Continuum

열일곱

 At the question, all the humor in the room evaporated and everyone stared at Taehyung with wide, questioning eyes. The boy felt himself shrink under their gazes.

"Um," he supplied helpfully.

"That's a strangely vague answer to a usually easy question," Seokjin said, tossing a lock of pink hair over his right shoulder.

Taehyung's heart started beating rapidly. "My name's Kim Taehyung," he blurted out before mentally slapping himself for the stupid answer. But to his surprise, the other boys didn't seem annoyed by this answer. Instead, they look puzzled and looked at each other, murmuring. Hoseok looked at Taehyung. "Your name is Kim? Then why do you call yourself Taehyung?"

"What? My name is Taehyung."

That just increased their confusion. "What?" Jeongguk asked quietly, peeking over Namjoon's shoulder.

Now Taehyung was confused. "Kim is my family name," he said, accidentally looking at Seokjin and Namjoon. No recognition was shown on either of their faces. "Taehyung is my birth name."

"Then why is it first?" Jimin asked, tilting his head like a confused puppy.

Taehyung thought about it. "I dunno. It just is, I guess." He swallowed a ball of nervousness. "Why are your family names second?"

They looked at each other and shrugged. "No idea," Yoongi said. "It just is."

"Hey, Yoongs," Jeongguk said, a little louder this time, now that he wasn't looking at the stranger in the room. "He kinda talks like you."

"Does he?" the older boy asked, looking at Taehyung. "I guess he does. Where you from, kid?"

Taehyung bit his lip. "Daegu," he said.

"Where's that?"

The boy's heart dropped.

"Um, the lower part of the country," he supplied, feeling ridiculous. "Sorta near the water, I guess?" At those words, Yoongi, Jimin, and Jeongguk smiled.

"I guess that makes sense, then," Yoongi said with a shrug. "I'm from Kanagawa. Maybe the places are near each other." The words meant nothing to Taehyung, but he smiled all the same. "But I can't say the name sounds very Japanese." He paused for a moment. "Neither does your name. You still haven't given us much about you. How did you know about us? And how the fuck did you know the password to message us?"

"It's the name of Seokjin's cat," Taehyung blurted out.

"Cat?" Seokjin repeated, looking confused.

"Dammit, Jin, we told you that password is too hackable," Hoseok scolded Seokjin. "The entire fan following knows how much you like that anime character!"

Anime character? Oh, yeah, Seokjin had mentioned once that he named his cat after some character. But he never remembered the older boy telling ARMY about his pet. Well, what works, works.

Seokjin and Hoseok bickered for a while after that, before Namjoon rolled his eyes and whistled a quick, high pitched tune that immediately made the boys be quiet.

Hoseok glared at Namjoon accusingly. "Taehyung doesn't count for that," he said.

"Why not?" Namjoon asked, shrugging. "He's a guest. Whistle counts for everyone that isn't from the company."

"What are you talking about?" Taehyung asked, lost.

Jimin pursed his lips and whistled the same tune. "It basically means actually shut the fuck up, when we're around people not from the company. When we're with each other or company members, we pretty much never shut up and the whistle doesn't count."