Joohyun had to admit — she was really, really dumb for not going to Amber’s house that night.

They had been studying after class for a physics test when Amber had invited her over. Really, if she was smart, she would have accepted the offer and left, but she didn’t. Bidding her best friend goodbye, she continued studying the laws of centripetal motion until the Academy's secretary kicked her out.

Joohyun never really cared much about the existence of the “butterfly effect” unless she came across it in a sci-fi book or chaos theory, but she had to admit, if something different had happened earlier during the day, the week, or even the year, the chain of events that followed as a result would have been different.

For example, if she had passed her driver’s test the first time around, she would not have needed to walk home from the Academy in the dark. If she had gone with Amber, she would not have needed to go through that shady alley to get home. If she hadn’t forgotten the online access code to her physics textbook, she would not have needed to lug her hard copy around with her for the entire day.

All of this would have saved her much pain, really. If things were different, she would not have had to witness a murder before her eyes.

It might have been the sudden darkness around her (or the physics textbook she was carrying — it was very heavy), but as she walked past 71st street, a suffocating presence made her lose her breath. Shakily, she stumbled forwards as all of the lights nearby suddenly went out. 

She froze. A high-pitched scream pierced the air, and she let out a gasp, dropping her textbook onto the pavement. Hushed voices murmured from her left, and a gunshot rang loud and clear. Panic overtook her. It took all of her energy to avoid passing out then and there from fear. When the lights turned back on, she dove behind the nearest trashcan, trembling, covering with her hand as best as she could.

Peering out from behind, she tried to find the source of the noises and — oh god. A dark haired girl was lying on her back in the center of an alley with three men in masks standing around her. Joohyun gasped — probably too loudly — and three heads turned towards her. Ducking back down, she tried to steady her breathing as she heard their footsteps get closer.

“What’s this?” one asked from about twenty feet away. “A physics textbook?”

“Is there a name on it?” another asked, and Joohyun squeezed her eyes shut.

“J.L. Initials probably. I’m guessing some kid dropped this as he ran by us. Run a fingerprint scan to see who this is. I cannot allow anybody to witness this and walk out alive.”

With that, footsteps started to head down the street in the opposite direction. Joohyun waited until they were no longer audible before stepping out from behind the trash and sprinting towards the girl.

She was bleeding heavily around her midsection, but she was alive. A scarf covered half of her face, but there was something familiar about her warm, brown eyes. Her long hair was splayed all around her, and as she finally noticed Joohyun, a frail finger pointed towards her purse three feet away.

“Take it,” she croaked, her voice laced with agony and exhaustion, “to the police. And tell — tell him I’m sorry.” She shuddered and stared long and hard at Joohyun.

“No no no no!” Joohyun yelled frantically. “You are not going to die here. You hear me? I am going to call the hospital and —” 

The girl shook her head. It was hard for Joohyun to not burst into tears right there. Here was a young girl, someone probably around her age, dying in a hidden alley because three monsters were heartless enough to shoot her. It wasn’t fair. The whole world wasn’t fair. She could see the girl’s eyes twinkle with sadness and tear up as well.

“Joo?” she whispered, squinting. “Go. They’ll be back soon.”

With that, Joohyun picked up the purse and ran, bitter tears streaming down her face. She couldn’t help wondering what the poor girl was doing in that alley. Perhaps she too was a witness like Joohyun herself, which was why the men wanted to kill her. Her mind lingered on how she should have called the hospital right then and there, how she should have tried to fight off the men, how she could’ve done literally anything but hide and wait like the useless coward that she was. The nighttime air billowed past her, stinging her eyes a bit as she sprinted down the streets.

It wasn’t until she noticed the bright lamps and shining windows of the police station did it occur to her that the girl somehow recognized her.

Joohyun was still in a daze when she burst into the police station and barreled right into a female officer, knocking her and her stack of papers over as she fell right on top of her. Instantly, officers crowded around them, and one angrily yanked Joohyun up. She was so disoriented it took her a few moments to recover before realizing that they were all yelling at her and — oh my god are those handcuffs?!

“Wait!” she shrieked over the commotion. “I have a murder to report!” Instantly, the noise died down, and the officer in front of her eyed her warily. He was a young man with spiky hair, thick eyebrows, and an annoyingly twitchy left eye. He seemed to be in a perpetual state of irritation, and it appeared that Joohyun’s presence seemed to exacerbate that.

“You do?”

“Yes.” She took a shaky breath brought out the purse, her arm shaking with nervousness. She bit her lip. “This is hers. She said to bring it to the police and to tell someone ‘sorry.’”

She swore she saw recognition flash in the officer’s face when he saw the purse, but he gave no indication of it.

“Did she?” he asked, his voice a mixture of annoyance and anger. “This girl’s dying wish was to tell a random passerby to give her purse to the police?”

“Yes!”

“Why should I believe you? You stormed in and attacked one of my officers, causing a disruption, and now you’re requesting an investigation?”

“I saw it with my own eyes, officer. With all due respect, you have no reason to believe me, but she was just lying there, and the lights were out and on again, and there were three men in masks around them, and one of them has my physics textbook, and —”

“Enough!” he growled, grabbing her by the arm. He faced her and glared, bringing her close. “I do not have time for this bullsh*t. We are at war! Haven't you heard that the West is gaining land, pushing us back? They took Ohio yesterday. We do not have time to deal with a girl who cried wolf. Now, scram!” He spat out the last few words and pushed her away.

Joohyun had dealt with many different types of people before. She had dealt with angry customers when she worked at a local clothing store, cruel classmates who picked on her for no apparent reason, and even unsupportive parents who didn’t believe that a girl should study science. But this — a police officer who clearly saw her shaken state, recognized the purse, but still had the audacity to call her a liar — was too much.

“You are a policeman,” she began, shaking with fury and frustration. “Your duty is to make sure everyone is safe and to ensure that justice is had for everyone, including soldiers and a random girl who got killed as I was walking home.” She wiped away the tears that started to form in her eyes. Finding the courage to continue, she stepped forwards to meet his eyes with equal fierceness and snarled.

“You are a failure if you don’t do anything about her death,” she seethed, enunciating every single word clearly.

She probably crossed a line right there, but that strange burst of fearlessness kept her from shrinking away and backing down. A crowd of policemen, including the woman she knocked over earlier, surrounded the officer who had shoved her. He looked like he was out for blood.

“Repeat that,” he scowled. “What did you say?”

“I said —”

“She’s right, you know? This should be your responsibility.”

A voice from the crowd interrupted her. Everyone turned around to see a dark-haired guy step into the light and face them. Some looked confused, others looked furious, but Joohyun stared in horror.

Of course it was Kim Taehyung, the boy in school who set out to make every single day miserable for her. Last week, he thought it would be funny to throw her math binder in the trashcan. A few days ago, he decided that “accidentally” hitting her in the head with a basketball would be an amusing idea. The last thing she wanted was for him to see her at her most vulnerable time and agree with her.

She could only guess that he didn’t know it was her, or else the legendary Kim Taehyung would never have supported the school’s resident “chess nerd.”

He made his way forward, each step precise and taken with an aura of purpose and power. The crowd parted for him. He kept his eyes trained on the angry officer until he reached him.

“It should be your responsibility, but it isn’t, Kris.” His words carried contempt as he smirked at Kris. He glanced at Joohyun before readdressing him. “You know who really takes care of all the crime in this godforsaken — hey wait!” He whirled around to face her, his face suddenly scrunched up in confusion without any of his previously arrogant attitude.

“What the hell are you doing with my sister’s purse?”

The silence in the room was, quite frankly, deafening.

Joohyun stared at him in shock, trying but unable to form words. 

It was Taeyeon. That was why she looked so familiar and knew my name. 

Joohyun took a quick peek at Mean Officer, who seemed just as taken aback as she was. The officers around him shuffled nervously, most of them looking anywhere but at Taehyung.

Taehyung took one step closer to her, and she looked down at his feet. Every cell in her body told her to run. It didn’t look like he was fuming, but he had a very dangerous aura around him. 

“Let me repeat myself,” he stated sharply. “What the hell are you doing with my sister’s purse.”

She took in a sharp breath and met his gaze. His dark brown eyes were unwavering, but they were also afraid. Despite being a horrible people-reader, she knew that he knew.

“You know,” she breathed out, nodding to herself. “You know, but you don’t want to accept it.” She her hand outwards and gave him the purse. “I — I think this was meant for you to keep.”

For a minute, she was convinced Taehyung would leap at her and punch her, but he just stared at the bag in her hand. When he looked up, she expected to see anger and hatred in his eyes. Instead, she saw tears threatening to fall down the face of a broken boy. He suddenly snatched the purse from her hand and crumpled on the floor, his body wracked with sobs.

The idea of Kim Taehyung having emotions other than disgust and disdain surprised but also terrified her. He was in pain; he was broken; he was on the floor. She was standing. She didn’t know how to deal with him. Comforting him would feel a bit awkward given their current relationship, and there was nothing else she could say.

Nothing.

Slowly stepping backwards, she glanced at Kris, who was hesitantly trying to kneel next to Taehyung. Kris glared at her with an accusatory expression, and she could feel her insides twist into knots. 

Taehyung looked up at her and snarled, his face glistening with tears. “Did you just stand there and watch her die? That’s just as bad as killing her, Joohyun.” He spat out her name in fury. 

“You came because you expected the police to take responsibility, clean the blood off of your hands because they have power, but you were there. You killed her.”

Taehyung was always scarily good at reading people.

Joohyun couldn’t take it anymore. She really couldn’t. She was barely coming to terms with the fact that she had seen Taeyeon die before her eyes, and after adding on a crying Taehyung, an angry policeman, a useless police force, a lost physics textbook, and the sudden realization that three scary guys were after her head because of said textbook — holy cow.

With one last glance at his broken form, she turned around and sprinted through the doors of the police station, her legs taking her far far away from Taehyung and the truth she didn’t want to tell herself.

She hoped that if she squeezed her eyes shut, all of it would fade away as if nothing had happened, and life would continue as it should.

Yes...I did make Taeyeon and Taehyung related in this fanfic. I'm a huge Taeyeon stan, so I had to include my queen somewhere here....love both of the Kim-Tae's.

Please leave comments! I love to know what you find of the story so far and suggestions to improve it. I'm writing this (and other fanfics) for my friend's birthday, so I want to give her a decently written story lol...