Save Me (Kim Taehyung College AU) ✔️

Chapter 12: Gone

Minji stares at the small envelop in her hands, the one that contained the flash drive with Taehyung's encrypted files. She made sure to write a note with the code needed to access them before sealing it last night. 

The other USB drive is secured in her pocket since Taehyung insisted that she save the files on another drive, just in case something happened to his. 

She glances up at her friend, who was standing in front of her with a serious expression on his features. Neither of them said a word, but Minji was waiting for Taehyung to talk. He avoided the topic of the encrypted files last night and insisted that it was something that could wait until the morning, which is why she was waiting for him to explain everything. 

"You have to promise not to get mad," he starts, nervously chewing on his bottom lip as she holds out her pinkie, a silent offer letting him know that he has her word. He steps forward, latching his pinkie onto hers before pushing his thumb forward as it meets hers. She momentarily smiles at the small gesture before her expression turns serious as her eyes shift from their interlocked pinkies to Taehyung's brown eyes. 

"Explain," she requests, watching as he nervously starts pacing the room. 

"Remember how I started that small... business endeavor? The one where I was hacking into systems to give people extensions on class deadlines and stuff?" he starts, watching as Minji's face scrunches, displeased with where this was going. She nods anyway, waiting for him to continue. 

"Well, one of my classmates that I helped out last year started an internship this semester. He was telling his boss about me, and how I can hack into things pretty easily. A couple months ago, I got a call from the CEO, who wanted to see if I would be able to help them out with something," he shares, his gaze falling to the floor as he let out a heavy sigh. 

"I figured they needed me to check their system and make sure everything was running smoothly, or to make sure they had a strong firewall that would be impenetrable by an outsider, so I agreed to meet up with him. He, uhh... he ended up asking me if I would be able to hack into his competitor's system, get him some information on the company so they could keep them in check," he admitz, the weight on his shoulders finally lifting as he let it all out. 

He told Minji how he refused to help, and how Mr. Lee still kept harassing him about it, telling him that it was too late to back out now. He had threatened him numerous times, as evident through the texts and voice mails he had saved. 

"After that, I started working on breaking into Gradia's system to see what I could dig up, prove that there was corruption within the company, but I didn't get very far. Mr. Lee was still calling, demanding that I take the job, but I refused," he says. Taehyung pauses, slowly walking towards Minji's desk before sitting on her chair, burying his head in his hands. "A few days later, I got hit while driving to school on my bike. Next thing I know, I'm sitting in the hospital, only, I'm not awake. Instead, I'm staring at my bruised and beaten body."

Minji's eyes water as she processes the information, letting his words seep in as she feels the cool touch of her tear streaming down her cheek. 

"Why didn't you tell anyone?" she inquires, her voice cracking as she speaks. 

"I didn't want to drag anyone else into my shit," he replies. "I thought I could handle it on my own-"

"Well you couldn't," she spits out, the frustration evident in her tone. She knew about his little side business and hated it. She was always worried that it was going to get him in trouble, and now his life was hanging on a thread because of this stupid idea. "What the hell were you thinking Taehyung?"