State of emergency
Title: State of emergency
Pairing: Jongin/D.O
Word Count: 8837 words
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: possible mental disorder, mentions of abuse when young, minor character deaths
Summary: It can't be, this can't be happening.
Author's note: written for the forjongin exchange.
“This is the Daily News reporting. Yet another body has been found yesterday, 5th of October at around 12 noon. It was found floating around the Cheonggye. From what the police have gathered so far, it seems like the Tuesday killer has striked again. General public is once again sent into a mild state of panic as he continues to walk around the cities scott-free, and another press conference has been held regarding the latest murder. More details later at the 8pm news,” the strangely monotone voice of the reporter floats through the speakers and out into the streets, reaching the ears of a certain man and adults and children around him alike. The other adults gasp upon hearing this piece of news, and they quickly guide their children, or walk away soon after the screen crackles, images of the reporter dissolving into nothingness as the screen blanks out. Behind where an innocent preschool child used to stand, only a man remains. With his hands stuffed into his pockets, and a smirk fair too wide to be considered normal. He watches the image fade before pulling his cap further down over his face, starting to walk back home.
//
Home.
Where Kyungsoo should really be.
Also where Kyungsoo definitely isn’t. (As of now, at least.)
He had burst into his workplace some ten minutes ago, having been woken up by a phone call from none other than the Park Chanyeol. As far as phone calls made by Park Chanyeol go, especially those at 9 in the morning, he usually blabbers his way through them, but the message is still clear enough for Kyungsoo, having been a victim of this for at least two years.
When he walks in, his teammates stare at him with widened eyes. His eyes quickly flicker over to what they’re crowding around, and the scene is almost comical in the way that they part for him when he slowly walks over, as if he is an emperor.
Maybe it was out of impatience, maybe it was out of annoyance at having been woken up so early, only to arrive and find his teammates staring at a parcel instead of getting down to cracking a case, any case, considering their workload. He stares at the parcel, face scrunching up in distaste at the ugly handwriting before he brings his hand up in a silent request for scissors.
A collective intake of breath is heard throughout the workplace as Kyungsoo slowly unwraps the brown paper packaging (part for suspense, for Kyungsoo’s sickeningly sadistic side and part by accident because the brown paper is indeed hard to tear.) A box is soon revealed, and a vial could be seen inside.
Oddly cold to touch, Kyungsoo tries not to stare at the sole finger-the ring finger, probably-that is floating inside of it, instead choosing to turn the box around. There, he finds a piece of paper attached to it. On it are simply four numbers.
Time.
//
On the other hand, on the same day, same morning, Jongin saunters into his office ten minutes late, a cup of coffee in his right hand, his phone in his left, with his headphones still fitted snugly on top of his ears. He forgoes greetings and chooses to plunge himself down into his seat, quickly starting up his laptop to start on work.
He searches for articles on the one case that he’s been tasked to follow till the end, and (he quotes his editor) even at the risk of-well, whatever that was precious to him. Humming as he searches up recent news reports on the Tuesday killer, coupled with the document that the PR department of the police had been sent out with official statements and findings earlier, Jongin continues his article from yesterday.
The constant slamming of fingers against keyboards become a dull sound compared to the scenes that play out in Jongin’s head as he writes his article, occasionally interrupted by the shouting of his editor, rushing him so that they’d get to publish his article in time for the evening news.
He finishes at around four in the afternoon, slumping back into his chair the moment his fingers leave the enter button and a pop-up shows up on his screen, indicating that his article has already been sent to his editor. He stretches his back lazily as he rubs at his eyes tiredly, back sore from being upright for the past few hours as he worked tensely, not even realizing it because he was so absorbed. Next to his cubicle, he suddenly sees Luhan’s head pop up, eyebrow raised at Jongin, who had let out a loud sigh unconsciously upon finishing his work earlier. Jongin only smiles and reaches out to ruffle Luhan’s hair because he knows Luhan hates having his hair messed up, finding enjoyment in the way he watches Luhan scowl at him and attempt to fix his hair.
They exchange a few words before Luhan quickly goes back to work, and by the time Jongin leaves the office, copies of the day’s evening news have already been stacked up at the front door of their office, for people to pick up on their way out. Pick one up does Jongin do, perusing through the articles with a considerably less amount of interest compared to when he finds other articles on murder or rape in the paper. He sees the other commuters with a copy of Seoul News in their hands and feels an odd sense of pride, knowing that he had contributed into delivering news to the people of their country, too. Tuesday Killer strikes again, man, 25, murdered, the biggest title in bold font reads. Man found floating around in Cheonggye river after death, is printed below it, in finer print.
His fingers are slightly stained with black by the time he reaches home, having been holding the newspaper in his hand the time he was on the train and he immediately takes a seat, in front of his computer this time. To say that he’s obsessive with the Tuesday killer might be fitting, as seen in the way he sits down in front of his computer after getting home, at least 15 tabs regarding the latest news and information about him opened up on his browser.
He is obsessive in the way he does it daily, making sure not to leave out any clues he can find, sometimes even going as far as to printing the articles out and pasting them on the wall behind his computer. Obsessive in the same way he has to lock his door three times before he leaves his house with an assured heart. Exactly three. No more, no less. There were times when he was already late, yet his brain tells him to lock unlock, lock unlock, lock unlock lock. He vaguely wonders about the police force’s progress on this case, and that night, he sleeps, surprisingly with minimal amount of fear coursing through his veins at the thought.
//
On his way home, Kyungsoo walks past a newsstand on his way to the bus stop where he always takes the 7:15 bus if he doesn’t have to work overtime. He moved out of his parents’ home halfway through college, and has been enjoying living in solitude since then. Kyungsoo might like the smell of his mother’s home made food, and his parents’ encouragements whenever they see him stressed sometimes, but he enjoys being alone almost just as much.
The bold words printed on the first page was what had caught his eye in the first place, and without much thinking, he picks a copy up and pays for it, skimming through the other articles in the paper as he tries to find the cover story.
Tuesday Killer strikes again, man, 25, murdered, the biggest title in bold font reads. Man found floating around in Cheonggye river after death. The police have received a finger before they were alerted of where the body was once again, and have found the finger to have been cut off the right hand of the victim’s body, like the previous two cases. It is said to be the ring finger this time, and so far, no more news have been revealed about the fourth case. This is already the fourth victim, yet the police seem to be at loss of what to do themselves, considering the fact that they have not made much effort to reassure the public that they will capture the killer soon. The citizens are sent into a mild panic every Tuesday night, wondering if they might be next, and many comments regarding that can be found on social media and popular forums. We all hope that this killer will be arrested soon.
Kyungsoo raises a brow after he reads through it, finding something strange about it. But the police have never revealed which finger it was. He looks down to look for the writer’s name, and wonders if any of his teammates might know of a Kim Jongin.
//
It is a week later that Kyungsoo groans when again, he arrives at his workplace earlier than he would have liked, Chanyeol calling him at stupid-o-clock once again.
He dragged himself up for a cold shower upon waking up, and arrives at his workplace almost in the same state of mind that he was in a week earlier. It’s almost like déjà vu, because his teammates are once again waiting for him to open the parcel, the damned package lying there almost innocently. They have been getting these packages ever since the start of the killings of the Tuesday killer, and it seems like his country’s mailing system is pretty efficient after all, he muses to himself in a sick way. Trust him to be joking around with four people already killed in the past month.
Wednesday is officially his new least favourite day of the week, because on that day, he usually wakes up with a start to Chanyeol’s nonsensical blabber, and he lays in bed for another minute before he gets up to take a cold shower to steel himself for what awaits him at work. He follows a cleanly put together system as he lives, and he finds comfort in it. His mind is quickly-unwillingly-brought back to the present as instead of a finger, a whole right hand is placed neatly inside the box. With its fingers folded into a victory sign.
That definitely woke Kyungsoo up, as anger slowly started to boil inside of him at having been indirectly insulted, at having the nation’s elite detective force get insulted. They work closely with the police, only with more secrecy because they are supposed to be elites, which mean that they are tasked to solve the more important ones of out the cases the police force receives. He shakes his head, as if it would clear out his thoughts as he flips to the back of the box with bated breath. At least the four numbers are still there.
Any sense of relief that Kyungsoo had had earlier when he found at least a similarity in the killer’s methods from before quickly disappears as he arrives at the scene. A black bag is placed at one of the benches in a playground in the neighbourhood where he lives, and the nosy housewives and reporters are crowded around the red tape that keeps them from going closer to the crime scene. Kyungsoo resists the urge to somewhat snort, but he remembers that he’s under the watch of many eyes and cameras, and that he’s also dealing with a murder whose IQ might also be higher than his. The black bag looks like everything they’ve been taught to be wary of since young, but he also knows firsthand how this works, how sometimes the saying the most dangerous place might be the safest place is actually true. Where the same place would usually be filled with kids laughing and running around, it is now full of adults.
And a dead body.
//
As far as things go, Lady Luck is obviously not on Kyungsoo, or his team’s side.
They do manage to find the person who left the bag there a few hours later, and maybe they had let their hopes get a little too high before they actually interrogated said person because which high-profile murder would willingly let his wrists get cuffed?
Kyungsoo sighs loudly as he takes a seat in front of the man they had just arrested with Sehun, who’s spinning his pen idly in between his fingers with his ever-bored expression fixed on his face, next to him.
“Who told you to do this?” Kyungsoo starts out, he finds that some of these routine questions are a waste of time, but he has no choice but to ask them anyway.
“No one.”
//
It goes on like this. Arrested man-Jongdae, it reads on the form on Sehun’s clipboard when Kyungsoo took a peek earlier-refuses to speak. Even when he does, he says nothing useful, only goes on about how he got told by someone to do this. He’s only revealed that the killer is a man, which is sort of shocking considering his lack of sexual motives on all his victims thus far. Jongdae stops then, only blabbering on about how who the man is doesn’t matter, because all he wants to do is die, or at least get himself into jail because he’s so tired of his life outside. He’s so desperate that the killer hadn’t even needed to pay him a single cent, the promise of being able to break out of his previous routine being payment enough for him.
The killer is obviously starting to get ahead of himself, of being able to add more names to his list of victims after every week, and Kyungsoo’s team isn’t getting anywhere at all.
“So,” Kyungsoo says, throwing the file he had in his hand onto the conference table as the rest of his team members file into their office after him, “let’s try again.”
They start out by putting up whatever pictures they have of the case so far-place where the body was found, of the fingers or hand they got, autopsy pictures, everything-and they go along, relooking into the past few cases to try to find any new similarities that they may have missed out before. So far, they’ve only managed to point out the fact that all the victims were killed in the same way, through asphyxiation. They were all strangled with what seemed like a thin wire until they stopped struggling, evident in the purpling line found across the neck of the five vitctims.
Kyungsoo stares at the various pictures of the fingers, as if it would help. The piece of paper that could always be found on the back of the box always gives a time, and it has already been proven to be the time that the person had died. Kyungsoo suddenly turns to his team members, hoping they had found something. “Anything?” he was met with more sighs and shaking of heads except for one.
“Chanyeol?” Kyungsoo tried, but the other seemed to be very focused on whatever he was doing, and as Kyungsoo walks up, he finds that the other is-drawing.
A mild wave of anger quickly floods Kyungsoo’s veins as he gives Chanyeol’s arm a push, effectively ruining the straight line the other had been trying to draw. Chanyeol turns around with an uninterested face, as if he hadn’t been drawing in the middle of a serious discussion. “What?”
Kyungsoos sighs resignedly and walks back to where he was before, fingers tapping a random rhythm into the conference table. “I think, that the finger represents the number of people he’s killed. But instead of the pinky for the fifth person, he decided to present us with the entire hand instead.” Chanyeol’s latest revelation has everyone scrambling to arrange the pictures of the cases they received in chronological order, matching the finger they had gotten along with it. They hadn’t gotten a finger in the first case at all, the fingers had only started coming in during the second case-the bodies were still found because the killer strategically disposed of them in semi-public areas. Meanwhile, Chanyeol continues to extend the straight line, ignoring the chaos Kyungsoo had caused on the piece of white paper compared to the consistency of his straight line, and even Kyungsoo’s surprised that Chanyeol had managed to figure this out, considering that he hadn’t looked like he had been paying attention at all.
Everyone turns to look at Chanyeol uniformly once they confirm what Chanyeol had said, and it feels like a horror movie and a comedy all at once, in the way he looks up and glances at everyone before looking back down. Kyungsoo sighs and they call it a day.
//
The next day, they hold a press conference. Or rather, his bosses do. They sit at the back, backs all ramrod straight, a fake smile plastered on their faces throughout the entire one hour or so.
There’s this reporter guy-Jongin-who was the only one from Seoul News there, which is slightly unusual because usually at least two people from the same team come, one of them being in charge of taking photos while the other records the questions and their answers down. Jongin, however, does not seem to have a problem handling both by himself-not that Kyungsoo was staring enough to know, totally not.
Kyungsoo quickly stares straight again, forcing the corners of his lips up when he feels his smile dropping, even if it’s at the expense of his facial muscles. He doesn’t really have a choice.
By the time they file out of the conference room, finally away from all the flashing lights and annoying shutter sounds, their cheeks hurt.
Sehun throws his file onto his table once they get back to their office and buries his head into his hands, mumbling what’s wrong with that Jongin guy, and Kyungsoo suspects that it’s a question, and that he expects the rest of them to agree with him or something, but like always, anything Sehun says comes out sounding flat, questions more like commands and statements.
They had all expected the conference to go on like any other, however, there was this one guy by the name of Kim Jongin, from Seoul News, who kept asking questions, questions that even Kyungsoo’s boss couldn’t answer himself. It was as if he was truly interested in this case himself, and he wasn’t asking the questions for the sake of his job. Just thinking about it sends chills down Kyungsoo’s spine, because Jongin had his eyes on Kyungsoo almost the entire time, and while it might be flattering to be stared at, he doesn’t really appreciate the extra attention.
Kyungsoo shakes his head, as if that could dispel all the negative thoughts that were starting to surface along with the pressure of still not being able to crack a case like this, and they all go home soon after that.
//
“This is so difficult,” Baekhyun whines. Kyungsoo doesn’t even have to look at Sehun to know that he had just rolled his eyes at that. I know, Kyungsoo replies to Sehun mentally. He feels like rolling his eyes at Baekhyun too. Nothing about this job is easy, will ever be easy, and they have already been told that even before day one.
It’s Tuesday night, and they are all in their office, working overtime yet again. It’s hard to find even one bad quality about the newest victim, it seems. Statements have been taken about the kind of person he was like, questions about any conflicts he might have had recently have been asked repeatedly, but they were all answered with a frown and a shake of the head.
There seems to be an almost ominous atmosphere around their office, and everyone knows why. Anytime in anyplace of Seoul, another person would be killed, and yet they can do nothing about it.
As far as they know, the fingers they get are preserved in formaldehyde. Nothing surprising, a simple Google search would tell you how to obtain it, and even make it yourself. The victims are all killed by asphyxiation, the thin line around their necks say everything.
And that’s what’s confusing them.
They are being spun around in circles, because the victims so far don’t seem to have any vices, much less a motive for the killer to want to kill them. The methods all seem so straightforward and clean, there’s almost no flaw. What exactly is it that might have ticked the killer off-
Kyungsoo’s train of thoughts is interrupted by a loud yawn, followed by an immediate apology from Baekhyun. It’s past midnight, yet they are still looking through all their evidences and everything they have collected so far. He understands, he really does. They’re all tired, so is Kyungsoo. One glance across the room shows Kyungsoo how the bags below Sehun’s eyes seem to have darkened, and how Chanyeol’s eyes are threatening to close themselves, but the thought of them coming back tomorrow to find another finger, the thought of them returning home to sleep while another citizen’s life is taken, irritates Kyungsoo.
//
Meanwhile, Jongin has been sticking to his new daily routine fairly well - burst into office ten minutes late, finish the article of the day, annoy Luhan before going home to check up on the news of the Tuesday killer.
Except that it’s Wednesday afternoon, and instead of staying in his cubicle to finish his article like he usually would, he’s out, under the burning sun.
He’s taken to trying to make sure that he’s there every time the police arrive at the crime scene, so that he can get more information to write about. Or at least that’s what he tells himself. He’s really doing this just so that he can see more of a certain detective with heart-shaped lips. Jongin doesn’t even know his name, but his superficial attraction is enough to keep him going. Luhan would tell him that it’s good to get himself out more anyway.
This is the sixth victim, he hears-eavesdrops-as he pushes past civilians and other fellow reporters, trying to get to the front. Many of them glare at him, but of course, he doesn’t notice them, because he sort of only has one goal for personally coming down, and he’s going to make sure that every trip is worth his while.
Kyungsoo’s speaking quickly, lips opening and closing at a faster than usual rate. As expected, thanks to Chanyeol’s observation, they have received a left thumb encased in its usual vial this time. It isn’t much, but Kyungsoo counts this as progress. Baby steps. After all, it is better than nothing at all.
//
Jongin hasn’t done this in some time, having been more focused on his job than on finding a new love interest and he fears that he might be a little rusty.
He made sure to finish this work early that day, bidding a quick goodbye to Luhan before he rushed out of his office. Pushing his back off the wall, Jongin glances at his watch before he starts walking after the cute detective once he spots him walking out of his office building. He keeps a safe distance though, the thrill of possibly getting caught any second keeps him on edge, palms almost sweating as he makes sure to keep himself out of view should his target turn back any moment.
(Jongin often doesn’t consider other people’s feelings, and he gets attracted to pretty (by his standards) faces easily, and it doesn’t help that he isn’t that bad looking himself either, and all of these factors end up making up his tendency to stalk the people he’s got his eyes on at the moment. He would say that he often falls into what most people would call superficial love because he really only likes people based on their looks, less of their personality.)
Jongin’s already getting tired, and this is only his first day. Jongin stops somewhere halfway through, standing in front of one of the ramen stalls along the street because the smell distracted him. Then, he spots a familiar figure making his way up a bus when it arrives. He immediately starts jogging towards it, and when he sees that even the last of the commuters are about to board already, he starts to run, almost tripping in his haste. Jongin ends up bursting into the bus while panting, not exactly the most ideal way of stalking if he’s asked, because he definitely has the entire bus’ eyes on him now, even the cute detective’s.
With careful steps, Jongin slowly makes his way down the aisle after paying, stopping before the double seater where the detective was sitting on, looking at him as if to ask for permission, and his object of interest moves his bag onto his lap before Jongin takes his seat with a small smile on his face.
As cute as Kyungsoo might think Kim Jongin is, he is shocked to find that he is actually sitting next to him, with that cute smile. How could they could they possibly share the same bus home all this while without Kyungsoo knowing? Then again, all Kyungsoo does is stare out of the window on his ride home, thinking about ways to crack whatever case he might be working on. Probably explains that then.
Shifting in his seat, Jongin turns to his side as he holds a hand out for a handshake. “Hello, you’re part of the team for the Tuesday killer case, right? I saw you at the press conference. My name is Kim Jongin.”
Kyungsoo almost rolls his eyes and says I know, you couldn’t stop with your questions that day, it was impossible to not notice you, instead, he settles for shaking his hand firmly. “Do Kyungsoo, head of the team, yes.”
Jongin says the name a few times mentally, grinning to himself at the fact that he’s already gotten a name to match the face he’s after this quickly. His object of interest is sitting there right beside him, and they have just introduced themselves to each other. Jongin thinks this must be the first time he’s getting to know whoever he was stalking before this quickly, and he feels lucky that he doesn’t have to bother with more days of hiding himself behind Kyungsoo. Throughout the trip, he sits next to Kyungsoo quietly, fists clenching in an effort to keep any words he has down lest he scares Kyungsoo away too quickly. This is all going really well, and Jongin doesn’t want to screw up just yet.
Eventually, Jongin gets up upon seeing Kyungsoo do the same, and he sees Kyungsoo raise his eyebrows at him before he gets off the bus, as if to say you too? And Jongin just shrugs in answer.
Waving overexcitedly at Kyungsoo, Jongin turns around and starts walking in the opposite direction after Kyungsoo’s back view disappears from his line of sight.
That day, he gets home and sits down in front of his computer, satisfied with the results of his little stalk.
//
The sun goes up, the sun goes down, but for Kyungsoo things go up and down within the span of seven days alone.
Over the next few days after he first shares (or maybe it has already been a few weeks? months? he doesn’t know, for he never noticed) the bus with Jongin, he bumps into Jongin at the same bus stop again every time he’s there. They take the same bus, get off at the same stop before Jongin bids him goodbye with his usual wave and walks off in the opposite direction, just like the first time.
One day though, Jongin suddenly asks Kyungsoo out for dinner, and Kyungsoo had wanted to reject, but his stomach had suddenly decided to work against him, letting out a loud growl. He ended up having to forsake his place in the queue for the bus as Jongin drags him to a ramen stall nearby. Kyungsoo was slightly taken aback at Jongin’s sudden question, but he was more shocked at how he let himself be dragged away. Damn Jongin.
Taking a seat after they arrive at the ramen stall, a waiter drops by their table to hand them both a menu each. Jongin takes a quick look before he seemingly settles on what he wants to eat, because he closes the menu and props his chin up with his palms, staring unabashedly at Kyungsoo.
Not again, Kyungsoo swallows, closing his own menu as well. He folds his arms and rests them on the table, mustering as much courage as he can to stare back at Jongin in the eyes as he speaks, not wanting to seem timid.
“Decided on what you want to eat?”
“Yeah, you.” Jongin smirks, and gives Kyungsoo’s foot a nudge under the table. Jongin’s lack of concern rings alarms in Kyungsoo’s head. This isn’t the first time he had so straightforwardly made a suggestive comment at Kyungsoo, and Kyungsoo reckons that it wouldn’t be the last either. And Jongin hadn’t looked the least bit repentant when Kyungsoo was sure that each time after the comment, despite the fact that his discomfort could be seen written all over his face.
Kyungsoo really doesn’t know what to think of Jongin (aside from the fact that he has a good looking face).
Kyungsoo decidedly ignores Jongin’s answer and raises his hand to call a waiter over so that they can place their orders, and he guesses that Jongin actually had no interest in wanting to eat at all. Either that, or he had just so happened to pick the same thing Kyungsoo ordered, because he had so simply answered with a same when the waiter turned to him expectantly.
Halfway through the meal, Jongin had suddenly raised his hand, deciding to call for some beer. Unluckily enough, Kyungsoo isn’t the best drinker around.
In fact, he doesn’t even remember how they had gotten to talking about morals, about the case, about many things. All he remembers is cup after cup of beer getting shoved towards his direction, and honestly, Jongin doesn’t seem to be doing that well himself.
“I think it’s -“ burp, “pretty cool how this guy can kill so many people like this-“ Jongin says drunkenly, elbow propping his arm up on the table, the cup of beer threatening to spill any moment with the way he’s holding it.
“It isn’t cool if you are supposed to deal with him.”Kyungsoo deadpans, his finished bowl of ramen pushed aside.
“Would you kill, if you were given the chance?” It stuns Kyungsoo, the way this question suddenly came up. He properly ponders over it for a few moments, the faces of everyone he’s remembered not liking surfacing in his mind. But before he’s actually answered, mouth open and hanging, ready to speak, Jongin speaks again. “I would.”
“Kill all those fuckers. None of them deserve to live.” Kyungsoo, for one, doesn’t know who those fuckers are, and he doesn’t know if he should be shocked at Jongin’s cursing or his words. His drunken mind doesn’t help, and he doesn’t refuse when Jongin stands up and helps him up, pulling his wallet out of his back pocket to pay for their meal. Kyungsoo, when sober, would have insisted that they go Dutch, but drunk Kyungsoo doesn’t pay much attention to his surroundings at all.
Jongin actually reaches Kyungsoo’s doorstep this time, with the help of Kyungsoo’s pointing around. Their walk home had consisted of drunken giggling when one of them tripped, usually Kyungsoo, and leaning against each other for more support.Even through his slightly drunken haze (Jongin’s much better at holding his liquor compared to Kyungsoo, really), he’s excited to look into Kyungsoo’s house, be able to see the kind of environment that his object of interest goes home to everyday, lives in everyday.
Too bad Kyungsoo took away this privilege.
Or, to be more accurate, Jongin fucked it up himself.
They stopped right in front of Kyungsoo’s door, and while Kyungsoo fumbled around his pockets for his keys, head leaning against the door for stability, Jongin was standing around awkwardly, trying his best not to stare at Kyungsoo’s face. He wants to be invited in, preferably on the pretense of not being able to go home alone because he was drunk, but he didn’t want to ask. There was also another question lingering on the tip of Jongin’s tongue, and he isn’t so sure if it was because of his drunken state of mind or his subconscious wants.
But because Jongin is Jongin, and Jongin usually has little regard of others’ feelings, he leans forward and presses his lips against the corner of Kyungsoo’s lips, missing Kyungsoo’s lips because of miscalculation. His eyes meet Kyungsoo’s widened ones, but none of them do anything. Jongin doesn’t make to kiss him properly, but Kyungsoo doesn’t push him away either. Then, Kyungsoo quickly takes a step back, as if he needed a few moments to think if he wanted Jongin to continue or not. The door knob twists and the door opens, and Kyungsoo quickly waves before he slinks back into the comfort of his own home, leaving Jongin who had almost tripped when Kyungsoo pulled away so suddenly to stand there alone.
Clothes litter the path to Kyungsoo’s bathroom as he peels his clothes off in a hurry, forgetting to turn on the heater before he shoves himself under the shower head and turns it on, letting the cold water wake him up. The pelting water droplets always help, and Kyungsoo feels just a little more sober than before by the time he gets into his own bed. He totally doesn’t think of Jongin’s lips and Jongin’s face and Jongin’s everything, nope.
That night, Kyungsoo goes to sleep still arguing with himself that it was wrong, and that sure, Jongin was good looking, but that was pretty much it, they barely even know each other.
Jongin, however, goes to sleep not with the shame and guilt that he’s supposed to feel, and he knows the alcohol is not the reason why he doesn’t feel the least bit guilty at all.
//
Surprisingly, or maybe not so, things go back to normal between them. None of them bring that incident up, both under the impression that the other was too drunk to remember anything anyway. It works in their favour, because they don’t want to make things awkward with each other. Nothing’s really changed between them, except for this.
One day, Kyungsoo suddenly receives a text from an unknown number claiming that he had ordered pizza. Puzzled, he replied back that he hadn’t, and that the delivery guy must have made some kind of mistake, because he was in the middle of another discussion with his team members.
Later, because Jongin got bored and Kyungsoo wasn’t catching onto his flirting, he reveals himself. When Kyungsoo asked Jongin how he had gotten his number, Jongin simply replied with I have my ways.
From then on, they start to text each other pretty often-more of Jongin than Kyungsoo, because Kyungsoo’s always busier anyway-so much that even Luhan has started to take notice, and he’s usually the last to find out about any romantic developments around him because he’s blur like that.
Where things have gone smoothly for Jongin-same old schedule, same old boring work days-it hasn’t for Kyungsoo.
It is a Monday when Kyungsoo gets called into his boss, Junmyeon’s, office. It doesn’t take a Sehun to know that it means that something is up. (Sehun is actually the smartest amongst all of them, and even Baekhyun’s learned to tell the difference between getting called in to get a scolding and a praise.)
Knuckles come into contact with the door twice, and the door opens to Junmyeon’s usually lax and friendly face being pulled into a slight frown when he sees Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo doesn’t want to admit it, but he’s nervous. Anyone would be, really. Despite having a kind face, Junmyeon’s been known to be able to be strict and scary when he has to be, and that fact makes Kyungsoo’s palms sweat even more.
Kyungsoo watches him sort through documents on his desk while he sits silently, trying not to fidget too much when a question suddenly pops out of nowhere.
“What has your group been doing?” rings louder in Kyungsoo’s ears than it should have. He didn’t expect Junmyeon to suddenly start talking, much less ask such a question. Kyungsoo isn’t even given the chance to reply before Junmyeon starts talking again. “Do you know how many letters we have received, all about the public saying that they’re scared of being next?” He doesn’t even have to think, Kyungsoo knows what he’s referring to. He only has one case going on for him anyway, and recently the only crime anyone ever talks about is the Tuesday killer’s. Petty crimes pretty much pale in comparison to this case.
Kyungsoo’s ears burn red in shame and his eyes sting with embarrassment, at having been unable to live up to the country and his boss’ expectations. He doesn’t get to feel it for long though, because Junmyeon starts talking again, and Kyungsoo is forced to sit there and nod his head constantly as he goes off on all the things that have gone wrong, not even mentioning anything that has gone right.
That’s right, maybe it’s because his team has barely done anything right at all.
By the time Kyungsoo is allowed to leave, he feels like he’s just gotten the longest scolding of his life. He returns back to his office while massaging his temples with his fingers to help ease the headache he had from all those words, and his team members all leave him alone. They know not to approach him when he’s having a headache, even more so when he’s just gotten a scolding on behalf of the rest of them.
They have recently called back all the people questioned before for another round of questioning because they didn’t have anything conclusive with their current data so far. With the time that Kyungsoo has alone, with the company of the dull throbbing in his temples, he looks through all of the evidence and answers again, files scattered across his desk while his team members go about doing their own part.
Halfway through looking through the statements, he realizes that one of them had brought up that the victim, Zhang Yixing, had been seen in what could be considered a more serious conversation with a child while looking annoyed. While normal people would think that that is normal, and that the kid had probably done something to annoy Yixing like that, Kyungsoo knows better. If this is the reason behind all the murders, the killer must’ve suffered from some form of abuse from his parents when he was young. The Jongdae guy barely helped either, and they ended up keeping him in probation after realizing that he was of little help, but knowing that they'll need him in the future when they've finally caught the killer.
That day they all go home with something new on their hands, and that is the knowledge that all of the victims have argued or come into contact with a child in a less than friendly way on the day that they died.
//
When Kyungsoo’s just starting to think that things might be taking a turn for the better for his team, he’s proved wrong almost immediately.
A week hasn’t fully passed yet, but they have received a package again. However, this package is lighter than all the others from before, and Kyungsoo can’t help but start to feel suspicious as he tears the brown paper apart once again. He definitely did not expect to see what he saw.
Beneath all the brown wrapping paper is a box, as usual. But after opening the box, instead of its usual vial and a piece of paper telling the time of death, there is only a piece of paper this time.
On it, says D K S.
They all look at each other as they try to figure out what the three letters might mean, but Kyungsoo doesn’t need to think to know. Is this how the victims felt right before they got strangled? In an instant, it felt like a wire was wrapped around his neck, cold and unforgiving. Kyungsoo felt like any move he made tighten it. Sehun breaks the silence by starting to speak, slowly. “Do… Kyungsoo?”
His team has been doing a lot of the turning to look at the same thing together recently, and they do not fail this time as he suddenly feels the few pairs of eyes fixate on him. He wants to bury himself. He doesn’t even remember to be surprised at the fact that Sehun had finally asked a proper question after all those years of working with him.
The rest of the day passes by in a mess because Kyungsoo couldn’t stop his thoughts from running wild, he doesn’t know how to stop himself from thinking that anyone and anything around him might kill him any moment, and he feels that if he doesn’t die under the killer’s hands, he might die from driving himself crazy.
//
Coincidentally, Jongin and Kyungsoo manage to walk past a man scolding a child by the roadside that evening, and Kyungsoo’s fists immediately clench, looking around to see if anyone is paying special attention to them. He finds nothing, though he does see Jongin’s jaw tighten for a moment before he spots Kyungsoo watching him, and he quickly drags him away to the bus stop to distract Kyungsoo probably. It doesn’t stop Kyungsoo’s detective brain from starting to suspect, and Jongin raises an eyebrow when Kyungsoo takes a small step away from him.
//
“Chanyeol? I need your help. I want you to help me do a background check on Kim Jongin. Yes, that annoying Seoul News reporter.”
//
Jongin swears that he hadn’t planned this at all. He hadn’t expected to enjoy the feeling of having the power of being able to kill a person with just a pull of the ends of the wires this much.
In his defense, he was walking around. Really. It was like any other Tuesday night-or any other night, for that matter. Jongin usually liked to wander around alone at night, never needing someone else’s company.
One day though, he was just about to go home after one of his nightly walks when he heard someone crying not too far away from him. Since he didn’t have any work to complete at home that night, Jongin figured that he wasn’t in a rush to get home, and that maybe he should find out what was happening before he makes his way back.
He would have been lying if he said that the scene he saw didn’t bring tears to his own eyes, and the man didn’t stop scolding the child after the child had started crying either. Jongin instantly felt like he was five again, and five means tripping over his own feet while running after his football, five means getting forced into leotards to learn how to execute a perfect pirouette, or a split. Five also means getting scolded for everything he did, wrong or right.
Regardless of the tears that threatened to fall, Jongin stayed rooted to his spot, listening to the scolding and feeling like he was the one getting scolded himself. His fists clenched in an effort to stay put, and he made sure the man was done before he started to move again. Taking care to make sure that the child was okay-which was terribly out of character, but he couldn’t help but step forward to comfort the kid-Jongin took quiet steps behind the man, the practice coming easy to him when he remembers how quiet they had to be back in his ballet classroom, as opposed to the sounds his feet had to make during character dance lessons.
When the man walked into a dark alley, Jongin saw his chance. Emotions overcame him in that instant, and he quickly grabbed the object that was nearest to him-a wire-and looped it around the man’s neck, pulling the ends tight as he felt the man struggle in front of him. Feet kicked around and hands grabbed blindly at Jongin’s own pair while the previous expression of caution on Jongin’s face quickly transformed into one of anger.
It ended almost just as quickly as it started, and soon, the man stopped struggling, while Jongin started struggling himself. His mind was in a state of panic. He had just killed someone. Is he supposed to dump the body into a rubbish bin now? Set up a fire so that no evidence would be left behind? Jongin was only twenty, he didn’t want to go to jail. He did end up dumping the man’s body into a rubbish bin somewhere, too distraught to even remember where he dumped it. And since he didn’t want anyone to find the wire and possibly trace it back to him because of the fingerprints or whatnot, he pulled it away forcefully, and brought it home, where it was safer.
From that day onwards, he started rejecting his friends whenever they said that they had wanted to crash at his house.
Of course, nothing could be hidden forever, and the stench of the body ended up attracting attention. He was, however, pretty sure that he wouldn’t be caught so soon. The thing is, after that first Tuesday night, he started running into more people like that on Tuesday nights as well. The first victim didn't have his finger cut because Jongin had expected it to be a one-off sort of thing, and he hadn't expected it to continue, so he ended up using that method to keep track of the amount of people he has killed.
Of course, he couldn’t possibly kill all of them, but he thought that even if just one of those kind of adults died, it would do greater good to the world. He thought that if there was anyone who should punish people like them, there would be no one more fitting than him, someone who has experienced getting treated like that himself.
//
Against his better judgment, Kyungsoo continues going home with Jongin. After all, it couldn’t be him, right? The world isn’t that small? Sometimes it feels like Kyungsoo’s trying to delude himself. As if the more he told himself that, the more he would believe it.
Jongin’s company came at the expense of Kyungsoo’s mental health. He was pushed into a fight or flight state, and every time Jongin so much as tried to tug him somewhere by pulling at his hand, he felt the urge to turn around and run.
The next Tuesday, the eighth one since the case has started, Jongin asks Kyungsoo out for another dinner date. Jongin tells him that he has found this shop slightly further down the street and that they should drink again to help Kyungsoo loosen up. Kyungsoo reluctantly agrees, and indirectly digs his own grave.
It’s already 11pm yet they were still at the shop, with Jongin babbling on about random things while Kyungsoo nods along. “Them fucking adults. Always thinking that they are the ones who are always right.” Kyungsoo immediately looks up, listening on with more interest now.
“It was me, Kyungsoo-ah. You knew that right?” It can’t be, this can’t be happening. They’ve only had three cups of alcohol at most, and Jongin doesn’t even look that drunk.
Then, Jongin starts to talk about something else, and Kyungsoo quickly excuses himself, not even waiting for Jongin’s reply before he stands up and starts dialing Chanyeol’s number.
Kyungsoo barely gets to greet Chanyeol before he gets knocked out, and Jongin doesn’t even bother with Kyungsoo’s phone as he drags Kyungsoo away.
//
Kyungsoo wakes up to dimly lit room, blinking more in an effort to adjust to the lack of lighting. He seems to be in the living room of a house, but he can’t tell for sure because there isn’t much in the room he’s in. It’s pretty much him, the chair he’s tied to, a random table and Jongin.
Jongin.
“Hi there.” Jongin starts, and Kyungsoo keeps his mouth shut. In all his years of working as a detective, he has never expected his life to end like this. With the pair of scissors he had swinging around in his right hand, Jongin looks much more scarier, a contrast to his usual good looking self. Kyungsoo swallows.
“Let me start by telling you a story. There was once a cute little boy-who shall not be named-who had a happy family. He had his parents by his side, and he had friends. He could easily get what he wanted, and he had the life lots of people were seeking for. Then it all changed.
“He wasn’t even given a choice. Ballet classes one after another, then football. Then getting scolded for nothing. Have you ever been scolded for not being able to do a split? For turning the wrong way? I wouldn’t even be surprised if I had gotten scolded for just breathing, really.” Jongin stops then, scissors still in his hand. Kyungsoo didn't have the time to notice how the pronouns had changed, not when he had the pair of scissors so dangerously close to his face. But honestly, Jongin didn’t have any plans to kill Kyungsoo with the pair, he wanted to do it with his wire, like the previous cases.
//
“Baekhyun! Get an arrest warrant and try to locate Kyungsoo now!”
The entire team was sent panicking after Kyungsoo’s call, while Baekhyun was scrambling around the conference table for his phone, he suddenly saw the background check regarding Kim Jongin. On it, there was a picture of a man by the name of Luhan, apparently Jongin’s best friend. He reads down the document, remembering him being brought in for questioning before. Jongin had family issues.
He also had an abandoned family house.
//
“You know, I actually love you.” Kyungsoo couldn’t help the snort that came out, he knows people like Jongin aren’t capable of that at all. To think he was still being fed lies when he was about to die.
“You’re special, you’re different.” Jongin further goes on to explain how he’s killing Kyungsoo because he wants to keep him, doesn’t want Kyungsoo to belong to anyone else. And really, Kyungsoo doesn’t give a fuck. He either gets out of this alive or he doesn’t, nothing else mattered then. He was mostly half conscious because of the alcohol he had consumed earlier, and he doubts that Jongin is fully sober as well, and his eyes dart around as he tries to find an exit route for himself.
“So, any last words?” Fuck you, Kyungsoo had wanted to say. He was wrong, so wrong in not trusting his mind, wrong in continuing to hang out with Jongin. A cold wire was wrapped around Kyungsoo’s neck, and he felt his breathing start to quicken just at the touch of the metal around his neck. All the things he was telling himself about needing to survive through this before forgotten in the way he closes his eyes and submits under Jongin’s hands. What else can he do but wait for it to happen-
“Kim Jongin, open the fucking door now or else we’ll barge in-“ Wait, this person sounds familiar-Chanyeol?
“The door’s unlocked, come in and make yourselves home, all of you are just in time for the show.” Jongin doesn’t even get to finish his sentence before his whole team barges in, along with a few more police officers. Kyungsoo suddenly feels like he can breathe again.
However, instead of going through with the plan of killing Kyungsoo, Jongin starts backing up, a corner of his lips lifted up by the smirk that was on his face. Being held at gunpoint didn’t allow Jongin to do much, but he knows his own house better than they do, and Kyungsoo’s team close in on him further.
“Don’t do anything silly-” The lights go off.
The lights go off while the last four words that Jongin shouts echo throughout the room. Kyungsoo tries to ignore the sickening sound of what sounds like a body hitting the ground as Jongin’s words repeat in his head.
“See you next time.”
Pairing: Jongin/D.O
Word Count: 8837 words
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: possible mental disorder, mentions of abuse when young, minor character deaths
Summary: It can't be, this can't be happening.
Author's note: written for the forjongin exchange.
“This is the Daily News reporting. Yet another body has been found yesterday, 5th of October at around 12 noon. It was found floating around the Cheonggye. From what the police have gathered so far, it seems like the Tuesday killer has striked again. General public is once again sent into a mild state of panic as he continues to walk around the cities scott-free, and another press conference has been held regarding the latest murder. More details later at the 8pm news,” the strangely monotone voice of the reporter floats through the speakers and out into the streets, reaching the ears of a certain man and adults and children around him alike. The other adults gasp upon hearing this piece of news, and they quickly guide their children, or walk away soon after the screen crackles, images of the reporter dissolving into nothingness as the screen blanks out. Behind where an innocent preschool child used to stand, only a man remains. With his hands stuffed into his pockets, and a smirk fair too wide to be considered normal. He watches the image fade before pulling his cap further down over his face, starting to walk back home.
//
Home.
Where Kyungsoo should really be.
Also where Kyungsoo definitely isn’t. (As of now, at least.)
He had burst into his workplace some ten minutes ago, having been woken up by a phone call from none other than the Park Chanyeol. As far as phone calls made by Park Chanyeol go, especially those at 9 in the morning, he usually blabbers his way through them, but the message is still clear enough for Kyungsoo, having been a victim of this for at least two years.
When he walks in, his teammates stare at him with widened eyes. His eyes quickly flicker over to what they’re crowding around, and the scene is almost comical in the way that they part for him when he slowly walks over, as if he is an emperor.
Maybe it was out of impatience, maybe it was out of annoyance at having been woken up so early, only to arrive and find his teammates staring at a parcel instead of getting down to cracking a case, any case, considering their workload. He stares at the parcel, face scrunching up in distaste at the ugly handwriting before he brings his hand up in a silent request for scissors.
A collective intake of breath is heard throughout the workplace as Kyungsoo slowly unwraps the brown paper packaging (part for suspense, for Kyungsoo’s sickeningly sadistic side and part by accident because the brown paper is indeed hard to tear.) A box is soon revealed, and a vial could be seen inside.
Oddly cold to touch, Kyungsoo tries not to stare at the sole finger-the ring finger, probably-that is floating inside of it, instead choosing to turn the box around. There, he finds a piece of paper attached to it. On it are simply four numbers.
Time.
//
On the other hand, on the same day, same morning, Jongin saunters into his office ten minutes late, a cup of coffee in his right hand, his phone in his left, with his headphones still fitted snugly on top of his ears. He forgoes greetings and chooses to plunge himself down into his seat, quickly starting up his laptop to start on work.
He searches for articles on the one case that he’s been tasked to follow till the end, and (he quotes his editor) even at the risk of-well, whatever that was precious to him. Humming as he searches up recent news reports on the Tuesday killer, coupled with the document that the PR department of the police had been sent out with official statements and findings earlier, Jongin continues his article from yesterday.
The constant slamming of fingers against keyboards become a dull sound compared to the scenes that play out in Jongin’s head as he writes his article, occasionally interrupted by the shouting of his editor, rushing him so that they’d get to publish his article in time for the evening news.
He finishes at around four in the afternoon, slumping back into his chair the moment his fingers leave the enter button and a pop-up shows up on his screen, indicating that his article has already been sent to his editor. He stretches his back lazily as he rubs at his eyes tiredly, back sore from being upright for the past few hours as he worked tensely, not even realizing it because he was so absorbed. Next to his cubicle, he suddenly sees Luhan’s head pop up, eyebrow raised at Jongin, who had let out a loud sigh unconsciously upon finishing his work earlier. Jongin only smiles and reaches out to ruffle Luhan’s hair because he knows Luhan hates having his hair messed up, finding enjoyment in the way he watches Luhan scowl at him and attempt to fix his hair.
They exchange a few words before Luhan quickly goes back to work, and by the time Jongin leaves the office, copies of the day’s evening news have already been stacked up at the front door of their office, for people to pick up on their way out. Pick one up does Jongin do, perusing through the articles with a considerably less amount of interest compared to when he finds other articles on murder or rape in the paper. He sees the other commuters with a copy of Seoul News in their hands and feels an odd sense of pride, knowing that he had contributed into delivering news to the people of their country, too. Tuesday Killer strikes again, man, 25, murdered, the biggest title in bold font reads. Man found floating around in Cheonggye river after death, is printed below it, in finer print.
His fingers are slightly stained with black by the time he reaches home, having been holding the newspaper in his hand the time he was on the train and he immediately takes a seat, in front of his computer this time. To say that he’s obsessive with the Tuesday killer might be fitting, as seen in the way he sits down in front of his computer after getting home, at least 15 tabs regarding the latest news and information about him opened up on his browser.
He is obsessive in the way he does it daily, making sure not to leave out any clues he can find, sometimes even going as far as to printing the articles out and pasting them on the wall behind his computer. Obsessive in the same way he has to lock his door three times before he leaves his house with an assured heart. Exactly three. No more, no less. There were times when he was already late, yet his brain tells him to lock unlock, lock unlock, lock unlock lock. He vaguely wonders about the police force’s progress on this case, and that night, he sleeps, surprisingly with minimal amount of fear coursing through his veins at the thought.
//
On his way home, Kyungsoo walks past a newsstand on his way to the bus stop where he always takes the 7:15 bus if he doesn’t have to work overtime. He moved out of his parents’ home halfway through college, and has been enjoying living in solitude since then. Kyungsoo might like the smell of his mother’s home made food, and his parents’ encouragements whenever they see him stressed sometimes, but he enjoys being alone almost just as much.
The bold words printed on the first page was what had caught his eye in the first place, and without much thinking, he picks a copy up and pays for it, skimming through the other articles in the paper as he tries to find the cover story.
Tuesday Killer strikes again, man, 25, murdered, the biggest title in bold font reads. Man found floating around in Cheonggye river after death. The police have received a finger before they were alerted of where the body was once again, and have found the finger to have been cut off the right hand of the victim’s body, like the previous two cases. It is said to be the ring finger this time, and so far, no more news have been revealed about the fourth case. This is already the fourth victim, yet the police seem to be at loss of what to do themselves, considering the fact that they have not made much effort to reassure the public that they will capture the killer soon. The citizens are sent into a mild panic every Tuesday night, wondering if they might be next, and many comments regarding that can be found on social media and popular forums. We all hope that this killer will be arrested soon.
Kyungsoo raises a brow after he reads through it, finding something strange about it. But the police have never revealed which finger it was. He looks down to look for the writer’s name, and wonders if any of his teammates might know of a Kim Jongin.
//
It is a week later that Kyungsoo groans when again, he arrives at his workplace earlier than he would have liked, Chanyeol calling him at stupid-o-clock once again.
He dragged himself up for a cold shower upon waking up, and arrives at his workplace almost in the same state of mind that he was in a week earlier. It’s almost like déjà vu, because his teammates are once again waiting for him to open the parcel, the damned package lying there almost innocently. They have been getting these packages ever since the start of the killings of the Tuesday killer, and it seems like his country’s mailing system is pretty efficient after all, he muses to himself in a sick way. Trust him to be joking around with four people already killed in the past month.
Wednesday is officially his new least favourite day of the week, because on that day, he usually wakes up with a start to Chanyeol’s nonsensical blabber, and he lays in bed for another minute before he gets up to take a cold shower to steel himself for what awaits him at work. He follows a cleanly put together system as he lives, and he finds comfort in it. His mind is quickly-unwillingly-brought back to the present as instead of a finger, a whole right hand is placed neatly inside the box. With its fingers folded into a victory sign.
That definitely woke Kyungsoo up, as anger slowly started to boil inside of him at having been indirectly insulted, at having the nation’s elite detective force get insulted. They work closely with the police, only with more secrecy because they are supposed to be elites, which mean that they are tasked to solve the more important ones of out the cases the police force receives. He shakes his head, as if it would clear out his thoughts as he flips to the back of the box with bated breath. At least the four numbers are still there.
Any sense of relief that Kyungsoo had had earlier when he found at least a similarity in the killer’s methods from before quickly disappears as he arrives at the scene. A black bag is placed at one of the benches in a playground in the neighbourhood where he lives, and the nosy housewives and reporters are crowded around the red tape that keeps them from going closer to the crime scene. Kyungsoo resists the urge to somewhat snort, but he remembers that he’s under the watch of many eyes and cameras, and that he’s also dealing with a murder whose IQ might also be higher than his. The black bag looks like everything they’ve been taught to be wary of since young, but he also knows firsthand how this works, how sometimes the saying the most dangerous place might be the safest place is actually true. Where the same place would usually be filled with kids laughing and running around, it is now full of adults.
And a dead body.
//
As far as things go, Lady Luck is obviously not on Kyungsoo, or his team’s side.
They do manage to find the person who left the bag there a few hours later, and maybe they had let their hopes get a little too high before they actually interrogated said person because which high-profile murder would willingly let his wrists get cuffed?
Kyungsoo sighs loudly as he takes a seat in front of the man they had just arrested with Sehun, who’s spinning his pen idly in between his fingers with his ever-bored expression fixed on his face, next to him.
“Who told you to do this?” Kyungsoo starts out, he finds that some of these routine questions are a waste of time, but he has no choice but to ask them anyway.
“No one.”
//
It goes on like this. Arrested man-Jongdae, it reads on the form on Sehun’s clipboard when Kyungsoo took a peek earlier-refuses to speak. Even when he does, he says nothing useful, only goes on about how he got told by someone to do this. He’s only revealed that the killer is a man, which is sort of shocking considering his lack of sexual motives on all his victims thus far. Jongdae stops then, only blabbering on about how who the man is doesn’t matter, because all he wants to do is die, or at least get himself into jail because he’s so tired of his life outside. He’s so desperate that the killer hadn’t even needed to pay him a single cent, the promise of being able to break out of his previous routine being payment enough for him.
The killer is obviously starting to get ahead of himself, of being able to add more names to his list of victims after every week, and Kyungsoo’s team isn’t getting anywhere at all.
“So,” Kyungsoo says, throwing the file he had in his hand onto the conference table as the rest of his team members file into their office after him, “let’s try again.”
They start out by putting up whatever pictures they have of the case so far-place where the body was found, of the fingers or hand they got, autopsy pictures, everything-and they go along, relooking into the past few cases to try to find any new similarities that they may have missed out before. So far, they’ve only managed to point out the fact that all the victims were killed in the same way, through asphyxiation. They were all strangled with what seemed like a thin wire until they stopped struggling, evident in the purpling line found across the neck of the five vitctims.
Kyungsoo stares at the various pictures of the fingers, as if it would help. The piece of paper that could always be found on the back of the box always gives a time, and it has already been proven to be the time that the person had died. Kyungsoo suddenly turns to his team members, hoping they had found something. “Anything?” he was met with more sighs and shaking of heads except for one.
“Chanyeol?” Kyungsoo tried, but the other seemed to be very focused on whatever he was doing, and as Kyungsoo walks up, he finds that the other is-drawing.
A mild wave of anger quickly floods Kyungsoo’s veins as he gives Chanyeol’s arm a push, effectively ruining the straight line the other had been trying to draw. Chanyeol turns around with an uninterested face, as if he hadn’t been drawing in the middle of a serious discussion. “What?”
Kyungsoos sighs resignedly and walks back to where he was before, fingers tapping a random rhythm into the conference table. “I think, that the finger represents the number of people he’s killed. But instead of the pinky for the fifth person, he decided to present us with the entire hand instead.” Chanyeol’s latest revelation has everyone scrambling to arrange the pictures of the cases they received in chronological order, matching the finger they had gotten along with it. They hadn’t gotten a finger in the first case at all, the fingers had only started coming in during the second case-the bodies were still found because the killer strategically disposed of them in semi-public areas. Meanwhile, Chanyeol continues to extend the straight line, ignoring the chaos Kyungsoo had caused on the piece of white paper compared to the consistency of his straight line, and even Kyungsoo’s surprised that Chanyeol had managed to figure this out, considering that he hadn’t looked like he had been paying attention at all.
Everyone turns to look at Chanyeol uniformly once they confirm what Chanyeol had said, and it feels like a horror movie and a comedy all at once, in the way he looks up and glances at everyone before looking back down. Kyungsoo sighs and they call it a day.
//
The next day, they hold a press conference. Or rather, his bosses do. They sit at the back, backs all ramrod straight, a fake smile plastered on their faces throughout the entire one hour or so.
There’s this reporter guy-Jongin-who was the only one from Seoul News there, which is slightly unusual because usually at least two people from the same team come, one of them being in charge of taking photos while the other records the questions and their answers down. Jongin, however, does not seem to have a problem handling both by himself-not that Kyungsoo was staring enough to know, totally not.
Kyungsoo quickly stares straight again, forcing the corners of his lips up when he feels his smile dropping, even if it’s at the expense of his facial muscles. He doesn’t really have a choice.
By the time they file out of the conference room, finally away from all the flashing lights and annoying shutter sounds, their cheeks hurt.
Sehun throws his file onto his table once they get back to their office and buries his head into his hands, mumbling what’s wrong with that Jongin guy, and Kyungsoo suspects that it’s a question, and that he expects the rest of them to agree with him or something, but like always, anything Sehun says comes out sounding flat, questions more like commands and statements.
They had all expected the conference to go on like any other, however, there was this one guy by the name of Kim Jongin, from Seoul News, who kept asking questions, questions that even Kyungsoo’s boss couldn’t answer himself. It was as if he was truly interested in this case himself, and he wasn’t asking the questions for the sake of his job. Just thinking about it sends chills down Kyungsoo’s spine, because Jongin had his eyes on Kyungsoo almost the entire time, and while it might be flattering to be stared at, he doesn’t really appreciate the extra attention.
Kyungsoo shakes his head, as if that could dispel all the negative thoughts that were starting to surface along with the pressure of still not being able to crack a case like this, and they all go home soon after that.
//
“This is so difficult,” Baekhyun whines. Kyungsoo doesn’t even have to look at Sehun to know that he had just rolled his eyes at that. I know, Kyungsoo replies to Sehun mentally. He feels like rolling his eyes at Baekhyun too. Nothing about this job is easy, will ever be easy, and they have already been told that even before day one.
It’s Tuesday night, and they are all in their office, working overtime yet again. It’s hard to find even one bad quality about the newest victim, it seems. Statements have been taken about the kind of person he was like, questions about any conflicts he might have had recently have been asked repeatedly, but they were all answered with a frown and a shake of the head.
There seems to be an almost ominous atmosphere around their office, and everyone knows why. Anytime in anyplace of Seoul, another person would be killed, and yet they can do nothing about it.
As far as they know, the fingers they get are preserved in formaldehyde. Nothing surprising, a simple Google search would tell you how to obtain it, and even make it yourself. The victims are all killed by asphyxiation, the thin line around their necks say everything.
And that’s what’s confusing them.
They are being spun around in circles, because the victims so far don’t seem to have any vices, much less a motive for the killer to want to kill them. The methods all seem so straightforward and clean, there’s almost no flaw. What exactly is it that might have ticked the killer off-
Kyungsoo’s train of thoughts is interrupted by a loud yawn, followed by an immediate apology from Baekhyun. It’s past midnight, yet they are still looking through all their evidences and everything they have collected so far. He understands, he really does. They’re all tired, so is Kyungsoo. One glance across the room shows Kyungsoo how the bags below Sehun’s eyes seem to have darkened, and how Chanyeol’s eyes are threatening to close themselves, but the thought of them coming back tomorrow to find another finger, the thought of them returning home to sleep while another citizen’s life is taken, irritates Kyungsoo.
//
Meanwhile, Jongin has been sticking to his new daily routine fairly well - burst into office ten minutes late, finish the article of the day, annoy Luhan before going home to check up on the news of the Tuesday killer.
Except that it’s Wednesday afternoon, and instead of staying in his cubicle to finish his article like he usually would, he’s out, under the burning sun.
He’s taken to trying to make sure that he’s there every time the police arrive at the crime scene, so that he can get more information to write about. Or at least that’s what he tells himself. He’s really doing this just so that he can see more of a certain detective with heart-shaped lips. Jongin doesn’t even know his name, but his superficial attraction is enough to keep him going. Luhan would tell him that it’s good to get himself out more anyway.
This is the sixth victim, he hears-eavesdrops-as he pushes past civilians and other fellow reporters, trying to get to the front. Many of them glare at him, but of course, he doesn’t notice them, because he sort of only has one goal for personally coming down, and he’s going to make sure that every trip is worth his while.
Kyungsoo’s speaking quickly, lips opening and closing at a faster than usual rate. As expected, thanks to Chanyeol’s observation, they have received a left thumb encased in its usual vial this time. It isn’t much, but Kyungsoo counts this as progress. Baby steps. After all, it is better than nothing at all.
//
Jongin hasn’t done this in some time, having been more focused on his job than on finding a new love interest and he fears that he might be a little rusty.
He made sure to finish this work early that day, bidding a quick goodbye to Luhan before he rushed out of his office. Pushing his back off the wall, Jongin glances at his watch before he starts walking after the cute detective once he spots him walking out of his office building. He keeps a safe distance though, the thrill of possibly getting caught any second keeps him on edge, palms almost sweating as he makes sure to keep himself out of view should his target turn back any moment.
(Jongin often doesn’t consider other people’s feelings, and he gets attracted to pretty (by his standards) faces easily, and it doesn’t help that he isn’t that bad looking himself either, and all of these factors end up making up his tendency to stalk the people he’s got his eyes on at the moment. He would say that he often falls into what most people would call superficial love because he really only likes people based on their looks, less of their personality.)
Jongin’s already getting tired, and this is only his first day. Jongin stops somewhere halfway through, standing in front of one of the ramen stalls along the street because the smell distracted him. Then, he spots a familiar figure making his way up a bus when it arrives. He immediately starts jogging towards it, and when he sees that even the last of the commuters are about to board already, he starts to run, almost tripping in his haste. Jongin ends up bursting into the bus while panting, not exactly the most ideal way of stalking if he’s asked, because he definitely has the entire bus’ eyes on him now, even the cute detective’s.
With careful steps, Jongin slowly makes his way down the aisle after paying, stopping before the double seater where the detective was sitting on, looking at him as if to ask for permission, and his object of interest moves his bag onto his lap before Jongin takes his seat with a small smile on his face.
As cute as Kyungsoo might think Kim Jongin is, he is shocked to find that he is actually sitting next to him, with that cute smile. How could they could they possibly share the same bus home all this while without Kyungsoo knowing? Then again, all Kyungsoo does is stare out of the window on his ride home, thinking about ways to crack whatever case he might be working on. Probably explains that then.
Shifting in his seat, Jongin turns to his side as he holds a hand out for a handshake. “Hello, you’re part of the team for the Tuesday killer case, right? I saw you at the press conference. My name is Kim Jongin.”
Kyungsoo almost rolls his eyes and says I know, you couldn’t stop with your questions that day, it was impossible to not notice you, instead, he settles for shaking his hand firmly. “Do Kyungsoo, head of the team, yes.”
Jongin says the name a few times mentally, grinning to himself at the fact that he’s already gotten a name to match the face he’s after this quickly. His object of interest is sitting there right beside him, and they have just introduced themselves to each other. Jongin thinks this must be the first time he’s getting to know whoever he was stalking before this quickly, and he feels lucky that he doesn’t have to bother with more days of hiding himself behind Kyungsoo. Throughout the trip, he sits next to Kyungsoo quietly, fists clenching in an effort to keep any words he has down lest he scares Kyungsoo away too quickly. This is all going really well, and Jongin doesn’t want to screw up just yet.
Eventually, Jongin gets up upon seeing Kyungsoo do the same, and he sees Kyungsoo raise his eyebrows at him before he gets off the bus, as if to say you too? And Jongin just shrugs in answer.
Waving overexcitedly at Kyungsoo, Jongin turns around and starts walking in the opposite direction after Kyungsoo’s back view disappears from his line of sight.
That day, he gets home and sits down in front of his computer, satisfied with the results of his little stalk.
//
The sun goes up, the sun goes down, but for Kyungsoo things go up and down within the span of seven days alone.
Over the next few days after he first shares (or maybe it has already been a few weeks? months? he doesn’t know, for he never noticed) the bus with Jongin, he bumps into Jongin at the same bus stop again every time he’s there. They take the same bus, get off at the same stop before Jongin bids him goodbye with his usual wave and walks off in the opposite direction, just like the first time.
One day though, Jongin suddenly asks Kyungsoo out for dinner, and Kyungsoo had wanted to reject, but his stomach had suddenly decided to work against him, letting out a loud growl. He ended up having to forsake his place in the queue for the bus as Jongin drags him to a ramen stall nearby. Kyungsoo was slightly taken aback at Jongin’s sudden question, but he was more shocked at how he let himself be dragged away. Damn Jongin.
Taking a seat after they arrive at the ramen stall, a waiter drops by their table to hand them both a menu each. Jongin takes a quick look before he seemingly settles on what he wants to eat, because he closes the menu and props his chin up with his palms, staring unabashedly at Kyungsoo.
Not again, Kyungsoo swallows, closing his own menu as well. He folds his arms and rests them on the table, mustering as much courage as he can to stare back at Jongin in the eyes as he speaks, not wanting to seem timid.
“Decided on what you want to eat?”
“Yeah, you.” Jongin smirks, and gives Kyungsoo’s foot a nudge under the table. Jongin’s lack of concern rings alarms in Kyungsoo’s head. This isn’t the first time he had so straightforwardly made a suggestive comment at Kyungsoo, and Kyungsoo reckons that it wouldn’t be the last either. And Jongin hadn’t looked the least bit repentant when Kyungsoo was sure that each time after the comment, despite the fact that his discomfort could be seen written all over his face.
Kyungsoo really doesn’t know what to think of Jongin (aside from the fact that he has a good looking face).
Kyungsoo decidedly ignores Jongin’s answer and raises his hand to call a waiter over so that they can place their orders, and he guesses that Jongin actually had no interest in wanting to eat at all. Either that, or he had just so happened to pick the same thing Kyungsoo ordered, because he had so simply answered with a same when the waiter turned to him expectantly.
Halfway through the meal, Jongin had suddenly raised his hand, deciding to call for some beer. Unluckily enough, Kyungsoo isn’t the best drinker around.
In fact, he doesn’t even remember how they had gotten to talking about morals, about the case, about many things. All he remembers is cup after cup of beer getting shoved towards his direction, and honestly, Jongin doesn’t seem to be doing that well himself.
“I think it’s -“ burp, “pretty cool how this guy can kill so many people like this-“ Jongin says drunkenly, elbow propping his arm up on the table, the cup of beer threatening to spill any moment with the way he’s holding it.
“It isn’t cool if you are supposed to deal with him.”Kyungsoo deadpans, his finished bowl of ramen pushed aside.
“Would you kill, if you were given the chance?” It stuns Kyungsoo, the way this question suddenly came up. He properly ponders over it for a few moments, the faces of everyone he’s remembered not liking surfacing in his mind. But before he’s actually answered, mouth open and hanging, ready to speak, Jongin speaks again. “I would.”
“Kill all those fuckers. None of them deserve to live.” Kyungsoo, for one, doesn’t know who those fuckers are, and he doesn’t know if he should be shocked at Jongin’s cursing or his words. His drunken mind doesn’t help, and he doesn’t refuse when Jongin stands up and helps him up, pulling his wallet out of his back pocket to pay for their meal. Kyungsoo, when sober, would have insisted that they go Dutch, but drunk Kyungsoo doesn’t pay much attention to his surroundings at all.
Jongin actually reaches Kyungsoo’s doorstep this time, with the help of Kyungsoo’s pointing around. Their walk home had consisted of drunken giggling when one of them tripped, usually Kyungsoo, and leaning against each other for more support.Even through his slightly drunken haze (Jongin’s much better at holding his liquor compared to Kyungsoo, really), he’s excited to look into Kyungsoo’s house, be able to see the kind of environment that his object of interest goes home to everyday, lives in everyday.
Too bad Kyungsoo took away this privilege.
Or, to be more accurate, Jongin fucked it up himself.
They stopped right in front of Kyungsoo’s door, and while Kyungsoo fumbled around his pockets for his keys, head leaning against the door for stability, Jongin was standing around awkwardly, trying his best not to stare at Kyungsoo’s face. He wants to be invited in, preferably on the pretense of not being able to go home alone because he was drunk, but he didn’t want to ask. There was also another question lingering on the tip of Jongin’s tongue, and he isn’t so sure if it was because of his drunken state of mind or his subconscious wants.
But because Jongin is Jongin, and Jongin usually has little regard of others’ feelings, he leans forward and presses his lips against the corner of Kyungsoo’s lips, missing Kyungsoo’s lips because of miscalculation. His eyes meet Kyungsoo’s widened ones, but none of them do anything. Jongin doesn’t make to kiss him properly, but Kyungsoo doesn’t push him away either. Then, Kyungsoo quickly takes a step back, as if he needed a few moments to think if he wanted Jongin to continue or not. The door knob twists and the door opens, and Kyungsoo quickly waves before he slinks back into the comfort of his own home, leaving Jongin who had almost tripped when Kyungsoo pulled away so suddenly to stand there alone.
Clothes litter the path to Kyungsoo’s bathroom as he peels his clothes off in a hurry, forgetting to turn on the heater before he shoves himself under the shower head and turns it on, letting the cold water wake him up. The pelting water droplets always help, and Kyungsoo feels just a little more sober than before by the time he gets into his own bed. He totally doesn’t think of Jongin’s lips and Jongin’s face and Jongin’s everything, nope.
That night, Kyungsoo goes to sleep still arguing with himself that it was wrong, and that sure, Jongin was good looking, but that was pretty much it, they barely even know each other.
Jongin, however, goes to sleep not with the shame and guilt that he’s supposed to feel, and he knows the alcohol is not the reason why he doesn’t feel the least bit guilty at all.
//
Surprisingly, or maybe not so, things go back to normal between them. None of them bring that incident up, both under the impression that the other was too drunk to remember anything anyway. It works in their favour, because they don’t want to make things awkward with each other. Nothing’s really changed between them, except for this.
One day, Kyungsoo suddenly receives a text from an unknown number claiming that he had ordered pizza. Puzzled, he replied back that he hadn’t, and that the delivery guy must have made some kind of mistake, because he was in the middle of another discussion with his team members.
Later, because Jongin got bored and Kyungsoo wasn’t catching onto his flirting, he reveals himself. When Kyungsoo asked Jongin how he had gotten his number, Jongin simply replied with I have my ways.
From then on, they start to text each other pretty often-more of Jongin than Kyungsoo, because Kyungsoo’s always busier anyway-so much that even Luhan has started to take notice, and he’s usually the last to find out about any romantic developments around him because he’s blur like that.
Where things have gone smoothly for Jongin-same old schedule, same old boring work days-it hasn’t for Kyungsoo.
It is a Monday when Kyungsoo gets called into his boss, Junmyeon’s, office. It doesn’t take a Sehun to know that it means that something is up. (Sehun is actually the smartest amongst all of them, and even Baekhyun’s learned to tell the difference between getting called in to get a scolding and a praise.)
Knuckles come into contact with the door twice, and the door opens to Junmyeon’s usually lax and friendly face being pulled into a slight frown when he sees Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo doesn’t want to admit it, but he’s nervous. Anyone would be, really. Despite having a kind face, Junmyeon’s been known to be able to be strict and scary when he has to be, and that fact makes Kyungsoo’s palms sweat even more.
Kyungsoo watches him sort through documents on his desk while he sits silently, trying not to fidget too much when a question suddenly pops out of nowhere.
“What has your group been doing?” rings louder in Kyungsoo’s ears than it should have. He didn’t expect Junmyeon to suddenly start talking, much less ask such a question. Kyungsoo isn’t even given the chance to reply before Junmyeon starts talking again. “Do you know how many letters we have received, all about the public saying that they’re scared of being next?” He doesn’t even have to think, Kyungsoo knows what he’s referring to. He only has one case going on for him anyway, and recently the only crime anyone ever talks about is the Tuesday killer’s. Petty crimes pretty much pale in comparison to this case.
Kyungsoo’s ears burn red in shame and his eyes sting with embarrassment, at having been unable to live up to the country and his boss’ expectations. He doesn’t get to feel it for long though, because Junmyeon starts talking again, and Kyungsoo is forced to sit there and nod his head constantly as he goes off on all the things that have gone wrong, not even mentioning anything that has gone right.
That’s right, maybe it’s because his team has barely done anything right at all.
By the time Kyungsoo is allowed to leave, he feels like he’s just gotten the longest scolding of his life. He returns back to his office while massaging his temples with his fingers to help ease the headache he had from all those words, and his team members all leave him alone. They know not to approach him when he’s having a headache, even more so when he’s just gotten a scolding on behalf of the rest of them.
They have recently called back all the people questioned before for another round of questioning because they didn’t have anything conclusive with their current data so far. With the time that Kyungsoo has alone, with the company of the dull throbbing in his temples, he looks through all of the evidence and answers again, files scattered across his desk while his team members go about doing their own part.
Halfway through looking through the statements, he realizes that one of them had brought up that the victim, Zhang Yixing, had been seen in what could be considered a more serious conversation with a child while looking annoyed. While normal people would think that that is normal, and that the kid had probably done something to annoy Yixing like that, Kyungsoo knows better. If this is the reason behind all the murders, the killer must’ve suffered from some form of abuse from his parents when he was young. The Jongdae guy barely helped either, and they ended up keeping him in probation after realizing that he was of little help, but knowing that they'll need him in the future when they've finally caught the killer.
That day they all go home with something new on their hands, and that is the knowledge that all of the victims have argued or come into contact with a child in a less than friendly way on the day that they died.
//
When Kyungsoo’s just starting to think that things might be taking a turn for the better for his team, he’s proved wrong almost immediately.
A week hasn’t fully passed yet, but they have received a package again. However, this package is lighter than all the others from before, and Kyungsoo can’t help but start to feel suspicious as he tears the brown paper apart once again. He definitely did not expect to see what he saw.
Beneath all the brown wrapping paper is a box, as usual. But after opening the box, instead of its usual vial and a piece of paper telling the time of death, there is only a piece of paper this time.
On it, says D K S.
They all look at each other as they try to figure out what the three letters might mean, but Kyungsoo doesn’t need to think to know. Is this how the victims felt right before they got strangled? In an instant, it felt like a wire was wrapped around his neck, cold and unforgiving. Kyungsoo felt like any move he made tighten it. Sehun breaks the silence by starting to speak, slowly. “Do… Kyungsoo?”
His team has been doing a lot of the turning to look at the same thing together recently, and they do not fail this time as he suddenly feels the few pairs of eyes fixate on him. He wants to bury himself. He doesn’t even remember to be surprised at the fact that Sehun had finally asked a proper question after all those years of working with him.
The rest of the day passes by in a mess because Kyungsoo couldn’t stop his thoughts from running wild, he doesn’t know how to stop himself from thinking that anyone and anything around him might kill him any moment, and he feels that if he doesn’t die under the killer’s hands, he might die from driving himself crazy.
//
Coincidentally, Jongin and Kyungsoo manage to walk past a man scolding a child by the roadside that evening, and Kyungsoo’s fists immediately clench, looking around to see if anyone is paying special attention to them. He finds nothing, though he does see Jongin’s jaw tighten for a moment before he spots Kyungsoo watching him, and he quickly drags him away to the bus stop to distract Kyungsoo probably. It doesn’t stop Kyungsoo’s detective brain from starting to suspect, and Jongin raises an eyebrow when Kyungsoo takes a small step away from him.
//
“Chanyeol? I need your help. I want you to help me do a background check on Kim Jongin. Yes, that annoying Seoul News reporter.”
//
Jongin swears that he hadn’t planned this at all. He hadn’t expected to enjoy the feeling of having the power of being able to kill a person with just a pull of the ends of the wires this much.
In his defense, he was walking around. Really. It was like any other Tuesday night-or any other night, for that matter. Jongin usually liked to wander around alone at night, never needing someone else’s company.
One day though, he was just about to go home after one of his nightly walks when he heard someone crying not too far away from him. Since he didn’t have any work to complete at home that night, Jongin figured that he wasn’t in a rush to get home, and that maybe he should find out what was happening before he makes his way back.
He would have been lying if he said that the scene he saw didn’t bring tears to his own eyes, and the man didn’t stop scolding the child after the child had started crying either. Jongin instantly felt like he was five again, and five means tripping over his own feet while running after his football, five means getting forced into leotards to learn how to execute a perfect pirouette, or a split. Five also means getting scolded for everything he did, wrong or right.
Regardless of the tears that threatened to fall, Jongin stayed rooted to his spot, listening to the scolding and feeling like he was the one getting scolded himself. His fists clenched in an effort to stay put, and he made sure the man was done before he started to move again. Taking care to make sure that the child was okay-which was terribly out of character, but he couldn’t help but step forward to comfort the kid-Jongin took quiet steps behind the man, the practice coming easy to him when he remembers how quiet they had to be back in his ballet classroom, as opposed to the sounds his feet had to make during character dance lessons.
When the man walked into a dark alley, Jongin saw his chance. Emotions overcame him in that instant, and he quickly grabbed the object that was nearest to him-a wire-and looped it around the man’s neck, pulling the ends tight as he felt the man struggle in front of him. Feet kicked around and hands grabbed blindly at Jongin’s own pair while the previous expression of caution on Jongin’s face quickly transformed into one of anger.
It ended almost just as quickly as it started, and soon, the man stopped struggling, while Jongin started struggling himself. His mind was in a state of panic. He had just killed someone. Is he supposed to dump the body into a rubbish bin now? Set up a fire so that no evidence would be left behind? Jongin was only twenty, he didn’t want to go to jail. He did end up dumping the man’s body into a rubbish bin somewhere, too distraught to even remember where he dumped it. And since he didn’t want anyone to find the wire and possibly trace it back to him because of the fingerprints or whatnot, he pulled it away forcefully, and brought it home, where it was safer.
From that day onwards, he started rejecting his friends whenever they said that they had wanted to crash at his house.
Of course, nothing could be hidden forever, and the stench of the body ended up attracting attention. He was, however, pretty sure that he wouldn’t be caught so soon. The thing is, after that first Tuesday night, he started running into more people like that on Tuesday nights as well. The first victim didn't have his finger cut because Jongin had expected it to be a one-off sort of thing, and he hadn't expected it to continue, so he ended up using that method to keep track of the amount of people he has killed.
Of course, he couldn’t possibly kill all of them, but he thought that even if just one of those kind of adults died, it would do greater good to the world. He thought that if there was anyone who should punish people like them, there would be no one more fitting than him, someone who has experienced getting treated like that himself.
//
Against his better judgment, Kyungsoo continues going home with Jongin. After all, it couldn’t be him, right? The world isn’t that small? Sometimes it feels like Kyungsoo’s trying to delude himself. As if the more he told himself that, the more he would believe it.
Jongin’s company came at the expense of Kyungsoo’s mental health. He was pushed into a fight or flight state, and every time Jongin so much as tried to tug him somewhere by pulling at his hand, he felt the urge to turn around and run.
The next Tuesday, the eighth one since the case has started, Jongin asks Kyungsoo out for another dinner date. Jongin tells him that he has found this shop slightly further down the street and that they should drink again to help Kyungsoo loosen up. Kyungsoo reluctantly agrees, and indirectly digs his own grave.
It’s already 11pm yet they were still at the shop, with Jongin babbling on about random things while Kyungsoo nods along. “Them fucking adults. Always thinking that they are the ones who are always right.” Kyungsoo immediately looks up, listening on with more interest now.
“It was me, Kyungsoo-ah. You knew that right?” It can’t be, this can’t be happening. They’ve only had three cups of alcohol at most, and Jongin doesn’t even look that drunk.
Then, Jongin starts to talk about something else, and Kyungsoo quickly excuses himself, not even waiting for Jongin’s reply before he stands up and starts dialing Chanyeol’s number.
Kyungsoo barely gets to greet Chanyeol before he gets knocked out, and Jongin doesn’t even bother with Kyungsoo’s phone as he drags Kyungsoo away.
//
Kyungsoo wakes up to dimly lit room, blinking more in an effort to adjust to the lack of lighting. He seems to be in the living room of a house, but he can’t tell for sure because there isn’t much in the room he’s in. It’s pretty much him, the chair he’s tied to, a random table and Jongin.
Jongin.
“Hi there.” Jongin starts, and Kyungsoo keeps his mouth shut. In all his years of working as a detective, he has never expected his life to end like this. With the pair of scissors he had swinging around in his right hand, Jongin looks much more scarier, a contrast to his usual good looking self. Kyungsoo swallows.
“Let me start by telling you a story. There was once a cute little boy-who shall not be named-who had a happy family. He had his parents by his side, and he had friends. He could easily get what he wanted, and he had the life lots of people were seeking for. Then it all changed.
“He wasn’t even given a choice. Ballet classes one after another, then football. Then getting scolded for nothing. Have you ever been scolded for not being able to do a split? For turning the wrong way? I wouldn’t even be surprised if I had gotten scolded for just breathing, really.” Jongin stops then, scissors still in his hand. Kyungsoo didn't have the time to notice how the pronouns had changed, not when he had the pair of scissors so dangerously close to his face. But honestly, Jongin didn’t have any plans to kill Kyungsoo with the pair, he wanted to do it with his wire, like the previous cases.
//
“Baekhyun! Get an arrest warrant and try to locate Kyungsoo now!”
The entire team was sent panicking after Kyungsoo’s call, while Baekhyun was scrambling around the conference table for his phone, he suddenly saw the background check regarding Kim Jongin. On it, there was a picture of a man by the name of Luhan, apparently Jongin’s best friend. He reads down the document, remembering him being brought in for questioning before. Jongin had family issues.
He also had an abandoned family house.
//
“You know, I actually love you.” Kyungsoo couldn’t help the snort that came out, he knows people like Jongin aren’t capable of that at all. To think he was still being fed lies when he was about to die.
“You’re special, you’re different.” Jongin further goes on to explain how he’s killing Kyungsoo because he wants to keep him, doesn’t want Kyungsoo to belong to anyone else. And really, Kyungsoo doesn’t give a fuck. He either gets out of this alive or he doesn’t, nothing else mattered then. He was mostly half conscious because of the alcohol he had consumed earlier, and he doubts that Jongin is fully sober as well, and his eyes dart around as he tries to find an exit route for himself.
“So, any last words?” Fuck you, Kyungsoo had wanted to say. He was wrong, so wrong in not trusting his mind, wrong in continuing to hang out with Jongin. A cold wire was wrapped around Kyungsoo’s neck, and he felt his breathing start to quicken just at the touch of the metal around his neck. All the things he was telling himself about needing to survive through this before forgotten in the way he closes his eyes and submits under Jongin’s hands. What else can he do but wait for it to happen-
“Kim Jongin, open the fucking door now or else we’ll barge in-“ Wait, this person sounds familiar-Chanyeol?
“The door’s unlocked, come in and make yourselves home, all of you are just in time for the show.” Jongin doesn’t even get to finish his sentence before his whole team barges in, along with a few more police officers. Kyungsoo suddenly feels like he can breathe again.
However, instead of going through with the plan of killing Kyungsoo, Jongin starts backing up, a corner of his lips lifted up by the smirk that was on his face. Being held at gunpoint didn’t allow Jongin to do much, but he knows his own house better than they do, and Kyungsoo’s team close in on him further.
“Don’t do anything silly-” The lights go off.
The lights go off while the last four words that Jongin shouts echo throughout the room. Kyungsoo tries to ignore the sickening sound of what sounds like a body hitting the ground as Jongin’s words repeat in his head.
“See you next time.”