Taehyung silently sat on a moldy yellow loveseat in the 'living room' of his apartment. He didn't really understand that term seeing as he didn't feel any more alive in that area of his apartment compared with the rest of it. He presumed that maybe humans used the area to either think or distract themselves from thoughts, or atleast something having to do with humans' nature to neverendingly contemplate and relive events in their heads. It seemed that to humans, living equated to thinking.

He scoffed a bit at the thought as he saw no point in overthinking, but people seemed to think otherwise. Every little thing would consume a person's time, both night and day, their lives revolving around thoughts of the past and things that could happen in the future, about what to buy at the store or what to wear tomorrow, what other people thought of them, or about their own feelings.

Foolish little things, Taehyung thought. 

Taehyung sat in a state where you could probably even hear a pin drop in the opposite corner of the room, but he preferred the silence. He bathed in it, his hands clasped in his lap and his eyes closed. It was his only solace from the noisy outside world that couldn't seem to function without copious amounts of noise. He hated the honking of cars on the streets, the blasting music from surrounding stores that clashed together like a discordant, orchestrated act with Taehyung as the victim of their first rehearsal, and especially the talking of passerbys. Most of Taehyung's irritation stemmed from how much he hated humans' incessant chattering, likening the sound to hundreds of tiny birds chirping in his eardrums and pecking away at his sanity.

Taehyung wasn't in any way antisocial or disinterested in music and festivities; He loved to have fun as much as a normal twenty year old man, but his old, alien soul could only handle so much ruckus on a daily basis. He was a bit sick of it all. 

He sat there, staring at his tiny box television that the apartment came with, but he never had the desire to turn it on. He had briefly seen on the television of his workplace that people often sat in their living rooms with a television, but Taehyung swore it was a brainwashing machine, along with the device called the cellphone. He observed that people in the restaurant often had their full attention on these things all the time rather than the people accompanying them for their meals or even in their food, as though they were hypnotized by it. Even nearby store windows that had television displayed advertisements seemed to gain more attention and customers than Taehyung could ever attract with his fervent clucks and wing flapping. 

Humans, he observed, had a general tendency to stay reserved, and he never understood why people suppressed their emotions, along with the hundreds of other things he found peculiar about humans. When humans laughed, they covered their mouths. When they were visibly upset, which seemed the case occasionally as Taehyung worked at a chicken store that sold alcohol thus making it a popular hang out for stressed adults, they opted to drinking and eating away their pains. Taehyung always found it pretty foolish because all humans felt such things anyway. It wasn't anything surprising to see on Earth, so why hide bother to hide it? Taehyung would just shake his head with a slight chuckle, thinking he would never really understand. When Taehyung was overwhelmed with confusion and frustration concerning humans, his feelings of wanting to go home strengthened. 

But Taehyung knew he couldn't, not until he found his Keeper.

Taehyung heaved a sigh. He was feeling a bit anxious again. This happened from time to time as his stay on Earth extended another day longer than he expected his punishment to last. He fiddled with the hourglass object attached to a thin silver chain around his neck, a motion he often did out of habit. The hourglass contained sand, but no matter how many times Taehyung flipped it over, the sand wouldn't flow to the other side. It stayed motionless, just as Taehyung had been since Chronos froze him in time. 

Chronos is the god of time, but his duties surpass merely manipulating day and night. He also had the hand in shifting other beings' timelines. He was the god behind fate and destiny in that matter. He did so by his own efforts but mostly through his trusty servants, the Shifters. Chronos meddled for the overall benefit of the planet the being inhabited when he was in a good mood, but plenty of times he did it just for his own entertainment. Chronos wasn't widely known to be a kind god, but this fact hardly fazed Taehyung. 

Taehyung was never an obedient or mature being. In fact, he was infamous for causing all sorts of mischief back on his home planet. His mischievous feats weren't limited there as his knack for wreaking havoc followed him to his travels across space and time. One event was especially catastrophic, and before he knew it, he was kneeling before Chronos, who watched him with slightly amused eyes, begging for one last chance at redemption before he would be done away with.  

Taehyung is, or more accurately was, one of Chronos' Shifters. He had the ability to cross through different universes and travel to different time periods, often times to complete tasks assigned to him by Chronos. He was also capable of changing his appearance to blend in with the inhabitants of whatever location he visited, and had an uncanny ability to communicate and act normally with those inhabitants. Those abilities all disappeared when Taehyung was sentenced to Earth.

He was like a newborn baby placed in a man's body. All he was given was the appearance of a Korean, young man who spoke minimal Hangul. Taehyung also lived his days without aging.

Why in the world was he given that of all places and of all times? Simply because Chronos had chosen Taehyung's Keeper within the confines of that country and that time period. Chronos had a lesson to teach Taehyung, but he also had a special task for him, unbeknownst to Taehyung. Taehyung only knew that some human in South Korea had the ability send him back home. He didn't know how that person would do it or how he even knew that person was his Keeper, but until he did, he was literally stuck. 

Taehyung recalled the day of his Earthly conviction. 

___________

Taehyung awoke in the middle of Busan, South Korea some time during the rainy season in 2013 of the Gregorian calendar, under a large tree. His first thought was 'What the heck?' and he was almost shocked back to unconsciousness as he actually felt sore, tired, and cold, though at the time he didn't really understand what he was feeling, as he stretched his limbs before him. He trudged through the streets that cold day in his thoroughly soaked white shirt and white pants looking like a fallen angel or an apparition wandering the streets.

At the first sight of a human, he instinctively reached out to grab hold of him. He was a boy who was rushing onward with his backpack over his head, speeding to get home before the weather worsened. He turned to Taehyung with growing impatience, but Taehyung realized that he was having an awfully difficult time forming words with his mouth. It was a very strange experience as words naturally flowed from his mouth in whatever language the locals spoke, in the past.

"Hello...where you..c-c cold," he stammered, the hand he had placed on his shoulder trembling like a leaf in the wind. Actually, his whole body was trembling as his temperature was skyrocketing to a high fever, another occurrence that Taehyung didn't realize he was experiencing until much later in the future. 

"Do you need something?" the boy asked, a look of concern overtaking the irritated look on his face as he took a better look at the drenched Taehyung, whose cheeks were flushed red from illness. Taehyung simply stared at the boy before his eyesight blurred, and before he knew it, he was slumped against the boy and Taehyung didn't have the strength to pull himself back up.

"Hey! Hey man, are you okay?" the boy shouted, panic starting to dawn on him as Taehyung grew heavier on his shoulder. Being the good samaritan that he was, the boy dragged Taehyung's barely conscious body to his family's apartment, which was conveniently down the street.

"This is what I get for being a good person," he mumbled while massaging his strained muscles, after laying Taehyung on the couch and convincing his mother that Taehyung couldn't possibly be a thug or some criminal who would wake up while they slept and steal all their things. Of course the boy wasn't sure about his claims, but he had a feeling from the lost and helpless look in Taehyung's eyes that he was harmless. As the boy's mother left for work, he called over his girlfriend to help take care of Taehyung. 

When Taehyung awoke, he was changed into a dry set of clothing and a warm, damp cloth rested on his forehead. He managed to catch a glimpse of a hazy figure being greeted on the person's way out of the door. By the time he was fully conscious, the boy was on his way to check up on Taehyung's condition.

"You're finally awake," the boy spoke with relief. Taehyung tried to push off of the couch to sit upright, but his arms still felt weak, so he slumped back down. 

"You scared me there. Thought you died on me at first," he chuckled. Taehyung stared back at the boy with a questioning look. He only slightly understood what the boy was saying. The boy stared back and awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck at Taehyung's lack of response.

"Okay then," the boy said, "Well my name is Jungkook and if you need anything, just call for me or something.. I guess. I'm going to bed." And with that, Jungkook left Taehyung to rest, but before he could walk into his room he turned back to Taehyung with a friendly smile, "Oh, and there's plenty of soup in the kitchen if you're hungry. You can help yourself, right? My girlfriend made it, so I'm sure it's good. Goodnight." Taehyung still couldn't really understand Jungkook's fast speech, but he watched as Jungkook stepped into his room and shut the door.

Taehyung's stomach grumbled with a whiff of the aroma of the soup Jungkook had mentioned. He didn't know what the feeling was but he thought that there was a likely connection to his stomach and the food. Taehyung had eaten human food before for the sake of appearing normal while interacting with his earthly subjects, but he hadn't felt hunger before. He waited to recharge for another half hour or so before he gathered all of his strength to follow his nose to the pot sitting on the stove. Too impatient and powerless to search for a utensil, Taehyung brought the pot to his mouth and poured the warm soup down his throat. It was absolutely delicious to him, and he immediately felt a surge of energy while eating it. Some liquid dribbled down the side of his mouth and onto his shirt, but Taehyung didn't care at all. He continuously swallowed and occasionally chewed, up until the very last drop.

Satisfied, Taehyung returned to the couch to return to his sleep. He lay peacefully, that is until he started to feel his first hints of bowel movement. Taehyung felt this powerful ache in his stomach different from the pinch he felt when he was hungry. He didn't have a clue what it is was and wracked his brain for human facts to explain the dull pain. He regretted that he never really paid much attention to humans during his travels because he never stayed for long on Earth nor did he ever feel such things.

"I've never even seen you use the restroom. It's like you're not human" "Man, I'm so full, I'm gonna take the longest dump ever later." "You sure you don't need to use the toilet before we go?" "The bathroom smells bad here, so I'll just wait until we get to my house."   

Taehyung's mind was flooded with these random memories and overheard conversations as he raced to find the restroom. How he was blessed with such luck to remember such things and quickly assess his situation before it got out of hand? He would never know.

He quickly sat on the toilet - more luck brought him to sit on the right product- with the lid closed and wondered how the contraption was supposed to relieve him of the ache as he squeezed his eyes shut. Taehyung groaned at the pain and began to bend over with his hands clutched to his sides, releasing his flatulation in the process. 

Suddenly, Jungkook threw the door, which was already left ajar, open. He switched on the light and stared in slight horror at Taehyung, his mouth slightly open.

"Dude, seriously?" he yelled angrily, "If you need to take a crap, pull up the lid first and don't you dare crap in my clothes!" Jungkook rubbed his face tiredly as he was only awoken by Taehyung's loud groans echoing down the hallway. Taehyung sat there unmoving until Jungkook, whose patience thinned much quicker than normal because of his sleepy state, pulled him up by the collar and flipped open the toilet lid for him. 

"What's wrong with you? Are you mentally ill? Don't just stare at me like that! I've been talking to you this whole time and you never answer!" Jungkook continued to yell tugging at the collar of Taehyung's shirt, but he was only met with another confused look from him. Guilt began to ride on Jungkook's conscience as he let go of Taehyung, realizing that he was terrorizing a completely clueless man. On the other hand, Taehyung started to feel a foreign sinking feeling in his chest as the boy's loud voice entered his ears but fell short from being comprehended by his mind. 

"Sorry," Taehyung spoke softly. In a way, Jungkook also felt sympathy for the grown man who seemed to not even know how to use the toilet. He wondered how Taehyung had survived living all this time and if he really was mentally ill like he had thought, though he didn't particularly show any signs of it. 

"Yeah, yeah," Jungkook sighed defeatedly, " Just use the bathroom." Giving Taehyung a wary, untrusting look, he continued, slowly speaking this time, "Pull these down and place your on the seat. Then, do your business." He felt awkward, once again, having to explain such things. 

"Okay," Taehyung replied, with a cheery intonation like that of a child. Jungkook gave him a strange look as he became curious about Taehyung's age and if he were actually being rude to a senior.

"What year were you born? I'm a '97, so are you a hyung? What's your name?" Jungkook blurted out, forgetting to talk as slowly as before, so all Taehyung really understood was hyung, name, and that he still really needed to use the toilet.

"Hyung!" he exclaimed before starting to pull down his shorts. Jungkook's eyes widened.

"Hyung, what the hell?" Jungkook exclaimed before he turned at a lightning pace and slammed the door shut. He walked exasperatedly back to his room. A few minutes later and Taehyung bursted through Jungkook's door.

"I'm V," he smiled before walking back out, not bothering to close the door. Jungkook sat back up in his bed in more fury, so much so that he felt he was going to pop a brain vessel soon.

"Hyung, did you flush?" Jungkook shouted.

"Flush?" 

_______

Taehyung thought back to when he was less skilled at being human and felt a bit of embarrassment. He had come a long way since that time from over a year ago. He had lost contact with Jungkook after running out a few hours later. He hadn't even said thank you. At one point during that night, he thought that Jungkook may have even been his Keeper, but he knew that Chronos wouldn't make it so easy for him, and so he continued on with his task. 

Suddenly, Taehyung was feeling disappointed in himself again as he realized he was doing another human thing by contemplating about the past. He was feeling rather depressed lately, and because he realized he was depressed, he felt even more disappointment at his human-ness and loomed into greater depression. He was also feeling very pessimistic as he still had no clues on how to find his Keeper, and his determination was starting to wear down.   

"Tomorrow will be the last. Just one day. One more day," Taehyung chanted to himself. He couldn't lose hope now. He had to get back. He had so much he had yet to accomplish, and Taehyung wasn't the type to give up.