fortyeight
Yes, I'm HeroIndex:
(BH) – Baekhyun speaking
(DO) – Kyungsoo speaking
(V) – Taehyung speaking
(BY) – Yongguk speaking
(JU) – Jongup speaking
(K) – Jongin speaking
(Z) – Zelo speaking
(JI) – Jin speaking
(HK) – Hyunki speaking
(HB) – Hanbi speaking
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“So it’s this way?” (BY)
“Yes. We should be there in a few more minutes.” (HK) Yongguk nodded as he slouched in his seat a bit. Even though he didn’t want to, he had to cut his date with Himchan short to go see what Hyunki was talking about. According to Taehyung, the missing boys should be in a town about an hour or so away from the main city. He needed to see if his brother was really okay and although Himchan did let it pass this time, he did say that he owed him.
“Alright.” (BY)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“They already contacted you?” (HB)
“… Yes. The deal is still in place, but the wedding is off.”
“Then…? You’ll let Young Jae do what he wants?” (HB) Hanbi saw her husband give a small nod as he slouched in his seat, seemingly lost in thought. She had been talking to her husband just for a few minutes and so far, everything seemed to be going well. Tiffany’s parents had spoken to him already about the arrangement they had and it seemed that everything had gone without any problems. The only thing now was to see if he truly would let Young Jae be with a man or not.
“Young Jae’s becoming stronger… You know how I had tested him to see if he was determined enough to become an artist, right? Had he persisted a little longer, I would have let him pursue that dream.” Hanbi smiled a bit as she made her way around the table and behind her husband. Bending over just enough, she placed her arms around her husband before resting her chin on his shoulder.
“Then you should have just let him pursue it instead of steering him onto another path.” (HB) Her husband let out a small sigh as he reached up and placed a hand on his wife’s hand. There wasn’t a day that passed by that he didn’t regret his decisions, but… would it be too late to fix his decisions? Would his son be able to forgive him for being so harsh? He only wanted to make his son stronger and although it wasn’t his actions that had put him on that path, he couldn’t be more proud of his son for gaining that strength.
“I know…”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sitting in the living room, Baekhyun waited patiently for the time when they would finally be able to return to their normal lives. The television was on, but he wasn’t paying any attention to it. His gaze was more locked on the world that lay beyond the window to his right. Various thoughts rolled around in his head as scenes upon scenes of his daily life played. He could imagine his mother crying the second she saw him and his dad relieved to no end. Then, he could imagine his friends back at school all bombarding him with questions about what had happened to him. It would be troublesome, but he wouldn’t mind. This would all be behind him. Then again, it wasn’t necessarily a bad experience either. It felt almost like a vacation that came a little too soon.
Then… his thoughts roamed around Kyungsoo. What was he doing? What was he thinking? Did he even care about him? Baekhyun wanted to be open with their relationship, but Kyungsoo rejected him each and every time. Being away from him made him realize… maybe he didn’t need him after all. If Kyungsoo was constantly going to be embarrassed of their relationship, then it was probably time for him to move on. After all, he didn’t deserve to be hidden away. He wanted to be with someone who didn’t care what everyone else thought. To just show him off and say ‘Hey! Here’s my lover and I don’t care what you have to say! He’s mine and that’s that.’ Of course, they didn’t have to actually say that, but the thought was nice enough.
With a small sigh, Baekhyun adjusted his position a bit before looking over at the television screen. Cartoons were still playing, though he wasn’t surprised. Whenever Zelo took control of the remote, he always put on cartoons instead of something else more interesting. It wasn’t much of a problem or anything since he wasn’t watching at the moment, but it would be nice to have something that seemed to have more… depth to it. Then again, seeing the happy looks on Zelo and Jongup’s faces as they watched were fine too. How long have they been smiling anyway?
Turning his gaze back towards the window, Baekhyun stared for another moment or so before his eyes landed on a car pulling up to the gravel parking lot. Now that he thought about it, there was a car that he did recognize and another car that he didn’t recognize already there. When had they arrived without his knowledge? Then again, he had been lost in his own thoughts. It shouldn’t have been any surprise to him that he didn’t see any of these cars pulling up. Minus Taehyung whom he assumed was here now, who were the other people?
Getting up from his seat, Baekhyun made his way over to the window as he kept his gaze locked on the cars. There were two men coming out of the car that just arrived. One was an elderly man while the other looked like he was around his age if not a little older. He could swear that he’s seen them before, but Baekhyun just couldn’t put a finger on where. Were they here for them or did they just happen to have the wrong address? That still didn’t explain the other two cars that were here though. “What’s up?” (K)
“People are here.” (BH)
“What?! Really?! Lemme see!” (Z) Baekhyun heard shuffling before shifting into loud footsteps that quickly made their way over to where he was. Zelo then bumped into Baekhyun as he looked out the window as well. Ignoring the other two bodies that were now trying to look out the window as well, Zelo honed in on the two people that had just started walking up to the house. His eyes instantly lit up with delight as he pressed his face against the glass to make sure that his eyes didn’t deceive him. “YONGGUK! MY BROTHER’S HEEEEEERE!” (Z)
Just as Zelo began running towards the front door, the sound of a gunshot caused everyone to jump. Baekhyun looked around, trying to find the source of the shot, but there was nothing in his immediate view that told him anything. Judging by the reaction of the two men outside, it was also evident that the gunshot had, indeed, occurred. Baekhyun watched as the two men began running towards the side of the house, his feet instantly pulling him away from the window as he began to follow them. “Where are you going?” (JU)
“Towards the gunshot.” (BH)
“Shouldn’t we be running… I don’t know, away from the gunshot?” (K)
“I wanna know who’s here!” (BH) Jongin shook his head, but despite his suggestion, he was also running towards the gunshot. The one who shot the gun had to be the one after Jongup and Zelo, so he wanted to make sure. Okay, so they could be getting themselves killed, but he would at least like to know who it is so he knew who to avoid in the future if they did manage to escape. Was that too much to ask?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Both men had stopped fighting for a moment as they each waited to see if anything would happen to them. When it became evident that they were still okay, Jin managed to pull the gun out of Kyungsoo’s grasp before moving away. He held the gun pointed at Kyungsoo, his hands quickly feeling around his own body to make sure that he hadn’t been shot, before he looked back up at Kyungsoo. Since nothing was happening to him either, Jin’s gaze hesitantly looked up at Taehyung.
Taehyung had fallen to his knees, his right hand on his stomach where his kidney was, as a look of shock had completely taken over his face. His eyes were locked onto the ground for a moment, but his gaze soon slowly shifted up to Jin. The second they made eye contact, Taehyung soon fell over to the side. Jin’s eyes widened with horror as he immediately ran over towards Taehyung. He fell to his knees as the gun fell onto the ground next to him. He moved Taehyung onto his back, his eyes looking over to where Taehyung was now weakly trying to hold onto. “N-No… No… No no no…! Taehyung… I… I’m-” (JI)
Jin’s words faltered as he felt Taehyung place his free hand onto his. Taehyung looked up at Jin, whom was weakly shaking his head. “I-I… wa-… wan… ted… t-… to…” (V)
Taehyung’s face scrunched up in pain as his whole body tightened. Jin took hold of Taehyung’s hand in an attempt to comfort him, which was probably the only thing he could do at this point. He had no knowledge on anything medical related, so he couldn’t even tell if the shot had been fatal or not. Even then, Jin couldn't tell what was going on inside of Taehyung's body. Jin didn’t even have his phone, so he couldn’t call for an ambulance. “You… You have to save your strength and uh… get better.” (JI)
Looking up at Jin, Taehyung couldn’t help but weakly smile at how shaky Jin was. His voice, even his body was shaking. In a way… Taehyung couldn’t help but feel touched that someone could feel this way about his death. Sure, he had his parents and Baekhyun, but otherwise… wait. Was he certain that he was going to die? He didn’t want to, not after he finally decided to change his life. Guess life is never fair, right? “Ji-… Ji… n…?” (V)
“Y-Yeah…? I’m here…” (JI) Despite the fact that he was looking up at Jin, his vision had already started blurring out. Whether it’s because he was losing consciousness or because of tears, Taehyung couldn’t say for sure. However, he was sure now that he was crying out loud.
“I… I wa… nted to… to go on… that date… wi… with…” (V) A groan escaped his lips as the pain seemed to become much more unbearable. He had shut his eyes tightly to try and endure it, but Taehyung felt a hand tighten around his free hand. As he opened his eyes, he could just barely see Jin staring back at him, tears escaping from their confines to display their owner's emotions.
“It’s… It’s okay! I… I’m sure you’ll… you’ll make it… just… just hold on, okay? I’ll… I’ll go get help right away.” (JI) Jin began to move, but Taehyung had used as much of his strength as he could to keep Jin in his place. He wanted to go get help, but it became clear to him that Taehyung didn't want to be left alone. Jin didn't want to think of it as a possibility, but if Taehyung truly was dying, then... Jin understood that Taehyung wanted his last moments to be with someone. “M-… maybe if I just carry you, or…” (JI)
Taehyung shook his head as he stared up at the sky. Darkness was quickly taking over and the pain was starting to fade. This may be his last moments, but he couldn’t help but smile as he tried to look at Jin’s face once more. Although he didn’t get to know him better, Taehyung was just… happy that someone cared for him so much to the point that they’d fight for him. That was… good enough, right? He could see Jin talking, but his voice felt distant. He could only muster a nod as he slowly closed his eyes, the last of his life draining from his body.
“Taehyung…? Taehyung…?! N-No… No… No no no no no!” (JI)
“Touching, but you’ll join him shortly.” (DO) Jin’s sadness was being mixed with his anger as he looked up at Kyungsoo. Somehow, Kyungsoo had managed to get a hold of the gun once more without him noticing a thing. There was no sign of remorse in his eyes. In fact, he looked to be happy with his little victory. Why would anyone want to kill another so willingly?
“Bastard.” (JI)
“Yeah yeah yeah. I get called names all the time. Do you think your words will bother me?” (DO) There wasn’t really anything he could do at this point. Kyungsoo was too far from him to do anything, but at the same time… he almost didn’t want to do anything. “Have any last words?” (DO)
“How about drop the gun or I’ll shoot?” (BY) Kyungsoo looked up to see both Yongguk and Hyunki pointing their guns at him. Even if he did shoot Jin at this point, there were two other people who now knew the truth. Although it wasn’t necessarily the complete truth, he knew that it wouldn’t change anything regardless of what they knew. With an annoyed sigh, Kyungsoo slowly lowered his hand before crouching down and placing the gun on the ground. Standing back up, Kyungsoo held his hands up to his head as he took a few steps away from the gun.
While Hyunki went to deal with Kyungsoo, Yongguk walked up to Jin. He put his gun away as he looked down at Taehyung. It was obvious that the gunshot had come from Kyungsoo, but… to think that someone actually ended up dead because of that shot, especially someone he knew. Sure, he didn’t speak to the man and he didn’t necessarily like him, but it was still a spark of life that he had known at one point. Now… that spark was gone and it was going to be hard to explain this to his parents. “Did you know him?” (BY)
“… For a little while… We… were finally going to go on a date…” (JI) Any anger Jin had just mere moments ago had completely dissipated as he refocused his attention on Taehyung. He had a calm look on his face, almost as if he was just simply sleeping. Jin could still feel the warmth emanating from Taehyung’s body, but as much as he wanted to believe that Taehyung was still alive, he wasn’t blind to the truth. “Is it alright… for me to cry so much for someone I didn’t know that well?” (JI)
“You wanted to get to know them is why you cry.” (BY)
“Jiiiin!” (Z) Jin looked up through his tear-filled eyes, his blurry gaze landing on the image of his friends running up to him. It comforted him a bit to see them, but any smile he wanted to give to his friends completely dissipated as he looked back down at Taehyung. Footsteps came to a stop near Taehyung before someone fell to their knees next to Taehyung. Jin looked up to see Baekhyun looking down at Taehyung, seemingly unable to comprehend the current situation.
“Baekhyun…” (JI)
“He… is… he…?” (BH) Baekhyun looked up at Jin, whom hesitated for a moment before nodding. All of the tears that Baekhyun was trying to hold back were immediately released as he wrapped his arms around his cousin, burying his face into Taehyung’s neck. He didn’t want to believe that his cousin was dead, but here he was… lying there before his eyes. Even if he turned his eyes from the truth, it wouldn't erase the fact that it still happened.
“Baekhyun…? Wha… What are you doing?” (DO) Baekhyun lifted his head. At first, he was a little hesitant to look around. He didn’t want to have to deal with Kyungsoo, not when his cousin was dead before him. However, something was nagging at him, trying to get him to figure out how and why Kyungsoo was here in the first place. “Baekhyun!” (DO)
It took him a moment, but when he was able to look past Jin, his eyes landed on the person calling out his name. There was no doubt about it that Kyungsoo was definitely here, but that only brought upon more questions. Wiping his face as best he could, he looked back down at Taehyung and gently wiped his cousin’s cheek with his thumb before getting up and walking over to Kyungsoo. He was trying hard to stay strong, but at any moment, he felt like he could break down. Once he was within a comfortable distance, Baekhyun looked at Kyungsoo as he finally noticed that he was currently being restrained. “Baekhyun! It’s uh… nice to see you safe…” (DO)
“… What are you doing here?” (BH)
“Wha? Oh, uh… I came here… for you.” (DO) Kyungsoo came here for him? Okay, so what was that supposed to mean? Baekhyun clearly remembered that Kyungsoo didn’t even want to be seen with him in public and suddenly, he’s saying these things out loud? Well, at least it answered one question, but he still had a few more questions.
“How… did you find out where I was?” (BH) Baekhyun noticed the hesitation on Kyungsoo’s face. Kyungsoo used to look calm, cool, and cocky about whatever he did, so it was a bit surprising to see Kyungsoo act like that. Why did it feel like he had just been caught red-handed?
“How… do you know that man? How do you know Taehyung… on a personal level... exactly?” (DO) Baekhyun looked at him a little confused as he turned just enough to look back at his cousin. Again, a wave of emotion was hitting him, but he refused to let it take over… just yet. Taking in a deep breath to keep himself as calm as possible, he looked back at Kyungsoo.
“He’s… my cousin. You don't remember...? Taehyung told you when he introduced us... Why?” (BH) Kyungsoo’s eyes widened as his knees nearly gave out underneath him. Baekhyun noticed this and almost immediately, pieces were pulled together. He took a step forward, his hands balling into fists as he fought the urge to cry in an angry manner. “I… asked you… a question. WHY do you want to know?!” (BH)
Despite his attempt to get an answer out of him, Kyungsoo remained silent. He looked just like a puppy who knew that the thing they did was a bad thing, but Baekhyun wasn’t going to be comforting him about it. That was the last thing he was going to be doing. Baekhyun closed the gap between them before grabbing Kyungsoo’s collar and roughly shaking him. “WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY COUSIN?!” (BH)
“Sir! Please calm down!” (HK) Hyunki attempted to use his words to get Baekhyun to calm down, but it was clear through Baekhyun's tears and reddened face that there was no talking him out of it. Before he could do anything else though, Jongin had already run over and pulled Baekhyun away, who was still screaming incoherent words at Kyungsoo. Despite Baekhyun’s attempts to free himself from Jongin’s hold, Jongin was proving to be much stronger than he looked. Soon enough, Baekhyun only began sobbing out loud as he buried his face into the nook of Jongin’s neck.
“Baekhyun… I…” (DO)
“Shush.” (K) Kyungsoo immediately kept himself from saying anything else as Hyunki soon began leading him back towards the car. He didn’t want to leave, but his feet were telling him otherwise. As he walked, he kept turning back every few seconds, his gaze locking in on Baekhyun and hoping that he would call out to him. However, even as him and Hyunki rounded the corner, there was still no sign of Baekhyun wanting to still be with him.
“What… are we supposed to do?” (JU) Jongup looked at Yongguk, whom only let out a sigh. They were going to have to report this to the authorities. After all, neither him nor Hyunki were police nor paramedics. Taehyung’s death had to be recorded and his body had to be prepared for a funeral. At least, that’s what he assumed that they had to do.
“Call the authorities.” (BY) Jongup nodded, though he didn’t make a move for his phone. When it became evident that he wasn’t going to be making the call, Yongguk took his own phone out before he dialed the number. While he did that, Jongup and Zelo kneeled down on the opposite side of Jin.
“I don’t like this…” (JU)
“… Neither do I.” (JI)
“Who would?” (Z) Jin would have mentioned Kyungsoo, but he decided against it. Right now, they should be focused on Taehyung, not on getting revenge or just being flat out angry at Kyungsoo. Though… Jin wasn’t sure if he wanted to mourn right now. Crying wasn’t going to bring him back, but… being his old self right now didn’t seem like the time either.
What was he supposed to do?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[[ My Own Thoughts:
-/ahem-
Yes, I killed Taehyung off.
No, it was not my original intent to do so.
Of course, what I originally had planned was worse.
Sooo… yeah.
Comments are loved!
I love talking with everyone.
It’s also nice to know how I’m doing with each chapter. ]]
Comments