What Jongdae Heard

Minho eyed the groundskeeper warily as Odd Eye walked towards Onew’s home. They had already approached in bad spirits, aware in the back of his mind that they still couldn’t really jail Luhan for the murder of Yifan. They could get him for attempted murder, but if he had actually gone further than that, nobody knew. Onew was keeping quiet about something. Minho knew Onew – he had changed from the past, he kept telling himself, so it must have meant that the evidence they needed was still out of their grasp.

Or he was concealing something from his own ends.

He shoved that traitorous thought out of his mind and focused on the sight of Kim Jongdae. He was wearing a battered coat, brown locks a total mess upon his head, clothes so rumpled that Minho was almost certain that Jongdae had been asleep less than half an hour ago. He was leaning against the railings of the steps to the house, whistling quietly to himself, glancing up at the sky.

When he caught sight of them, he pushed himself away from the railing and removed his newsboy cap respectfully, holding it with one hand against his chest. It was disconcerting to see Jongdae without his trademark smile or energy. Now his face was gloomy, a serious, determined line upon his brow. He’d come here to see something through. 

“Hello, Jongdae,” Onew said, drawing to halt several metres  away.

Bluntly, the groundskeeper said, “I’ve gone and lied ta you, guv’.”

Watching carefully, Minho saw Onew’s eyes widen slightly, possibly in surprise, and then he managed, “Jongdae?”

“Kyungsoo’s dead, guv,” Jongdae said simply, looking at the scuffed tips of his boots, “Someone’s gone and snuffed him, s’ not right of me just to keep things quiet. They killed ‘em, killed ‘em like he don’t bloody matter nothin’, and I guess he don’t, to them. Didn’t want to say before, on account of me just bein’ a servant, but… Kyungsoo’s dead, guv’. Loyalty don’t mean .”

“I know, and I am sorry for what happened,” Onew whispered, “Please tell us what you know.”

“It was that night that Mr Wu gone and got shot,” Jongdae began, and despite his mood, his storytelling temperament could not be so easily dimmed. “House was all quiet, at least, s’ what I thought. Me, I was just minding my own business, going to take a piss – I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, guv’. I didn’t!”

“We believe you,” Onew said soothingly. Most servants, Minho had become aware, were always anxious that they might be thrown out over the littlest things, which, to his disgust, did happen all too often. 

Jongdae nodded. “So…There I was, ah…Well, you don’t want all that now do you, guv? Or do you – no? Alright, suit yourself. But, then I hear something’. There’s hollerin’ coming from upstairs, and don’t I know it – it’s Mr Kim himself!”

“Junmyeon?”

“And Mr Wu,” Jongdae concurred. “Now, all them quarrels, they happen right often, and servants, we get used to it, guv’. We learn how to pretend we didn’t hear nothin’. And that’s why I didn’t say earlier, guv, you’re not –”

“Jongdae, I assure you, you are not in trouble,” Onew said, clearly trying to keep patient before the other man. “Let me get this right: on the night Yif