Skyfall and The Devil's Kiss (ii)
Title: Skyfall and The Devil's Kiss (ii)
Pairing: Minho/Onew
Rating: NC-17 ( I guess)
Words: ~10,595(combined)
Summary: He was here on official police business, not to play whimsical nut rag to a notoriously corrupt thief.
Notes: Literally NO idea where this came from and why I wrote it. And it's unedited so don't like...throw things at me.
Five years ago…
Minho stood across from the PLATEU, an art gallery on located Taepyeongno Street, which contained a collection of sculptures created by the late Auguste Rodin. There was only one he was interested in. The Two Mask of Hanako-it was designed in the likeness of a dancer Rodin was enamored with. The net worth of it was rather high, although he was waiting for his appraiser Jonghyun to give him an official number.
It would be an easy enough job, something to hold them over for a few months once the wealth was fairly distributed. He didn’t hold any particular interest in ‘casing’ joints, but today the temperature was favorable and the park across from the gallery was littered with people enjoying it. There was a couple huddled under a tree; they looked happy and Minho sighed. He suddenly decided he needed to get this over with and get back to doing what was important. He didn’t have time to wish for things he couldn’t afford.
Ready to go, he bent down to pick up his messenger bag and came face to face with a black and white spotted border collie; his head tilted as he silently appraised the strange man in front of him. Minho blinked and tilted his head the other way, laughing when the dog mirrored his action.
“Well, what do we have here? What’s your name, guy? Where’s your owner?” When Minho reached out for his collar, the dog pounced on his front paws once, barking happily Minho scratched him under this chin and ruffled its hair. “What is it, boy? You want to play?”
“He always wants to play. The vets say he’s bred for it, but I happen to think he’s on drugs.”
Minho looked up. A man was standing a few feet away with a Frisbee in his hand. He was dressed for the weather; a pair of relaxed linen pants, a button down cotton shirt, untucked, and fluttering in the warm spring breeze, and some flip flops. He approached casually, hands tucked in his pockets. As soon as he pulled up, the dog turned on his paws and sprinted towards his owner, bouncing on his hind legs as he tried to get to the thin plastic toy in his hand.
“Unless you’re drugging your dog, which you don’t look like the type, I’d say the vet might be right.”
The man’s brows pinched as he tossed the Frisbee towards the open field, watching as the dog took off for it. “You can never be too sure with these dogs. You raise them right, in a loving home, but the next thing you know you find that they’ve snuck out and are bargaining Scooby snacks for a bag of the good stuff.”
Minho stood worried for a second, that maybe the man was serious, or worse, crazy, but the man smiled, then laughed and Minho released the breath he was holding. The man hesitated for a second before taking a step closer and holding out his hand.
“Weird first impression. Sorry. My name is Cho.”
Minho held out his too, accepting the man’s firm handshake. “Come here often?” Minho asked as he looked back over the park. The dog had caught the Frisbee and was slowly walking back towards them.
“That sounded like a pick up line.” Minho narrowed his eyes at him and Cho held his hands up in surrender. “You don’t seem like the type. Sorry,” he said with a laugh. “And to answer your question, I do. Saturdays seem to be the day for this sort of thing. Parks, coffee, walks with a lover, dogs, Frisbees.” He looked off to where his dog was. “I decided to try for once to be hip and the only day I can manage that is on Saturdays.”
“You don’t seem like the type,” Minho replied with a raised brow.
“Touche. I’m not as cool as I esteem to be. You’ve got it down pat, though,” Cho said with a tilted head. “Give me a lesson.”
Minho looked at the man incredulously with laughter bubbling up on his insides. He’d known the man for less than five minutes and already he’d decided that he liked him. He was eager and forthcoming, didn’t shy away from Minho’s brooding and sometime intimidating personality. He almost seemed to welcome it. “Okay. First lesson. Have coffee with me.”
Cho shrugged with his mouth. “So you are the type.”
Minho winked playfully. “I am.”
“What his name?”
Minho looked up from a book of rare artifacts he’d swiped from Jonghyun’s desk. “What’s whose name?”
“The one making you grin like a fourth grader in love. I’ve never seen it before and its gross,” the older man lamented as he shuddered.
He rolled his eyes. “There’s nobody. I’m not a fourth grader and I’m not in love.”
“I said like a fourth grader and don’t try to lie to me. You’ve been flipping through the same book for the last three hours. You haven’t complained that it’s taking too long, and you haven’t said anything about the pop music.”
“It’s your office-your rules.”
Jonghyun’s mouth dropped open. “Holy shit. You are in love.”
“There is no suc-“
“What’s his name?” Jonghyun interrupted. “Tell me before I shove this sculpture up your ass. This sculpture that is worth exaaactly….five hundred and fifty five million won.” Jonghyun leaned back in his chair. “Damn I’m good.”
Minho sighed in surrender. “It doesn’t matter. It’s not going to work out. He’s a detective.”
Jonghyun gasped dramatically and Minho rolled his eyes again. “He’s a what?! You’re dating a detective?” He scoffed. “That is the stupidest thing you’ve ever done and you’re pretty fucking stupid.”
Minho rolled up the book he was reading and flung it at Jonghyun, but the elder moved out of its way at the last second. “Technically I’m not dating a detective. I’m dating a real estate agent by the name of Cho Lee. That’s what he told me like I would find out that he’s a goddamn cop. And he’s not just a cop, he’s the heir of Janus, Inc. Of course I would know who he is.”
“And he knows who you are,” Jonghyun implied, taking the monocle from his eye.
“Yeah, he just doesn’t know I know who he is or that I know that he knows who I am.”
“That’s…interesting but fuck it. I say have fun. How long has it been since you’ve been laid? The woman from the Barker job does not count. Neither does the one from the Chung job…or that man from Olympic gallery…or that man-woman-person from the-“
“Your point has been made.”
“Nooo it hasn’t. My point is when was the last time you were laid and it wasn’t about the job?” Jonghyun stood from his desk and walked around it to sit on the edge. “You like the dude. I can see it in your stupid big eyes. They’re gleaming like the moons and the stars and although it’s really …weird, I think that you should indulge a little. Just don’t get arrested.”
Minho scoffed. “Me? Arrested? Don’t be ridiculous.”
Minho always knew that it was a dangerous game, allowing Jinki to think one thing, to allow the two of them to play the game that they played. Jinki-excuse me, Detective Lee-was fun to be around.
They’d turn Saturdays into a thing. Buster-Jinki’s dog- was always there with them at the park and he’d sit outside patiently as they roamed inside of a record store or an antique shop. Minho was teaching Jinki the subtle ways of picking out treasures from trash, maybe as a valuable lesson, or maybe as an inside joke. Maybe he could use the lessons to catch him one day?
They’d always separate at the fountain at the end of each meeting to continue their lives-Minho as a thief, Jinki as a cop.
It felt good being with him, really good, and although he knew the game had to come to an end eventually, he had no intentions of it being anytime soon. That was until the choice was made for him.
They were saying their goodbyes at the fountain. They’d spent the entire day Seoul Tower, something that hinted at a date, but they never actually called it that. They were both careful to never call it that. Their hands always went shy of holding, the hugs were longer than they should be, near kisses and half spoken confessions. They were careful.
And they had no choice. How could you take a step forward when each lie drew a line in the sand? What do you call yourselves when neither of you are being honest? So that’s why they stood apart, looking at each other as the water from the fountain sprayed across their faces and children cried happily in the background.
“I had fun today,” Jinki said quietly as he studied Minho’s hands. His fingers twitched as if he wanted to reach out and grab his. “What are you doing next -“
“Jinki!” came a voice from behind them.
The bubble they’d surrounded themselves in popped and sound and air and the truth rushed in, so loud Minho winced. Jinki turned to Minho, his mouth opened before he reacted. He turned to the girl, younger, mid-teens and shoo’d her away. She looked confused for a second until she leaned and saw who he was standing with. Her mouth rounded into an “O” before she turned on her heels and walked in the other direction.
Jinki spun and his face was so tight with a smile that Minho would have laughed it the situation was funny. “My little sister, Eunsook. We…um…she likes to call me weird names sometimes. Can’t get her to stop to save my life!” He explained as he laughed nervously. “Crazy kid,” he said roughly.
He cleared his throat and looked away.
Minho couldn’t really hear the lie over the rush of air. He couldn’t hear Jinki’s lies over his own. So, instead of delving further into Jinki’s untruths, he reached out and pulled him closer, wrapping his arms around the older’s shoulders and burying his face into his neck. He sat there for a long moment, inhaling scents he’d never been close enough to notice.
“What’s wrong Minho?”
“It’s over.”
Jinki pulled away at that. “What’s over?” He looked up into Minho’s eyes and Minho saw the ease he felt in being in his arms. He also saw the flash of panic. “Us? Over that? It’s just a name.”
“You’re right. It’s just a name,” Minho acknowledged. He watch Jinki lower his hackles and relax. “It’s just a name, Detective Lee.”
“Detective...” Jinki uttered slowly and Minho could see his thoughts race around before they smashed into him and his shoulders deflated. “You…you knew?”
“Of course I knew.”
“Why didn’t you say anything? We’ve been doing this for months and not once did you think it was important to say something? To just lie like that?-“
“Oh, give me fucking break. The playing field is level, Jinki. You don’t have the market cornered on honesty, either. You’ve been trying to catch me since day one.”
“All the good that’s done,” Jinki muttered, detested. Hearing that Minho chuckled humorlessly. “Don’t take it like that,” Jinki said as he felt Minho’s arms tighten around him. “You weren’t…you’re not a waste of time…it’s just..."
"No. It isn’t. It wasn’t a waste of time. However, you trying to catch me? That is.”
Jinki’s pulled his chin in and looked up at Minho with a wash of audacity across his face. “Don’t take me lightly. I can catch you. What you’re doing…what you’ve done? It’s wrong. You don’t get any mercy because I lik-“
“Don’t admit it,” Minho interrupted. “Don’t admit it until you’re sure. Because I’m going to ask you to make a choice one day…and I’m going to need you to be sure.”
“One day?” Jinki asked.
Feelings were still bubbling right under his skin and although his head told him it was time to walk away, his heart was far more adventurous than he’d ever been. Reaching out, he put a finger under Jinki’s chin to lift it up.
“Remember this,” he said softly, with enough meaning to seep in to their bones and rest there, before his lips pressed against the detective’s. The kiss was wet and powerful but short. “Don’t think I’m done with you.” He pressed another kiss, finding them addictive, like the first taste of forbidden fruit. He dropped his hand from Jinki’s chin in a rough, unfocused move. Exhaling he slid his shades on and walked away.
“One day?!” Jinki called out as Minho made his way down the cobblestone path and out of the park, ignoring him.
“Okay. Okay.” Jinki said, deflating at Minho’s anger. “Let’s…can we try talking? Without all the pretenses.” When Minho began to pull away, Jinki tugged on the bottom of his shirt to make him look at him. He saw it, a drop of sincerity in his eyes.
“Fine.”
The ride up the elevator was deadly quiet and Jinki didn’t mind. Minho was a Gordian knot; he had all these …layers, these twists and turns, these complications. One minute he was this arrogant prick with a raging hard-on and the next minute he was a monologue out of a cheesy romance novel.
One minute he was an opportunistic thief and the next he’s the fucking Korean Robin hood.
“So, um,” he started once they were in Minho’s room. The room was decked out-wide windows that looked out over Hong Kong, a luxurious king bed situated in the middle of the room, a bottle of champagne in a silver plated bucket filled with half melted ice, and two covered plates on opposite sides of a table. The candles had gone out. It looked like he’d gone all out.
“I uh…yeah,” Minho said as he looked over his set up. He sighed as he pulled the champagne out of the bucket. “So…you wanted to talk?” He held up the bottle. “Something to drink?”
“That’d be nice.”
Minho poured them a glass and Jinki debated between sitting on the bed and at the lavishly arranged table, knowing he’d ruined dinner. He decided on the bed. He accepted the flute and managed to not tense up when the taller man took at seat beside him.
“I live in Rakers,” Minho admitted as he looked down in to the glass.
Jinki’s head snapped to Minho. “That impossible.”
Rakers was a shack-town under Banpo Bridge that was erected after the drought drained the Han River. It was once a quarantine town but now the city’s most desolate-those who’d survived the plague but couldn’t survive the economic disparity that came with rebuilding the world-called it home there. He took a look at Minho’s clothes, a look around the room and he was confused.
“It’s ankle deep. It’s a game, a ploy. Appearances matter-to look like one thing when you’re really another. I learned that from my mom even when she didn’t want me to. Rakers came after the plague but before that, we weren’t that well off. Both of us crowded in a one bedroom house, my mom using all of her resources to pay for my school. She’d leave the house in these expensive looking dresses, smelling like money we didn’t own. There were always these extravagant pieces of art that would be around for a few days before they disappeared.
“But she never complained and she didn’t want me involved, so she kept me away from it. Anything dealing with what she did was an unapproachable conversation. I was supposed to play soccer at the University, she had it all paid for…but when I was in college the plague took her. So when the people who depended on her previously due to her…activities turned to me, I had no choice. I couldn’t let them starve. I couldn’t let them die. It was fine at first; food was easy to get with the money I got from…things. But eventually Rakers got better. We were able to sustain ourselves without the extra money. I’d found a way out.” He scrubbed his face with a hand. “God, I feel like I’m going to regret telling you this.”
“I’m not doing the thing…the disarm you to get you to talk thing,” Jinki admitted. “Go on…I’m listening.”
“I was going to tell you this one way or another. I wanted you to know.” Minho drained his champagne flute and wiped his mouth harshly. “A year or two after the vaccine was created by your father, BioVas bought out the right. When they did, the rates went apeshit. The insurance companies were in shambles so there was no way to afford it. Children were dying and the government was too occupied with reconstructing Seoul to even notice the outrage.”
“The protest,” he said quietly. Jinki faintly remember the small protest held in front of BioVas years ago, but the police were quick shut them down. The media wasn’t too proactive with broadcasting details about it either so it kind of…disappeared.
“It was all swept under the rug. Nothing we said or did worked. So my activities escalated from small time crimes to…big ones. It was the only way to afford the vaccine for everyone. And now I’m here.”
None of it made sense to Jinki. The only reason his father sold the vaccine to BioVas was because they proposed to synthesize as the cheapest rate. The initial dose would cost the mass population nothing and the reoccurring vaccines were supposed to be dirt cheap. It was supposed to save the world. “But how could that happen? BioVas only received the contract because offered the cheapest synthesis, thus ensuring that-“
“They lied, Jinki. Yes, the synthesis was the cheapest, but that just allowed for a bigger gain when they hiked the prices. Trust me. I’ve done the research. I’ve looked for ways around this for years. I’ve contacted lobbyist, philanthropist, I even went to the police and that landed me a night in jail. BioVas controls everything, apparently.”
Jinki stood up abruptly. He felt really stupid, so incredibly stupid. “. I-I-I’m the heir to the largest research firm in South Korea. I’m a detective, I’m supposed to detect things! Why don’t I know this? Why doesn’t my father know this? Their hailing us as the saviors of the world and…we’re responsible for letting it die.”
“Whoa, there, Joan of Arc. This is no one’s fault but BioVas . Why would you think to look into that? It’s not like you take rides by Rakers or anything. Gangam is on the other side of the world as far as I’m concerned. No one blames your family, Jinki. That includes me.”
Jinki opened his mouth to protest but Minho grabbed his hand and yanked him back to seating. “I’m serious. Do you think I’d be as…passionate in my pursuit of you if I blamed you for our situation? Look,” Minho turned until he was looking at him. “I know our relationship is a little bit strained. Right side of the law, wrong side of the law sort of thing but until you can actually prove that I’m a criminal, then I’m not one. And if I’m not a criminal then…”
“Minho.”
“Don’t.” Minho sighed and his forehead fell forward until it touched Jinki’s softly. “Please don’t say no.”
Jinki swallowed hard. It was staring him in the face, the opportunity to feed into temptation. Minho was right. He wasn’t alone in these feelings. When Jinki first took the case, he’d never expected the number one suspect on the department’s list to be six feet of raw honest charisma. And yes, Jinki lied. When he’d approached Minho five years ago at the park, it was supposed to be a few brief unassuming questions and that was it. Maybe if he felt proactive enough, trail him for a few days. But no. Instead of doing his job, he had to fight the constant need to be around him and soon the case felt like a secondary notion to his happiness. But in the end it became something else…a constant hunt for stability-because lies were rocky terrain.
But despite false identities and white lies, there was attraction there, and it wouldn’t go away. Minho had been possessed in his pursuits after the big reveal and Jinki had done everything in his power to avoid the fire. Jinki felt like it was like a game to Minho, maybe payback. He used his charms and good looks as a snare but Jinki knew better. Fate had decided to put them on polar ends of life for a reason. Yet, even across that chasm of differentiation, he could still feel the warmth from Minho’s touch. He wanted it, and he was going to have it.
When he kissed Jinki, the kiss was soft, a touch hesitant but it felt like years of desire concentrated at the end of his lips. Jinki clung to him, reacting to the kiss as if was the opposing end of a magnet and it drew a low hungry growl out of Minho. His hands moved up to cup the back of Jinki’s neck, to kind of sink in the fantasy that’d gone viral in his heart, to pull him as close as he could. Minutely, he felt the older man pull back.
“What’s wrong?” Minho asked as he massaged the back of Jinki’s neck.
He felt Jinki’s eyes bore into his and there was a question there, maybe a bit of uncertainty but it was gone in a few blinks. “Nothing. It’s nothing.” Minho watched his eyes dip to his lips. “Come here.”
Minho followed the soft command, bringing their lips together again. He moved closer, the restraint that buzzed under under his skin seeped out of his pores as he pushed Jinki back in to the mattress. Using his thumb he pressed his chin down and Jinki’s mouth opened with a soft moan before Minho took the plunge.
This is what he wanted and finally Jinki was allowing it. Love at first sight wasn’t a theory that Minho often subscribed to and by often he meant ‘never’. There were things that made love a real thing-a chemical reaction, emotions stuffed in conversations over coffee and books, people watching and finishing each other sentences. It wasn’t meeting a detective lying about his identity in hopes of one day catching him and it wasn’t him allowing it because he didn’t want what they had to end. So there was nothing he could use, in his own defense and the liquefaction of his own theories, to explain how he was in love with Jinki. That the moment he saw the auburn hair and soft grin staring at him from across the park, he’d fallen.
His hand found its way to the hem of Jinki’s shirt and the skin was warm there, so much that his hands weren’t enough. Kissing his way down with one hand pushing the shirt up and out of his way, his tongue flatten against his stomach before dipping into Jinki’s bellybutton. Jinki’s hands flew to Minho’s hair, fingers entangled in dark locks and Minho felt way more emotion than he had anticipated. It was overwhelming and things like honor and fragility and honesty yanked him out of euphoria and slammed him into the ground.
“No,” he mouthed against Jinki’s skin before he raised his head. “This isn’t right.”
Jinki groaned in confusion, using his hands to push Minho’s head back down to continued whatever he was doing with his tongue. In response Minho chuckled and laid a sloppy kiss right above Jinki’s belly button. “No, Jinki. We can’t…not like this.”
Jinki pushed himself up on his elbows and looked at Minho with pure bewilderment. “W-wh…not like what?”
“Look,” Minho started as he crawled up the length of Jinki’s body to hover above him. “I could be way off here but I feel like this isn’t just…sex. And if it isn’t then I don’t want it to start off like this. I want to, you know, take you out, wine and dine you…not get our rocks off in a cheap motel because I told you my sob story. That’s not why I told you...not to get this.”
The older carded his hand through his hair. “Okay, a couple of things. A, my rocks are pretty hard right now, thanks. B, this hotel is far from cheap, trust me, I know and C, at the risk of sounding like an ass…I’d rather you not spend money on me that isn’t yours, so the wining and dining, I’ll pass on.”
Minho frowned. “I have money, I can provide for you if that’s what you’re asking. I just…don’t have a lot of it.” When Minho began to sulk, Jinki reached up and slid his arms around his neck and rolled his eyes.
“Provide for me? What am I? Some sixteen year old girl you’ve knocked up? I don’t care about that. I didn’t think I came off as the shallow type but regardless you’ve got the wrong idea. I’m a police office, Minho. I enforce laws. I can’t…I can’t date an thief no matter how tempting dating that thief is.” The look that came across Minho’s face eclipsed in disappointment and he started to back away. Jinki stopped him with a reassuring squeeze. “I never said I didn’t want to though.” Jinki’s hands found their way back into Minho’s hair and he pushed lightly to bring him closer for another kiss.
“You’re not making much sense,” Minho supplied against his lips.
“What I’m saying is if what you’re saying is true then I understand you. I understand-finally-what you’re doing and it tears down all the walls I had built up about you. What kept me looking for you, instead of touching you. And now that I know you’re not some vain materialistic corrupt vile-
“Okay, I got your point.”
“-Criminal, “he said with meaning, “I want to help. And if we, I don’t know…fix this…”
“Wait.” Minho brows furrowed before he started laughing. “You won’t date me until I take down BioVas? Do I look like Clark Kent to you? I can’t take down a multi-billion dollar company. I’ve tried. You’re asking for the impossible.”
“I didn’t say you. I said we.”
“We?”
“Yes, we. I think I have a plan.”
Minho sat up in a rush “You do? Well, what are we waiting for?”
Jinki tugged him back down before he bolted from the room. “This,” and he kissed him again.
Pairing: Minho/Onew
Rating: NC-17 ( I guess)
Words: ~10,595(combined)
Summary: He was here on official police business, not to play whimsical nut rag to a notoriously corrupt thief.
Notes: Literally NO idea where this came from and why I wrote it. And it's unedited so don't like...throw things at me.
Five years ago…
Minho stood across from the PLATEU, an art gallery on located Taepyeongno Street, which contained a collection of sculptures created by the late Auguste Rodin. There was only one he was interested in. The Two Mask of Hanako-it was designed in the likeness of a dancer Rodin was enamored with. The net worth of it was rather high, although he was waiting for his appraiser Jonghyun to give him an official number.
It would be an easy enough job, something to hold them over for a few months once the wealth was fairly distributed. He didn’t hold any particular interest in ‘casing’ joints, but today the temperature was favorable and the park across from the gallery was littered with people enjoying it. There was a couple huddled under a tree; they looked happy and Minho sighed. He suddenly decided he needed to get this over with and get back to doing what was important. He didn’t have time to wish for things he couldn’t afford.
Ready to go, he bent down to pick up his messenger bag and came face to face with a black and white spotted border collie; his head tilted as he silently appraised the strange man in front of him. Minho blinked and tilted his head the other way, laughing when the dog mirrored his action.
“Well, what do we have here? What’s your name, guy? Where’s your owner?” When Minho reached out for his collar, the dog pounced on his front paws once, barking happily Minho scratched him under this chin and ruffled its hair. “What is it, boy? You want to play?”
“He always wants to play. The vets say he’s bred for it, but I happen to think he’s on drugs.”
Minho looked up. A man was standing a few feet away with a Frisbee in his hand. He was dressed for the weather; a pair of relaxed linen pants, a button down cotton shirt, untucked, and fluttering in the warm spring breeze, and some flip flops. He approached casually, hands tucked in his pockets. As soon as he pulled up, the dog turned on his paws and sprinted towards his owner, bouncing on his hind legs as he tried to get to the thin plastic toy in his hand.
“Unless you’re drugging your dog, which you don’t look like the type, I’d say the vet might be right.”
The man’s brows pinched as he tossed the Frisbee towards the open field, watching as the dog took off for it. “You can never be too sure with these dogs. You raise them right, in a loving home, but the next thing you know you find that they’ve snuck out and are bargaining Scooby snacks for a bag of the good stuff.”
Minho stood worried for a second, that maybe the man was serious, or worse, crazy, but the man smiled, then laughed and Minho released the breath he was holding. The man hesitated for a second before taking a step closer and holding out his hand.
“Weird first impression. Sorry. My name is Cho.”
Minho held out his too, accepting the man’s firm handshake. “Come here often?” Minho asked as he looked back over the park. The dog had caught the Frisbee and was slowly walking back towards them.
“That sounded like a pick up line.” Minho narrowed his eyes at him and Cho held his hands up in surrender. “You don’t seem like the type. Sorry,” he said with a laugh. “And to answer your question, I do. Saturdays seem to be the day for this sort of thing. Parks, coffee, walks with a lover, dogs, Frisbees.” He looked off to where his dog was. “I decided to try for once to be hip and the only day I can manage that is on Saturdays.”
“You don’t seem like the type,” Minho replied with a raised brow.
“Touche. I’m not as cool as I esteem to be. You’ve got it down pat, though,” Cho said with a tilted head. “Give me a lesson.”
Minho looked at the man incredulously with laughter bubbling up on his insides. He’d known the man for less than five minutes and already he’d decided that he liked him. He was eager and forthcoming, didn’t shy away from Minho’s brooding and sometime intimidating personality. He almost seemed to welcome it. “Okay. First lesson. Have coffee with me.”
Cho shrugged with his mouth. “So you are the type.”
Minho winked playfully. “I am.”
“What his name?”
Minho looked up from a book of rare artifacts he’d swiped from Jonghyun’s desk. “What’s whose name?”
“The one making you grin like a fourth grader in love. I’ve never seen it before and its gross,” the older man lamented as he shuddered.
He rolled his eyes. “There’s nobody. I’m not a fourth grader and I’m not in love.”
“I said like a fourth grader and don’t try to lie to me. You’ve been flipping through the same book for the last three hours. You haven’t complained that it’s taking too long, and you haven’t said anything about the pop music.”
“It’s your office-your rules.”
Jonghyun’s mouth dropped open. “Holy shit. You are in love.”
“There is no suc-“
“What’s his name?” Jonghyun interrupted. “Tell me before I shove this sculpture up your ass. This sculpture that is worth exaaactly….five hundred and fifty five million won.” Jonghyun leaned back in his chair. “Damn I’m good.”
Minho sighed in surrender. “It doesn’t matter. It’s not going to work out. He’s a detective.”
Jonghyun gasped dramatically and Minho rolled his eyes again. “He’s a what?! You’re dating a detective?” He scoffed. “That is the stupidest thing you’ve ever done and you’re pretty fucking stupid.”
Minho rolled up the book he was reading and flung it at Jonghyun, but the elder moved out of its way at the last second. “Technically I’m not dating a detective. I’m dating a real estate agent by the name of Cho Lee. That’s what he told me like I would find out that he’s a goddamn cop. And he’s not just a cop, he’s the heir of Janus, Inc. Of course I would know who he is.”
“And he knows who you are,” Jonghyun implied, taking the monocle from his eye.
“Yeah, he just doesn’t know I know who he is or that I know that he knows who I am.”
“That’s…interesting but fuck it. I say have fun. How long has it been since you’ve been laid? The woman from the Barker job does not count. Neither does the one from the Chung job…or that man from Olympic gallery…or that man-woman-person from the-“
“Your point has been made.”
“Nooo it hasn’t. My point is when was the last time you were laid and it wasn’t about the job?” Jonghyun stood from his desk and walked around it to sit on the edge. “You like the dude. I can see it in your stupid big eyes. They’re gleaming like the moons and the stars and although it’s really …weird, I think that you should indulge a little. Just don’t get arrested.”
Minho scoffed. “Me? Arrested? Don’t be ridiculous.”
Minho always knew that it was a dangerous game, allowing Jinki to think one thing, to allow the two of them to play the game that they played. Jinki-excuse me, Detective Lee-was fun to be around.
They’d turn Saturdays into a thing. Buster-Jinki’s dog- was always there with them at the park and he’d sit outside patiently as they roamed inside of a record store or an antique shop. Minho was teaching Jinki the subtle ways of picking out treasures from trash, maybe as a valuable lesson, or maybe as an inside joke. Maybe he could use the lessons to catch him one day?
They’d always separate at the fountain at the end of each meeting to continue their lives-Minho as a thief, Jinki as a cop.
It felt good being with him, really good, and although he knew the game had to come to an end eventually, he had no intentions of it being anytime soon. That was until the choice was made for him.
They were saying their goodbyes at the fountain. They’d spent the entire day Seoul Tower, something that hinted at a date, but they never actually called it that. They were both careful to never call it that. Their hands always went shy of holding, the hugs were longer than they should be, near kisses and half spoken confessions. They were careful.
And they had no choice. How could you take a step forward when each lie drew a line in the sand? What do you call yourselves when neither of you are being honest? So that’s why they stood apart, looking at each other as the water from the fountain sprayed across their faces and children cried happily in the background.
“I had fun today,” Jinki said quietly as he studied Minho’s hands. His fingers twitched as if he wanted to reach out and grab his. “What are you doing next -“
“Jinki!” came a voice from behind them.
The bubble they’d surrounded themselves in popped and sound and air and the truth rushed in, so loud Minho winced. Jinki turned to Minho, his mouth opened before he reacted. He turned to the girl, younger, mid-teens and shoo’d her away. She looked confused for a second until she leaned and saw who he was standing with. Her mouth rounded into an “O” before she turned on her heels and walked in the other direction.
Jinki spun and his face was so tight with a smile that Minho would have laughed it the situation was funny. “My little sister, Eunsook. We…um…she likes to call me weird names sometimes. Can’t get her to stop to save my life!” He explained as he laughed nervously. “Crazy kid,” he said roughly.
He cleared his throat and looked away.
Minho couldn’t really hear the lie over the rush of air. He couldn’t hear Jinki’s lies over his own. So, instead of delving further into Jinki’s untruths, he reached out and pulled him closer, wrapping his arms around the older’s shoulders and burying his face into his neck. He sat there for a long moment, inhaling scents he’d never been close enough to notice.
“What’s wrong Minho?”
“It’s over.”
Jinki pulled away at that. “What’s over?” He looked up into Minho’s eyes and Minho saw the ease he felt in being in his arms. He also saw the flash of panic. “Us? Over that? It’s just a name.”
“You’re right. It’s just a name,” Minho acknowledged. He watch Jinki lower his hackles and relax. “It’s just a name, Detective Lee.”
“Detective...” Jinki uttered slowly and Minho could see his thoughts race around before they smashed into him and his shoulders deflated. “You…you knew?”
“Of course I knew.”
“Why didn’t you say anything? We’ve been doing this for months and not once did you think it was important to say something? To just lie like that?-“
“Oh, give me fucking break. The playing field is level, Jinki. You don’t have the market cornered on honesty, either. You’ve been trying to catch me since day one.”
“All the good that’s done,” Jinki muttered, detested. Hearing that Minho chuckled humorlessly. “Don’t take it like that,” Jinki said as he felt Minho’s arms tighten around him. “You weren’t…you’re not a waste of time…it’s just..."
"No. It isn’t. It wasn’t a waste of time. However, you trying to catch me? That is.”
Jinki’s pulled his chin in and looked up at Minho with a wash of audacity across his face. “Don’t take me lightly. I can catch you. What you’re doing…what you’ve done? It’s wrong. You don’t get any mercy because I lik-“
“Don’t admit it,” Minho interrupted. “Don’t admit it until you’re sure. Because I’m going to ask you to make a choice one day…and I’m going to need you to be sure.”
“One day?” Jinki asked.
Feelings were still bubbling right under his skin and although his head told him it was time to walk away, his heart was far more adventurous than he’d ever been. Reaching out, he put a finger under Jinki’s chin to lift it up.
“Remember this,” he said softly, with enough meaning to seep in to their bones and rest there, before his lips pressed against the detective’s. The kiss was wet and powerful but short. “Don’t think I’m done with you.” He pressed another kiss, finding them addictive, like the first taste of forbidden fruit. He dropped his hand from Jinki’s chin in a rough, unfocused move. Exhaling he slid his shades on and walked away.
“One day?!” Jinki called out as Minho made his way down the cobblestone path and out of the park, ignoring him.
“Okay. Okay.” Jinki said, deflating at Minho’s anger. “Let’s…can we try talking? Without all the pretenses.” When Minho began to pull away, Jinki tugged on the bottom of his shirt to make him look at him. He saw it, a drop of sincerity in his eyes.
“Fine.”
The ride up the elevator was deadly quiet and Jinki didn’t mind. Minho was a Gordian knot; he had all these …layers, these twists and turns, these complications. One minute he was this arrogant prick with a raging hard-on and the next minute he was a monologue out of a cheesy romance novel.
One minute he was an opportunistic thief and the next he’s the fucking Korean Robin hood.
“So, um,” he started once they were in Minho’s room. The room was decked out-wide windows that looked out over Hong Kong, a luxurious king bed situated in the middle of the room, a bottle of champagne in a silver plated bucket filled with half melted ice, and two covered plates on opposite sides of a table. The candles had gone out. It looked like he’d gone all out.
“I uh…yeah,” Minho said as he looked over his set up. He sighed as he pulled the champagne out of the bucket. “So…you wanted to talk?” He held up the bottle. “Something to drink?”
“That’d be nice.”
Minho poured them a glass and Jinki debated between sitting on the bed and at the lavishly arranged table, knowing he’d ruined dinner. He decided on the bed. He accepted the flute and managed to not tense up when the taller man took at seat beside him.
“I live in Rakers,” Minho admitted as he looked down in to the glass.
Jinki’s head snapped to Minho. “That impossible.”
Rakers was a shack-town under Banpo Bridge that was erected after the drought drained the Han River. It was once a quarantine town but now the city’s most desolate-those who’d survived the plague but couldn’t survive the economic disparity that came with rebuilding the world-called it home there. He took a look at Minho’s clothes, a look around the room and he was confused.
“It’s ankle deep. It’s a game, a ploy. Appearances matter-to look like one thing when you’re really another. I learned that from my mom even when she didn’t want me to. Rakers came after the plague but before that, we weren’t that well off. Both of us crowded in a one bedroom house, my mom using all of her resources to pay for my school. She’d leave the house in these expensive looking dresses, smelling like money we didn’t own. There were always these extravagant pieces of art that would be around for a few days before they disappeared.
“But she never complained and she didn’t want me involved, so she kept me away from it. Anything dealing with what she did was an unapproachable conversation. I was supposed to play soccer at the University, she had it all paid for…but when I was in college the plague took her. So when the people who depended on her previously due to her…activities turned to me, I had no choice. I couldn’t let them starve. I couldn’t let them die. It was fine at first; food was easy to get with the money I got from…things. But eventually Rakers got better. We were able to sustain ourselves without the extra money. I’d found a way out.” He scrubbed his face with a hand. “God, I feel like I’m going to regret telling you this.”
“I’m not doing the thing…the disarm you to get you to talk thing,” Jinki admitted. “Go on…I’m listening.”
“I was going to tell you this one way or another. I wanted you to know.” Minho drained his champagne flute and wiped his mouth harshly. “A year or two after the vaccine was created by your father, BioVas bought out the right. When they did, the rates went apeshit. The insurance companies were in shambles so there was no way to afford it. Children were dying and the government was too occupied with reconstructing Seoul to even notice the outrage.”
“The protest,” he said quietly. Jinki faintly remember the small protest held in front of BioVas years ago, but the police were quick shut them down. The media wasn’t too proactive with broadcasting details about it either so it kind of…disappeared.
“It was all swept under the rug. Nothing we said or did worked. So my activities escalated from small time crimes to…big ones. It was the only way to afford the vaccine for everyone. And now I’m here.”
None of it made sense to Jinki. The only reason his father sold the vaccine to BioVas was because they proposed to synthesize as the cheapest rate. The initial dose would cost the mass population nothing and the reoccurring vaccines were supposed to be dirt cheap. It was supposed to save the world. “But how could that happen? BioVas only received the contract because offered the cheapest synthesis, thus ensuring that-“
“They lied, Jinki. Yes, the synthesis was the cheapest, but that just allowed for a bigger gain when they hiked the prices. Trust me. I’ve done the research. I’ve looked for ways around this for years. I’ve contacted lobbyist, philanthropist, I even went to the police and that landed me a night in jail. BioVas controls everything, apparently.”
Jinki stood up abruptly. He felt really stupid, so incredibly stupid. “. I-I-I’m the heir to the largest research firm in South Korea. I’m a detective, I’m supposed to detect things! Why don’t I know this? Why doesn’t my father know this? Their hailing us as the saviors of the world and…we’re responsible for letting it die.”
“Whoa, there, Joan of Arc. This is no one’s fault but BioVas . Why would you think to look into that? It’s not like you take rides by Rakers or anything. Gangam is on the other side of the world as far as I’m concerned. No one blames your family, Jinki. That includes me.”
Jinki opened his mouth to protest but Minho grabbed his hand and yanked him back to seating. “I’m serious. Do you think I’d be as…passionate in my pursuit of you if I blamed you for our situation? Look,” Minho turned until he was looking at him. “I know our relationship is a little bit strained. Right side of the law, wrong side of the law sort of thing but until you can actually prove that I’m a criminal, then I’m not one. And if I’m not a criminal then…”
“Minho.”
“Don’t.” Minho sighed and his forehead fell forward until it touched Jinki’s softly. “Please don’t say no.”
Jinki swallowed hard. It was staring him in the face, the opportunity to feed into temptation. Minho was right. He wasn’t alone in these feelings. When Jinki first took the case, he’d never expected the number one suspect on the department’s list to be six feet of raw honest charisma. And yes, Jinki lied. When he’d approached Minho five years ago at the park, it was supposed to be a few brief unassuming questions and that was it. Maybe if he felt proactive enough, trail him for a few days. But no. Instead of doing his job, he had to fight the constant need to be around him and soon the case felt like a secondary notion to his happiness. But in the end it became something else…a constant hunt for stability-because lies were rocky terrain.
But despite false identities and white lies, there was attraction there, and it wouldn’t go away. Minho had been possessed in his pursuits after the big reveal and Jinki had done everything in his power to avoid the fire. Jinki felt like it was like a game to Minho, maybe payback. He used his charms and good looks as a snare but Jinki knew better. Fate had decided to put them on polar ends of life for a reason. Yet, even across that chasm of differentiation, he could still feel the warmth from Minho’s touch. He wanted it, and he was going to have it.
When he kissed Jinki, the kiss was soft, a touch hesitant but it felt like years of desire concentrated at the end of his lips. Jinki clung to him, reacting to the kiss as if was the opposing end of a magnet and it drew a low hungry growl out of Minho. His hands moved up to cup the back of Jinki’s neck, to kind of sink in the fantasy that’d gone viral in his heart, to pull him as close as he could. Minutely, he felt the older man pull back.
“What’s wrong?” Minho asked as he massaged the back of Jinki’s neck.
He felt Jinki’s eyes bore into his and there was a question there, maybe a bit of uncertainty but it was gone in a few blinks. “Nothing. It’s nothing.” Minho watched his eyes dip to his lips. “Come here.”
Minho followed the soft command, bringing their lips together again. He moved closer, the restraint that buzzed under under his skin seeped out of his pores as he pushed Jinki back in to the mattress. Using his thumb he pressed his chin down and Jinki’s mouth opened with a soft moan before Minho took the plunge.
This is what he wanted and finally Jinki was allowing it. Love at first sight wasn’t a theory that Minho often subscribed to and by often he meant ‘never’. There were things that made love a real thing-a chemical reaction, emotions stuffed in conversations over coffee and books, people watching and finishing each other sentences. It wasn’t meeting a detective lying about his identity in hopes of one day catching him and it wasn’t him allowing it because he didn’t want what they had to end. So there was nothing he could use, in his own defense and the liquefaction of his own theories, to explain how he was in love with Jinki. That the moment he saw the auburn hair and soft grin staring at him from across the park, he’d fallen.
His hand found its way to the hem of Jinki’s shirt and the skin was warm there, so much that his hands weren’t enough. Kissing his way down with one hand pushing the shirt up and out of his way, his tongue flatten against his stomach before dipping into Jinki’s bellybutton. Jinki’s hands flew to Minho’s hair, fingers entangled in dark locks and Minho felt way more emotion than he had anticipated. It was overwhelming and things like honor and fragility and honesty yanked him out of euphoria and slammed him into the ground.
“No,” he mouthed against Jinki’s skin before he raised his head. “This isn’t right.”
Jinki groaned in confusion, using his hands to push Minho’s head back down to continued whatever he was doing with his tongue. In response Minho chuckled and laid a sloppy kiss right above Jinki’s belly button. “No, Jinki. We can’t…not like this.”
Jinki pushed himself up on his elbows and looked at Minho with pure bewilderment. “W-wh…not like what?”
“Look,” Minho started as he crawled up the length of Jinki’s body to hover above him. “I could be way off here but I feel like this isn’t just…sex. And if it isn’t then I don’t want it to start off like this. I want to, you know, take you out, wine and dine you…not get our rocks off in a cheap motel because I told you my sob story. That’s not why I told you...not to get this.”
The older carded his hand through his hair. “Okay, a couple of things. A, my rocks are pretty hard right now, thanks. B, this hotel is far from cheap, trust me, I know and C, at the risk of sounding like an ass…I’d rather you not spend money on me that isn’t yours, so the wining and dining, I’ll pass on.”
Minho frowned. “I have money, I can provide for you if that’s what you’re asking. I just…don’t have a lot of it.” When Minho began to sulk, Jinki reached up and slid his arms around his neck and rolled his eyes.
“Provide for me? What am I? Some sixteen year old girl you’ve knocked up? I don’t care about that. I didn’t think I came off as the shallow type but regardless you’ve got the wrong idea. I’m a police office, Minho. I enforce laws. I can’t…I can’t date an thief no matter how tempting dating that thief is.” The look that came across Minho’s face eclipsed in disappointment and he started to back away. Jinki stopped him with a reassuring squeeze. “I never said I didn’t want to though.” Jinki’s hands found their way back into Minho’s hair and he pushed lightly to bring him closer for another kiss.
“You’re not making much sense,” Minho supplied against his lips.
“What I’m saying is if what you’re saying is true then I understand you. I understand-finally-what you’re doing and it tears down all the walls I had built up about you. What kept me looking for you, instead of touching you. And now that I know you’re not some vain materialistic corrupt vile-
“Okay, I got your point.”
“-Criminal, “he said with meaning, “I want to help. And if we, I don’t know…fix this…”
“Wait.” Minho brows furrowed before he started laughing. “You won’t date me until I take down BioVas? Do I look like Clark Kent to you? I can’t take down a multi-billion dollar company. I’ve tried. You’re asking for the impossible.”
“I didn’t say you. I said we.”
“We?”
“Yes, we. I think I have a plan.”
Minho sat up in a rush “You do? Well, what are we waiting for?”
Jinki tugged him back down before he bolted from the room. “This,” and he kissed him again.