[Fic] Happily Ever After [2/?]
Part I: Dead White
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“Hey, woah, you look beautiful, princess,” Kim Jusnu laughed as his friend slumped into the chair across from him. Senior Inspector Jung Yunho gave him a bland look, making the dark eye circles look even more prominent. “So how’s Changmin? Up and running yet?”
“He’s taking a break from duty for a bit,” Yunho said. “After that little episode, I’ll support him if he chooses to leave the police force.”
“Changmin? He’s tougher than that,” Junsu says. He waves the waiter over and orders the usual. Yunho orders a cup of black coffee. “Nope, he’s not going to have coffee. He’ll have a cup of water please.”
“Junsu-yah,” the inspector all but whined. There was something about being with old friends that brought the best and worst out of people. If anyone from the department had heard Jung Yunho whine like a child, they would have did a double take and scrambled around, preparing for the end of the world. But this was Junsu, so Yunho felt obligated to act like a five-year-old brat.
“No, hyung,” Junsu said sternly. “You are going to sleep after this. I’ll drive you home. Don’t even think about going back to headquarters.”
“Hn,” the older man hummed indignantly, but didn’t argue. It had been 70 hours already and sleep was starting to sound absolutely amazing. The only thing that kept him from falling asleep right there and then was the fact Junsu would have to come bother him some other time if he did.
“So what do you have for me?” Junsu asked, whipping out his notebook, pen and recorder. It was standard procedure for the two of them now. Junsu would ask no more questions beyond this point. The inspector controlled whatever information Junsu got and that had been Yunho’s condition to speak at all.
“He’s speeding up,” Yunho sighed. “For the past twelve years, Hero’s been killing at a relatively constant pace. No more than five or six a year, but this year, he’s murdered twenty-eight so far.”
Junsu nodded but didn’t bother writing any of it down. This was all common knowledge. Every person who feared Hero, which was probably the entire nation, kept a terrified count of the increasing bodies this year. It was as though the murderer was building up to something, and the police were still scrambling around like chicken without heads.
“This is a bit of old news for my department but we’ve analyzed it so much that I doubt that even if the public knew it would make a difference. Every time, Hero would kill his victims with five of the same weapon. I told you this last year.”
Junsu nodded, his pen and paper still untouched.
“Well, he also carves a letter of the English alphabet onto his victims. We’ve had hell of a difficult time figuring out anything because the letters would come randomly and they string up to nothing. He’s used all the letters except four: t, q, v and x. The rest of the letters could combine into any number of words. We sort of gave up on trying to spell out words from 22 letters of the English alphabet and focused on the four Hero doesn’t use.”
Junsu blinked, his fingertips brushing his pen.
“We even thought of it as stocks and traced it to an American company owned by an American-born Korean. Their stock code, or ticker symbol, was TVXQ,” Yunho said, shaking his head at the memory. “Their stocks had risen suddenly ten years ago but the company came out completely clean. Their CEO had never left the States and disliked any connections to Korea. Completely Americanized and spoke limited Korean.”
Junsu touched his pen and gave Yunho a questioning look.
“Yeah, their CEO actually told me to publicize it,” Yunho said bitterly. “He said that there was no connection to the company whatsoever so he had nothing to fear.”
Pen touched paper.
“Oh, by the way, the CEO’s name is Park Yoohwan. He inherited the company from his father and decided to completely reform it,” Yunho continued. He didn’t bother slowing down because Junsu wouldn’t fall behind. “I did a bit of digging on the man. Apparently his parents were divorced and his father founded the company. One of the reasons he doesn’t care for his heritage is that his mother and older brother had returned to Korea after what was a messy divorce.”
The blank page was suddenly full of shorthand notes, illegible and unintelligible to anyone but Junsu himself.
“Never found out where or who his mother and his brother are,” Yunho said offhandedly. Honestly, he was only releasing so much information on Park Yoohwan because of that very unpleasant conversation they had over the phone. In badly accented Korean, the younger man had basically called Yunho a bumbling idiot and hung up. Of course, when the inspector made the international call again, they exchanged-ahem-courteous words and the CEO was oh-so-helpful and cooperative in the investigation. It was a very small retaliation against the now CEO of a billion dollar cooperation, but it was bad publicity for the company. “That’s it.”
Junsu pouted. That was hardly enough to do a full article. Most of it had been Yunho’s background check on this Park Yoohwan that Junsu could have accomplished all on his own.
“Well, you’ll make it work,” Yunho shrugged. “I’ve given you less.”
“True,” Junsu agreed reluctantly, packing away his working equipment.
“…I’ll give you one more tidbit,” Yunho said softly. “Senior inspector Jung and Journalist Kim’s time is over, but here’s something from Yunho to Junsu.”
Junsu gave Yunho a curious look. When Yunho said that, it was usually a piece of information that could not go out to the public yet or ever. The only times Yunho did this was when he wanted to warn Junsu of something or ask for help.
“Changmin actually met and spoke to Hero,” Yunho whispered, his voice no higher than a hum. “Before we let him go home, Changmin helped piece together a facial composite.”
Yunho slide a folded piece of paper across the table to Junsu.
“There are no databases that match this person’s face to a name or anything,” Yunho said, his voice still low, making Junsu strain to hear it. “This person doesn’t exist…within legal databases.”
“So what I’m understanding is,” Junsu responded, louder as the waiter came over. “You want some help.”
Now aware of the incoming presence, Yunho relaxed and responded, “Yes. There’s no one else I can turn to for this kind of stuff.”
The waiter placed down a glass of iced water in front of Yunho and a chicken entrée in front of Junsu.
“As long as you were truthful with your description,” Junsu chuckles. “I’ll set you up with your dream girl.”
---
Shim Changmin paces up and down the living room space of his one bedroom apartment. He has a forced leave of two weeks to ‘rest up’, but his heart was heavy with apprehension. Should he have told Hero’s name to the team? Should he have at least told Inspector Jung?
“Aish,” he growled, tussling his hair in annoyance.
“Only two people alive know that name, and I’m afraid I quite like it that way,” Kim Jaejoong’s voice echoed in his head.
He doesn’t know why Hero had left him with this information and his life. It was difficult to know whether the hauntingly beautiful man would take action knowing more knew. So when the senior inspectors asked, “Is there anything else?” Changmin had shaken his head slowly.
The facial composite had come out rather oddly. It looked exactly like Kim Jaejoong from what Changmin remembered of that dark night, but it also looked nothing like him. There was something about the murderer that Changmin couldn’t quite place his finger on. Either way, he doubts the facial composite will help anyone.
He stopped in the middle of the living room and closed his eyes. The murderer’s ice-cold eyes flashed across his vision and even though he felt himself break out into cold sweat, another emotion bubbled within him. He wasn’t quite sure what it was. Instead of immediately opening his eyes, Changmin kept them closed just to feel that fleeting something again.
However the sudden ringing of the telephone startled him out of his revere. He stumbled into the kitchen where his house phone was located and picked up.
“Hello?” Changmin croaked into the phone. He coughed to clear it before repeated his greeting.
“Shim Changmin?” the caller asked. “Is this his number?”
“Yes,” Changmin answered. He quickly checked the caller ID and the word ‘restricted’ replaced the usual phone number slot. “And who’s this?”
“This is Kim Heechul,” the caller responded. “I was just calling to ask if Inspector Jung dropped by or not.”
“Oh! Inspector Kim,” Changmin greeted again. He quickly switched into formal language. “No, Inspector Jung hasn’t come by. Is there a particular reason why you’re inquiring?”
“He left the office earlier, saying he was to meet Journalist Kim,” Heechul explained. “It’s been two hours and he hasn’t come back so I wondered if he went to your place. How are you by the way? You seemed really tenses earlier.”
“Ah, he’s with Junsu-hyung?” Changmin smiled. “Inspector Jung needs to meet his friends outside the police force more often.”
“Amen, but you haven’t answered my question yet. How are you feeling?”
“Oh, well, it was a stressful ordeal to remember,” Changmin explained hesitantly.
“I can imagine. Well, I still have work-”
“Wait!”
“Yes?”
Changmin swallowed painfully. He gritted his teeth and started, “Inspector Kim, I’m technically off duty right now right?”
“Yes.”
“So any suspicions I tell you now, regarding the Hero case,” Changmin forced himself to continue. “You wouldn’t need to report would you?”
“If you were to tell me anything now, it would be considered dongseng to hyung,” Heechul agreed. “As friends, no, I wouldn’t have any obligation to report any ‘gossip’ for the lack of a better word.”
“Well, what if this ‘gossip’ is more fact than fiction?” Changmin asked, feeling a little braver. “What if this tidbit could help with the case?”
“…Changmin-ah, I understand whatever happened must have put insane pressure on your mental state. If you don’t want me to tell Inspector Jung or my higher ups for the time being, I won’t. This doesn’t mean that in the future I won’t, but for the time being, you have my word. I will not tell anyone.”
“Remember I said that Hero asked for my name?” Changmin questioned. He felt honestly relieved. Out of the three senior inspectors of their department, he was only close to Yunho because of the mentoring relationship they shared. Yunho was like his unofficial father in many senses, and while Lee Donghae and Kim Heechul were Yunho’s best friends, Changmin was as close to them as any of the police assistants were. Basically, not at all.
“He said he asked for the names of all his victims,” Heechul said, repeating what Changmin had said during the interrogation.
“Because apparently…well, I amused him,” Changmin continued. “So, he said he’d give me a gift.”
“Oh so the concussion wasn’t his loving present?” Heechul asked sarcastically. Changmin bit back a chuckle. He couldn’t help but smile at the inspector’s sarcasm and quick wit. Kim Heechul wasn’t just known for his pretty face but also for his razor sharp tongue.
“No,” Changmin said. “He…Hero gave me his name.”
The line went quiet. So quiet, Changmin wondered if the other had hung up.
“Changmin, he did what?” came the sudden question.
“Hero gave me his name,” Changmin said quickly, startled. “He said only two people alive knew it and he liked it that way, but then he said three was a good number or something.”
“…Changmin, this information could potentially close this case,” Heechul said. Changmin could hear the other man’s regret.
“Will you report this?” Changmin asked to reassure himself.
“No. I’ve already given my word,” Heechul said with a heavy sigh. “How about this? I won’t report this until you come back on duty and you can choose when to come back.”
“Thank you,” Changmin said sincerely. He heard the older man’s sigh of frustration mixed with resignation.
“So what did Hero say?”
“Kim Jaejoong,” Changmin answered.
“Wait, what?”
“Kim Jaejoong,” Changmin repeated slowly, enunciating each word.
“…Changmin, can I call you back later?”
“Eh? Uh, yes.”
“I won’t tell a soul and especially not Inspector Jung if that’s what your worried about.”
The line died. Changmin stared at the phone and wondered whether he did the right thing.
---
Kim Heechul clicked his personal cell phone off and leaned back in his office seat in shock.
Kim Jaejoong, the younger man had said.
Jumping to his feet, Heechul rushed to Yunho’s office. The empty office was dark but Heechul’s been in there enough to know where everything was with just the slits of light streaming in from the blinds. He squatted under the desk and felt around for the small knob on the left side, which opened up a secret drawer. Heechul frantically felt inside the small drawer until his hand closed on a wooden frame.
Grabbing what he knew to be a picture frame, Heechul shut the door of the small drawer, crawled out of under the desk and ran out of his best friend’s office. He held the picture frame tightly and prayed his suspicions were wrong. Rushing back into his office, Heechul locked the door behind him and shuffled through his papers, one hand still tightly clenching the picture frame. He finds the facial composite of Hero and breaths in deeply.
Slowly, he turns the picture frame until the happy picture faced the senior inspector.
In the photo, a smiling dark haired man was carrying an equally cheerful ten year-old. These two faces, Heechul hasn’t seen since that fateful day ten years ago. The pretty, little journalist, who captured the heart of both Jungs, father and son, looked so angelic with his dark hair framing his large black eyes and plump pink lips.
That fateful day ten years ago, Yunho had bounded into the office, announcing he was remarrying, and this time to someone who truly loved him. Heechul remembers teasing him with Donghae as they started out a typical day of paperwork and report writing.
That had also been the same day this pretty, little journalist had disappeared. This pretty, little journalist had been last seen walking out of a supermarket with ten-year-old Jung Changmin, swinging their linked hands happily.
That had also been the same day Yunho had his first encounter with Hero. The trauma causing him to forget everything about his missing-presumed dead-lover and son.
That should have also been the day the pretty, little journalist’s remains were collected into a plastic bag and returned to his family. That should have also been the day Kim Jaejoong died.
Heechul placed the drawing and the old photograph together and he sees it. He sees the obvious similarities of the not-so perfect facial composite and the man in the old photo. But he also remembers receiving back a DNA test, matching the hairs found at the scene with Kim Jaejoong’s.
And then everything made sense: Kim Jaejoong hadn’t been the victim in that case ten years ago. He had been the murderer.
---
Around twelve years ago, Kim Junsu had almost come out to his parents.
He had been at the dinner table with his twin brother giving him encouraging glances. Junsu remember smiling nervously at his parents and almost opened his mouth when his mother interrupted him.
“Hey, do you two remember my sister’s only son, your cousin?” she had questioned. “The one who’s working as a journalist as well? Kim Jaejoong?”
“A-ah, yeah,” Junsu had agreed, backing out at the last moment. He comforted himself that he would take the next silent moment to make his announcement.
“Jaejoong-ah?” his twin brother, Junho, asked. “Didn’t he win some newcomers award for something?”
Junsu kept quiet and ate his food. He didn’t have much recollection of his cousin, Kim Jaejoong. The other had been two years younger and as a child, Junsu used to get confused on whether his aunt had nine daughters or eight daughters and a son. Other than knowing that the pretty and lithe young man enjoyed singing, Junsu knew nothing about his cousin. In this sense, Junho was a lot closer to their younger cousin that he had been.
“He came out as a gay,” his mother had said, voice stern and disapproving. “And your aunt kicked him out.”
“Wait,” Junho exclaimed. “Where is he living then? Last time I heard, he didn’t have an apartment or anything yet!”
“Why do you care?” their father had questioned. “It was their family’s decision to do this and we have to respect it.”
“I can’t believe it though,” their mother sighed. “A homosexual in our family. Thank God I have you two.”
“Yeah-thank god you have us huh?” Junsu quickly agreed. His eyes stared into his rice bowl for the rest of the dinner, refusing to look at his parents.
That night Junho tried to convince him to tell their parents again but Junsu wasn’t about to risk losing his family like their cousin had. Even now, at the age of thirty-seven, Kim Junsu hadn’t told his aging mother and father, fearing the shock would kill them.
And ten years ago, when the police had tried to return the remains of his young cousin to his family, they had refused it. They refused to accept their son back even in death. That had been when Junsu’s father had stepped in.
“The boy might have been a disgrace,” he remembers his father saying to their aunt. “But he is still your blood and flesh.”
So Junsu’s family arranged the funeral and burial. All eight sisters had come, regretting letting their little brother go. Junho had cried. And Junsu had stared at the picture of a handsome young man who died at the hands of a serial killer for three days straight. He remembers wondering whether his cousin would find it ironic that his sexuality no longer mattered now that he was dead but it had been everything when he had been alive.
After sending his fatigued hyung back to his house, Junsu received a call just a moment before he starts up his car to return to his office.
“Hello?” he answers, not bothering to check the caller ID.
“Kim Junsu,” the caller said, cutting right to the chase. “This is Kim Heechul. We’ve met several times before through Yunho.”
“Yes, I remember,” the journalist says. “How have you-”
“No time for pleasantries,” Heechul interrupted. “Do you still remember ten years ago when your cousin Kim Jaejoong died?”
“Er, yes, I do remember,” Junsu answers hesitantly. “Does this have something to do with the Hero cases? I promised Yunho-hyung that I wouldn’t accept information from anyone but him.”
“Yunho has told me a lot about you,” Heechul continues, completely disregarding Junsu’s words. “He says that you have ways of finding people that aren’t exactly legal.”
“Oh, I didn’t think he’d tell you,” Junsu frowned. “I assure you that I don’t deal drugs or supply the black market.”
“If you did, Yunho wouldn’t trust you,” Heechul said bluntly. “Anyways. Come up to the headquarters, I need you to find someone.”
“It wouldn’t be Hero, would it?” Junsu asks. “Yunho-hyung has already asked me to look for him. He’s given me the sketch.”
“...I’m guessing you haven’t looked at it have you?”
“No,” Junsu admits sheepishly.
“Once you see it, I’m sure you’ll understand.”
Junsu immediately rustled through his bag and finds the folded sheet of paper. He unfolds it quickly, one hand still on the phone, and he sees it. The facial composite sketch had features that were striking similar to the picture he had stared at for three days straight ten years ago.
“Oh,” Junsu says intelligently. “Jaejoong-ah.”
“Shit, even you think so,” came Heechul’s elegant reply.
---
Changmin sighed for the millionth time.
“What’s with this atmosphere?” Kyuhyun muttered, tipping back his can. “You called me over to drink and instead you’re moping.”
“I’m not,” the other snapped childishly at his friend. His first can of beer was hardly touched. “I just…did I do the right thing?”
“What did you do?” Kyuhyun asked, opening his third can of beer. “Did you get into a fight with Inspector Jung?”
“No!” Changmin sighed frustrated. “Why don’t you understand? You’re supposed to be my best friend!”
“I can’t read minds,” came the unsympathetic but sincere reply.
Changmin sighed. This was getting nowhere. He meant to relieve some of his frustrations by enjoying a relaxing night of drinking and chatting, but he was just caught up in himself and Kyuhyun was drinking to amuse himself. Changmin grabbed his beer can and chugged the entire content at once. Slamming the can down on the coffee table, Changmin let himself fall back on the sofa and let the rush of alcohol muddle his brain.
“Haha, that’s the spirit, Changmin-ah,” his friend laughed, voice too muddled for Changmin to process quickly.
“Kyuhyun,” Changmin slurred. His mind hadn’t completely caught up as the alcohol coursed through his body. “If someone…tells you indirectly…not to…you know…not tell anyone else…something…”
“You mean like a secret?” Kyuhyun asks.
“Yeah!” Changmin giggles. “What if someone implies…someone dangerous…implies not to tell a secret?”
“You don’t tell it,” Kyuhyun responded.
“What happens if you do?” Changmin asks, his head clearing just a bit. The speed he drank the beer affecting his functions more than the amount.
“Depends really,” his best friend commented. “Tell me and I’ll judge for you.”
“Didn’t you…just say not to tell it?” Changmin asks, inching toward his friend. Soon he lay on the sofa completely on his side, petting his friend’s hair. Kyuhyun made some annoyed noises but otherwise did nothing to move from his position on the floor, leaning against the sofa.
“Yet you told someone else already.”
“…fine, but you have to promise not to tell a soul,” Changmin whispered, still playing with his friend’s hair.
“Cross my heart and hope to die,” Kyuhyun recited in a childish voice. “Stick a needle through my eye…”
“Hero, the murderer,” Changmin whispers. “He told me his name.”
“Oh, and?” Kyuhyun questions.
“And I told Inspector Kim the name,” Changmin continues. “But I think I probably shouldn’t have.”
“Why?” Kyuhyun asks, knocking back his last can for the night. It was getting late and Changmin was talking nonsense.
“Kim Jaejoong might kill him.”
“Hm? Who’s Kim Jaejoong?” Kyuhyun asked, turning to face his friend only to find Changmin already asleep. Kyuhyun chuckled lightly, “Knocked out after one can of beer? What a joke.”
---
Three days later, Senior Inspector Kim Heechul’s body was found.
Five shots to the stomach in a zigzagged pattern and a large letter ‘T’ carved over his heart.
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A/N: I’m sorry T_T I have nothing against Heechul or SJ…
I hope you enjoyed~ I will probably update once more at the end of this week. But once May starts, I’m going to be on a month long hiatus. I have several obligations to meet and I don’t think I’ll have time to write.
Thank you for reading and please do comment~ <3