mrs. Park again. But why do you keep taking in kids from that mental hospital? Once, was understandable, but twice? He didn't understand, why would she do that? Why wasn't Kyung-mi just a job? Did she even start out as just a job?
"Anyone want dinner?" Mrs. Park asked, the solemn look she had replaced with a smile and a cherry disposition. "I think we should treat ourselves, what do you think? We'll have a vote."
Kyung-mi came out of the hug, "I want chicken."
Jimin scoffed, "Are you kidding? We should have crab."
Mrs. Park reached over a ruffled Taehyung's hair, "What do you want, Taehyung?"
Taehyung stared at Mrs. Park's eyes. Why are you doing this? Why? "I like either..."
Mrs. Park chuckled. "Jungkook, you're the tie-breaker!"
Jungkook groaned, "Oh, lord, please don't do that to me, you know that--."
"Kookie~! Vote Crab!" Jimin said, latching onto Jungkook's arm. "You know you want some...!" Jimin wiggled his eyebrows. Seeing that Jungkook wasn't looking, he switched tactics. "Don't play dumb, you know you want crab, you know you do."
Jungkook rolled his eyes. And Jimin's bribing continued.
Taehyung wasn't paying too much attention, still thinking about Mrs. Park. Why'd you take this job? Why'd you take me? From anyone else's viewpoint, he was a crazy murderer, who would just trust him like that? How could anyone just trust him like that?
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A/N: Once again, if this had parts~ This would be the end of part 2, and I really ought to come up with snazzy names for them, but you know :3 Maybe I'll do that when I go back and edit it? Next chapter is the beginning of part 3, and I'd like it very much if after you read the next chapter, you didn't hate me :)
Aish, that sounds ominous O.o
You may ask yourself, "I wonder how many parts there are, HMM?" The answer is 4 O.O Yup. I'm guesstimating that each part with be 12 chapters, but I don't know, I'll see how the flow of the story goes~ Please tolerate me for that long xD
(;^-^)> (>.> )/
~Neri has wicked plans~
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