The Witness ➳ Taegyu

12. Recognition

A/N: If you ever see a really random or wrong word, please understand that I don't proofread my chapters, and sometimes after I type a word, my keyboard will just autocorrect it to something completely different and I don't notice 😂. For example, this was supposed to say "happened".

At around 10 a.m., Beomgyu and Taehyun left since Chief Kim told them to go home. They only got a few hours of sleep, and Beomgyu leaned his head on the car window, completely tired. All he wanted to do was sleep.

When they were woken up by the chief, they didn't say a word to each other. They haven't yet. He looked over at Taehyun who just stared at the road in front of them with an ice-cold expression.

Everything that happened was his fault. The reason Taehyun was so tired was because he was busy dealing with him. The reason Taehyun was so upset was because he killed a man while rescuing him. Taehyun's car that Beomgyu found out early on he cared about had been destroyed because Kami memorized it. Now, he was driving a different one.

"I'm sorry for everything," he finally said. "None of this would have happened if I didn't leave to see Soobin. You wouldn't have had to experience any of this in the first place if you weren't protecting me! I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that's something that I should have to endure! Not you!"

Tears fell from his eyes and he held his hands up to his face, gasping when Taehyun parked the car on the side of the road. "Is that what you think? You think that you're the one who's done wrong? That your existence is bothering me at all? None of this is your fault. It's theirs." He clenched the steering wheel tightly. "And mine." He sighed. "Don't worry about me. It's my job to protect you. You shouldn't even think of me on a personal level like that. I'm just a cop, and protecting you is my duty. Nothing more. It's you who needs to be worried about."

He clenched his fists against his pants and nearly sobbed. "No! Taeyong told me about you! You cry, but you don't show it! You don't ask for help! Why?!"

He looked at Taehyun who was just staring back at the road. "I don't deserve it."

What did he mean? Taehyun was probably the kindest person Beomgyu ever met. Even if he was just the cop protecting him, Beomgyu felt sympathy for him on every level. They lived together, ate together, and spent most of their time together. Even if it was just a job, Taehyun took it very seriously on the emotional level, and Beomgyu began to think of him as a friend because of it.

Suddenly, Beomgyu's upper body was pushed all the way down and he felt Taehyun on top of his back. "Stay down!" He yelled. Beomgyu heard gunshots and the sound of the car door opening, terror consuming his body when Taehyun disappeared.

What was happening? He couldn't tell, but he unbuckled his seat belt and crawled beneath the dashboard as best as possible while covering his ears. It sounded like multiple guns were firing for a while until they finally stopped. He uncovered his ears, but his eyes were still squeezed shut in fear.

The thought that something happened to Taehyun haunted his mind, but his eyes opened when he heard the faint sound of his voice.

"Yeah, it was Black Reaper. They ambushed us. They saw my face, but they're all dead. It doesn't matter. Yeah, Beomgyu is fine. Thank you Sir." Taehyun got back in the car and shut the door. "Thank you Beomgyu. Stay there for a second, okay?"

He started driving away and Beomgyu stared up at him, noticing the bullet holes in his shirt. "You got shot?" He gasped.

"I'm wearing a bullet-proof vest. I do whenever I leave the house. Anyway, Black Reaper attacked us, probably because they failed to get you last night. I don't know how they found us in the new car, but it doesn't matter now. There weren't that many of them and the rest of the group doesn't know about this car or my face. Chief Kim and some others will come examine the mess and clean it up."

"You killed all of them?" Taehyun didn't answer. "But what about your disliking of even using a gun?"

"You can sit in your seat now." Beomgyu sighed and moved back up into his seat. "I had to. I don't like it, but I had to keep you safe. I don't really care much for their members anyway."

Taehyun was incredible at hiding his emotions. That's what Taeyong implied. If Taehyun really was upset that he killed them, he wasn't showing it at all. Not like he did after he killed the man in the warehouse. Beomgyu thought that maybe Taehyun unintentionally let him see him so upset then because now, he looked unfazed.

"Oh, here." He took a phone out of his pocket and handed it to him. "They already set up a new phone for you since your last one was left behind and has also been compromised. I hate to say it, but since you said Kami saw your face, you're gonna be under stricter protection. You also can't go back to school."

"What?!"

***

Taehyun said it was just until they annihilated the Black Reaper, or at least just Kami.

Beomgyu had apparently been kept in the dark about a lot of things that Taehyun told him on the way home. Black Reaper had been killing more people recently, some of which didn't even have ties to them. They assumed that some of the killings could have been failed deals with other groups, but even so, the fact that these crimes were being made public was alarming to the police.

If they were made public, civilians would be more scared once they found out more about Black Reaper. The group usually only killed certain people who could or couldn't benefit them, but they recently took the life of an innocent young woman. "The reason was for recognition," Taehyun had told him.

But why did they want recognition now all of a sudden?

When they got home, Beomgyu hurriedly got in the shower so he could go back to sleep. Even though it would mess up his sleep schedule, he couldn't really bring himself to care. If he wasn't going to school, the only thing he would have to worry about was being awake at the station.

He took his new phone after he was done and found that his friends were in his new contacts list. He sighed in relief and went to text Soobin.

Beomgyu:
I'm okay now. Thank you for getting help.

Soobin:
They called me to let me know when they found you. I'm glad you're okay. You terrified me ㅜㅜ.

Beomgyu:
Sorry :<

Soobin:
😂 It's alright. Just don't do it again.

Beomgyu:
I'll try not to lmao

After saying goodbye, Beomgyu went to look for Taehyun and let him know he was going to bed. When he got to the living room, he paused when he saw him asleep on the couch. He stared at him for a while before smiling sadly and taking a blanket from a nearby chair to drape over him.

"Thank you for saving me Taehyun."