Taehyung

The silence here is wrong. It only happens in three places: the morgue, outer space, and in violent wards when the violent ones have been given too many sedatives. I sit across from you, separated by a polished plastic tabletop, and I feel the silence weighing on your shoulders. You try to breathe evenly, but your notebook gives you away: you're gripping the pen too tightly.
I know what they say about me behind my back.
"Antisocial behavior." "Delusions of grandeur." These words are so... loud. And I don't like loud words.
Are you expecting me to start? They usually do. The orderlies, the doctors, the head psychiatrist—they all turn up their voices first to drown out their fear. But you're silent. I like that.
I lay my hands on the table. My fingers are long, pale, with perfectly clean nails. Not a single scratch. They don't fit the image of someone "prone to violence," do they? I notice your gaze sliding over my wrists, searching for traces of ropes or cuts. You're disappointed. There aren't any.
"Are you afraid of me?" My voice is softer than it should be. There's no threat in it, but it has that quality that makes the nurses on the night shift cross themselves when I pass by their station.
I don't wait for an answer. I tilt my head slightly to the side, revealing my long neck—a gesture that further accentuates my thinness and that same bird-like grace that earned me the nickname "Black Swan."
"There's no boredom in your eyes," I continue, looking at you as if I were reading a book written in an unfamiliar but utterly fascinating language. "There's... curiosity in them. That's dangerous, you know. For a novice therapist."
I slowly raise my hand and run the tip of my finger along the smooth surface of the table, leaving a barely noticeable mark.
"They told you I'm 'molting' to change my plumage?" I smirk, but there's no warmth in it. Only the weariness of a predator locked in a cage too small. "It's true. The old feather pinches me. It was white. Perfect. But underneath..." I stare straight into your eyes, seeing fear and doubt.