time diplomat | kim taehyung ✔

| Eternal Friends |

Yeonjun took sneaky glances at the girl in front of her—she had her mobile in one of her hands and the other carried spoonful of cold ice cream to her lips. Even though he was never fond of silence, he felt peaceful with her—admiring her face that, at first, he never paid attention to. 

"One, stop staring, and two, Yeonjun? Do you remember our first case?" Astra suddenly asked, looking up into his dreamy, blue eyes and raising her eyebrows. 

"Yep. Three years ago. President Raynolds." He chuckled lightly causing him to choke on the desert his mouth was full of. She laughed along, letting her palms collide against each other and clap. "That man was silly. He thought he could cheat death!"

President Raynolds was the pair's first case. Once after being told that he'll soon die within the next 24 hours, the man had tried to hide from Death in an underground bunker but, unfortunately, he was assassinated by his own secret service agents. Clocks could only provide Astra and Yeonjun with the information of who was gonna die and when they were gonna die. Not how they were gonna die. 

The duo was not interested in that anyway. 

All they wanted was their day-offs and salary.

_ _ _ _ _

The sound of whirring and swishing filled the air as Yeonjun and Astra looked far into the evening horizon. They were on a compartment from the giant wheel but, it was more like a helicopter with fans on top. Helicopters these days didn't need fans or wings, they had their own technology, and when the blades were put to recycle, it was Yeonjun's idea of turning the old little compartment into something just for them.

They were in his back yard, looking at the cloudless sky—it never did have clouds, to begin with. Astra's smile faltered realizing how everything around her was fake. She had more robot friends than human ones. 

The sky was fake too—they were deep inside the earth's surface, using artificial intelligence to make up and fill up for the destruction that had been caused. 

The destruction their ancestors had caused.

From oxygen to falling rain, everything was fake. At times, she felt fake too—there was nothing realistic in this world. Humans were just existing, not trying to live. Taking everything for granted was a thing in the past. People never thought about what the future generation would have to go through because of them.

Astra has always hated history—reminiscing and reading about the fucked up society and governments was not something she enjoyed. 

She never added Yeonjun to the fake list but sometimes, his personality could be made up. They've had late-night talks about it how the humans are slowly turning into robots—their minds filled with what to do and what to say. 

In this world with everything scripted, even in a crowd of people, you'd still feel lonely.

Nervous looking at her serious expression, Yeonjun slowly sneaked his hand onto hers, feeling her cold skin against his warm one. She turned to him, her face reflecting off the orange glow of the sunset. A light wind blew, messing her hair up—pushing it to the front, causing her to shriek and fumble with her hands to set it back right.

Yeonjun laughed, turning to face the view and pulling his hand away. 

The sun was disappearing way too fast—the sunset lasted only for a minute but, that's what made it special for the people in Blue Field. 

The blue hour kicked in, giving the sky a magical glow of pink and blue, now making Yeonjun's sharp features glow along with his pretty eyes. "Yeonjun, you know what?"

"Yeah. We're better as friends, you're my brother . . . blah blah blah." He used his hand to imitate the blabbering and Astra facepalmed.

"You know it and yet, you come back for what?" She cleared her throat. "Yeonjun, we've been friends for over a decade now and . . . You're really special to me. It's not that I don't like you—any girl would surely fall for you and once I did too. But, as time went by, I could no longer look at you in the romantic or lustful way I used to. We caused mischief here and there, attended detention together, and nearly released an entire tank of laughing gas into our classrooms through the vents! You're really handsome, bro but, to me, you're a partner in crime—not a cliche brother but a partner who doesn't judge me—" 

"—In this world of AI, I realized I found a human when I met you and I'd love it if we stay the way we are until we're old and can't pretend to be a robot to get into the candy factory anymore."

Unknowingly, Yeonjun chuckled, feeling the compartment slowly descend to the ground with a puff of dust flying around. "Yeah, you're right. I do realize it now. Thank you, Astra— you're the best."

"Aww, man. No-"

"So you did have lustful fantasies about me, huh?" 

"That came out by mistake. I can explain, ya know."