Letters from the Void // ASTRO ✔

Chapter 5

For the thousandth time he could see his face on the old television screen in front of him. He lost count on how many times he appeared, but each and every time he felt as if they're coming closer and closer. He couldn't shake that feeling of anxiety, but he tried to assure himself that it wouldn't be possible for them to track him here. He's in an old town in an abandoned district, where technology was the same as it was years back. This part of the town didn't go with the flow of technology, so it would be hard for them to track him. Or so he hoped.

For as long as the people here wouldn't blab their mouths, he would stay safe. He noticed that the people around here either didn't have connection to the outside world, or they didn't bother to find out about life outside of the town. The hoodie he's currently wearing was the same as the one he wore on the day he was labeled as a fugitive. He had no change of clothes, no money but he did have someone he could trust.

There was a knock on the door, a special one where both him and the knocker agreed on. He stood up to open the wooden door, and packed food with a bottled drink were shoved at him. He smiled gratefully, but the knocker only returned it with a scowl.

"Why am I doing this for you, anyway? I could've gotten rich if I just opened my mouth."

"Hyung, you do know that you're the only one I can trust here?"

Yoongi just rolled his eyes. "I owe you one time, and now I'm helping you, so we're even."

"We're even," Taehyung mumbled, licking his lips while looking at the packed food.

"Go and eat, you're drooling like a starved hyena," he pulled the handle of the door to close it, but left a small space, enough for his face to be seen. "You, Kim Taehyung... You... It's not true, right? Whatever happened... It wasn't you, right?"

Taehyung put aside the food on the ratty table, and shoved his hands inside the pockets of his hoodie. "The media made it look like I'm the culprit, but I hope that you would believe me that I'm not. I was..." He looked away, "... Framed. By someone I trusted."

Yoongi nodded reluctantly, knowing that he should believe his younger friend. But it proved to become harder day by day, when his face kept popping up on screen, asking citizens to hand him in. They were searching high and low for him, yet he's here, in front of him. "Right, I should trust you. I've known you for a long time and I know you're not that kind of person."

He left, closing the door behind him. Taehyung eyed the packed food and suddenly, he's not hungry anymore.

***

With the information she got, Haeun had no idea what to do with it. Where should she start when the guy behind all of this happened to be a runaway? She needed information on him, but she had no way to connect to the Internet. She didn't have a commander; the only help she could get was from Eunwoo, but when she side-eyed him, he didn't look too eager to cooperate. Grudgingly, she marched forward, forgetting his promise to buy the shoes for her while she passed the shoe store.

"Choi-" Eunwoo shouted, but she's already marching forward like a soldier, ignoring the pain in her legs. Was it because she's not used to wearing high heels or she's not used to the metal inside her legs? She didn't care to find out as she found herself in front of the massive apartment. And to think that they're five floors underground...

She remembered faintly how the pad inside the lift only appeared when Eunwoo waved a card in front of it; she realized she had no means of getting in. She couldn't even get inside the building, as the entrance only allowed the residents to enter by waving their cards. So she's left alone again, under the starless night. Seeking refuge under the small roof at the entrance, she closed her eyes, imagining how her life had been. Who she was, what she was doing, or who she was acquainted with, but her mind remained blank, empty and dark.