61. Complications
The Blood Brother CodeMentions of gore and character death. Just saying.
As far as Jongdae was concerned, Yixing was far too happy for somebody who’d found it necessary to come in to work on a day off, and a Sunday at that. Doped up to the eyeballs on coffee, he walked into their shared office to find Yixing spinning around in his office chair like a little kid who’d just discovered the seat could move, and the man was actually cackling to himself.
“Okay,” said Jongdae, slamming his mug down on his desk so hard that it almost shattered. “What have you done?”
Yixing spun around three more times before coming to a halt. “I’ve dangled Xiumin a freaking enormous carrot.” He started spinning again.
“Right.” Jongdae gave up tracking him with his eyes because it made him feel dizzy. “Is that a euphemism for something ual?”
Yixing came to a momentary halt. “Nope!” And then he was off again.
Jongdae pursed his lips. “Are you high?” he tried.
Yixing just let out another cackle.
Giving up, Jongdae strode up to the chair and grabbed it, forcing it to a halt.
“Care to explain?” he demanded.
Yixing beamed at him. “Xiumin’s my coffee brother.”
It was all Jongdae could do to stare.
“He’s going to help us catch Suho.”
“Are you sure? What if he’s just messing with you?”
“I’m sure.” Yixing’s smile was just a little too wide. “I gave him no choice.”
“That doesn’t explain why you’re so happy.”
Yixing started cackling again. “And people think Xiumin’s the manipulative one. I’ve been pressurising him to doubt himself and Luhan, and he starts to set more store in knocking years off being in prison. He’s comfortable around Semi and enjoys being in that apartment – he enjoys the false taste of freedom. So instead of going ape on him yesterday for screwing up everything ridiculously royally and lighting the match for a gang war between Suho and Luhan, I offered him a deal.” Yixing had to stop to draw breath between his giggles. “I offered him seven years in jail and a comfortable, normal life afterwards if he helps us with Suho. Sooner or later, he’s going to start weighing up whether a permanent life on the run with a potential death penalty on him and a definite one on his friend is really better than suffering a short while before the peace he wants but has been convinced for the past few years that he’ll never get. I can’t wait to see him crack.”
“Er, Lay,” Jongdae pointed out. “You and Xiumin are really similar, and he’s definitely as brainy as you – he’s probably figured this all out and doesn’t give a sh*t for a normal life.”
“Nope.” Yixing grinned up at him and twisted the chair from side to side. Jongdae let go of it. “Xiumin has a capacity to care about people. I don’t.”
“Are you sure? I think the only person he’s capable of caring about is Luhan, because he’s still being highly manipulative with Semi.”
“I’m sure.” Yixing’s grin stretched even wider. “And obviously I’m going to use this chance working with him to see if I can get anything more on Luhan, and to see how else I can prod Xiumin’s buttons.” He swivelled the chair in a full circle again, clapping his hands ecstatically. “I’m so excited!”
Jongdae raised his eyebrow and picked up his cup of coffee. “You should see a doctor. I think you have mania.”
Xiumin had missed his usual drop-in to Myeongdeong Cathedral the previous week as he’d been ill and Semi had pretty much confined him to bed, so he found a backlog of notes from Luhan. He also found himself talking properly to the priest through the grill for the first time.
“Father,” he said after some searching for how to address a priest again, cutting the man off mid-absolution. “There’s something troubling me.”
“Oh.”
Xiumin really liked the grill. Not seeing the person’s face somehow made it much easier to air his troubles. He toyed idly with the notes he’d written for Luhan detailing the deal Lay had forced him into the previous day and making a mental note to ring Luhan, or else Lay would get suspicious that there was another form of communication.
“Have you missed out something to confess?” the priest asked in a kind voice. Xiumin thought that he might have spoken to the man before on a previous occasion when he’d pretended to go to confession.
“Not exactly.” As silently as he could, Xiumin slipped the notes into the crack between the wood under the leg of the kneeler. “I was just wondering – is it wrong to kill to protect somebody very dear to you?”
“Killing is always wrong,” the priest told him, his alarm poorly masked. “‘Thou shalt not kill’ is the fifth commandment.”
“But what about in self-defence? What about religious people in the army? What about the Crusades?”
There was a faint sigh from the other side of the grill. “The intentional taking of somebody else’s life is reprehensible and will forever remain one of the greatest sins known to mankind. When Cain killed Abel, it was one of the few sins that cried out to God for vengeance—”
Xiumin nearly hit the grill in frustration. He wanted an answer to his question, not catechesis.
“But killing to protect other people. Is that wrong?”
“Legitimate defence in order to render an aggressor unable to do harm that results in the death of the aggressor is not an exception to the prohibition of killing, though the act of self-defence may have a double effect,” the priest replied. “But non-lethal means should always be used as far as possible.”
Xiumin sat on the kneeler and considered this information. There were questions burning in his head
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