Chapter Text
Hyuntak woke to the sound of rain hitting against the windows of his small apartment, the kind that made Seoul heavier than usual. He stretched his arms forward and rolled himself out of bed—knee feeling tighter than usual. The same right knee that Baekjin ruined during high school.
And Seongje of course. Geum fucking Seongje who stood there idly, not doing anything to stop him. The same Geum Seongje who Hyuntak grew up with and stayed countless nights with. Geum Seongje who disappeared off the face of this Earth after high school.
Hyuntak hated him. Despised him. They were childhood best friends but of course, no one knew. Hyuntak never told any of his friends. Not even Humin. Why would he? How could he when Hyuntak himself was trying so hard to forget the fact that they were ever aquatinted.
They first started drifting when they both moved to different schools—Hyuntak to Eunjang and Seongje to Ganghak. Later, Seongje joined the union because he “was bored” and slowly, he started becoming more aggressive, more ruthless. And Hyuntak was no exception. Despite that, somewhere deep inside his heart, Hyuntak hoped for Seongje to change. To go back to how they used to be. Before he lost his best friend.
It was unfortunately never that easy for him.
After the incident to Hyuntak’s knee, he lost hope for any thoughts about Seongje still caring for him. Not when he looked at him with that blank, bored expression when Baekjin drove his foot into Hyuntak’s knee. Not when Hyuntak screamed. And most definitely not when they both held eye contact the whole time, checking for any sign, any crack in Seongje’s facade, despide Baekjin being the one to make the impact. He thought he could see a flash of guilt in Seongje’s eyes but was proven wrong when he saw the familiar orange windbreaker fade into the distance, without a glance to be spared.
A year later when Baekjin passed away, Hyuntak could no longer fuel his anger and hatred towards him. Instead, it became directed towards Seongje at full force. Each interaction ending with bruises, blood and unsaid feelings. Anyone watching them could tell that they had something. It was obvious from the way they pause in the middle of a fight just to stare at each other, or from the way neither of them could ever knock the other out. Almost like they were both holding back, unresolved tension separating the distance between them. Even Baku, dumb Baku, questioned if anything happened between him and Seongje that he wasn’t aware about.
The restless routine of the two boys bashing heads came to an end after graduation when Hyuntak never saw Seongje again. There was no trace of him. No lingering smell of smoke, no sign of the infamous ugly orange windbreaker. No one heard anything about him, and sooner or later, his name was never brought up either. That is for the exception of Hyuntak’s mind. His dumb. Stupid brain that would always manage to remind himself of Seongje whenever he felt like moving on.
And now here he is: in his apartment, ten years later. Hyuntak follows his usual morning routine. After changing into a buttoned up shirt and black slacks, he heads towards the bathroom, brushes his teeth, wets his face and ruffles his hair into place. He then goes to the kitchen and makes his plain instant coffee, puts on his shoes, and drives to Seoul police station.
As he reaches the front of the building, he bumps into Juntae. He decided to pursue a career as a forensic artist and now here he is, working in the same police department as Hyuntak. He’s still in touch with the rest of his friends, their group chat flaring with notifications daily. Baku ended up not going to university and stayed working at his fathers friend chicken restaurant, Sieun became a mechanical engineer, as expected, and Suho is currently unemployed and living with Sieun, their relationship stronger than ever.
“Hey Hyuntak! You’re here earlier than usual.” Juntae greets him with his wide smile.
“Yeah… I don’t know, I woke up before my alarm for the first time today.”
They step into the station together, both going their separate ways. Hyuntak slumps into his desk’s chair, coffee in hand and stretches his knee out, expecting routine paperwork and the usual chatter. He definitely didn’t expect to see a woman burst into the doors, breathless and shaking, yelling that she’d seen a dead body. But there you have it. Life’s just full of surprises.
“Help! Excuse me?” She pants heavily, legs trembling. “I saw- there was…there’s a dead body!” Everyone in the police station turns their head towards the door in alertness. The department chief, Jung Eunwoo, rushes towards her.
“Please calm down and take a seat inside. What did you say you saw? A dead body?” She nods desperately at his question and takes his hands.
“I… I couldn’t think in the moment and ran to the closest station. You need to go- there was blood. So much blood.” her eyes widen as she remembers the scene in front of her and she covers her mouth with her hand. Chief Jung guides her to a chair to sit on.
“I’m going to need you to take deep breaths and tell me exactly where you saw the body. Can you do that for me?” She nods her head again but slowly this time.
“It was in the alleyway three blocks away. Next to Seomun-gil street. I can show you if you want. I can take-“
“No that’s alright. don’t worry, we’ll find it. I need you to stay in the station and write a witness statement. Hyuntak! Please escort the lady.” The chief turns to the other officers direction. “Dispatch unit three to Seomun-gil street and search for a dead body in the surrounding alleyways. Report back once you’ve secured the location so that the forensic scientists can follow.”
“Yes sir” the officers from unit three get up and start the search immediately.
Hyuntak stands from his desk and walks to the woman. She looks to be in her late thirties, short brown hair slightly covering her face. “Hello ma’am, if you could follow me.” She stands up hesitantly and follows Hyuntak to a table near his desk. He brings her a pen and paper to write her statement on. “Please write your statement here. After your done, we’ll just be asking you a few questions regarding what you saw.”
“Okay.” She nods her head once and starts to write. Once she finishes, she signs her name and hands the paper to Hyuntak who gives it to the chief.
“Here is her statement sir. Should I tell her to leave or shall we question her?”
Chief Jung runs a hand through his hair. “Ma’am may I ask what your name is?”
She snaps out of her little daze and looks up at him. “Soo-ah. Park Soo-ah.”
“Did you see anyone in the area with you or were you alone?”
She furrowed her brows, trying to recall her memory. “I think I was alone- no, wait! There was someone. He walked out of the alley… right before I…”
Hyuntak eyes go wide and he looks at the chief. “That might be the killer. We need to find him.” The chief nods at Hyuntak and asks the woman again.
“Do you remember how he looks like? Would you be able to describe his appearance to us?” The lady nods her head quickly.
“Yes. Yes I could. I mean, if I saw a photo of him I’d be able to recognize him.” The chief nods his head toward Hyuntak.
“Go bring Juntae here.”
“Yes sir.”
Hyuntak hurries to Juntae in the department two rooms away. He turns the door handle and barges in. “Juntae we need you for a suspect sketch!”
He gets up immediately and follows Hyuntak, looking a little confused at the sudden need for him. he didn’t have anything in his schedule today. “Hyuntak, what happened?”
“A woman ran in and said she saw a dead body. She remembers the face of a potential suspect that she saw walk out of the area that the body was found.” Hyuntak briefly explains the situation while they’re walking back.
“Damn… seriously how did all of this happen right now. Aren’t you glad you woke up early today.” Juntae jokes to ease the tense situation and Hyuntak smiles back at him.
They enter the detective department room to find the chief and the lady still sitting there. “Chief, Juntae is here”
”Ah perfect, let’s do this quickly so the lady can go home” Juntae nods and moves to the table they’re sitting at to prepare. He takes a pencil out of his pocket, followed my a pen that opens with a ‘click’. He spreads a large sheet of A3 paper on the table and wipes his hands on his pants.
“Please describe him to me in as much detail as possible. If something looks different you can correct me.” He brings his pencil to the paper to start the sketch, Hyuntak watching over them while the chief excused himself to his other duties.
“Right. Okay. He had… black wavy hair. I couldn’t see the exact length because he had a hood on. Juntae begins to sketch. “His eyes.. they were dark, slightly upturned.” As Juntae draws from her description she stops him for a moment. “No wait they were a little more rounded.” He nods his head and erases them. Redoes it until she’s pleased. “Most importantly, he had glasses on. Circular shape with a black frame on the top side.”
“Okay, what about his face shape, nose, lips, eyebrows?”
“His nose was a little wide from what I remember, but not too much. Eyebrows were black and straight.” Juntae’s pencil moved steadily, lines sharpening into something almost tangible. With every correction the woman made, the face on the page grew more distinct—too distinct. Hyuntak leaned in slightly, arms crossed, pretending he was just monitoring the process, but a cold prickle crawled up the back of his neck.
The jawline. The slight downturn of the lips. The way the hair fell over the forehead.
It wasn’t exact, witness descriptions never were, but there was something there. A shadow of someone he had spent years trying not to think about. He feels a lump in his throat and swallows it down.
No. Stop. He’s imagining it. Seoul is full of people with black hair and glasses. Coincidences happen. Besides, if he disappeared for years, why would he show up now? He forced his shoulders to relax and cleared his throat, unease settling in his chest.
Juntae glanced up at him briefly, as if sensing something, but Hyuntak gave the smallest shake of his head. Not here. Not now.
“Alright,” Juntae murmured as he adjusted the shading. “Is this closer to what you saw?”
The woman leaned in, nodding quickly. “Yes… that’s him. That’s exactly him.”
Hyuntak stared at the sketch a moment too long before stepping back, letting out a slow breath he hoped no one noticed. It couldn’t be Seongje.
It shouldn’t be.
The woman was escorted out after writing her statement, leaving the sketch propped up on Juntae’s desk like an accusation staring back at them. Hyuntak forced himself to look away first.
“Let’s move,” he said, grabbing his coat.
The alley on Seomun-gil was already taped off by the time they arrived, blue lights flickering against damp brick walls. Officers stood around in gloves and masks, the air thick with the metallic smell of blood and rain-soaked trash. Hyuntak stepped under the tape and crouched beside the body, male, mid-twenties, face pale against the cold asphalt. The wound was violent, purposeful, not something done in a panic.
Juntae stayed back, snapping photos while the forensics team collected fibers and soil samples, murmuring observations Hyuntak half heard. He was too focused on the surrounding shadows, on the way the narrow alley seemed to swallow sound. A place someone could disappear from in seconds.
A place Seongje would’ve known how to use.
He clenched his jaw and stood. No. He wasn’t doing this. Not based on a sketch or instinct. It felt too real though… too familiar.
“Gather everything,” he ordered, voice steady. “I want every possible camera angle.”
The team nodded, and within the hour they were back at the station. Hyuntak settled at his desk as footage began arriving in flashes, neighbors’ door cams, street-facing windows, the convenience store near the alley. He loaded them one by one, eyes burning from focus.
Hyuntak started looking through the footage of a nearby house first, the one around the corner of the alley. He sets the time to 1 hour before the witness came running in, carefully looking for any person matching her description, and there he was. Black hoodie, arms in pockets and hood up. He tried to zoom into his face but the angle wasn’t clear. He paused it, reminded it, tried again; the face wasn’t visible. He leans back into his chair and moves his hands through his hair.
He then decides to move to look through different footage, the sky around him getting darker as hours pass. No sign of the suspect from any other angle. Finally, he opens the camera footage from the nearby convenience store. Just as he was about to close his computer and give up, a shadow enters the store. Black hoodie. Hood up…glasses. The same fucking round glasses from the sketch. The man buys a pack of cigarettes, lights one up with practiced normalcy and looks up. He makes eye contact with the camera and smirks.
Hyuntak’s heart picks up its pace, his breathing becoming heavier. “Fuck.” The man in front of the camera takes a drag and blows it out slowly, still carrying that toothy smile. The same smile Hyuntak loved when he was younger. The same one he later came to hate.
Geum Seongje.
Hyuntak swallowed, chest tightening. He shouldn’t jump to conclusions. Not when everything was so unclear. But when his captain asked if he’d found anything, he heard himself hesitate and immediately felt the weight of the decision pressing down on his spine.
In the end, he showed him. He couldn’t risk being wrong for the sake of a feeling.
That night, Hyuntak lay awake staring at his ceiling, replaying the footage over and over in his mind. The hoodie. The walk. The stupid, familiar tilt of the head he used to tease him about.
He barely slept.
The next morning, he walked into the station with a headache and coffee that did not help to hide the eye bags that formed through the night. The corridor was unusually loud, officers murmuring to each other. Hyuntak’s pace slowed, something was happening.
Then he saw him.
Sitting in handcuffs. Calm. Almost bored. Like being detained was just another errand he needed to get through. Seongje. It’s the first time he sees him since their senior year of high school.
Hyuntak’s heart grabbed at his ribs so sharply he almost turned around and left. He felt nauseous.
His captain spotted him instantly. “Hyuntak! Over here.”
He had no choice. Hyuntak forced forward, keeping his eyes locked on the floor, on anything but—
But eventually he had to look.
Seongje’s gaze lifted at the sound of his name, eyes widening just a fraction. Recognition. Interest. Something else, something far more dangerous that Hyuntak chose to ignore, for his own sake.
Then the corner of his mouth curled.
“Long time… Hyuntak.”
The room seemed to freeze around them.
He felt eyes turn to him and one officer said slowly, “you two know each other?”
Hyuntak felt every stare burn into him. He swallowed and forced a steady voice.
“We knew each other in childhood. Barely. It won’t affect the investigation.” The officer nods hesitantly and moves on.
Behind him, Seongje huffed a soft, amused breath, lips twisting into that same smug, familiar grin. Like he knew exactly how much Hyuntak was lying. The audacity.
They moved Seongje to the interrogation room while Hyuntak stayed outside in an attempt to regain his composure, his pulse pounding in his throat. Through the small window, he watched Seongje sit down like he owned the place, cuffs clinking lightly against the metal table, jaw relaxed, eyes sharp and annoyingly amused.
"Detective Hyuntak." His captain said quietly beside him. "You're taking the lead. Let's see what he knows."
Hyuntak's stomach twisted. "Yes, sir." He stepped inside.
The door clicked shut behind him and Seongje's gaze slid up instantly, tracking him like he'd been waiting for him. How ironic when he was the one who left years ago.
"Wow," Seongje drawled, leaning back. "They sent you. I feel honoured."
Hyuntak ignored the bait and set the file on the table, shifting his eyes to lock into Seongje's. "State you're full name."
A lazy smile. "You know my name, Tak-ah."
"This is the procedure. Cooperate," Hyuntak said, but his voice wasn't as steady as he wanted. Seongje noticed. Of course he did.
"Seongje," he said, slow, smooth. "You want the last name too, or are we being nostalgic today?"
Hyuntak's fingers tightened around his pen. He chose to ignore his comment. Instead, he flipped open the file in front of him. "You were seen near Seomun-gil between 3 and 4 a.m. last night."
Seongje tilted his head. "Lots of people walk at night."
"Not through an empty alley next to a murder."
"Oh? Did someone die?" The mock innocence make Hyuntak's blood run hot.
He forced himself to breathe. "Where were you around that time?"
"With friends," Seongje said, shrugging easily. "Or alone. Depends on which answer annoys you more."
"Work with me Seongje." Hyuntak's eyebrows furrow close to each other and crosses his arms over his chest. "You're just making it more difficult for yourself. Give me something to verify."
"And ruin the mystery?" He smiled wider. "Come on, Hyuntak. You always hated when I made things too easy."
The words hit harder than they should have. Suddenly, a memory flashed. Quick, sharp: Two boys sitting on a rooftop, Seongje dangling his legs over the edge. “You’re too serious,” he’d said back then, laughing. “Lighten up, will you?” A night breeze, the smell of summer heat, and Seongje’s grin, carefree, unbroken.
Hyuntak blinked it away before it could pull him under.
“So you admit you were in the area,” Hyuntak said.
“I admit nothing,” Seongje replied. “You’re just bad at interrogations.”
Hyuntak flipped through the notes again, refusing to meet Seongje’s eyes for too long. Every answer Seongje gave was neat, direct, annoyingly calm. No cracks. No signs of panic. Just… him. Older, sharper and harder to read. Not like Hyuntak could ever understand him.
He asked another routine question, pen tapping against the table. “Why were you there at that time?” For the first time since the questioning started, Seongje looked directly at him, steady, unreadable.
A faint scoff left his lips, sounding almost disappointed. “You’re asking questions like you already decided I’m guilty.”
The room seemed to shrink around that single sentence. Hyuntak froze for half a second because it wasn’t a denial, and it wasn’t an admission. Seongje was doing this on purpose, trying to get into his head. He hated how well Seongje still knew how to hold it up to him.
Hyuntak forced his jaw to unclench. “That’s not how this works.”
Seongje’s gaze didn’t waver. “Isn’t it?”
Hyuntak didn’t answer. Because he wasn’t sure anymore. Not about the case, not about his own instincts, and definitely not about the man sitting across from him. He stood from the chair and walked out of the room.