Jonghyun had only been to the office three times, but he was already tired of it. He hated the way the employees would glare at him and give fake smiles, the way there was no color at all in the walls or furniture, the way the chatter from cubicles would never shut up, and even the way the rooms smelled of paper and regret. Working in an office was a nightmarish idea for him, so much so that he feared entering any of the cubicles in his time loitering around for his law class.

    On top of this, he was convinced the employees from the late Minhyun’s company despised this little group coming in and interrogating during the week. Not just because it messed up their schedules, or got in the way of their plans, but just out of personal annoyance towards them.

    A while back, some lady Jonghyun interviewed mentioned that, “the girl in your group shouldn’t be dressing like that, and keeps stealing all the bagels from the break room.” Assuming who she was referring to, he told Taemin to be sneakier about his food-stealing, and before that told off the businesswoman as politely as possible, mentioning that Taemin was, in fact, a man and that he can dress however he wants because he does not work for her company. Jonghyun was just glad that it wasn’t Kibum that was said to, as Kibum wasn’t respected on the premises already, but also would have lost his mind over the comment towards Taemin.

    Recently, Jonghyun noticed Taemin to be sort-of adopted by Kibum. Kibum would make sure he was respected, and got his share of interviews and case files, but always made sure to take into account his age and the fact he wasn’t actually Kibum’s son. Nonetheless, it was amusing to watch Kibum nag him about things, such as speaking up for what he wanted and being a little less blunt in his interrogations. Taemin didn’t seem to mind, and Jonghyun noticed he liked the attention, suggesting that his actual parents didn’t pay too much attention to him.

    Minho, on the other hand, was a new celebrity among the office workers. He would arrive earlier than everyone else in the team, and greet anyone who walked in from the company happily and conversationally. He’d have conversations with employees about anything on television, from the latest high-ranking dramas to recent sports data, which was almost impressive until Jonghyun took into account how much time he spent watching TV. Minho seemed lighter than air, all smiles and compliments. Jonghyun watched this from behind his papers, or from across the room in suspicion, feeling like a spy with the information he had. Taemin didn’t seem to be acting too much different, maybe a little annoyed if anything due to the way the employees looked at him, but other than that relatively stoic. Every time he did so much as to approach Minho, Minho would seem to go into stages: freezing, fidgeting, then coming up with excuses to leave.

    Kibum, being clever and observatory, noticed this as well as Jonghyun, but didn’t choose to speak anything out loud yet. Jonghyun was amused by the whole thing.

    Finally, Jinki seemed to be a little more put-together than before. He was typically early, but not as early as Minho, and he seemed to enjoy more than anything else the free coffee in the break room. Jonghyun found him to be a really funny, quirky creature and far less scary than before. Though he had some things behind him he never spoke of (ie; family life, alcohol, or anything to do with hospitals), he seemed to be more open than before with the four others. He had obvious social anxiety, and due to this went into a robotic, auto-pilot mode in interrogations and business interactions, then afterwards would be drained and have to get another cup of coffee.

    Overall, Jonghyun was satisfied with the way things were going. He wasn’t too stressed, and though he was still in a state of painful romantic pining, he was glad he got to spend so much time with Kibum. The only thing truly eating at him was the fact that ever since Wednesday they hadn’t gotten anywhere in terms of a motive for the homicides.

    Kibum sat far back in his swivel chair, his feet kicked up on Jonghyun’s lap. He read over the same documents he had been for the past hour and hummed to himself, trying desperately to find something between the words that he’d missed the last time around. Jonghyun had given up fifteen minutes ago and laid his face on the meeting room table, his cheek against the cold faux-wood.
 

    “Can we just like… Give up and go home yet, I’d rather suffer there than here with these cubicle vultures glaring at me like I’m some tasty carcass they’d like to devour,” Jonghyun mumbled from his awkward position on the desk. He was sure Kibum’s shoes were getting dust on his slacks, but he didn’t really care.

    “No, sorry Jonghyun, we still got like,” Jinki paused and checked his phone, “two hours.”

    “Ugh, Jinki, please,” Jonghyun complained more, finally deciding to sit upright and look him in the eyes.

    “No Jjong, unless you have a legitimate excuse,” Jinki shuffled his papers around and then went back to zooming in on various places in a photograph from the crime scene on his laptop.

    “My excuse is that we’re getting nowhere,” Jonghyun stated, then decided to not further his argument due to a chilling glare from Jinki.

    “He does have a point, I’ve read over the documents I have like… Five times in the past hour and unless we get the forensics soon, I don’t know if this’ll be worth anything… ” Kibum yawned and grabbed his coffee as gracefully as his half-asleep body could.

    “Isn’t Minho getting those?” Taemin added, waiting for something to happen and tapping his pen against the table ruthlessly. He was less exhausted and far more anxious to get the forensic documents than anything.

    As if a gift from heaven, the door to the meeting room swung open and Minho trudged through carrying a large yellow envelope and a paper bag. The paper bag, Jonghyun assumed, was why he took so long– as it was obviously some sort of food.

    “I got the documents,” Minho slid the paper envelope across the table towards Jinki’s seay, “and let me tell you, the guy at the D.A.’s office? Rude as . He wouldn’t give them to me unless I paid a fifteen dollar fee for whatever reason, and when I asked why he told me that it didn’t matter because I look “ too rich for it to matter.”” Minho sat down in a swivel chair and frustratedly scooted himself to the table, beginning to unfurl the top of the paper bag.

    Kibum laughed loudly, leaning farther back in his seat and nearly kicking Jonghyun in the crotch in the process.

    “He’s right! Have you seen yourself lately?” Kibum spoke through exaggerated gasps for air, as if nothing funnier existed in the entire world. Jonghyun couldn’t help but to laugh to himself a bit too, and luckily Taemin was doing the same.

    Minho frowned and looked into his paper bag, examining whatever was inside.

Jinki was focused on the envelope, opening it like it was a christmas present. He fumbled with the crisp, newly printed papers and read them with wide, excited eyes.

“Woah,” Jinki muttered, making everyone else previously squabbling and laughing quiet down and focus on the suspenseful forensics.

“What is it? Or like– who? Or whatever,” Taemin blurted out, scooting his chair closer to Jinki to look at the data on the paper. Kibum didn’t move, but had the same look in his eyes that he had on the first day of the class when the competition was announced. It was a look combining excitement, competition, and shock into one facial expression that Jonghyun had come to know pretty well.

    “Jonghyun,” Jinki spoke up, looking over the papers in his hands to Jonghyun, who was completely lost in trying to examine everything happening at once.

    “Yeah?”

    “You were right,” Jinki slid one of the papers over to Jonghyun and Kibum’s side of the table, where Jonghyun picked up the form and read it over carefully.

    The print was small and standard and besides the few explanations, the page consisted mainly of data and calculations. Jinki had already, somehow, taken the liberty of circling the important part with a pencil, which Jonghyun silently thanked him for. The circled bit read rather plainly,

    PRINTS Alleyway, 5th Street - L Street : Park Jungah
    PRINTS Workplace Office of Oh Minhyun :  Park Junho, Oh Minhyun

    PRINTS Home of Oh Minhyun : Oh Soomin, Oh Minhyun, Park Junho
    PRINTS Home of Park Jungah : Park Jungah, Park Junho

    It took Jonghyun a moment to process, but he was right. He had been the one to suggest an affair, or something including the victims’ spouses. He had yet to meet Junho, but his fingerprints were found in the office of one of the victims, as well as his home– both fresh enough to be the date of the homicide. Jonghyun smiled to himself, feeling somewhat redeemed by this information. He had yet to meet Junho, but from what Jinki said a few days before he seemed rather stoic and broken– which could be grief, guilt, or some sort of sociopathic method.

    When he looked to Kibum with his smile still intact, he was relatively surprised to see Kibum’s competitive, excitable face turn to one that was more frustrated and confused. Jonghyun hadn’t heard his thoughts on who did it, but he assumed Kibum had no bias towards any particular party. Kibum’s elegant, kohl-lined eyes were narrowed to a near squint as he backed away back into his seat from the paper.

    “Kibum?” Jonghyun tapped Kibum’s shin, confused as to what he could be thinking about the evidence, “What’s up?”

    “It doesn’t really add up to me, I guess,” Kibum waved his hand to fit his words, “It’s just… I kinda thought it’d be the lady– Soomin.”

    “Why?”
 

    “A hunch, and her body language mostly,” Kibum squinted, watching as the four others in the room were now zeroing into what he was saying. Kibum just coughed out a laugh at the realization of that and continued talking, as if worried he’d sound stupid if he didn’t elaborate.

    “The other day, when we talked to her… She just seemed way too inviting and friendly, which I know sounds stupid, but at the same time she had this look in her eyes whenever she’d look at me as if I was familiar, and as if I was someone she hated. She’d smile at you two when you spoke, but when I did she’d curl up her lips into something resembling a smile, but not quite… Do you know what I mean? I have no idea why she’d single me out, but it just seemed fishy to me, and I really don’t trust her, suspect or not.”

    Kibum finished and put his hands back in his lap, looking away from the table as if to make sure no third party was watching him. Taemin was focused on staring at the wall, and Minho looked as if Kibum had started a conspiracy theory. The only one other than Jonghyun paying actual, genuine attention was Jinki, who was in deep thought, looking at nothing in particular and holding his hand to his face.

    “Honestly, I was thinking the same thing,” Jinki said quietly, making Kibum’s attention turn back to the table, “She was far too kind and unaffected… If your husband just died, would you really act so humble and forgiving? Wouldn’t you be the least bit resentful or empty? If the way Junho acts is considered bordering on antisocial– wouldn’t her behavior be considered extremely sociopathic?”

    Everyone went silent, not being able to come up with a reasonable argument to Jinki’s idea. Even Minho, previously standing with the cold hard evidence, took a moment to appreciate the thought put into his words.

    Jonghyun couldn’t help but to stray from the others’ ideas, noticing Taemin still staring into the area where the wall meets the ceiling. He was deep in thought, not focusing on anything anyone else was saying but just staring and blinking in his own world of ideas and facts. His pretty face was spaced out, eyes wider than usual and mouth in a limp, neutral state. It took a moment of staring in the same place, putting himself in Taemin’s shoes, but eventually it hit him what Taemin was looking so hard for.

    “Taemin?” Jonghyun interrupted the other three’s conversation, but didn’t care.

    “Hm?” Taemin snapped out of his daze, looking over to Jonghyun with interested, somewhat surprised eyes.
 

    “Are you looking for a camera?”
 

    “Yeah, how’d you know?” Taemin was genuinely impressed, and smiled faintly.

    “I don’t know, you were staring at the area of the wall where a surveillance camera usually would be,” Jonghyun shrugged and noticed Kibum seemed to be impressed by this deduction as well. This made him glow with pride and smile as if he’d just won a medal.

    Jinki raised his hand and pointed to the room’s exit to the cubicles and office in the other part of the building, the same surprised look on his face that had been there when he’d opened the envelope earlier.

    “There isn’t a camera in here, or in his office, but there’s two in the section of the building where the cubicles are, and if we can find something there of someone walking in or out…” Jinki trailed off. There was a long silence amongst the boys, a still moment before everyone started talking at once, each yelling out that they’d go get the tapes and attempting to establish a plan. Finally, the five were quiet again and looked to Jinki to make sense of everything and create some structure. Jinki fiddled with a pen and leaned back in his chair.

    “Taemin, Jonghyun, you two started the idea, so you get the tapes. Minho, Kibum and I will keep going over data and brainstorming until you get back. Does that sound good?”

    Everyone quietly nodded or hummed in approval and before Jonghyun could completely register it, Taemin was grabbing his hand and pulling him out the door. Right as he was pulled through the door, he caught a glimpse of Kibum stifling a laugh at Taemin bossing him around.

    Taemin let go of his hand by the time they’d reached the cubicles, and though determined, still seemed distracted. To Jonghyun, the boy always looked somewhat distracted, it was in his nature, but for the whole day his mind appeared to be in a million different places at once. He didn’t look too stressed, but rather spaced out. He had a right, because of his chaotic life and strange love-life, but Jonghyun hoped it wasn’t causing him to be overwhelmed.

    Taemin handled himself well– he was young and hopeful, and Jonghyun didn’t know his family background or even his housing situation, but whatever was in his past he publicly acted happy and content. The one day at the cafe, when he’d first expressed his concerns about his love life to Jonghyun, he exposed a more vulnerable side of himself that Jonghyun was surprised to be seeing. It was an act of friendship, an act of trust, and Jonghyun appreciated the reach for friendship greatly. He assumed in the future of this class, this case, that he’d need a headstrong ally like Taemin.

    Taemin hummed to himself, walking along the corridor and scanning the walls. His hair was tied in a loose ponytail and he looked naturally, effortlessly beautiful as always.

    “Taemin?”

    “Hm.”

    “How’re you and Minho doing?”

    Taemin froze, no longer walking cheerfully like before, and looked at him–tearing his eyes away from the wall and staring at Jonghyun as if he’d been found doing something he wasn’t supposed to. He coughed, quickly turning his head the other direction, Jonghyun assumed to hide a flush of pink over his light tan skin.

    “What?”
 

    “I mean why are you still so empty and emotionless around him? Didn’t I say you should act more friendly and open?”

    Taemin blinked a few times, then squinted at Jonghyun with intense suspicion.

    “How the do you know it’s him?”

    “I have my ways, I’ll answer when you do, I asked first,” Jonghyun grinned, earning a swift stab in the side with Taemin’s elbow. Taemin cleared his throat nervously, then submit to the pressure of Jonghyun’s aggressive smiling and overall annoying charm.

    “I’m doing everything you told me to, I don’t know why you haven’t noticed. Last week I walked around downtown with him for a bit too. We talked and joked around and whatever, we get along, we always have. Really, I am trying, but he’s kinda… Blind. I mean, in high school I had a huge crush on him for like three years and didn’t register it until…”

    Taemin trailed off, shrugging and looking down at the floor. Jonghyun pat him on the back harder than necessary. He understood what Taemin was referring to instantly and nodded in sympathy.

“Yeah, I’ve seen that, and I get that you're being friendly, but you have to be more honest or it’ll never get solved, you know?”

Taemin sighed and nodded, acknowledging his avoidance to speak of “the incident.”

“But, how do you know it's him? I never told you that– or even a gender for that matter,” Taemin’s big, sparkly eyes went back to being narrowed in confusion and suspicion, more worried that one of his friends snitched than anything else. Jonghyun looked blankly at the room of cubicles, eyes trailing after whatever business person would walk by.

“He told me.”

“What?”

“He told me the full story at work,” Jonghyun clarified.

“You snitch,” Taemin started, small hands already rising as if ready to slap him, “I told you not to go and talk to people about this–”

“Taemin– calm down, I didn't tell anyone anything!”

“Then how did he–”

“He told me! He brought it up! Not me!” Jonghyun put his hands up in surrender, eyes wide at Taemin’s strong reaction. Though, it was inevitable.

“Why the hell would he bring it up?” Taemin glared, waiting impatiently for a response that would clear the whole mess up. Jonghyun decided to dance around his words more carefully, assuming that making a wrong move would result in Taemin lurching forward to bite his head off.

“Okay,” Jonghyun started, inching out of the middle of the hallway to the side to create at least a small hint of privacy, “I was– well like– at work–he was totally stressed out and messing up at things so I asked him what was up, and he told me about his situation with you, but he never mentioned your name or anything. He actually didn't say much directly about you, mostly about his confused uality… which was a really strange mess of his white-picket-fence family growing up and just… yeah, anyways, I definitely think that with the amount of time he spent complaining about how confused he was, you have a really good chance with him. If he cares enough to rant at his coworker in the back of a coffee shop, I would think he’s thinking a lot about you. You’re worth the confusion, or else he would just ignore the issue completely.”

Taemin’s face softened at that, a brief, sweet smile pulling at his lips. Beforehand he’d obviously had begun overthinking. Jonghyun understood that– he was the king of overthinking. The explanation had Taemin redeeming Jonghyun as well, his angered narrowed eyes softening to honesty, and a still-hopeless worrisome feeling.

“That’s… Good, definitely…  but I can’t just go up there and say something stupid like– “hey! I know we ed one time like a year ago, but I’m still thinking about that as if it was yesterday and honestly it’s driving me up the ing wall! We should really go out sometime cause that was great!” like, what even would that result in? That’d be a mess,” Taemin thought out loud, a little too loudly, making a lady in a nearby cubicle glare at the two by the wall. Taemin simply rolled his eyes at her and went back to his conversation, a hand at his hip.

“I’d normally say to be honest,” Jonghyun started, eyebrows furrowing at the strange thoughts floating around Taemin’s head, “but that’s a little too honest.”

“No, really?” Taemin raised his hands, giving a fake smile, making Jonghyun scoff.

“Yeah, smartass. I don’t know–just say something honest, but at the same time don’t go too far or you know, graphic,” Jonghyun leaned onto the wall and sighed, “honestly, I’d be worried about blurting the wrong thing out too– hell, that’s kinda my exact situation too– but, you at least have history to go on. Say something about how you like him, and ask if he’d want to go farther. You don’t even need to bring up the past, if you don’t want to. I’m not saying you have to be shy or something, but I’d definitely say start it slow.”

The bustling in the room seemed to fade out, Taemin’s mind laser focused on the advice

at hand. At this point he was aware he needed to be doing something, and that was the reason he was in the cubicle-strewn room he was in, but he’d forgotten temporarily what it was in favor of being a sponge for advice. They had plenty of time to do work anyways, so Taemin felt that a small break wouldn’t hurt much anyways.

    After a few moments to reflect on what Jonghyun had –thinking of some examples, sorting them out, cancelling other ideas– Taemin looked back up from his previous daze staring at the floor as if it was the most interesting thing in the room. He looked up, his face more interested and alive than before, and far less overwhelmed.

    “Yeah, slow and casual seems like… it’d be the best thing,” Taemin paused, his hand falling from his hip to a more neutral position, “and I mean–what you said last time, about the whole having-nothing-to-lose thing, that’s kind of true too after I thought about it for a while… Anyways, at least I know he’s not straight now, which is good.”

    Taemin lit up, his usual confidence rebuilding. Jonghyun smiled in return, somewhat proud of the fact he’d actually helped him. Silently, Jonghyun was glad he’d brought it up in the first place, due to Taemin’s tendency to put on a smile and a confident attitude and not speak of his emotions whatsoever. Frankly, Jonghyun also enjoyed actually getting to act older than him for once as well. Taemin looked back at the ground, a small smile still tugging at his lips.

    “Thank you,” he spoke in a near whisper, “that actually really helps.”

    “I’m sure it’ll go fine, Taemin. You’re too pretty to turn down,” he joked, earning a light slap on the arm.

    “Wow, are you hitting on me? After all this? Try it on Kibum if you want, but you’re not my type,” Taemin snickered, beginning to walk down the hallway again with no particular destination.

    Several feet ahead, they stopped at a table of file-holders, a few random documents strewn across the empty space. A few people with suits stood around the edges, looking at various forms, but none seemed to notice or care about the two younger suit-clad boys, bickering back and forth. Above the table was a small video camera, boxed in by glass as to not be tampered with. The two looked up at the small device, both confused and blank of any idea as to how to get the thing down, or even if they needed to.

Eventually, Taemin had the miraculous idea to ask someone who was in charge of surveillance, and was quick to yell out that he wasn’t going to. When asked “why not?” by an annoyed and not-incredibly-willing-to-be-social Jonghyun he fussed about how the business workers didn't like him and found him strange and unnatural. Though it was a stretch, Jonghyun begrudgingly agreed, because he did have a point. The workers seemed wary of both Taemin and Kibum, sending them awkward glances and annoyed expressions. Taemin was confused by it, and complained about it daily, but Kibum stopped caring around the second day. Jonghyun thought about what he must have gone through to make him neutral to the dirty glares he received on the daily.

The first person Jonghyun walked up to was a tall man with boring, rectangular glasses that were far too small for his face. He nearly slammed face first into Jonghyun in the hallway in an obvious hurry, then brushed off the questions Jonghyun had as if they weren't important, not offering anything of use.

The second person was a woman, shorter than Jonghyun, with a round face and bright red lipstick. She seemed nicer than the robotic, possibly dead inside man from before, so Jonghyun was far more polite in his questioning and greeting. She, luckily, directed him to a desk near the front of the room, suggesting they go up a floor if that didn't work to speak with the higher authority workers. She spoke with hesitant glances and shy nods. He nodded and thanked her, and she batted her eyes and smiled, her fair cheeks tinting with pink in return. Taemin caught the reaction from over by the wall and visibly held in laugher, a hand to his face and a dumb smile on his lips. Jonghyun, for the nth time that day, was ready to clock him.

Finally, after wandering the building for at the very least half an hour, Jonghyun found himself with the surveillance tapes– over two months of footage, which Taemin painstakingly mentioned would take forever to look over. Jonghyun agreed but shrugged it off, mentioning that there wasn't another option. Drained, yet successful, they made it across the building once more to the meeting room.

Taemin slammed open the door, as he always did when walking into a room, and marched his way in with a triumphant grin, holding up the tapes as a trophy of success. Jonghyun tiredly waved, looking across the room to see that it was generally the same as he’d left it, with the exception of papers now strewn out over the table so that there was no space between them, only a platform of white. Kibum sat in the same seat, but now with his legs crossed and leaning over the table with a highlighter in hand. He smiled and waved back at Jonghyun, sitting up straight with interest at their findings.

After a good fifteen minutes of arguing over the topic, Jinki eventually settled everything, declaring their individual assigned parts to watch on their own time. Jonghyun had sat down in his previous spot, and though he knew he’d need to leave soon, he felt pretty comfortable where he was–even if Kibum’s legs were on his lap like a footrest. Even non-physically, there was a sense of familiarity beginning to come from sitting and bickering with the other four; a sense of comfort from all the chaos of the case, from school, from work. Overall, Jonghyun decided that he was happy with his social situation, with the exception of the one thing that could make everything perfect. He didn’t want to think about that at the moment, but Kibum’s eyes kept wandering to his, meeting briefly, then darting away with urgency, both of them trying to pretend these moments hadn't happened. (Though, at this point Jonghyun was sure everyone else had started to notice, and not just the ever-prying Taemin across the table giving him strange looks.)

It was around six thirty when Jinki finally announced that they could all leave. Jonghyun, at this point, was surprised at the fact no one questioned his authority. He definitely wasn’t an official leader, but everyone followed his instructions and orders with few questions, maybe a few complaints, but never faltering. Jonghyun assumed it was because everyone was just a little bit scared of him– knowing little of his past, but knowing clearly that he was of higher intelligence than the rest of them. No one dared to say this out loud.

Kibum nudged Jonghyun in the shoulder, waiting for him to pack up the rest of his things and stand up.

“Can I get a ride back to my place?” Kibum questioned, fixing his blond bangs with a brush of his fingers. He didn’t look down to meet Jonghyun’s eyes, but instead watched Jinki awkwardly shuffle out of the room, a messenger bag overstuffed with things hanging at his shoulder. The oldest of the three left in the room waved, then closed the door, leaving them alone.

“Yeah, of course. You wanna go get pizza or something tonight?” Jonghyun replied, somewhat distracted by the piles of paper he continuously shoved into a file.

Kibum flinched, hand going up and through his hair with uncertainty.

“Can't; I’ve gotta work tonight.”

Jonghyun nodded with understanding, finally standing up and looking him in the eyes. Kibum’s dreading face quickly melted into something more sweet and grateful at the sudden eye contact. Kibum looked exhausted, but still gorgeous– high set cheekbones, naturally pink lips, an earth-shattering, cancer-curing smile…

My god, he has dimples.

Jonghyun tore his eyes away, assuming that he must have been staring by that point, and looked towards the door. He didn't know how fast he spun around, but his heart felt about ready to fall out of his chest.

“Come on, I parked around back so we should go that way.”

“Alright,” Kibum continued to smile, and Jonghyun hoped he wasn't smiling because of his own silly lovestruck actions.

Jonghyun thought it over as he walked down the darkened halls of the office building, watching Kibum talk about something pointless to do with office maintenance, infatuated and unfaltering, and concluded that he wouldn't be able to keep this up very much longer.

-

Whenever Soojung wasn't present in the room her and Jonghyun shared, the place became a dark, cave-like place. Usually with one desk lamp on, the window covered in blackout curtains, and music playing just quiet enough for his neighbors not to care, Jonghyun kept the place as a perfect writing den. Of course, this wasn't exactly fantastic for his mood, or health for that matter, but occasionally he needed to retreat to this warm, peaceful place to recharge after long periods of painful social interaction.

Whenever Jonghyun thought of himself, he thought of himself as introverted–but in bringing this up to anyone he was greeted with mostly disbelief of that thought. After years of milling the situation over, Jonghyun concluded that he was in fact introverted, and needed to go back to quiet solitude after a while of having a social life, but also wasn't bad at having a social life. His sister, he remembered, would throughout high school about his cheesy, princely charm he’d give off when trying to get anything given to him. That was something he (after years of denial) agreed with her on, and helped him come to this conclusion.

The rest of that night had gone by slowly, and Jonghyun attempted to work on other classwork in his personalized dark abode, but ended up working on the lyrics to a work in progress instead. The lyrics were longing, pining, needy and for the time being he didn't like them one bit– but like any good artist, he continued to write and edit and sing and fumble around with his guitar until things worked out decently. The only thing that pulled him out of this zone was the realization that he hadn't eaten since morning and whatever Soojung was cooking in the other room smelled amazing.

He picked up his blanket cape, readjusting the knot around his neck so that it was tight, and trudged to the bedroom door, squinting when it’d opened and the light from the outside world came streaming in.

“Soojung, what are you making?” Jonghyun tried his best to sound needy and desperate.

“Spaghetti.”

“Again?”

“Beggars can't be choosers, loverboy,” Soojung stood with a thin robe on, pajama pants and a shirt from some camp she’d volunteered at three years back. Jonghyun, himself, also wearing pajamas and an old shirt. At times like this Jonghyun thanked god for having a relatable and understandable roommate.

He sat on a chair at the small round table in between the kitchen and the living room and slumped over the surface. Sighing as overdramtically as possible, he pulled out his phone from his pants pocket.

“Are you going to call me that forever?”

“Unless you, you know, stop writing love songs constantly and maybe ask that boy out so that you're not talking about him and acting all lovestruck all the time, then no. Also, it’s super catchy,” Soojung laughed at her own comment before going back to stirring a pot of pasta sauce.

“Haha, funny.”

“It was pretty funny.”

“It was not funny. Soojung, have some compassion, I’m dying remember?”

“You're not dying,” she punctuated, spinning around and looking him in the eye, holding out her spaghetti spoon towards him, “you're just stupid.”

Jonghyun rolled his eyes, but still smiled at her use of a spoon to patronize him. Before he could manufacture a good enough comeback the sound of the door’s lock being undone cut him off, making his head turn towards the sound. A loud thump, followed by an annoyed groan and several curse words indicated clearly who the infiltrator was. Jonghyun prepared himself for a headache.

“Hey, who died in here?” Joonyoung stumbled into the room, obviously somewhat drunk and dragging hoax guitar case along the floor. Jonghyun simply raised his hand.

“Me.”

“Ah, who is it this time?”

“What?”

“Who dumped you?”

“No one dumped me! God, why is it every time I’m less than ecstatic you assume I got dumped?”

Jonghyun deadpanned, watching his obnoxiously tall second roommate flounder around the room until finally falling back onto the couch with a half-conscious grin on his face. His black, wavy hair strewn messily over his face, somewhat tangled and mussed. Not enough to assume he got laid, but enough to assume he was at one hell of a performance that night. Jonghyun couldn't see Soojung’s face, as she was facing the stovetop again, but he could tell she was rolling her eyes.

“Because you're a romantic, that's the stuff that hits you really hard. You know that’s true, so don't lie to yourself loverboy.”

Jonghyun scoffed when he realized Soojung was trying to hold in laughter.

“Does everyone have some kind of secret agreement to call me that?”

“Calls it as I sees it, Jjongie,” Joonyoung teased in a singsong voice. Jonghyun only hoped he wouldn't bring out the guitar this late. When that happened it was complete chaos until the other two roommates could get him to stop by one of them pinning Joonyoung down and the other sprinting to the bathroom and locking the door with his guitar in hand.

Jonghyun, distracted once again from his conversation, noticed several notifications blinking on his phone’s lock screen and decided they were more important than his pest like roommates. Most of them were from the group chat, but one blinked with the contact name of his sister, which made his eyes light up. He swiped over that name first, hoping for good news.

small sistor ~ : you’re coming home for winter break, right?

small sistor ~ : u better >:/

He smiled at the thought of going home for Christmas. His family wasn't religious, and neither was he but the holiday still stuck, and his mother loved to find presents and interrogate him about his social and romantic life. Deep down, no matter how much Sodam and mama Kim would about it, he did like talking about love and not being turned away for being too sappy or emotional. His family, he always thought, were people who didn't enjoy judging him, but made it a point to love him unconditionally. It was a plus that neither of them pestered him about being short as well, due to the two women both being even shorter.

He quickly typed in a response and hit send without a second thought.

me : yea 4 sure!

He slid the conversation away, then proceeded to check the constantly-chaotic group chat from school. Most of the messages were sent an hour earlier, and Jonghyun hadn't noticed them in the void of his room. He prepared himself for oncoming terror.

taemin : uh guys

taemin : i got some leads on soomin but they're not exactly… clean

kibum : wow is it a tape

Jonghyun snickered because Kibum truly was stating what everyone else was thinking by the comment. He was also, however, surprised that Taemin was one to break the rules– as he seemed like he was from a relatively posh family. Not particularly privileged–he wasn’t straight and got constantly bombarded with odd glances due to his pretty appearance and long hair, but that certainly wasn't something suggesting him being remotely rebellious.

jinki : kibum shut up

kibum : hey, someone had to ask

jinki : anyways. what do you mean, taemin?

taemin : i mean i didn't get them 100% legally

taemin : i mean it's not that bad, I didn't kill anyone or torture anyone or sleep with the CEO or something but

kibum : u would be surprised with what u can get sleeping around for information. that's how i got through high school

Kibum was ever-so-blunt at all times, but no one dared question that further. At this point Jonghyun found it more or less amusing, with the exception of his high school consequences.

jinki : oh god taemin what did you do

taemin : nothing that bad! I swear!

kibum : what did you DO strange gremlin?

taemin : i hacked her email

jinki : o……….k

kibum : im really impressed actually  

jinki : what’d u find???

taemin : nothing much, but in her conversations with people on there she doesn't seem that remorseful over her husband… like, she's less sad about his death and more worried about herself legally

minho : i hate to kill ur lead here but some people are just cruel and selfish ya know

jinki : yea minho ur right but also we had a lead earlier with the same topic, so i’d look into it

kibum : she's a y person that's established but if she's speaking to lawyers and people of that kind like this then that may suggest legal preparations because she believes and expects she’ll become a suspect

minho : not particularly???

kibum : can it straight boy it's 3 against one

Jonghyun laughed out loud at the continued ridicule against Minho, even though at this point it was established between at least three of the group members that he wasn't even straight. No one made a move to stop Kibum, of course, due to both respect for Minho and the fact that it was always amusing to watch them bicker.

jinki : u can argue later, just look around the files and tapes for signs of emotional instability or lack of sympathy alright? what do u have to lose?

minho : yea ok

taemin : aye aye captain

kibum : yep

By the time he finished scrolling through the chat, Soojung was looming over him, suspicious as to what he could be laughing about. He glared in response, pulling his phone out of her view and making her look down at him with that all-knowing, catty smile. He contemplated whether or not he should just start hissing every time she pushed herself too far into his social life. He cancelled that thought quickly, because really, how stupid would that look? Soojung was only being protective anyways, and she really did help out.

Close to 2am, Jonghyun finally let himself lay down to attempt to sleep, though his insomnia insisted otherwise. He looked through the notes on his phone with no real goal, only to pass the time and possibly make him sleepier. The things he wrote only ended up making sense half of the time– sometimes being just numbers or random words and quotes he wanted to incorporate into his lyrics. His alarm wasn't set for too early, which he was happy for due to his total exhaustion, but he had to return to the bustling hell-pit of work the next day and genuinely didn't want to put up with angry middle aged business workers and teenagers who came in the cafe just for the purpose of sitting in the back and making out in the booth. He usually didn't mind PDA too much, but at this point it only made him sad and frustrated because he wanted to do stupid things in a booth in the back of a cafe with someone but he couldn't do that.

He grumbled and put his phone on the bedside table, stuffing his face into his pillow and holding back the urge to emit all the strange frustration noises he had bottled up into the fabric where no one could hear them but him (and possibly Soojung, but she’d put up with this many times before by now, so she was accustomed.)

Finally, just barely skimming over the line of consciousness into a sleep state, his phone lit up with one more notification. With the hope it wasn't something stupid, making him wake up for nothing, he slid the notification open and peered at the screen with sleepy, squinted eyes.

kibum : i hope you’ll let me hear you sing soon, because i’ve been thinking about that a lot and i’ve never heard you even hum to yourself. u better be good, getting my hopes up like this. oh , you're probably asleep aren't you– jesus, well, goodnight jjong <3