Sterling

Chapter Two

"I really wish you would stop hurting yourself like this. It's not healthy for you, Tae," Jimin stated gently as he reached under the table, grabbing the younger male's arm, causing Taehyung to flinch from the sudden contact, trying to retract his hand from his best friend. Jimin didn't allow it to happen, however, pushing the sleeve up enough to expose the freshly carved cuts on the younger's skin.

Jimin looked at them with a frown, to which Taehyung felt more exposed than ever at the moment. He successfully retracted his arm away from the male, pulling his sleeve down and hiding the shameful marks he made on his body, feeling guilt eat him up in every way possible. He felt it begin at the pit of his stomach, slowly inching its way up to his chest and clouding his mind.

"Can we not talk about it please?" Taehyung asked, avoiding any eye contact with any of his friends say around the table. Jimin sighed before he slowly nodded, going back to his lunch as he continued to eye Taehyung worriedly. The table fell silent, Taehyung not eating as pure usual, not really in the mood to stuff his face with anything beside water.

He looked around the table and started to feel that guilt claw at him again. He knew they were just worried and concerned about him, but he wasn't comfortable with the fact of sharing his personal problems going on back at home. They had enough to worry about with the bullying happening at school and all. He couldn't possible bear the thought of them worrying about him constantly outside of school-at home.

"I'm sorry. I know you guys are just concerned about me and with everything going on here, it's just..." he let out a sigh, leaning forward on his elbows that were placed on the table, his forehead finding the palms of his hands, fingers gripping the dark silky strands, tugging on them. "My parents and I got into a pretty nasty fight last night."

"What was it about?" Hoseok asked the younger male, setting his chopsticks down and looking at Taehyung with worried filled eyes. The small brunette shook his head, flashing him a small smile, hoping he would just drop it and go on with his lunch. However, he knew Hoseok never gave up that easily when it came to finding out the truth. "Tae."

Taehyung sighed, remembering last nights events, feeling his heart rate pick up, blood running cold and hands becoming shaky. He didn't want to tell the whole story of how his parents just generally didn't like their son and found him a mistake and disappointed. How was he supposed to tell them that and they not understand what he meant by that?

His parents have always wanted Taehyung to be someone the male didn't want to be, and he hated that. He felt forced to try and fit in with their colleagues and their friends. He was never able to do the things he wanted to do, do the things he liked to do-that caught his interest. It was what they wanted and what they wanted only.

They wanted Taehyung to be this perfect person in everyone's eyes-in the world's eyes. He wasn't supposed to be the guy he is now. He felt trapped and beaten to the point he just didn't care anymore. He didn't care if they won or if he lost this battle with them-he was just done with everything happening to him and he was ready for it all to come to an end and his life to finally start looking up.

That wasn't the case though.

It was never the case.

He felt like his life was just getting worse and worse as the days go by. Nothing ever seemed to look up or good for him in the future. He wasn't allowed o move out, granted he was only a teenager, but he still wasn't allowed to even if he was a fully grown adult. He felt completely trapped living with his parents and being at this school wasn't much help either.

He wanted an escape but he felt like there was no escape, and that he had to accept that this was going to be his life forever and that he better get used to it until the day he finally falls over and dies. That day was always a day he looked forward to, but he felt like that was far away and never coming either, so he still felt stuck and trapped in this hell he had to call his life.