With You (TaeJin Short Stories)

Multithreaded Game of Fate

"Well shit," Seokjin curses. He reads the email twice, scanning the words carefully. Yep, Jimin and Jungkook are taken. Jimin's only resort was to send a panicked email to Seokjin.

"I told you!" Taehyung grits his teeth. He foresaw this three hours ago. "I told you – "

"Shut up, will you?" Seokjin retorts. The last thing he wants is Taehyung breathing down his neck. "We need find a way to get them out."

"Get them out from where?" Taehyung yells at him. If only Seokjin trusted him for once, this wouldn't be happening. "They could be anywhere – "

"Can you please stop talking? I need to think," Seokjin says, his voice suddenly calm. He drags his chair and clicks a couple of times.

Taehyung doesn't talk. If he does, he will probably lay curses on him and all his generations to follow.

"I am checking the traffic cams," Seokjin explains eventually. "If they were taken away in a truck or – "

"Blue sedan," Taehyung says slowly. "At least two guys. Koo wasn't conscious."

Seokjin stops typing and looks at him. "If this is you trying to con me – "

"Fuck you," Taehyung spits, his hands shivering. "They are my friends! I don't care if you think I am all but a con artist; you can get back to hating me once we find them."

"What else can you tell?" Seokjin speaks like he cannot believe he is uttering those words. "Don't you need yours tarots now?"

"It comes in flashes," Taehyung mumbles. "Tarots help me focus that energy into something meaningful."

Seokjin hums. At least two dozen little boxes cover his screen. "They were at the Gray Pianist's, weren't they?"

Taehyung hesitantly comes behind Jin's chair. "Yeah," he says as he peers at the screen.

Seokjin enhances one of the boxes on the screen and maximizes it. He says, "That's koo."

Taehyung has to dip lower to squint at the pixels. His cheek brushes against Seokjin's and he pulls himself back. "Yeah. Where's Jimin?"

"Umm," Seokjin stammers. "Uh – this must be Jimin," he says pointing to a guy in a shiny jacket.

"Excellent," Taehyung mumbles.

They both watch the cam recordings. Seokjin switches from one cam to the other to be able to track their movements.

Taehyung watches the speed at which Jin's fingers type; his focused eyes and how he doesn't make a single mistake while shifting from one cam to another.

"That one!" Taehyung shouts.

"Where – "

"The blue sedan," Taehyung says, squeezing Seokjin's shoulder, asking him to move back to the previous screen. "The before one – yeah – that car!"

Seokjin zooms in quickly. He waits till the pixels clear around the car's numberplate. "You sure?" he says even as he types that number into a search bar he just clicked open.

Taehyung nods fervently.

"Hope should tell us if he has any hits," Seokjin tells as he follows the trial again. "Jimin – "

"You can't?" Taehyung asks. He doesn't mean it as a taunt but clearly Seokjin takes it as one.

"He has direct access to the server. I do not have the time to break those firewalls and access them from my IP," Seokjin snaps at him. "If you can be of more help – "