The ride had seemed to be endless, your thoughts wiped blank, nothing going on around you quite reaching you. It all didn't matter anymore to you anyways. Not the lights turning into little streaks of glimmers as the car rushed past them, not the radio that had been turned off mid-ride, because the officer had realized that the newest Dua Lipa song maybe wasn't the best thing to listen to after being pulled out of a situation like the one you had been one, and not him trying to question you. Especially not that part. It actually made you a bit angry, because his interpretation of the whole thing was that you had been kidnapped and they had just saved you. But still, you hadn't amended any of his statements. You hadn't said anything, to be exact.
Your mother had been standing outside of her house when the police car pulled up on the side of the road, her peachy dressing gown swaying from side to side because of the chilly weather. You had already been able to tell that she was crying out of the vehicle, and as soon as the officer had opened your door, the little streetlight shining directly into your eyes, you had felt yourself being wrapped in complete and utter warmth. And it was only then and there, in the arms of your mom, 2 a.m. in the morning, and in the middle of the street, that everything came crushing down on you, and you broke down crying.
He was gone. You knew he wasn't going to get out of the trial awaiting him, and you also knew that he would do everything he needed to do to not get you into any trouble. He wouldn't let you confess what had really happened. So all that was left to do for you was to cry. Let the salty liquid run down your face, soaking your mom's dressing gown, your sobs mixed up with hers, and the only feeling really pervading the hazed state of yours was her hand rubbing circles on your back.
You of course hadn't really slept the whole night. The officer had told you they were going to question you in the morning, so you could calm down first. Your mom sat down with you on the kitchen table, a cup of tea in her hand, and one standing in front of you, untouched, little clouds of steam ascending from the berry-red substance. You had kept staring down at the table, not wanting to see how puffy and red your mother's eyes were from crying. She had probably been so worried over you going missing, you couldn't even imagine how hard the whole thing must've been for her. You already felt guilty enough without looking at her.
It had been quiet for a minute or so, none of you wanting to be the one to say something, but your mom decided to speak up first.
"I love you so much. You can't imagine how worried I was. Did he hurt you? Oh god, please tell me he di-"
"Mom, I'm okay. He didn't hurt me, really. I love you too." You had looked up and had given her a small smile, assuring her that you were indeed fine, to which she responded with standing up and pulling you up into yet another hug.
"It's all over now. You don't need to worry about anything anymore." But of course, that was exactly the thing that broke you. That it was over. That Taehyung, even though he was kind of a psychopath and you knew that, was gone, and with him a part of you, somehow. And it was kind of in that moment that youhad realized, that, indeed, you were actually heartbroken. Yes, this was your first time being lovesick, and you were almost sure that it was only exacerbated by the situation it all happened in. For some reason, that little thought, that little word, lovesickness, gave you some kind of weird closure on everything going on in your mind, and for the first time in a long while, you felt okay.
And now you were here. In this big corridor, the walls decorated with marmor plates, and the floor a black and white pattern. The courtroom was right across from the wooden bench you and your mother were sitting on, and a nervous shiver seemed to go through your whole body from time to time. After almost two weeks, today would be the day you would finally see him again. The inquiry with the police you had two weeks ago had been quite plain. You had told them exactly what Taehyung had told you back in the bus, that he had kidnapped you. And when asked for the reason why you had tasered one of the policemen, you simply said that you were scared and had actually tried to taser Taehyung, and that the kiss was solely done to distract him. They of course believed you, you pulling the innocent girl card.
The trial awaiting you was feared by not only you, but also a certain boy that had just entered the facility, followed by two guards on either side of him, and behind them a woman with short, brown hair and a sunken in face, as if she hadn't been getting a lot of sleep lately. You immediately assumed she was Taehyung's mother, spotting some similarities as soon as your focus landed on the boy coming towards you.
Time seemed to have slowed down, as your eyes met, and there was nothing, absolutely nothing, that any of you two could've said that wouldn't have been able to be said through the looks you exchanged. His always slightly messy, silverish brown hair, fell into his face like always, his brown doe-eyes seemed to open up just a bit wider once he saw you, and, the most apparent thing to you, your mind was filled with him and him only. And the same goes for him. As soon as he saw you, his oh so heavy heart, the oh so dark and clouded thoughts he had had these past days, they all seemed to clear up at once, and instant warmth filled him from the inside out. For a split second everything else seemed to have faded away, and it was just the two of you.
But as fast as the second had been there, it was over again, and the big, wooden doors to your right opened, revealing a small amount of people sitting in the courtroom, and on the dais, of course, the judge, a scrawny old man with crescent shaped glasses on the tip of his nose.
Time seemed to go on forever from that moment on, your body feeling tensed up and on edge the whole time. It was almost impossible to not look at Taehyung for the whole time the judge and the lawyers were talking, and it was even harder to keep track of what was going on around you, because your thoughts seemed to be a hundred times louder than anyone else. The snippets of the conversations you catched here and there indicated that even Taehyung's lawyer made it clear that he was going to cooperate and was aware of whathe did and the consequences it brought with it.
After around 30 minutes after the trial had started, the judge pulled you out of your dazed state by calling up Taehyung to tell what happened out of his perspective. He looked at you one last time, before standing up and starting to talk.
"I had met her because we were in the same class. She... She had immediately caught my attention. It was never my attention to hurt her in any way, so I tried to just build a friendship to see if she may feel the same for me, before going a step further. But she... she didn't feel the same, and I got angry because of that. Not with her, but with myself. And when I heard about her allegedly liking Dean, I went up to his house. I wanted to confront him, see, how he felt about her. When he told me that he actually only wanted to sleep with her, which I already guessed, I got even angrier, and punched him. He started attacking me, too, and everything escalated and it eneded with me killing him. I never intended on doing it, it was pure anger speaking out of me through actions. I panicked and called her, and she came to the condo. She saw what I had done, and from that day on, didn't speak to me anymore, which infuriated me even more and worsened my mental state. So I convinced her to meet up with me, under the pretext that we would only talk. I then knocked her out with chloroform, and pressured her into running away with me, where we were eventually found by the police, due to me realizing that there was no way any of my plans would work out, and I was only making things worse, so I called the police myself."
There it was again, that strange ringing noise that drowned every other sound in the room. The room filled with silence for a moment, in which you took in everything he had just said, and processed from which part on he had lied. But you didn't really have a lot of time to take everything in, because shortly after, the judge turned towards you.
"Is that true, Miss (L/N)? Is that what happened?"
All eyes were on you now. Your heartbeat seemed to be non-existent, and your mouth was dry all of a sudden. It was on you now, everything that would happen from that moment on. You could've changed everything from that point on, turning the whole situation around, letting go the imagine of the innocent little girl that had been taking by this scary classmate of hers. You could've told the judge how he never harmed you in any way, and that you had actually indeed hurt the officer on purpose, and that the kiss you had given Taehyung hadn't been an act of distraction whatsoever, but was actually a genuine gesture. You had the power to change everything. It all depended on you.
Looking at Taehyung a last time, and seeing him giving you the tiniest nod you had ever witnessed, made you clench your fists and face the judge while standing up.
"Yes, your honor. He's telling the truth."
The judge nodded.
"Kim Taehyung, I hereby sentence you to serve 25 years to life at the prison located in Seoul, without the possibility of early parole, as a result of the murder of Dean Park, violence against various law enforcement officers, and the kidnapping of (Y/n) (L/n)."
From that moment on, everything was rather rushed. Taehyung getting up, along with his lawyer, your mom, you, and your lawyer standing up aswell, the sendoff, everything. The only moment that really seemed to have anchored itself in your mind, was seeing him for the last time, him sending you a timid smile, while having a few tears rolling down his cheek, and having you realize that you had been crying, too.