Sungjong slept late but usually when he had a case, his excitement would wake him up at 7 am sharp. Today was no exception and the first thing he did was call the Kim Mansion on the landline.

His long night of thoughts had established two points – he needed an ally inside the Kim Mansion, and Dongwoo was the best candidate for that. He arranged a few things with the butler before fixing himself breakfast. He wasn’t much of a cook, so he just had his leftover takeaway dinner from yesterday. All the while he was thinking how a seemingly bland case such as key theft turned out to be so interesting because of the people it involved.

It’s a totally different life in that house, a totally different stage with exotic costumes.

He thought about the case as an ongoing drama on stage – but the problem was he couldn’t really identify the characters and their stories because the lights were turned off. He needed to get the lights working, because then he could see the real story.

Bringing out his notebook, which he used to store his notes on the cases, to the drawing room he started to flick through the pages of the new case. He still had 3 more hours before he was supposed to meet Dongwoo at the Kim Mansion – in the meantime, he decided to do some more thinking. That was the initial plan but suddenly the doorbell rang, putting a halt to his train of thought. When he opened the door, he was surprised but not shocked. He couldn’t say he had expected this visit but he wasn’t totally caught off guard.

“Come in Mr. Kim, have a sit,” he said loftily.

Myungsoo looked different from yesterday; his hair was slightly disheveled and his eyes were puffy. But he was dressed impeccably, as if he was going to the office. There was an emotion breaking through his usually stoic look and as he sat down on the sofa, he nervously his lips.

“Can I get you coffee?” he said out of courtesy.

“No – I –er – I just…”

Sungjong ignored him and brewed two cups of coffee. He set down a mug in front of him and clutching his own, he sat down in front of him, crossing his legs. He was wearing shorts since he wasn’t expecting a visitor today and Myungsoo took great pains to pretend that he didn’t follow the movement of Sungjong’s leg through the air.

“So…”

Myungsoo was avoiding eye contact again as he said, “I’m sorry about yesterday. It might have come off…umm rude, I didn’t mean to, I was uh – late for a meeting.”

 “It’s alright.”

The detective smiled sweetly at him, causing him to turn his head towards the television.

“I just – well let me tell you – I know who stole the key.”

Myungsoo sounded desperate and Sungjong knew very how to deal with such people – by sounding uninterested in what they had to say. If he showed too much interest in the information he claimed to possess, he might back-track.

“Indeed.”

“Look, it has to be him – the butler. Dongwoo has been in the family for a long time but he never got a vacation or anything and he’s fed up. He wants to leave and he thinks he deserves to get something -”

“He spoke highly of your late mother.”

Myungsoo looked bewildered for a moment, before stuttering, “I – my mother – I don’t want to talk about her.”

“She’d have been very happy to see you get married, right?”

He shot him an odd look before lowering his eyes to the ground. He looked like he regretted making this visit.

“Suzy seems nice,” Sungjong continued ruthlessly, taking a sip of his coffee while observing him carefully. He didn't want to push him too hard though, just enough for him to give up what he really knew.

“My mother would have never approved of this marriage,” Myungsoo finally muttered, looking lost than ever.

Sungjong didn’t reply – he had to admit that Myungsoo was confusing him now and he felt that something was very wrong but he couldn’t put his finger on it. Apart from the theft, he felt as if the big picture was missing something crucial. The image of the Kim family somehow had something missing, something big.

They sat silently for a while, Myungsoo looking anywhere but at Sungjong while the younger had his eyes fixed on him. Myungsoo was beginning to sweat when the doorbell rang again.

Sungjong hated it when anyone interfered in the middle of an intense exchange, verbal or psychological, with his suspect. He reluctantly got up to the door while the other man seemed relieved, his eyes finally tracing the younger.

The moment Sungjong threw the door open, he felt arms around him and the next thing he knew someone had kissed him on the lips. He was too surprised to react but the next moment he shook off his attacker.

“What, no good morning kiss for your boyfriend?”

It was Woohyun, looking weary with dark circles under his eyes and messy hair.

“I thought your shift doesn’t end till 3 pm?”

“I got off early,” Woohyun said, smiling tiredly. “And it’s so good to see you.”

He kissed him again and this time the younger didn’t viciously shake him off.

Myungsoo was watching the exchanges with wide eyes. As Woohyun turned to see him, he said, “Oh, is that a client of yours?”

He stood up slowly, still looking shell-shocked.

“Ah yes, this is my client’s son, Kim Myungsoo. This is Nam Woohyun, a friend.” Sungjong introduced the two.

“You mean boyfriend.” Woohyun rolled his eyes. “Or is that what you’d been telling your clients? Does it matter you’re gay? Look Myungsoo, does it matter to you that Sungjong’s gay?” he asked Myungsoo, who looked like a deer caught in headlight.

“I- well – umm – yes, I mean no, I mean…”

“Why don’t you go inside and freshen up? I was talking with Mr. Kim here.”

Woohyun seemed to have realized that he had walked in at an important point in the conversation. He was well acquainted with Sungjong’s techniques; in fact, he had picked up a few things from the younger. Woohyun was smart himself, if not extraordinarily so. He had just started working as an intern at a private hospital, so he was quite busy but before that he used to accompany Sungjong in his investigations.

“I’m sorry, see you later baby.” He walked into their bedroom as Sungjong turned his attention to Myungsoo.

“So Mr. Kim…”

They talked for over an hour, but it was mostly punctuated by long periods of silences while Myungsoo recovered from his awkwardness or nervousness and Sungjong simply watched him. After he had showered and breakfasted, Woohyun joined them, with Myungsoo’s permission and Sungjong’s assurances that he was completely trustworthy. He tried to lighten the mood to help Myungsoo talk better, but he didn’t say a lot, except a few indications about how Mr. Kim and his wife were not on good terms and he kind of blamed his father for her suicide.

“I have to go now,” Myungsoo finally said, when he couldn’t recover from Sungjong’s sharp gaze anymore.

The detective stood up and extended his hand towards him.

“Thank you Myungsoo, for your co-operation.”

The man gripped his hand briefly, not meeting his eyes, then fumbled towards the door, where Woohyun let him out. When he returned to his boyfriend in the living room, he found his eyes half-lidded with a crease between his eyebrows.

“The kid’s all messed up,” Woohyun commented, sitting down beside him and putting an arm around his shoulder.

“He’s disturbed, I admit it but it seems like he’s hiding something important.”

He rubbed his face with his hands, watching the scenes of Myungsoo from the past couple of hours replay inside his head. He was sure there was something very particular about Myungsoo that he was missing but he didn’t know what.

“Did he tell you he’s gay?”

Sungjong stopped rubbing his nose and turned to look at his boyfriend.

“No he’s not.”

Woohyun scoffed.

“Please, I’ve been around gay people for long enough to know one when I see one.”

“He’s getting married to a girl.”

Woohyun shrugged, unfazed by the information.

“He’s definitely gay. Maybe he’s hiding it. Didn’t you see how he reacted when he saw us kiss?”

“With disgust?”

“No, he wanted it. It was longing.”

Sungjong inhaled deeply. Woohyun was a sharp observer and he did indeed once work at a LGBT counseling camp. But it hadn’t really occurred to him before that Myungsoo might be hiding his uality. That changed many things – for starters, it meant that he was marrying Suzy not out of love but out of fear of his father. Surely, Mr. Kim’s son wouldn’t be allowed to be gay.

“And,” Woohyun continued, looking slightly disturbed. “The way he looks at you, it’s not right.”

When Sungjong frowned, Woohyun cuddled closer to him and whispered in his ear, “He likes you. He wants you.”

The detective was still thinking about the altered picture if what his boyfriend was saying turned out to be true – it was like seeing the case a whole new light. The last part of Woohyun’s words barely registered but he could hear the slight discontent in his voice, so he kissed him. Woohyun reciprocated fiercely and it wasn’t just because he had missed him – Sungjong knew he was desirable, and so did Woohyun. His boyfriend constantly worried about losing Sungjong, especially since they spent so much time apart. Woohyun got worried constantly, especially if a good-looking man was involved.

“Geroff!” Sungjong had to push Woohyun forcefully away from him. “Don’t cut off my oxygen, I’m thinking.”

Woohyun pouted but Sungjong didn’t notice him – he was already modifying his next moves.

“Only you can ignore me when I’m this adorable.”

“That is indeed true,” Sungjong muttered absent-mindedly. He picked up his notebook and started to scribble urgently. His boyfriend groaned, putting his feet up on the sofa.

“Sometimes I feel like you don’t care about me at all.”

“Sometimes, yeah…”

Woohyun shot his boyfriend a glaring look.

“Are you really in love with me?”

“Hmm, maybe...”

Woohyun gripped his hair in frustration, muffling a scream.

“Argh, sometimes I hate it that you’re so smart and brilliant! Why couldn’t you just be pretty and dumb? Or better, why couldn’t you have a smaller ego? It’d be a huge improvement, I swear.”

If Sungjong had actually heard those words, Woohyun would have to suffer direly for the jab. But when the younger just dropped the pen and got up, saying, “Okay time to be off,” Woohyun breathed out in relief. He watched, half-relieved, half-wistful as Sungjong walked into their bedroom and shut the door. He was sleepy because of his shift last night but he was staying awake just so he could spend some time with his boyfriend. But every time Sungjong had a new case on his hands, it was the same story – he would almost ignore his presence and be in his own world. The frowns would appear more often on his forehead and sometimes he would see that odd gleam in his eyes that appeared whenever he was close to cracking the case.

Granted that Sungjong looked very cool when he was in his detective mode, but it also meant Woohyun took to the sidelines. These were the times when he doubted the younger’s feelings for him.

Sungjong had a huge ego and needed to satisfy it every now and then but most of the times it went down to the disappearance of Woohyun from his life. Woohyun wondered if he could be replaced an interesting mystery, how much did he actually mean to the younger. Sungjong was already a difficult person to live with, with his sass and attitude, and his damn-care sentiments but when you paired that up with his cleverness, it was a complete nightmare.

However, he had so many wonderful things about him – how he never hurt animals and loved to cuddle with kittens and babies. He was so talented in so many things, although he claimed he wasn’t born with the singing, dancing, drawing and musical abilities but had learnt them later because he happened to be smart and his studies weren’t enough of a challenge. But most importantly, he would never harm or hurt anyone without any reason, or abuse their relationship. He always spoke the truth unless he needed to lie to extract important information and he was honest. That set him apart from every other good-looking arrogant prick Woohyun had met and made him fall in love.

Sungjong came out of the room, dressed and ready to go out. Woohyun didn’t say anything about how he had just come home and the younger was already walking out on him like he didn’t even miss him. In fact, he probably hadn’t, with the new case to think about. And right now he was leaving him to wallow in his misery while he went out and had fun.

Woohyun promised he wouldn’t react or try to get his attention but his eyes were threatening to burst with the tears he was holding back.

“Hey Woohyun?”

He looked at him expectantly, but the younger wasn’t looking at him. He was busily tucking in the notebook in his bag.

“I’ll be back late.”

Woohyun looked away and grunted. He already knew that. And even if he was back early, he wouldn’t be bothered with him at all.

“And,” Sungjong continued, throwing the door open. “The only person I love more than you, is me, so now worries.”