April 1st. Taehyun woke up bright and early. Just in time to get ready for his advanced english literature class. The first thing he always did was check his phone. There was a notification from his bank. It was an alert for 'unusual activity'. He did buy a vibrator last night but that shouldn't have counted as 'unusual'. He opened up his bank account to see a million dollar deposit into it. That had to be a mistake.
Taehyun looked at it again. His family was poor. Single dad, two kids, dead mother. It certainly wasn't from them. He didn't gamble or play the lottery either. Afraid he was going to get in trouble somehow, he called the bank.
They confirmed it wasn't a mistake. The teller was also unable to trace which account the money came from. What she was able to discover was, the money came from a check. Someone hand delivered a check with specific instructions to put it into his account. A note was dropped off too but they couldn't legally open it.
Taehyun got dressed right away then headed to the bank. He showed his ID to the teller then received his note. It said "I killed your mom a year ago. I thought she was someone else. I only realized my mistake when I found my true target. This money won't bring her back but it should set you up for life if you use it correctly."
He read it ten times. This asshole killed his mother. He didn't want the money. He wanted his mom back. "Take it out of my account! Reverse it! I don't want it!"
The teller looked at him confused. "I can't sir. We don't have an account to reverse it back into."
"Then close my fucking bank account!"
"We would have to have another account to transfer your funds to or mail your funds in cash."
Taehyun complained more but nothing helped. The money was his. He finally requested to give it all to his father. He called his dad to get his account information. He lied, saying he won it in a lottery. The money was set to be transferred within 24 hours.
He looked at the time. His class was halfway over. No point in going now. The note got crumbled then aggressively slammed into the trash. In his mind, whoever gave him that money could go to hell.
Kai, covered in an oversized hoodie, saw the whole thing at the bank. So much for trying to make things right. He followed Taehyun out and noticed he didn't have a car. His next stop was a dealership. He bought the latest model of a Honda and paid for it entirely in cash. The title was in Taehyun's name. It was set to be delivered within a few hours. If that gift was rejected, he would give up. At least he tried.
Taehyun walked to the university. His dad called him along the way to let him know their debts were finally paid for. That made him slightly happier. He didn't have the heart to tell him about how he got the money. It was blood money. He continued to lie by saying he simply got lucky with the lottery.
When his classes were over for the day, he saw a tow truck off loading a shiny mustard yellow car in front of his apartment. One of the guys saw him about to go in. He asked "hey kid! Do you know where I can find a Taehyun Kang? This car is for him."
Taehyun stared at the car then at the guy. "I'm Taehyun Kang."
"Oh! Perfect! This is for you!"
"Who paid for this? Was it my dad?"
The guy flipped through the papers on his clipboard. "Doesn't say. I just need to see your ID and get your signature."
Taehyun handed his ID over while calling his dad. He learned the car wasn't from him. It had to be from that fucker who killed his mother. He grabbed his ID from the guy's clipboard and stated "I don't want the car. I'm not signing that thing."
"But sir. It's legally yours."
Annoyed, Taehyun asked "you can't just give it back to the dealership?"
The employee looked at him confused. "I guess we could but you would need to go back with us. It would have to be sold to them."
"But I don't want the money!"
The guy was not paid enough for some ungreatful brat. His last delivery got him yelled at from a spoiled rich girl, complaining her car was the wrong color. He assumed this was the same thing and he wasn't having it. "Look sir. I don't know what you want from me. Do you want the car or not?!"
"No!"
The guy yelled at his coworker "PUT THE CAR BACK ON THE RAMP. WE GOT ANOTHER ONE!" He turned his attention to his client. "Come with us then. I don't care what you do with the money. I'm not paid enough to keep catering to spoiled brats!" The guy didn't care if he lost his job for saying that. This whole thing was bullshit to him.
Taehyun got into the car. When he arrived at the dealership, he sold it back to them. The money went to a random charity and that was that. He walked the three miles back to his apartment with music blasted into his headphohes.
Kai shrugged as he watched him walk away. He can honestly say he tried. It didn't make up for his mistake but that was his problem to bare. He took a life that he couldn't give back. His phone rang. It was louder than he expected it to be. He looked over to see if Taehyun noticed. He didn't seem to so he began to walk to the subway.
Taehyun got onto one of the subway cars. His head was kept down while he scrolled through his phone. A harsh turn made him fall onto a guy about his age. He apologized then offered to help him up.
Kai stood up then realized his phone was knocked out of his hand. He scrambled to search for it.
Taehyun realized the guy was looking for his phone. He found it on the floor. The caller name read 'Black Swan'. "Here's your phone."
"Thanks."
Taehyun watched him leave at the next stop. That guy looked oddly familiar. He dismissed it as the train pulled off to the next station. Two stops later, he arrived at the correct platform. He walked to his father's apartment. Movers kept coming in and out. He saw his dad packing away some dishes. "Found a place already huh?"
Mr. Kang looked up to see his son standing in the doorway. "Hey! Yeah, we did. It's not a big place. A small two story house but it's ours. I'm actually glad you stopped by! Did you want anything from your room?"
"No. I just wanted to ask you if you've heard anything from the police."
The smile on his dad's face faltered. "No. Nothing. They still have no idea who killed your mother. Why do you ask?"
"I just miss her. That's all."
"I miss her too. Oh! Actually they did discover something. It's not much. Hold on." Mr. Kang grabbed his phone. He pulled up a blurry picture of a wrist tattoo. It looked to be some kind of bird. "There's apparently a gang around here that go by different bird names. Her killer has this tattoo. They couldn't clear it up anymore but they suspect it's either the 'Black Swan' or the 'White Raven'."
"Did you say black swan?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"I bumped into a guy today who was on the phone with him!" Taehyun was infuriated. "That guy could've been mom's killer!"
"Whoa. Wait a second! Are you sure? Did you see the tattoo?"
"No..." Taehyun didn't pay enough attention to his hands. He had no reason to. "We need to go to the police!"
Mr. Kang grabbed his son and held him steady. "And say what? I want to find your mom's killer as much as you do but you can't go around accusing people without evidence! They're not going to take you seriously."
Taehyun knew he was right. He calmed down. "I need to go. I'll visit the new house when the semester is over. Bye dad." He took the subway back to his dorm. That guy looked so familiar. His instinct told him that was either him or he definitely knew his mother's murderer.
Kai's wrist was dripping in blood. Another successful kill done. His wrist was dripping because he sliced another branch in the tree his raven was standing on. Each branch represented a kill. It's the one thing his gang had in common. He burned all of his clothes then walked back to the shared house. He and his gang all had classes tomorrow. They studied together and joked that college was a waste of time. They were getting ridiculously rich from their hobby.
The next day, Taehyun passed a group of four on the way to his next class. He was running because he had to stay behind to get the lecture notes from yesterday. One of their faces stood out. He stopped in his tracks. The guy was facing away from him. He only saw fluffy brown hair. His eyes looked down to his wrist. His left one was bandaged. All of theirs were.
Taehyun looked at his watch. He was going to be late to class if he didn't leave now. His eyes wouldn't leave the group of four. He stood on the sidewalk, contemplating on confronting them. His phone chimed. A friend texted him and asked "you coming to class today?"
His eyes looked back up and the group of four was out of sight. He responded "yes."
That was a mistake.