Fragments of a Fragile Mind [Kim Taehyung]

He ordered expedited shipping, and since the store was in the same city he lived in, he opted for same day delivery. He didn't have his own car and knew he couldn't Uber hundreds of pounds of clay back from the store with him, so he knew having it delivered was his best option.

He also didn't need people asking questions. At least not yet. This was between him and his members.

While he awaited for the clay to be delivered, he started printing out photos of all of his members and taping them to all of the walls. Pictures from photo shoots, from concerts, from his own personal collection, and whatever else he could find that would be able to show him the proper details of what everyone looked like.

He stopped as he was putting up one of the pictures of him and Jungkook. It was from pre-debut, they had been hugging while sitting on the couch in their old dorm at the time. His eyes glossed with tears as he stared at the photo. Taking his finger, he gently caressed Jungkook's cheek. "I'm sorry, Jungkookie. Don't worry, though. Taehyungie hyung is going to bring you back. I'm not sure where you all are, and I hope that hyungs are all taking good care of you in the meantime. But please know I promise I'm going to bring you all back."

He continued to tape up photos, to the point where there was almost no bare wall to be seen. Once the photos were up, he realized how raunchy and dirty the dorm still was. Wanting the members to come home to a clean house, he quickly got to work doing everyone's laundry, doing the dishes, and taking the trash out.

Before he knew it his doorbell was ringing. He checked the peep hole to see a man in a blue suit standing there with a clipboard, and he had been lugging in a cart behind him with huge clear boxes full of clay.

"Hello!" Taehyung cheered.

"Delivery for Mr. Kim Taehyung?" the man said.

"Yes, that's me." Taehyung quickly signed for the clay and slammed the door closed in the man's face in somewhat of a hurry. He went and moved furniture around making sure to get couches, rugs, and chairs out of the way knowing the living room would be the perfect space to set up his clay studio. He drew the curtains back and a stream of golden sunlight lit up the room. Perfect.

Almost. Almost perfect.

The problem still stood that Taehyung didn't know how to sculpt. Signing up for classes or programs would literally take him years and he didn't have years. He needed to learn right now.
He wasn't going to have someone else do it either. This had to be the work of his own hands.

He grabbed his laptop and looked up sculpting tutorials. For hours he stared at the screen, unmoving, unblinking, as he absorbed every bit of information and technique he could. He eventually began to grab some slabs of clay and practice alongside the people he was learning from.

He didn't realize just how artistic sculptors were. He'd follow the instructions perfectly and still somehow his creation never looked like the one the instructor had made. Starting small with things like bowls and cups proved to be a complete disaster. He became quite discouraged as he slammed his laptop closed and threw his clay at the wall. His somewhat deformed cup now becoming nothing but a slab.

He crossed his arms and huffed in frustration as he looked around at all of the photos of his members he'd taped up. He could almost hear them telling him to keep trying, to do it for them because they wanted to come back.

He stood up and walked towards a picture of them all together. He could hear them encouraging him the same way they always had.

"You'll get it eventually."

"Practice makes improvement, and then perfect."

"You'll never know if you give up now."

"Okay," Taehyung replied back to the photo. "I won't let you guys down. I'll figure it out and I won't stop until I do."