VHope: The OneShot Collection

VHope: Lifetime - 1

Final installation of the "misunderstandings" series.

[His shoes] [Meet you, never] [Lifetime]

Warning: negative roles.

Taehyung hears the front door open slowly, and he knows there's bad news.

He sighs, and flips the meat on the pan. He quickly wipes his sweaty hands on his stained yellow apron, and fixes his now black hair.

He quickly moves out of the kitchen to the living room, where he can see a young girl, with a short bob covering her whole face, taking off her tiny ballerina shoes in front of the shoe rack.

"Hyojin," he calls out, and she refuses to look up, fiddling with the buckle of her shoe. He walks up to her, sits, and hugs her.

He can hear the small weeping sounds follow. His heart aches, and he pulls her in closer. Her tiny hands wound around his waist, and he can feel her tiny nose poking his chest and her tears stain his already stained apron.

Taehyung feels like tearing the world apart, for his whole world is crying in his arms. He thought nothing could be more painful than a broken heart; but the truth was, nothing could be more painful than to see your child cry everyday when she came back from school.

"It's OK HyoJin, we'll try harder next time," he runs a hand through her hair, yet she continues to cry.

Sometimes Taehyung thinks he did a terrible mistake of letting Jungkook be a part of HyoJin's life. The man had terrible expectations from an academically average girl. He wanted to shun him from her life, stop him being involved in her development.

Just like he'd stopped him from being involved in his life.

Jungkook had grown toxic after their engagement. He'd fret over Taehyung leaving the house alone, over who he's meeting, what he's eating, why did he pick up that random call. To make their relationship more trusting, they had decided to adopt a child.

Taehyung felt he couldn't have been irresponsible, bringing in a child in am already troubled paradise. He dealt with the emotional torture Jungkook whipped on him, but he couldn't stand the way he brought out his worst to HyoJin.

He broke the engagement the day Jungkook raised his hand on her.

His business had been doing well, so he had no constraints on the financial end. The only thing he had constraints on was legal documents stating Jungkook had the right to see his daughter every once in a while.

"He'll call today, Appa," HyoJin spoke in a broken voice. Her oval face looked paler than ever, her hair stuck to her face. She broke into another sob. "I really, really tried hard this year. I really did. Even the teachers said I improved. I got managed a B in maths. But that's not an O. I swear I tried. I swear I did!,"

"You don't need to answer anyone HyoJin," I wish you didn't. I'm sorry. "I'll say your results were delayed,"

He pulls up her face, and smiles at her. "Look, my princess has a running nose," he wipes the long string of snot with his apron, and mutters a 'yack!' And HyoJin smiles.

"Go on, get cleaned," he says, as he unbuckles her shoes. She nods, and stands up, and runs inside the house. Taehyung picks up her shoes and puts them in a rack, only to see a small piece of paper.

It's her report card. Taehyung picks it up, and dusts it as he reads it.

Hyojin was doing much better. She'd managed to get a B- in most of her subjects, a B in math, her weakest subject. 'HyoJin is doing very well. She's very hard working, and soon she'll be in the A grade category!' read a note from the homeroom teacher. Taehyung smiles, his heart swelling in pride.