White Words

chapter six: secret

the night where even the stars has fallen asleep
this river that is so familiar yet so unfamiliar
passing over the ashen city
did you wait alone for me
the small island where our fumbling promise
and secrets began

-magic island, txt

yeonjun meant to keep it a secret, it was supposed to be something he wont even share but ever since the stranger answered his question, it stopped there.

'kang taehyun'

when he read the written name at the wall next to his question, it didn't rang any familiarity to him and he sure do always keep in mind the people he encounter.

he did his research on social media profiles and korea only has a lot of 'kang's' and 'taehyun's' but never 'kang taehyun'.

the name sounds like mystery just like the words that appeared on the wall.

"do you guys know someone named kang taehyun?" he asks soobin, who's a very concerned guy with students at their school. his bestfriend is friendly even though he's an introvert. soobin likes to make friends but not hang out much, he could have at least maybe know someone named 'kang taehyun'

"kang taehyun?" soobin repeats, munching on his bread and looking up as if the ceiling could answer his thoughts. "um no. why?"

yeonjun sighs, "nothing,"

"kang taehyun?" kai barge in too sounding as if he do have some answer.

"yeah do you know them?"

"ummm no but i know a lot of kangs." yeonjun sighs again and dismissed it, he'd do what he can by himself and he shouldn't ask these two anyway, they've been busy off each other all week while yeonjun is here, curious of this mystery.

soobin is concerned though of course he is,"babe we're in a country where surnames are very common," soobin tells kai who apologized quickly.

"its alright guys its nothing" he tells them and smiles as if to prove them that its not that important.

"why not ask beomgyu though?"

"who's beomgyu?" asked kai.

"oh he's yeonjun's ex boyfriend, he's also the school's journalist and he knows everyone so there's a chance he might know kang taehyun." and true that, yeonjun was thinking if he should ask beomgyu about kang taehyun... but he knows beomgyu would want to know why and it would he hard to make it subtle to him.

"oh! is he choi beomgyu? he's the one that toured me to school!" even kai who's a transfer knows beomgyu too, there would be a chance if he ask beomgyu but yeonjun also dont want to connect with his ex again.

"i dont know guys, talking to beomgyu again would be awkward." he answered.

"you know beomgyu would talk to you anyways with or without a favor and wouldn't it be nice? you guys were friends too." actually, beomgyu soobin and him were bestfriends till feelings happened and soobin do still talk to beomgyu even after what happened but yeonjun avoids him.

even though he kind of forgot the reason why.
maybe its time to face beomgyu again, he also might have answers. "right, i'll talk to him."

beomgyu is the school journalists, he likes talking about anything with his daegu accent and yeonjun remembered how it was the two of them, him as his photographer and beomgyu the speaker though someone's the actual writer, beomgyu is great at speaking and yeonjun is great at capturing moments.

he remembered still doing what he loves before.

"oh wow nice to see you again, choi yeonjun" yeonjun scratches his nape as beomgyu looks up at him in his desk with a smile. loving to see him again.

"do you really have to say my full name beomgyu?" he asked and the younger laughs even though he's not joking. beomgyu stood up from his seat and hugs him.

"bare with me i just missed you!" the hug was a bit tight. beomgyu is overreacting, its only been months since they've seen each other. "hey dont judge, you avoided me everywhere."

"im just busy, man"

"man? you call me man now? but weren't we honey and bee before?"

"dont make this even more awkward," yeonjun told him although he know beomgyu's only joking, "i came for something"

"ouch" said beomgyu who pouts fakely "i thought you wanna be friends again"

"of course i want to be friends again gyu,"

"then i'm all in for the favor"

"look, dont ask much i just um saw somewhere a name do you know someone named kang taehyun?"

as soon as yeonjun said the name, beomgyu's face suddenly turned down like the name were a bad memory of him. is he close with taehyun?

"oh," beomgyu lets out "kang taehyun, i think i do have something."

"something?" beomgyu walked towards a cabinet and yeonjun followed behind, beomgyu opened and there were drawers of files.

"it was not so recent but the last one case from our university" he opened a drawer with a labeled 'december' almost a year ago, before rummaging and taking one folder, turning around to yeonjun.

"here, kang taehyun." the folder has 'kang taehyun' in it written in front and yeonjun gulps. what does this mean? is taehyun something criminal? or -

"before you take it, tell me how you really know about him yeonjun." him? so taehyun's a guy.

yeonjun scratches his head, how would he explain? tell beomgyu that hes been experiencing panics for a while? that would change subject yeonjun only wants to know who is taehyun now. "fine i just uh dreamed about hearing his name," he lies and this might be the most ridiculous one to reason but he have no other choice.

beomgyu glints his eyes on him before relaxing down "fine well. a senior journalist had me spoken about this issue before, it was only last month when his case was closed."

"case closed?" beomgyu gave him the folder.

"kang taehyun has been missing for almost a year now, it'll be a year next 2 weeks." yeonjun opened the folder, it has the information of kang taehyun. name, age, where he lives, about and what happened.

"now, i trust you with this yeonjun. you heard his name, dont you know he was mute? maybe you could find him or we can."

"find him?"

"isn't a coincidence? you heard his name." yeonjun looked at the information's again, he saw his address and its the address across his house. a sudden chills passed by him. all this time he's been communicating with kang taehyun a boy that is missing.

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