The Witness ➳ Taegyu

20. Carousel

A/N: The pacing of this chapter is kind of rushed since it's a fun one, so hopefully that's not too annoying lol.

*Three days later*

They had stayed in Daegu for two more days, until Mr. Choi was discharged, and the entire time, Taehyun was trying to subtly suggest that Beomgyu live there. But the boy was not having it.

He brushed it off every time Taehyun would say something about it, until right before they left to go back home, he asked Taehyun why he was trying to convince him to live in Daegu.

"You know that I don't want to live in the same city as my parents," he had said. "So why are you doing this?"

He still hadn't talked to his mom at all since their fight, but he wasn't bothered by the fact. He still wasn't budging when it came to moving back.

They were back in the police station now after a car ride with music as the only noise, and Beomgyu was talking to his friends on the phone. Taehyun followed Taeyong away after being gestured by his friend to do so, nervous since they hadn't talked at all since the... incident.

"Listen Taehyun. I am so sorry for what I did. Even after hearing everything about you, I still treated you like crap."

"You're not the one who should apologize." Taeyong's scared eyes softened a bit. "What you did is completely justified. I deserved it."

"No you didn-"

"Taeyong." He got quiet. "It's okay to be mad at me. It's okay to hate me. You don't have to apologize for being mad. I understand."

Taeyong's tense muscles softened too and he let out a sigh of relief. "I was afraid our partnership was done for."

"You can call us friends you know," Taehyun laughed, throwing himself on him in a big hug. "I've always thought of you as my friend."

His laugh made Taeyong remember what the chief said. Taehyun faked his laugh a lot in an attempt to use a happy personality to make other people happy. His laughter was fake a lot of the time, and now that Taeyong knew that, it did nothing but upset him.

"Your happiness is fake, isn't it? Chief Kim said that you just act that way to make other people happy." Taehyun pulled away from the hug with a straight face. "You're not okay, are you?"

Taehyun just scrunched his face up in another smile before waving dramatically and walking backwards. "I've always been okay. I swear." He tripped over the doorframe and fell onto his butt, quickly getting up and frantically waving again. "I'm gonna go talk to Beomgyu."

As he ran away, Taeyong slowly walked out to follow him to the main area. He's always one to dodge personal questions. Although now, it seemed like he was okay answering personal ones, but he just lied about this one and ran away.

It was totally obvious that he lied.

***

"I've never been to something like that," Taehyun said after Beomgyu got off the phone with his friends.

"You've never been to a carnival? Amusement park?" Taehyun shook his head. "I never have either."

They were one in the same.

"Have you ever done anything fun?" Rosé asked, overhearing their conversation while working on her computer.

"Sometimes I would go scuba diving off of our yacht. That was pretty fun. I love animals, especially marine ones."