✔️ 𝐈𝐧𝐤𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐞 | 𝐓𝐚𝐞𝐠𝐠𝐮𝐤

Chapter Thirty-Two.

Taehyung

The next morning, Taehyung was awoken by the gasp of someone and the shift of the person next to him.

He and Jeongguk had fallen asleep on his bed, and they spent the night cuddling as they had before everything happened. Taehyung hadn't realized how much he missed being in Jeongguk's arms.

He forced his tired eyes open despite the headache he had developed during the night, mostly a result of him crying. When his eyes focused, he saw his parents in the threshold of the room. His father looked unfathomably angry, a vein popping out of his forehead. His mother had her hand over the lower half of her face, and he swore he saw shiny tears threatening to spill over her lower lashes.

He had been foolish, and now his parents knew he was gay. His life couldn't get much worse than this.

"You... you faggot!" his father practically shrieked, enraged. "I knew there was something wrong with you from the moment I saw him here." He pointed a sausage-like finger at Jeongguk, who was now standing next to the bed.

"Taehyung," his mother started, obviously emotional. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Taehyung wished he could disappear. He was still emotionally drained from last night, not to mention the impossible things he had been through in the last week. He pressed his eyes closed and simply shook his head slowly, not able to do anything more.

"Dad, please don't."

"Don't what?" his father replied. "You're sinning, and so openly at that! And don't pretend we haven't seen that tattoo on your chest! You became everything we told you not to."

Taehyung opened his eyes, allowing himself to look at his father. "Maybe I didn't want to be a boring, emotionally abusive ass when I became an adult. Maybe I wanted to accept people no matter what choices they made, because life is short and awful so we might as well enjoy what we can. The last thing I ever wanted was to be like you."

Taehyung was now sitting up straight, staring defiantly at his father, holding his angry gaze. His mother stared in fear at her husband, and her eyes told Taehyung that she was scared for her life.

"What did you do to mom?"

His father scowled. "This isn't about her. This is about you and the terrible decisions you've made."

Taehyung pressed his eyes closed again. His headache was only getting worse. "Can you leave?"

A low laugh met this. "And leave behind my faggot son?" He paused. "Maybe next time you're attacked, they'll actually kill you. They'd be doing me a favor."

Despite the deep, unforgettable pain that Taehyung felt deep in his chest at this comment, he said nothing. He would only make his father more enraged if he let his anger speak for him now. He just wanted his father to leave.

"Don't you dare come near him," Jeongguk snarled.

Taehyung opened his eyes slightly to see that his father was slowly approaching them, fists clenched. "If you lay a finger on him, I will kill you."

Taehyung could only watch as Jeongguk stood his ground, looking more furious than Taehyung had ever seen him before. His father approached slowly, until he stopped. Then, he grinned.

"After all these years, after all this money we spent on you to go to university-you repay us like this?"

"How can you say that to your own son?" Jeongguk finally flared.

His father shook his head, laughing manically. "This person is no son of mine."

Taehyung wasn't exactly sure what happened next. He had entered a sort of daze when he first saw his parents that morning, and it only increased with each second that ticked by. However, what he did know was that his father lunged at Jeongguk.