Beomgyu's Reasons Why [ BeomJun/ YeonGyu / TaeGyu ]

TAPE 1, SIDE A

TW: Mentions of suicide and blood. UWU

Taehyun waited until Yeonjun left the graveyard before he went towards the little indentation on the ground-- the small pit that contained the shoe box.

Now, here he was, in his parent's basement looking for a cassette tape player.

"What are you looking for, Taehyun?" came the voice of his father when Taehyun accidentally nudged an entire stack of boxes, causing the sound of the impact to echo throughout the house.

"Uh." Taehyun desperately itched his tongue for words. Why was he scared? What even do those tapes contain? As of now, he doesn't have to give out a grave lie.

"Appa, do you still have that compact cassette tape thingy? The one you play your music on back in the day."

His father's eyebrow's creased at the sudden, random necessity, but walked to one of the boxes that fell and took out the said rectangular-shaped player.

"Here. For a project?" His father asked. Taehyun nodded, wanting to be left alone so he could bring the cassette player and the shoe box upstairs to his room. It still had dried blood, soil sticking to the cardboard.

"Yes, uh, thanks for this."

-

Taehyun did just that, taking two steps at a time towards his room, located at the second floor of his home. He locked his door and took out all the tapes, which were clean, thanks to the box it was in.

There were seven tapes in total. Written on the each of the faces of these tapes were letters and numbers.

Why was Yeonjun covered in blood? What was he doing in Beomgyu's house? and most importantly...

Why was Yeonjun hiding these tapes?

Hastily taking the first tape and pushing it inside the player, he plugged in his earphones... as the first words played from the tape, he froze in his spot.

"Hello... uhm, yes. It's me, Choi Beomgyu. Live and in stereo." His hands fumbled for the pause button. It took all of his will-power to refrain from throwing the cassette player across the room.

He did not care about Beomgyu..., or at least that's the lie he tells himself. That lie comforts him, because if he listens to his own truth, then guilt would surely consume him.

How did all of this connect? The blood? Yeonjun? The tapes? How did all of those end up with a common denominator, Beomgyu?

He figured, the only way to find out was to press play.

"As of today, I am still alive. But I won't be for long. By the time you finish listening to these tapes, I hope you allow me to end it all."

Taehyun wasn't dumb-- he knew that meant suicide and... the blood... the... did Beomgyu...?

Fuck this, Taehyun was supposed to be calling the police, or an ambulance or heck, going back to Beomgyu's house himself. But Taehyun did none of those, all because of humane curiosity.

"Yeonjun... hyung you're probably wondering why I decided to send you these tapes. Why I sent them only to you. The thing is, after all that has happened, I still trust you. Please... whatever you learn from these tapes, keep it a secret. Keep it between us."

Goosebumps littered Taehyun's skin, he could feel the cold through his long sleeves. In some strange way, Taehyun was invested. It looked like Beomgyu had a story to tell.

He was listening in on a secret, seemingly eavesdropping on private messages from Beomgyu for Yeonjun.

"I have a favor to ask of you, which you'll soon find out once you've listened to every single one of these tapes. Please don't let these tapes fall into the wrong hands, it can put both you and I in grave danger.

Well, mostly you... since I'm already six feet under the ground once these get to someone else?

Before you come rushing to my house to help me, listen to the recordings first.

I love you Yeonjun. And I trust you with this.

Now, let me tell you about my life... or more specifically, how my life will end."

Taehyun paused the recording. He had a really bad feeling about this.

There was a huge chance Beomgyu was in the brink of death right at this moment.

But... Yeonjun left his home... so everything should be fine. Maybe the blood was a product of a failed attempt? Maybe Beomgyu was okay. Yeah, Taehyun should not be worrying.

What he should be doing... is listening, or that was what his instinct told him to do. His finger pressed the play button, Beomgyu's deep voice in his ears again.

"Now, Jun-hyung... you're listening to the first tape, so let me introduce to you the first person who hurt me.

The first person who made me want to fucking die.

Kang Taehyun."