Continuum

ろく

 "So what do we say?" Hoseok asked, looking at Yoongi. The messages from the mysterious Taehyung had been paused for the past twenty minutes or so, as if the boy had tried realized that sending them repeatedly wasn't doing much for him. As the symposium continued, Seokjin had his hands over the keyboard of his computer, waiting for a suggestion.

Yoongi scoffed. "Hell if I know. I'm not one of the master communicators here."

That caused everyone to look at Jeongguk, who paled a bit. "Why are you looking at me?" he stuttered. His innate shyness still got the better of him sometimes, even around people he knew well. "It's not a language barrier problem we've got here. Joon is better for this kinda stuff."

"Guys, you're overthinking this," Jimin added himself to the conversation. "If everything said so far is true, then he's just a kid."

"He's got a point," Yoongi answered, shaking his head lightly and looking at Seokjin.

The older boy let out a breathe of air. "Okay, so we just talk casually?" He clicked his fingertips on the computer, thinking. "Why don't we ask him where he is?"

"Jin, we don't know anything about Korean geography," Jeongguk said politely, causing Seokjin to shrug.

"Sure, but we've got maps of the place since before the war." Hoseok opened his mouth to respond, so Seokjin answered his question before he could ask. "And I get that the names were probably changed, but it's worth a shot, and, like Jimin said, this guy's probably just a kid. He's not gonna care about what we say first."

And with that, Seokjin typed.

seokJ: Where are you?

He was expecting a fast reply, but not a reply so fast that he wondered if the kid had read the words he had typed.

Kimtae: omgiod thank you for replying im in taiwan

There were a few sputters of disbelief from around the room as half the boys yelled "What!?" and the other half "Taiwan?"

Yoongi whistled. "Well, that was unexpected."

"How would a Korean get to Taiwan?" someone asked.

"Wouldn't they have to have run away from Korea? Can people even do that? Is it possible?" another boy continued.

"Wait, what if he's lying?"

Well, that was a legitimately good question. So, Seokjin typed out another message.

seokJ: Where in Taiwan?

There was a break of a few seconds.

Kimtae: Taipei

Good, the capital. This was working. "Okay, boys, what are some important places in Taipei?" Seokjin asked.

"There's the Taipei 101," Jimin suggested. "Why?"

Seokjin decided to let his actions speak for himself.

seokJ: Can you go to the Taipei 101 and take a picture of yourself holding up four fingers?

Kimtae: I think so.

Kimtae: Why?

"Well, that's genius," Hoseok said.

Seokjin couldn't help but smirk. "Thanks."

Forty-five minutes later, a picture was sent to the chat. By this point, the group had dispersed around the apartment. At Jimin's cry of "he sent a message!" the other four boys went running back to Seokjin's bedroom.

Seokjin grabbed the computer, clicked on the photo icon, and everyone gasped as there was a picture of a boy, holding up four fingers, angling the device taking the picture to show the famous Taiwanese skyscraper. While they all subconsciously recognized the facts of holy shit, he wasn't lying and hey, look, we didn't anthropomorphize a computer program, none of them commented on it. What they were more focused on was -

"Guys..." Jeongguk whispered. "He doesn't look Korean... he looks-"

"-just like us," Namjoon's voice finished from behind them.