Hangang In The Autumn | Taekook

17. Grey Meadows

"What the fvck is she doing here?"

The scream was what brought Taehyung back to reality. He would hate to admit that the voice made him feel at peace yet he was triggered by the sudden rush of adrenaline and the wave of scariness the man behind enticed him. Taehyung would love to curse but he chose not to while catching his breath from the unexpected outburst.

"Hyung! What are you doing here?"

Turning at the man who had eyes on the photo in his hand, Taehyung muttered. He was impatient to know what the man was doing there, almost bringing him to the edge of death just when he arrived. Taehyung didn't hear anything from him for a moment, then the elder crouched down to his level, and took the photo from his hand.

He noticed how the eyebrows curled into a frown, the face paler than before as the man scanned every pixel of the photo. The faded ink of the portrait was making his eyes blur but he tried to stay put especially when his hyung went into deep thought and Taehyung felt like a dot. He wasn't catching up with what the elder was thinking.

"Hyung, how did you..."

"Taehyung, how are you and how I came here can wait. Now you tell me, where did you get this?"

Before he could even register, the elder was already interrogating him and Taehyung sat frozen. He wanted to answer as fast as he could but he couldn't. Something churned inside him and he wanted to leave the place.

The scent around was unbearable and the blurry thoughts crowded him. He wanted to stand in the middle of a garden, breathing the freshness of newly bloomed flowers and not the haunting memories that someone buried deep.

"I--- I was just..."

"Does this box belong to Jeon Jeongguk?"

Taehyung nodded, eyes wide like a lost puppy. His brain hurt, tears filled and his lips were trembling. He was suffering to form a proper sentence with all the sophisticated emotions caging him at that moment.

"Yoongi hyung..."

"Tae, this woman... She..."

"Park Jieun."

Taehyung mumbled softly, not knowing what to say further or whether he should sit to listen to what Yoongi was going to say. Then he felt Yoongi holding his hand, a gesture the elder had never initiated in the past that caught Taehyung's attention.

"Remember a missing case of a uni student that caught the media attention for like four-five years ago... I was behind that case, working my a$$ off and I can tell you with the screams of attorney Lee ringing in my head, this--- this is her.

She is the one who was missing on the summer trip to Jeju from SNU. If you got this photo from here---"

With a notorious smirk on his lips, Yoongi glanced at Taehyung who already lost his right mind and now, Yoongi was only making him nervous.

"Hyung, I don't think we should stay here for a long time. Let's just--"

"Taehyung, my sweetheart?"

Yoongi called, placing a hand on Taehyung's shoulder who was shell-shocked, but not complaining at the sweet gesture of the elder.

"What?"

"I came here to know your well-being and wish you good luck. But you just..."

Taehyung bit his lips, his puppy eyes on Yoongi, as if waiting for its owner for a long time. He was tired both mentally and physically but seeing the elder mischievous like that, Taehyung felt he was going feral at that moment. Everything around him was making him dizzy.