The Witness ➳ Taegyu

30. Purple Café

A/N: Just a warning for a hint at sexual assault in this chapter. Nothing happens, but it almost does, and it's talked about for a few sentences (no details though).

Date: May 24th

It was hard. Today marked two weeks since Taehyun left, and while Beomgyu wanted to think the man his friends saw was him, it wasn't enough. What was Taehyun up to? Was he okay? Was he eating right?

Of course he was. He's Taehyun.

All he wanted to do was talk to his friend again. Ask if he was okay. Offer him his help. Anything. He would do anything to talk to him right now.

"Beomgyu, you can't just stand there daydreaming all day!" His coworker, Yuna, called to him. "We have customers!"

His eyes widened when he realized he had stopped wiping tables and was just staring down at them, quickly hurrying to the register to take orders. He was only trained on the register so far and Yuna was busy fulfilling the orders that had already been taken.

She worked with him his first day and already noticed something off about his personality, so she didn't actually get mad at him for zoning out when customers needed to be taken care of. She noticed his way of staring into space and how sad he looked while doing it, so she never bothered to ask him.

It seemed personal.

The two of them ran the morning rush by themselves and Beomgyu felt like he would collapse afterward. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry for screwing up," he said, leaning his elbows on the counter and ducking his head down.

"How? You did fine." She bumped his arm and he looked up, seeing a muffin in her hand. "Take fifteen. For your second shift, you handled it well."

"But... you'll be working alone."

She looked around at the nearly empty café and chuckled. "Go, Beomgyu. I got it."

He thanked her before going to sit at a table and eat the muffin. Taeyong had to leave early this morning, so he couldn't make breakfast or drive Beomgyu to work. He rushed to just get on the bus and clocked in as soon as he got to work, so this was the first thing he's eaten.

His first day, he and Yuna worked with a couple other people, but he found her presence the most comforting. She was funny when the moment called for it, extremely good at her job, and a kind person whose smile lifted him up when his mind would wander to Taehyun.

They worked the rest of the shift together, talking about a lot of personal things, minus Taehyun and the police of course. Beomgyu went home with his new friend's phone number and told Taeyong all about the day.

The detective voiced that he was happy for him before starting to talk about a murder and they both paused, finally realizing how humorous the difference in their work stories were.

*The next night*

"Commander, why are we on this street specifically?"

"To talk."

"But why this street specifically?"

They were parked in the exact spot where Beomgyu was abducted. It was five minutes away from that café he and Soobin would go to that was open twenty-four hours. Taehyun didn't know why he wanted to come here. They were in the area and needed a place to park and talk.

This street was silent and empty, which made for a good private area. But the only other reason he could make up was that he just felt like coming here.