irises

Maison Des Fleurs
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Ayeon turned out to be very right.

The police had raced to the hospital where all of the hostage victims were being kept overnight to undergo some trauma tests and found that Vino Chan had not been admitted. Referring to notes and statements, no one found any statement from him because he had used the commotion to slip away.

His credit card transactions placed him a toll booth, buying a ticket, the police tracked him down and dragged him back. Turned out that he had worked at the bank for 3 months and was slowly learning about the bank’s security set up. He had spent time recording the manager’s voice and practicing his forging to bypass the measures for higher withdrawals.

Apparently, when the Younger Woman hit the emergency button, things went downhill, tensions rose since Chan had to keep pretending to be an unaware victim. Since he was the brains and Masked Man was the brawn, he kept fumbling the entire plan, Chan wanted to disassociate himself and lured Ayeon back with the note knowing that his partner would take her hostage.

Which meant a higher chance for the police to shoot on sight.

And nearly everything went exactly the way he wanted, including the money being transferred to his account if it wasn’t for Ayeon calling Jinah in time.  Now? Now he was sitting in a cell, waiting for charges to be officially laid.

Jinah, on the other hand, had the number that called Ayeon and sent her into the trap was Lucas’s old desk phone, one that no one was occupying.

And it unsettled her, that her friend would be working in a space where someone wanted her dead.

------

Maybe Jaehyun wanted her to stay a little longer.

But he saw the conviction in her eyes when the pieces started to come together. One of the things he knew about her was the fact that she wasn’t the type to sit around, she was a champion of justice.

That didn’t mean his eyes didn’t linger a bit too long after she ran out.

Soya had seen and for a moment he swore her expression softened, “You know if you pick up her call, we could all have dinner once.”

He had just smiled and told her to get home safely.

-----

The next morning, Ayeon walked into his shop, made 0 eye contact and didn’t bother saying hi and went to the back where she was making herself home.

He had seen the papers, caught the sentence snuck in about how Detective Yoo Ayeon, the hostage victim, had single-handedly cracked the case. A bit of a celebrity she was becoming, even if her precinct gave her , the rest of the city was all about her. Jaehyun would bet that Ayeon would’ve wanted the ground to swallow her up if she read the thread spreading around on online forums about the beautiful detective who survived a shooting and a hostage. Someone had even commented about how her life should be adapted into a thriller drama.

He kept his eyes down himself, smiling as he slipped a tulip into an arrangement. He heard her confident footsteps stuttered to a stop and knew she had seen it. He wiped his hands on a rag before moving to the back, leaning against the door frame, watched her as her fingers moved curiously.

“Seoul’s finest deserved a lamp.”

She turned, her eyes wide, “Why did you do this?”

Replacing the uneven foldout chair and table was a small fine wooden desk and a padded leather stool. On the table sat a small lamp and a small vase of flowers.

He smiled softly and shrugged, “The old table wasn’t even meant for people to actually use. If you’re doing work, you might as well be comfortable.”

She chewed on the inside of her lip before nodding, “You didn’t have to.”

His smile grew, “I know. I wanted to, detective.”

He went to stand next to her and she felt her gaze swim when she felt his presence, his scent that seemed to stand out in a literal room of flowers. It was disgustingly reassuring. “Well…thank you.”

------

It was going too well for him.

The universe had to make sure to take him down a few notches.

Jaehyun ran, the darkness of the night helping him duck into shadows, away from the men who were looking for that last quarter, which he did not have.

His lip was bleeding, breathing was becoming a painful luxury as he fought through all the other pain strumming through his body as he tried to tune out the threatening yells echoing behind him.

He had locked up for the day and wanted to run out to the grocery store when they descended upon him like a pack of rabid dogs. He knew that by now, he needed to stop crossing his fingers in the hope they would forget that he was behind on the payment. He had passed the 4-day deadline 2 weeks ago. He was foolish to think it was by accident.

He wondered if they were just going to kill him this time.

Suddenly, he felt his vision spin when a hand shot out from the alley and yanked him in, away from his escape route. He squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the blow against his face or the knife against his gut.

At this point, he just wanted it to be over.

“Hey.”

His eyes snapped open and he found himself staring into Ayeon’s dark, unreadable eyes but the frown on her lips was unmistakable. His lips parted, confused and disorientated, he was just silent. At the sound of footsteps pounding near them, she pushed him by the chest, his back hitting the bricks behind him, cloaking himself in the shadows as she did the same. She watched the gap of the alley, holding her breath as someone raced by. He was distracted by the curve of her jaw and bow of her lips to notice any impending threat.

She waited a few minutes before turning to look at him, her eyes traced over the damage to his face before reaching for his hand and pulling him behind her, “Come on, let’s go to my place since clearly they already know where to find you.”

“Detective, wait.”

She didn’t look back at him, “Not now. Let’s just get you out of here.”

She didn’t let go of his hand once, as they walked, their footsteps becoming less rushed the further they were from his shop. At one point, she slipped her fingers through his and they just let the silence drown them. His mind was blank, nothing was sustaining in his mind, he just let her lead him down a street he didn’t recognize and into an apartment that didn’t look like home.  

They got into an elevator together and she finally dropped his hand, the fluorescent lighting showcasing the damage in a more gruesome way.

“God.” Ayeon muttered, scanning his face.

He said nothing in response, he was too tired. He just stared at her, the way her hair was stuck to the side of her neck, how her cheeks were red from the cold and how her brows were knit together in concentration. He’d admire it a lot better, but his brain was just not working.

Ayeon led him out of the elevator and down the hall before pulling out her keys. His mind was so fuzzy that the only thing he noticed was how she had nothing personal on her keys. No, keychains, not bobbles, just a silver keyring.

She let them in, but he stayed by the door, unsure where to go. She tossed her keys aside and rested her hands on her waist for a moment, sighing before turning to face him.

“How much?”

He squinted his eyes and moved slowly towards her, “What?”

“How much do you need to pay them off for them to leave you alone?” Her voice was low, but it wasn’t angry.

His eyes widened, “You know?”

She shrugged, “I took a guess. Either they were loan sharks, or you were being bullied. It was easy to pick.”

“Well, good guess.”

She leaned her back against her counter and crossed her arms, “You have a legitimate business, why borrow money from loan sharks?”

“I didn’t. My parents did. They needed the money when my sister died, she…she had gone missing before they found her body. We weren’t rich, so when they needed money to pay for billboards, tv ads, lawyers and search teams, they weren’t approved for loans, so they had to get it through other means. I have to pay off the last quarter, five thousand dollars.”

“Five thousa—your parents owed them twenty grand?” She asked incredulously.

He nodded despondently, “They paid back 5, I paid up 10.”

“. Okay.” She chewed on her lip as if she was running down a list of potential solutions but finding the most favorable one. She walked to the kitchen and reached into a cabinet and pulled out a box of pasta and a checkbook. She scribbled something down before ripping it off and carrying the pox of pasta to where Jaehyun was sitting. “This cheque is good for 2.”

She opened the box of pasta and dumped out the content, stacks of 100-dollar bills. “This is the other 3.”

His shock lasted a second before he growled, “Absolutely not. I will not take 5 dollars from you much less 5 thousand dollars. How do you even have that much money to just pass off?”

“My dad’s wealthy.”

He blinked and unintentionally looked around her apartment. It was simple, nothing extravagant, a bit bigger than his but still an apartment that came from a detective’s salary, but not one from a wealthy inheritance.

“I know what you’re thinking. I don’t use my father’s money. This was sitting in my account collecting dust. My mother insisted that I keep some of it, but I do fine on my own.” She said with a small, almost self-deprecating, smile.

He shook his head, “Still, I’m not taking that much money from you. Never. I didn’t even take money from my best friend to pay this off. I have a thousand saved, it’ll bide them over until I can make up the rest.”

She laughed, “You think that’ll make a dent? They’ll take your 1k and then by the time you have the other 4 they’ll tell you that the interest means you’re back at owing them 5k which means what should've cost you 5 ended up costing you 6.” She walked to the pasta box and counted out a thousand. “Here, take the 4k.”

He shook his head firmly, “I will not. This isn’t your burden, detective. It’s mine.”

“Except that it’s not. It’s your parents' burden. I inherited money, you inherited debt. Neither of it belongs to us and neither of us got to choose.” Her voice was not one that people argue against, but he tried.

 “But I-“

She spread her arms out, “Look at you, Jaehyun! You’ve been beaten up. You were running for your life. Is your pride worth the beating?” Before he could answer, her eyes widened, “When you closed the store for a week, was it because something like this happened before?”

He closed his eyes while she gaped at him. She stomped up to him, shoved him down on the couch and he fell back with no resistance. She lifted his shirt and winced and the yellowing bruises on his sides mixed with the fresh purple ones. “ing hell.”

She reached out and touched the injuries causing him to wince at the fresh

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bbhmystar
#1
Chapter 41: binge reading this for 2 days. god damn this is a whole masterpiece!!! it blown my mind away. so well written, i dont know how to describe it. JUST AMAZING!!!!!!

thanks for writing this xoxo
Bellalula
#2
Randomly browsed my upvoted stories brought me here and how i wish i could read this again with a new brain, forgetting it all over again
Bellalula
#3
Randomly browsed my upvoted stories brought me here and how i wish i could read this again with a new brain, forgetting it all over again
miuratatsuya
#4
Chapter 6: It’s not about the lies you tell but about the truths you choose to reveal.

I love that lines so much. How genius actually are you to come up with that lines?😍
miuratatsuya
#5
Chapter 5: I actually love that game. 2 truth and 1 lie. I use it now with my friends. I let them pick the lie.🤭
AutumnLady94 #6
Chapter 41: You are one of the ing greatest writers. Just wanna let you know that. Thank you for writing such a beautiful story.
miuratatsuya
#7
I keep thinking about this yesterday, so I decide to give it another uncountable read.🤭
ifizzlesizzle #8
Chapter 41: This is good
Kaykaykay5 #9
Chapter 33: Youre a phenomenal writer