Chapter 26: Skydive.

“Let’s go to the warehouse” Daehyun said and Yongguk waited a few seconds just in case that he changed his mind for the thousandth time, nonetheless, this time the photographer/model was serious and didn’t change his mind, so Yongguk took him to the zone full of warehouses.

    There weren't streetlights, not even the moonlight could reach the narrow alleys, and even so, Yongguk knew perfectly every step, he went smoothly among the warehouses until he found his. Daehyun followed clumsily, unlike the elder, he couldn't see in the dark.

    Yongguk stopped before a shabby chic warehouse with a blue steel door, Daehyun stopped against his back and fell on his .

    “Are you ok?” Yongguk leaned to help him up.

    “Yeah” Daehyun felt stupid and blushed as the other held his arm gently (Youngjae was the only brute that didn’t help him up everytime he fell, Daehyun thought)

    “So you have a key or magic word?” Daehyun asked, frowning at the steel door.

    “It's a song” Yongguk said, uncomfortable.

    “What?”

    “I have to sing... the chorus of SNSD’s Lion Heart...”

    “Are you serious?” Daehyun didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

    “Yeah, since I'm undercover and this is a secret hideout... My brother came up with singing songs to prove I’m me, every day’s a different song”

    “And today's song is Lion Heart by Girls’ Generation” Daehyun said, amused.

    “Yes...” Yongguk said, dying of shame and started singing, his voice was raspy and husky, so y that would give any girl an eargasm. Daehyun himself was having one.

    “Tell me why, baby why, wae mami mami jakku heundeullini, jakku heundeulli, woah, nan yeogi yeogi ni yeope itjanni, oh jeongshin charyeo, lion heart”

    “It's heundeullini-lini” a male voice said on the other side of the door.

    “Oh, please, you know it's me!” Yongguk said, he wasn’t going to sing twice.

    The door opened progressively and a man stepped out, Daehyun gasped in shock as his face resembled to Yongguk.

    “There's two of you?” Daehyun looked at the stranger and then Yongguk, they were like peas in a pod.

    “Yeah, he's my older twin brother, Yongnam”

    “Not only older, but also smarter, handsomer, cuter, taller, cooler” the twin said and looked at Daehyun “Who's this?”

    “It's the model I’m supposed to protect”

    “Dasom?” Yongnam said in shock “Natasha told me it's actually a guy named Daehyun passing as a woman, but I can't believe it. Dasom’s so beautiful and you... I'm not saying you aren't beautiful, but I can't believe you are a guy” he came closer to Daehyun and scrutinized him “And to think you were the girl of my dreams”

    “My brother had a big crush on Dasom” Yongguk said.

    “I still have a big crush” Yongnam winked at Daehyun.

    “Ignore him” Yongguk rolled his eyes and entered the warehouse, Daehyun bowed to Yongnam shyly before entering too.

    Inside the house, there were a dozen people working at their desks, the computers appeared to be high tech, all of a sudden, Daehyun felt like he was in a futuristic movie instead of a horror one.

    “You brought him here” a tattooed woman walked over and looked at Daehyun “I still can't believe you're Dasom, you're way a prettier woman than me and I am actually a woman”

    Daehyun lowered his head, embarrassed, he wasn't used to so many compliments, he always thought Dasom was pretty because of Himchan’s expensive cosmetics and designer clothes.

    “She's my big sister, Natasha” Yongguk said “She's expert on computers and gathering information”

    “So all your family's police officers?” the younger inquired.

    “Yeah” Yongguk said proudly and kept walking towards his office “This is my first undercover work, so I asked my sister and brother to help”

    They reached an office with glass walls, Yongguk opened the door and held it for Daehyun who came in and studied the place. The desk was a holy mess with papers everywhere and the trashcan was full of empty noodle cups and there was a big whiteboard with photos of people he knew; Jongup, Himchan, Hyoseong, Jieun, Youngjae, Zelo, Jooe, etc.

    “What's your investigation about?”

    “Drugs” Yongguk handed a chair for Daehyun to sit “The guy you saw me with at the alley was the former chief editor of Ego, manager Kang”

    “Former chief editor? Youngjae took his place?”

    “Yes” Yongguk leaned against the desk and played with the stress ball next to his laptop “Manager Kang worked as editor for over ten years, but he resigned after someone approached him, asking to use the magazine to smuggle drugs to other countries”

    “How?” Daehyun wrinkled his forehead “I mean, how can you smuggle drugs through a magazine?”

    “It’s an international magazine” Yongguk said “Models, designers, photographers and every employee can travel around the world without difficulty. I think drug traffickers want those advantages to make the job easier and got someone working inside Ego”

    “From now on I’ll call that someone X. I think X reached out to manager Kang and proposed ways to smuggle drugs overseas. Kang wouldn’t do that, so he contacted me and we agreed to meet at the alley. He was about to tell me who the criminal that works at Ego is when you showed up and took pics, then I chased you and by the time I came back to the alley, he was already gone”

    “I called him, I looked for him, but it was too late, he had died in a car accident”

    “You don't think it's an accident”

    “I think X or his/her bosses killed him” Yongguk said “I’ve checked on the employees” he threw the stress ball against the whiteboard “One of them is X”

    “No way!!! What proof do you have?!!!” Daehyun stared at the whiteboard with photos of his friends.

    “Nothing” Yongguk sighed heavily “Kang, before dying, told me X and his/her bosses planned to move a load of drugs by month’s end. I need to find X and stop that”

    “None of them can be X”

    “Why?”

    “They're my friends”

    “You don't know them, they don't know you either, Dasom”

    “Himchan and Jongup know” Daehyun reminded him that.

    “And you know Himchan was in a gang by the age of fourteen and Jongup gets a hundred grand each month? He's a photographer, right? Let me rephrase, he's a photographer’s assistant, where does the money come from?”

    “I don't know”

    “I bet you also don’t know that Zelo’s big brother's a gang member, Hyoseong smuggled banned meds into the country a few years ago, Jieun’s ex-boyfriend is a delinquent and that's why she disappeared from the show business. Youngjae’s secretary, Jooe, works every night in a bar famous for its mob bosses and…”

    “Before you say Youngjae, it’s impossible, he’s rich” the black-haired man felt the need to protect Youngjae “Why would he do that?”

    “For fun? To get his mommy’s attention?” Yongguk shrugged “He’s not that innocent. He was arrested in America in his college years and spent six months in prison, I don't know what for, but I have a friend in the states that's looking into it”

    “I don’t believe you. He’s kind of bully, mean and moody, but…” Daehyun remembered the night that Youngjae drove, intoxicated, and crashed his car and then the police showed up and Jongup sent them away.

    Did Youngjae drunk drive and hurt someone in America?

    How did Jongup get rid of those cops so easily?

    Himchan got fake papers for Dasom…

    Daehyun didn’t want to, but he started having doubts about them.

    “You’re right” Daehyun said “I only know them a few days… I don’t know them well…”

    “But you know them more than I do, I can’t approach them, but you can, they trust you, they may tell you things, you can dig into their lives”

    “Just because I don’t know them well doesn’t mean they aren’t my friends, I won’t spy on them”

    “Then I'll arrest you for making up Dasom, it's a crime, I told you”

    “You also told you wouldn’t arrest me!”

    “I can change my mind”

    “They're my friends!!! I don't want to lie to them!!!”

    “You're already lying to them” Yongguk said “And you’re a good liar, I'm sure you'll get a lot of information to help me figure out who X is”

    “Don’t call me a good liar like I enjoy it”

    “Fine” the elder swiped his hair as he looked into the other’s eyes “If being arrested doesn’t scare you, think about all the innocent people that can die because of those drugs. The dealers need to be stopped and I’m running out of time. I don’t know who X is, I need your help”

    “I want photos” Daehyun suddenly said “If you bring down this drug operation, it's big news, right? I work for a newspaper, let me take photos of the arrests and drugs, let me get the exclusive. My boss will be so impressed by the photos that he'll let me join the photography team” 

    “I will help you if you say yes”

    “Yes!” Yongguk smiled big and reached his hand to the photographer for a handshake to seal the deal.

this was chapter 25, but I split it in two, so it became chapter 26, I like this chapter more than the previous one.

bang yongguk never sang lion heart, but there's a video of him dancing to that?

can you guess who x is?