Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Hongjoong opened his eyes and looked at the clock on his nightstand. He fell asleep without telling the person he very smartly chose to take to his apartment to please go, that they were done.

Hongjoong supported his body on his elbows, lifting himself up to a sitting position. He groaned, rubbing his eyes with his knuckles. That was the part he dreaded the most after being with someone in his apartment. Waking up and realizing that the dude wasn’t as pretty or as cool as Hongjoong had thought in the heat of the moment.

That and the fact that Hongjoong always went out of his way to make everything more awkward than it needed to be.

Hongjoong let out a sigh and looked to the side.

There laid the body of the man he met the previous night, he was…pale, his lips were a weird purple and…and the sheets were stained with something dark red.

With a shaky hand, he took the stained sheet and slid it off the man’s naked body, already having an idea of what he was going to find.

There was a bullet hole in the man’s chest.

Hongjoong’s lip quivered as he got out of his bed, noticing that the side of his body had blood drying. His hands were shaking but he managed to grab his phone and deal Seonghwa’s number.

His friend answered his call a few seconds later.

Hongjoong had started crying at some point in time. It was getting harder to breathe.

“Hello? Joong? Don’t tell me you just woke up? It’s so late, dude!”

Hongjoong took a shivering breath and a sob shook his body slightly. For some reason, he couldn’t do much except stutter out his friend’s name.

“Joong? Hello? Are you okay?”

“Can you- can you come to my apartment now, please?” he managed to say “I need- I need you to- please”

“Alright, just calm down. I’ll be there in five minutes, Joong. Calm down.”

His phone fell from his hand as he turned around to torture himself further and look at the man’s dead body. His shaking hands went up to his face as he covered his mouth and nose, trying to keep his last meal in his stomach. Hongjoong stumbled out of his room and went to sit on his couch as he waited for Seonghwa.

It then occurred to him that maybe he should’ve called the police and not his best friend. Yes, Seonghwa was a security guard, but that didn’t mean he could handle something like what it was in Hongjoong’s bedroom. He tugged on his hair as his knees went up against his chest.

How could he not hear someone get in his room?

How did he not hear the sound of a gun?

Hongjoong was drunk, yes but it was just impossible for him to sleep through someone getting murdered right next to him. It just didn’t make sense.

The door of his apartment opened and Seonghwa rushed in, immediately searching for Hongjoong with desperate eyes. Hongjoong couldn’t help but run to Seonghwa’s arms, desperately needing his friend’s comfort.

“Joong, why are you- “

“There’s a dead man in my room, Seonghwa”

Seonghwa took a little step back, still holding Hongjoong by the hips “what?” he whispered while frowning slightly, eyes wide and shocked.

“I didn’t do it, I swear. You’ve got to believe me; I didn’t do it!”

Seonghwa pulled him closer once again and Hongjoong spent a few moments crying on Seonghwa’s chest. It did nothing to fix the mess Hongjoong was currently in the middle of, but at least it did make him feel a little bit safer. Seonghwa was his only safe place in that moment.

Seonghwa instructed for Hongjoong to stay in his couch while he went into Hongjoong’s bedroom. Hongjoong was conflicted, he didn’t want to see that corpse ever again but he didn’t want be alone, either. Not for a moment. In the end, he remained unmoving, just sitting there staring into space.

Seonghwa came back a few minutes later, his phone in his hand “I’m going to call the police now, Hongjoong” he quietly announced, sitting next to Hongjoong “you’ll be fine, I promise. You didn’t do it; I believe you. But they will find out who did this to that man and to you”

Hongjoong just nodded, already crying again. Seonghwa took his phone to his ear and began to talk; he was giving Hongjoong’s address and mentioning that he was a security guard, explaining the situation in a calm voice.

Hongjoong couldn’t, for the life of him, explain how or why was Seonghwa so calm while being in the same vicinity as a dead man. Maybe he had seen dead people in his years as a security guard? Maybe he was prepared to see something like that.

“okay, done. They’ll be here in a couple of minutes. You’ll be fine”

Hongjoong could hear nothing but his ragged breaths and the sound of his gradually quickening heartbeat. The police would be there in a couple of minutes, questioning him and doubting of anything he would say, even if it was the truth. They wouldn’t believe because that was their job, to not to believe anything the man laying next to a corpse had to say.

“Please calm down. Look at me, Hongjoong”

Hongjoong did and found Seonghwa’s eyes already on his face, they were understanding and trusting. Seonghwa did thought of him as the victim of some cruel game, he did believe Hongjoong. He could see it in Seonghwa’s eyes.

“You will be fine, I promise. Trust me on this one, because I trust you” he smiled, easy, like Hongjoong wasn’t probably going to go to prison “I know you didn’t do this. I know it.”

Hongjoong couldn’t bring himself to force out a word, so he just nodded once and took a deep breath. There was nothing he could do, except collaborate and prove that he had nothing to do with the death of that man.

They heard knocks on Hongjoong’s door a few minutes later and Hongjoong forced himself to stay calm while Seonghwa went to open the door. Two officers got in his apartment, one stayed with him and the other followed Seonghwa to Hongjoong’s bedroom.

They came back a few minutes later and Seonghwa took Hongjoong’s arm, gently pulling him up “they will take us to the police department, Joong. They’ll make us some questions and we’re done, okay? Come on”

“Okay” he said, his voice rough from all the crying.

He went to grab his keys from the kitchen counter, feeling careful and intent eyes on him. It was unsettling but he knew that the police officers had no reasons to trust him yet. They went out of his apartment and out of the complex.

Hongjoong could see Mr. Kim stare curiously at them through the little window on the security cameras/reception room. He lowered his head in shame.

They made them get in the backseat of the police car. One of the officers got in the driver’s seat and the other stayed outside, saying something about securing the zone and making a few calls.

“Don’t try anything funny. For now, we only have the information provided by the call you made so if you act like a criminal, then I’ll treat you like one. Whether you killed that man or not, I will not care” the officer said, voice low and severe.

Hongjoong and Seonghwa just nodded.  The car ride was quiet and uneventful, with the officer ignoring their existence, Seonghwa taking his hand softly into his and Hongjoong trying to not to scream his damn lungs out.

When they got to the department, there were two other officers waiting for them outside of it. Hongjoong let go of Seonghwa’s hand to get out of the car and follow the officers inside.

Hongjoong’s throat started to close up as Seonghwa was instructed to follow an officer to a different room than the one the were guiding Hongjoong to. He looked down at his sweaty hands and just followed the officers.

He entered a dimly lit room that was basically empty, it just had two chairs and a table in the middle of it. Hongjoong remembered seeing one like that in those tv shows and movies about crimes that Seonghwa liked to watch.

“Take a sit, please. Officer Jeong will be here in a minute”

Hongjoong just nodded and took a few steps into the room, hearing the door shut behind him. He took a deep breath and went to sit on one of the chairs.

Barely moments later, a man got in the room. He was freakishly tall, but didn’t look weak or lanky by any means. No, that man was strong and you could just tell by seeing him. He was wearing a black suit, his hair was just simply falling on his forehead, short and of a dark brown color.

When he smiled faintly at Hongjoong, he looked weirdly puppylike. He looked friendly, despite being built like he could crush you under his feet.

“Hello, I’m detective Jeong Yunho.” He took a couple of steps towards the table and sat down on the other chair. “would you mind me making you a couple of questions?”

Hongjoong shook his head, letting out a little sigh.

“okay, first of all; this conversation will be recorded for future investigation and legal purposes. Now, please tell me your name, age plus date of birth”

The man pulled a phone out of nowhere and set it down on the table. Maybe that was the thing he was recording him with?

“My name is Kim Hongjoong, I’m twenty six years old and I was born in November 7, 1998”

Jeong Yunho pulled a little notepad out of god knows where and began to write something down on it.

“Alright, Kim Hongjoong. I’m going to need you to tell me what happened, try to remember every detail”

Hongjoong took a few moments to gather his thoughts. He remembered going out, ready to get some person to give him some money in exchange of a little something in one of the bathrooms or a dark alley, Hongjoong wasn’t picky. He remembered planning to use that money to buy some groceries and his favorite coconut scented shampoo. He couldn’t live without his shampoo.

He remembered getting to a club at nine, and went to dance for a while until a guy asked him if he could dance with Hongjoong.

The guy looked decent enough, he was tall (well, almost everyone in there were taller than Hongjoong) and he was dressing in clothes that left very little to the imagination. The guy was hot and his smile was attractive.

Hongjoong agreed almost immediately, whispering in the guy’s ear that nothing coming from him was for free and the man seemed to understand, smiling and telling Hongjoong that money was not a problem.

They had danced for hours, kissing sloppily and sharing drinks. The last time Hongjoong had checked his phone to see the hour, it was two in the morning and they were going to Hongjoong’s apartment, given that the man didn’t want to disturb his younger brother, who lived in the same apartment as him.

“So, you get your income from…uh, prostitution. Do you work with somebody else?”

Jesus, when people called it that it sounded to morbid and wrong.

“I went out alone. I need to pay my rent, bills and eat and the socially accepted jobs have, apparently, already been taken. I spent three months looking for a job before I had the idea of selling myself”

Yunho nodded in understanding, visibly taken aback by Hongjoong’s defensive tone.

Hongjoong cleared his throat. He remembered that they got to his apartment maybe fifteen minutes later, taking the man to his room and receiving a couple of bills. Well, it was more than a couple but you get his point. They did stuff for god knows how long, that man had a lot of stamina and Hongjoong remembered thinking that he had to kick that man’s ass out of his home but Hongjoong had fallen asleep before he could even begin to speak.

He woke up laying next to a corpse and called his best friend, Park Seonghwa, who was also the person that had called the police while Hongjoong was in the middle of a nervous breakdown.

Yunho hummed as he kept writing on his notepad “okay, Kim Hongjoong. You’ll be in remand for 48 hours and you’ll either be released or charged”

Hongjoong could feel his eyes sting with unshed tears.

“I’m- I’m willing to do anything to cooperate until this is all cleared. Honestly, I just want to go- “ to go home “I want things to be normal again”

Jeong Yunho pressed his lips into a tight line as he nodded slowly “also, uh- you may face charges for prostitution. If you can’t bail your way out, you’ll be in prison for at least 128 days. If I were you…I would post a bail before the pre-trail period ends, which is in 48 hours. Good luck, Kim Hongjoong.”

Hongjoong’s head fell to his hands and he was allowed a few seconds to cry and curse himself out for being a dirty prostitute. In what moment exactly did he think it was a good idea?

The money was good, yes but Hongjoong didn’t have any to bail his way out of prison. He was going to prison nonetheless.

The door opened and an officer got in with handcuffs. He put them on Hongjoong and took him out of the room.

“Sir, excuse me. Do you know what happened to the person that was with me? His name is Park Seonghwa” he asked, voice rough and shaky.

The officer nodded curtly “he was released after the interview with detective Choi”

Hongjoong let out a long sigh of relief. At least Seonghwa was okay and not being imprisoned just because he was friends with a suspect of murderer and, on top of it all, a prostitute.

“Am I allowed to make a call?”

“You’re allowed a supervised call before I take you to a detention cell”

Hongjoong nodded and the man took the handcuffs off, pushing him slightly forward where there was a telephone.

Hongjoong pressed the buttons, dealing the number he had memorized a long time ago.

“Hello? Who is this?”

“Seonghwa, it’s- it’s Hongjoong- “

“Joong, thank god. Are you okay? Have they made something to you? Where are you?”

“I’m still here. I’m okay, I promise but Hwa… I will be taken to a detention cell now, for 48 hours and then they’ll charge me for prostitution, I could be in prison for 128 days-“ Hongjoong swallowed with some difficulty “the only thing I could do to be released is to post a bail but- but I don’t have any money and-“

“I’ll get it for you. You don’t have to worry about anything, I will get that money for you”

Hongjoong almost choked. Seonghwa sounded so sure, so determinate, willing to help Hongjoong even if he was nothing more than a dirty prostitute.

And Hongjoong was crying again.

“Don’t cry, baby. Don’t worry that little precious head of yours, whatever is the amount I have to pay, I will…money is nothing compared to you being okay, Hongjoong”

Hongjoong could do nothing but sob as he held the thing to his ear, listening to Seonghwa’s breath.

“I…I love you, Hongjoong. As- as more than a friend. I would do anything for you”

Hongjoong was feeling like someone had kicked him in the ribs. It was true that he spent years pretending that he didn’t have a huge crush on Seonghwa, but he eventually got over it.

In that moment, though, it only mattered the fact that Seonghwa was being honest about his feelings and Hongjoong would not hurt him.

“I love you too, Hwa. Thank you, thank you so much”

“Just wait for a bit longer, Joong”

“Yes, okay. Bye, Hwa”

“Bye for now, Joong”

Hongjoong hung up and the officer put the handcuffs back on his wrists.

He wasn’t lying. He did love Seonghwa, maybe not in that special way Seonghwa loved him but Seonghwa deserved to be loved. Seonghwa was still there for him and the least Hongjoong could do was not hurt Seonghwa’s feelings.

Chapter Text

Hongjoong chuckled as he grabbed his beer “maybe I will consider going out to look for people willing to pay for this sexy piece of trash”

Seonghwa snorted. Hongjoong was laying in his couch, beer running down his cheek and wetting Seonghwa’s couch.

“or maybe you could just accept my help?”

The thought of Hongjoong in someone else’s bed gave him a bad taste, it made his stomach burn and his heart race.

Hongjoong shook his head “nah, dude. I won’t take advantage of you like that. Just leave me to fix this mess”

Seonghwa let out a tired sigh. He had told Hongjoong that it was really no problem for him to move in to Seonghwa’s apartment, even if he didn’t have job yet. Nothing else mattered more than Hongjoong’s wellbeing.

And, yeah, Seonghwa could admit that he was jealous, that he wanted Hongjoong all to himself and that it would actually be pretty good if Hongjoong decided to move in to his apartment.

Seonghwa would make sure to take care of him, to never let him go.

But Hongjoong, as always, was being a stubborn little precious ray of sunshine.

Seonghwa looked at Hongjoong and saw a bright future. He had known Hongjoong since they were two eight year old boys. He had been loving Hongjoong for a whole lifetime, he thought that he pretty much had the right to be a little possessive.

“Do whatever you want, sweety. I won’t stop you”

Hongjoong moved to lay on his side, looking at Seonghwa with those beautiful, bright eyes. They made Seonghwa want to keep them to himself, just for him to see them shine.

Nobody else had the right to.

Hongjoong slowly sat on the couch and let out of the bottle of beer, the thing falling to the floor and spilling the horrid smelling liquid in Seonghwa’s carpet.

If any other person did that to his carpet, he would’ve killed them.

But this was Hongjoong. His precious Hongjoong.

Hongjoong stumbled towards him and fell on top of Seonghwa with a little giggle “don’t worry, Hwa. I’ll be okay, it’s not like I’m a virgin”

Yeah…Seonghwa would rather not remember the dude that had taken Hongjoong’s first time in high school. He would just rather remember his screams as Seonghwa broke his arm.

“Yeah, I know…” he whispered, unable to keep the bitterness out of his tone “I still worry, you know”

Hongjoong looked up at him, smiling faintly. Seonghwa fell in love all over again.

“I know. Thank you for worrying, Hwa”

Seonghwa let out a sigh “Anyway, when do you plan on testing your luck?”

Hongjoong hummed quietly “next weekend, probably. Don’t worry, nothing bad will happen to me!”

Seonghwa would make sure of that.

Saturday, around thirty past eight, Hongjoong was getting out of his apartment complex.

Seonghwa had burrowed Yeosang’s car and a few other very useful…things.

He followed the bus Hongjoong had taken and parked a few streets away from the club he saw Hongjoong get in and just waited.

He grabbed a bag of chips he had on the backseat.

09:30 PM

Seonghwa turned on the radio and quietly sang all the songs he could recognize. Eyes not leaving the club’s exit.

11:45 PM

He pulled a little box of apple juice out of a bag that was on the backseat. Seonghwa couldn’t risk getting distracted by a full bladder, so he took tiny sips of it.

12:50 AM

Jesus fuck, what was taking Hongjoong so long?

01:20 AM

Maybe Hongjoong was already gone? Maybe Seonghwa had not see him leave the club. Shit, maybe he was already doing stuff with someone, somewhere.

The thought made his blood boil, made him want to throw up. His mind was providing him with all kinds of disgusting images. Hongjoong couldn’t be with anyone like that. Seonghwa had been protecting him from people for years.

He wouldn’t stop now.

Seonghwa forced himself to wait for a little bit longer.

02:15 AM

Seonghwa prepared to drive off. Hongjoong wasn’t around, he was almost sure of that. Seonghwa would’ve seen him leave the club.

He would’ve seen him because Seonghwa could recognize Hongjoong even blindfolded, he should’ve seen him leave.

Only god knew where Hongjoong was in that moment.

He glanced at the exit of the club, with not much hope, not expecting to see Hongjoong leaving the club with a guy’s arms around his waist.

He gripped the steering wheel with a little too much strength, narrowing his eyes and glaring openly. He didn’t care who that man was, he didn’t care if his clothes looked really expensive.

He was touching what was Seonghwa’s.

Seonghwa took out his phone and dealt Yeosang’s number.

“Yeo, do you have everything in place?”

“Yep, the gloves, those lil’ things for your hair, the gun and the silencer, the face masks” Yeosang paused “who are you going to kill this time for bringing the tiniest inconvenience to your life?”

“That’s none of your business, baby brother. Now, you didn’t mention those little things for my shoes? I don’t want to leave prints on the floor”

Hongjoong was laughing so joyously at whatever that dude was saying. Seonghwa regretted not bringing his service gun. They were there standing at the side of the street, probably waiting for a uber or whatever.

“Yep, those are here, too. You know, you could’ve asked me for a gun you could use from a long distance. Those are safer, you’ll be harder if not impossible to track”

Seonghwa just hummed “what if they pull off one of those super detective tricks? They’ll know from where the bullet was shot and, besides… I would much prefer to be there to see how his life gushes out of him”

“Disgusting. Anyway, I don’t support this but good luck”

“You just gave me what I need to kill a man, brother. You just did so much more than just support this”

Yeosang sighed heavily and hung up. Seonghwa chuckled fondly. If there were people he loved more than Hongjoong, then they were his mother and his baby brother.

Hongjoong and the dude got into a car and drove off, Seonghwa followed right after.

They, unsurprisingly, were making their way to Hongjoong’s apartment. What a relief.

Seonghwa had told Yeosang to get that apartment that was like five minutes away from Hongjoong’s apartment complex, on foot. So Seonghwa could keep the things he needed in a place that wasn’t too far from the crime scene.

He saw Hongjoong and the dude get out of the car and then into the apartment complex. Seonghwa continued to drive until he got to the apartment Yeosang had gotten for him. It had the perfect view to Hongjoong’s bedroom from the kitchen’s little window.

Seonghwa leaned a bit on the table as he stared out the window, seeing some lights in Hongjoong’s apartment being turned on and then finally saw them in Hongjoong’s bedroom.

Seonghwa looked away. He didn’t want to see that. Instead, he went to the living room to make sure he had everything.

The gloves were thick enough to not leave fingerprints everywhere but thin enough to allow him to grab the gun without being uncomfortable. He would put surgical gloves underneath, because you’re never paranoid enough when you’re about to kill someone.

There was also a little plastic bag with a half-burned cigarette and a little note with it.

You forgot the fake evidence, brother. Thank me later. It’ll keep the police entertained for a little while. There’s also a bag with hairs I took out of a random lady when I traveled to brazil. Don’t ask.

Seonghwa chuckled and put the little bags on the pockets of the jacket he had bought exclusively for the occasion. He undressed and took a good shower with coconut scented shampoo. He had bought it to erase the scent of his own shampoo and cologne and because it reminded him of Hongjoong. He walked around in underwear and then went to the kitchen.

Hongjoong was riding the dude. Big ew.

He returned to the living room and distracted himself cleaning the whole place with bleach. He couldn’t afford to leave anything that could lead people to him.

Seonghwa was done maybe an hour later and when he went to the kitchen, the lights in Hongjoong’s room were still on but he now could see two unmoving bodies laying in bed. They were asleep.

Seonghwa put the lil’ thing (as Yeosang had called it) in his head and put a cap over it, he put on the gloves and hid them fairly well with the sleeves of the jacket. He checked for bullets and put the silencer. The cargo pants he had bought had the perfect huge pockets for a gun with a silencer. Seonghwa had taken the measures. He put on the new shoes he had bought and put a face mask on one of his pockets.

He gave himself a once over in the big mirror of the bathroom. If he put his hands in his pockets, he looked just like a homeless man with a very fancy jacket. At least he didn’t look like a criminal.

Seonghwa walked out of the apartment and calmly made his way to Hongjoong’s apartment complex. He had to take various shortcuts to avoid the cameras that were not so hidden in the street lights. Yeosang had told him that there were no concealed cameras, most likely. It wasn’t a zone where drug dealers just went around selling their stuff everywhere, there was no reason for the police to install hidden cameras.

He already had a plan for the cameras in Hongjoong’s building.

It was a small and old building. A reception where Mr. Kim received the people and answered questions regarding the complex. Four floors. A camera on the stairs, one in the hallway and one outside by the door.

All it would take him to delete the videos of him walking around the building in the middle of the night was to distract Mr. Kim enough for him to do what he needed to do.

Seonghwa silently went into the building and made his way to the third floor, where Hongjoong’s apartment was. He was well aware of the key Hongjoong kept under the little plastic plant by Hongjoong’s door.

They had locked themselves out plenty of times, they would curse and laugh and sit on the floor, talking until Hongjoong would remember the key under the fake plant.

The memories made Seonghwa smile fondly.

What a great way to commit a crime. Smiling like a love sick puppy.

He took the key and opened the door as silently as he could. Seonghwa put the key back in its place and put the little things on his feet and the face mask, he made sure his hair was in the cap before getting in.

Seonghwa had to make a quick work out of this.

He walked through the living room and into Hongjoong’s bedroom. Seonghwa took the gun out of his pocket and pointed it at the guy’s chest

Now, the gun was severely modified to make the least sound possible and Seonghwa counted with a removable silencer, not to mention how drunk the others were. The chances of getting caught were low but never none.

A truck passed outside the complex, making great noise. What a perfect coincidence.

Seonghwa pulled the trigger once. It made a whistle like sound that was easily concealed by the noise the truck's noise.

The guy’s breath stuttered. He stopped breathing soon after.

Hongjoong was still gone to the world. Looking like the picture of beautiful, if beautiful was a person.

He shot the guy on the groin area. Just for fun.

He put the gun back in the pocket of the cargo pants and took a deep breath.

Seonghwa felt relieved. He had done his job, that was to protect Hongjoong from the world.

Seonghwa took the little bags out of his pocket and put one single hair in Hongjoong’s carpet and placed the cigarette behind the door. He admired his work one more time before getting out of the room and out of the apartment.

Seonghwa took a deep breath as he took off the cap and the lil’ thing off his head. He walked out of the building and back to Yeosang’s apartment. His brother had said that he could give the things he had used to some dude called Wooyoung, that he was a trustworthy friend of his and that he had his ways to get rid of stuff.

He got into the apartment and saw a purple haired boy calmly sitting on the couch.

“You must be Seonghwa?”

“Yes. Wooyoung, right?”

The boy nodded with a smile “put the stuff on a bag and give it to me. Yeo said you’re his psychopath of a brother? It’s good to finally meet you!”

Seonghwa grimaced “I am not a psychopath. Yeosang said you’re a trustworthy friend, so I expect you to do- “

“Trustworthy friend? Is that mother fucker for real?” the boy snorted, humorless and bitter “I’ve been his boyfriend for five years!” he wailed but calmed down pretty quickly. Wooyoung sighed “anyway. I am pretty mad right now but I’ll do my job flawlessly, you don’t have to worry about that”

“I’m glad. Wait just a minute, I’ll gather my stuff”

The boy nodded once, watching Seonghwa as he undressed to his underwear and put the clothes on a plastic trash bag.

“Can you get rid of a gun?”

“if you put it in that bag then I’ll get rid of it, whatever it is”

Seonghwa hummed as he shrugged slightly and threw the gun into the bag, he also put the cap and everything he had used on Hongjoong’s apartment, including the little bags with the fake evidence.

He got dressed with his own clothes and made a knot on the bag, putting it in front of the boy. Wooyoung got up and took it easily, even if it looked pretty heavy, it probably wasn’t.

“Bye, Seonghwa. See you next time you want to commit a crime”

“Hopefully, you won’t kill Yeosang?”

The boy snorted “you can only hope for the best, Seonghwa”

Seonghwa smiled politely as he watched Wooyoung go.

He was alone again. Seonghwa walked to the kitchen and leaned on the table, looking at Hongjoong’s bedroom.

Seonghwa stayed there for hours.

He checked the hour on his phone and went out. Seonghwa walked the now more active streets. Seonghwa took the same shortcuts to Hongjoong’s apartment complex.

When Seonghwa got to the building, he went straight to Mr. Kim’s little security room.

The old man was organizing stuff on his desk.

“Hi, Mr. Kim!”

The man looked up and smiled “Seonghwa! Its been such a long time since you came here!”

“it’s just that I’ve been busy” he smiled nervously, tapping his fingers on the counter. All an act, obviously. “can I ask you for a favor?”

“Of course! You just tell me”

The man was adorable, even if he was missing a few teeth. Seonghwa would’ve liked his father to be like that. Unfortunately, the universe had given him a douchebag for a dad.

“uh, can I watch the videos from the security cameras? Someone crashed their car into mine and I wanted to see if I can catch their registration number?”

Mr. Kim’s smile vanished as he let out a sigh “oh, Seonghwa. I wish I could help you but I know nothing about how that works. I don’t even know how to use this computer!”

Seonghwa opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted.

“Mr. Kim, can you help me please? This dumb door. I always have problems with it!”

Seems like the universe was acting to his favor for once.

“Oh, Ms. Lee! Hi!”

Mr. Kim got out of the little room to help the old lady open the door and Seonghwa hurried to ask “can I check for myself? Maybe I’ll find something?”

“Oh, yes, Seonghwa! You are a security guard, right? You must know!”

Seonghwa smiled and nodded and got into the room.

It was a rather simple thing to do, a simple system made for people like Mr. Kim, easy access and no complicated or technical words. Just three cameras.

He put on some surgical gloves and began to delete the tapes.

By the time Mr. Kim was back, Seonghwa had already deleted all proof of him.

“Did you find anything, Hwa?”

Seonghwa sighed and shook his head “the images are not clear enough; I couldn’t see it”

“That’s a shame, Hwa…”

Seonghwa nodded, regretfully “well, I’ll go now. Take care, Mr. Kim”

“You, too! Consider coming here more often!”

“I will!”

Seonghwa smiled at the man before getting out of the apartment. He threw the gloves in some trash can outside of some coffee shop on his way back to Yeosang’s apartment.

Hongjoong would either call him or the police. He wouldn’t call his mother; the woman had kicked him out of her house as soon as Hongjoong had told her that he liked boys.

Seonghwa had followed him from their hometown to Seoul. He couldn’t leave Hongjoong alone.

Seonghwa leaned on the table and waited for Hongjoong’s call while watching him.

A few hours later, Seonghwa’s phone rang in the living room and he calmly went to get it, knowing full well that it was Hongjoong. Seonghwa had seen him wake up.

“Hello? Joong? Don’t tell me you just woke up? It’s so late, dude!” he laughed shortly.

God, he was such a great actor.

“Hwa, S- Seonghwa…”

“Joong? Hello? Are you okay?” he asked, using a concerned tone.

He wasn’t going to lie. Hearing Hongjoong like that made him feel unsettled, it made him want to protect Hongjoong.

“Can you- can you come to my apartment now, please?” said Hongjoong, with some difficulty “I need- I need you to- please”

Of course, he needed Seonghwa. It was just how things were supposed to be from the beginning. Seonghwa would be there for him.

“Alright, just calm down. I’ll be there in five minutes, Joong. Calm down.”

Hongjoong hung up and Seonghwa got out of the apartment like nothing had happened, taking the same damn shortcuts.

Seonghwa was beginning to feel the effects of the lack of sleep and food. He was so hungry; he could eat a whole cake.

Cake. What a delicious thing to think about when you’re starving.

He would have time to eat and rest later.

Seonghwa went up the stairs quickly and used the key under the fake plant to open Hongjoong’s door.

Hongjoong was sitting on his couch, crying quietly.

When their eyes met, Hongjoong got up and ran to him. Falling into Seonghwa’s arms easily, where he belonged.

Hongjoong’s sobs where nerve wrecking, they hurt Seonghwa deeply but he was safe now. Seonghwa would keep him safe, be with him through everything, would do anything for him.

He hoped that, with this, Hongjoong realized that Seonghwa was the only one in his life.

Chapter Text

Yunho got out of the interviewing room and leaned on the wall outside of it, gesturing one of the officers to go into the room.

He let out a long, tired sigh. It was being a very long, very tiring day.

Yunho went to Mingi’s desk. He waited for his friend there, going through his notes. Yunho didn’t think the boy had committed any crime ever, he looked like a little puppy. He looked just like a person that had never done anything wrong in their life.

He put his notepad down on the desk and typed the boy’s name on Mingi’s computer.

Kim Hongjoong had been arrested along with three other friends four years prior. He was released after it was confirmed that he was sober. The driver was imprisoned.

One of the police officers had taken his fingerprints anyway.

“What are you still doing there? San has been looking for you since forever!”

Yunho was startled and he looked behind him to see Mingi and San walking towards him.

“Come on, we need to look for witnesses” said San “Jongho and the other mad scientists are on their way”

Yunho nodded and put his notepad back in his pocket, standing up to follow San. “weren’t you interviewing the other boy?”

San nodded “he has nothing to do with anything. Kim Hongjoong called him in the midst of his panic attack, he was the one to call the police. I let him go home”

Yunho just hummed “what was his name?”

“Park Seonghwa”

Yunho took his notepad out and wrote the boy’s name. Just in case.

They got into San’s car and drove off.

“Do you have Kim Hongjoong’s address?”

San nodded and they stayed silent the whole ride. San had never been one to talk while driving. Well, was never one to do two tings at once, if he was driving then he ignored the outside world, Yunho included. If he was too immersed in a case, he isolated himself.

San was an excellent investigator and Yunho supposed that was on his inhuman ability to concentrate.

He just wished his boyfriend would pay him more attention during the day and not just late at night when they where in bed, exhausted beyond their senses or in the kitchen, going through reports like madmen, drinking coffee to keep themselves awake.

Yunho wished-

“We’re here, Yunho” said San, already getting out of the car.

Yunho let out a sigh and followed San into the building. Jongho and the people from the lab were already there, wearing those weird suits that made them look like a bad excuse of a group of astronauts. Yunho liked to tease his friend, he would’ve done it if he wasn’t so exhausted and sick of San’s attitude.

The few police officers were answering the questions of the people that had gathered outside the building and in the reception.

Yunho walked to the little room and found a man peeking out of a little window carefully. Yunho cleared his throat, making the old man jump in surprise.

“Hello, I’m detective Jeong Yunho”

“Uh, hi. I’m Kim Heebin, I’m the owner of this apartment complex”

Yunho nodded once, taking out his notepad “would you mind answering some questions?”

“Uh, no?”

“Great” Yunho wrote down the man’s name “do you know Kim Hongjoong?”

“Yes, he’s living on the third floor…some policemen took him earlier, is he okay? It’s true that he hasn’t been paying the rent but that doesn’t mean I don’t worry about that kid”

“He’s okay, don’t worry. Were you awake between 02:00 AM and 04:00 AM?”

The man chuckled “I’m barely awake now, son. At that hour I’m dead to the world” he hummed, making Yunho believe that he had something else to say “but…you can check the cameras? They are always working”

“Yes, that would be actually awesome. How many of them there are and where are they?”

“There’s three of them. One outside by the door, one on the stairs and one in the hallway of the second floor” the man got out the little room and gestured for Yunho to get in “check the videos for yourself, I don’t even know how this computer works”

Yunho got in the room and sat down in front of the screen. It was an old computer and the program for the security cameras was simple and old.

It didn’t take him long to know that someone had deleted the videos from nine pm to four in the morning.

Yunho’s head fell to his hands and he rubbed his eyes, breathing heavily.

Whoever was this person, they would obviously be very difficult to catch. He looked up at the old man, who was staring at him with worry in his eyes.

“Did someone get here? Did you notice something weird earlier today? Someone you didn’t know or…?”

The man shook his head slowly, thinking of Seonghwa. But Seonghwa wasn’t a stranger and he wasn’t some weirdo either “no, I’ve been here since I woke up at seven and no stranger has been here”

Yunho let out a long sigh and stood up “thank you, Mr. Kim”

The man followed with his eyes as he went to the third floor. He got into Hongjoong’s apartment, that was flooding with people from the lab and some officers. San walked to him with a little victorious grin.

“Guess what? We found evidence. Whoever did this, wasn’t as careful as they thought” he cheerfully said. San only got like that when he was close to catching some criminal. The rest of the time he was a bitch to be with.

Yunho would be sorry to burst his little bubble of confidence.

“Take me to the evidence” he requested in a quiet, tired voice.

San nodded enthusiastically and told him to follow him. Yunho was bigger than probably everyone there and so, he had to be very careful to not to bump into someone and send them flying across the country.

They got into a bedroom, where Jongho was taking photos of everything.

San pointed at the floor, behind the door, where a half-burned cigarette was with a little post it note next it that read ‘E 2’. San then pointed at a piece of carpet that someone of the lab team had cut off, one single hair sticking out of it, it had a post it note that read ‘E 1’.

Yunho just hummed shortly and looked at Jongho “did you find any more hair?”

San was looking at him like he was a weirdo for not being excited that they had, at least, some evidence.

Evidence…

“We found some on Kim Hongjoong’s pillow but it's obviously his; it’s all red dyed hair…except for that one in the carpet”

It was a long hair. They were after a woman or someone with long, dark brown hair.

Apparently.

Yunho just knew something was wrong. They could call him paranoid or whatever, he didn’t care.

Yunho knelt down in front of the cigarette and asked for Jongho to lend him a glove. He took the cigarette and examined it thoroughly.

Yunho couldn’t even hide the little smile that overtook his features.

The cigarette was dirty, which could mean that it had already been on the ground. Which led him to believe that this person had picked the cigarette up from the streets. Whatever DNA they could get off this cigarette, it would probably be of an innocent person that had nothing to do with the crime.

Which led him to believe that the hair was probably fake evidence, too.

Yunho put the cigarette back on its place and stood up, lips pressed into a tight line. He let out a little laugh shortly after. Jongho and San were looking at him like he had lost his mind.

“We have nothing” he said “we have nothing  on this person. We know nothing” San frowned and opened his mouth to argue but Yunho interrupted him “the cigarette is dirty, this person probably picked it up from the street and put it here to keep us busy”

San harshly took a glove from Jongho’s hands and put it on, grabbing the cigarette and examining it for a while, finally glaring at it as if it could just grow a mouth and tell them who had put it in Kim Hongjoong’s room. He let it down with a whispered curse.

“We have nothing” repeated San in a whisper, giving Yunho a tired look. Yunho could practically see his excitement and confidence die down.

San was tired, too. It was not being a hard week only to Yunho.

Yunho approached his boyfriend and gave him a quick kiss on the side of his head, a hand resting on the small of San’s back. San leaned a bit into the gentle embrace and then stepped back, looking up at Yunho with a little pout on his lips.

“The hair is fake evidence too, right?”

“Most probably, yes”

San sighed “I’ll go gather information with the neighbors. I- I feel that if I stay here, I might just burn this whole building down”

Yunho nodded and Jongho chuckled next him as they watched San go “what would we do without you, big guy?”

“Probably just the same things you already do… I’m kind of glad I didn’t tell him about our criminal deleting the videos from the security cameras in the building”

Jongho hissed “his head would’ve probably exploded” Jongho patted Yunho’s back “hey, but…don’t you have access to the cameras in the street lights?”

Yunho’s eyes widened. How did he let that little detail pass?

There was no way the person had avoided the cameras in the street.

“Jongho, you’re a genius”

“I know, I know. I’ll fill a report with the victim’s info later and have someone give it to you”

“Okay!”

Yunho got out of the apartment with an inexplicable fire inside of him. It had been such a long time since someone had made the efforts to not to get caught, such a long time since he felt this kind of passion for his job.

 It didn’t matter that he was running on two hours of sleep and six mugs of black coffee prepared by San himself, it didn’t matter that he felt terribly drowsy, he had to catch this person.

Yunho pulled his phone out of the pocket of his pants and sent a quick text to San, telling him that he was going to take his car. San replied almost immediately, warning him to not to crash the car or he would shove his entire shoe up Yunho’s ass.

And Yunho thought that it wouldn’t be so bad. They had been using the bed only to rest for at least three weeks. The shoe would actually be a blessing, at that point.

He got into San’s car and drove back to the station. Yunho knew there was a room at the station where they kept the tapes of the security cameras in the street but mainly the officers had access to it, he could probably get Mingi to show him the tapes.

Yunho parked San’s car and hurried to go into the messy station, immediately looking for Mingi at his very messy desk. Mingi wasn’t where he was supposed to be, as always. Yunho cursed under his breath and approached the nearer officer, Irene.

She was really tiny but had that scary, demon like energy that had everyone quaking. You never knew what to expect with that really tiny but really powerful woman.

“Excuse me, have you seen Mingi?”

“If I remember right, he went out with Chaeyoung. Someone robbed a flower shop” she said in a quiet voice, calm.

Fuck. What should he do now?

“You look like you want to poop but just can’t. Stress, right?”

Yunho looked down at Irene with wide eyes, making the woman laugh. “Don’t say ‘poop’ in here, Irene. Oh my god.”

She laughed at his misery for a good while, until she collected herself. Her expression went back to ‘just chillin’, trying to eat people and stuff’.

Yunho hummed and nervously scratched the back of his neck “could you uh- show me the tapes of the security cameras in the streets?”

“Sure! Should’ve said that earlier, man”

And she was smiling again, then the calm expression was back as she gestured for him to follow her. They walked through the mess of officers and desks and went down the stairs that were next to the back door. Yunho had never, in his three years working at the station, used those stairs.

Irene pulled one single key out of the tiny pocket in her right arm and opened a door. She went in first and he followed. The room was faintly illuminated, there were six monitors that were showing different parts of the city. He told Irene Kim Hongjoong’s address and asked to narrow down his possibilities, he wasn’t about to check all six cameras for nothing.

“That leaves us with two cameras” she said, looking up at him from where she was sitting in front of a computer screen.

“Great. Go back to today, from two to four in the morning, please”

Irene nodded once and shortly after a video showed on the screen in front of her. He had to stoop down a little to see more comfortably. They stayed like that for a while.

Nothing was happening. There weren’t any clubs around, nor restaurants or other places where people could be late at night. It was a zone where only the bad people were around that late, but the video was showing nothing. Not a single soul.

Yunho sighed. Yes, he was relieved with the fact that he was having some adrenaline for the first time in a long while but why was this mother fucker being so hard to find?

“Let’s check the other one. Don’t give up this quickly, man”

He nodded at her and waited for her to put the other video on. Yunho sighed as the screen gave him nothing important.

Well, they could see a man for a few seconds but everyone knew him, he was a homeless old man that liked to pet stray dogs.

Yunho let his head fall on the table with a dull thud. Irene hummed quietly next to him.

“You know… we installed this hidden camera like a year ago in a alley where the neighbors said a couple of men sold their stuff. It’s really not as close to the address you gave me as the other cameras but we can check it if you want?”

What could he lose? He already knew this person would be difficult to identify. One camera more or one less, it didn’t fucking matter.

Yunho lifted his head and nodded at Irene. She started to click away as she mumbled that she didn’t really know if the thing was still working and cheering quietly as she, apparently, found what she was looking for.

“okay, so…today from two to four in the morning” she whispered, more to herself. It was cute how she talked to herself like that.

A video showed up on the screen and he gestured for her to put it in a faster motion. A stray dog eating trash, a stray dog chasing a cat… a person.

A person?

“Stop, stop! Go back to the silhouette, please”

The person was wearing a t-shirt under a denim jacket, really baggy cargo pants and some sports shoes. It was an odd look. The person walked with their head down, the cap they were wearing making it impossible to see their face.

Yunho cursed and stood up.

“This is them, right? The person you’re looking for?” she whispered, clicking some more and typing here and there. Yunho hummed as he paced around the little room. “okay, I sent it to Seulgi. She’ll know how to fix the quality and stuff”

She stood up and opened the door, waiting for him to get out and then locking it, putting the key back in her tiny pocket. Yunho let out a sigh as they went upstairs.

“Thank you for uh- that.”

“You’re welcome, man. I was just doing my job”

They parted ways and Yunho just stood there. He had nothing.

Monday.

They got to the station at seven in the morning and San was immediately taken away to interview the people around Kim Heebin’s building, while Yunho was handed the report from the lab.

The victim’s name was Kim Jiwon, twenty eight years old. He had two bullet wounds. One right in the center of the chest and one in the groin area. The wound in his chest caused the blood to flow towards his lungs, killing him shortly after. He was already dead by the time the second bullet went into his body.

The forensics team estimated that, by the time they had found the body, Kim Jiwon had been dead for approximately ten – twelve hours. Kim Jiwon had been killed between two and four in the morning.

Yunho went to Mingi’s desk and turned on his computer, searching for a criminal record with Kim Jiwon’s name but he found nothing. The man was clean.

Just out of curiosity and because he felt like he was doing nothing productive, he looked up Park Seonghwa’s criminal record. He was clean-

Wait a second.

A kid’s family had pressed charges against him for breaking the kid’s arm inside a high school establishment, they were both seventeen at the time. The family retired the charges a few hours later and the kid had confessed that he was a bully and that Park Seonghwa had been the victim of his nagging, that what Park Seonghwa had done was in legitimate self-defense.

It was, admittedly, a little…odd. It still gave him no information that could help the case but Yunho would keep it in mind.

Yunho stood up with a sigh. He noticed how the report came with another sheet of paper clipped to it, he flipped the report and took a look at it.

It was about the evidence. They had found no fingerprints on the doorknobs that weren’t Kim Hongjoong and Kim Jiwon’s. The hair was from a female, a Brazilian woman and the cigarette belonged to a man.

The gun used to kill Kim Jiwon was a 9 mm, the perpetrator had probably used a silencer.

Yunho fell back on Mingi’s chair, tired. The night before, San had been working his entire ass off to write a good report using every bit of information he had gotten and drinking coffee like crazy.

Yunho had been doing the same, just with a little bit of paranoia added to the horrible mix of coffee and sleep deprivation. He had been just imagining and thinking how the hell could they finally catch this person. Then, he had wanted a hug from his boyfriend but San had waved him off, telling him how busy he was.

Yunho had gone to bed feeling like literal shit.

Well, he still felt like shit but now he was at the station and had to do his job. Whatever that might be at the moment.

Photos were slammed down on the desk, making him jump and look up. His eyes met Seulgi’s, she was smiling faintly.

“I could do very little for the quality because the camera works like dog shit but here they are”

Yunho took the photos and started to go through them. The quality was great compared to the video.

“if you look closely, you’ll notice that they’re wearing kind of a coif under the cap and very thick looking gloves” she whispered, as if she was revealing a secret “If you look at their feet, you’ll notice that the shoes they’re wearing are new- “

“So, they bought them exclusively for whatever they were doing in the middle of the night” he interrupted.

She nodded with an excited smile “y’all are dealing with one of those people that could have an entire city cover for them, if necessary”

“They know what the fuck they’re doing and that’s a huge problem for us… Jesus, I’m so tired”

Seulgi patted his shoulder “good luck, man” she gently said before walking away.

Yunho stayed there for a while, until he saw Kim Hongjoong being escorted to one of the rooms where they interviewed people. Mingi saw him and approached him, jogging a little.

“He’s going to have a meeting with his lawyer. I need your report, the lab already provided us with their report and the evidence”

Yunho gave the report to his friend and stuck a little post it note on the photos with Seulgi’s observations. He gave them to Mingi

San got in the station, seemingly in a hurry and walked straight to their boss’ office.

Yunho frowned and followed him, worry creeping up his body and making him sweat like crazy. He stood outside of the boss’ office, waiting.

Half an hour later, San got out and Yunho immediately began to bomb him with questions.

San shushed him loudly “let me talk, jesus- I talked with the boss and I’m taking a few days off. We’ve been barely sleeping and I think I might die if I keep this up”

“A few days off, San? We can’t abandon the case, we- “

“I’m abandoning the case; you can do whatever you want. This is not healthy, Yunho and I’m done living like a damn zombie. We’ve got enough savings in our bank accounts to rest from work for a few days… we’ve- we barely have time for us, for our relationship”

Yunho looked away, feeling his eyes sting with tears. He had thought that San didn’t care, that he had been ignoring him on purpose. San had been as sick of it as Yunho.

Guess they had severe communication problems.

“Just… I just want to take better care of myself and you should probably do the same, Yunho”

He shook his head immediately after San was done talking “I can’t. I need to get to the bottom of this or I won’t be able to sleep any more than I do now”

San sighed, tired and angry but didn’t say anything. Yunho knew San was worrying about him and he was sorry but he really wasn’t about to just go home to rest while a murderer was free.

“Can you do this for me? If not for yourself, then do it for me. I miss you, Yunho and I can’t keep this up”

San was trying to not to cry, Yunho could see it in the way he was blinking quickly and frowning slightly.

Yunho cupped his own face as he closed his eyes and sighed.

There was a storm inside of him. Should he take a few days off to spend some quality time with the love of his life or should he keep lurking around with no evidence, no clear idea of who he was looking for?

A voice in his head screamed for him to take some days off, rest and enjoy his life a little but there was a part of him that felt heavy and disappointed at the thought of giving up, of that person walking around freely.

Yunho felt guilty and disappointed, yet the still opened his eyes to look at San, who was already looking at him, expectant.

“Yes, you’re right. Maybe we do need a good rest” he whispered, hands going down to hang limply at his sides.

Yunho knew he had made the right choice when he saw San smile widely, adorable dimples appearing on his cheeks and his eyes becoming two little lines.

San, going against his very strict rule of no demonstrations of affection at work, gave him a quick kiss on the lips and a short but really tight hug.

The next time he went to the station, Mingi told him that Kim Hongjoong had been bailed out by Park Seonghwa, how romantic it had been; Kim Hongjoong running to hug Park Seonghwa, yelling about how grateful he was and how they had kissed for several minutes.

Yunho was glad the kid was okay.

He went on with his life.