Jungkook-hyung! || Jinkook

18. The culprit

Aside from giving me lunch, Seokjin doesn't return to the shed all day. Once I feel it getting a bit colder, I decide to take my chance to sneak outside for a bit. It should be evening or nighttime already. I need to find parts for the machine. Something that I know is missing is an oxygen tank, which I can probably find at the local university's lab. I'm gonna have to steal it from them. Hopefully they have some other things I can use as well.

As expected, it's currently evening when I peek my head outside. The sun is about to set, making everything slightly golden. I look towards the house but all the lights are off. Seems like no one's home right now. I take the chance provided to me and leave the shed. I look around towards nearby houses as well to make sure no one has seen me, but there's not a single soul anywhere. Jeez, where is everybody? It's kinda eerie. No cars or anything. 

I walk towards the road when I see something glimmer in the corner of my eye. This neighborhood is at the foot of a small mountain, and the glimmer is coming from further up the mountain. There's nothing but forest up there, so what could possibly be that shiny? It's as if the sun if reflecting on something. Something like... a camera. 

Of course. That would make a lot of sense. Namjoon swore on his life that he was innocent, so someone else must've taken the picture. The picture itself looked very blurry and zoomed-in, almost as if someone had taken it from far away. That place far away could very likely be up on the mountain. Someone up there could easily see what's going on in the whole neighborhood. 

I snicker to myself as I decide to change the destination for my little outing. I've got you now, you little snitch. I'll catch you red-handed and teach you a lesson about respecting people's privacy. Whoever you are, it's your fault I missed my trip home.

← S O M E T I M E S →

I'm sweating and panting by the time I reach the end of the hiking path. Who would've thought casually walking up a mountain would be this hard? Thankfully it's summer, so the sun is still on it's way down, providing me with some light. I keep walking a bit further into the forest to try and find something. A person, preferably. After a while, I reach a small clearing with a good view of all the houses below. You can even see as far as the police station and the forest where the time machine once was. 

I don't get the time to fully enjoy the view, because further up I see exactly what I came here looking for. There's someone crouching on the edge of a cliff, looking through a camera with a big lens. He doesn't notice me approaching at all, so I take my chance to grab the short-haired boy by the back of his shirt and lift him up to face me. I wasn't expecting the surprised face to be one I would recognize. 

"Tae-hyung?!" I say in surprise. 

"Uh, yes? You know me?" he asks back equally surprised but also very confused. 

"Oh, shit it really is you... I mean-" Dang it, I haven't thought of a good excuse yet! What kind of reason would I have to know him? I never knew him as a child and he doesn't live in the same area either. We didn't know of each other's existence until university.

"I'm sorry, but could you let me go?" he suddenly says. "It kind of hurts."

I realize I'm still holding him in the air and quickly let him back down with an apology. He dusts off his knees and we're left awkwardly standing in front of each other. I'm not sure what to say to him. I feel like I've messed up by showing that I know who he is.

"It's rare for someone else to be up here," he says. I'm just glad I don't have to be the one to speak first. "Do you want something from me?"

I clear my throat to get rid of some tension before putting on my best serious face. I point at the camera in his hands. It's not one of those shitty digital cameras that were the norm around this time, but rather an expensive professional one. It looks pretty new too. New by 2008 standards at the very least.