𝐗𝐗𝐕𝐈𝐈. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐋𝐢𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐒𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞

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Park Soomi

It was as if everything slowed to an unsettling stillness. The wailing of once distant sirens grew louder by the second alongside murmurs of the gathering crowd outside the door. If it weren't for the noise reminding me of the passing time, I could've convinced myself that life had come to a halt.

Because here we were, the same shocked expressions frozen on each of our faces as we stared with widened eyes towards Taehyung. He wore a similar expression, except his eyes remained glued to the body that now lay lifelessly on the marble floors.

"Are you crazy? You might've killed him!" With this sudden shout, everything sped back up to normal motion. I watched in alarm as Yoongi charged towards Taehyung. I flinched forward, seeing him roughly grab Taehyung's collar, the crowd behind them gasping from the sudden aggression.

"What? Aren't you gonna thank me for, oh I don't know, saving your goddamn life?" Taehyung remarked in disbelief.

"Thank you? We need him alive, you dumbass." Yoongi seemed to get more riled up as Taehyung harshly pushed him away. A few of Taehyung's employees stepped forward to intervene, but he gestured to them to stay back.

"You know what? Maybe I shouldn't have stepped in then, but at least now I can mess you up myself."

I rushed over and stood between the two, feeling uneasy by the fact that Taehyung still had that gun in his hand.

"Yoongi, stop. He just did what he could to help. We can deal with the consequences later," I muttered, glancing over to the pool of blood beginning to stain the floor around the man. "And Taehyung," I started, directing my gaze towards him, "thank you."

As I stared into his eyes, I noticed them visibly soften, some sense of genuineness swirling around those orbs. We stayed like this for a moment, the look on his face leaving me with a familiar yet foreign feeling.

Before I had the chance to figure it out, chaos ensued from outside. The watching bystanders got restless as the police and ambulance arrived. They rolled in a gurney, and my first reaction was to direct them towards Jimin, completely blocking out anything else happening around me.

I was about to follow them out when a second gurney rolled in. I stepped aside to make room for them, watching as they lifted the man onto the stretcher. But something peculiar caught my eye as his shirt tousled up slightly from the action: a hint of an all-to-familiar tattoo peeking from underneath the fabric. Not much was visible, a brief sight lasting maybe only a second or two, but the image still etched into my mind.

"Mr. Kim? You are the homeowner, correct?" I picked up on the officer's question from the other side of the room.

"Yes, I am," Taehyung responded while fixing his ruffled shirt and straightening his tie. The officer jotted something down, eyeing the gun still in his hand.

"We'll need you at the station for questioning."

"Questioning? Right now?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No need to worry, Mr. Kim. Just some standard procedures."

Taehyung grumbled, glancing over to me for a brief second before slowly nodding.

"You and Soomi should head out first. I'll be right behind you," Jungkook said to Yoongi. He didn't say a word in response and simply held onto my hand. I glanced down at our intertwined hands as he gently yet urgently guided me out of the room.

We were soon outside, the flashing blue and red lights illuminating the darkening sky of a young night. Yet, with the series of events that just occurred, it felt like an eternity had already passed since this morning. It still felt unreal, stepping into the ambulance to sit beside Jimin. My gaze never left him, fixated only on his peaceful expression.

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