Chapter 15

It would be a lie to say that he didn’t feel at least remotely uncomfortable watching Yena and Jongin talk, though Jongdae had been the one to suggest the whole thing, so there was nothing he could do. At one point, he heard Yena bringing up something about middle school together, and figuring it would be best to avoid listening, he retreated into his room.

It was absolutely covered in dust. Jongdae was pretty sure that Jongin had tidied his own room up a bit so that at least he wasn’t inhaling age old dust every time he breathed, but his still remained untouched. He left a fine trail of footprints through the grey just stepping into the room, and a bit irked by the sight, backpedalled to the door again.

The thin reflection on a glass panelling caught his eye, and Jongdae paused, blinking. One of the picture frames from when he’d still lived in the house was still standing on the desk, though the picture that had been inside was turned around, with nothing but the printed back showing. Even then, Jongdae could see the image clearly; black and white, slightly blurry, but strangely vivid nonetheless. Yujin’s bright grin next to him—Jongdae hadn’t been smiling as wide as she had been—and the porch of the old villa in the background. Even just looking at the blank side gave him a headache.

Shaking it off, Jongdae reached over and pushed the frame over so it was facing the desk and made a mental note to put it away. He was probably going to be staying there much more given that Jongin was there (and he didn’t really trust him), which meant that he had to clean his room of the dust and other things that would prove a distraction. It wasn’t as if he could start showing up the Sicari’s headquarters less either just because of Jongin, and then there was the fact that he had to somehow either prove that he had killed Jongin without killing him or prove that he was long gone and too hard to find and therefore kill.

It gave him another headache trying to figure out how he was supposed to do that. Given that he had stopped getting headaches for a couple decades and Jongin’s situation itself had given him two, it was getting pretty bad.

Then again, he wasn’t going to figure out a solution with Yena still outside. He couldn’t count on her for help because she still thought loan sharks were after her cousin (with that excuse he was technically the loan shark), not that he had worked as an assassin for a highly dangerous company and now was on their hit list because he had stolen highly classified files.

It was all an absolute mess. Rubbing his temple, he backtracked through the dust and slipped into the hallway. He could hear Yena and Jongin talking in low voices, and Jongdae wondered if Jongin had actually gotten the backstory they’d scraped together for school. It was rough—very—but definitely better than nothing.

Yena was the first to look his way when he stepped into the kitchen. She gave him a bright grin, painfully similar to Yujin’s, before gesturing at the chair. “Jongin says he’s hungry,” she said, giving a slightly awkward laugh. That was different, Jongdae noted absentmindedly. Yujin was never hesitant. Uncertainty wasn’t an option with her.

“I’m fine with eating now,” he replied. “I didn’t really eat lunch.”

She nodded slowly. “Alright,” Yena started. “Uh, thanks so much. I mean, you didn’t have to do this and he also gets hungry really often, so if he asks you for food, just shut him out because or else he’ll always ask.”

Jongdae tried for a smile and hoped he sounded convincing enough. “It’s fine,” he reassured Yena. “I’m used to it.”

“Oh, right. Schoolmates.”

It was Jongin that spoke up next. “Yeah, Jongdae’s used to me,” he laughed. “We should get chicken for dinner. Fried chicken. And rice.”

“Fried chicken and rice,” Yena echoed with a disgusted face. “Does that even work together?”

“Everything works with rice. Wait, I’ll be back. I need to go to the washroom.”

Yena gave him another mock disgusted roll of her eyes before he disappeared from the room. Jongdae shifted in his seat, slightly awkward. “Do you want a drink?” he asked. “There’s… well, there’s not a lot in the fridge, but there’s water and Jongin bought chocolate milk.”

She gave a slight laugh. “Chocolate milk. Of course. Anyway, you don’t have to get chicken for takeout, because I swear it’s the only thing he asks for whenever he gets to choose what he wants to eat—” Yena trailed off. “You probably know, right?”

Jongdae tried to fake a laugh, though it didn’t quite come out well so he tried to cover it by turning it into a cough. “Yeah, he said he could eat a whole chicken by himself.”

“Oh God, don’t get me started. And water’s fine. I wouldn’t steal his chocolate milk if my life depended on it.”

“Noted,” he muttered back before reaching into the cupboard. He and Jongin had managed—somewhat discoordinated, but managed nonetheless—to dust off at least the kitchen and living room in the last couple of days so it looked more like a liveable space. Most of the cups and plates had been washed so they weren’t covered in dust and everything else wiped down. It wasn’t nearly as neat as Jongdae would have preferred, given the state his room was in, but Yena didn’t seem to find anything odd about the apartment and he supposed that was good enough.

She thanked him quietly when he handed her the glass of water. “Are you okay?” Jongdae asked as he sat down in front of her. “It’s only been a day since the incident at the cafe.”

“Me?” Yena echoed, then glanced up before pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “Oh. Yeah. My friend came over today and we kind of just watched some movies, so I feel better. It still doesn’t… well, it doesn’t feel real, you know? It’s been nearly a day and I can’t quite wrap my head around it yet.” She winced. “Maybe that’s for the better. It’s still strange to think that a  murderer was that close.” She shuddered slightly. “You don’t think it’ll ever happen to you until it does happen to you, I guess.”

It’s still strange to think that a murderer was that close. Jongdae knew that it was stupid to feel affected, but her words made him flinch. And it wasn’t just him, either—it was him and her cousin, who was still managing to fool her with his dumb facade and pretend that it was just loan sharks after him. Briefly, he wondered how in the world Yena would react if she actually found out the truth—both he and Jongdae had killed—murdered, really—and that Jongin was his current hit. It couldn’t have been pleasant, he imagined.

“I’ll drive you home,” he ended up saying. “You shouldn’t take public transport after dark. It’s safer that way.”

Yena frowned, already beginning to protest. “It’s not that far—” she began.

“I’m going to leave Jongin here for tonight,” Jongdae interrupted, holding up his hands to placate her. Yena frowned slightly. “I have work tomorrow and the commute takes too long if I have to drive from here, so I’m probably going to go by my other apartment—it’s close to where the cafe is, I think—and then I’m done for the weekend. So it’ll honestly be okay for me to drive you back.”

Yena hesitated. “It’ll still be out of the way.”

“Given what happened yesterday, it’s really fine.” He offered her a small smile. “I don’t really order takeout, so do you know what flavour Jongin might like? And side dishes? I haven’t had fried chicken in a while either.”

She seemed a bit more comfortable with the change of topic and Jongdae watched as she pulled out her phone. “Okay,” Yena started. “I’ll see what I can order. Thanks again, you know.”

Jongdae offered a smile which she took before glancing back at the screen. He couldn’t help wondering in half awe at the similarities—but perhaps more so the differences—between her and Yujin before excusing himself from the kitchen, unsure if he were overwhelmed by the fact that someone who looked so alike to Yujin was back, sitting across him at the dinner table just like ninety seven years ago or the fact that it wasn’t her.

***

Yena couldn’t get a good enough read on Jongdae to figure anything out, but he seemed perfectly calm with Jongin being there and they seemed to get along well. She wasn’t sure why she was surprised in the first place given that they had been apparently friends for a while and had gone to the same school, but she still couldn’t understand how two people who were such polar opposites could end up as friends that were this close. If Kyungsoo had needed a place to stay from loan sharks, t