Just a few seconds. That was all it took for them.

“Do you recognise this boy?”

The boys remained silent for a moment, staring at the ID. When the cop saw Joon crane his neck, he moved the ID closer to him.

“No sir,” Yoongi spoke first.
The boys shook their head supporting Yoongi’s statement.

“What about you?” he asked Jin,
”Seen him anywhere?” detecting something off about him.

“No sir, I haven’t,” he spoke in a mild voice.

“Are you sure? He seems to be around your age.”
It seemed the cop was not going to let go of Jin.

Smelling trouble, Jimin came to aid. He stood up and walked to the cop. He whispered, just loud enough for the other boys to hear,

“He just lost his grandpa. We were actually here today to cheer him up. Revive old happy memories?”

After thinking for a while, the cop nodded and the boys felt relieved for the time being.

“Sir, when did the death occur?” Kookie asked as Jimin went back to his seat.

“Based on the condition of the body we assume last night or the night before. But can’t say anything for sure until the lab results come.”

The boys nodded.

“You should leave now. Let the cops do their work.”
As they stood up slowly, they let out a sigh of relief.

Ready to leave, they had started walking towards the exit when another cop came running to them. He had a small plastic bag in his hand. Both cops started talking in hushed voices.

“No,” the first one shook his head in disapproval.

The boys strained to listen with curiosity, when Tae asked,
“What is it, sir?”

The cop turned around to face them. He raised the bag at them showing its content.

“We found something. But it doesn’t matter much,” he shook his head again at the other cop and said,
”Kids used to skate here all the time.”

The boys didn’t have to get closer to identify the object.

The first cop turned around and walked away with the other one shrugging his shoulder,” It could be anybody’s.”

-------

Considering whatever had happened that day, it didn’t feel right to go to Hoseok’s. Thus they decided to camp at Jin’s.

Jimin sat on the couch, both his elbows resting on either of his thighs.
Now there is no way I can return in two days. He thought.

Though his mind was boggled with a thousand thoughts, he stole peeks at one certain boy.

Kookie sat on the floor, leaning against the wall. His eyes were closed and he tried to breathe in and out to calm himself.

Besides Jimin, at the other end of the couch, sat Jin. With both of his feet up, he stared at the floor with unfocused eyes.

Yoongi sat opposite Jimin. Arms crossed across his chest, he rested both his feet on the coffee table. He too, looked occasionally at one particular boy with furrowed brows, not even trying to be subtle about it.

Tae on the other hand sat opposite Jin, beside Yoongi. Glancing occasionally at everyone he felt uneasy and unsure of what was to follow.

His feet tapped on the floor with nervousness until Yoongi placed his hand on Tae’s knee to stop him, feeling irritated.

Was it a frown or was it fear? Tae couldn’t decide what his Hoseok hyung felt at the moment. He too, like Jin, stared at a cup, tracing its curves in his head, over and over again.

Joon sat opposite Hoseok, his chin pointed to its maximum. He bit the insides of his cheeks and sighed in frustration.

“Would you please say something? Any of you?” he finally broke the silence.

In the past fifteen minutes, he had caught his friends looking at him multiple times. A look as if he was a criminal.

Tae decided to speak up.
“We didn’t say anything to blame-“
“But you are thinking it!” Joon cut him off.

“Guys,” Jimin decided to intervene before it took an ugly turn,
”we don’t know how it got there! Just because it was Joon hyung’s we can’t suspect him! We need to trust each other!”

“Please don’t blame Joon,” Jin said in a low voice.

But it was Kookie’s voice that roared over all of theirs.
“But that tyre was hyung’s wasn’t it? You all saw the skull design on it! It was a good thing we didn’t tell the cops that we used to skate there!” Kookie spoke after he opened his eyes.

“That tyre could be anybody’s! Even the cops thought so,” Hoseok supported Jimin to just let the argument settle somehow.

“It was the Skull Board tyre! It was a rare expensive board! You said so yourself!” Kookie got hyper again.

Tae left his seat and walked to the angry boy. He pulled Kookie’s arm and led him outside.

Joon stood up to follow. When Jin placed his hand on the standing boy’s arm, he pushed it away. Upon being glared at by Yoongi at his disrespect towards the eldest, Joon grunted in irritation and sat back down.

Watching the scene, Hoseok sighed.
“Let’s all just calm down.”

“Why did the death occur the day we decided to visit the Bowl?” Joon felt exasperated.

“Why now, when we returned?” Yoongi spoke for the first time.

“Why do you think he killed himself?” after he asked his doubt, Jimin saw others eye him with worry.

The expression crept onto his own face immediately as he realised what others thought,
“You think he was murdered?”

When his hyungs remained silent giving him a knowing look, his eyes widened.
“The cops never said murder!”

“They never said suicide either”, Yoongi answered him.

“It seems too much of a coincidence to be suicide. After three years of silence, why now?” Hoseok put forward his list of questions.

After a few seconds of thinking, Joon sighed.
“I know it was a rare board and I was the one who had it among us. I know finding the tyre there puts me in a bad position. But I swear I do not know how it got there.”

“Why don’t you just check your room? And If it’s there, we don’t have to worry anymore,” Jimin suggested a solution.

When Hoseok side glanced at him, he added choosing his words carefully, “I meant, you don’t have to worry about your involvement in it, anymore.”

Joon sighed.
“Fine. I’ll check my room when I go home.”

“When was the last time you went home?”

Joon looked up at Yoongi who asked him this sudden question. He stuttered,
“It has been a few days.”

“Why?”

He sighed.
“I didn’t want to deal with them right now.”

“So Soran is alone at home with your parents?”

“She is a big girl. She can take care of herself.”
In the silence that followed, Joon felt judged by the others.

“I am going home aren’t I? I’ll check on her while I look for the tyre.”

“Hyung?” Jimin sat straight, his eyes wide.

“What?” Joon responded frustrated, unwilling to attend any more family related questions.

But they all gasped at their own stupidity when Jimin brought up an important point,
“Hadn’t you put the tyre in our time capsule?”