Chapter Text
Hongjoong is actually rather happy with how things in his life are going right now. He is owning a nice going bed and breakfast with his four best friends and is living in a nice little town which not most people in their country even know exists.
But the ones who do often come here to have a vacation, even only over a simple weekend, as you can fully relax and forget about your otherwise daily life with how idyllic everything around here is.
The last couple who had stayed at their bed and breakfast had been there for two full weeks and had only the best things to say about them and their nice and incredible service.
So yeah, Hongjoong is not having much to whine about, as everything is going rather well.
Him, San, and Yeosang are out for a little walk right now with how beautiful it looks where they live at night. They are not walking into town and staying where the many fields are and where also the forest starts.
Hongjoong had met the two one year younger guys when they had gone to the same school together after him and his family had moved into this very same town. Yeosang´s grandmother had also lived next to them, which is how they had gotten even closer over time.
Then, with San inheriting the former B&B of his great-aunt, the three of them had gone through the necessary training to be able to open the quite big house up again. Which had led to San being the one in charge of cleaning the four rooms they offer and with working at the small bar they have on the first floor. Hongjoong had taken the job of taking care of their guests with being in charge of all the bookings, the accounting, and managing everything else which has to do with money. And in addition to that, Yeosang is the one who is working in the kitchen, as they are actually not only offering breakfast to their guests, but also dinner.
With taking over such a B&B, there had also come Jongho and Yunho who had each applied for the two still available jobs. The one of the janitor and the one who will help Yeosang out in the kitchen.
Jongho is the youngest between them and had been the absolute right choice for the janitor position while Yunho had turned out to be real culinary treat in the kitchen. He can make even more dishes than Yeosang can and he had also managed to conquer San´s heart in a record speed with them dating for more than two years by now.
It´s actually a surprise that he is not with them and that neither is Jongho, as they often end up taking a walk together. Especially if they don´t have any guests which is the case right now. But Yunho is out with spending the weekend at his parents´ house while Jongho had wanted to go back to his own flat to spend a relaxing night there.
“We are so lucky that tonight there is also a full moon,” Yeosang states as they are starting to slowly make their way back to the B&B. “It just looks way more magical like that, right?”
“Yeah, it really does,” Hongjoong agrees and even halts to look up at the sky some more. “Especially from our porch the moon looks even bigger.”
San is wanting to also say something, but before he can open his mouth, there is a sudden noise coming their way. As there is someone who is seeming to go the way back on which they had wanted to move forward.
And that someone is who they sadly know all too well. As there is actually one downside of living in their town and that is only known by the name Chang. A man in his mid fifties who is a freaking nightmare. He has no job and is basically always drunk with strolling around town with starting fights or sadly rather often also harassing someone, especially at night or when it had only gotten slightly dark outside.
And right now with how late it had gotten, it is in fact already night and Chang is making his way around with carrying a half full beer bottle in his hand.
“Shit, what is he doing here?! He is never really out so far! Why would he suddenly be this close to our home?!” San hisses out right as the way older man is noticing them too.
“Well, well, well,” he slurs before he hiccups with how drunk he already is. “If this isn´t my lucky day. Three beautiful boys for the price of one.”
Hongjoong can feel how he is immediately shivering with fear, as although they are three and he is only one, you should not underestimate him at all. Chang had not only once caused for a lot of trouble, fear, and also injuries in their town.
So as Hongjoong is the oldest, he is feeling the need to protect the other two and that although he is still pretty scared himself. Something which makes him quickly act without thinking as he grabs Chang´s arm to pull him away from San and Yeosang.
But that does not make the man stop from saying some more rather slurred, inappropriate comments. Especially Yeosang seems to be to his liking tonight with how he looks at him and even wants to get closer again.
They had often heard about him and also seen how much it can escalate whenever he is drunk and looking for trouble. Many stores in town had banned him from coming in, such as the pub where he had started one fight after another in the past.
Hongjoong, San, and Yeosang had been there once when they had been younger and Chang had caused for a lot of trouble with the aftermath of it all having been a bloody and broken nose.
Only that they had never been all alone and basically in the middle of the quite deserted path which leads to their B&B with him before. Which is making them panic more and more.
After all, Hongjoong had only managed to slightly drag him away when the others are deciding to give Chang a push to make him get out of their way for real so that they can run back home and not have to fear for him to maybe even follow them.
The thing is, which how drunk the older man already is and with a quite big stone or more like rock lying right behind him, he ends up stumbling and falling fast.
Too fast.
As there is no possibility for San, Yeosang, or Hongjoong to keep him from actually falling onto the ground.
The two younger men had really only meant for him to get out of their way, but not for him to fall and end up hurting himself. As that is what happens with the way Chang ends up hitting his head against the trunk of the tree which is standing right one the side of the road. The impact causes for a loud and dull sound to appear before it gets completely silent.
Too silent.
Way too silent, which means nothing good. Same as the redness coming from underneath the elder´s head soon afterwards and creating a rather big pool of blood next to him.
“Oh my god,” Hongjoong is the first one to come back to his senses after the shock which had spread over them all. “Is he dead?”
“I d-don´t know,” San stutters before he gets a tiny bit closer to the lying man on the ground. “Guys, he is not moving at all.”
“But it was an accident, right?” Yeosang lets out with fear being clearly heard in his voice. “We didn´t mean for him to stumble and to hit his head. I mean if we will tell the police that, then we will be fine, won´t we?”
“Are you crazy?” San replies. “We are not going to call the police, Yeosang!”
“Why not? We didn´t do anything wrong! We were just trying to defend ourselves!”
“But he did not attack us first,” Hongjoong states with trying to somehow keep a clear head, which is not easy at all right now. “He was only being his very creepy self and that then led me to grabbing his arm to pull him away.”
“Yeah, and then he didn’t stop with his comments and still tried to get closer to us, which is why me and Yeosang pushed him for real and made him stumble over that stone neither of us saw before.”
“W-what does that m-mean?” Yeosang stutters with not being able to stop looking at the so lifeless seeming body. “W-what should we d-do then?“
“We will do nothing,” San states rather firm. “As this never happened.”
“What?! But it did happen!”
“It was an accident, that is right,” San continues. “He was drunk and wandering around when he stumbled over said stone and hit his head against the trunk of that tree.”
“But that is not what happened,” Yeosang stammers. “Maybe if we will go to the police and tell them the truth, then-“
“Yeosang,” Hongjoong is speaking up again with knowing that they will not get out of this without having to lie. “Even though he is a known scumbag, he did not attack us. At least not physically. Also, we are not injured at all, which underlines the fact that he did not touch or hurt us. Which is why we would be in the wrong here and we would be the ones who would get in trouble for, well, hurting another person.”
They all know that this is way worse than just them ending up hurting someone else. Because they had not just injured that man, but probably also killed him with it.
“So we will just leave?”
“Yeah, we will,” Hongjoong is agreeing with San´s formerly stated plan. “As this indeed never happened.”
“But what about our fingerprints? We all touched him,” Yeosang notes. “When someone finds him, they will look for that, won´t they?”
“Not if it will rain soon,” San states. “Which it actually should. At least judging by the weather report on my phone.”
“Which would soak his clothes and therefor all the parts we did touch of his will be washed away,” Hongjoong concludes. “So yes, we will leave, as again; this never happened.”
And although it sounds rather easy to just leave, it definitely isn´t.
They know that they had done something very stupid and also cruel, although it really had been an accident with them not wanting for Chang to stumble and end up hitting his head like that.
They had not wanted for him to end up lying there all lifeless, even though he had been the worst person ever and the one who had caused for many in their town to not want to be out at night or to encounter him elsewhere anymore.
In addition to that, they know that right now they are not thinking clearly with how panicked said situation had left them be. But they also know that they need to save themselves or otherwise this could end badly for them.
Very, very badly, as they don´t think, at least San and Hongjoong don´t, that the police would be able to be on their side with what had happened.
Which is why they do leave and why they don´t even try to move the body away from the road to hide him some more. As that would only end up causing more problems for them, which is why they don´t touch him and turn on their heels to make their way back to the B&B.
Also, they want for him to be easily found by others, as that will mean that him having had an accident would be the most plausible reason for him finding his end like this.
It´s scary how dull you can get and how you only react in an automatic way after such a horrible thing had happened. At least that is what Hongjoong notes when he is back at their B&B and in his own room. Besides Jongho, they all have one on the first floor. San and Yunho even share theirs, as the taller had moved in some months ago. Before that, he had also lived further in town like Jongho still does.
They are actually lucky that Yunho had not been here tonight, otherwise he would have known about them being out for a walk in the dark. With that not being the case, no one knows about it. As they had not met any other person on their walk outside.
Well, besides the one who is not able to talk about it anymore.
That fact is now, while Hongjoong is lying in his bed, hitting him for real, just like what they had done. It hits him that they had just killed someone, although it had really been an accident. Only that calling the police would have not meant something good for them. As why would they believe them?
Just like he had told Yeosang, they are not hurt themselves, which means that they can´t defend their action with Chang having attacked them first. As he had not done that and as all three of them had solely reacted out of panic and fear that he would.
Him and the others had not even exchanged much words about it on their way back when it had really started to rain. Not with being too afraid of what had happened and with wanting to finally get home so that they are not out and near Chang´s body anymore.
Although they all know that this is not something they can easily ignore. Especially not with not knowing what the next days will bring and when, if, and who is going to discover the body lying on the road close to their B&B.
-
“It´s not there anymore!” Is what Yeosang says first after having gotten back from the market pretty early the next morning. Only San and Hongjoong are at the B&B right now, as neither Jongho nor Yunho had gotten there yet.
“Sangie,” San lets out confused. “What are you talking about?”
“I mean the body! Chang´s body,” the cook stresses. “It´s not here anymore.”
“So someone already found him,” Hongjoong concludes. “That´s not too bad, now is it?”
“No, as what happened last night did not actual happen,” San reminds them of what they had agreed on. “So it´s fine, Sangie.”
“But what if this will not end up being fine at all? I mean, I could not even sleep for one second last night, so I just sat at my window and looked outside while listening to the rain pouring down. As what if this will come back biting us? What if they will find something at that spot where he fell?”
“Like what?” San lets out. “The rain washed everything away. So there is absolute nothing for them to be found.”
“I just don´t think that I can sit around doing nothing.”
“But we don´t have any other choice,” Hongjoong notes. Only that he is trying to speak in a gentler tone than San had. As he gets Yeosang´s worries, he had the same ones with not being able to sleep much either last night. “We need to wait this out.”
Yeosang seems to want to argue again, but he does not get to with all three of them jumping as the front door suddenly gets opened.
“Woah, it´s just me,” Yunho replies with two raised hands, as he had not thought that his appearance would cause for such a jumpy reaction. “What´s the matter with you three? You look like you´ve seen a ghost.”
“We were only up watching some not so wisely chosen movies last night,” San quickly invents. “That´s why we are a bit jumpy right now.”
“I told you to not watch too scary movies when I am not there to protect and hold you during it, honey,” Yunho teases before he presses a short and sweet peck right against his boyfriend’s lips. "What did you even watch that scared all three of you that much?”
“Psycho,” Yeosang lets out with said movie being the first he had in his mind. “And some episodes of Supernatural.”
“Ah, so after that movie, you thought that watching something like Supernatural would make you feel safer, huh?” Yunho can only shake his head in amusement. “Next time, wait until I´m back to watch such stuff, ok?”
“We will.”
“Good! But another thing; did you get everything from the market, Sangie?” Yunho thankfully changes the subject. “Or do we still need to go to the grocery store?”
“I got enough for the next few days,” Yeosang tells him. “Also, the two hikers who already booked one room, they are going to be our only guests this week. So we don´t need as much, as there is plenty left to use to cook for ourselves too.”
“Sounds splendid to me. But what about Jonghie? Is he not here yet?”
“No, Jonghie will be here in around an hour,” Hongjoong replies after a glance at the time. “Which is fine, as the two hikers will get here tomorrow morning, so he has enough time to change all the lightbulbs and to take care of the leaking sink in the room they booked.”
“So we will make breakfast solely for ourselves now?”
“Yeah, we will,” Yeosang nods. “But we will need to have dinner ready until six pm. As our guests seem to want to eat a bit early with wanting to go to bed and get lots of rest before starting their hiking adventure around here.”
Which Hongjoong had been the one finding out about after having talked to them on the phone.
“How long are they going to stay again?” Yunho asks. “Three or four days?”
“Three full days starting from tomorrow.”
The youngest between them does indeed show up right after the others are done with the quick but tasty breakfast Yeosang and Yunho had prepared. He also gets one plate of it before taking care of all the chores he has listed for the day.
So San, Yeosang, and Hongjoong also just continue with their normal daily life, although it is not that easy, which is why they are glad when the two hikers show up, as that gives them something to do.
Something which at least temporary keeps them from getting constantly reminded of what had happened. But even with having work to do and Yunho and Jongho around them, they are still not able to fully act as if nothing had happened.
Especially when the two hikers, who are also a couple, leave again, they are left with not having as much to do anymore.
Also, although they are not actively looking it up, they don´t hear anything about a dead body having been found. Even though they know for sure that Chang´s had been moved, as Yeosang had not lied about that.
It feels weird to not know where he is now and who had discovered him in the first place. As there are no news about it being found online or even in the newspaper where you would definitely read about such a tragedy happening.
The thing is that with Yunho constantly being around and Jongho most of the time besides at night, they can´t really talk about it anymore. Although you can feel that at least Yeosang and also Hongjoong would like to.
Which is why, when Yunho and Jongho are actually leaving to get new stuff from the hardware store from the town next to theirs, they use said opportunity as Yeosang and San quickly join Hongjoong in the lobby.
“Guys, what if he actually survived and got up to stumble his way back to his ratty little hole?” Yeosang stammers. “What if that is why we did not hear anything about him yet?”
“Wait, are you seriously saying that he could have actually survived this whole thing, walked back home with a dashing wound on his head, and is now what?” San replies. “Waiting for taking his revenge on us?”
“Maybe.”
“Honestly, that is the most stupid thing you have ever said!”
“San!” Hongjoong scolds. “What Sangie said is not stupid at all, ok?! We did not hear anything until now, so maybe-“ he breaks off as they can hear a car driving up and coming to a stop on one of the parking spots of their B&B.
“That can´t be Yunho and Jongho already being back from the hardware store,” San states with them all looking at the entrance with wide and nervous eyes. “But no one called the last couple of days to book a room, right?”
“No,” Hongjoong is sure of it. “And no one wrote an email either.”
The three of them are basically holding their breath when another car drives up while the door of the first one is getting opened and a rather handsome guy is stepping into their lobby.
“Hello, I´m sorry for how last minute this all is, but me and my two colleagues need a place to stay at and everyone in town led us to your B&B.”
“Oh, yeah, sure,” Hongjoong stammers, as this is actually not something new. It often happens that someone needs a room and does not call ahead or contact them online first. “You are rather lucky. As right now, we are complete free.”
“Perfect!” The other replies while having a smile on his face which is making Hongjoong feel immediately weak with how nice it is. “Then we will take two rooms, please.”
“Two?” San asks confused. “But I thought that you and your two colleagues are going to stay here. So why not three?”
“Because me and my boyfriend are fine with sharing one,” a new voice appears with two other guys stepping inside. “Hello, the name is Park Seonghwa and the guy behind me, said boyfriend of mine, is Song Mingi. I bet you already know Jung Wooyoung or you don´t, as my colleague here tends to forget how to behave appropriately.”
“Hyung,” the guy with the nice smile, who is seeming to go by the name Wooyoung, is hissing at Seonghwa. “We just got here, so there is no need for you to already act all professional and intimidating.”
“Why not? We are here to do a job. As otherwise, the police here would have not called us to help them out on that one case,” Seonghwa states. “Which is what we are going to do.”
“Police?” Yeosang ask while trying to not let his voice shake. “Case?”
“You are three detectives then?” San is trying to understand who their three new guests are too. “Who are working on one case together?”
“I´m not really a detective,” Mingi utters. “I´m a tracker, which means that I am taking every corner of the crime scene apart to find even the smallest piece of evidence which could lead us to what really happened.”
“We two are the detectives,” Wooyoung adds with pointing between himself and Seonghwa. “But we always work together as a team, as what Mingi finds is always something helpful.”
“So what even happened?” Hongjoong wants to know. “As we didn´t hear about anything up here.”
“I can imagine that you didn’t,” Seonghwa replies. “As the victim is still in the hospital and as we asked the police to keep it lowkey until we will get here to start with our own investigations. The victim being Shin Chang, someone who is living in this very same town.”
“Another town dweller found him,” Wooyoung explains what had happened further. “It was around one am when he did.” Which means that Chang or Shin Chang how they had just learned his full name is, had been lying there for a bit under an hour with how late Hongjoong and the other two had been out themselves in the first place. Thankfully, during that time, the rain must have already washed their fingerprints or any other traces of them away.
“Said town dweller was out for a walk with his dog,” Seonghwa adds. “He always takes the path close to the forest whenever his dog is restless and needs some more time outside.”
“And that even at one am?” San asks surprised. “Wow, that´s some dedication right there.”
“Yeah, thankfully,” Wooyoung replies. “Otherwise Mr. Shin may have not made it with how bad his head injury has been. As he was found lying there at the side of the road with a big wound on his head, as he had hit it against the trunk of a tree.”
“So he is fine now?” Yeosang asks in a careful manner. “The doctors could help him?”
“They could, yeah,” Mingi is the one responding now. “But it will take a while for him to be able to leave the hospital.”
“Were you not able to talk to him yet?” San wants to know what Hongjoong and Yeosang would also love to hear about.
“We were, but he can´t even remember his own name,” Wooyoung explains. “He has absolutely no recollection of what happened to him. And he will probably never have.”
“He won´t?” Hongjoong lets out with hoping that he is not showing how relieved he is about hearing such news. Same as San and Yeosang are. Because this means that they are still in the clear with no one knowing about what had really happened. Not even the victim himself.
Although to call Shin Chang a victim is sounding a bit fake, as he had always been the offender in the past. And maybe he would have also ended up being that if Hongjoong, Yeosang, and San had not acted in the way they had.
“No, he won´t,” Wooyoung stresses again with answering Hongjoong´s question. “At least if you believe what his doctors say. Which is why we are here now, as we do not only need a place to stay at for an unknown amount of time, but also as we want to find out what really happened that night.”
“What my colleague here is trying to say is that we are going to find out if what happened to Mr. Shin has been really only an accident or if it was not one at all,” Seonghwa adds. “And believe me, if we are good at one thing, then it is to do our job. Which is why we will definitely find out about what really happened.”
Something which is making Hongjoong swallow, Yeosang raise his eyebrows with fearing the worst, and San trying to keep it cool with putting on an unemotional mask.
As they know that they are guilty and that there are now two detectives and one tracker staying in their B&B to find out about what had happened is not a good thing for them at all.