"Because the dawn right before the sun rises is the darkest. Even in the far future, never forget the you of right now. Wherever you are right now, you're just taking a break. Don't give up, you know, Don't get too far away, Tomorrow..."

~Tomorrow-BTS

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That night every dream he had was filled with people he didn't want to see. And there were several different ones, he woke up every hour. The most prominent one was the one with Appa.

He'd walk up to Taehyung in the dream, looking normal--and drunk was normal for Appa, and he was always an angry drunk. He'd hit Taehyung hard over the head with a bottle, then he'd crouched down next to Taehyung when he fell, saying, "What have you ever done to deserve happiness? What have you ever done, dog?" Then blood started dripping from the ceiling, coming down slowly, then like rain. Until it filled the room, until he drowned in it.

That was the most recent one he'd woken up from, and he'd woken up with a yell, sitting up faster then ever. His body was shaking, tears were coming down his face, he had pushed all the covers off the bed. He couldn't go back to sleep, he knew he couldn't, at least not immediately.

He tried to calm down, get his breathing back to a normal pace, find it in himself to close his eyes again, but he only accomplished calming his breath.

"Oppa?"

Taehyung jumped at the sound of a voice, then looked over by the doorway where it came from. A figure stood there, but Taehyung couldn't say he could tell who just by that.

"Oppa, are you okay?"

Taehyung recognized the voice this time. It was Kyung-mi, probably feeling more like herself instead of being moody and violent.

Taehyung looked in her direction. "I'm okay..." He said, though he felt far from it, he couldn't stop his hands from shaking. "It was a dream." He tried to tell himself that repeatedly too, as much as he could, but it had felt so real. Maybe I don't deserve happiness...

I don't really deserve Hana. He thought of how she'd looked at him, how she'd laughed, how sweet she was. For some reason, she liked him. I don't care if I deserve her or not, I can't live without her. If he thought about it, honestly, he couldn't push Hana away, it would be strange without her now.

"Do you want me to get Eomma?" Kyung-mi asked, stepping to the side for a second to let Marshmallow trot in, jumping up on Taehyung's bed.

"Ah...Kyung-mi, I'm alright, thank you for asking, go back to sleep."

He saw Kyung-mi stand there for a little bit, probably thinking over listening to him--believing him. Then she walked away, and he could hear her door gently close as she made her way back to her room.

Taehyung laid down, terrified of sleep, because of the images, the people he saw. The blood. Marshmallow snuggled up to him, and Taehyung put an arm around the little white poodle. "I'm not a dog, am I? They can't treat me like that, right?"

Marshmallow just licked his face, the dog's rough tongue tickling him.

"I wish I believed you." He whispered, petting Marshmallow along the dog's tiny bony spine.

~~~

"Can't anyone tell me where Hana and Jae-hwa are?" The teacher asked as soon as they walked into class.

Taehyung closed his eyes. He hadn't even seen her all morning. He hadn't even seen her walk in the building, hadn't seen her in the halls. He hadn't seen Jae-hwa either, and that could only mean a few things.

He didn't like any of the options. Don't. Don't. Why can't you just victimize me? Just me. Don't bring her into it. Jae-hwa, you b*tch.

"No-one? Not one of you has seen them?" The teacher scanned the classroom. "I'm serious, Lee Hana is deaf, if you've seen her, speak up."

Taehyung licked his lips, then raised is hand.

"Yes, Taehyung?"

"I...Can I...I mean--I could go look for her?"

Jimin's hand shot up immediately after Taehyung was finished talking. "Me too, I'll help look for her."

The teacher checked his watch. "I'll give you 15 minutes, then I'm calling her parents, and seeing if I can get a hold of Jae-hwa's aunt."

They took that as a yes, both Taehyung and Jimin getting up as soon as he was done, Taehyung glanced back at where Jungkook usually sat, but the maknae had told Jimin he was sick and couldn't come to school that day. Jungkook hadn't seemed sick the day before, but maybe...

It felt strange, Taehyung had gotten used to Jungkook walking in front of him whenever they entered the classroom or left it.

Jimin lead the way out of the classroom, then pointed down the hallway. "Should I search inside, you search outside?"

Taehyung was going to nod, but then Jimin's phone made a noise, the next noise was laughing coming from the classroom.

"Sh*t." Jimin said, then took his phone out of his pocket and grimaced at whatever was on the screen. "Oh god. Outside then."

"Why? What is it?" Taehyung asked, trying to get a look.

Jimin pulled the phone away, "You don't need to see it Taehyung, it'll make you upset, let's just go."

Taehyung frowned. I'm not a baby, Jimin, whatever it is I can--

"You don't want to see Hana like this, trust me, Taehyung, She wouldn't want you to see it either." Jimin said as if reading his mind, his face absolutely straight. Jimin was being serious, there wasn't even a hint of emotion in his voice.

Taehyung nodded. Then they started running down the hallways. Since there wasn't anyone out in the halls besides them, they couldn't get scolded for running, so they went as fast as they could to the courtyard.

Outside, Jimin pointed over beyond a few trees. "From the picture, I'd say she was somewhere around there, or behind the school, but there was a tree in the picture."

A tree? What could they do to Hana outside?

What could they even do that was worse then what she'd already done? Hana didn't do anything to her, this was either purely about Taehyung, or Jae-hwa liked to pick on her. B*tch.

There was a scream. It didn't even remotely sound like Hana, and the profanities that followed definitely weren't Hana. "She bit me!"

The voice had come from in back of the school. There weren't that many windows looking out at the back of the school, so it was probably the first place Jae-hwa had thought of to do whatever it was she was doing to Hana. B*tch.

Jimin went with Taehyung around the building to the back, though a little bit behind Taehyung, he kept up. They tried to continue to follow the voices, because there was indeed a back and forth between Jae-hwa and someone else, the second voice was a little quieter, but the echo of the empty grass filled yard in back of the school carried the voices a little far.

"Would you just hold her down?

"...Don't feel like it..."

"What?! She's just some deaf girl!"

"I don't feel like it!"

Taehyung and Jimin stopped just close enough to see what was happening, peeking around the trunk of a tree.

Jae-hwa stood by the base of a tree, her boyfriend Yoongi standing off to the side, hands in his pockets, looking down at the ground. Eventually, Taehyung actually saw Hana among everything else. She was on the ground, right at Jae-hwa's feet. Don't do this to Hana, please don't.

"Yoongi, just hold her down for three seconds so I can--"

Yoongi looked off to the side. "Babe, no, I'm not doing that, she's goddamn deaf, this is between you and her."

"UGH! You're useless! I can't believe you of all people feels sorry for her just because she's deaf!"

Yoongi looked directly at Jae-hwa, squinting at her. "It's not that, that's just too much work over someone who hasn't done a goddamn thing to me."

Taehyung bit his lip. Yoongi might not be as bad as he originally thought, at least he had morals, at least he wasn't helping Jae-hwa hurt Hana, even if it was only because that was 'too much work'.

Jimin leaned over to Taehyung and whispered. "Well, what should we do?"

Taehyung swallowed. He didn't really know, he knew he should stop Jae-hwa, but really, he hadn't planned out anything to actually do when he got there. He wondered if just because Yoongi said he didn't feel like messing with Hana meant that he wouldn't still punch him if he saw him.

"How the hell am I going to get a picture of her panties if you don't hold her down, Yoongi?"

Taehyung closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. It made him mad. He hadn't been mad since that day...since he'd killed Appa. He didn't like being angry, angry meant he might do something without thinking, and doing something without thinking was what got him taking mountains of pills, what got him locked in a white box with nothing to do, no one to talk to, only how empty he felt to think about, only the blood on his hands to think about.

"Tae, it's okay, I'll call the principal's office." Jimin said.

Taehyung shook his head, eyes still closed. If they did that, Hana would have to suffer that entire time. And if he really cared, shouldn't he be able to stop this? Shouldn't he at least do something? Why couldn't he get his feet to move? Why can't I do this? Why am I scared? Maybe the threat of that hospital still loomed over him, maybe deep down, he was still scared of what Jae-hwa would do, scared that she'd tell the police, or what she'd put in his locker to make him look crazy. I can't do this, I can't. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Hana screamed, and Taehyung couldn't even tell himself to look.

"I'm calling the police." Jimin said.

Taehyung shook his head. Not police. Not police...

"Taehyung, what she's doing is illegal...!" Jimin whispered.

I know that. I know that. But the police will think I had something to do with it, they'll find some way to blame me, I know they will, as soon as you mention your name.

"I'm going to get something to eat, you can do whatever you want, I can't watch this." Yoongi said, "Call me after school."

Taehyung opened his eyes in time to see Yoongi walk past him, looking him right in the eye, and acknowledging Taehyung with a sort of bored look, only mouthing, 'Pumpkin-head.' as he did, but he kept walking, not even looking back after he passed him.

He doesn't even care. Maybe Yoongi only did things when he felt like it, when it mattered to him, but either way, he'd said nothing to either Jimin or Taehyung, despite when they'd last talked.

Taehyung licked his lips, looking at Jimin, who was actually calling the police, phone to his ear already. Then he stood up, "J-Jae-hwa!"

He was going to stop this. It was what he should do, he was right there, he couldn't let Hana be a victim when he was right there. It doesn't matter what anyone thinks afterwards.

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A/N:

Wonder where Jungkook went?

...

...

... I know what you're thinking, 'Like heck he's sick. BS.'

The answer is...Author-nim is going to get into the Jungkook thing soon *squeals*

Haha...I'm strangely excited? xD

#HaHyung and #TaeNa is the official ship name we're using here btw~ BECAUSE dolmoxoxo is a smart cookie (kookie lol) that came up with a ship name while I just couldn't think of one because mental block or something xD

So what ship is sailing for you? TaeNa? TaeKook? TaeMin? (Is that what it's called?)

~Neri~