The Witness ➳ Taegyu

37. Criminal

*The next day*

Date: June 11th

"Uh... hello." Taeyong said to the woman standing outside his door.

"Hi." She smiled sweetly. "I heard from my son's friends that he's staying here. Is that true?"

Taeyong's eyes narrowed at her, remembering everything Beomgyu's said about his parents. "Yeah, but he's out right now. He's at one of their houses."

Her eyes widened and she looked past him into the apartment. "Can I come in? I wanna make sure he's living okay."

"He's fine." He put his arm on the doorframe to keep her from entering.

She looked around more and took interest in how nice it looked. "Listen, I need to stay with Beomgyu. We're... having issues back home, and I can't go back."

When she tried to push past him, he gently pushed her back. "What kind of issues? I have no room to house someone else. I'm sorry, but you'll have to stay at a hotel or something."

***

"Isn't it a little early to go shopping for school?" Kai asked Beomgyu who was piling things into his cart.

The boy ignored him and headed for the clothes section of the big store. He decided to shop for clothes and supplies now, even though school wouldn't start until August. His procrastination skills could win in a competition of who was more likely to not do something important. He didn't really like shopping for clothes, but since they came to the store to get some kind of medicine from the pharmacy for Kai's mom, he decided to do it now since he was in the mood.

While Kai loved hanging out with his best friend, what was supposed to be a five-minute trip has turned into a half an hour one and he was getting cranky.

Regardless of his annoyance, he sat outside the waiting room while Beomgyu made sure all his outfits fit. At some point though, Beomgyu's phone started ringing and Kai heard a loud gasp, followed by a "what?!".

It was Beomgyu's mom... calling from the station. She was arrested.

They paid for everything and left quickly, having to take an Uber to the station since Yeonjun was the only member of their friend group with a license. They hurried inside and Beomgyu told the receptionist his name and his mom's, waiting impatiently while she did stuff on her computer.

"Why- why did she get arrested?" He asked nervously.

"Attempted break-in and an assault of a police officer." Beomgyu's eyes widened. "That same officer restrained her and arrested her... oh. It says here that he wants to talk to you. You can go talk to your mom after you show me identification, but your friend can't go."

Beomgyu did as told and thanked her before going down a short hallway that held a few cells for holding people until they figured something else out. "Mom," he gasped when she saw her, and she hurriedly stood up and walked over to reach her hand through the bars to grab his.

"Beomgyu, why didn't you tell me you live with a cop?"

"Wh-what-"

"I was just trying to make sure you were okay, and he pinned me down and arrested me."

"You committed two different offences, and you were attempting to commit a wrongful search." Beomgyu turned around and saw Taeyong leaning against the wall. He would have wondered when he got there, but all he could focus on were the claw marks on his left cheek from her long fake nails. "If you did anything more than what you did, you would be in even bigger trouble. You're lucky I stopped you and that three days is all we're giving you, considering what you did."

Beomgyu's eyes widened. "You're pressing charges against her?"

Taeyong seemed genuinely confused that he asked that. "Why wouldn't I?"

"She... was just trying to make sure I was safe."

"Yeah! And do you know who my husband is?! He can get you fired easil-"

"No, he cannot. I don't work under him. I work under Seoul's Chief of Police. Now, be quiet. You're disturbing the other criminals."

He walked away and Beomgyu watched him while his mom kept screaming. "A criminal?! But I didn't do anything wrong! You're sick!"

Beomgyu's heart started racing. "Mom, stop-"

"That other captain is just as evil as you, isn't he? Kang Taehyun!" Taeyong froze in place. "We know what he's done! We know where he is! The secrets that you and your precious chief have kept mean jack shit!"

He clenched his fists in anger, but sighed and calmly walked back over. They couldn't have known Taehyun was the commander because there was no evidence of it. She must have just known he was a member of Black Reaper.

"Because of Taehyun's knowledge of Black Reaper and his desire to help and protect people, he has helped the police a lot. He's protected Beomgyu from Black Reaper countless times too. So don't act like we're villains for wanting him to be okay. He's just a poor boy who was born into that world of violence and begged the police for our help. All he's wanted this entire time is to help people and make them happy. Please don't say his name in vain."

She was finally silent as he walked away again, but she didn't seem any happier. She looked at Beomgyu once before sitting down in annoyance, and the boy quickly hurried after the captain.

"Hey, I'm sorry. It's just... my mom has a clean record, you know? I guess I just didn't want it to be tarnished."

"Beomgyu, my parents have a cat. I've been scratched before, but that was just stupid." They entered the captains' section of the station and Taeyong sat at his desk after greeting Rosé. "She's already getting special treatment because I care about you and she's your mom, but she still needs to be punished. Three days should be fine."

He sat down at Taehyun's old desk and listened to them talk. Rosé was confused as to why he was here on his day off, and it made Beomgyu wonder too. He never knew Taeyong to overwork himself like Taehyun. He didn't really have a reason to. But when Taeyong said it was because he had to file the report, Beomgyu frowned.

"You're really going through with it?"

"Drop it, Beomgyu."

"My dad's a chief. What will they say if they find out about this?"

"It doesn't matter. There are no exceptions in my justice system that will help protect the reputation of someone. I could drop the charges so she'll have her clean record and won't be punished, but I won't. She pissed me off and I'm in a lot of pain right now. Why are you worrying so much about people you hate in the first place?"

Beomgyu's eyes widened and he stood up to stomp over to him, being stopped by Rosé who quickly got up to intervene. "What kind of authority do you think you have to make such assumptions? I never said I hated my parents."

"You chose to stay in the same city as the HQ of Black Reaper instead of going to live with your parents where you would be safer. Plus, you've said before that you resent them."

When Taehyun told him everything his dad said about why they protected Beomgyu, the boy really didn't want to hear any excuses. At the time, at least. Now that Taehyun was gone, Beomgyu had a lot more time on his hands, and he's been thinking about his parents and their reasoning. How they treated him was abusive in some ways, but his conscience was trying to convince him to give them a chance.

"Think, Beomgyu," Taeyong continued. "You deserve to have parents, but do they really deserve you?"