Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Minho, 20 years old.

He believed he was a psychopath.

At the age of 8, he realized he had no sense of humor when, every time that idiot of a father made jokes at the dinner table, all he wanted to do was punch him.
When he was 9, he made a deep cut on his hand with a knife—he wanted to feel something. At 15, he killed the neighbors’ dog—maybe it even had a name. From that moment on, he killed many animals, and he remembered them all, every single one.

He didn’t care about school, but to him, it was a good place to observe and choose, because he had a plan—to kill something bigger.

~

There were moments when Han Jisung had to lie down because it all felt like too much.
He looked up and saw blue, or gray, or black. And it was as if he melted into it, and for a fraction of a second, he felt free, happy, and innocent. Like an alien.

“Your presence is required in the house.”

His mother approached, pulling him out of his quiet.

“Come on, get inside and lend a hand.”

His mother wasn’t bad—she had just gotten divorced and then met James.
A few days earlier, her new partner had made some inappropriate comments to Jisung, so Jisung had thrown a pan at his head.

His mother said she hadn’t heard anything.

Now she had the perfect house, the garden in the perfect neighborhood, and two perfect twins.

He hadn’t seen his father since he was eight years old. He never let himself be framed, he just couldn’t, so he had to leave.
But at least, every birthday, he sent him a card.
Well, Jisung understood—he didn’t trust people who fit into frames either.

~

Jisung’s phone vibrated on the cafeteria table—a message.
He turned the phone toward a classmate.

“Why the fuck are you sending me this when I’m right in front of you?”

Then he stood up, threw the phone to the ground, shattering it into pieces, grabbed his backpack, and walked away.

He didn’t think he was the solution, but he was something.

“Hey,” he said to Minho.

“Hey.”

“I saw you skating earlier.”

That wasn’t true.

“Cool shit.”

“Fuck you.”

~

Jisung was new. He had arrived that semester. He could be interesting to kill.
That’s why Minho pretended to fall in love with him.

“What happened to your hand?”

“Shut up.”

That was one of their conversations while they kissed.

~

“I don’t have a phone,” Jisung said as they walked side by side down a deserted street in their small neighborhood.

“Okay.”

“I smashed it on the ground.”

“Okay.”

“I broke it into pieces on purpose.”

“Okay.”

“So you can’t call me.”

“Okay,” Minho sighed for what felt like the hundredth time. “Anyway, I don’t have a phone either.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I hate them.”

Minho didn’t understand much about love, but he knew that couples were supposed to go on dates.

“Wanna go on a date?”

~

He had said yes.
That’s how they ended up at a diner a few days later, eating together.

“Hi, what can I get you?” the waitress asked kindly.

“Wait, is this for real?!” Jisung, excited, turned the menu toward her. A line on it claimed, One of the Ten Best Korean Dining Experiences.

“Yes, it’s true,” she replied.

Jisung went back to scanning the menu.

“I’ll have a banana split with extra cherries, blueberry pancakes, and hot chocolate with whipped cream.”

“Hehe, you’re hungry, huh?” The waitress chuckled, writing down his order.

“Hehe, and also a fucking extra spoon,” he added, earning a sharp look.

“Excuse me?”

“For him.” He gestured toward Minho.

“You can’t use that language, or I’ll have to ask you and your friend to leave.”

Minho kept pretending to read the menu, ignoring the whole conversation.
Jisung put on a fake look of remorse.

“Okay, I’m sorry… Then I’ll take a big-ass banana, nice and thick, with a bunch of fucking cherries—”

The waitress, now offended, turned away.

“Alright, that’s enough… Jeremy!” she called for her manager.

“Oh yes! Let’s call Jeremy! Maybe he can get me a banana split, you damn bitch!” Jisung shouted, standing up and dramatically greeting the famous Jeremy.

Minho had to hold back his laughter.

Jisung looked completely unhinged.

~

“This has to be the most boring city on the planet.”

“Yeah, probably.”

“There’s no one here who isn’t just normal.”

“Well, you know, having money keeps them calm.”

Jisung suddenly stopped.

“Are you boring too?”

“No…”

Jisung’s gaze landed on an old woman across the street, dressed in bizarre clothing.

“She’s the only person I like,” he said with a smile.

“Her?”

“Yeah.”

“She clearly has a past. I bet she was a spy. She’s lived.”

“Seriously?”

“Why the fuck would I care?” Jisung stepped forward. “Wanna go to your place?”

Distorted images flashed through Minho’s mind. Blood. Jisung lying on the ground.

“…Yeah. Sure.”

~

“Why do you live in such a weird house?”

“I don’t know.”

“It has too many windows.”

“Maybe.”

They stepped through the door of Minho’s so-called weird house.

Jisung started wandering around the living room.

“Is this your mom?” he asked, looking at a framed photo of a beautiful woman.

“Yeah. She lives in Japan.”

“You look like her.”

~

The two sat on the small porch, silent for a long time.
As always, it was Jisung who broke it.

“Real old-school,” he said, referring to the swing they were sitting on.

“I don’t like it.”

“Why not?”

A memory surfaced—his mother gently running her fingers through his hair.

“I don’t know.”

Jisung placed a hand on Minho’s thigh, as if to comfort him.
Jisung was kind of a nymphomaniac, Minho thought.

~

More distorted images pushed their way into Minho’s mind as he watched Jisung spread peanut butter on a slice of bread.

“What?”

“Huh?”

The front door swung open, and a sound of annoyance escaped Minho’s lips.
His father walked in, making some pretentious remark as usual, then sat down at the table with them.

“Cheers!” He raised a beer.

“I’m glad,” he said, looking at the two of them. “This… you two!” Then he turned to Jisung. “It’s a relief, honestly. I was never even sure if he masturbated.”

Minho did.
Once a week. For therapeutic reasons.
It wasn’t healthy to let things build up too much.

~

"Your father is an asshole," Jisung broke the silence for the umpteenth time as they sat on the roof of the house

"I know, sometimes I feel like punching him in the face"

"You absolutely have to do it"

There was a few seconds of silence

"Have you ever sucked a dick?"

No. But in these cases it was always better to appear prepared and confident

"Yes, some"

"Can you suck mine?"

"Now?"

They looked into each other's eyes for several more seconds

"Tomorrow, I'll be over at 11"

~

At 11, Minho was ready. He had placed the knife under the couch cushion, actually at 10—it was important for everything to be well organized.

By noon, he started to think that maybe he wasn’t going to show up.

~

Sometimes Jisung was afraid of ruining everything.
But he felt, well, at ease with Minho, safe.

“Jisung, put on these clothes and come downstairs, there’s a party!”

As always, his mother organized big parties with family friends whose names Jisung couldn’t even remember.

“I have to go out.”

“I’m not going to argue. Sweetheart, please, it’s important to me.”

In the end, Jisung gave in, put on the clothes his mother had brought him, and found himself in their big garden, handing out pastries.

Then he ran inside, unable to bear the scene anymore.

His mother’s partner approached him while Jisung was putting some drinks in the fridge.
He offered him a beer, saying it helped relax.

“It’s really shit. A shitty life,” Jisung commented out loud, looking at the party still going on in the garden.

James stood next to him.

“If you hate it so much, leave,” he said with a mocking tone. “Do us a favor,” he grinned before giving him a pat on the ass and walking away.

His mother had watched the whole scene, without intervening.

And that was the moment that convinced Jisung that he would run away from that life.

Sometimes things became simple. Everything shifted, and in an instant, it was like he was stepping outside of his body, outside of his life. He saw everything around him clearly, saw himself, and thought, fuck this shit.

~

"Minho!" Jisung knocked loudly on the door, the other immediately opened it.
Sadness and anger together made something go off in Jisung.
For this reason, as soon as he entered, he took off his shirt and lay down on the sofa

"Come on"

He urged Minho who instead was standing dazed in the doorway staring at him, with the usual images of blood and violence in his head.
But shortly after he sat down next to him.

Jisung thought that he could really fall in love with Minho, he also had a car.

Minho instead thought if it would be easier to cut his throat from behind, but then the angle? It was a puzzle.

With a sigh, Jisung got up from the sofa.

"Let's get out of here"

"Huh?"

"We need to get out of this shithole of a city. We hate it, our parents are dickheads, and you have a car."

"It's my dad's."

"Who's a dickhead. I'm leaving whether you come or not, are you okay with that?"

Jisung hoped the answer was yes.
Minho thought there was no rush.

"Fine."

He put the knife in his pocket and followed Jisung out the door.
He didn't know where they were going or when he was going to kill him, but he punched his dad in the face and took the car.

Not a bad start.

"Are you scared?"

"I don't know, maybe a little."

"I'm not."

He should have been scared.

~

Things hadn’t always gone as planned on Minho’s trip with Jisung.

“Do you think it could explode?” Minho asked, looking at the smoking car.

This wasn’t a movie. If it had been a movie, they’d probably be American.

Jisung turned around and started walking, with Minho right behind him.

~

Three hours before.

Jisung stood and yelled out of the open roof of the car, waving his arms as if it was the first time he felt truly free.

Minho drove and thought about what Jisung would sound like when he killed him.
More distorted images flooded into his mind.
He had to find a quiet place.

"Do you know what freedom smells like?"

Jisung asked as he sat back down

"No"

"Holy shit"

"The seatbelt" Minho only said

"No way the seatbelt" Jisung replied smiling as he continued to look around and hum an 80's song.

"What would you like to do?" He then asked

"I don't know"

"Because we can literally do whatever we want, Minho" he said elatedly "whatever we want" he emphasized

~

And their first destination was an arcade.
They played shooting each other with those kind of laser guns and, strangely enough, Minho didn't feel in his element despite the fake violence, maybe because it was fake.

Jisung on the other hand seemed to be really enjoying himself

"So are you moving or not?!" He yelled at Minho.

Well, hitting an obstacle that didn't move wasn't much fun.

Sometimes Jisung looked at him and wondered if he was half dead.

"Can you stick your tongue in my ear?" Jisung approached him after putting his laser gun back in his belt

"Why?" The other raised his eyebrows

"I like it" Jisung simply replied, showing off the area

Minho did so, causing Jisung to laugh uncomposedly, which didn't go unnoticed by the arcade guards who immediately called them back through the speakers.

Jisung was unique in annoying people.

~

"Luckily I smashed my phone to pieces," Jisung spoke with his cheeks full of food, "my mother will keep calling me, that bitch. Did your father call the police?"

"What?"

"Yeah, about the car."

"Oh no."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"he'll think I'm coming back," Minho shrugged, "he's a dickhead, but he's always optimistic."

Minho cleared his throat.

"What?" Jisung looked up.

"What?"

"I like to eat," Jisung blurted out, looking at his hot dog on his plate with heart eyes.

His mother said that if food was her boyfriend, they would have a difficult relationship. She says it was a joke, but it wasn't true.
Proof of this was the evenings when his mother spent dinner watching Jisung gorge himself on food without even touching a single piece

"By the way, do you have any money?" Jisung asked when yet another dish was brought to the table

"Don't you?"

"Yes, but I spent it at the arcade"

"And you don't have any left" Minho sipped a glass of water

"I didn't have to pay for you too, I did you a fucking favor, okay?"

"And what can we do?"

"This is our meal after all... and we even have some left over, at least yours" Jisung sighed "the only rule on the matter is that you shouldn't rip off small or independent places"

"Who told you that?"

"My father. He's a Robin Hood type, he doesn't care about the law but he has morals"

He remembered when he was 8 years old and his father would repeat a phrase to him that was like "come in or not, you can come in" as if it were a mantra and then after he had repeated it he would compliment him saying that by not doing so they were financing terrorism.

"Places like this are all that guy's"

"That guy who?"

"That guy! What you know...he controls the oil, forces children to make cell phones and hates Palestine" Jisung didn't get an answer and grimaced

"Are you acting like a pussy?" He then asked Minho with a stupid look

Acting tough and ready was the best approach with Jisung

"No"

Minho ate a french fry before getting up from the table and leaving, Jisung followed him, they took the car and left

~

"Nice shot, put your seatbelt on," Jisung mocked.

"Fuck the seatbelt."

Minho had him at his disposal.

"Let's have sex."

"What, now?"

"Yes! Take your shirt off."

Minho had to play along.

"Should I stop?"

"No, just pretend nothing happened."

Minho didn't think sex was something you could just pretend nothing happened, especially for a man.

Chuckling, Jisung leaned over and helped Minho take off his shirt, who, after taking his hands off the wheel to do this, crashed into a tree.

Jisung laughed.

"Shit." Minho's eyes widened. "What are you laughing at?! My dad loves this car! It's the most expensive thing he ever bought."

Jisung continued to laugh. Then he began to wonder how the hell they could go on now that they no longer had any transportation.

~

"You think it might explode?" Minho asked, looking at the smoking car

"It's not a movie. Let's go" Jisung started walking and Minho followed him

"Where?"

"It can't be used anymore"

"Maybe I can fix it—"

The car exploded behind them, making them both turn around

"I don't think you can fix it"

"What do we do?" Minho asked

Let's go home, Jisung wanted to shout

"Do you want to go back?" He asked again

Does he want to go home? Jisung wondered

"Do you want to go home?" Jisung finally gave voice to his thoughts "it's okay if you want to go back"

"I don't want to go back, I asked you what you want—"

"I don't want to go back, Minho!"

"But—"

Jisung got upset

"Oh fuck, do you understand, I'm not going back home anymore!"

Minho sighed

"So what do you want to do?"

"I don't know, but for once you could have an idea!"

And the idea that appeared in Minho's mind was a bloody knife.
But he couldn't do it there, from the car they would trace it back to him.

~

They started walking through the woods step by step as the sun set and the sky turned orange.
Every now and then Minho turned around to make sure Jisung was still following him.

At the end of the woods they came to a main road and they tried to hitchhike for a while

"Why doesn't anyone stop?" Minho asked with his thumb still up

"Probably because your boobs are hanging out" Minho replied sarcastically "only a crazy person would give a ride to someone who looks crazy and you look like you're on bail"

But then, suddenly a car pulled over

A man in a green coat

"Are you okay?" He asked them "I'm traveling south for a bit, if you're interested"

And the two accepted. Even though Jisung was a little skeptical.

As he got into the stranger's car he thought
‘I swear if he kills us I'll be pissed off like a bitch.’

But then Jisung's thoughts turned to the fact that Minho had sat in the front, leaving him alone in the back.

"Give the sweater that's in the back to your boyfriend, so he can put it on."

"Who says he's my boyfriend?"

The man laughed

Jisung was testing Minho's patience.
Another distorted image appeared in his mind.

Then Minho's gaze fell on the photo of a puppy in the man's car

"Is that your dog?"

"Almost. I'm buying it, it has a cute face, right?"

"Yes."

"But it will change, it's a female Cane Corso."

"What do you mean?"

"It's among the 25 most dangerous dogs in the world, it's a fighting dog."

Jisung, who had been silent for too long, began by saying that the car smelled like feet, making the man driving laugh even more.

"A buddy of mine had two" the man went back to talking about dogs, and the army.

Then he asked the two what they had done, reassuring them that he wouldn't tell anyone

"We didn't do anything" Minho replied nonchalantly

"Heh! Sure! Look, I don't care, I just asked to talk. I’m not a shitty cop" he chuckled "anyway if you need, I don't know, to make a phone call to your mother, don't be shy"

"No, my mother is dead" Minho replied too calmly for what he had just said

Jisung grimaced, Minho noticed.

The journey continued to a 24-hour cafe on the main road where the 3 stopped

~

"Wasn’t your mother in Japan?" Jisung asked

"So what?"

"Being in Japan is different from being dead"

Minho didn't answer, there was a few seconds of silence, which was broken for the umpteenth time by Jisung

"What an asshole that is" he talked about the man who had given them a ride

"Why?" Minho asked

"He's just the worst kind of person ever"

"I think he's okay"

"But why are you defending him?! He's a murderer!"

"What?" Minho asked confused

"He was in the war, he killed people and now he buys a vicious dog to kill other dogs"

The man in question returned with the tray of food and drinks they had ordered

"Thank you" Minho thanked him as he sat down next to him, placing his wallet on the table that was half open, showing the photo of three people

"Is that your family?" Jisung asked

"Yes, this is my wife" he pointed to the woman in the center of the photo "and on her sides are my children"

"The one on the right has a potato face" Jisung commented

"What?" The man asked while pouring kilos of sugar into his coffee

"I was joking" he picked up the photo "it's more like a salami I'd say"

Minho glared at Jisung, who didn't seem to understand and so he decided to show the photo to Minho "come on it's true, look!"

"No" Minho replied

"Fuck, what a pain in the ass you are" Jisung slammed his fist on the table before getting up and leaving the place

"I'm sorry" Minho apologized

"No, don't worry" the man smiled at him putting his wallet back in his pocket "your friend has quite a temper, or am I wrong?"

"Oh well...yeah sometimes" Minho shrugged "How was it in the army?" He then asked

"Pretty good"

"Did you killed anyone?"

"It's in the contract"

"How many?"

"Well it was stupid to keep count"

Minho would have kept count for sure

"I'm going to the bathroom" the boy began making the man move to pass, who immediately after followed him

Jisung wasn't good at apologizing to people, but he knew that sometimes he had to.
But when he went back into the place he didn't see Minho and the man in their place.

The two were in the bathroom, using the urinal next to each other

"What did you do to your hand?" The man asked noticing the scar on it, he got no answer.

He approached.

He reached out and took Minho's hand to look at it more closely.

Then he sniffed it.

Sometimes Minho let things happen, even the ones he didn't like.
He didn't know why, he was allowing that man to touch himself with his hand.

Jisung walked into the bathroom and saw the scene, he frowned

"What's going on?" He asked, and immediately the man straightened his pants pretending nothing had happened "where do you think you're going?" Jisung turned to the man who was already running out of the bathroom

"Well... the dog doesn't come home alone"

"The wallet" Jisung demanded

"What?"

"The wallet" he repeated

"No..."

"Give me the fucking wallet or I swear I'll go to your family and tell them what you do with kids in the bathroom!"

"No, you won't," the man sighed

"I'll go to the police, too," he held out his hand, and the threat hit home. The man gave him his wallet and walked away.

~

"He took my hand," Minho explained

The two were sitting at the outside tables of the cafe

"You know that if they make you do something you can also refuse?"

"Yes."

"You know?"

"Yes."

Jisung turned to him

"And why didn't you react? Did something happen to you when you were little?"

"No."

"I'm tired." Jisung stood up

~

The two walked to a small inn

"Double room?" the receptionist asked

"Yes, double room, with double bed for double sex"

Jisung really wanted to cry.

The woman bent down and then gave them the keys to a room.

"Let's watch TV" Jisung asked

"Okay" Minho turned it on

"Look for porn"

Minho did so and immediately the room began to resonate with sounds and moans.

Jisung began to cry, but had to take refuge in the bathroom so Minho wouldn't see him.
Meanwhile, the other, in the room, had taken his knife out of his boot and was waiting behind the door for Jisung to come out of the bathroom.

Minho heard him sobbing, and his hands still gripping the weapon shook.

When he heard Jisung flush the toilet, he put the knife away and went back to bed

"Are you okay?" he asked

"I'll get something to eat from the vending machine" was the only answer he got

But Jisung lied.
He inserted a coin into the hotel landline, when James answered on the other end, he didn't speak, he remained silent

"Hello? Is that you, Jisung?"

The mother present jumped when she heard her partner say the name of the son she hadn't seen for days

"Yes, it's you" the man sneered

"Can talk to my mom?" Jisung finally spoke

"No, she doesn't want to talk to you"

It wasn't true.

Jisung hung up the phone.
The woman went back to her household chores pretending nothing had happened

Jisung was sitting in the hotel lobby leafing through a small book called 'diary of a special child' where he kept all the messages his father had sent him

~

The moans from the television still filled the room

"Can I turn it off?" Minho asked

"Yes"

After minutes of silence Jisung spoke again in a broken voice

"I'm not going home anymore, they don't want me. You can"

"But I don't want to"

"And you want me?"

Minho's eyes widened

"Do you want me, or are you adapting to the situation?"

"No, I want you"

"I'm going to my father's, you can come if you want"

"Yes...okay"

Jisung turned his back to Minho and lay down on the bed

"Minho"

"Yes?"

"Can you hug me?"

Minho slowly leaned down and wrapped Jisung in his arms, stroking his shoulder with his thumb.

Jisung closed his eyes and fell asleep, Minho couldn't get a wink of sleep.

~

"The police, thank you" his father at home was talking on the phone

~

Before closing his eyes, Minho had more distorted images in his head.

A knife falling into a pool of blood

~

Jisung was clinging to Minho, his head resting on his chest. Minho stared at the ceiling, sighing from time to time, as the memory of his mother gently comforting him on the porch resurfaced in his mind.

With one hand, he shook Jisung’s arm, waking him up.

“Hey.”

Sometimes, Minho seemed like someone Jisung could truly fall in love with. Other times, he felt like a complete stranger.

~

“There are thirty extra coins for checking out past the limit,”

said the receptionist, who had just finished counting the coins Jisung had placed on the counter.

“Alright,” Jisung pulled out more banknotes and handed them to her.

“So much cash!” the woman remarked in surprise.

“Bank robbery,” Jisung winked at her. “Keep the change, consider it a tip.”

The woman watched them leave the inn, doubtful—but she pocketed the money anyway.

~

“We could take a train to your father,” Minho suggested as he followed Jisung through a wheat field.

“Maybe.”

What if he doesn’t want to see me? Jisung thought.

“Shall we do that?”

“Do what?”

“Take a train to your father.”

He probably won’t even recognize me, he thought again.

“We’re going, right?”

“Yeah!” Jisung stopped. “But let’s wait a few days before taking a train or anything. It’s better to lay low.”

“Why?” Minho pressed, crossing his arms.

“Because we robbed that guy.”

“But he harassed me,” Minho protested.

“Doesn’t matter. For now, it’s better to disappear.”

“Going to your father isn’t disappearing?”

“Why do you keep going on about my father? He’s far from here. We need a place around here, somewhere nice where we can relax.”

They kept walking through the fields for hours until, behind a hedge, they found the perfect place to “relax”—

A huge villa with a swimming pool.

“Holy shit,” Jisung muttered, stepping into the massive courtyard, followed by Minho, who, as usual, kept his comments to himself.

Still, he couldn’t help but ask, “How do you know we’re safe here?”

“It’s obvious—no alarms, dust everywhere, which means no housekeepers. Plus, the mail is at least a week old.”

Minho sighed.

“Breaking into someone’s house is what you call laying low?” he asked as he watched Jisung pick up a large rock.

Jisung didn’t answer. Instead, he threw the rock, shattering a window and giving them a way inside.

“Nice,” Jisung grinned, stepping into the grand living room.

There was a massive bookshelf filled with books—all by the same author. On the cover page was a picture of a man, the same man in a framed photo at the villa’s entrance.

“You think he’s the owner?” Minho compared the two photos, both showing a mustached man. “He teaches at a university.”

“Anyone who keeps this many pictures of himself on display is kinda weird,” Jisung scoffed, walking away from the photo. He opened a small cabinet, revealing several bottles of hard liquor.

“Hey,” he smirked, turning to Minho. “Look what I found.”

Without hesitation, he opened a bottle and took a sip.

Jisung didn’t have much respect for other people—or their belongings.

As he sipped the liquor, he wondered if he should become an alcoholic. In his mind, it meant always having something to do.

He handed the bottle to Minho, who nearly gagged after taking a sip.

They went upstairs to the villa’s second floor and entered what appeared to be the master bedroom. It was large and filled with light.

“I think this will do,” Jisung remarked, satisfied.

“Yeah,” Minho replied, though eyeing him skeptically.

“We can settle here and take our time planning the trip.”

“Yeah.”

Jisung started thinking about what two adults would do in a situation like this.

“Let’s go drink some wine downstairs. You in?”

“Yeah, okay,” Minho sighed. “Are you hungry?”

“I’m always hungry.”

~

They prepared something quick and sat by the edge of the pool to eat.
It wasn’t the crap Jisung had expected.

“That was really good, thanks,” he said to Minho, who had done the cooking. “Did you have a teacher?”

“I taught myself.”

The alternative was type 2 diabetes, given the junk takeout his father always ate.

“Come on, let’s wash the dishes,” Jisung said, grabbing both plates—then tossing them into the pool.

~

Among the many things in that house, there was also a record player. Jisung had put on a country song and started dancing, swaying his hips like an idiot, while Minho sat on the couch, watching him and sipping the gin they had opened earlier.

Still moving to the beat, Jisung stepped closer and reached out for the bottle. He took a long sip before going back to his wild, uncoordinated dancing. Some people felt embarrassed when they danced—Jisung didn’t. Those were the moments he felt the most like himself.

If anything, Jisung felt embarrassed when he spoke—or rather, right after, when he realized he had said something stupid.

“We should do this completely naked!”

There it was—something stupid.

Minho had to fight back a smile as Jisung moved closer, pointed a finger at him, and gestured for him to join in. Normally, Minho didn’t dance. But saying no to Jisung wasn’t easy. So he let himself be pulled into the center of the room.

Jisung handed him the bottle. Minho took a sip but remained still.

“Come on, close your eyes.”

“What?”

“Close your eyes, I promise I won’t look.”

Jisung closed his eyes first and started dancing again. Minho took another sip, set the bottle on the table, then sighed and shut his eyes too. He began moving awkwardly to the rhythm of that stupid country song—and to Jisung.

A moment later, Jisung opened his eyes and watched him. He looked beautiful, dancing like that, smiling like an idiot.

Jisung grabbed his shoulders, spun him around a couple of times, then stopped him right in front of him.

He knew Minho would never make the first move.

So he kissed him.

And Minho kissed him back.

“Come here,” Jisung said, guiding Minho to sit on the couch while he stood in front of him. “Your belt,” he urged, watching as Minho unfastened it before kneeling down between his legs.

Whoever said men were obsessed with sex had clearly never met Minho.

It was Jisung’s first time doing something like this, and he could only hope he knew what he was doing.

He looked up at Minho before lowering himself, taking him into his mouth. Minho let out a shaky sigh.

“Everything okay?”

“Y-yeah.”

Jisung continued—but was stopped again.

“Wait. Jisung, please stop.”

“What?”

“It’s… killing the mood,” Minho muttered, gesturing toward the framed photo of the villa’s owner, who seemed to be staring right at them.

Jisung turned to look at the photo, then back at Minho. He stood up.

“You said you wanted me, didn’t you?” His tone was sharp, almost challenging.

“I did.”

He did.

“No, you didn’t.” Jisung held Minho’s gaze for a moment before whispering, “Fuck you,” and walking outside.

“Jisung!”

Minho usually didn’t feel things. For a long time, it had been his specialty—not feeling anything, not even trying to. Not once.

He stepped onto the porch, pulled a handful of yellow flowers from a potted plant, and placed them in a small glass jar.

There were a lot of bottles of bleach in that house, he noticed.

~

Meanwhile, Jisung wandered through the unfamiliar place. In his eyes, the world was disgustingly bleak. He threw himself into things just to avoid thinking about it.
If you keep busy, you stay distracted.

“How old are you?” asked the equally unfamiliar boy walking beside him.

“19,” Jisung replied.

“You’re joking.”

He pulled out his ID as proof. The boy glanced at the photo.

“You look better in real life.”

“Fuck off.”

But it was true. His mother used to say it was his secret weapon—not exactly a compliment, but he got what she meant.

“What did you say your name was?”

“Jisung.”

“Jisung,” the boy repeated.

“And you?” Jisung asked.

“Chan.”

“What kind of name is that?” Jisung grimaced.

The boy laughed.

“It’s my Korean name, but everyone calls me by my Australian name—Christopher.”

“That’s weird. Can’t you just keep one name?”

“I know. Well, I guess I’m just abnormal,” Chan chuckled.

Jisung stopped and looked at him for a few seconds.
Then, without a word, he kept walking and kissed him—leaving Chan speechless.

“Do you have a boyfriend?”

“No.”

Jisung kissed him again.

~

"Damn, do you live here?" Chan asked as they entered the villa's garden

"We are squatters"

"we?"

They entered the door, Minho was in the living room with the flowerpot in his hand

"Minho, this is Chan" he introduced him holding his hand "he and I are going up to have sex"

Being with Jisung, Minho was starting to feel something. It was him who was making him feel something, and he didn't like it.

He put the flowerpot away

~

"What?" Jisung sighed, seeing Chan thoughtful.

"Is there someone filming? You're a minor, I could get in trouble."

"Do me a favor, shut up" Jisung undressed, urging the other to do the same.

Jisung had tricked him.
Distorted images appeared in Minho's mind once again.
He had to wait for the right moment, so he thought about taking a look around the house.
He opened some cabinets, found an old video camera, some photos attached.

Polaroids, boys with bruises, each one had the victim's name written on it with a marker.

Minho put them away, then watched the videos.

Rapes. A man who whispered sweet words

"Shit," Minho whispered

~

“You’re amazing, Jisung. Fuck, you’re really something else,” Chan sighed against his lips.

“Thanks,” Jisung grinned before kissing him again.

This wasn’t right. Not at all.

Thanks, Minho.

He pushed Chan away.

“I changed my mind. Sorry, but this isn’t happening.”

“You’re joking?”

“No.”

“But you can—”

“No, I can’t.”

Chan reached out, running his fingers through Jisung’s hair.

“Come on, Jisung… I really like you.”

“Then accept that I changed my mind and get the fuck out,” Jisung snapped, pushing his hand away.

Chan sighed, started getting dressed, and left. As he walked down the stairs, he glanced at Minho.

“He’s a fucking cocktease!” he shouted before storming out.

“Yeah, alright, I’ll let him know,” Minho muttered.

~

Minho went upstairs and knocked on the bedroom door, where Jisung had locked himself in ever since Chan had left.

“Jisung?”

“Go away.”

For Jisung, sex could turn from something he wanted into pure torment in an instant.

Minho sat outside the door for hours, reading a book written by the owner of the house, waiting for Jisung to fall asleep.

Then, he slowly pushed the door open and stepped inside.
Jisung was asleep.

Minho pulled a knife from his pocket and looked at his face.
With his eyes closed, Jisung looked a lot less angry.

He knelt beside the bed, lowering himself to Jisung’s level.
Jisung stirred slightly in his sleep.

Minho lay down next to him, though at the foot of the bed.
Jisung’s hand dangled off the edge, and Minho reached out, barely brushing his fingers against it.

He traced gentle lines along his palm.

~

"Thank you and have a good evening" a man with a mustache approached the front door.
Minho heard the sound of the lock from the bedroom and crawled under the bed.

The man immediately noticed that something was wrong in the house, especially the amount of empty alcohol bottles on the living room table.
He climbed the stairs slowly, Minho felt his breath catch when he crossed the bedroom door and turned on the light seeing Jisung in bed, who had woken up hearing the noises

"How did you get in?" he asked

"I-I apologize"

The man put his hands up, putting the knife he was holding in his hand for protection behind his back "it's okay...I got scared"

He put the knife on the nightstand

"Are you in trouble? Don't you know where to stay?"

Jisung didn't answer, he just looked at the man with wide eyes

"Are you alone?"

"Yes"

The man closed the bedroom door, turned to Jisung and sat on the bed next to him

"You made a big mess downstairs" he bounced slightly on the mattress "you ate my porridge too, huh?" He laughed immediately after

"What"

"Shh stay still, you're a virgin huh?"

He grabbed his wrist, Jisung started to cry.
The man slapped him, making him walk away and getting on top of him.

The last thing Jisung saw was blood gushing out, the man falling to the ground as a pool of blood spread from his throat, and Minho with a knife in his hand.

Both stood, staring at the man on the ground dying bloodlessly

"You...are a virgin?" Minho asked with a trembling voice

"Yes"

"Me too"

"Oh but don't tell me" Jisung replied with a sarcastic tone, and the white shirt he was wearing was soaked in blood

~

They lit a fire in the fields and after putting the evidence of the murder in a bag, they burned it along with Jisung's blood-stained clothes

"Isn't it bullshit to wear his clothes?" Minho frowned when he saw Jisung wearing the victim's shirt

"I'd say that killing him was bullshit" Jisung replied through gritted teeth

Minho couldn't argue.

~

Six hours before.

Minho vomited at the sight of his work, the dead man lying on the ground in his own blood.

"Should we go to the police?" He asked with a shaking voice.

"What?"

"It's self-defense."

"We broke into his house, Minho."

"He would have hurt you."

"Do you think they would believe us?"

"But it's the truth."

Jisung was strangely calm.

He wasn't at all, actually.

"We have to get rid of him." Jisung stood in front of the body. "Move, Minho!"

"Sorry..."

They grabbed the body from both sides, but they couldn't lift it up. Dead bodies really did weigh more than living bodies.

"We have to clean everything up and get rid of all traces of us." Jisung explained.

But Minho was too busy staring at the corpse that seemed to be watching him, judging him.

"Minho, do you understand? We have to cover our tracks. If he doesn't disappear, we have to disappear. Find some bleach, take off your shoes and clean up that blood."

It was really a mess.

Jisung knew what to do, and Minho thought that if he did what he said, everything would be fine.

Jisung didn't know if it was the right thing to do, but he thought about what you saw on TV when there was a situation like this.

Jisung also advised Minho to put some music on the record player, maybe it would help them, and it did.

They started cleaning the whole house, all the blood, from top to bottom, eliminating every trace of them. Minho put the murder weapon in the pool pipes, then closed the cap.

"Minho?" Jisung heard a noise from upstairs and found him next to the body, watching him

It wasn't what Minho expected, at all.

"What are you doing?"

"I don't know"

What the fuck was he doing? Jisung wondered

"What did you do..." he then sighed, exhausted by that situation

"He would have hurt you Jisung, really" Minho left the room and went to get the video camera and the photos he had seen the day before, he showed them to Jisung. He immediately looked away, but still pretended to be calm and impassive

"Okay, put everything around him and let's go"

Jisung kept telling himself to stay calm. But he was terrified.
The image of the blood gushing from the homeowner's throat kept appearing in his mind

Minho placed the photos and the video camera in perfect order around the body, and even gently closed his eyes that had remained open.

Much later, however, they would find out that they had ruined everything.

~

It was strange. Mostly, you don’t realize the important moments in your life when they happen. You only understand they were important later, when you look back.
For Jisung, there had been many ‘ends.’
For example, when he made the decision to run away from home. But for Jisung, the first conversation with Minho had been the beginning of something—a big, terrible thing, so terrible that it fucked up his life.

“We need to get to my dad’s before they find the body,” Jisung whispered as he watched the sack burn.

“Okay.”

“He’ll help us.” Jisung started walking, having to call Minho back, who was mesmerized by the flames.

They walked for several kilometers through the fields, Jisung holding his jacket in his hand.

“Why didn’t you burn it?” asked Minho.

“There were no bloodstains.”

“Yeah, but…”

Jisung widened his eyes and turned to Minho.

“I’m not burning this, it’s my father’s.”

~

They finally arrived at the train station, Minho was checking the schedules.

“I think it’s better to wait a bit. This one’s during rush hour,” he pointed to the train they were supposed to take on the board.

Jisung realized that something was off with Minho.
Damn, they had killed a man… what if someone had seen them? What if someone had seen them leave the house and recognized them?

Jisung pulled Minho by the sleeve.

“We need to change our appearance,” he suggested.

They bought a bleach dye at the supermarket, Jisung used it.
His nice brown hair was now blonde, just like his mother had always wanted.

As for Minho, Jisung cut a few locks of his hair.

They also changed clothes, buying them at a flea market.
But Minho’s disguise wasn’t as effective as Jisung’s, to be honest.
Minho pretty much looked the same.

Jisung, on the other hand, didn’t even recognize himself anymore.

“God, this place is so quiet…” Jisung made a face as he looked around, then leaned against a wall.

“Where did you get the knife you used to kill him? Was it yours?”

Minho didn’t know how to answer right away.

~

An elderly woman, meanwhile, entered the famous villa of the crime scene with several bags in her hands and shouted a name.

She looked for the owner.

Then she saw the body and screamed.

Of course, she called the police, who immediately began investigating the crime scene.

“It was the mother who found him,” commented one of the female officers. “There’s not a single clue.”

But then, a forensic officer found something under the bed, a wallet. Belonging to Chan.

The young man was immediately called to the station and began to explain himself.

“Calm down,” the female officers sighed and began trying to make sense of the situation. He told them everything that had happened.

And so, Chan found out everything.
He discovered that the owner was dead, and immediately realized everything.

~

“What do we do? Do we go to your father’s or not?”

“Maybe we should eat something,” Minho replied, and together they went to the nearest restaurant.

Jisung started acting strange with Minho.

“Anyway, my father gave me the knife,” for the first time, it was Minho who broke the silence at the table.

“What kind of knife is it?”

“A hunting knife.”

“And hunting is pretty common around here, huh?” Jisung replied sarcastically, not seeming to buy it. “Who carries a hunting knife around, Minho?”

Minho realized that Jisung was afraid of him. And it seemed a bit unfair, Minho had saved him.

~

“Did you notice anything particular about that guy?” the female officer asked Chan.

“The grumpy look. He was cute, but I have to say, average.”

“We don’t need you to give him a score from 1 to 10,” the sarcastic officer laughed. “What was he wearing?”

“Normally. He had jeans, a t-shirt, and… a strange jacket, brown leather, it was quite big on him. Oh! And he wasn’t alone, there was a guy with him in that house, I think his name was Minho.”

~

Minho decided to adopt a calmer and more relaxed attitude to reassure Jisung.

Jisung kept thinking that there was something wrong with Minho.

“Is everything okay?” Minho asked.

“Yes.”

It wasn’t working.

“What’s the problem?” Minho sighed.

“The problem, Minho, is that you killed a man. Every time I close my eyes and try to think of anything, I keep seeing his face, you stabbing him.”

The food was brought to the table, and Minho thanked them.

“Do you want some mustard?” Minho picked up the jar that contained it.

“On the fries?”

“Well, some people put it on.”

Finally, Jisung laughed, and Minho did too.
But right after, he became serious again, his eyes threatening to cry any moment.

“I’m going to the bathroom.”

~

“There’s confirmation for the guy’s alibi,” one of the two female officers signed some documents. “The man was killed between midnight and three, while Bangchan was at a party during that time, we have witnesses.”

“Okay…” she continued filling out the paperwork. “Note that we want to be informed about any sightings of crimes committed in the area by two young people, attach the description of the jacket and list their names among the missing persons. Either they killed him, or they know who did.”

~

Jisung’s heart couldn’t take it.
He opened the small bathroom window and left, leaving Minho alone at the table for half an hour before realizing that Jisung was gone.

That day, Minho had learned that silence could really be loud, deafening.
His father had spent his life trying to avoid silence, laughing at even the dumbest things that appeared on TV.

When there’s silence, it’s hard to push away the thoughts because they’re there, and you can’t get rid of them.
Minho had always been good at getting rid of them, at shutting them off.
But he knew that after that day, it wouldn’t be so easy anymore.

Minho walked and approached three guys on the street, clearly thugs, or at least not good people.

“Everything okay?” one of them asked him.

“Can you punch me? Really, please beat me up,” Minho begged them. “I’ll pay you,” he pulled out some bills and handed them over.

Lying on the ground, bleeding, he realized something.

It wasn’t him protecting Jisung, it was Jisung protecting him. He stayed on the ground, crying.

After finally killing a human being, Minho had also understood something important:

“Police, please,” he picked up the service phone receiver.

He was pretty sure he wasn’t a psychopath.

“I’m reporting a murder.”

~

11 Years Earlier

“How are you feeling? Better?” Minho’s father approached his mother from behind while she was in the kitchen, gently stroking her back. She smiled.

“What are you two going to do today?” the father asked, addressing Minho as well, who was having breakfast.

“We’re going to see the ducks!” the child responded excitedly.

“The ducks? That sounds great!” the father replied, while the mother immediately turned around, looking skeptical.

“Minho… not the ducks today.”

“Come on, sweetheart, you can make it there. Getting out will do you good,” her husband reassured her with a smile.

“Please, Mom,” Minho looked at her with puppy eyes. She couldn’t help but smile.

“Okay.”

The father gave his wife a kiss on the cheek before leaving for work.

In the car, Minho and his mother drove through a small wooded area behind their house to reach the pond, where she parked. Minho was about to get out, but his mother stopped him.

“Wait, I need to tell you something.” She hugged him. “I love you.”

“Can I go see the ducks?” Minho asked innocently, and after getting his mother’s approval, he ran off toward the animals, tossing them some bread.

Meanwhile, his mother fastened her seatbelt and unlocked the safety.

The car rolled into the pond and sank, right before the innocent eyes of the child, who couldn’t understand why he was now alone—standing beside his father in a cemetery, staring at a large stone with his mother’s name engraved on it.

~

“Thank you for coming.”

Minho heard the man’s voice as if it were muffled.

“Kid?”

“Yes?” He was jolted out of his thoughts.

“Sorry for the wait. I’m Detective Kim. I was told you’re here to report a murder.”

Suddenly, in the cold light of day, it didn’t feel right to Minho anymore.

“Uh… it was my mom,” he said awkwardly. “She committed suicide.”

The detective sat down next to him.

“Alright… do you want to tell me how you found out?”

“I was there when it happened.”

The detective’s eyes widened.

“You were there? Can you tell me when this happened? I assume last night?”

Minho shook his head. “No, 11 years ago.”

“I—I see… Let me try to explain. Technically, it’s not murder. Suicide is… very different. It’s not even considered a crime. Strange, isn’t it? And your father?”

“I don’t have a father.”

~

The police officers knocked on Minho’s father’s door, flashing their badges.

“Oh God, is it about Minho? Is he dead?” the father asked as soon as he opened the door.

“Your son stole your car, crashed it into a tree, and then set it on fire. We found it last night. Has he ever done anything like this before?”

The man shook his head. The other officer spoke up.

“Why didn’t you mention the car when you reported him missing?”

“I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to get him in trouble. He’s an odd one, but he’s not a bad kid.”

“And what happened to your eye?” the officer asked, pointing at his black eye.

“Uh… I got into a fight. At a pub.”

“It wasn’t Minho?”

“No.”

After a few moments of silence, the officers continued.

“Is his mother home? Or at work?”

“No, she’s dead.”

“Oh… I’m sorry.”

They had touched a sensitive subject, but despite that, the man kindly offered them coffee. The two officers exchanged a glance.

“Have you found his boyfriend by any chance?” he asked as he returned with the cups in hand. “His name is Jisung.”

For the two officers, the pieces were starting to come together.

~

Jisung had spent the night on a bench at the bus station.

He got up slowly, rubbing his eyes, then started walking again.

He thought he had done the right thing by leaving Minho—after all, he hadn’t killed anyone. And besides, it was better if Minho went to his father alone.

But Minho had the money.

~

The police officers, of course, also showed up at Jisung’s house.

“When was the last time you saw Jisung?” they asked his mother and her partner.

“Sunday,” her partner replied. “he ran away because he didn’t feel like serving pastries in the garden.”

“What time did he leave?”

“It must have been arou—”

The officer cut him off.

“Can you let your wife speak?”

James eyed the officers before smirking.

“Sure, not like he’s my kid anyway.”

They waited for him to step out of the house before continuing their questioning.

“Do you have any idea where Jisung might be? Has he contacted you?”

“No, I don’t know. But what’s going on?”

“We need to speak with Jisung in relation to a murder.”

“Oh my God… He’s not a suspect, is he?”

“Not for now.”

The officers filled out some paperwork before asking Jisung’s mother for a recent photo of him. Their attention shifted to a cabinet in the living room, covered in pictures of the parents with the twins—but not a single one with Jisung.

“Yes, I should have some upstairs,” the mother said as she got up to look for the photos.

~

Minho was still at the police station.

“I spoke with my superior,” the detective approached him after a long phone call. “He thinks the best option is to put you in touch with social services. They could help you, really. Unless there’s someone else who can.”

Images of the moments he had shared with Jisung flooded Minho’s mind.

“So… I’ll proceed,” the detective said, heading back to his office. “I just need some information. First of all—”

He turned around for a moment to grab a pen, but when he looked back—Minho was gone.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake…” the detective sighed.

~

Jisung had just entered a small clothing store and grabbed some spare underwear.

He glanced at himself in the mirror, noticing how rough he looked and wondering why, in movies, people on the run always seemed so cool.

He stuffed a pair of boxers into his father’s coat, but a security guard stopped him.

~

“How could he not run away, poor thing,” the two officers commented, having already understood the family situation Jisung had lived in.

Then, they started talking about something that had happened between them a few nights ago—nothing too clear.

They had probably had a drunken fling. Well, even cops aren’t perfect, after all.

~

Minho had run until he reached the main road. He walked along the side of it before entering a small town.

At the edge of an alley, he saw a blonde boy and immediately mistook him for Jisung. But when the boy turned around, he realized it wasn’t him and kept walking.

~

“Did you take anything else?” the security guard who had caught Jisung asked. “Arms out,” he ordered, showing him exactly how he was supposed to position himself. But Jisung refused.

“Would you rather deal with the police?” the guard threatened. Jisung had no choice but to comply and let himself be searched. He stretched out his arms as instructed. The man noticed a bruise on his wrist—the mark left by the mustached man when he had tried to make Jisung end up like so many of his other victims.

“What happened to you?” the guard asked. But Jisung didn’t answer.

“I don’t want to sleep with you!” Jisung blurted out, agitated.

“What?! I have absolutely no intention of having sex with you. I sleep with my wife.”

Shit. Jisung felt like a complete idiot.

“What happens to me now?”

“I have to file a report and call the police.”

No, not the police.

Just then, the guard’s radio buzzed. A store clerk spoke through it, informing him that a woman had lost her five-year-old daughter in the store.

The guard had to intervene.

“Stay here,” he ordered Jisung.

Did he? Absolutely not.

He grabbed the stolen underwear and bolted, slipping out the door carefully to avoid being seen.

As he turned the corner, he spotted a little girl on the street. The description matched the missing child from the store.

Jisung couldn’t ignore her. He took her back to her mother inside the store.

The guard shot him a glare. Jisung simply held out his wrists, gesturing for the man to cuff him.

Minho knew that Jisung was probably already far away, but it was important to try. He entered a diner and sat at a table.

Jisung had been brought back to the store’s security room and was thinking about how Minho must be freaking out right now, just as he had from that moment on.

The guard brought him a coffee.

“Are you okay?”

He handed him some cookies.

“Do you have a boyfriend? Or a girlfriend?” the guard asked.

Jisung dipped the cookies into the coffee and didn’t answer.

“Did your boyfriend give you that bruise?”

“No, it was someone else.”

He replayed the scene in his mind.

The guard sighed, looking him in the eyes.

“Alright, go ahead and leave.”

Jisung’s eyes widened.

“Really?”

“Yeah…” He handed Jisung the cookies, letting him take them with him. “Don’t steal anymore!” he yelled as Jisung left the store, feeling proud.
As he walked, he grabbed a shirt, went out into the street, and started running.

What the hell was he doing? He’d been asking himself that for a while now.
He put on his father’s jacket and thought about when Minho had hugged him while he slept.

He began to wonder if Minho was dead, and he also started to think he was a huge asshole.
Minho had saved him, and he had abandoned him.

Would he never see him again? He wondered as he entered a diner and saw Minho sitting at a table.

They smiled at each other shyly. Then Jisung sat down next to him.

“I lost the money,” Minho warned him.

“I’m not here for the money,” Jisung sighed. “I’m sorry I left you.”

“I’m sorry I killed him.”

“I won’t leave you again. Shall we go to my father’s?”

Jisung placed his hand on the table, palm facing up. Minho interlaced his fingers with Jisung’s.

Meanwhile, the forensics team had found the knife in the pipes of the pool at the villa.

Chapter Text

After the murder, other crimes seemed easy in comparison.
Like stealing a car, for example.

“How did you learn to do that?” Jisung asked, watching the other try to start the vehicle without using a key.

“Practice,” he shrugged. “I know how to do a lot of things.”

“Like what?”

“Embalming, building a dam, making yogurt…”

The car started.

“My dad’s gonna like you,” Jisung smiled.

The two finally set off, heading toward the final destination of their journey.
Well, a rather boring last trip, considering the stolen car’s radio was broken and there was only one CD, with just one working track.

~Keep on running
keep on hiding
one fine day I’m gonna be the one
to make you understand
Oh, yeah! I’m gonna be your man~

At first, it was fine—the song was good, and they both sang along happily.
After a while, they liked it less. They took out the CD and sat in silence for a few minutes.
It was Jisung who, as had often happened during that trip, broke the silence.

“Does what we did make you feel bad?”

Minho liked that he said we, talking about the incident.

“He was a bad man,” he replied.

“Yeah… and those kids in the pictures?”

“Yeah,” Minho echoed. Then Jisung spoke again.

“We did the world a favor. If I were the police, I’d give us both medals.”

Instead, they were murder suspects.

Jisung put on a pair of bizarre sunglasses he had found on the car’s dashboard, turned to Minho, and laughed as he looked at himself in the mirror.

As time passed, Minho felt different. Like he was new.
Jisung had come back for him, they were doing something, they were going somewhere.
Minho felt good.

“Oh, fuck… Jisung, wake up.”

He shook Jisung awake after a few hours of sleep to warn him that the car’s fuel gauge was in the red.

They pulled into a small gas station.
At the register stood a young man with black hair and a white streak, wearing the store’s blue uniform.
His boss was scolding him for not encouraging a customer to buy one of the keychains on sale—the proceeds were donated to cancer research.

“Alright, I’ll keep the engine running. You fill up the tank, but not too much—we’re not far from your dad’s place. That way, we can leave without drawing attention, okay?”

Then Minho smiled.

“You’re coming out of your shell, huh?” Jisung was surprised. He leaned in and pressed a sweet kiss to his lips. “Cool,” he grinned.

The gas station owner, noticing Jisung struggling to pump gas, stepped outside to help.

“Good morning, need some assistance?” she asked kindly. “You can’t refuel with the engine running,” she pointed out.

“Oh… really?” Jisung gestured to Minho to turn off the car. Minho rolled down the window, confused.

“You should turn off the engine,” the woman explained.
Minho yanked out one of the wires.

“Here, let me help you,” she offered, and immediately began filling up the car herself.
At the same time, she subtly signaled to the cashier to call the police—something about them felt off.

“All set, let’s go to the register,” she said, leading Jisung inside.

Jisung thought that if they got caught for this, he’d have to kill himself. Out of sheer embarrassment.

“Card or cash? Wanna buy a cancer keychain?” the cashier asked.

His boss, through gritted teeth, hissed at him that this was not the time.

“Is there a bathroom?” Jisung asked, sensing the risk.

“No.”

“You want me to piss myself?” Jisung raised an eyebrow. “I’m going to the bathroom.”

He started walking, but the woman grabbed his wrists and shoved him against the counter.

"Jeongin! Call the police," the woman ordered her employee.

~

“Here, do you recognize this?”

The two police officers placed a knife on the table at the station, showing it to Minho’s father.

“I gave it to him for his birthday,” he nodded.

“How old was he turning?” They frowned.

“Thirteen.”

“Excuse us, but how can you give a thirteen-year-old boy a hunting knife?” the two asked, bewildered.

“He asked for it. Actually, no—he originally wanted a machete, but I thought that was a bit too much,” he shrugged.

The officers let out a sigh.

“This knife has been identified as a murder weapon,” one of them explained.

“What? No… Minho is a little odd, sure, but he’s definitely not… not dangerous.”

~

“Let him go or I’ll rip your fucking head off, got it?!” Minho entered with one arm extended as if he had a gun, covered by a cloth.

“You only have your hand under there,” the owner raised her eyebrows without letting go of Jisung.

“No.”

“Then what kind of gun do you have, huh?!”

Minho closed his eyes and sighed. He knew about weapons; he could get out of this situation easily.

“It’s a Glock 17MB with an ambidextrous magazine release system and recoil operation.”

“Jeongin, call the police,” the woman said, still holding tightly to Jisung as she stepped back.

With one move, Minho lunged toward Jisung and the woman, managing to push her and lock her in a closet—or no, it was the bathroom.

“See? It was the bathroom,” Jeongin chuckled.

Jisung rolled his eyes and started to leave the shop, with Minho following him.

“I don’t like my life,” Jeongin said, catching their attention.

“Then do something about it,” Jisung replied.

Jeongin turned off the store’s security cameras, grabbed the infamous keychains his boss always made him sell, and dumped them on the floor. Then he flipped off the door where the owner was locked inside.

“Nice one, Jeongin!” Jisung clapped, and Jeongin threw some lighters on the floor too.

~

“I find all of this strange,” one of the two policewomen said. “They stole the car and he has a knife, but why go as far as to kill?”

“He got the knife as a gift when he was thirteen,” the other replied, as if the answer to the question was obvious.

“I got an air rifle at ten,” the first one shot back, “and I almost blinded my sister.”

~

Meanwhile, the situation at the gas station was getting a bit out of hand.
Jeongin was drinking a bottle of milk and kept breaking things on the floor.
It was probably time to leave.

“Jeongin, we need to go now,” Minho explained.

“Cool, yeah! Where are we going? I’m coming with you! What should I bring? Water, snacks… they’ll give us energy!” He shoved everything into Minho’s hands. “Do you guys smoke, by the way?” he asked, heading toward the cigarette counter.

“Uh, no…” both of them replied in unison.

“Well, I do! Starting now.”

Jeongin turned around to grab a few packs, and while his back was turned, Jisung gave Minho a look—it was time to go.

“I’ll go start the car,” Minho said, making up an excuse to step outside.

Meanwhile, Jisung pointed out a bottle of expensive whiskey on top of the display case. Jeongin immediately turned to grab it.
His trust in them was honestly touching—and Jisung did feel a little bad about it, but… what would you have done?

Jisung took the chance and ran out of the store, jumped into the car, and the two of them drove off immediately.

“We’re fucking outlaws!” Jisung shouted excitedly, then kissed Minho, who kissed him right back.

~

“We’re sorry to have to bring this up, but there are a few things we’d like to clarify.”

The two policewomen were speaking with the victim’s mother.

“A few years ago, from what we’ve gathered, there were rumors of complaints made against your son by some students. Can you tell us anything about that?”

“Of course. I can tell you that a lot of time has passed since then, and in any case, both complaints were withdrawn. And I’ll tell you something else—those kids, instead of admitting they had bad grades because they didn’t study or were constantly high, found it easier to accuse an innocent person of assault and harassment.”

The policewoman shook her head.

“Was there anyone who might have had a grudge against him?”

“I’d appreciate it if you got on with your job and found out who murdered my son, instead of trying to blame him for his own death. And now I’ll show you to the door.”

The two headed for the exit. One of them turned back before leaving.

“It’s always wise to reckon with the truth—especially if it comes out later. And in cases like this, in my experience, it usually does.”

The woman clenched her jaw. “Now get out,” she said, kicking them out.

“My condolences,” the officer said with a smile before leaving.

~

Jisung was starting to feel more like himself.
Sometimes he thought he felt more like himself with Minho than he did alone.

“Hey! Should we stop?” Jisung pointed to a small roadside service phone.

Everything seemed so much simpler with Minho.

Jisung got out of the car and inserted a coin to make the phone work. He dialed a number, and after a few moments, a woman answered—his mother.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Mom.”

“Oh my God, Jisung… where the hell are you? The police came—”

Jisung sighed.

“Now shut your mouth and listen. You’re never going to see me again, I’m not coming home.”

“What happened, Jisung? Where are you?” Her voice was shaking. “Are you with your father?”

“No.”

“Please, Jisung, come back home.”

“One last thing: tell James to go fuck himself,” he said, referring to his mother’s boyfriend.

He hung up the phone and went back to the car.

~

“Yeji,” the policewoman was called by the head of the department, who was accompanying an elderly woman—the victim’s mother—holding a video camera in her hands.

The policewoman stepped outside and rushed off to find her colleague. She found her in a nearby restaurant and immediately ordered her to get back to work—she had to see what was on those recordings.

She showed her the footage.

“Holy shit…”

~

“Okay, let’s do this,” Jisung sighed.
They had arrived in front of his father’s house.

“You ready for this?”

“Fuck yes, Minho! We killed a maniac, we’re outlaws, and now I’m finally here—at my dad’s. Let’s go.”

The two got out of the car and walked toward the small house that had belonged to Jisung’s father.
He knocked on the door, but a woman answered.

“Excuse me, is… Mr. Han here?”

“Mr. Han doesn’t live here anymore,” the woman said at first. “But who are you?” she then asked.

“Do you know where we can find him?” Minho asked.

~

“It’s murder. Whatever he did before, they slit his throat and ran.”

Yeji sighed.

“What if it was self-defense?”

“Then it would be manslaughter.”

There were several moments of silence, broken only by the radio in the car.
Another officer reported to the two policewomen that they had found Minho and Jisung’s last known location—the gas station.

~

Jisung got out of Minho’s car. They had pulled over to the side of the road, the engine was smoking.
Jisung kicked the vehicle.

“How do you know we’re going the right way?” he asked as Minho led him down a country road.

“That woman said first left and then first left again, so I guess it’s this way.”

When you realize that what’s been keeping you going is a lie—when you truly understand that the thing you’ve always believed in might’ve been false—it feels like swallowing a stone.
Not a recent one, either; a stone you swallowed years ago.

“What if he’s an asshole? He didn’t even tell me he moved…”

“Maybe it’s recent,” Minho reassured him, gently patting his shoulder.

The sun had set, giving way to the calm of night. And maybe, finally, to Jisung’s calm as well.
They reached the house the woman had described.
Jisung was terrified.

“I’m really scared.”

Minho placed a hand on his shoulder. He stepped forward and knocked on the door.

It opened.

A disheveled man wearing a bathrobe and with a cigarette hanging from his mouth stood in the doorway.

“Hi, Dad,” Jisung said timidly.

The man took a long drag from his cigarette.

“Oh my god… Jisung?”

Jisung gave a crooked smile as the man burst into laughter, came down the few steps between them, and pulled him into a hug.

The smell was exactly as Jisung remembered.

Minho figured it was best to give Jisung and his father some time alone.

The two sat on the couch, sipping beer.

“That little faggot?” his father asked casually.
Jisung’s heart skipped a beat—but after all, he had just seen his father again after years. He didn’t want to hide anything.

“He’s my boyfriend,” he shrugged.

There were a few seconds of silence, and then, as if he’d already forgotten what they were talking about, Jisung’s father changed the subject.

“This jacket—mine?” he asked, noticing what Jisung was wearing. Jisung nodded.

“Looks good on you,” he smiled. “You know, you really turned out well? You look great.”

“Oh, come on, Dad…”

“No, no! I mean it. When you were little, you had such a weird face. I’m glad. You smoke?” he asked, pulling out a pack of cigarettes.
Jisung didn’t answer—he just took another sip of beer.

“Your mom?”

“She’s fine. Her husband’s a dickhead, but yeah… she’s fine. Can we stay here for a bit?”

Jisung hoped the answer would be yes.
Not just because it would help with their current escape, but—though he hated to say it out loud—he missed his father terribly.

“Of course, you’re my flesh and blood,” his father said, licking a long rolling paper.

“Great. Thanks!”

“So you ran away, huh? Left your mother behind?”

Jisung nodded.

“Flesh of my flesh,” his father repeated, taking a hit from the joint before handing it to his son and chuckling.

“We have a problem,” Jisung started, after taking a drag.
Minho was in the other room, quietly listening in on their conversation.
Jisung wanted to tell his father what they’d done—eventually.
But for now, he just said:

“We don’t know where to go.”

“Well, you’re safe here. Stay as long as you want,” his father said with a smile, then called out to Minho to ask if everything was alright.
Minho turned and gave him two thumbs up.

It got late. Jisung’s father showed them where they’d sleep.

“That turns into a bed,” he said, tossing a blanket onto it.

“Oh, it’s a pull-out couch! Cool!” Jisung bounced a little in place.

“No, no—it’s just a couch you can sleep on,” his dad replied, instantly killing the enthusiasm.
“I sleep at the end of the hallway. Bathroom’s on the right.”
He gave Jisung a hug before heading off to bed.

To Jisung, he seemed like a decent guy—through and through.

Well… except for the part where he went out naked every morning into the fields to pee and howl like a wolf.
Yeah, he did that.

Jisung’s dad was definitely… unique.

“Minho?”

“Yeah?”

“Wanna throw some knives?” the man asked, beer in hand.

“…What?”

“You’ve never tried?!” He stood up, genuinely shocked. Minho shook his head.

“Take off your shirt.”

Minho did.
He was led to a spot out in the fields where there was a large wooden target.
Jisung’s dad threw a knife at it, hitting the mark, then smiled proudly and handed one to Minho—who also hit the target, surprising him.

“All luck,” Minho shrugged.

Jisung’s dad handed him a beer, which he gladly accepted.

Later, Minho stood at the top of the hill, waving goodbye.

“Do you take care of him?” the father asked, sipping from his can.

“I do.”

“Good. That’s a good thing.”
He took another sip.
“Did he ever talk to you about me?”

“Yeah.”

“And? Do you… think he loves me?”

“Yeah,” Minho nodded.

The father laughed and hugged him.

Minho had never met anyone like Mr. Han. He wasn’t an adult, he didn’t seem like one. But it was as if… there were pieces of him missing.

~

“What has he done to his hair…” Jisung’s mother stared at the surveillance footage that showed him with Minho at the gas station.

“As you can see,” the policewoman began, “it appears your sons have committed another crime, a very serious one.”

“No! Jisung didn’t do anything!” His mother pointed at the video. “It’s him! He has a weapon!” She was referring to the scene where Minho was entering, pretending to have a gun.

“Do you know where he could have gotten that weapon?” They asked Minho’s father.

“He’s never had a gun, he only had a knife,” he answered, receiving a sharp glare from Jisung’s mother, who then stood up and left the office, followed by her husband.

“Tomorrow’s his birthday,” Minho’s father sighed. “He’s turning 21…” He pulled out his wallet and showed a picture of himself, Minho, and the late mother. “See, his mother killed herself, right in front of him.” He started crying.

~

“I hope you like them well done!” Jisung’s father brought out some hamburgers, practically charred.

It was a beautiful day, even though it was late October, so they were having lunch outside.

“We could go boating,” his father suggested, making Jisung’s eyes light up. “If you want, I’ll take you in the afternoon.”

“Sure.”

Minho and Jisung went down to the shore to check out the boat. It wasn’t huge. It was a small cabin cruiser, but to two young dreamers like them, it looked like a luxury cruise ship.

“Unbelievable! My dad has a boat… it’s almost like I own it!” Jisung watched the boat, excited.

“Alright, let’s go!” Mr. Han was climbing the hill to join them but cursed when a man, probably a neighbor, stopped him to talk about shifts or something similar.

“Change of plans, guys. We’ll go boating later. I need to stay home and work a bit. You two relax.”

“Okay.”

~

“We can assume they’re heading to Jisung’s father’s house, Mr. Han. He has a criminal record, nothing serious. Restraining orders and suspensions. The local officers tried to find him when we identified Jisung, but the address they had no longer exists. However, the suspect’s mother is convinced he’s there, so we’ll make a stop.”

The policewoman gave precise instructions to her team.

~

“You’ll see, he’ll take us there,” Jisung suddenly said, sitting on the porch watching his father. He was probably saying it more to convince himself.

“I know,” Minho replied.

The man put what was obviously a smoke bomb in his pocket, and Minho smirked.

“I think your dad deals drugs.”

“So what?”

“But—”

“What?!” Jisung raised his voice.

It seemed like he was doing it on purpose not to understand.

“Do you think this is the right place for us?” Minho continued. Jisung rolled his eyes. “We killed a man,” Minho whispered in his ear, to remind him of the gravity of their situation.

“You’re too scared. He takes care of us, we’re completely safe,” Jisung said as he got up and went to his father, who introduced him to his colleague, who greeted them by firing a shot into the air.

They were definitely not safe.

~

“We have to find them before they do something else,” Yeji said to her colleague.

“Or… we could not intervene for a few days.”

“What?!” she frowned.

“Well, we should let him enjoy his last birthday before we throw him in prison,” she said, clenching her fist with bitterness.

“He’s just a kid…”

“No. He’s not.”

~

Jisung and Minho were sitting on the porch, watching Mr. Han dealing drugs to some clearly underage kids. Minho wrinkled his nose.

“What?” Jisung asked, noticing.

“Nothing,” Minho shrugged, holding back a laugh.

“They have to get it from someone,” Jisung said, justifying it.

They moved farther out into the fields; Mr. Han was doing push-ups shirtless and talking about drugs.

“It’s all locally sourced, organic,” he said. “And bio. None of that gang war crap. What a world, huh?! They’re always like, ‘Hey kids! Don’t do drugs!’ but then they pressure their mom for a fancy phone built from the sweat and tears of some modern-day slave. Fight the system, kids, ‘cause we’re living in a seriously messed-up time. The smartest thing anyone ever told me is: ‘Being crazy in a messed-up world isn’t madness—it’s common sense.’”

Jisung smiled. “Who said that?”

“I did,” his dad grinned proudly, and to Jisung, he looked like some kind of Gandhi.

Mr. Han talked a lot.

~

“You know, the murder might’ve been self-defense.”

The two officers were sitting in the car.

“Well, there’s no evidence of that, so we can’t assume it.”

“But we can’t rule it out either,” Yeji defended them again. “I feel sorry for them. They’re just two messed-up kids who’ve done wrong, but I don’t think—”

The other cut her off.

“I don’t care why. I want to catch them before they kill someone else! We’re not social workers. What’s the point of you feeling sorry for those two, huh?! Our job is to find them.”

“I’m convinced he doesn’t have a gun.”

“Well, we’d better act like he does.”

Yeji sighed.

“I’m just saying—let’s try talking to them before we start pointing weapons.”

~

“So, what do you think?” Jisung asked Minho, who was leaning against Mr. Han’s trailer, watching him in the middle of yet another shady deal. Sometimes, lying was necessary.

“Yeah, it’s normal,” Minho replied, voice tilted. “In a good way.”

“You don’t get it,” Jisung shook his head.

Their conversation was interrupted by his father, who stretched and offered them a beer.

“Weren’t we supposed to go out on the boat?” Jisung asked.

“Sweetheart, I’m wiped today. But tomorrow—we’ll go for sure, I promise.”

Jisung walked over to his dad, who immediately wrapped an arm around his shoulder and started leading him across the field, calling Minho to come along.

They got in the car and drove to a small shop in the village—a brewery.

It was strange. Jisung had wanted something for so long, always afraid it would end up being a disappointment. But it wasn’t. It was actually amazing.

His dad kissed the bartender on the lips, then turned to the two boys.

“What are you drinking?” he asked.

~

“You haven’t seen either of them?”

The two detectives were showing photos of the suspects to a blonde woman.

“No, I already told you.”

“And Mr. Han?” they pressed.

“I have no idea, he moved out months ago.”

The two women walked away. The blonde smirked as she took a drag from her cigarette.

~

Country music filled the room.

“Jisung?”

“Yeah?”

“Maybe we shouldn’t stay here too long. Maybe we should keep moving,” Minho suggested.

“Do what you want,” Jisung shrugged, smiling as his father brought snacks to the table, then grabbed him and pulled him to the center of the room to dance.

“I missed you,” his father said, hugging him. “Let’s do that thing!”

“What thing?” Jisung asked, confused.

His father lifted him just enough to place Jisung’s feet on his own, leading him in the dance.

Jisung felt distant from Minho.
They had gone back in time.

His father suddenly started crying on his shoulder. “I haven’t seen you in ten years,” he muttered.

“Dad…”

“I’m useless… I’m not worth shit,” he pulled away and covered his face with his hands.

“That’s not true! That’s not true… you sent a birthday card every year, that’s something!” Jisung tried to comfort him, and his father hugged him again.

Minho started to wonder if maybe he should leave and let Jisung stay with his father.
He looked happy — laughing, joking, chatting with one of his dad’s middle-aged friends about socks.

But then everything changed.

A blonde woman approached the table.

“Come with me,” Jisung’s father said to her sternly, and she followed.

“The police came looking for him,” she had said. The father explained that Jisung had just run away from home. Jisung approached the woman, who had a boy with her — around ten years old.

“He’s… your dad?” Jisung asked, pointing toward his father. The boy nodded.

“Listen, Jisung—”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Mr. Han pushed open the door of the bar and walked out without saying a word.
He was trying to escape as the woman followed him, demanding money for the child’s support.
Minho and Jisung rushed after them.

In his frantic attempt to flee, Mr. Han ran over a dog — peacefully lying under the wheel of his car.

~

“The local team has placed the ex-girlfriend under surveillance, but there’s no sign of the boys. We’ll go back there tomorrow morning.”

~

“His neck is broken,” Minho said, his voice cracking as he looked at the suffering animal.

“It’s better to kill him… so he stops hurting,” Jisung said.

Minho picked up a heavy stone. As he stared at the creature, he thought about how many lives he’d taken before — so why was it so hard now? Why was he crying?
Jisung gently took the stone from his hands, ended the poor animal’s suffering, and wrapped his arms around his boyfriend.

~

Yeji received a message, it was late at night, the number was not saved, a street.

~

Meanwhile, Jisung's father saw a report on television; it talked about the search for two missing boys probably involved in a murder.

The ones he was hosting.

The two buried the body of the dog that died at night on the seashore, they held hands for a while immediately after looking at the horizon.
Minho dried a tear that was running down Jisung's cheek and gave him a sweet kiss on the lips. Usually Jisung was the one to kiss him first. He immediately reattached himself to his lips and was immediately returned, Minho gently laid Jisung on the sand never taking his lips off for a second, he moved his hand until he reached the crotch of Jisung's pants

The memory of the man with the mustache who was trying to touch him pervaded Jisung's mind, Minho immediately pulled away.

"Are you okay?"

"C-can I tell you something?" Minho nodded "do you mind waiting?" Minho brought his hand back to his face and nodded

"Just for a few days really! Is that okay with you?" Jisung justified himself

"Yeah, sure"

For Jisung it was better this way, he still had to recover from what happened and after all, they had more or less their whole lives, then maybe the next day Jisung would feel like it, it was unpredictable.

~

Yeji arrived in front of Jisung's father's house, only him snoring could be heard.
The policewoman looked out the window seeing him dozing happily on the couch, the door was open. She sneaked in and looked at the man asleep on the couch surrounded by empty beer cans

The sun was starting to rise, the two lovers had stayed all night sleeping on the beach, the first thing they saw were each other's eyes that opened at the same time

"What?" Minho asked, raising an eyebrow

"Nothing" Jisung raised himself with an elbow so he could look down on him "I have a brother, crazy" he then sneered "and I probably have a lot of them scattered around because I know he's traveled. I probably have a fucking family in Vietnam too"

Minho chuckled

"I think I hate him even more than I hate my mother"

Minho nodded "like me. I hate both of them too, but my father definitely more"

"Why?"

"Because my mother died and he didn't. She committed suicide...in front of me. I didn't do anything"

Jisung looked at him with a sympathetic look, between smiling to calm him down and wanting to burst into tears in front of the dawn that illuminated their figures on the beach

"What was your mother like?" Jisung asked after several minutes of tense silence

"Very beautiful and very sad, I think it was all too much for her"

"Minho?" Jisung turned to him, Minho did the same

"It wasn't your fault"

Minho smiled slightly

It felt like they were at the edge of the world, looking at that horizon. As if they were safe but they weren't

"We can't stay here" Jisung began "we're not going back home" he continued the list "we should go to a foreign country, somewhere to start over, would you like that too?"

"Yes"

Minho really wanted it.

"With your father's boat? We just need to find the keys"

Yeji was waiting in the car in front of the house waiting for them to return.

The two walked along the beach to get home and find the keys. The policewoman saw them, her phone rang but she didn't answer.
She went to look for the two boys on her own, without telling anyone.

Minho and Jisung opened the door of the house and entered trying to make as little noise as possible, Jisung's father was still asleep on the sofa.

It's easy to think that people are the answer if you haven't seen them in years, because they aren't the real ones, people aren't answers. They're more questions. Questions like: why are you such a fucking useless father?

Jisung threw an empty can at his father's head to wake him up, he didn't wake up.
Then he poured the rest of a beer in his face, he woke up with a groan

"Jisung! You're back, thank god! I was worried. I've been looking everywhere for you!"

Jisung crossed his arms

"That's not true. You hit a dog, killed it and then left me there"

"Yes but after! I mean after...! Wait? I killed the dog? Holy shit" he laughed "I'm sorry but I was a little shocked" he continued laughing

"We can go out on the boat" Jisung interrupted him

"What?"

"The boat. Minho and I would like to go out now."

"Okay, fine. Give me five minutes."

Minho butted in

"You don't need to come along."

Jisung nodded.

"Let's do it ourselves, Minho knows how to fly it, we'll be back by noon."

"Listen Jisung," his father sighed, "even though I haven't seen you in years, I wasn't born yesterday. What's the plan? Go to France and get a job at Disneyland Paris? Change your name? Who did you kill?"

The two of them widened their eyes.

"Your photos were on TV," their father began to explain, "there's a price on you. This isn't Judge Judy, I'm just interested, that's all."

Jisung's father continued to insist on receiving explanations.
Jisung eyed the keys on the plate of the table and reached out to take them, but was stopped by his father "hey! Forget about taking my boat, you don't want to attract attention, believe me! Now we'll sit down and talk calmly. You're safe here, my word"

Jisung sneered "your word huh? A guarantee" he said sarcastically

"Shut your fucking mouth!" His father took steps towards him

"Don't you dare talk to him like that" Minho growled, frowning

"Otherwise?" His father chuckled, putting himself face to face with him "okay I'm sorry" he then calmed down, realizing that perhaps it wasn't the case to create further trouble for them "I'm making some tea" he said, walking away from the room to go to the kitchen.
He dialed a number on his cell phone and hid it behind the counter

"I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that we don't have tea, but we do have cookies" he passed the bag containing them to Minho who shook his head, then he gave them to Jisung

"Seriously honey, I want to know what happened you can tell me."

"Why should I trust you?"

"I admit I'm not much, but I'm your father, you can trust me"

"Why didn't you tell me you have a younger son?"

"Because..." he sighed "because I was embarrassed, his name is Milton, he's 8 and he's very good at spelling. I know I had to tell you, but... can we start over? Please"

Jisung looked at Minho with tears in his eyes, Minho shook his head

"A man in a house..." Jisung began with a shaking voice

"Jisung" Minho scolded him

"We killed him"

Minho rolled his eyes, then started looking around, he noticed a gun hidden behind the counter

"H-he wanted to hurt me" Jisung continued, starting to cry "it was terrible"

Minho clearly felt that something was wrong. He backed up to the kitchen and grabbed the gun, and the phone behind the counter. He put it to his ear and pointed the gun at Mr. Han

"I-I killed him. He didn't do anything"

He put the phone on the counter and hung up the receiver "he called the police" he then informed Jisung who immediately widened his eyes and turned to his father

"L-listen Jisung I did it to protect you!" The father justified himself

Jisung grabbed a knife from the container next to the sofa and stuck it in his father's thigh "you bastard!"

At that moment, Yeji entered the house "police!" He screamed

The rest of the police station that had heard James' confession over the phone were being informed of their location

"Is he really the police?" Jisung asked the policewoman

"Sure" she nodded "do you mind not pointing it at me?" She put her hands out in front of Minho showing that she was unarmed

Mr. Han was trying to remove the knife from his leg, the policewoman advised him not to remove it, since it stops the blood.

"Don't worry, a team is coming" she then said "guys, we don't have much time!" She clapped her hands

"B-but what's going on" Minho's voice was shaking

"I want to help you, listen to me..."

Minho took Jisung's hand "we have to leave" he said leading him out of the house

"No guys stop" Yeji stood in front of the door "you can't keep running away, you better hand yourselves over to me and I'll help you. We'll ask for manslaughter"

"Please..." Minho was crying, he tried to leave again

"Especially you Minho. You're young, you're 21 now. Happy birthday" she smiled at him

Jisung's eyes widened

"But today? Why didn't you tell me?"

Minho shrugged

"I would have given you a present..." Jisung muttered

"I talked to your father yesterday" Yeji continued "he told me about your mother. I saw the photo of the three of you that he has in his wallet"

"He doesn't have a photo in his wallet" Minho frowned

She smiled and nodded

"Is he angry?" Another tear ran down Minho's cheek as he squeezed Jisung's hand tightly

"No, he's worried. Just like your mother" she turned to Jisung who grimaced

"Your stepfather is an asshole, isn't he?" The policewoman chuckled

"Yes" Jisung replied, then sighed "how will it end if we do what you say?"

"It won't go too bad if you listen to me"

Jisung's father spoke after several minutes of silence "yes of course, don't talk bullshit. You'll put them in a cage and goodbye"

"Mr. Han, it won't go like that" she reassured him

"Yes indeed! Don't listen to her" she turned to the two of them

Jisung frowned and shook his head "and I'm supposed to listen to you after you called the police?!"

"Of course! Because I want to protect you, from that one" he pointed at Minho

"Really?" Jisung crossed his arms "you didn't do it for the bounty? How much money is that?!"

Minho let go of his hand "he's right. I'm coming with you, I'm turning myself in"

Minho started to go towards Yeji but Jisung stopped him by holding his arm

"Honey, trust your father. You're just like your mother, you choose shitty men. Now you can get rid of him" the father gesticulated with an air far too calm for the situation his son was in

Jisung took a few steps forward kicking him in the shins "the only shitty thing in my life is you! You don't give a shit about me, you say that because your shitty morality hates that I'm with a man! It doesn't matter if he's shitty or not"

"That's not true! Yes, I do care—"

"If someone gives birth to a child, they don't abandon it because if they do, the child will feel guilty forever!" Jisung began to cry

"What bullshit victimism, everyone has a reason for their way of being"

Minho stepped forward to stand beside Jisung

"And what's yours? Why are you such an asshole"

Jisung closed his eyes and thought only about how much he could love Minho

"Okay, you're right" his father admitted "I never looked for you, but I thought it was better for you to forget me"

Yeji stepped in "guys, we have to go"

"Wait a minute" Jisung looked back at his father "why did you send me birthday wishes? Were you the one who sent them at least?"

"It must have been her...your mother, the irresponsible one"

Jisung ran his hands through his hair nervously and started to cry again more than before. The father started talking again, trying to justify himself

"Shut up, stop with the bullshit!"

Meanwhile, the rest of the police team had reached the place

"Will we go to jail if we turn ourselves in?" Jisung asked Yeji

"Well...it's possible" she nodded

"At least we'll go to the same place?" She shook Minho's hand

"No, but the important thing—!"

"No?!" Jisung's eyes widened

"No" she confirmed

Jisung shook his head taking a rifle stored on the side of the door "I'm sorry" he whispered before hitting the policewoman with the barrel of it in the face knocking her out

"Now give me the keys to the boat" he growled at his father, he gave them to him "come on we have to go"

Minho didn't think twice about running after Jisung, they ran as fast as they could until they reached the beach, where the boat was

"Shit" sighed Jisung stopping "the boat is not there"

There was no boat.

Meanwhile the police reached the house on foot and entered armed to the teeth.
They found Yeji on the ground

"You have to say that I kidnapped you" Minho took Jisung's face in his hands "tell them that I did everything, you will be safe and you will have no problems"

"No! We have to be together" Jisung took his hand trying to take him away but Minho insisted, he shook his head "I'm sorry" he said before taking the rifle that was still in Jisung's hands and hitting him making him pass out

"Police! Drop the rifle!" The men arrived and pointed all their weapons at Minho who was running along the beach

Jisung regained consciousness immediately and was reached by the policewoman friend of Yeji who helped him up, immediately her eyes focused on Minho who was running with the rifle in his hand

"Minho! What the fuck are you doing!" He screamed at the top of his lungs "Minho!"

A rifle shot.

"No!" Jisung cried

Minho dodged him.

"No! Let me go! Let me go!" Jisung desperately tried to wriggle and free himself from the grips of the policewoman's hands that held him still, preventing him from reaching Minho.

Minho had just turned 21, and he thought he had finally understood what a person could mean to another. Dancing together, falling in love when you thought you couldn't, facing sad and dangerous situations that you know will send your life to hell.
But always together. Holding hands.
Never giving up.

Another shot. This time it went well.