Left At The Alter

💍Chapter 22 - A Visit From The Police

"It's Seo-Joon."

The sound of his voice ignited Taehyung's pure, undiluted rage. His presence opened the flood gates of horrible memories of their time together.
"Why the hell are you here? I told you I was done with you!"

Seo-Joon walked around him until they were face-to-face. Taehyung stared at him with unforgiving judgement. The emotional abuse, the infidelity, Seo-Joon didn't deserve forgiveness anyway, yet he kept begging for it.

"There's no reason for you to be this cold towards me."
"I have EVERY right to not give a single flying fuck about you after what you did to me! Taehyung cried, his muscles flicking angrily in the jaw. "Get out of my way!"

"If you don't care for me, then who do you care for? Who are you planning to replace me with?" Seo-Joon questioned, his eyebrows raised in interest. "Don't tell me you're still in love with Jungkook."
"Keep his name out of your mouth."

Seo-Joon started to get angry. "You want to be with damaged goods rather than give me a chance!? I've changed!"

Taehyung was filled with enough adrenaline to make him shake. He wanted to punch him so badly. "You've changed!? You think I didn't hear all the filth you told Jungkook during your so-called 'therapy sessions'!? How you encouraged him to continue with the marriage to that abuser!?"
"I had my reasons."

Taehyung couldn't help but snigger to himself. "Reasons like what? What would make a counselor encourage a client to remain with an obviously toxic partner? Why would you justify cheating? Oh, that's right. You were a toxic cheater yourself so it's scum defending scum basically!"

Seo-Joon shook his head and set his arms akimbo. "I did all of that for a reason!"
"And I asked you, reasons like what?"
'To keep him away from you'
"Jungkook wouldn't be a good fit for you. He's damaged goods. He's immature."

"Are we all a little damaged?" Taehyung asked, "Do damaged people not deserve love? Besides, he'd make a far better partner than you."
Seo-Joon gritted his teeth when Taehyung tried to walk pass him. "Taehyung! Don't you dare leave! I'm not finished!"

"Well, I'm finished with you, for a long time now."
"Taehyung... you'll regret it. Love makes you do crazy things! Don't make me-"
"The next time you come around me, I'm getting a restraining order. That won't look good on your record. In fact, you might just lose your licence. Not that you're a good counselor anyway."

Taehyung walked away, unaware of the cloud of warning that settled over Seo-Joon's features. Seo-Joon belonged to a past chapter of a book that Taehyung had closed a long time ago.

He had opened a new one today, one with Jungkook as the protagonist, one with a happy ending.

Though he was unaware of the brewing conflict that was on the horizon.

⏳️

"Based on your answers to my questions, it is likely that your low self-esteem is a result of you being abused by your homophobic mother and brother," Dr. Sung Yonsei deduced. "When our self-esteem is low, we often think we don't deserve anything good. It's what trapped you in your last relationship."

Jungkook hugged the plushy tighter. "Low self-esteem?"
"Yes. It is common in adult survivors of child abuse."
Jungkook acknowledged that he wasn't the most confident, but he didn't know that his childhood trauma had anything to do with it. "But I still talk to my mother. How can that still affect me?"

Dr. Sung exhaled. "The body keeps the score. The body doesn't forget what it went through. All the beatings are still etched in its memory. So even though you two are cordial now, subconsciously, you're still afraid. In her presence, you become that your childhood self."