singularity | kim taehyung

neuf

"Kim Taehyung, that's his name."

"His name's Kim?"

"No, you dumbass. His name is Taehyung. Koreans do that thing where they put the last name fi— just get the damn kid!"

The police officer snarled at his partner. A local witness who lived by Mark Amgad reported seeing the student leave his house just minutes before the fire was reported.
Police were still on the investigation. Some had suggested it was just a case of spontaneous combustion, or an oven gone wrong, but the leftover fuel at the door of his home would suggest other wise.

"You got a translator, right?"

The man sat in a dimly lit room inside of the police station, sitting behind a cold, metal table with two men opposing him.
Taehyung's hands were placed on his lap. He had a gentle expression on his face, his hair out of the way from his eyes in order to maintain proper eye contact.
They stared at him, intimidatingly. They glared at him, snapped their fingers to his face harshly, slammed their hands on the table every now and again.
But Taehyung remained still.

After a few minutes, another man entered the questioning room. He looked much older than the two officers, quite a hefty build squeezed inside his black suit.
The man sat between them and pushed his glasses up to his eyes before looking at Taehyung and bowing as a greeting.

"Took you long enough. Can't get a word out of this guy."

Mr Park was a Chinese, Korean, Thai and English translator, well known throughout the entire country for police cases like these.
"What were you doing on the night of Mark Amgad's death?"

"I was retrieving a friend of mine's phone. She had dropped it at his lecture room and kindly asked me to get it for her when it was so late at night."

The man translated word by word to the police officers.
"Yeah? Who's this friend of yours?"

"Carola Zeyad."

One officer tapped his finger onto the notepad of the second man. He carefully wrote down the girl's name.
"And how did your encounter with Mark Amgad go about?"

Taehyung met the eyes of the translator, patiently waiting for him to speak.

"I knocked on his door and announced it was me when questioned who was at the door,

"I then explained to him the situation and he was happy to see me, he welcomed me into his home with a glass of water and tea.

"I explained I was just here to get her phone and I'd be out, but he insisted I drink the tea.

"After around 30 minutes of just chatting about my studies and his work, he handed me her phone and bid me a farewell, telling me he'd see me tomorrow
at the University before finally letting me leave."

The officers glared at him with all skepticism. How bad they wanted to get anything out of him, anything to have them slam their hands on the table and screech at his face again.
"Were there any hints in the house that a fire would start later on?"

Taehyung shook his head. "His house seemed perfectly fine. I would have never thought something like this would happen. His death was a tragedy."

"Alright, get this kid out of here."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Grey skies hovered above the forest.

The trees stood tall beside Carola.
Her rubber boots coated in the mud formed from the ongoing rain. In the corner of her eye, the woman caught sight of a dog sleeping on the wet mud, it's white fur coated with the soil.

Taking steep, sticky steps, Carola made her way towards the animal and squatted down to pet it's exposed head in hopes to make its sleep more comfortable.

"It's dead, you know."

As if on queue, Carola got to her feet. She turned to the man taking heavy steps towards her and looked down, a feeling of dread washing over her.

"Hey, Ryan."

He smiled sadly at her, his hands laying into the pockets of his black coat, his cheeks flushed from the cold.
"Hey. It's been a while, hasn't it?"

She nodded, bringing her eyes up to look at him. It really has been quite a long time since she last decided to encounter him.
But it didn't really seem like she had much of a choice.

"Look... I don't know how many times I can apologise about what happened on.. that night. I know I'm a piece of shit, really, you've made it pretty damn clear."
She chuckled, relaxing a bit to see him smile when admitting his feelings.
"I hate being distant from you like this. You're a good friend, you're funny, you make things better. I don't wanna lose you over some dumb drunken night, Carola."

"Ah, well, you were drunk. No better way to put it. No sugar coating it, either,"

He nodded in silence.
"I'll forgive you. I don't wanna lose you either, it's kinda hard to find good people to befriend here.
And I'm in the middle of avoiding someone else, so God knows I need all the friends I can get at the moment."

Ryan shined his smile at her before raising a brow in confusion.
"Who you avoiding this time? Nazi Gang?"
She shook her head no.
"You remember Taehyung... right?"

"That Korean guy you're always hanging out with? What happened?"

Carola remained silent, panicking. Ryan misunderstood her reaction, however, and widened his eyes.
"Oh God... did he... did he touch you?"

"No! God's sake, he wouldn't do that... it's complicated, really."

"Well, whatever it is, he seemed like kind of a jackass anyway."
"A really hot jackass."

Ryan rolled his eyes and made her laugh. She slapped his arm and looked away in shyness.
"Wanna go grab a bite? This place is kinda bringing my mood down."

The woman smiled warmly at him. Surprising him, her arms wrapped around Ryan for a hug, a sense of warmth approaching her as his hands slithered to hug her back without hesitation.

"Ryan, is that dog really dead?"

"Yeah."

A/N:

uwuuwwuuwuu  im gonna start putting songs in
each chapter to kinda set the mood as you read ~ this one was Sniffle Party - All The Snow Is Gone