"kim taehyung!" the door to taehyung's office was roughly flung open, smashing against the wall next to it with a loud bang, and in came his father, kim daehyun, hastily stomping in with an ipad clutched dangerously tight in his grasp. "you never fail to disappoint me again and again."

"hm," taehyung hummed with a subtle roll of his eyes, placing all his paperwork down in order to glance up at the old man who had just entered his office without even bothering to knock, as per usual. "well, good afternoon to you too, father."

"what on earth were you thinking?!" taehyung's father yelled at the younger's face as he threw the ipad down onto the surface of the glass desk without hesitation, watching his son's expression morph from annoyed to terrified as soon as his gaze landed what was displayed on the screen of the tablet.

'dispatch names the upcoming power couple of the year in seoul: kim taehyung and jeon jungkook!

the infamous 24-year-old chief executive officer of kim corporation, kim taehyung, has been spotted on a supposed date with south korea's most renowed tattoo artist, 22-year-old jeon jungkook, at a small ramen restaurant yesterday afternoon. the pair can be seen holding hands lovingly atop the table as they enjoyed their meals, obviously proving themselves to be more than regular friends. netizens are all surprised to—'

taehyung's face paled like a ghost as all the blood seemed to be drained from him, especially when he scrolled down the page and saw an extremely clear photo of him and jungkook sitting next to the restaurant's window seat from yesterday, at the exact moment which jungkook placed his hand on top of taehyung's in order to comfort him.

fucking hell, i was too careless, he cursed in his mind, hurriedly letting go of the ipad as if it just gave him an electric shock. fuck!

"honestly, you immediately believe what this article tells you? this picture doesn't tell you anything," taehyung tried to retort after taking in a sharp breath of air. "me and jungkook were just having lunch together like normal friends do, and that's all that there is to it. is there a problem with that?"

"as expected, you misunderstand the point i keep trying to make to you, taehyung. it doesn't bother me that you're having lunch with a friend; it bothers me because out of everyone you could've chosen to get lunch with, it had to be that jeon punk, who i very clearly told you to stay away from!" daehyun exclaimed, angrily throwing the ipad on top of the desk in the same manner that you'd throw a sack onto the floor, as if it wasn't some ridiculously expensive electronic gadget. "additionally, even going as far as holding hands with him? how am i so sure that you two haven't done something more revolting behind closed doors yet?"

ouch.

"seriously, what do you have against jungkook?" taehyung asked in exasperation, not exactly wanting to continue looking at what was plastered right on that tablet's screen in front of him anymore. "what did jungkook personally ever do to you? why are you so keen on stopping me from hanging out with someone like him? is it because of his appearance? or is it because of his career? do those factors make him seem too unprofessional in your stern eyes, father?"

"i'm not going to deny any of that. jeon jungkook is the embodiment of a disgustingly bad influence on anybody, including you, and he's already succeeded in tainting your full potential as the CEO of kim corporations," taehyung's father pointed out with his head held high, the complete opposite of taehyung whose head was hung low in order to conceal the raw fury that was tearing through his steeled features. "i am never wrong in my judgement, hence why this entire situation severely worries me. i'm just trying to keep a close eye on you — it's what good parents are supposed to do, son."

"oh, of course, you would fucking know the first step to being a good parent," the blond seethed out before he could contain the words any longer. "so, should i be thanking you for your sorry excuse of being concerned for my well-being?"

"you will not use that sort of language on me, kim taehyung. i am your father," mr. kim remarked, folding his arms across his chest in irritation.

taehyung scoffed. "right. if you're my father, then why don't you start by acting like one?"

mr. kim's hand came slamming down onto the surface of the desk, albeit to taehyung preserving his rather unflinching stance. "kim taehyung, that's it. i've had enough of your—"

an abruptly loud knock interrupted them, snapping daehyun out of his momentarily rage as they both whipped their heads towards the direction of the door to see bogum standing there with a deep frown etched across his lips. "pardon me, mr. kim, i came by to pick up something but i felt the need to step in after hearing a little more than i intended to. what exactly is going on?"

"good afternoon, bogum. i believe you should hear everything from taehyung himself. frankly, i doubt it will be good for my health if i stay in this room any longer," mr. kim claimed while sending taehyung a pointed look. "i'll leave you both to it, and i'll count on you telling him the truth, taehyung. it's the least you can possibly do for your boyfriend."

daehyun shook his head before turning around to finally leave the room, unaware of taehyung's glare that burned deep into his back until the old man could no longer be seen in his line of sight.

"what do you want, bogum?" taehyung soon queried, diverting his attention over to his boyfriend, not in the mood to deal with anymore crap right now.

"taehyung, taehyung, you really hurt me," bogum began with a faux-pout, raising his hand up to his heart and clutching it as if he was genuinely in pain. as if. "we both know that this relationship is not working out as well as we both would've expected, and you apparently seeing jungkook so often isn't making it any better. recently, you've suddenly either been avoiding me like the plague or have been ice cold to me whenever we actually crossed paths."

"oh, pardon fucking me. i don't need to devote all of my time into pleasing you, bogum."

bogum clicked his tongue. "perhaps... did you catch feelings for jeon jungkook?"

"no, i didn't," taehyung deadpanned, a little too quickly for bogum's suspicion to die down just yet.

"i find that hard to believe, taehyung. i already told you how much of a shitty person jungkook is but you never truly heeded my warning, darling. on top of everything, i even woke up this morning to this?" bogum cut himself off to literally slam his palm onto the ipad. for a split second, taehyung was scared that the screen would crack due to the impact. "it feels like a punch in the gut, you know? you've been getting on my last nerves lately, taehyung, and i demand answers right now."

"what do you want me to tell you, bogum? i already told you what you needed to know," taehyung confidently shot back with a tilt of his head. "i don't owe you any more answers and don't even try bringing jungkook into this."

"you sure care about that monster a lot, huh? why the fuck are you so keen on whoring around with someone like him?" bogum growled, gradually trudging around the desk and smirking as taehyung backed away with each step bogum took towards him. "ah, i think i figured it out — you're also a monster, just like him. a fucking cheater that deserves to die with the likes of jeon!"

"don't touch me!" taehyung snarled as he saw bogum's hand fly up into the air whilst his own hands acted by a defensive instinct which led him to shove bogum back as rough as he could.

which turned out to be quite rough.

and bogum definitely wasn't happy about that.

"you fucking bitch," bogum muttered, lunging at taehyung with a clenched fist and cackling in satisfaction when he saw how the blond's head snapped to the side from the brute force of his punch, his hand moving up to instantly cradle his cheek as he stumbled back, collapsing against the ceiling-to-floor window. "why don't you rot in hell with jungkook if you like him so much, darling?" he leaned down to drawl out into taehyung's ear and before taehyung could even respond, bogum stepped back only to mercilessly deliver another strong punch to the other man.

"y-you—" taehyung coughed after briefly recovering from the tormenting blows, wiping off the blood that trickled down his nose with the back of his hand as he glared at bogum with pure fire in his eyes. "fuck you, park bogum," he sneered, pushing himself up from the floor to return an equally-as-strong punch to bogum's own face, feeling the anger that burned bright in his core fuel up as soon as he heard the snap of the older's nose.

each word that came out of his bloodied lips stung and each movement of his head was absolutely agonizing, but seeing bogum clutch his nose in pain made it just a tad more bearable for the kim corporations CEO.

"do you seriously expect me to love you the same way i did 2 years ago? no! you're the fucking monster, park bogum," taehyung roared, wiping more blood off his face and flinching at the sudden jolt of pain that shot through the bridge of his nose. "yet, you still had the audacity to come back like everything can be normal again. you're nothing but an egotistical and sadistic dick. fuck you, bogum, you make me sick."

"keep talking, darling. you make me want to punch out all of your teeth until you'll be left on your knees, begging me to stop," bogum murmured under his breath with a maniacal grin.

"you're... so messed up in the head. damn you." taehyung then narrowed his eyes at how bogum moved to grab the vase of flowers that sat on top of the desk, pretending to examine it for a couple of seconds before something in his expression changed and the vase was violently launched at taehyung without warning.

luckily, taehyung managed to react fast enough and dodged it by a slight fraction of a hair. he felt his blood burn inside his veins at the noise of the glass vase shattering against the window behind him. "you literal piece of—"

"hey, why is it so— holy shit, what on earth?! what's happening— hyung, no!" yugyeom came barging into the room, eyes going full-blown wide at the mess; blood and bruises littered both of the men's faces, glass shards were scattered around where taehyung stood, and taehyung himself looked like he was about to legitimately commit murder any minute now. "look, bogum-ssi, i'm going to have to ask you to leave or else i'm going to have to resort to putting a restraining order on you."

"you are going to try to put a restraining order on me?" bogum echoed with amusement and disbelief laced in his tone. "that's funny, yugyeom-ssi."

"bogum-ssi, don't make me call the cops. there are security cameras in this room and i'm sure you don't want this to go out to the public. you don't want people to learn of you as the role model that enjoys beating his boyfriend up, right? you both have an image to maintain, after all, and it would suck if your company ends up getting the shorter end of the stick when i get this shit out," yugyeom taunted with his hands perched on his hips.

bogum fell silent for a moment prior to rolling his eyes. "whatever. this is not over, taehyung. once your father finds out about this, and i'll personally make sure he does, you'll wish that you never crossed me," he threatened.

taehyung simply watched with spite clouding his mind as bogum left the office room just like that. with a soft groan, the blond male slowly moved towards where the vase shattered and bent down to try cleaning it up, blankly reaching for a piece for his bare hands before he felt a painful prickling sensation spreading across the span of his whole palm.

"hyung! what are you doing?!" yugyeom nearly screamed, rushing over to where taehyung was crouching and forcefully tugging his hand away from the pile of glass. "y-you cut yourself! don't hurt yourself anymore, please," he begged, peering down at the crimson that ran across taehyung's palm in a thin line.

"yug... yeom, please tell me w-what did i do to deserve all of this?" taehyung asked, his voice straining and every word causing the bruises on his face to make him evidently wince. he felt like crying on the inside, but he still refused to let any physical tears out in front of the brunet.

yugyeom felt his heart wrench in pain at taehyung's condition. "nothing, hyung. you didn't do anything to deserve to be treated like this," he assured in a soft voice, tightly holding both of taehyung's larger hands in his own pair of safe, warm ones, not minding that the older's blood had started to trickle down his forearm.

taehyung merely blinked at yugyeom's words, trying to at least smile through his sad frown but unable to. "thank you, yuggie. if you didn't intervene, i don't know what would've happened to bogum and i."

"i couldn't just stand out there and listen to you two tearing each other apart. wait, hyung, that's... that's a pretty severe bruise," the younger commented in realization, letting out a concerned sigh. "your bruises look severe too. h-hyung, i think you should go to the—"

"no, i'm not going anywhere," taehyung mumbled in spite of yugyeom's protests. "yuggie, i'll be fine. a little bruising and a cut on his palm isn't going to kill me."

"do you want me to call jungkook?" yugyeom suddenly offered with a weak beam, picking up on how the older's shoulders immediately tensed up at the mention of the black-haired tattooist. "i can ask him if he's—"

"no, he's working right now. i don't want to disturb him. yuggie, trust me, i'm fine," said taehyung. the last person i want to see is jungkook, please.

yugyeom reluctantly nodded, pulling taehyung up with him with all his strength, making sure the CEO could properly stand own his feet again before moving away. "hyung, i'm here to help you if you need it. a lot of people are here for you, especially jungkook. you don't need to go through this alone, you don't deserve to go through this alone," he spoke with a warm look in his irises that made taehyung's heart leap with a strange sense of déjà vu because those words are almost identical to what jungkook told him at the restaurant yesterday. "you don't need to face bogum and your father all by yourself. always remember that, okay?"

taehyung could only speechlessly hum in acknowledgement to show that he heard his friend's words loud and clear.

"i'll go get a first-aid kit. wait for me, okay? don't go anywhere near that vase," yugyeom ordered as he carefully led taehyung over to the small couch on the other side of the room. yugyeom made sure that the man was comfortably sat down and not eyeing the shattered vase like a hawk before he could bring himself to leave the room.

taehyung waited until he could no longer hear yugyeom's fading footsteps and then walked over to where the ipad with the news article was still intact and remained on top of his desk this entire time. as soon as he read over the news article and glanced at the picture of him and jungkook again, he felt all the tears that he's been holding back collect in his eyes at once.

finally, with a blurred vision, he allowed those tears to freely cascade down his cheeks.

i'm so sorry, jungkook.

little did he know, yugyeom was actually nowhere near the first-aid kit. instead, he had his phone pressed up against his ear in the other room, impatiently tapping his foot against the tiled floor as he waited for a certain someone to pick up.

"hello? yeah, jungkook, it's me. i'm really sorry to bother you but are you free right now? i— no, taehyung needs your help."

a/n: NOT PROOFREAD. p.s. if persona's songs were actual people, i'd fall in love with/marry mikrokosmos and then proceed to cheat on him with dionysus.