Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Kang Eun Hyuk sat cross-legged on the hard floor of Detective Son’s spare room, bare-chested, a towel over his wet hair. Before him he had spread out the apartment listings for several of the major Seoul newspapers and he was perusing them intensely, a sinking feeling in his stomach as he contemplated rent and deposit. He’d taken a cold shower to try to ease the discomfort of the stifling summer heat in that poorly ventilated room, but the relief had been only temporary.

In the 2 weeks since Lee Hyeon had disappeared and moreso in the wake of the corruption investigation that had been leveled against Eun Hyuk’s father and his staff, Detective Son’s cramped and somewhat ill-kept apartment had become a sort of sanctuary. A place where he couldn’t feel that heavy sense of responsibility that settled on him any time he entered the station, or when his father tried to call him—calls he ignored—or when he met Detective Cha putting on her brave face.

But that sanctuary came with certain unfortunate drawbacks. Like the precious little space he had found in the spare room Detective Son was previously using for storage, oppressive with preposterous stacks of boxes that always seemed on the cusp of collapse.

Detective Son—no, it was Myeong Woo when they weren’t on duty—never pressured him to talk about the things that bothered him. Would sit with him in silence, or share soju and bachelor food with him until the crease between his brows smoothed and he was able to laugh again. Myeong Woo’s silence was as firm, as comforting as someone else loudly affirming that, “Everything is going to be okay. You’re going to be okay.” Because that’s what Myeong Woo’s silence or alternately teasing really meant.

He rubbed his abdomen with one hand, as though he could sooth away that queasy flutter that had been troubling him ever since he had started looking for alternative living arrangements. His fingers found the line of scar tissue from his stab wound and lingered there.

Eun Hyuk heard the muffled beep of the door code being entered incorrectly.

Once. Twice. Three times.

Then cursing.

He quickly tugged on a pair of jeans and went to the door to let his temporary roommate in, towel still draped over his head.

Detective Son sloshed, rather than stepped into the entryway bracing himself between either wall and making several attempts to kick off his dress shoes. He was the picture of disheveled near-respectability.
His slate gray tie had been removed and stuffed unceremoniously into his breast pocket. His jacket, which he had had draped over one shoulder, slipped despondently to the floor, and he did not bend down to get it.

“Why do you keep doing this to yourself? I never see you drunk except when you’re dating.”

“Don’t question my decisions. I could ask my own questions. Like why are you always running around my house without a shirt?”

“That’s not…Well, I just got done washing and it’s intolerably hot in here and---Whoa, whoa.” Myeong Woo tipped suddenly forward and almost planted his head in the hardwood, but Eun Hyuk caught him and draped one arm over his shoulders, hooking him around the waist and hoisting him onto a kitchen stool.

Eun Hyuk broke into the ramyun and pulled his own chair on the other side of the kitchen counter, looking at his friend and subordinate curiously, “Here,” he said, “get something into your stomach.”

They sat in silence for a moment, other than the sound of Myeong Woo slurping his noodles, and Eun Hyuk asked, “Was it really so bad?”

Myeong Woo simply nodded and drank his broth.

“What happened this time?” Myeong Woo winced, and Eun Hyuk did too realizing that he’d put the question tactlessly.

“I took her to a pricey pasta place. I think she asked for one of everything on the menu. You should have seen the bill. I’ve never seen so much food one table.” He paused to slurp up the last of his instant ramyun and tossed the plastic bowl aside. “Making conversation was like walking a cat. But I was trying to be a gentleman. I called her a cab and as she was getting in she told me that she wouldn’t be seeing me again because I have, and I quote, 'a fish-face.’ Like I would have asked for a second date anyway.”

Eun Hyuk carefully hid his smile beneath his hand and muffled his laughter, trying to take on an appropriately commiserating posture. He had positioned himself by Myeong Woo side and employed the awkward pat of comfort that had become a sort of standardized shorthand between the two of them. He good a deep breath as thought to start some kind of encouraging speech, although his mind was completely blank looking for something appropriate to say.

Myeong Woo cut him off before he could even begin, “If you start one of those motivational Team Leader pep talks I have to take from you at the station all the time, I will actually punch you in the face.”
He delivered the line in such a complete deadpan, that Eun Hyuk froze with one hand hovering over Myeong Woo’s shoulder, “You have been warned. Beyond this point, I’m not responsible for my actions if you test me.”

It had been a long time since he’d seen Detective Son so completely disheartened. His energy and his humor buoyed Eun Hyuk up during the day when he found himself worrying about his father, about Ji An, or in general when he became too serious. It was strange for him to be in the position of comforter. The sinking feeling in his stomach had come back in full force.

Staring a hole into the kitchen counter he said, very quietly, “The next time you get the urge to go on a blind date, maybe you shouldn’t.”

“Because I’m hopeless?” Myeong Woo laughed, joylessly. "Maybe I should have gone for the pep talk after all."

“Next time, just talk to me. Just ask me. I’ll let you buy me dinner.”

Their eyes met, and Myeong Woo held his gaze, brow furrowed. They sat silently like that, just looking at each other for a long time.

Eun Hyuk couldn’t tell what Myeong Woo was thinking, but suddenly he was sure he knew what that ball of uneasiness in his gut was. And it terrified him. Without a word Myeong Woo had reached up and slowly pulled the towel Eun Hyuk was still wearing off his wet hair.

“Maybe I’ll do that.” Myeong Woo said, breaking eye contact finally and standing unsteadily up. “I’m going to bed.”

Eun Hyuk stayed on his stool. Watched Detective Son sway and stagger his way to his room, and then remained in the kitchen alone for a long time. Somehow, in the suffocating heat of the cramped apartment, he shivered.

Chapter Text

Myeong Woo made it back into his room with an effort and slumped heavily against his closed door. His room was lit orangely by the streetlights outside which even heavy blinds couldn’t block out entirely. He pressed one hand to his breastbone. His heart was pounding hard, as if he’s been running.

He whispered, “Stupid. You’re stupid.” Beating on his chest several times as though to knock some sense into it.

Was it perhaps to mess with him that Team Leader always looked so earnest? His eyes soft, puppy-like. That drooping towel, half obscuring his face, magnifying the effect. It was infuriating, but it made Myeong Woo feel protective.

But he knew he shouldn’t play around like that. He shouldn’t flirt. He shouldn’t entertain that almost overwhelming urge to grab Eun Hyuk’s face and…

Clumsy fingers struggled to unfasten the buttons of his shirt as he fell into his bed in an undershirt and slacks. Too lazy to be bothered with disrobing any further, he rolled onto his back and looked up at the street shapes outlined with that nervy orange light.

“A Team Leader is still a Team Leader. Whether he’s at the station, or half naked in your apartment. He’s still your boss.” He said it aloud, but quietly. The walls were dangerously thin in this apartment.
In his head he said, he’s still your boss. And you can’t screw your boss. Not when you’re boss’s dad is the police commissioner. Not if you like being a detective.

He fought to keep his heavy eyes open. Already he could envision his next blind date, and a long succession of blind dates. Expensive, unpleasant, pointless. His sister all too happy to locate unlikely match after unlikely match until he died a miserable, terminally single detective of too much bad foreign cuisine and boredom. But he would keep going on them anyway, because it was a good reminder not to get ahead of himself and not to want troublesome things.

And absolutely not to kiss anybody, no matter how much they were asking for it.

***

Myeong Woo woke late the next day. A throbbing pain had set up right between his eyes. He looked down at the watch he was still wearing and waited for his double vision to correct itself.

“God damn it.”

He quickly stripped and selected something more appropriate to wear at the station. His customary attire: practical, dark colored, comfortable. He barely had time to hop in and out of the shower and run his fingers through his wet hair.

Hopping on one foot he pulled his socks on as he entered the kitchen expecting to be met with a pleasantly chiding greeting from the direction of the kitchen. Team Leader Kang was nowhere to be seen. Detective Son was running late, but not that late. He spotted a note in Eun Hyuk’s neat, precise handwriting hanging from a refrigerator magnet.

Minor Emergency
Can’t ride with you this morning.
See you at the station.

KEH

A minor emergency for the Team Leader could mean anything from an apocalyptic scenario to a broken coffee machine. And since Myeong Woo knew now that he was not going be taking the Team Leader to work in his car, he slackened his breakneck pace. Brushing his teeth while dishing up a breakfast of leftover rice and fish, then regretting that he’d preformed the operations in that order while he ate it.

He noticed that every kitchen surface was littered with the classified pages of various newspapers.

He was really so anxious to move out?

He noticed where Eun Hyuk had circled particular ads with a highlighter. In theory, Myeong Woo knew this was what he wanted—what he was supposed to want—but still it annoyed him. It’s because of the mess, he told himself. The kitchen looks like a grade school art project.

Checking his pockets for his wallet and his credentials he was ready to run out the door. But halfway into the hallway he turned and marched back into the kitchen, peevishly sweeping the arrayed newspapers into a crumpled ball in his arms. All together they made a rather considerable bundle.

He dumped the collected papers into the recycling outside his building and headed to his car.

***

It was with no little anxiety that Detective Son walked into the office and found several of his teammates and support staff unpacking their desks into file boxes. After recovering from the initial shock he accosted Detective Min, who appeared to be in the middle of transporting a full box of case files to storage.

“What is going on?” he asked, in voice that was rather too loud for the unnatural hush of the room.

Detective Min didn’t answer right away; instead he shook his head and cut his eyes toward the metal staircase adjacent to their desks. Myeong Soo looked around him.

For the first time he noticed unfamiliar people in identical starched, dark suits moving in an out of the Commissioner’s and what had formerly been the Planning Officer’s offices. He began to get an inkling of what was going on, and he had that sinking feeling he got every time he heard the gears of bureaucracy begin to crank.

He signed ‘okay’ to the Detective and made his way to the metal stair, carefully trying to avoid direct eye contact with the people who were very obviously there from Internal Affairs.

He found Team Leader Kang hunched there, his arms dangling over his knees, mouth silently working as though he was trying to work something out in his head. As Myeong Woo approached he caught the movement and lifted his head to look at him.

Myeong Woo made a helpless gesture and said, “What happened?”

Team Leader’s voice was hard and official. But laced with that underlying sense of guilt that Myeong Woo had started to be able to recognize, “Effective immediately, the task force has been dissolved. We are all on immediate forced leave pending the outcome of the corruption investigation against my father.”