... "Good day to you, sir!" Minhyun tried his best to make his voice sound slightly different. "Let me get to the point right away." He cleared his throat, waving his hand to attract Jonghyun's full attention. "I am a colleague of Choi Minki! We are hosting a mini surprise party for him and we want to write one of those cringeworthy poems everyone hates! We were wondering if you could tell us some things about him?" 

"Umm.." Aron didn’t sound too eager to share information, which was understandable. “What do you want to know?"

“Well… Everything there is to know about him. Just begin at the beginning. Tell me every crazy fact. Where did you guys meet? You are friends, right?"

"Yeah, yeah. We are. Umm.." Aron paused for a moment, thinking whilst Jonghyun nearly shivered with anticipation. “How did you get my number?”

Minhyun froze for a second, but quickly came up with another excuse. “He gave it to me because I asked for everyone’s best friend’s number to gather information for birthday parties and secret Santa's and such.” Minhyun bit down his lower lip, hoping Aron would buy that. "You know, keeping up with each and every one of your coworkers gets hard sometimes." 

“Ah, I see. Where does Minki work now?"

"Could you hold for just a moment? I'm getting another call." Minhyun put Aron on hold before he could answer the question. "What the do I tell him?" 

"I don't know! This was your idea!" Jonghyun shrugged. "Tell him.." He groaned. "Ugh, just say he works for... Total Security!"

"Total Security?" Minhyun stared at Jonghyun with a puzzled expression. "Ok. Total Security it is." 

"Thank you for waiting. Um. What was your question again? Oh, yes. I remember now." Minhyun told Aron, and Jonghyun wanted to crawl into a hole and die. "Minki works for Total Security nowadays." 

"Ha! He never wants to talk about his job because he says it's boring but now I know where he works anyway!" Aron chuckled. Hm. So, Minki didn't like to talk about his job, huh? At least that proved he was an actual secret agent.. Or did it? 

"Excuse me?" Minhyun, a Total Security employee by heart, scoffed. "Working here isn't boring. Minki is crazy. Anyway, sir, could you please start spilling the gossip now?" 

"Oh, right. Yeah.. Well, I met him in Busan when he was seventeen years old. Um.. He was a friend of a friend and we were introduced to each other at a party. I immediately liked him. He was so funny. And.. He loved to dance and be in the spotlight. And he was a very good dancer, too." He paused again, possibly thinking about how to continue from there without sharing too much info. "Anyway, we were the best of friends for a year or so until he moved to Seoul at age eighteen. I haven’t seen him since then but we often text and call." 

"Were you ever more than friends?" Minhyun wiggled his eyebrows at Jonghyun, who shot him a death glare. 

"No, no. Just friends." 

"Aha, ok. Hey, did he move to Seoul with any of his family members? We’re thinking about inviting them, too." 

"No. He went by himself for as far as I know.” 

Jonghyun blinked a few times. If that were the case.. Then who was the man in the suit? 

“Ok.. So, um, do you have any more things to share? Things that we can use to bully him within the poem?”

“Well.. He takes every opportunity to do a Lady Gaga performance, doesn’t matter where he is.. That’s it, I guess.”

“Hmm.. Ok! I think we know enough, thank you for your time.” Minhyun looked to Jonghyun for confirmation, but he was too busy thinking to notice. “And remember, it’s a surprise party!”

“Yep. No problem!” 

Minhyun hung up the phone and turned to Jonghyun. “What do you think?” 

“I’m not sure what to think.” Jonghyun shrugged lightly. “It almost seems like that Aron knows just as much as we do. Minki is.. something else after all. I’ve never met such a secretive person before. And.. He wants me close but pushes me away at the same time?” 

Minhyun thought of what to answer, and while he was still thinking, there was a knock on the door. “Come in!”

“Hey, um, I’m looking for-“ Minki peeked around the corner. “There you are!"

“Hey. So,” Minhyun hastily closed all open tabs, trying his best to hide the mild panicking. “You’re Minki?” 

“Mhm.” Minki nodded. 

“Jonghyun has told me all about you.. Not that there’s much to tell, is there?” Minhyun chuckled awkwardly, finger guns and all. 

Jonghyun hit the back of Minhyun’s head lightly, yet still hard enough to get the message through. Then, he looked at Minki. "What are you doing here?"

"You said you were just gonna get some coffee so I got worried. I mean, what if you’d slipped and died in the hall or something?" Minki smiled. Aw. His smile was so sweet. It made Jonghyun feel bad about stalking him again. 

"Wel, I’m still alive." Jonghyun reassured Minki, mentally adding; ‘Unfortunately.’ "Just go back to my office, I’ll be right there." 

"Ok." Minki nodded once before disappearing again, closing the door behind him.

"What if Aron didn’t tell us anything because he thinks we’re suspicious?" Minhyun shrugged his shoulders.

“Could be.. Or maybe there just isn’t much to tell because he’s telling the truth and I’m stressing over nothing.”

“I doubt it.” Minhyun, who liked making a sensation out of small things, wiggled his eyebrows again. “I bet he’s going to assassinate the president.” 

“Then what’s he doing here?”

“He, a robot, has discovered that Kim Jonghyun, that’s you, is a very distant relative of the president.” Minhyun waved his hands around for dramatic effect. “He’s gathering information. And then when the time is right he’ll eat your brain and-“

“Bye, Minhyun.” 

----

During the next car ride, Jonghyun was the quiet one. He was seated in the passenger seat and staring out the window because the pair had decided to go to Minki’s house after work... And Jonghyun had to pretend he didn’t already know where that was.

"Can you believe she had the audacity to say that to me?" Minki was telling him a story about the time some woman insulted him in a boutique.. Or something like that.. Jonghyun stopped listening after Minki took about five minutes to describe the outfit he was trying to buy at the time. 

"Unbelievable." Jonghyun kept staring out the window, thinking about that Aron guy and all the things he said again. Hm. Not many of his questions had been answered. None of them had been answered, really. Ok, well, at least he now knew the brother story was a lie. But perhaps Minki had a valid reason to lie about that. 

"Yeah. I mean, who does she think he is?" When Jonghyun didn’t respond to that, Minki decided to turn on the radio. And Jonghyun held his breath when, ironically enough, that ‘I’ll be watching you.’ stalker song came on. 

"Make yourself at home. I’ll get us some drinks!" Minki hummed, rushing towards the kitchen as Jonghyun allowed himself to take a look around.

When walking around Minki’s cozy living room, he spent most time staring at the pictures on the wall. So many people. So many different faces, none of them confused. Everything just seemed so.. normal. Absolutely nothing was suspicious at first glance. The dining table had magazines and a few old grocery lists on it, there were cute little cacti in the window sill, a few CDs were scattered on the fluffy carpet near the TV and every single detail of the house just seemed to scream: 'I'm normal, Jonghyun, you're seeing things that aren't there.'. 

"Look what I got." 

Jonghyun turned around to find Minki behind him, holding on to a bottle of expensive champagne. 

"I think the fact we’re finally alone needs to be celebrated." He grinned, then went to get glasses from a nearby, normal display cabinet.

"Nice." Jonghyun smiled briefly until he turned around. Ah. Minki was so cute. Jonghyun really wanted to believe he was seeing ghosts and nothing was wrong with Minki, but his gut still told him otherwise. 

"Come, sit." Minki jerked his head towards the couch. 

Jonghyun nodded and sat down, waiting for Minki to join him.

"What do you think-" Minki paused, removing the cork with a loud, amusing pop. "-of my house?"

"It’s great!" Jonghyun nodded and looked around again. "Honestly."

"I’ll give you a tour in a moment." Minki smirked when pouring the champagne into the glasses. "I can’t wait to show you my bedroom."

"Mhm." Jonghyun mirrored the smirk, taking a glass from Minki with a wink.

"To us." Minki raised his glass, and Jonghyun did the same. 

After taking the first sip, Jonghyun decided to straight up ask Minki a question for the first time. What was the worst that could happen? 

“Hey.. Um.. If you don’t mind me asking.. Why were you so sad when I told you I care about you? I mean… I was being nice..“

"Oh-" Minki coughed as if he were choking on his champagne, then smiled weakly. "It’s just that... I’ve been told that before.. And things didn’t work out the way I thought they would." 

"Did you get your heart broken?" Jonghyun blinked. 

"Well.. Yeah.. Sort of. But I could’ve seen it coming. I’m over it." Minki gulped down the rest of his drink. And for some reason, Jonghyun didn't really believe that last part. 

"Ah." Jonghyun nodded. That made sense... What if Minki was just so afraid to get hurt again that he tried to keep some kind of distance at all times? What if that was the clue? What if that was the entire reason behind his odd behavior? "Whoever it is that hurt you, I’ll beat them up."

"You’re sweet." Minki chuckled, then put his glass down. “But you talk too much.” He moved closer to Jonghyun and leaned in to kiss him gently and slowly, while tugging at his shirt.