Butterfly - BTS

Chapter Seventeen

I got a call from Taehyung two hours I had arrived home. I had just finished eating a welcoming lunch with my family when my cell phone rang. After closing the door to my room behind me, I flipped open my phone without looking and answered.

"Hello?"

The first thing I heard was the sniffling. It sounded distant, as if the caller was purposely holding the phone farther from his face so that I wouldn't hear. The other person was crying. I glanced at the caller ID.

"Tae?" I asked gently. "What's wrong?"

"H-Hyung, I'm scared," he stammered into the speaker. "I've just done something unforgivable."

"Taehyung, what's happening?" My heart rate spiked at his words, and I was suddenly so afraid. He wasn't dying, was he? I stopped breathing momentarily, and I felt like the world had stopped spinning.

"I... I killed my father," he whispered, his voice cracking. "I killed him with his own bottle."

My hand found my mouth, and I gasped very audibly. I stared at the floor, unable to process that Taehyung was a murderer. Through the speaker, I heard a few muffled sobs. I realized that my silence was killing him.

"It'll..." I searched for words, vying for the right things to say. "It'll be okay, Tae."

"But I'm a murderer," he weeped, sniffing. "I don't know what to do, and I don't know how to live with myself. I'm scared!"

Taehyung was on the brink of insanity, driven by his own actions. I had to bring him back, I just had to. He couldn't die now, hours away, while I couldn't help him in any way. It was my responsibility to help him.

"Taehyung, tell me what happened," I said gingerly. "Take a deep breath."

I heard him sigh, and he started out with a hoarse voice.

"My dad's a drunk," he began, although he knew that it was already in my knowledge. "He's been beating my family ever since the deaths, and..."

There was a long pause, and he gulped very audibly.

"When I got home," he whispered, his voice wavering, "I passed the church. I saw the... I saw the announcement on the sign, and it said my mom's name. It said my mom's name, Jin. It was her funeral this morning, and I didn't even know that she died."

"Oh my God," I breathed. "I'm so sorry."

"Yeah, I am too," he answered quietly. "But... When I got home, I wanted to ask them why they didn't tell me, but when I got home, the door was unlocked and I heard screams. That's when I knew."

Taehyung burst into tears, fresh sobs echoing through the receiver. I did my best to comfort him and shush him over the phone, but I had never felt so helpless in my life. There was literally nothing that I could do.

"My dad," he started again, between hics of tears, "was drunk and beating my sister, so I took the nearest bottle and..."

"I love you, Taehyung," I murmured. That was the only thing I knew to say. "If no one else in the world does, I still do, and I support you. I will stay strong for you, if you can't. I'll pick you up in a few hours, and we can do something, okay? Don't do anything stupid. You did the right thing."

"But I murdered my own father." His voice was ragged and broken, and I could tell how close he was to snapping clean in half, but I couldn't let that happen. Taehyung and I were going to live together in peace, and nothing bad would come again.

"And you protected your family," I added softly. "You did it to protect the ones you love. Just stay put, Tae, I'm coming to get you."

I was going to save Kim Taehyung, and if the world tried to stop me, I would do everything in my power to fight back.