[3] Code: REBIRTH || KTH

Ch26: Someone Out There

When Taehyung finds his grandma's grave, he doesn't know what to say, so he sits down beside the stone, picking at the grass and thinking of nothing. His body is heavy with exhaustion, and he can just lie here and sleep. He's tired, so so tired. A drop falls on Taehyung's hand and he realises it's one of his tears. He lets them fall silently one after the other, and when he's certain they've all dried out, he stands up, makes a promise to look for his grandma in the afterlife if it exists, then walks away.

---

Taehyung isn't sure what he's doing here, why he's knocking on the door of this house where he had lived for five years. He isn't even sure what happened to the woman's husband, whether he survived that vase Taehyung broke on his head, whether they moved out or not. He doesn't even remember coming all the way here, it's like one second he was wandering the streets aimlessly and the next he's at this house's porch.

The front door squeaks open, leaving a gap only wide enough for the woman to look at her visitor. Taehyung can't find the words to say as he takes in the wrinkles around the woman's eyes, the grayed roots of her thinning hair. He wonders if seven years are enough for someone to age so much.

The woman freezes, her eyes looking Taehyung up and down as if she doesn't believe he's standing in front of her, then with a smile so small that Taehyung barely noticed it, she speaks.

"My dumpling," She says, opening the door wider, "Where have you been?"

Taehyung smiles politely and shrugs, scratching his nape awkwardly. "I, uhh, I just came to say hi. I should probably go."

"I was making tea," She says, her voice as gentle as he remembers, "Join me?"

Taehyung pauses for a second before nodding. A minute later, he's on a chair opposite to hers with two mugs of tea on the dining table between them. He looks around, seeing the house is unchanged. If he leans his head back, he can glimpse the locked bedroom that belonged to the woman's dead son at the end of the hall. The husband's shoes are by the front door. So he's still here, Taehyung thinks to himself.

"He's at work," The woman says, having noticed Taehyung's gaze on her husband's shoes. "He won't be back till evening"

"After the police took me that day," Taehyung starts, his fingers drumming nervously on his mug, "Did they take him, too?"

The woman slowly sips her tea, her eyes fixed on a random spot on the table. She sets her mug down ever so carefully before replying.

"He went to the hospital. He had a concussion."

Taehyung furrows his eyebrows. "And then?"

"And then he went home."

"Why didn't you say anything? He should be in prison."

The woman takes another sip, still staring at blank space, and this time when she sets her mug down, she doesn't talk. Instead, she waits for a few seconds before picking her mug again and taking another sip. Taehyung realises she won't say anything, and aside from her behaviour, she seems fine. Taehyung finds himself scanning her face and hands over and over again, looking for a bruise, a scratch, but he doesn't find any. Did Taehyung just happen to show up at a time when her husband isn't in a foul mood? Or had she gotten so good at hiding her wounds?

"He's growing old," She says out of the blue, and Taehyung realises he's been staring at her face for too long so he tears his eyes away.

"He's not how he used to be," She continues.

Taehyung knows she's trying to reassure him, but he knows that the man's fists weren't the only thing that hurt her. His words had used to cut her deep, and he's sure they still do.

"They wouldn't let me visit you," She says.

Taehyung snaps out of his thoughts. "What?"

"At the Code: RED Shelter." She purses her lips. "They said you weren't allowed visitors. They said you were dangerous."

Taehyung's heart skips a beat. No one told him she tried to visit him. Had he known, would it have made his time there a little easier to bear? Knowing that someone out there was worried about him?

She finally looks up at him. "They weren't nice to you, were they?"

"I'm out now. It doesn't matter." Taehyung gulps. "I'm sorry I didn't visit earlier."

"Did I ever tell you how much you look like him?" Her eyes stay on his face, taking in every detail. "I imagine if he didn't have to leave me so soon, he would've grown up to look like you."

She doesn't need to say who she's talking about, Taehyung knows she means her son whom she has never talked about before. All Taehyung knows is that he died fairly young, and that it had left the woman in a bad mental state.

"What happened to him?" Taehyung asks.

The woman's eyes drift to the window, to the sun setting over the horizon. She stays silent for too long that Taehyung starts regretting asking this question.

"He'll be home soon," She says, "It's best he doesn't see you."

This time, Taehyung knows she's talking about her husband, so he stands up and walks away, stopping in his tracks before he reaches the door.

"Thank you," He says over his shoulder, "For everything."

The woman doesn't say anything, she doesn't even turn to look at him, but Taehyung knows she's heard him and that's more than enough for him, so he puts his shoes on and heads outside, back to the train station, back to Seoul.