hyukhae (past!hyukmin), 2431 words
pg, angst/romance
Hyukjae tries to hide the truth about Sungmin from the law.
Sequel to
A Little Voice Told Me!
Hyukjae still remembers everything so clearly-the memory of that day when everything went so wrong still plays crystal clear in his head-it was like a bad movie that Hyukjae couldn’t forget, no matter how much he wanted to.
He remembers how scared he had felt when Sungmin had came at him with a knife- he remembers how everything seemed to slow down at that time, so much so that his own heartbeat could be heard, he remembers panicking, his thoughts in his head a jumbled mess-he hadn’t known what the hell was wrong with Sungmin, he hadn’t known what the hell he could do, and he certainly hadn’t wanted to die.
He remembers how hopeless it had all seemed, he was cornered, his boyfriend had gone mental, and he had no way out. He vaguely remembers himself screaming at Sungmin; it was a desperate attempt to try to save himself.
And then he remembers Sungmin apologizing, saying sorry, saying that he had to do this, and Hyukjae remembers the tears that glistened at the corners of Sungmin’s eyes, and he remembers the sudden epiphany that hits him then-he still loved the man that was trying to kill him.
Then he remembers the feeling of his back hitting a wall- and he knows that he can’t fight anymore. He remembers saying more words to Sungmin, remembers telling Sungmin that he loved him before closing his eyes and looking down, bracing himself for a sharp blade to penetrate his body.
He remembers the silence that seemed to last forever as he awaited his death-it had been horrible, the waiting; waiting for Sungmin to kill him, waiting to die. The silence had been unbearable, but then he remembers Sungmin speaking.
“I love you too, Hyukjae. And I’m really sorry.”
Hyukjae remembers himself breathing a sigh of relief, thinking, everything is going to be okay now, his boyfriend was back and he wasn’t dead-but then Sungmin swings the knife into his own body instead, and Hyukjae remembers his own screams loud and anguished echoing all around the room, still echoing in his head now.
But most of all, he remembers Sungmin. Sungmin with those pretty, innocent eyes that seemed to understand everything, Sungmin with his perfectly shaped nose, Sungmin was those high, defined cheekbones he always admired, Sungmin with those pouty lips he loved to kiss till his own had gone sore.
Sungmin who had killed himself, and left Hyukjae alone.
It’s been a year, but Hyukjae has certainly not forgotten.
***
“Lee Hyukjae,” Hyukjae’s head shoots up as he hears his name being called. “The Inspector will see you now.”
Hyukjae rolls his eyes, and grudgingly lets himself be led to another one of those interrogation rooms-he had been in more than 10 of them in the past year, always a different Inspector asking him pointless questions that he couldn’t bring himself to answer.
When Sungmin’s case had first been open, Hyukjae hadn’t been implicated in it at first-it was evident that Sungmin had stabbed himself, and the police had classified Sungmin’s death under suicide-so Hyukjae had thought that he won’t be bothered about the whole issue again, and was prepared to sulk the rest of his life away, mourning the death of his loved one.
But then, the police dug deeper into the case, and they quickly began to suspect that Sungmin had been the serial killer that was responsible for all the many attacks around the country-something about his knife and guns and fingerprints and also the fact that the killings had stopped once Sungmin had killed himself.
At first, Hyukjae had been skeptical about the whole issue, and got extremely upset about it-Sungmin was dead; couldn’t they just give it a rest? He would cry himself to sleep every night in anger that the police wouldn’t let Sungmin rest in peace.
But then, as he was reminiscing one night, sorting out all the memories he had of Sungmin in his head, from happy ones to sad ones to downright crazy ones, he comes across a vague, fuzzy memory of an incident that must have happened when he had been drunk-and he realizes that Sungmin had tried to kill him once before, but couldn’t do so in the end.
Hyukjae had been sure that if the police had found out about this, they would sentence Sungmin right away-Hyukjae was pretty sure that he was the only person that Sungmin had tried to kill, but couldn’t.
Oddly, this realization hadn’t scared him, he hadn’t thought Oh my god I have been making out with a murderer but instead it only made him miss Sungmin more-he had been the only one Sungmin hadn’t been able to kill, after all. He had decided that he would tell no one about Sungmin, no matter how much they asked him. He would keep mum about the whole issue and deny all accusations that Sungmin had been a mass murderer, and pray that no more evidence would be found to sentence Sungmin.
However, it hadn’t been easy. Hyukjae had been interrogated several times by the police before he was passed over to several other inspectors, all who failed to get the truth out of him-now they had passed him on to the Sherlock Holmes of Korea, and even though Hyukjae feels intimidated walking into the newest interrogation room, he tells himself he must stay strong for Sungmin.
Hyukjae feels embarrassed when he is met by a man he thinks to be really good looking, and scolds himself for being so unfaithful to Sungmin.
“I’m Inspector Donghae,” he says charmingly, all smiles and pointed teeth. Hyukjae is taken aback by his charisma, but stays resolute and calm because even though the inspector was being friendly, he knows that they all have only one motive in mind: to sniff out the truth.
Sure enough, the next thing Donghae says next is, “Don’t think about lying, Hyukjae-nothing ever escapes me.”
Hyukjae fights the need to slap himself when he feels himself getting a little turned on at the inspector’s words.
***
The room is small, like all the other rooms that Hyukjae has been in-just a dimly lit room with two chairs and a lamp, and although the room doesn’t show any traces of them, Hyukjae knows that there are cameras taping every second of the time they spent in that room, recording every word that they spoke.
“Sit,” Donghae commands, and Hyukjae complies-it won’t be long until this whole process is over, so he tries to speed things up and not put up a fight.
Donghae immediately shines the light into Hyukjae’s face, which should have scared him, but having been through so many interrogations, Hyukjae barely shows a response, and just stares coldly back into Donghae’s eyes.
“So,” Donghae begins, his eyes brightening suddenly, smile still plastered on his face. “How’ve you been, Hyukkie?”
Hyukjae feels his stomach constrict into a tight knot; no one ever called him that-no one but Sungmin.
“What?” is all Hyukjae responds with; he doesn’t know if Donghae was kidding around, but this guy was proving to be pretty much a fluke, he’d get through this in no time, Hyukjae’s sure. Sherlock Holmes my ass, he thinks to himself with a smirk.
“I asked you how you have been,” Donghae repeats, his smile never leaving his face.
Hyukjae feels his palms getting sweaty-he has never experienced such interrogations before, how was he supposed to react? This felt too much like a friendly chat-interrogations weren’t supposed to be like that. Usually the inspectors would try to intimidate him by shouting, screaming, and never once asked him how he was feeling-what was Donghae doing?
“I’m… fine,” Hyukjae manages to say, wondering where this could go.
“Let’s get to know each other a little better,” Donghae tells him, grinning widely like a Chesire cat.
Hyukjae fingers with his shirt collar nervously, the room had suddenly gotten a lot hotter than it was once before.
***
As Hyukjae lay in bed that day, he thinks about what happened. Donghae had bombarded him with questions, alright, but there was not one question that had been about Sungmin-they had all been questions about Hyukjae, and Hyukjae only.
Where did you go to school? Do you dance? Do you sing? What do you like to eat? Do you like fish? Why do you have blonde hair? What’s your favourite colour? When’s your birthday? Do you believe in aliens? Hyukjae still hears the questions circling his mind, and his head begins to hurt by just remembering.
Hyukjae doesn’t know what this Donghae was playing at, but he worries, because the attraction he feels for the inspector is not healthy at all, and he knows it.
He wonders if Sungmin is watching him, and instantly feels guilty.
***
The interrogations continue, and Hyukjae finds it unnerving that he goes to an interrogation room everyday just to bond with an Inspector, who Hyukjae is sure has ulterior motives (i.e. finding out the truth).
When Donghae begins opening up to Hyukjae about his life, Hyukjae is shocked for a while, but doesn’t say anything, and just listens. He listens to Donghae talk about his life-how he had just broken up with his girlfriend, how he missed his father so much sometimes that it hurt, how he loved fishes, how he believed in aliens…
Hyukjae is quite in awe at how much Donghae has told him-after all, they only met a few days before, but he feels oddly at ease around the Inspector, who has told Hyukjae so much about him that Hyukjae finds it difficult to actually be wary around him anymore.
Hyukjae doesn’t fully trust Donghae yet, but he feels a connection to him-he and Donghae both understood the pain that came with losing a loved one: Donghae had lost his father, and Hyukjae had lost Sungmin. Hyukjae watches Donghae open up even more to him, and wonders if one day he would open up to him as well.
How could anyone who believed in aliens be harmful? Hyukjae thinks to himself, watching Donghae fondly.
But then he remembers that Donghae was an Inspector, and he is immediately cast in doubt again.
***
A month of interrogation sessions with Donghae passes before Hyukjae is finally willing to acknowledge his feelings for Donghae-he had gotten so close to the man that he barely notices himself falling in love with him.
Hyukjae knows that he would always love Sungmin, but everyone has to move on sometime, right? He’s sure that Sungmin would understand-and Hyukjae knows that he won’t stop loving Sungmin-Sungmin would be like a blissful memory in the back of his head, always there, but no longer there as well.
Hyukjae is still worried that Donghae may have ulterior motives, so he decides to confront him the next day-after all, he’s sure that he wasn’t the only one that felt this way… there was a spark, and he was sure of it.
***
“Hey Hae,” Hyukjae greets the Inspector with a gummy smile, sitting down and waiting for the questions to begin.
“Hyukkie,” Donghae acknowledges, and grins back. He never uses the lamp anymore, and Hyukjae is happy seeing it gathering dust in the little corner of their dark room. “How’ve you been?”
“I’ve been meaning to ask you something,” Hyukjae admits, he doesn’t want to beat around the bush, he needs answers now.
“What is it?”
“All the other Inspectors,” Hyukjae begins nervously, “All the other Inspectors have never been so nice to me. They don’t ask me how I have been feeling, and they certainly don’t spend time trying to bond with me. All they usually do is ask me for the truth. It’s been a month, Hae, why haven’t you done that?”
Donghae is quiet for a few moments before he replies. “I… I have to be honest with you, Hyukkie. I don’t think I should keep this from you any longer… The truth is… I get closer to people, especially criminals, so that they would tell me everything I need to hear. I’m not proud of what I do, Hyukjae, and I know that it’s wrong. And I was going to get closer to you because… well, because I needed to know the truth about Sungmin.”
Hyukjae chooses not to respond-he should’ve known that all Inspectors would be the same. He feels a bit teary, and takes a deep breath to hold them back-he wasn’t going to cry in front of a stupid lowly inspector.
“Look, Hyukjae,” Donghae sighs, and Hyukjae is disappointed in himself when he feels Donghae’s hand on his cheek. “I’ve always managed to get information out of people, and solve all the cases I’ve needed to solve. What’s embarrassing is that-I can’t do that to you.”
Hyukjae’s head shoots up again, and he stares hard into Donghae’s eyes. Hyukjae knows that he isn't lying. Hyukjae is immediately reminded of Sungmin-who had been able to kill all the people he had set out to kill, all except him.
“I know the truth about what happened to Sungmin,” Donghae admits, looking back into Hyukjae’s eyes seriously, still gently caressing his cheek. “And I know the truth about your relationship with him…” When Hyukjae gasps and begins to panic, Donghae laughs and tells him, “It’s amazing how much just your body language shows. The other inspectors must have been such amateurs. And- relax… I’m not going to tell anyone.”
“Why?” Hyukjae stammers, watching Donghae’s face coming increasingly closer to his own.
“I know how much he meant to you… and I’m not going to tell anyone about him if it meant hurting you,” Donghae says, a slight smile on his face before nervously pressing his lips to Hyukjae’s.
Hyukjae feels himself smile against Donghae’s lips. Everything was going to be okay. It was all over.
***
Hyukjae watches Donghae close the case file, first deeming Sungmin as INNOCENT, which shocks Hyukjae-he knew the consequences there were for lying to the law… yet Donghae had done it-- for him.
Hyukjae watches Donghae make his way towards him, kissing him full on the lips before pulling him into a hug.
“Sungmin may be gone now, Hyukjae,” he says into Hyukjae’s ear, making said man tingle from head to toe. “But I’m here.”
Hyukjae sighs and thinks: everything is really over. He didn’t need to go for anymore interrogations, didn’t need to lie for Sungmin anymore, and didn’t need to feel so alone- he had Donghae now. Everything is all going to be okay.
It’s been a year, and finally, Hyukjae is happy.
A/N: I hope this was okay, I didn't really want Hyukjae to suffer so much so I wrote him a happy ending (: This is like, really weird, I know, haha. But I hoped you guys liked it! <3 Thanks for reading (: