"Hope turns into disappointment. Wish turns into despair. As love deepened, pain deepened more. Illusion or expectation that this time, it'll be different..."

~Finally- G-Dragon

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Jimin's mom met up with them, she immediately went up to Taehyung and hugged him tight. Taehyung felt strange when she did. He'd expected her to yell at him, scold him for running away, but all he got was a hug. He wanted to hug her back, but ended up too scared to. She could still be mad.

"I thought you'd ran away for good..." He came out of the hug, holding Taehyung's shoulders and gently shaking him once. "Why did you do that, Taehyung? You scared me to death..."

"I..." Taehyung paused to lick his lips, looking away from her. What was he going to say? That he got upset because he wasn't crazy and she'd just assumed he did it, already apologizing for him? "I...I didn't push the rack over..."

The psychiatrist gave him a sympathetic look. The look only meant lies to Taehyung. "Jimin told me, it's alright." She slowly reached toward Taehyung, and he stared at her hand as it came to rest on top of his head, ruffling his hair.

I'm a pet again. Taehyung bit his lip. He wasn't sure what exactly she thought of him, but she kept treating him like she was afraid he would bite her. I don't bite, I don't even like fighting.

Jimin took the stuffed lion out of his arms and held it toward his mom, "Eomma, he wants this lion." Jimin said, giving Taehyung a smirk. It was plain that he thought it was childish.

His mom giggled. "After we go clothes shopping, okay?"

He was being spoken to like a child, a dog, like he needed to be pacified with nice words and promises. This won't ever change, will it? They'll always see me this way won't they? No matter what they say, everyone's hiding this fear of him, this wanting to not make him upset. Because he was a murderer, nothing but a murderer in their eyes.

Taehyung just nodded. Then Jimin's mom pulled him up to his feet.

After that, they went back to the men's department, though Taehyung didn't want to go back there because he knew that those girls were probably still around, and he didn't want to hear that word again.

But Jimin ended up getting him to look at everything, pointing at every even remotely interesting article of clothing, asking if he liked it, if he wanted it. Taehyung only said yes to simple things, the stuff with printed words or pictures or so much color didn't feel right, though he did actually like some of it, he'd rather be simple, just plain colors, simple things, nothing flashy.

Jimin pouted when Taehyung shook his head no to a pair of already ripped black jeans. "You're so boring, all you want is black and white things, and then everything is just--Ugh!" Jimin whined.

Taehyung thought of it for a moment. He was right. It was all boring, but he didn't feel right about anything else, or comfortable asking someone else to buy it for him. He wanted to stay with them, so he didn't want to be a burden. "I'm very sorry..." Taehyung said, quiet so just Jimin could hear and not his mom, who was looking through some things on a sale rack.

"Try it on then, just see what it looks like." Jimin grabbed a leather jacket, then a white tee-shirt that had a big, yellow, devious looking smiley face with the word, 'Wicked' written under it. "This too, come on, dude, I've got to live with you, at least have some sort of style, even if it's just the one outfit."

Taehyung looked at what Jimin was holding up over once or twice. It would be more normal if he dressed like that, he supposed, more like a teenager, more like a free person. "Okay..."

Jimin gave Taehyung that eye smile, then pushed Taehyung toward a dressing room. He was a little surprised as Jimin shoved the clothes at him and shut the dressing room door behind him.

"Tell me if you need help!" Jimin said through the door.

I don't need help, I'm not a little kid. Taehyung thought, already working his clothes off to try on these new ones

When he had them on, he looked in the mirror inside the dressing room. It made him look so different. He hadn't worn anything like this since before the hospital, he hardly recognized himself.

He straightened the sleeves of the leather jacket, then the collar. Jimin might be just making him dress up like a doll, but there was at least some kind of thought going into what he picked out.

"Are you going to show me? Or keep your ass in there forever?" Jimin asked, sounding annoyed.

Taehyung bit his lip, then slowly pushed the dressing room door open, peeking out. Jimin just pulled him out when he saw him, then turned him to a mirror.

"See? You look good." Jimin said, standing by Taehyung's shoulder as he looked in the mirror. "Actually, you look sexy as hell."

"I...I do?" Taehyung tilted his head and studied his reflection. He didn't see much that was special, just a really tired looking guy staring back at him, dressed up like that could cover his imperfections.

Jimin put an arm over Taehyung's shoulder, leaning on him. Taehyung was surprised he trusted him that much to keep him upright. "Lucky, you'll have girls begging at your feet, just wait until Tuesday."

Taehyung glanced at Jimin out of the corner of his eye, the boy adjusting his snapback and fluffing out his bangs in the mirror. "Tuesday?" Taehyung asked.

Jimin smiled at himself in the mirror, happy with how he looked. "Yeah, mom wants you to go to school with us, haven't you noticed all the uniform stuff she's been picking up?"

Now that he said it, he supposed there was a lot of dress shirts and ties, a lot of nice black jackets. But school? She trusted him enough for that? And so soon? Today was only Saturday. And wouldn't it be just like that other school he'd gone to before killing his Appa? Where everyone just made fun of him? Made him a joke? He definitely wouldn't have any friends now, everyone in the school would know, it'd get out--he was crazy and killed his father.

~~~

Taehyung slept in the car on the way back to their house. He heard Jimin's mother whisper to be quiet before he fell asleep. He got the feeling someone was watching him sleep, but he was too tired to remain alert.

After that one outfit, Jimin had shown him a billion other outfits, getting Taehyung to agree to a few. But all the going back and forth around the store and taking his clothes off and putting them back on had completely drained him of any sort of energy.

And then Taehyung had felt so guilty when Jimin's mom was paying for everything, the total was just...he didn't deserve any of it, he wasn't worth that much. But she just grinned at him, handing shopping bags to him and Jimin while she carried a few. And then she even bought the lion.

He didn't understand. Why would she do any of that? Why didn't she just say no to him in the interest of saving money? Of saving time? Was this just pity too? But no one took pity this far...

Taehyung was awoken by the sound of the car door opening next to him. He looked up to find Jimin's mom smiling at him. She seemed to be just ecstatic. "Let's go inside, okay? You can sleep more in your bed, okay, Taehyung?"

Taehyung nodded, mouth slightly open. At that, she helped him out of the car and to the door, this time, it being the back door.

Their backyard was nice, with a raised pool, a garage, a bin against the back of the garage, with soccer balls, footballs, basketballs, bats and probably a few baseballs that Taehyung couldn't see. There was a smaller bin with dog toys next to it, and a few lawn chairs around, and a nice table with an umbrella in it's middle, the umbrella striped blue, green, and white. Everything was perfect and pristine.

After Jimin's mother let him in, the back door seemed to lead into a laundry room, a washer and dryer by the wall, the room smelling like cleaner and bleach and kind of like flowers.

She then led him through to the kitchen, then the living room, to the stairs. "Do you want me to walk you upstairs?"

Taehyung shook his head no, he should be alright to go up the stairs. He wasn't crazy, or a baby.

She smiled again, ruffling his hair, the action less tentative then it had been previously, though she still hesitated, still a little scared. "I've got to go to work, okay? Just ask Jimin for anything you need, alright?"

Taehyung nodded. The amount of trust and freedom she was giving him scared him. What was the catch? Where was the catch? Where was the lie that people always told around him?

Then Taehyung headed up the stairs. Kyung-mi was playing classical music again, though Jimin seemed to be playing music too, though at a quieter level, Taehyung couldn't tell what kind it was.

Taehyung walked into 'his' room, finding the closet open, all the clothes they bought already hung up. He must have slept through them bringing it inside.

He collapsed on the bed, face in the pillows. The action was answered with a yelp. Taehyung blinked, sitting up, confused. Then he saw Marshmallow, he had laid right on top of the little white poodle.

Taehyung smiled as the dog's little tail wagged, "Were you waiting for me?" He asked, scratching behind the dog's ears.

Marshmallow jumped up on him and licked his face, Taehyung giggled at the dog's ticklish tongue. As tired as he was before, he was hardly tired at all now, now he just wanted to play with the poodle.

Taehyung got off the bed, telling Marshmallow to wait. There must be a few toys inside for the dog to play with, he figured he could look around for a while and see if he could find a few.

The dog whined when he left, but just curled up on his bed when Taehyung held a finger to his lips, signaling for him not to whine.

Going back through the hall, there was still classical music blaring, so Taehyung looked in the direction of Kyung-mi's room. He wondered why she played it so loud, wouldn't it be just as good at a quieter volume?

The door was slightly open, and Taehyung was just going to try to quietly close it when he caught sight of Kyung-mi. She was playing violin, running a bow over the strings smoothly, her fingers dancing over the neck of the violin, her eyes closed. Now that Taehyung was watching, he could tell what was her playing, and what was the music.

She was wonderful. It sounded beautiful, Taehyung started humming along with it, recognizing the tune a little. He closed his eyes and listened, the music almost making him sleepy.

Why didn't she play without all the other noise?

"What are you doing?!"

Taehyung was scared out of his thoughts when she yelled. She came toward him, yanking the door open. He backed away, falling on his behind when he tripped over his own feet in his haste to get away from her. Why do you hate me? I haven't done anything to you. Why can't you just...

Kyung-mi went right past him, down the stairs. Taehyung was confused until she came back with a bottle of pills. "You are taking these, I don't care what mom says!" Then she came toward him, unscrewing the lid.

Death. That's all those are, please, don't feed me death. Taehyung backed away, shaking his head, unable to speak.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: Swan Lake. That's what Kyung-mi was playin' :3 I always forget the name of it when I hear it xD Tchaikovsky, YUP.

Actually, I basically just listened to BTS and Woodkid while writing this, but I actually really like classical music :) It's calming, which is why I can't write to it, I'd fall asleep :D

Thanks for reading <3 ilysm ^O^)/