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ʏᴏᴜ ᴊᴜꜱᴛ ɴᴇᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ɢᴀᴢᴇ ᴀᴛ ᴍʏ ɢᴀʟᴀxɪᴇꜱ

ʏᴏᴜ ᴊᴜꜱᴛ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴛᴏ ꜱᴛᴀɴᴅ ᴜɴᴅᴇʀɴᴇᴀᴛʜ ᴛʜᴏꜱᴇ ꜱᴛᴀʀꜱ

ɪ ᴡɪʟʟ ɢɪᴠᴇ ᴍʏ ᴡᴏʀʟᴅ ᴛᴏ ʏᴏᴜ

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_____

"...there was a magician named Kim Taehyung."

_____________

'Ladies and gentleman, children of all ages, I present to you...the world-famous magician: Kim Taehyung!' An announcer's voice boomed over the crackly speakers, he wasn't even done before the crowd burst into applause, filling the room with echoes of cheers. Their laughter and celebration only encouraged the male belle-of-the-ball.

Exhaling a breath to calm himself, Taehyung adjusted the tophat upon his dark tresses and stepped out into the crowd and their open arms.

The cheers only grew louder.

'Kyahhh!! We love you, Taehyung-oppar!'

'Step on me, oppar!'

'Have my children!'

The magician grinned from ear to ear at the praise. The crowd's welcoming cries masked the grief of his past. Their deafening roars certainly made him feel better.

With a bow, Kim Taehyung started the show.

Instantly, the audience's roars ceased, their attention instead fixated upon his figure.

And he began the tricks.

____

'Thank you for coming! I hope you enjoyed the show!' Taehyung thanked each and every member of the audience. They liked him quite well, always offering free cotton candy to children and checking up on the guests to make sure they had a good time. But the most marvelous part of his carnival was his astounding tricks. No guest of the show was to tell the public of what they saw. They physically could not. Whenever anyone was to even utter the words "Kim Taehyung's Carnival," they felt their lips lock up.

But the guests hardly ever wanted to speak about the wonders. You see, humans are considerably selfish, and when they see something so astounding and so marvelous, they will keep it to themselves so that they feel special knowing the little secret.

Except, in this case, they didn't know any secrets.

Kim Taehyung's little magic tricks were no magic at all, just simple sleight of hand. It was only his charm and his ability to modify those tricks that made them so entertaining to watch. The magic that kept the audience coming back each year was neither the activities nor the illusions. It was Kim Taehyung himself.

'Are you enjoying yourself, Madam?' could be heard multiple times throughout the evening.

'Hey, little boy! You have a coin in your ear!' would often be a performance to cheer up sad children who lost their parents.

Yes, the magic was that Kim Taehyung was an extraordinarily good person. He made the show affordable, very affordable, and accepted no otherwise payments. He vowed to keep the area a symbol of peace: never will there be any fighting or violence or discrimination.

He was splendid, indeed.

But he still hid something from everyone.

Taehyung looked out into the crowd, surveying their happiness, and making sure everything was swell.

It was, for the most part.

A little boy no more than the age of ten sat on the carousel, wearing a frown as if it were sewn to his face permanently. Taehyung had seen the little boy on there before; he never once moved from that exact horse, and although he never left, he would be gone by dusk.

Taehyung prepared a coin to pull out of the boy's ear. He sneaked behind him, envisioning how thrilled the little boy would be. The mere thought of the boy smiling when he's only frowned made the magician quicken his steps.

'Hey, little boy! You have a coin in your-'

'I know.' The boy whipped around, seizing the coin in his grasp.

The magician was taken aback: nobody had ever reacted that way towards him before. But no matter, he thought, it just means you have to try harder to make them happy! Ever the optimist, Kim Taehyung.

'Well,' he began, 'aren't you a smart cookie?'

The boy rolled his eyes, but he only saw that as a sign to continue.

'Well do you know this one?' He prepared a scarf into his sleeve, 'I bet you won't know what's in my sleeve!'

'Scarves, or a deck of cards.'

A smile crept up Taehyung's features, 'Wrong!' He cheekily pulled out a Candybar and throwing it lightly to the boy, 'It was candy!'

The boy only glanced at it before tossing it back in his direction.

Pursing his lips, he took off his hat to prepare one final trick but was interrupted by a member of his staff.

'Mr. Kim,' a woman ran up to the carousel, 'we're going to have to close soon.'

'Alright,' he replied, 'let me just-' Taehyung turned around, but his eyes only met with the empty carousel horse. He didn't even realize the lights of the fair starting to shut off as it neared dusk.

____

The boy was there again the next day. The sun shone high over the child's shiny ebony tresses, yet his hair itself never shone. The carnival's music had the people dance the minute it started to play like clockwork, yet the boy's hands and feet stayed firmly planted on the carousel. Other children's cheeks were tinted pink from exhilaration and sticky with cotton candy, but his were always in its usual pale pallor.

Kim Taehyung was determined to change that. If he wasn't making sure his customers were having fun, he was pulling out trick-after-trick to please the boy.

Pulling rabbits out of his hat, guessing which card the boy picked, he did them all and got not even a sliver of a smile in return.

'Tell me,' he once began, 'why don't you ever smile?'

'What reason is there to?' he replied.

But his lack of empathy or emotion wasn't the most peculiar thing about him. Taehyung had seen all sorts of people come and go; not one person ever stayed for more than a week. But the little boy was the only one who did. He sat there on the carousal the minute the carnival opened and left the minute dusk hit.

The boy peered at him too. His dark eyes followed him whenever and wherever, as if to scrutinize him.

As if he did something horrifically wrong.

Taehyung couldn't' be sure if he liked it or not.

____

Follow these amazing people!

@cherryficss - "Fate" and "Signal"

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