Last Girl Alive | Bangtan

136: Time Travelling

"So you're saying..." The man behind the counter continues. "You don't know anything except for your names?"

"That's right," Namjoon replies solemnly.

What do you think is gonna happen?

You don't respond, hardly hearing him. You were too occupied in gaping around the busy police station. The increased number of people that had come into your vision since the last couple of hours on Earth was incredible. Where the coast guard's station only had one or two other curious members this police station was swarming with people. Police officers behind desks interrogating others like you, those bringing and returning convicted people back and forth, those simply taking a coffee break. Aside from them were people in for complaints, requests, come to bail out their companions or to give information. This majority of people included men and women of all ages.

It was strange. Apart from language, you couldn't identify with them at all. They were just people, but you felt like they were your family somehow. You would have to re-indulge in everything from food, culture, history, clothing to be able to identify with them and to familiarise. 

You turn back to where Namjoon is trying to settle the situation. After what seemed to be a short exchange with another officer, the police officer Namjoon had been speaking with taps the computer.

"Kim Namjoon," you hear him say. "There is no Kim Namjoon here."

That sort of breaks Namjoon's heart and stance. It was as if he had disappeared off the planet quite literally. His identity vanished, erased. Or was his name fake? What if he remembered a new name, one that was given to him for ARMY? No, that's crazy.

Is it?

He tries to think, turning in his chair to look at the seven of you before he gets an idea. 

"What about Min Yoongi?" he asks, with sudden fervour. "Is there Min Yoongi? Jung Hoseok? Jeon Jungkook?"

Hearing their names, the other slowly perk up from their observations and become interested in the conversations. 

The man sighs, leaning forward in near exasperation with Namjoon's persistance. He'd never met a man, or a group, like the rest of you before. One that required help with the most basic norms. It was like all of you were coming from the past or something. 

"How will we find them?" he rants out, exasperated. "How do you expect us to identify any of you, when you don't know yourselves!? Are you even from this place?"

"Wasn't there anything on the news?" Namjoon demands, hopefully. "About missing people...a project? Do you know anything about that? Are there any files?"

The policeman stares at Namjoon like he was dealing with a stubborn kid. He didn't understand why this man could not provide his ID card not to mention even an address or an occupation. And even if he was homeless or some immigrant or something, he wouldn't be asking the sortof questions he was asking. And judging by his clothes and his health, he was beginning to wonder if Namjoon was a refugee or criminal. 

Finally, looking back at Namjoon's blank expression he tries to regain composure. After all he'd signed up to deal with these sort of people when he'd taken the job.

"What about your family?" he ventures again, scribbling furiously on a notepad. "Friends? Anyone who knows you?"

A silence befalls Namjoon. He looks away from the officer, the nostalgic topic making it difficult for him to think of an answer. How was he supposed to explain the situation? He felt that he was only going to provoke the man further by saying that he know but he really didn't know at the same time. 

I feel bad for him. I wish we could help.

Same. With my family, my mom...I know her face but I don't know her name.

"There are only a handful of people who know us," Namjoon says, finally. "Our families....and B.I.G.H.I.T."

"B.I.G.H.I.T?" the man repeats, tasting the word. The lack of recognition in the way he pronounced it was enough to confirm the doubt in the air. This wasn't going to help.

Namjoon bites his lower lip, at a loss as to do. Maybe if someone else helped to explain things...turning to the person behind him he tugs on their sleeve causing the to come crashing into him. Unable to resist his strength, Yoongi is dragged onto the bench beside him, to see Namjoon looking at him expectantly.

 "Tell him, Yoongi."

"Tell him what?" Yoongi replies nervously, hesitantly making eye contact with Namjoon. The both of them stare at each other, as if the answer lay in the other's eyes. He could read Namjoon's desperation and as much as he wanted to help, he knew that nothing made sense.

"Who is going to believe..." Yoongi begins slowly, "... an absurd story like that?"

W-what. I-It's been that...oh my god. We're doomed.

The staggering voice in your head, startles you. Immediately recognising it as Jungkook's thoughts and not yours, you turn to look at him in curiousity. The expression on his face makes you freeze. He looks stricken, pupils shaking in shock and discovery as his Adam's apple bobs up and down in discomfort.

What happened?

He was standing turned to the left, staring unmovingly at an object in the far corner of the room. You follow his line of sight, searching among the hubbub for whatever it was that was scaring him. And then you see it.

A calendar.

L-look at it. Look at the date, Y/N.

You don't even have to squint your eyes to read as he spills it out in disbelief.

It's 2020.

2020? You repeat in your head. You move more urgently towards the calendar, curious to see for yourself. The numbers repeat in your head, becoming a reality when you read the large bold two twos and two zeros on the right corner. February 2020.

How much time had passed? 2020 had felt a really long way away, in fact, if you racked your brain to remember the date you left, the year you'd last seen on this planet...it had to be-

Its like all the breath has left your body. Your eyes become heavy with the truth and you begin to tremble. It was an insane revelation. To think that all those years have passed since you've been gone when you'd spent merely two years away was a strange comparison. It didn't feel like 2020. It felt too normal to be that way ahead. It felt like a modern year, a year where police stations would be filled with technology or something. It couldn't be 2020.

But somehow it was.

And if it was, that meant that the eight of you went missing way too long ago. You and Jungkook, the only bearers of this change, look back at the five other older men in a sort emptiness. Asking for help was useless now. Too much time had passed.

No one would remember you now...no one possibly could, even if you were on the news or something.

Namjoon's startles a little when he feels a cold hand on his shoulder. He whirls around to look at Jungkook's saddened face, peering down at him anxiously.

"Hyung," Jungkook says, softly. Misinterpreting his solemnity for tiredness and comfort, Namjoon presses his own hand over Jungkook's reassuringly.

"Don't worry Jungkook-ah. I'll figure it out, I promise."

"No," Jungkook counters him. "We can't. Let's...give up."

"What?"

Jungkook says nothing, pointing simply at the calendar on the far end of the room. Namjoon and Yoongi furrow their brows, eyes squinting in order to see what he was talking about. Their eyes go wide in disbelief and Yoongi's mouth falls open. He moves forward instantaneously, eyes squinting as if he was blind. He couldn't believe the numbers. It was insane. It was unthinkable to think that you were this far into the future. 

 But the numbers were unmistakeable, and they understood at once what happened.

"It's 2020. 7 years has passed, since we've been gone."