SHINee Duets 2012: miss_circle & xfwankiex & chaeii (part one)
Title: Love in A Tin Box
Authors: miss_circle & xfwankiex & chaeii
Pairing: Key/Minho
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: None
Authors’ Notes: Doing this is a lot harder than we thought. We apologize for any inconvenience and mistakes in the story. Our deepest gratitude to the Mods, for the extension.
“The target is moving,” Minho whispered into the micro mic hidden underneath his collar. He listened for a few seconds before affirming, “Roger that.”
Minho checked his reflection in the café’s glass and buttoned up his coat. Assured that he looked like the executive he was trying to pose as, he stepped into the café and joined the long queue line of the cashier. He watched through the corner of his eye a certain blonde-haired woman who joined the line behind him. Pretending to take his wallet out of his coat, Minho deliberately let a business card fall out of the same place. As expected, the woman picked up the card.
“I’m sorry, but you dropped this, Mister… Choi,” she said, pausing as she read the title written on the card.
Seemingly uninterested, Minho glanced and told the woman, “Oh, thank you. You can keep it. Who knows you might need it someday.” He gave her a quick smile before turning his attention back to the queue. He started to count down in his head. 5… 4… 3…
“I’ve seen you a couple of times, but I didn’t know you work in Givenchy,” the woman said. Trying hard not to smile, Minho turned his head back to her.
“Ah, yes,” he said. “People don’t see me as the fashionista kind of guy. I’m the lawyer, not the designer.”
“Yes, it says so in your business card.”
She was as observant as the reports said. Minho decided to be more careful.
“You’re familiar with the brand?” Minho said to change the subject as the queue moved ever so slowly in the morning.
“Don’t get your head high, but it’s one of my favorite brands,” she replied. Bull’s eye. All those weeks tailing her hadn’t been a waste after all. Minho spent a lot of time noting that Kim Gwiboon routinely checked out Givenchy’s store that it was safe to conclude that the brand would attract her interest.
Bending down to reach her ear, Minho whispered, “Don’t tell anyone, but I honestly have no idea what is so good about Givenchy’s product.”
Minho winked in a conspiratorial way, earning a high-pitched laughter out of Gwiboon’s thin lips.
“Do you get employee discounts?” Gwiboon joked.
“Better than discounts, I get the clothes for free.”
“Lucky you.”
Minho reached the cashier and they stopped talking. He made his order as if he had always ordered the same thing every day.
“One Java for me and one Americano for this miss please,” he told the cashier. Gwiboon smirked and eyed him curiously.
“I’ve seen you a couple of times and I know your favorite coffee,” he added to Gwiboon.
“Stalker.”
“I can’t help it when my eyes fall on someone.”
There was no way Minho wouldn’t catch the smugness on Gwiboon’s face. Picking up their coffee, Minho and Gwiboon stepped out of the café and stood at the side of the street. Taking a sip out of his Java, Minho gave Gwiboon a full view of his doe-like eyes, a gesture he knew would create a certain effect on women. He discreetly hoped it would have the same effect on an intelligent woman like Gwiboon. He needed to distract her.
“So,” he started. “As nice as it’s been to see you every morning, would it be rude to ask if I could ever see you after work?”
“How convenient, I already have your number,” Gwiboon said, smirking as she gave Minho’s business card a little wave.
“Who knows? Maybe I let my card fall on purpose.”
The irony, Minho thought. It seemed like Gwiboon couldn’t help but to smile despite her effort of not looking too pleased. She took the chance of turning away from Minho’s piercing gaze when a taxi drove by where they stood.
“Here comes my taxi,” she announced. Minho noticed her cheeks were in the same color of her rosy scarf. To give it the maximum effect, Minho opened the car door for her. Now smiling shyly, Gwiboon got into the taxi, giving Minho a glimpse of her milky thighs. He wondered if she did it on purpose.
“Don’t let me down. Call me,” Minho said. He closed the door and watched as the taxi rolled away. He was certain Gwiboon turned around and gave him a smile. When the car disappeared from his sight, Minho threw his Java to the trash can. He had never appreciated the dark liquid. His part was done. He walked to an empty alley a block away from the café and approached a black car that was already waiting for him. He got into the car and sat on the passenger’s seat, barely glancing at Jongkook behind the steering wheel.
“Dong Hoon has drugged her. She’s asleep,” Jongkook informed.
“Good. Let’s get back to the headquarter,” Minho said.
Jongkook started the ignition.
*
It wasn’t Gwibon’s fault. The metal tin had been lodged in Minjung’s brother’s bag, in between his textbooks.
She was halfway through a third chocolate cookie when a shadow loomed over her, causing her to drop the cookie on the floor.
“Those are mine,” the boy had said, small hands reaching out for the tin.
Gwiboon had hastily closed the box before putting it in his outstretched hands. Tears pricked at the corner of her eyes, and she clutched her hands into fists to prevent the tears from falling.
“Uhm, I'm not really hungry, you can have them,” Minjung’s brother suddenly said, thrusting the tin box towards her. She took it and smiled at him. He turned and fled.
The subsequent times she went to Minjung’s house, there would always be a box of chocolate cookies lodged in Minho’s bag.
*
Gwiboon gasped as a splash of water hit her right on the face. She opened her eyes only to be blinded by a bright yellow light in front of her. Trying to adjust her sight, she briefly remembered her taxi taking an unfamiliar turn on the road despite her protest. Next thing she knew she was smelling something funny and lost all consciousness. Squinting hard, Gwiboon found herself tied onto a chair in a dark room save for the lamp shot at her face.
“Turn it off!” she screeched. Instead of turning it off, a figure moved in the way of the light, creating a tall silhouette looming above her. “What do you want?”
The figure stepped closer, blocking all the light and made Gwiboon’s eyes felt better.
“We have questions, and we want you to answer them,” the figure said. Gwiboon tensed hearing the low growl that promised her threats in his sentence.
“Whoever you are, I am not giving you anything,” Gwiboon yelled into the darkness.
“Yes, you will.”
Gwiboon cried in frustration and tried to free herself from her bounds. The attempt tilted her chair, and she had no means of preventing the fall. Her head hit the cold floor and her screaming of pain echoed on the walls. Her captor picked her up and once again she was under the mercy of the bright light, magnifying her dizziness by triple.
“What do you want?” she screamed again.
“The password,” the captor growled. Gwiboon didn’t mean to laugh, but she did.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Gwiboon said through gritted teeth. The light was so bright, she could still see it through her closed eyelids. It was driving her crazy.
“We’ll make you.”
All of a sudden, the light was gone and she heard a door slam to her right. She was left alone.
*
It felt like it had been a while since Gwiboon woke up in this unknown place for the first time. She didn’t know that it was only a few hours. She could hear a door open from her left. No, the right. There was sound of a chair being dragged and it seemed like the chair stopped in front of her. Feet shuffling. A click. The light was on again, shooting daggers right through Gwiboon’s eyes.
“Damn it,” Gwiboon cursed, head turning away from the light.
Her captor sat in front of her and forced her head his way.
“Look at me,” he ordered.
“There’s nothing to see, you idiot,” she retorted. Her insult was replied by a big hand slapping her hard on her left cheek. Gwiboon gasped, but she didn’t scream. “I see the gentleman rule doesn’t apply here.”
“There’s no use being a smart ass here, Kim Gwiboon.”
“What do you want?”
“The password.”
“I don’t know any-“
Gwiboon didn’t have time to finish to her sentence before the kidnapper slapped her on the other cheek.
“Are you going to hit me until I give you what you want?” Gwiboon snapped, her voice sounded more daring than what her thumping heart would actually reveal.
“If that’s what it takes.”
“Too bad. I know nothing.”
The only reply was another hit on her head, sending her head spinning painfully. Her captor stood up and made a shadow by blocking the light. The movement made Gwiboon finally see the mirror next to it. A two-way mirror. Someone’s watching. Gwiboon fell to unconsciousness again.
*
Her face was stinging with a number of bruise. As far as Gwiboon could estimate, her captor visited her every few hours only to hit her until she blurted out the password he was so desperate to have. If only she could see herself on the new found mirror, she wouldn’t be surprised to see her face black and blue from the torture. This was the fourth time her captor tried to force an answer out of her. He was pulling on her hair, probably trying to take it away from her scalp.
“The password!” he yelled.
“Stop it!” she bellowed in return. Her eyes starting to water from the pain.
“That’s enough,” an unfamiliar voice said all of a sudden. The pull on Gwiboon’s hair was gone, and the room was filled with light. A normal, non-painful one. Gwiboon tried to even out her breathings as her captor and newcomer exchanged words. Her hair prevented her from seeing what was happening.
“I’m not finished.” It was her captor. She’d known his voice by now.
“We’re not murderers,” the new voice said. The voice was soft, and Gwiboon could not control the hope inside her that this man might just be her savior. Through her disheveled hair, she could see one of the men came closer. Her reflex was to move away despite her bounds.
“It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you,” the voice said. There was a gentleness in his tone, and Gwiboon believed that he meant it. Somewhere she could hear the other man snorted. It only took a few seconds to release her from her bounds. Gwiboon immediately jumped out of her seat and took a refuge at a corner, massaging her wounded wrists. Now she could see the room clearly.
The new, gentle voice belonged to a man about her height. His hair was brunette, long enough to cover his honey eyes which were not smiling at her. Neither were his plump lips. He was wearing a black t-shirt on top of a pair of black jeans, completed with a pair of dark Doc Martens. In all honesty, Gwiboon thought his bringing was too dark compared to his soft voice. As for the other man, her torturer, he was a lot taller. She could only see his back as he turned off the blinding interrogation light, useless now that the room light was on. His hair was dark and when he turned around, he had a pair of familiar doe-like eyes.
“You,” Gwiboon growled in disbelief. Her eyes widened at the face she just met in the coffee shop one morning. This morning? “What’s going on?”
“Sit down, Gwiboon,” the man with the soft voice said, attempting to guide her back to her seat.
“Stay away from me!”
The shorter man put his hands up in the air and shook his head, showing her that she would not touch him. Gwiboon couldn’t take her eyes off of the Givenchy lawyer, still surprised that she could be so stupid to fall for such a handsome guy. She should have been more careful.
“I’m Jinki,” the soft voice said again. “That’s Minho. We’re not going to hurt you-”
“He already did,” Gwiboon butted in.
“-anymore.”
“What do you want?” she asked for the umpteenth time, eyes still fixed on Minho who was leaning his back on the two-way mirror, crossing his hands like he had not just hit Gwiboon earlier. His eyes were cold. They were as dark as the black coat he was still wearing from the coffee shop.
“We want your help,” Jinki answered. Gwiboon was about to throw colorful words at him, but he continued, “There’s no use faking your ignorance. We know everything already. We know your role in the Department of Defense and how much information you have. We need it.”
“You’ve done your homework. I see your mole is successful.”
“Well, you haven’t caught him, have you?”
“We have our suspects.”
Minho hadn’t said a word.
“You must have known already what vault we’re trying to get into.”
“If your mole is so smart, why can’t he hack the password himself?”
“Because we both know that it takes more than a password to get into it.”
Gwiboon fell silent. She hoped the twitch in her right eye didn’t give away her anxiety. It wasn’t easy to maintain the fearless demeanor she was showing them.
“What makes you think I would help a group of national traitors like you?” she said in an undertone, suppressing down her anger.
“Our cause. You will help us once you understand it.”
Jinki didn’t say another word and left the room. Minho followed him to the door, but not before threatening her in a growl that was all too familiar. “I’ll be keeping an eye on you.”
Both men walked out of the room, leaving the door wide open. Gwiboon stared in shock for a moment, trying to make sense of what just happened. There was no way they would let her go this easily. Slowly, she walked to the open door and took a look outside the room. What she saw was the biggest bunker she had ever seen.
Gwiboon took to touring herself around the bunker, looking around, taking everything in. She could hardly imagine that something like this was festering right under their noses. They had their suspicion, but never had they imagined that it would've gotten this big; or they would have if they paid more attention. They'd gotten threats and warnings nearly every day about a resistance group that was forming right under their noses, but they didn't want to listen - what damage could they do?
But now that she's in there with them, trapped in their headquarters, she realized how stupid they'd been to take it lightly. She watched as men and women went in and out of the bunker, all giving her indifferent looks as they passed, never did anything else, for which Gwiboon was undeniably grateful. She watched some of them bring in weapons and she watched the others bring them out. She watched some of them smile and laugh with one another, and, the rest of them, she'd see the anger and the vengeance in their faces as they spoke and glanced at her.
These were their people, she realized, the very people they were supposed to govern and serve but they were rebelling against them. She knows their government isn't perfect, but what government is? They made their mistakes and they try to make up for them. How badly had they been doing their job so that it would cause this huge of a rebellion to gather and one day rise up against them?
“Excuse me,” Gwiboon stopped a woman who passed her by. She was carrying a tray of food and Gwiboon couldn’t remember the last time she ate.
“Are you hungry? I can share this with you,” the woman said, noticing Gwiboon’s glancing at her tray. Gwiboon wondered why she was being so nice.
“Do you know who I am?” I’m a prisoner here.
“Of course. You’re Kim Gwiboon. Everyone knows you,” she said lightly, resuming her walk to wherever she was going to. Gwiboon trotted along, not wanting to be left alone in an unfamiliar place. Now that she thought of it, she kind of missed the Givenchy lawyer. At least he looked familiar.
“Then why aren’t you keeping me locked away?” Gwiboon spoke her curiosity.
“Don’t be silly, you’re safe here. There’s no point in locking you up when you can’t get out of here anyway. My name is Song Jihyo.”
Jihyo stopped and got into a small room that was her sleeping quarter. There were several bunk beds, but no one was there. Jihyo set her tray on one of the beds and split her food in two.
“Come on,” Jihyo said. “Eat some.”
Gwiboon hesitated at first, but seeing the encouragement from Jihyo, she downed her food in an instant.
“I know what you guys are doing,” Gwiboon started when she had finished her food.
“What’s that?” Jihyo humored her.
“The good cop-bad cop trick is classic. It doesn’t matter you’ve tortured me and now being nice to me, I’m still not gonna tell you anything.”
To Gwiboon’s surprise, Jihyo laughed.
“Is that what you think we’re doing?” Jihyo asked.
“Then what are you doing?” Gwiboon asked in return, genuinely perplexed.
“The question is why am I here, Gwiboon.”
“Why are you here?”
Jihyo put her tray aside and made herself comfortable on the bed. She looked at Gwiboon, as though thinking whether she should tell her something or not. Then she smiled before she started her story.
“A long time ago, I was an aspiring law student. I was so sure that I could solve everything with law and set justice to every wrong in this country. I tried my way to get into the legislative body, and what I experienced was things beyond my expectation. Do you have any idea how much money the government take out of the people? A lot.”
“But all that money is spent to take care of you,” Gwiboon argued.
“How about the kind of money that goes to their own pockets?”
“I admit we have our own problem of corruption, but we’re doing everything we can to stop them.”
“How long are you going to take, Gwiboon? I’ve been living for thirty years and the problems never change. People starve, they die, and they’re poor. That’s always what you government will always say, that you’re doing everything you can, but I see no difference.”
“And you think by creating a resistance group you can make a difference?”
“Definitely. A republic is only run by its people, and we are the people. The government should be afraid of the people.”
“Don’t you think what you’re doing is a bit too extreme?”
“Don’t you think what you’re doing is a bit too laid back?”
“It’s not easy to run a government.”
“Cliché. Tell that to the dying people. They wouldn’t care. All they know is that they can’t even go to the hospitals because they are too poor.”
Gwiboon stayed quiet, because she knew what Jihyo said was true. It’s a problem she witnessed with her own eyes and she didn’t have any solutions for it either.
“Out of everything the government can do, you choose to keep increasing your military budget instead of healthcare and social welfare. You want war? We’ll give you one.”
With that, Jihyo closed her case.
Part Two