Mark woke up around eight in the morning to the sight of sunlight streaming through his window. It was immediately a different feeling than usual, because for the first time in his life, what he held in his arms wasn’t a warm pillow, but instead the warm body of another person. Jinyoung’s back was pressed against his chest, and his dark hair tickled against Mark’s nose. Mark wanted to kiss the back of his head, but at the same time he didn’t want to wake Jinyoung up. He looked so peaceful while he was sleeping, and Mark felt like he could stay in bed with him for a hundred more hours, just holding him and listening to his breathing.

He still couldn’t fully believe this was happening to him. Jinyoung’s love had existed so long as a mystery in his mind that to finally have it be solved felt almost surreal. Even with the evidence of it conclusive and undeniable in his arms, a part of him still couldn’t help but want to examine it and reexamine it just to eliminate every single possible doubt from his mind.

Jinyoung stirred in his arms for a moment. A few seconds later, he rolled over so he was facing Mark, gazing at him with bleary eyes. “You’re here,” he exhaled. A smile spread sweetly across his lips.

“Did you think you were dreaming?” Mark asked lightly, mussing Jinyoung’s already incredibly mussed hair. He liked the just-woken-up look on him.

“Not exactly. Not that it wasn’t good, but my dreams of us getting together in the past didn’t usually involve having to worry about you being killed by a homicidal maniac.” He tilted his chin up, pecking Mark on the lips. “I was just hoping you wouldn’t regret anything in the morning.”

“Why would I?”

“Because all the things you were worried about are still technically possible. You and I like this could still interfere with you and I on the show. Us breaking up is of course the very last thing on my mind at the moment, but I’m not going to pretend like I can promise you what will happen in the future.” He grabbed Mark’s hand, lacing their fingers together. “But no matter what the risk is or what it will or won’t change, I want to be with you. And you…?”

“Of course,” Mark said softly. “Of course I want to be with you. No regrets on that, ever.”

“Good.” Jinyoung leaned in, sealing his lips again for longer this time, tangling his fingers in Mark’s bedhead. Mark could feel the scrape of his stubble, but loved that too. He loved the thought of all the parts of Jinyoung that had seemed secret or inaccessible before being part of his everyday life.

“So,” Mark whispered as they broke apart. “Is this just going to be kept between us or not?”

“Hmm?”

“I mean…I assume we’ll tell our friends and our family eventually, but do you think we should clue our fans into this?”

Jinyoung tilted his head. “Our fans? I know you said there are a lot who pair us together, but it’s not a vast majority, right? Most are just in it for the mysteries and couldn’t care less, probably.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that,” Mark said. “I would say that even the ones who are more interested in mysteries still watch our channel because we’re the ones talking about them. And remember at the true crime convention how many questions we got about our personal life?” Mark ran his fingers down Jinyoung’s back. “Personally, I’d be fine either way. I get the appeal of keeping our private business out of it. But at the same time, they’re still going to be speculating about it non-stop anyways, so if it’s going to be a conversation no matter what we do, it might just be better to reveal things about us on our own terms. Besides, it’ll stop people from also pairing us with any female guests we happen to have.”

Jinyoung wrinkled his nose. “They do that? What…don’t tell me someone got ideas about you and Spring Townsend. She’s twice your age!”

“No. It was you and Dani Jo, up until that Behind the Episode came out.”

“What? What would ever make them think that?”

“You being your normal sweetheart self to her.”

“Huh. As if I’d always act like a total sweetheart to someone I was dating.” Jinyoung frowned. “So basically, if we don’t announce we’re dating, the fans might get it into their heads to pair you with a female guest, too?”

Mark shrugged. “I dunno. Maybe.”

“Hmph. There’s no way I want to see any comments like that.”

“You wouldn’t. You don’t even read our comments, remember?”

“I know. But just knowing that they could exist ticks me off.” He traced his fingers along Mark’s arms. “I really didn’t like it, you know. When that Hanyoung guy was so into you at the convention. I don’t like the thought of you with anyone else.”

“Honestly, I didn’t like the thought of him being into you when I misinterpreted the situation either.”

“So maybe…maybe it would be best if we set things straight to prevent anything like that from happening ever again.”

“Or to keep homophobes from attacking our fans,” Mark added, thinking of Trent/Trant/Tront. “Or you know, just to keep homophobes off our videos entirely.”

“How should we tell them, though? I don’t want to make it some huge thing because really, we’re a mystery channel not some couple diary.”

“Well, if you think about it, some fans treat whether we’re together or not like a mystery.”

“True…” Jinyoung said with a growing smile.

“Perhaps we can weave it into that.”

“That could work. We’ll have to put some more thought into how we could pull it off.” Abruptly, Jinyoung rolled on top of Mark, pinning him down. “Still, I can’t believe I’m finally in your bed right now and doing so much talking. There are other things I’d much rather be doing right now.”

“Oh? Sorry for keeping you from them, then.” He wrapped his arms around his waist. “I don’t mind not talking for a while, if you’d like to shut me up.”

Jinyoung shut him up artfully, out his words, his breath, his thoughts.

“So, you two finally hooked up, huh?” BamBam asked as he got his camera into place.

Mark and Jinyoung exchanged a glance. Of course they had, but they hadn’t gotten around to telling him yet. They’d been planning on surprising him with the little reveal they were going to put in place for their fans.

“How did you know?” Jinyoung asked, narrowing his eyes. “Do you have our apartment bugged, or something?”

“Nah. Just noticed that you were looking unusually rumpled today and you’re wearing one of Mark’s shirts, and he’s got a smear of foundation on his shirt collar which suggests he was covering up something, maybe a bite or a hickey or a scratch you gave him. Plus you’re both unusually smiley and even more touchy than normal, and though Mark sometimes called you ‘Jinyoungie’ before, I don’t remember him ever calling you ‘baby’ previously.”

“Ah,” Mark said.

“Since when were you Mr. Deduction?” Jinyoung snarked. “You’re just supposed to be the cameraman.”

“I just observed a few things. It’s elementary.”

“All right, Sherlock.” Jinyoung immediately began straightening up his rumpled shirt, which was indeed one of Mark’s, given that he pretty much hadn’t left Mark’s room ever since the confession happened. Mark would have to suggest moving some of Jinyoung’s things over to his closet to keep Jinyoung from entirely stealing his wardrobe. Mark slipped the hoodie he’d brought with him on to cover up the makeup stain on the collar of his shirt. Jinyoung apparently had a thing for his neck and had gone a little bit overboard demonstrating it the night before.

“As your manager, I’m behind you,” BamBam said.

“Because it’s good for business?” Mark asked.

“No, because I like you two and you’ve been thirsting for each other for ages, and I’m happy that you could make it out of the ineffective pining phase, finally.” He paused. “But as your manager, I want to give you some dating advice.”

“As if you’re even qualified,” Jinyoung grumbled.

“No, seriously. This is important: be sure not to lose your roots.”

“Is that dating advice, exactly?” Mark asked. “Sounds more like just general life advice.”

“No way, man! In your case, your relationship is your roots. My Men of Mystery was able to be a thing because you two were so perfect together right from the beginning. So I’m just saying, don’t let popularity or anything change you. Don’t lose your dorky, homebody natures and the simple kindness you love so much about each other. Because in your line of work you are going to meet YouTubers who are genuinely ty people and they might try to get you to do ty things, and I’m just saying to you two: you don’t have to give things like that the time of day. Just go home and watch Dateline and make out and be happy.”

“Whoa,” Mark said.

“That’s unexpectedly good advice, BamBam,” Jinyoung said.

“Yeah, well. Maybe I just like being the manager of two people who don’t give me much trouble other than being too sassy for their own good.” He smiled. “Just keep it real, my dudes.”

“Will do,” Mark said.

“Will keep it very real,” Jinyoung said with a nod.

“Great. So, ready to roll on the new episode?”

“Yes, we’re ready.”

“All right. Try to tone down the adoration just a little bit so it doesn’t distract from the mystery, all right? Filming in one…two…three!”

“Tonight on My Men of Mystery, we’ll be looking into an unsolved disappearance that was recommended by our viewers as the number one unsolved mystery they wanted us to cover on our show,” Jinyoung began, folding his hands on the investigation table. “The Case of the Man Who Never Returned.”

“Since you’re from Korea, you probably don’t know the actual song the case is named after, right?” Mark asked.

“Oh, there’s a song connected with this? I didn’t know.”

“Well it’s not exactly connected, since it was written long before this case ever happened. It’s an old song called ‘The M.T.A’. It was used in an election to debate the issue of transit fare, and talks about how a guy named Charlie got on the MTA subway but couldn’t leave because he didn’t have the nickel to pay for the increased train exit fare when he reached his stop.”

“Sing it for me.”

“Uh…on camera?”

“Of course on camera! We’re a YouTube show!”

“But you’re a better singer than me.”

“Yeah, but I don’t know the lyrics. I didn’t even know a song like this was a thing until a few seconds ago!”

“Uh…right.” Mark cleared his throat and started to sing. “Charlie handed in his dime at the Kendall Square station and he changed for Jamaica Plain. When he got there the conductor told him, “one more nickel”—Charlie couldn’t get off of that train! But did he ever return? No, he never returned and his fate is still unlearned. He may ride forever ‘neath the streets of Boston, he’s the man who never returned.”

Jinyoung politely clapped for him when he finished. “It’s got a nice rhythm. I like it.”

“And it has more than a few connections to this case—the name Charlie, the subway, the city of Boston, and a man who got on a train and seemingly never got off it.”

“A little eerie to think about. Still, I don’t think the Charlie in this case is just permanently riding the rail because he can’t pay his fare. In fact, no one in the world seems to know where our Charlie is.”

“It’s one of the most puzzling unsolved mysteries of our time for sure. Let’s set the scene. Our missing person is Charlie Olphin. Charlie was an insurance agent—”

“Just like us!” Jinyoung burst out spontaneously.

Mark stared at him in confusion for a moment before remembering the Buckingham Circuit Neighborhood Watch case in Colorado. “Er…right. Just to clue the viewers in, Jinyoung and I once had to impersonate insurance agents while investigating a case. We don’t recommend it. We actually know nothing about insurance. Anyways, Charlie was a much more knowledgeable guy and ran a modestly successful homeowners insurance agency.”

“By all accounts, he was pretty much Mr. Normal,” Jinyoung reported. “He was married and had a kid, and his home life was pretty smooth. They were an average middle class family, all rather quiet and soft-spoken. No major conflicts, nothing out of the ordinary. Outside of the home, everything was going well at work and Charlie Olphin was in general living a relaxed, uneventful life.”

“This all changed on October 10, 2012,” Mark said. “Charlie got on the Green Line of the Boston Subway at Park Street after work at 6 PM, just as he did every day. He carried with him a black briefcase with his work laptop and some papers inside, and was wearing a beige coat, blue dress pants, a white dress shirt, and a red tie. He was filmed by subway cameras entering the seventh car of the train.”

“A few stops later, the train ended its route at Lechmere Station, and all the passengers got off. Subway staff went through the procedure of checking the cars and making sure nothing was left behind. In the seventh car, they discovered Charlie’s briefcase. Thanks to global terrorism problems, any boxes or bags left behind are automatically treated as suspicious by transit authorities. They examined his bag, and after determining it was non-threatening, reached out to call Charlie’s office since the phone number was listed in the paperwork in the bag. The call was forwarded to Charlie’s home phone at around 7:21, and his wife, Betty Olphin, answered. She informed transit authority that Charlie hadn’t arrived home yet, and she was concerned.”

“This was 2012, so cell phones were already pretty prevalent,” Mark pointed out. “Did anyone call him?”

“His cellphone was also left in his briefcase.”

“Hmm. At this point, if I were Betty or the transit authority, I would assume Charlie was in the station, looking for the briefcase. Especially since his phone and laptop were in it."

“Right. The subway guys told Betty they were going to bring the briefcase to lost and found since it was likely Charlie would immediately come back looking for it. If he didn’t retrieve it on his own, she could drop by and pick it up for him. As it turned out, Charlie never came by to lost and found. The next morning at 8 AM, Betty came to Lechmere Station to pick up the briefcase, and she informed the workers that Charlie had never come home. They advised her to call the police and file and missing person’s report.”

“Right…and those usually don’t work out so well, for adults, huh? I remember from other cases that because adults can up and leave of their free will, you can only really successfully file a report if there’s some suggestion or threat of danger to their lives and safety.”

“Uh-huh. It would be a pain of they had to seriously investigate the disappearances of all the people who pull ghosting acts. I don’t know how big that was in 2012, but nowadays, it would be nuts.”

“So what about Betty? Was her report successful?”

“Betty was actually really smart about it. Charlie had asthma, and he’d left behind his inhaler and medication at the house that day. She suggested that his health would be at risk if he went off somewhere without access to them, so the police relented and went ahead and filed the report. The transit system also cooperated, and agreed to look up footage to determine where and when he exited the train and left behind his bag.” Jinyoung looked at Mark, eyes flashing with excitement. Mark grinned back. Jinyoung had loved all the oddities of this case when they’d researched it and had gotten deeply invested in the mystery, so he was happy to let him do the big reveal here.

“The thing was,” Jinyoung said, just barely reining in his excited tone, “there was no footage of Charlie leaving the train at any of the four stations between Park and Lechmere, or Lechmere Station itself. They found the footage of him boarding at Park, and tried to match it with footage of passengers leaving the train, but there was no man his age and height with a beige coat and blue dress pants and yada yada who left the Green Line at any of the stations he stopped at.”

“Did they only look at passengers leaving car seven?”

“No, they looked at footage of people leaving every car on the train. No Charlie.”

“So, I can just tell you’re bursting with theories on this one, Jinyoung, please don’t explode,” Mark said, giving him a teasing shake on the shoulder. “Let’s start with my theory: he changed clothes on the train and was wearing a different outfit when he left, which is why they couldn’t find him in the footage. Maybe he even put on a wig?”

“Doubt it,” Jinyoung fired back. “One, it’s hard to change your outfit on the train without attracting a lot of attention. Particularly pants. Someone would have reported a man stripping or sent in a tip when this became a full blown police investigation. They did track down and interview as many people in car seven as they could.”

“And what did they say?”

“People remembered seeing Charlie on the train at the Government Center and Haymarket Stations. They said he was sitting in his seat with his eyes closed, maybe dozing off a little. One person said Charlie stood up after Haymarket Station as if he was going to get off at the next stop—North Station—but no one actually saw him get off, and he’s not on any video footage. No one reported him changing clothes or putting on a wig.”

“Hmm… any possibility that he couldn’t be seen on footage because there was someone taller in front of him, or something?”

“It’s possible, especially since it was rush hour. Still, it would have been really difficult for him not to be caught on any cameras in any of the stations on his route. Most have several cameras, and he should have been seen going through the turnstile or up the stairs if he actually was there at all.”

“OK, OK. Let me shift over to motive before we go back into theories about why he wasn’t on camera. Are we thinking that he wanted to get away from his home life or work life and just ran off?”

“A lot of people speculated that. He wouldn’t be the first person to just leave everything all behind. Still, it’s pretty unusual for people who own their own business not to settle any affairs with it. Also, there really wasn’t any conflict in his marriage. All his friends said he was happy with Betty.”

“Right, and we’re only just as happy as everyone else seems to think we are. Another song quote.”

“Sing it,” Jinyoung commanded.

Mark rolled his eyes, but obliged.

“I will concede that just because his friends said he was happy, doesn’t mean he was,” Jinyoung said with a shrug. “But there really was nothing in particular in his life to run from—no loan sharks or shady connections or anything.”

“Maybe his life was too boring, and that’s why he wanted to get away?”

“Be careful how you say that,” Jinyoung warned him. “Our friends are constantly calling us boring, so you might get it into your head to run off, too.”

“How are we boring? We’ve got a YouTube show, and…we solved a murder, once! And almost got ourselves attacked while pretending to be insurance agents. And we’ve already established we’re never going to go Rand the Third crazy over boredom.”

“That’s what I try to tell everyone, too, but I guess there’s not enough beach shots or paid promotions on our Instagram so we’re not cool enough.”

“In any case, our lives sound more exciting than Charlie’s. Seriously, maybe he just got bored with life and wanted a fresh slate? He chucked up everything and just cleared off—that’s a poetry quote this time.”

“How are you quoting poetry when you never read books?”

“I went to school once, duh—you should know, we were in a lot of the same classes. And yes, I do read, I’m pretty sure I’ve read every single one of Spring Townsend’s books like 20 times.”

“I stand corrected. Anyways, back on track—the whole ‘starting a new life’ thing is possible. Still, I’m not sure why he would get on a train towards his house that was reaching the end of the line in a few stops when there are so many trains in Boston that could take him far and away. Maybe he wanted to get caught on camera heading home and then pull his vanishing act, but that still begs the question of how he pulled it off.”

“Any thoughts on that?”

“Well…my thought is he stayed on the train after it was supposed to be emptied out at Lechmere. He hid on it somehow and avoided the staff looking through it, especially since they got distracted by his left behind briefcase. Maybe he stayed on the train as it switched tracks to head in the opposite direction, and he rode it away from home. He got off at another Green Line stop where no one would be particularly looking for him, then made his getaway.” Jinyoung sighed. “There’s just one issue with that.”

“Which is…?”

“This case got a lot of media attention over how strange it was, and the fact that it was featured on TV a lot so people would send in tips. The transit authority also wondered after a point if Charlie had stayed on the train when it turned around. So they had staff look at the videos of the stations that proceeded Park Station on the Green Line. Charlie wasn’t in any of those videos, either.”

“But maybe he changed when the train was empty,” Mark butted in eagerly. “You said he probably didn’t in front of the other passengers or they would have noticed, but maybe he did it in between train cars while the train was stopped. Then, when more passengers were let back in, he slipped his clothes into someone else’s bag to hide evidence or something. He got off at another station, but it didn’t look like him on the cameras because he was wearing completely different clothes!”

Jinyoung nodded. “It’s plausible. There’s really nothing to prove that didn’t happen, other than that no one came forward about strange clothes appearing in their bag, and no discarded clothes were found on the train, station, or subway tracks. I still don’t know how convinced I am about the ‘starting a new life’ theory, though. He would have been starting from nothing. He never touched his bank accounts or credit cards after he disappeared. And why would he leave behind his inhaler and medication? That detail in particular bothers me. The inhaler wouldn’t have been too difficult to replace, but the medication was a prescription.”

“You’re not thinking murder or foul play, are you?”

Jinyoung shrugged. “That’s even harder to justify, with no body on the train or the tracks, and absolutely no motive to kill this guy. Still, murder would explain why he never touched his money and he was never seen again. But honestly…why? How?”

“So…aliens?”

“At this point, yeah, sure, why not? Or maybe he’s still out there riding the Green Line in different disguises for the hell of it like your Man Who Never Returned.” Under the table, Jinyoung gently touched Mark’s knee. “Missing persons cases really kind of freak me out, though. Just the whole idea of disappearing and no one having any idea where you are. It really just shows what a small part of the world we are, and how easy it is for any of us to just fall off the radar.”

Mark laced their fingers together under the table. “It would be very hard for you to go missing, Jinyoung. Hate to break it to you, but you’ve always got someone around keeping tabs on you. Me.”

“But you’re always zoning out and getting distracted. That doesn’t set my mind 100% at ease.” He squeezed Mark’s fingers, and Mark didn’t believe at all what he was saying.

“As if I would miss someone trying to drag you off. I get distracted in my head, true, but that doesn’t mean my eyes stop noticing you.”

What the heck are you guys doing?, BamBam mouthed from behind the camera. Mark dropped Jinyoung’s hand and the two of them self-consciously scooted away from each other a little.

“Ahem,” Jinyoung said. “Well, that’s good to know. Anyways…back to Charlie. Any final thoughts on this? It’s been seven years…what do you think? Alive somewhere, living a brand-new existence? Dead? Still on the train?”

“I’d like to think alive. I’d feel terrible for his wife and kid, and if he left them like that, it was a terrible thing to do. But in life, there’s hope. Hope that maybe he became a better person or found whatever it was he was looking for. What’s your thought?”

Jinyoung paused before answering. “Well…just like I said, I hate disappearances like this. So I kind of like to think of there being this place where the vanished go and just hang out together in this limbo-like state where they’re safe and nothing can touch them. Really immature, I know.”

Mark smiled. “It would be immature if that’s how the police felt about it, but since you’re not actually responsible for finding these people, I’d never call an image you used to find peace immature.” Somehow his hand found its way back to Jinyoung’s under the table. “But this really is a true mystery, no matter how you view it. Charlie, if you’re out there—it’s been seven years. Why not give your family back in Boston some peace and closure? And for Betty, her child, and all who are fascinated by this case of The Man Who Never Returned, maybe closure will be found one day, but for the time being, it will have to remain a mystery.”

“Thank you all for submitting your number one ranking unsolved cases,” Jinyoung said, turning to Mark with a sparkle in his eyes. It was time for the other reveal.

“Actually, Charlie Olphin’s case didn’t technically rank number one.”

“Right. According to our viewers, the unsolved case they’re most interested in is The Mystery of Whether Mark and Jinyoung are an Item.”

“But we couldn’t feature that case because it’s not actually unsolved,” Mark said, squeezing Jinyoung’s hand.

“Yes, that one definitely had some closure,” Jinyoung said, grinning. “Some very satisfying closure.”

“And the answer to that mystery is: yes. They are an item. And very thankful for the support they receive from their fans.”

“But just because that mystery is solved doesn’t mean we don't have plenty others in store for you. So keeping tuning into My Men of Mystery for your True Crime fix.”

“We’ll be waiting! See you next week!”

“And cut!” BamBam said, a wry smile on his face. “Ugh, you two, sneaking it in like that at the end. If you did it in a separate video just devoted to your relationship disclosure, I could have given it a clickbait title and thumbnail and you would have trended number one.”

“Unfortunately for you, we’re not dating to trend number one,” Jinyoung said.

“I think marketing this for views would be the exact definition of losing our roots like you told us not to,” Mark pointed out.

“Ahhh, using my own words against me.” BamBam sighed. “Still, I’ll work it in the SNS blast. ‘My Men of Mystery covers a mysterious disappearance before addressing the ultimate mysterious disappearance of their willpower and ability not to flirt with each other on the show’.”

“You try sitting up against the person you love for multiple seasons of a show where you have to make frequent eye contact with them without losing it,” Jinyoung said. “It’s hard.”

At least those days are over now, Mark thought to himself, smiling serenely. We can lose it for each other as much as we want now, and it’ll all be perfectly fine.

A week later, they trended number one. The YouTube comments were mostly incoherent keyboard mashes of joy. Twitter, was having an explosion of threads about all the subtle moments and hints through the seasons of My Men of Mystery that had culminated in this big reveal (the Valentine’s Day episode featured heavily in this thread—Hanyoung must have supplied what he knew about the ‘ASK ME’ bear to other fans, since this information also made a few appearances). Tumblr users had gif-ed the moment into a neat little set with captions and reblogged it like mad. Posts like NOT SO DELUSIONAL NOW, AM I abounded.

“I wonder if people will lose a little interest, now it’s not a mystery?” Jinyoung wondered. His head was resting in Mark’s lap. It was after dinner, and they were enjoying a shared food coma. “Mysteries require a lot of work and attention and investigating. But once it’s solved…you kind of move onto the next thing, right? A solved mystery just doesn’t demand that same attention.”

“I think that will be true for some, not as much for others,” Mark said. “As for me, it doesn’t really matter. As long as you’re committed to our relationship, I don’t really need anyone else’s validation. I’ll take the support, but the amount of support won’t influence how I feel about you.”

“Says the guy who tried to use that validation to determine how I felt about him once upon a time.”

“And yet you were still the one who needed to determine it for me in the end.” He ran his hands through Jinyoung’s hair. “Hey.”

“Yeah?” Jinyoung’s voice sounded a little sleepy. Maybe he was giving into the food coma and drifting off.

“I love you.”

“Yes. Me, too. Love you.”

“I’ll be right here with you as long as you need me.”

“Mmmm.”

“And if I vanish, you better come find me. In that limbo place you mentioned.”

“You’re not going anywhere,” Jinyoung said with surprising ferocity for someone who was practically asleep.

“I know. Like I said. I’ll be right here.” In a softer voice, he said, “Always.”

Jinyoung murmured sleepily into his leg. Mark smiled, continuing to brush his soft hair. On the internet, everyone was erupting in frenzied chaos over this very same love, but from where Mark was looking, it was nothing but an endless ocean of calm with just the two of them gently carried by its slow waves.​