“Please state your name for the record.” Jonghyun hides an ill-timed yawn behind one hand before answering.

“Choi Jonghyun.”

“Ahn Daniel.”

The cop looks puzzled when he looks through the database. That much is understandable, given that Jonghyun’s profile reflects nothing of his standing in the group, only his status as fourth year university student finishing with honors. There are no clear indicators as to why he would shoot a middle-aged man inside his hotel room, and he himself isn’t sure why he did it. His original objective was to immobilise the target and bring him in for questioning. He shouldn’t have cared whether the e lived or died as a result; that would just have been bad luck on Niel’s part.

Instead instinct took over, and he was already staring at the corpse, bullet hole right in between the eyes.

“Now Daniel here has been here a couple times before,” the policeman gives Niel a friendly pat on the shoulder. Jonghyun has a sudden impulse to swat that hand away. “Used to get in fights from time to time.

“You, though… haven’t seen you around here before.” 

Jonghyun attempts to act appropriately cowed, although he’s never held any respect for policemen, no thanks to his upbringing in one of Korea’s most influential gangs. Niel shoots him a warning look not to say anything stupid. He ignores it and opens his mouth. “I wanted to make a surprise visit to Niel.”

“Ah, so you guys are—“ 

Jonghyun doesn’t let him finish.  

“We’re boyfriends, yeah.” He has the satisfaction of seeing Niel’s eyes bug out from his face. “That scumbag was going to kill him.” The cop tries and fails to hide his disgust. Jonghyun sneers at him inwardly. “I’m prepared to face the consequences, but let Niel go. He has nothing to do with this.” Such trite lines, and yet the officer laps it all up, almost too eagerly. Was he also another of Niel’s customers?

The e kicks him underneath their seat. He has a surprisingly strong kick despite his fragile appearance. “Don’t cover for me. I’m just as much to blame; I should’ve stopped you from firing that shot.” 

“Please, Niel.” e or not, he doesn’t deserve to be in prison. They’ll eat him alive there. He cradles the other man’s chin in one hand and watches the cop avert his eyes. “Don’t.”

Niel seems to have caught on to the cop’s laughable response to any display of homouality, and he plays it up for their petrified audience of one. “I won’t go anywhere without you,” he declares dramatically. Jonghyun has to bite his lip to keep from laughing out loud. 

Traumatised by their public display of affection, the cop has them thrown into a vacant cell without further questions and informs them they’ll be transferred to the city jail within a week’s time. As soon as the older man is out of earshot, he turns on Niel.

“What the hell is your problem?” He demands. “I kept my end of the deal; you were supposed to stay quiet and let me do all the talking.”

“Because your boyfriend story was so convincing?” The other man scoffs. “Not to mention, the Infinite staff have probably caught wind of what happened. The client was one of S&M’s higher ranking men. They’ll think I’m a rat from another gang and off me, but before that they’ll torture me half to death.”

“I told you my men would take care of you!” His voice is rising, but he doesn’t care. “And how do you know so much anyway? Aren’t you just a e?”

Niel’s nostrils flare in indignation. “I’m an , not a e,” he snaps. Jonghyun doesn’t bother disguising his snort.

“Like there’s even a difference.” 

With a wordless cry, Niel launches himself at Jonghyun. He has decent power behind each strike, but he’s soon overpowered, not having any formal training. Jonghyun wrestles him to the ground and pins him in place. Niel glares at him. His lip is busted and the wound has reopened, marking one side of his mouth a bloody red.

He doesn’t know why, but he’s drawn to those bloodstained lips. He raises one hand to slide over them. “Your lips,” he says dumbly. The glare transforms into a smirk, and Niel’s tongue darts out to wet his lips. 

“You want a taste, Jonghyun?” Niel pulls him down by the collar and smashes their lips together. Niel’s lips are soft and inviting, tasting of strawberry lip gloss and copper. Jonghyun’s first kiss with a e, or an , whatever… Shinhwa would have a field day. He can’t bring himself to even worry about his reputation taking a beating, not when he’s enjoying the feel of those pouty lips against his and a hand pulling at his hair. 

The cop who interviewed them returns just in time to witness them in the middle of a full-blown makeout session. If he doubted their story before, seeing the real thing dispelled any second thoughts he might have had. Jonghyun takes his sweet time pulling away from Niel, whose lips have become thoroughly swollen, making a show of his lips. The older man is so flabbergasted he stumbles over his words and later over his own shoes as he makes a hasty exit.

Jonghyun laughs. 

Being stuck in prison with Niel might be more fun than he thought.