(007) The Prestige - Jonghyun/Onew
The Prestige
Jonghyun/Onew. 3453 words. Jinki's resolved to himself that life is fond of playing with him. On a case to case basis, at least. (for kpopvalentines / soundtrack)
There are people who you simply don't want to bump into. High school classmates, college prospects, old co-workers - Jinki knows of at least one person from every point of his life who fits the category, and Park Jungsu happens to be one of them. "Haven't seen you since you left the army," Jungsu says, hand extended in a greeting customary of a former army man. "Didn't even expect to see you here."
"I go out from time to time. Occasionally." Jinki smiles a little. "Didn't expect to see you here, either."
"I'm trying to start over, live a different life. I just moved to the flat around the corner. Cozy place. How about you?"
Jinki scratches the back of his head. "I'm still looking for a more… permanent place to settle in."
"London a bit too pricey for a man like you, eh? Why not share a flat with someone?"
Jinki chuckles. "No one would want to room with me, I'm sure you're aware of that." Jungsu's knowing look puts him off a little, so he averts his gaze and fixes it on his knee - time hasn't healed everything just yet.
"You know, you're the second person to tell me that today."
There's a light in Jungsu's eyes and something in the curve of the lip that tells Jinki that this might be a bad idea but he risks it, anyway. There's nothing that the war has stolen from him that the probability of sharing a flat with someone can ever take away.
"And who's the first one?"
Jungsu smiles.
Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts.
Jungsu brings him to a laboratory nearby and tells him to makes himself comofortable, which is hardly possible as they're in a room with a person whose eyes have been fixed on whatever he's studying through the microscope for ten minutes already. "That's pretty dangerous," Jinki says, voice low enough to be considered a whisper.
"I'm well aware of that. And oh, Jungsu, can I borrow your phone? I've no signal in this place."
Jungsu searches his pockets for his phone, but to no avail - he claims he might have dropped it somewhere. Who even does that, Jinki asks himself, berating Jungsu in his mind until he realizes that Jungsu is staring at him.
"You can use mine," Jinki offers after a while. "The call function is broken. I've yet to have the microphone fixed."
The stranger slowly pushes himself away from the table, then gives Jinki a tentative look. "I just… have to send a text, if that's alright." Jinki nods and offers a small smile, and the stranger takes the phone from his hands, completing the task in a few seconds and muttering a small sound of gratitude under his breath.
"So, Afghanistan or Iraq?"
"Huh?"
"The war, is it the one in Afghanistan or the one in Iraq?"
It takes Jinki a full minute to come up with a reply that doesn't entirely reek of apprehension. Thirty minutes after, the stranger declares him his new flatmate, slowly dissects his life using only the phone he let him borrow, and leaves him a name and the address of the flat he'll be occupying come end of the day.
"The name is Jonghyun Kim and the address is 221B Baker street. 7 p.m.. It's a date."
Before Jinki can even say anything in reply, Jonghyun leaves.
He must be crazy for having so much faith in Jonghyun despite the latter's penchant for getting into trouble.
They haven't even known each other for a week yet when Jonghyun ends up in prison for breaking and entering. "It's just for research," Jonghyun says through gritted teeth. "It's not as if I actually meant to steal anything…"
"You still invaded that woman's house and went through her things-"
"I was merely looking for a letter opener!"
"And you held it against her throat because she surprised you. Oh God, Jonghyun, do you seriously think you can get away with this all the time?"
Jonghyun stops in his tracks and gives Jinki the silliest smile, then bursts into laughter a few seconds after. "You worry too much," Jonghyun quips, then proceeds to ruffling his hair a bit. "Really."
The sudden touch makes Jinki flinch and his breathing hitch.
He walks past Jonghyun and straight to the cab that he hails. There's a pattern to this - the way he taps his fingers on his thigh as he waits for Jonghyun to arrive, the way he clenches his fists and takes deep yet quick breaths in an attempt to temper his heartbeat. Jonghyun riles him up as fast as coffee stirs his senses.
A few more seconds and there's a soft click of the door. Jonghyun shuffles inside, signature smug smile intact and a teasing glint in his eyes. "To 221B Baker street, please," Jonghyun then calls out, then proceeds to telling Jinki about his discoveries about life in prison, the people there, how infinitely amusing arm wrestling is, and how wonderful it would be to eat out tonight with a new friend.
The next few weeks, months, are nothing short of troublesome.
Jonghyun experiments on Jinki's dog, fires gunshots at the wall from time to time, blows up certain parts of the lab and doesn't even apologize for the mess. "It's all part of research," Jinki remembers Jonghyun saying, and even at his worst moments Jinki can only rolls his eyes and sneak in the occasional, "You are the worst, Jonghyun Kim. Do you hear me? The worst."
"Hm," Jonghyun begins and then, as if an afterthought, "Thank you."
Jinki furrows his eyebrows. There's the urge to study Jonghyun in full color, but he disregards this in favor of the case they're currently handling - something much more important than trying to understand the ways of Jonghyun Kim.
The first part is called The Pledge.
The magician shows you something ordinary; a deck of cards, a bird, or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal.
But, of course, it probably isn't.
Jinki's gotten used to Jonghyun's weird ways by now. Jonghyun lying down on the couch, body tense and fists clenched, means Jonghyun's thinking and has three nicotine patches attached to his left arm; Jonghyun firing bullets on the wall means he's bored. Late afternoon coffee sessions in the cafe downstairs mean that there's a case he's been meaning to discuss with Jinki, and poking holes at whatever Jinki's cooked for dinner means he's probably succumbing to whatever 'dull' case Kibum is giving them.
"Kibum says this is a matter of national importance. People are going to die if you don't solve this."
Jonghyun pushes his seat away from the dining table. "If they need me so much, they should start considering taking my brother off the government. His mere existence in the parliament deteriorates the overall likability of the group."
"Oh come on, give the case a chance. It's better than being stuck here in the flat."
The smile on Jonghyun's lips is wry and almost thin. Jinki fishes his phone from his pocket and dials Kibum's number in preparation for the onslaught of information. "Based on the data they gathered - and trust me, it's hardly useful - Ms. Hannigan died in a car crash and they're claiming that it's a murder. Of course, we know that's a lie and that the woman intentionally drove herself off the cliff because she left a note in her car - a suicide note that says, I cannot take this anymore, you cheating scum, and But I'm sorry, I couldn't let her have you. This leads us to the sound conclusion that she's been having problems with her marriage and that her husband is, as she has lovingly put it, a cheating scum. This explains the other case we're handling, the more… exciting one."
"Isn't Ms. Hannigan single, though? And you mean the death of Mr. Brendan? Didn't they say he was choked by some… tool?"
Jonghyun scoffs. "Wild imagination, those policemen have got. I'm telling you. Anyway, Mr. Brendan was not choked by some tool. He was poisoned. I just received the results of the tests they ran yesterday and it was discovered that he was poisoned three hours prior to when his body was discovered."
"Must've been a powerful poison."
"Agent XV, to be exact. Very powerful. Death in .5 milligrams. Now, cross-checking with the suicide note gives you the identity of the killer - Ms. Hannigan, also known as Mrs. Brendan. Mrs. Vanessa H. Brendan. I only put poison in your coffee because I couldn't let anyone else have you, she says in her note. Tests show that the coffee was indeed spiked with poison. Clever choice, if you ask me. XV - Xavier and Vanessa Brendan."
Jinki chuckles and gives his phone a light squeeze. "You do know that Kibum is on the line as we speak, right?"
Jonghyun smiles a little. "Of course." He straightens out his coat and downs the remaining coffee in his cup. "Dare you even ask."
It seems that the amount of time he spends with Jonghyun is directly proportional to the trouble he finds himself getting into.
He opens the door at six in the evening and the first thing that greets him is a stranger with the most revolting smile. There's laser pointed to his chest so he doesn't bother retaliating, letting the guards shove him inside a taxi and knock him out a few seconds after. "He's Jonghyun's pet, isn't he?" Jinki hears someone saying, and he doesn't make an effort to suppress the knee-jerk reaction and kicks against the door.
"A fighter, this one. I may have underestimated Jonghyun a little."
There's a bit of a hiccup during the rescue operation, when Jonghyun arrives a few minutes past the deadline and gapes at the sight of Jinki with a bomb strapped to his chest, but it's nothing that can't be solved by playing by the rules. Minho Choi exits the room with the promise of a more exciting mind game at the end of it all. I'll see you dance again… soon- the words ring brightly in Jinki's ears.
Jonghyun quickly drops the gun when Minho is already out of their sight.
"Are you okay? Are you alright? God-" Jonghyun quickly removes the bomb strapped to Jinki, hands and fingers moving deftly across the canvas. "I'm sorry you had to go through this. I-"
Jinki places his hands secure on Jonghyun's shoulder, squeezing the latter's arms a little. "Hey, listen, I'm okay. I'm alive. Don't worry."
Jonghyun nods thoughtfully, then gets back to his feet, dusting off his coat. When Jinki asks, "You alright?", Jonghyun just nods and whispers to the wind. Jinki catches a faint, I almost died, from Jonghyun's lips, and he wonders briefly if Jonghyun meant that literally because Jonghyun Kim has never been known to be a man of emotions.
Ever.
Months into being Jonghyun's assistant and Jinki still hasn't found a way to get himself out of Jonghyun's subtle attempts at using him as a guinea pig for cases that are not as interesting. "Seriously, bunnies? You find bunnies more interesting than the death of a 20-year-old and an age-old legend coming to life?"
Jonghyun clenches and unclenches his fists. "Bunnies are infinitely amusing. Also, you might want to get moving on that hound case. Time is ticking, Jinki."
"I don't have to go there."
"Of course, you don't." Jonghyun gives him a smug smile. "But I'm asking you to go there. The price you have to pay for not giving me my nicotine patches."
Jinki throws a pillow straight onto Jonghyun's face. "There. The pillow the client had beside him while he was smoking. There's your nicotine. Now, will you please come with me so that we can crack this case faster than I can crack your skull?"
The source of the newfound confidence completely escapes Jinki, but he doesn't bite back the smile creeping to his lips when Jonghyun gets up from his seat - albeit grudgingly - and gives him a pat on the back, saying, "Well done, Jinki. Well done."
The second act is called The Turn.
The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary.
"Coffee, for you."
Jinki almost jumps in his seat when Jonghyun appears in front of him, a small smile on his lips and his right hand holding a cup of coffee. "You don't make coffee," Jinki mumbles, eyes not straying from Jonghyun. "In fact, you don't do anything for me at all."
"It's my… way of apologizing for that stint back in Baskerville."
Jinki laughs a little. Jonghyun might have been a bit more concerned about him walking away because of the I don't have friends comment than he had initially thought. "You, apologizing? Really? Is the world ending-"
"Oh, for God's sake, just drink the bloody coffee!"
Jinki takes a sip, then two more until he resolves to himself that the coffee is nowhere near passable. He gives Jinki a small smile and an affirmative nod. "Thanks. But please, don't make me coffee ever again."
Jinki laughs, and Jonghyun follows suit. Five minutes after, the landlady walks in on them and calls them crazy. They laugh all the more.
It's the first full stop they've pulled since running away from the cops earlier in the evening. Jonghyun is to blame for the bright idea of escaping from the police like fugitives. "We're just playing Minho's game," Jinki remembers Jonghyun saying. "It's all a game."
"I didn't sign up for this." Jinki leans back against the wall. His right wrist is sore from where the handcuffs have been these past few minutes. "I'm a doctor, not a fugitive. Christ…"
Jonghyun's breathing is laboured and uneven. There's a sharp intake of breath after a while and Jonghyun falls silent beside him.
"What are you?"
Jinki's eyes shoot up. "Sorry?"
There's hesitation in the way Jonghyun worries his lower lip and shoots Jinki a glance every two to three seconds. "I mean… What are you, really? An ex-army doctor, a blogger, a writer with no idea of what a good title should be like, a flatmate with no sense of good coffee - you're not them. They're not you."
"I don't understand where you're coming from at all-"
"You said you didn't sign up for this, that you're a doctor, just a doctor. If you must know, you're more than that. You've been extremely helpful these past few cases, and I do admit that I've been getting work done much easier and faster since you came-"
Jinki laughs a little. "If this is still about the Baskerville incident, let me make this clear: you don't have to apologize. Really."
"But I want to. I need to."
They're facing each other for the first time since the last supper they had, and Jinki can see Jonghyun's lips trembling. It's a bit unsettling, he thinks, to be the cause of what seems to be Jonghyun's misery. He's never seen the later in such a state - so frail, so small, so vulnerable.
"I don't want to lose you, Jinki. I can't."
This is probably the closest that Jonghyun can get to admitting that he needs someone - a friend - so Jinki returns the favor. "Don't worry. You've got me right here. I'm not leaving." Jinki punctuates his sentence with a light squeeze of Jonghyun's arm. "Don't worry."
"Promise?"
Jonghyun sticks out his pinky and, for whatever it's worth, Jinki does the same.
"Promise."
There are a lot of ways to die, and Jinki thinks that Jonghyun's choice of method - jumping off a building - isn't exactly the most classy or honorable of ways to do so.
"You stupid, stupid person- Jonghyun-"
"I can't go down so we'll have to do it like this." Jonghyun's breathing is heavy, and even through the receiver Jinki can hear a trace of apprehension, hesitation, fear. "It's… It's true, what she said."
Jinki takes a deep breath. He can feel the pressure rising to his ears, ready to pop.
"I invented Minho for my own purposes.
I am a fake."
It takes a while before everything sinks in - here Jonghyun Kim is, telling him that he's been a fraud all this time, that the cases were merely devices with which people have been led to believe that Jonghyun was the smartest, cleverest person of their time. "Wha- Look, Jonghyun, the first time we met, the first time we met, you knew all about my past, right? My sister, my grandparents…"
"No one could be that clever."
Jinki bites his lower lip. "You could."
There's a bitter aftertaste in the way Jonghyun laughs and it shoots shivers down Jinki's spine. There's silence for a while longer, until Jonghyun tells him to tell everyone who counts that he's faked every single case and claim. Jinki argues for a while, struggling to find a way to somehow convince Jonghyun to get down from that ledge and to settle things with him in a place safer than the edge of a building, but to no avail.
"This call, treat it as a note."
"A note?"
"That's what people do, don't they? Leave a note?"
He's prepared to move from his spot to rush to the rooftop when Jonghyun throws his phone aside and extends his arms, as if poised for flight. Jinki counts the seconds until Jonghyun decides that this is a bad idea, possibly the worst one he's had in years, and all the feelings he's kept at bay rushes to his lips for an unrehearsed enunciation.
"Jonghyun!"
In five seconds flat, Jonghyun lands on the ground and there is blood pooled all over him.
In five seconds flat, Jonghyun Kim dies.
Now, you're looking for the secret but you won't find it because, of course, you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn't clap yet, because making something disappear isn't enough.
"It's been a year. Why now, Jinki? Why are you coming to me now after avoiding me like the plague for a year?"
Jinki shifts in his seat and clutches at his right knee. The setup in itself makes him feel uneasy; the topic puts him off all the more.
"I stopped having a reason to."
"And now you do."
"I-" Jinki fiddles with the hem of his shirt for a while before attempting to string his words together. "I can't. I can't say it. I've stayed away from the flat for the longest time and today's the only day I've ever thought about it again."
"About?"
"Stop making me say it!"
His breath hitches. He clenches his fists as hard as he can, letting his nails dig into his skin. He remembers not crying in Jonghyun's funeral, not letting his voice tremble when he gave his eulogy, not giving up and giving in, and the thought of breaking down in front of his therapist makes him want to berate himself.
He bites his lower lip. Acceptance is just a euphemism for defeat.
"Jonghyun- My best friend, Jonghyun Kim, is dead."
You have to bring it back.
It's the first time he's visited Jonghyun's grave since the funeral, and rightfully so - he's been an emotional wreck, and even the slightest memory of Jonghyun makes him tear up, rips him apart. There's a part of him that simply cannot erase the nagging feeling that he could have done something if he tried hard enough.
He places his hand tentatively on the stone and traces the edge with his fingers. He flinches a little; it still feels so surreal.
"Just… one favor, Jonghyun. Just one more miracle, please, for me." He takes a deep breath. "Stop this. Just stop this now. This is stupid. You're stupid! I-"
He lets his arms fall to his sides as he hangs his head low, letting the tears fall for the first time in so long. "Can you please not be dead?" he whispers, and he holds onto the tombstone for support. In the very few and mundane words he's sputtered so unceremoniously, he's summed up everything he's kept at bay for the past year. If Jonghyun was still alive, he'd probably be at the receiving end of judgment already.
But then, Jonghyun's already dead.
Jinki takes a deep breath and wipes the tears away, then turns around sharply. He fights the urge to look over his shoulder, to look behind or beside him where Jonghyun should normally be, and, instead, fixes his eyes on the road ahead.
He cheats on his pledge and risks a glance over his shoulder.
He'll probably say it's the worst decision he's made in a while because standing in front of Jonghyun's grave is a man with a coat whose collar is pulled up, a man whose hair is tousled in a certain way that can't be considered untidy or unruly. Jinki shakes his head and blinks a few times - he's probably just seeing things.
A few more blinks and things come back into focus. Jinki gets a move on, settling his eyes back on the path he'll be taking.
The figure is gone, but what Jinki fails to notice is the silhouette of the same figure cast against Jonghyun's grave.
And the signature 'ear hat' lying so conveniently on the tombstone.
That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part.
The part we call "The Prestige".
Jonghyun/Onew. 3453 words. Jinki's resolved to himself that life is fond of playing with him. On a case to case basis, at least. (for kpopvalentines / soundtrack)
There are people who you simply don't want to bump into. High school classmates, college prospects, old co-workers - Jinki knows of at least one person from every point of his life who fits the category, and Park Jungsu happens to be one of them. "Haven't seen you since you left the army," Jungsu says, hand extended in a greeting customary of a former army man. "Didn't even expect to see you here."
"I go out from time to time. Occasionally." Jinki smiles a little. "Didn't expect to see you here, either."
"I'm trying to start over, live a different life. I just moved to the flat around the corner. Cozy place. How about you?"
Jinki scratches the back of his head. "I'm still looking for a more… permanent place to settle in."
"London a bit too pricey for a man like you, eh? Why not share a flat with someone?"
Jinki chuckles. "No one would want to room with me, I'm sure you're aware of that." Jungsu's knowing look puts him off a little, so he averts his gaze and fixes it on his knee - time hasn't healed everything just yet.
"You know, you're the second person to tell me that today."
There's a light in Jungsu's eyes and something in the curve of the lip that tells Jinki that this might be a bad idea but he risks it, anyway. There's nothing that the war has stolen from him that the probability of sharing a flat with someone can ever take away.
"And who's the first one?"
Jungsu smiles.
Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts.
Jungsu brings him to a laboratory nearby and tells him to makes himself comofortable, which is hardly possible as they're in a room with a person whose eyes have been fixed on whatever he's studying through the microscope for ten minutes already. "That's pretty dangerous," Jinki says, voice low enough to be considered a whisper.
"I'm well aware of that. And oh, Jungsu, can I borrow your phone? I've no signal in this place."
Jungsu searches his pockets for his phone, but to no avail - he claims he might have dropped it somewhere. Who even does that, Jinki asks himself, berating Jungsu in his mind until he realizes that Jungsu is staring at him.
"You can use mine," Jinki offers after a while. "The call function is broken. I've yet to have the microphone fixed."
The stranger slowly pushes himself away from the table, then gives Jinki a tentative look. "I just… have to send a text, if that's alright." Jinki nods and offers a small smile, and the stranger takes the phone from his hands, completing the task in a few seconds and muttering a small sound of gratitude under his breath.
"So, Afghanistan or Iraq?"
"Huh?"
"The war, is it the one in Afghanistan or the one in Iraq?"
It takes Jinki a full minute to come up with a reply that doesn't entirely reek of apprehension. Thirty minutes after, the stranger declares him his new flatmate, slowly dissects his life using only the phone he let him borrow, and leaves him a name and the address of the flat he'll be occupying come end of the day.
"The name is Jonghyun Kim and the address is 221B Baker street. 7 p.m.. It's a date."
Before Jinki can even say anything in reply, Jonghyun leaves.
He must be crazy for having so much faith in Jonghyun despite the latter's penchant for getting into trouble.
They haven't even known each other for a week yet when Jonghyun ends up in prison for breaking and entering. "It's just for research," Jonghyun says through gritted teeth. "It's not as if I actually meant to steal anything…"
"You still invaded that woman's house and went through her things-"
"I was merely looking for a letter opener!"
"And you held it against her throat because she surprised you. Oh God, Jonghyun, do you seriously think you can get away with this all the time?"
Jonghyun stops in his tracks and gives Jinki the silliest smile, then bursts into laughter a few seconds after. "You worry too much," Jonghyun quips, then proceeds to ruffling his hair a bit. "Really."
The sudden touch makes Jinki flinch and his breathing hitch.
He walks past Jonghyun and straight to the cab that he hails. There's a pattern to this - the way he taps his fingers on his thigh as he waits for Jonghyun to arrive, the way he clenches his fists and takes deep yet quick breaths in an attempt to temper his heartbeat. Jonghyun riles him up as fast as coffee stirs his senses.
A few more seconds and there's a soft click of the door. Jonghyun shuffles inside, signature smug smile intact and a teasing glint in his eyes. "To 221B Baker street, please," Jonghyun then calls out, then proceeds to telling Jinki about his discoveries about life in prison, the people there, how infinitely amusing arm wrestling is, and how wonderful it would be to eat out tonight with a new friend.
The next few weeks, months, are nothing short of troublesome.
Jonghyun experiments on Jinki's dog, fires gunshots at the wall from time to time, blows up certain parts of the lab and doesn't even apologize for the mess. "It's all part of research," Jinki remembers Jonghyun saying, and even at his worst moments Jinki can only rolls his eyes and sneak in the occasional, "You are the worst, Jonghyun Kim. Do you hear me? The worst."
"Hm," Jonghyun begins and then, as if an afterthought, "Thank you."
Jinki furrows his eyebrows. There's the urge to study Jonghyun in full color, but he disregards this in favor of the case they're currently handling - something much more important than trying to understand the ways of Jonghyun Kim.
The first part is called The Pledge.
The magician shows you something ordinary; a deck of cards, a bird, or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal.
But, of course, it probably isn't.
Jinki's gotten used to Jonghyun's weird ways by now. Jonghyun lying down on the couch, body tense and fists clenched, means Jonghyun's thinking and has three nicotine patches attached to his left arm; Jonghyun firing bullets on the wall means he's bored. Late afternoon coffee sessions in the cafe downstairs mean that there's a case he's been meaning to discuss with Jinki, and poking holes at whatever Jinki's cooked for dinner means he's probably succumbing to whatever 'dull' case Kibum is giving them.
"Kibum says this is a matter of national importance. People are going to die if you don't solve this."
Jonghyun pushes his seat away from the dining table. "If they need me so much, they should start considering taking my brother off the government. His mere existence in the parliament deteriorates the overall likability of the group."
"Oh come on, give the case a chance. It's better than being stuck here in the flat."
The smile on Jonghyun's lips is wry and almost thin. Jinki fishes his phone from his pocket and dials Kibum's number in preparation for the onslaught of information. "Based on the data they gathered - and trust me, it's hardly useful - Ms. Hannigan died in a car crash and they're claiming that it's a murder. Of course, we know that's a lie and that the woman intentionally drove herself off the cliff because she left a note in her car - a suicide note that says, I cannot take this anymore, you cheating scum, and But I'm sorry, I couldn't let her have you. This leads us to the sound conclusion that she's been having problems with her marriage and that her husband is, as she has lovingly put it, a cheating scum. This explains the other case we're handling, the more… exciting one."
"Isn't Ms. Hannigan single, though? And you mean the death of Mr. Brendan? Didn't they say he was choked by some… tool?"
Jonghyun scoffs. "Wild imagination, those policemen have got. I'm telling you. Anyway, Mr. Brendan was not choked by some tool. He was poisoned. I just received the results of the tests they ran yesterday and it was discovered that he was poisoned three hours prior to when his body was discovered."
"Must've been a powerful poison."
"Agent XV, to be exact. Very powerful. Death in .5 milligrams. Now, cross-checking with the suicide note gives you the identity of the killer - Ms. Hannigan, also known as Mrs. Brendan. Mrs. Vanessa H. Brendan. I only put poison in your coffee because I couldn't let anyone else have you, she says in her note. Tests show that the coffee was indeed spiked with poison. Clever choice, if you ask me. XV - Xavier and Vanessa Brendan."
Jinki chuckles and gives his phone a light squeeze. "You do know that Kibum is on the line as we speak, right?"
Jonghyun smiles a little. "Of course." He straightens out his coat and downs the remaining coffee in his cup. "Dare you even ask."
It seems that the amount of time he spends with Jonghyun is directly proportional to the trouble he finds himself getting into.
He opens the door at six in the evening and the first thing that greets him is a stranger with the most revolting smile. There's laser pointed to his chest so he doesn't bother retaliating, letting the guards shove him inside a taxi and knock him out a few seconds after. "He's Jonghyun's pet, isn't he?" Jinki hears someone saying, and he doesn't make an effort to suppress the knee-jerk reaction and kicks against the door.
"A fighter, this one. I may have underestimated Jonghyun a little."
There's a bit of a hiccup during the rescue operation, when Jonghyun arrives a few minutes past the deadline and gapes at the sight of Jinki with a bomb strapped to his chest, but it's nothing that can't be solved by playing by the rules. Minho Choi exits the room with the promise of a more exciting mind game at the end of it all. I'll see you dance again… soon- the words ring brightly in Jinki's ears.
Jonghyun quickly drops the gun when Minho is already out of their sight.
"Are you okay? Are you alright? God-" Jonghyun quickly removes the bomb strapped to Jinki, hands and fingers moving deftly across the canvas. "I'm sorry you had to go through this. I-"
Jinki places his hands secure on Jonghyun's shoulder, squeezing the latter's arms a little. "Hey, listen, I'm okay. I'm alive. Don't worry."
Jonghyun nods thoughtfully, then gets back to his feet, dusting off his coat. When Jinki asks, "You alright?", Jonghyun just nods and whispers to the wind. Jinki catches a faint, I almost died, from Jonghyun's lips, and he wonders briefly if Jonghyun meant that literally because Jonghyun Kim has never been known to be a man of emotions.
Ever.
Months into being Jonghyun's assistant and Jinki still hasn't found a way to get himself out of Jonghyun's subtle attempts at using him as a guinea pig for cases that are not as interesting. "Seriously, bunnies? You find bunnies more interesting than the death of a 20-year-old and an age-old legend coming to life?"
Jonghyun clenches and unclenches his fists. "Bunnies are infinitely amusing. Also, you might want to get moving on that hound case. Time is ticking, Jinki."
"I don't have to go there."
"Of course, you don't." Jonghyun gives him a smug smile. "But I'm asking you to go there. The price you have to pay for not giving me my nicotine patches."
Jinki throws a pillow straight onto Jonghyun's face. "There. The pillow the client had beside him while he was smoking. There's your nicotine. Now, will you please come with me so that we can crack this case faster than I can crack your skull?"
The source of the newfound confidence completely escapes Jinki, but he doesn't bite back the smile creeping to his lips when Jonghyun gets up from his seat - albeit grudgingly - and gives him a pat on the back, saying, "Well done, Jinki. Well done."
The second act is called The Turn.
The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary.
"Coffee, for you."
Jinki almost jumps in his seat when Jonghyun appears in front of him, a small smile on his lips and his right hand holding a cup of coffee. "You don't make coffee," Jinki mumbles, eyes not straying from Jonghyun. "In fact, you don't do anything for me at all."
"It's my… way of apologizing for that stint back in Baskerville."
Jinki laughs a little. Jonghyun might have been a bit more concerned about him walking away because of the I don't have friends comment than he had initially thought. "You, apologizing? Really? Is the world ending-"
"Oh, for God's sake, just drink the bloody coffee!"
Jinki takes a sip, then two more until he resolves to himself that the coffee is nowhere near passable. He gives Jinki a small smile and an affirmative nod. "Thanks. But please, don't make me coffee ever again."
Jinki laughs, and Jonghyun follows suit. Five minutes after, the landlady walks in on them and calls them crazy. They laugh all the more.
It's the first full stop they've pulled since running away from the cops earlier in the evening. Jonghyun is to blame for the bright idea of escaping from the police like fugitives. "We're just playing Minho's game," Jinki remembers Jonghyun saying. "It's all a game."
"I didn't sign up for this." Jinki leans back against the wall. His right wrist is sore from where the handcuffs have been these past few minutes. "I'm a doctor, not a fugitive. Christ…"
Jonghyun's breathing is laboured and uneven. There's a sharp intake of breath after a while and Jonghyun falls silent beside him.
"What are you?"
Jinki's eyes shoot up. "Sorry?"
There's hesitation in the way Jonghyun worries his lower lip and shoots Jinki a glance every two to three seconds. "I mean… What are you, really? An ex-army doctor, a blogger, a writer with no idea of what a good title should be like, a flatmate with no sense of good coffee - you're not them. They're not you."
"I don't understand where you're coming from at all-"
"You said you didn't sign up for this, that you're a doctor, just a doctor. If you must know, you're more than that. You've been extremely helpful these past few cases, and I do admit that I've been getting work done much easier and faster since you came-"
Jinki laughs a little. "If this is still about the Baskerville incident, let me make this clear: you don't have to apologize. Really."
"But I want to. I need to."
They're facing each other for the first time since the last supper they had, and Jinki can see Jonghyun's lips trembling. It's a bit unsettling, he thinks, to be the cause of what seems to be Jonghyun's misery. He's never seen the later in such a state - so frail, so small, so vulnerable.
"I don't want to lose you, Jinki. I can't."
This is probably the closest that Jonghyun can get to admitting that he needs someone - a friend - so Jinki returns the favor. "Don't worry. You've got me right here. I'm not leaving." Jinki punctuates his sentence with a light squeeze of Jonghyun's arm. "Don't worry."
"Promise?"
Jonghyun sticks out his pinky and, for whatever it's worth, Jinki does the same.
"Promise."
There are a lot of ways to die, and Jinki thinks that Jonghyun's choice of method - jumping off a building - isn't exactly the most classy or honorable of ways to do so.
"You stupid, stupid person- Jonghyun-"
"I can't go down so we'll have to do it like this." Jonghyun's breathing is heavy, and even through the receiver Jinki can hear a trace of apprehension, hesitation, fear. "It's… It's true, what she said."
Jinki takes a deep breath. He can feel the pressure rising to his ears, ready to pop.
"I invented Minho for my own purposes.
I am a fake."
It takes a while before everything sinks in - here Jonghyun Kim is, telling him that he's been a fraud all this time, that the cases were merely devices with which people have been led to believe that Jonghyun was the smartest, cleverest person of their time. "Wha- Look, Jonghyun, the first time we met, the first time we met, you knew all about my past, right? My sister, my grandparents…"
"No one could be that clever."
Jinki bites his lower lip. "You could."
There's a bitter aftertaste in the way Jonghyun laughs and it shoots shivers down Jinki's spine. There's silence for a while longer, until Jonghyun tells him to tell everyone who counts that he's faked every single case and claim. Jinki argues for a while, struggling to find a way to somehow convince Jonghyun to get down from that ledge and to settle things with him in a place safer than the edge of a building, but to no avail.
"This call, treat it as a note."
"A note?"
"That's what people do, don't they? Leave a note?"
He's prepared to move from his spot to rush to the rooftop when Jonghyun throws his phone aside and extends his arms, as if poised for flight. Jinki counts the seconds until Jonghyun decides that this is a bad idea, possibly the worst one he's had in years, and all the feelings he's kept at bay rushes to his lips for an unrehearsed enunciation.
"Jonghyun!"
In five seconds flat, Jonghyun lands on the ground and there is blood pooled all over him.
In five seconds flat, Jonghyun Kim dies.
Now, you're looking for the secret but you won't find it because, of course, you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn't clap yet, because making something disappear isn't enough.
"It's been a year. Why now, Jinki? Why are you coming to me now after avoiding me like the plague for a year?"
Jinki shifts in his seat and clutches at his right knee. The setup in itself makes him feel uneasy; the topic puts him off all the more.
"I stopped having a reason to."
"And now you do."
"I-" Jinki fiddles with the hem of his shirt for a while before attempting to string his words together. "I can't. I can't say it. I've stayed away from the flat for the longest time and today's the only day I've ever thought about it again."
"About?"
"Stop making me say it!"
His breath hitches. He clenches his fists as hard as he can, letting his nails dig into his skin. He remembers not crying in Jonghyun's funeral, not letting his voice tremble when he gave his eulogy, not giving up and giving in, and the thought of breaking down in front of his therapist makes him want to berate himself.
He bites his lower lip. Acceptance is just a euphemism for defeat.
"Jonghyun- My best friend, Jonghyun Kim, is dead."
You have to bring it back.
It's the first time he's visited Jonghyun's grave since the funeral, and rightfully so - he's been an emotional wreck, and even the slightest memory of Jonghyun makes him tear up, rips him apart. There's a part of him that simply cannot erase the nagging feeling that he could have done something if he tried hard enough.
He places his hand tentatively on the stone and traces the edge with his fingers. He flinches a little; it still feels so surreal.
"Just… one favor, Jonghyun. Just one more miracle, please, for me." He takes a deep breath. "Stop this. Just stop this now. This is stupid. You're stupid! I-"
He lets his arms fall to his sides as he hangs his head low, letting the tears fall for the first time in so long. "Can you please not be dead?" he whispers, and he holds onto the tombstone for support. In the very few and mundane words he's sputtered so unceremoniously, he's summed up everything he's kept at bay for the past year. If Jonghyun was still alive, he'd probably be at the receiving end of judgment already.
But then, Jonghyun's already dead.
Jinki takes a deep breath and wipes the tears away, then turns around sharply. He fights the urge to look over his shoulder, to look behind or beside him where Jonghyun should normally be, and, instead, fixes his eyes on the road ahead.
He cheats on his pledge and risks a glance over his shoulder.
He'll probably say it's the worst decision he's made in a while because standing in front of Jonghyun's grave is a man with a coat whose collar is pulled up, a man whose hair is tousled in a certain way that can't be considered untidy or unruly. Jinki shakes his head and blinks a few times - he's probably just seeing things.
A few more blinks and things come back into focus. Jinki gets a move on, settling his eyes back on the path he'll be taking.
The figure is gone, but what Jinki fails to notice is the silhouette of the same figure cast against Jonghyun's grave.
And the signature 'ear hat' lying so conveniently on the tombstone.
That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part.
The part we call "The Prestige".