Chapter Text
“What’s the matter?” The man, standing in the beautifully furnished room in his stylish brown suit, looked anxiously at the young woman sitting in front of him. His dark eyebrows were furrowed, his mustache was pulled back.
“Victor, why did you switch stones on us?” asked the seated woman. She was wrapped in a black sable fur coat, and her dress of the same color accentuated her luxurious appearance. Her carefully styled, bright blonde hair was topped with a hat deliberately tilted to one side.
The discomfort visible in her eyes was etched on her pale face as she scowled at the gentleman in the suit standing before her.
“I don't know what you're talking about?” The man in the suit, named Victor, looked at the woman in surprise, his mouth agape.
“You let us carry an imitation.” The woman in the fur coat said in a cold voice.
The camera turned back to Victor, who was stunned, his dark brown eyes wide open.
“An imitation?” His voice was full of surprise. However, the woman in front of him was quite calm. Her flawlessly white face glowed in the room's yellow light. Her round eyes sparkled with intelligence; she had noticed the games Victor was playing.
She didn't know that even now he was playing games with her, too. Men in black suits, hidden behind the doors around the room, listened intently to every word the couple said, recording it all.
“Let’s not pretend, they examined it. The men we work with, our experts.” After the woman dropped her bombshell, the camera panned to the couple. Victor was still standing, but his previously upright posture was now hunched over.
Even now, as he tried to trap her, a flicker of fear had entered him: What if she knew? A genuine concern was visible in his eyes, and he needed to correct this assumption immediately. He quickly sat down on the plush chair behind him.
“I thought you said you didn’t deliver it!”
“I had to tell you that, they were right there with me.” The woman's calm tone echoed through the room.
“Oh, I see...” Victor lowered his gaze, the fur-clad woman's words beginning to sink in. He leaned back slowly into the soft chair, his brown suit creasing.
After three silent seconds in the room, the man who had been stroking his mustache finally turned his eyes to the woman looking at him intently.
“But the diamond you carried in was the same—“
The movie suddenly stopped, the usual two line stop sign appeared on the big screen. The man ,who had just opened his mouth to reply, was looking blurry. Maybe because it stopped right at the scene where he was talking towards the woman, preparing to tell his assumption.
With the TV remote control in his hand, Taekjoo let out a loud sigh. He was getting bored, yet he had been binge watching his favorite shows for over two hours. Sprawled on the comfy couch, he ruffled his dark hair and took a big bite out of his muffin. Even though he wasn’t fond of eating sweets, especially that day, he really craved an overly-sweet dessert packed with artificial sweeteners and gooey chocolate syrup. This being a mixture of cheap flavors, a person can only find this packet of abomination from a shabby convenience store. He had shuffled his way to the nearest supermarket without bothering to change his home clothes and greedily got anything he wanted in the moment.
To be honest, he didn’t mind the taste of pre-made muffins, he had been eating this kind of junk food for almost his entire work life. Dealing with multiple late night shifts and playing russian roulette on the thin thread of life would made him constantly hungry, so he always had to carry a small bag of sweets to replenish his lost energy.
Jawbreakers and hard candies had been his favorite preferences, their tough outer layer and small sizes would make them a better option to carry around in harsh environments. Plus, it was kind of delightful to punch some goons while crunching candies in his mouth.
Gums were great too, but the NIS had actually banned them in order for their agents to not choke on them while performing duties. Still, the brunette couldn’t give up his habit of chewing mastic flavored gums, as the sweet aroma of the gum melted in his mouth, he could focus more on the tasks at hand.
Stored in a tiny zippered pocket, Taekjoo would change the types according to the textures or flavors he liked, and buy whichever brand tasted sweeter when chewing at a bloody crime scene. It was a strange hobby but it did alleviate the anxiety of the job he had been struggling for 10 years, even if it helped only a little bit.
Memory fragments of his old work ,which he had quit long ago, had seeped back into his mind thanks to the ready-made muffins he was eating at the moment. Taking the last mouthful of the batter, the brunette’s cheeks puffed up visibly. He was munching while wiping the syrup smeared on his lips with his left thumb. Taekjoo licked his fingers, resembling a content cat with his narrowed eyes and sheepish smile. Shifted in his half-lying position on the couch, he reached the remote controller again. As he was going to press the button to continue the movie he saw numerous brown dots splattered on his light blue t-shirt.
“Fuck, I just washed this!” he whined. The brown dots were staining the previously clean shirt, spreading on the fabric. The brunette didn’t have the heart to wash that again, its once navy color had already become lighter due to the excessive bleaching. He also loved that t-shirt, the stretchy fabric was breathable and comfy, even though it transformed into a piece of rag with years of usage.
Taekjoo stretched the dirty fabric with his left hand and slowly crawled off the couch, waddling with his socked feet, he grabbed the wet wipes package on the coffee table with his other hand. Pulling out a few tissues, the brunette started to hastily wipe the dots while grumbling. The stains were ,shockingly, not coming off; furthermore they were getting wider. Soon, the tissue turned slightly brown along with his smudged and now wet t-shirt.
“Damn it!” he cursed, the shirt got even more fucked up when he tried to clean it. He groaned irritably and yanked the shirt off, marching topless towards the dirty basket in the bathroom.
Flicking the lights on, he entered the cramped bathroom. When the door opened, the white sink that greeted those who enter was covered with soap, mouthwash, toothpaste, toothbrushes, and similar items. There was a large mirror above the sink, decorated with fingerprints in some places. The towel hanging next to the mirror was crooked. At least the toilet lid to the right of the sink was closed; he wasn't that messy. Inside the shower right next to the toilet were all kinds of shampoos, hair conditioners, and shower gels with different scents. The two lovers would occasionally swap these hair products, which were special to them, and use them together.
The belongings of the two lovers scattered throughout the bathroom made it clear to anyone entering the room that two people lived in this house. Taekjoo tossed the dirty cloth in his left hand into the laundry basket on the shower’s left side and looked at his reflection in the glass door of the empty washing machine.
His usually straight hair was again disheveled, and traces of chocolate sauce remained at the corners of his mouth. His eyes were puffy from excessive sleep rather than the lack of it, and his skin was oily. The brunet sighed; he had become increasingly lazy during his time at home. He’d been indoors for almost three days, never leaving the couch he had been curled up on in the living room; eating when he felt like it, and when he didn't, crawling under the blanket on the couch to watch pink Korean dramas.
Zhenya had been gone for exactly eighteen days. He’d gone to Russia to help his brother, stepping out the door with his suitcase packed and the words “It’s nothing important, I'll be back in a few days” hanging over him. Then his foolishly trusting boyfriend had kissed the blond man one last time on the lips before seeing him off.
It took this fool fifteen days to come to his senses. During the first fourteen days he spent at home waiting for his boyfriend, occasionally going outside to check on his mother and indulging in the relaxation he had longed for after years of hustle and bustle. These trips, which the blond usually called unnecessary, would end after five, at worst ten days; Zhenya would burst through the door ,seeing his Zainka waiting for him, he would be unable to control himself and smother him with a breathtaking kiss. However, the lack of information about where the blond had gone or for what purpose, while he was lazing around at home, slightly worried Taekjoo. He hadn't replied to the text messages he started sending in the afternoon of the first day; in fact, even when he re-opened the app, the man didn't read them for days! This frightened him.
That day, the loud knocking sounds that still hadn't come from the door finally prompted him to call Jongwoo and invite him to the restaurant as he stepped out onto the street wearing his dark jacket. The fact that he was his senior and friend meant the bespectacled man couldn't refuse Taekjoo's requests, or perhaps it was due to his lack of confidence... Nonetheless, the conversation between the two, who met up at the udon restaurant they knew the owner of, began with the brunet getting straight to the point.
“Jongwoo, can you hack something for me?” Jongwoo, who was used to his senior talking nonchalantly without saying hello, looked at Taekjoo with a wretched smile.
“Senior is always like that, hehe.” After slurping up the noodles he held with chopsticks, he started talking again.
“What does my senior want me to hack?” he asked calmly.
“I want you to find where that Saekki went.” Jongwoo's smiling face suddenly fell; the person his senior was talking about was his current boyfriend. His experiences with the blond man were not very pleasant. Although he himself did not harbor any resentment towards him, Mr. Yevgeny did not like Jongwoo; frankly, he disliked him. He was also a little afraid of the Russian... Although he was happy that Taekjoo was friendly enough to introduce him to the person he loved, he found his senior's selectivity quite... different. And it wasn't a very pleasant difference.
‘There is nothing you can do Jongwoo’ he thought to himself. His family had taught him from a young age to respect people's choices. Moreover, he could never break Taekjoo’s heart, who seemed more uneasy than he was. Jongwoo adjusted his glasses with one hand and put his old smile back on his face.
“Oh, okay senior. I will find it.”
“Can you find it now? Do you have your laptop with you?” The brunet, who kept asking questions, didn't want to wait for Zhenya at home any longer. A worry had settled in his heart and was gnawing at him.
The bespectacled man in front of him shook his head quickly at the questions; he took his laptop out of the bag beside him and placed it on the greasy surface of the table. The blue light from the main screen began to reflect off Jongwoo's glasses, and the clicking sounds of the keys he pressed as he moved his fingers across the keyboard filled the room. After a minute of silence, Jongwoo cleared his throat and glanced briefly at Taekjoo, who was fidgeting in his seat.
“Uhm… The data I found shows that Mr. Yevgeny had met with the Russian President to discuss about… immigration? Immi-hmmn mmn hmn…Oh yes! The increase in immigrants from other countries, they are having a conference about that.” The bespectacled man, who at first did not fully understand the information on the screen, reread the text while muttering incomprehensibly out loud.
“Do senior wants me to like… find the reason, you know, what are they talking about?” he asked hesitantly.
Taekjoo had fallen silent, his stressed aura slowly fading away. His tense face had relaxed, becoming expressionless. His silence was slightly unsettling, as if the light of life within him had gone out.
“Senior—”
“Is that a dangerous meeting?” His voice was calm and emotionless, speaking like a robot. His head was slightly bowed forward, his bangs covering his forehead and eyebrows. Though his face appeared still, a tiny spark of madness began to flicker in his eyes. This spark did not please Jongwoo.
“I-I don’t know senior, I guess not…”
“Oh, I see…”
… So nothing had happened, nothing at all. Just a political meeting, nothing dangerous... Then why hadn't he said anything? No, no, the answers didn't add up, there had to be a problem. He hadn't been around for fourteen days, his mother didn't know where he'd gone, something had to be wrong! This information was wrong! Why hadn't he checked his messages? Zhenya always came back somehow, always—
The brunet quickly pulled his phone out of his pocket and opened the blond’s message box, he could feel his fingers turn cold.
“Senior?”
“…what, WHAT! HE—He FUCKING saw, HE FUCKING SAW THE MESSAGES!” he started screaming, unable to believe what he was seeing. Zhenya had read his messages. Zhenya had read his messages! There was no danger, no fucking danger at all! He was pulling his hair out from the stress, but for what? For nothing! He was sitting on his ass in his palace in Russia, while he had waited for him like an idiot for days! Like an idiot! Stupid Taekjoo, sending his lover messages full of longing, when the man was clearly not coming back, when he would get screwed again, again, again! Just like always! Stupid Taekjoo, stupid Taekjoo!
As he was shouting in the relatively quiet restaurant, the bespectacled man next to him looked around in fear, feeling quite embarrassed.
“Senio- Senior! It’s okay, nothing, nothing bad happened to Mr. Yevgeny… I gues- ah, hope.” Jongwoo, trying to calm Taekjoo down in his own way, began waving his hands up and down in the air, palms facing down.
Taekjoo could guess how Zhenya was doing right now. He must have been slumped in one of those fancy chairs, sipping his tea calmly, wearing that bastard smile. He was definitely acting like a king, spewing filthy words from his mouth without giving a damn about his lover on the other side of the world! Yes, that's what he was definitely doing!
He noticed his hands clenched into fists, his nails digging into his palms, perhaps even drawing blood. Finally realizing this was not the place to vent his anger, the dark-haired man watched the pitiful movements of the man sitting before him and the pleas escaping his lips.
‘Jongwoo doesn’t deserve to be yelled at’ he thought, drawing a shuddering breath into his chest. He closed his eyes and counted to five before exhaling slowly. He needed to calm down.
“Sorry, Jongwoo. I just got—*sighs* I just got angry at him, not you.”
“Oh, it’s okay senior, I understand.”
‘No, no you don’t’ he thought to himself.
When you entrust your heart to someone, it skips a beat with their every smile, and breaks with their every cry. Each lover had to shoulder the responsibilities that falling in love created; this could sometimes be very difficult for Taekjoo, who had long since given his heart to someone else, and was about to collapse under the weight of the burden he carried...