~ Taekwoon’s POV ~

Taekwoon kept glancing back at his phone every five minutes, in case his eyes finally straightened themselves out and the message changed. But each time he glanced down at the screen it remained the same. ‘I did it, hyung. It was me.’ The very idea of Jaehwan being a killer flew in the face of every sense Taekwoon owned. There were a great many things he could call his friend, but a murderer wasn’t one of them. It would have been laughable if he wasn’t so pissed off about it.

And if he was, which he wasn’t, why would he contact Taekwoon of all people? Whoever it was that had done it, and it wasn’t Jaehwan, was trying to frame him, confessing to him just didn’t make any sense at all. Not that Taekwoon felt Jaehwan had much sense, but more than that, didn’t he? Doubt plagued him as he glanced down at his phone again, flicking the screen on to read the words once more.

Why?

Why would Jaehwan do that? That was what the couldn’t fathom. There were any number of ways Takewoon could imagine Jaehwan confronting someone, most of them loud, boisterous and largely ineffectual or else filled with drama and tears, the star of his very own show in some rights. But underhanded tactics? Pinning the blame somewhere else? Even if he were going to think that Jaehwan could do it, which he still wasn’t (right?), he couldn’t imagine Jaehwan letting someone else steal the proverbial spotlight from him.

And why him? Why Taekwoon? If possible, his frown deepened, dark thoughts creeping past his refusal to believe poorly of his friend. Had it all been a ruse? Years. They’d been friends for years. When had it turned sour? All of that talk about being allies rather than rivals, had Jaehwan been harboring some sort of resentment toward him? Was there too many roles that Taekwoon had taken that he wanted? Maybe he’d been happier when Taekwoon had bowed out of musical theatre the year before to try and start a solo musician’s career.

All those years and he’d felt like he was the one who wasn’t as invested in their friendship. Had it really been the other way around?

“Your boyfriend is going to scare away all of our customers, hyung.” Hyuk’s voice barely penetrated the fog inside Taekwoon’s mind. The young would be detective sat perched on the edge of a chair, the apron uniform of the store over his shirt and jeans. At Taekwoon’s request he’d been left in the dark for the sudden meeting.

After Wonsik had told him that meeting with a potential murderer alone and/or at a private location was not allowed or as he had put it ‘if you think I’m going to let you go anywhere alone right now, you’re hilarious’. As they’re psuedo base of operations, Coffee House had been agreed upon as a suitable location. Public but it shouldn’t have been busy, at least not for another couple hours Wonsik had assured him. He’d asked, demanded maybe, that nothing be said to Hyuk about it until they were sure.

Sure because Taekwoon still held out hope, hope that Jaehwan was thinking he was funny, or had merely said such a ridiculous thing to catch his attention. Yet, the only thing he’d received back after telling him to meet them at Coffee House had been a short.

I’m sorry. ._.

Maybe he sensed it coming, or he’d become hyper aware, but Taekwoon glanced at the door before Jaehwan had even reached it. He had the large collar of his jacket turned up, dark sunglasses covering half of his face and a hunched quality that brought to mind a kicked dog. A part of him felt awful, because despite his protests, this was his friend. Another part felt the slow simmer of outrage burning, he was the one suspected of murder after all. Intentionally made by whoever had actually done it. And if it was Jaehwan, there was going to be hell to pay.

With a quick nod, he summoned the other man to their table. Jaehwan picked his way through the tables and slid into the seat next to him, pulling the sunglasses down just enough to let his eyes dart around the cafe. The nerves flowing off of him were only serving to make Taekwoon antsy himself. Could he just stop with the cloak and dagger business?

“Did you have to make it a public place, hyung?” Jaehwan mumbled nearly while glancing between Wonsik and Hyuk, both sitting back a little ways. Hyuk’s lips quirked into a near smirk as he tapped Wonsik on the shoulder with a questioning look but the other only shook his head and tipped his head back toward them to be sure the younger man would pay attention. “Hi,” Jaehwan flashed a brief but bright smile at the other two, for just a second he wasn’t suspicious or paranoid, just Jaehwan, “I’m Ken.” Or Ken, whatever, Taekwoon was never calling him that.

“What have you done Lee Jaehwan?” Taekwoon cut him off with tone sharper than he’d meant. The way the other man nearly jumped out of his skin contrasted with every terrible thing Taekwoon was thinking but the nearly crushed look Jaehwan gave him said volumes. He’d done it, he’d actually done it. Why else would he look so guilty? Why else would he walk in with his figurative tail between his legs. A bubbling sort of rage began to seethe through Taekwoon’s system.

“I’m so sorry, hyung, I’m so sorry!” His words were rushed, trying to get them all out before some slipped away. “I’m so dumb, I know, you can tell me.” Taekwoon had several choice terms he wanted to tell Jaehwan he was, ‘dumb’ was on the mild side. “I didn’t think it would escalate to this. I really didn’t!” Well what had he thought was going to happen, Taekwoon thought becoming more and more incensed at the man before him. “You believe me right? I wouldn’t ever have done it if I knew this was all going to happen. I didn’t know this was going to happen to you!” It took all of his self restraint and Wonsik’s hand on his shoulder to keep him from actually committing murder right then and there. Was he really asking for his forgiveness for trying to pin murder on him? “Don’t kill me, hyung!”

“Why?” Taekwoon bit the word out on a snarl and Wonsik wrapped an arm over his chest to hold him back just in case. “Why would you do this, Jaehwan?” The icy tone of his voice was low, so only the four of them could hear, but it did enough to make the other man blanche and scoot back.

Was his lip actually wibbling? How dare he act like the hurt party in this. Taekwoon’s hands flexed with the need to throttle something. “I was just doing a favor for a friend, how was I supposed to know it’d get so out of hand?” His tone was so hurt it nearly cracked through Taekwoon’s anger. “I just thought you’d want to know cause Hakyeon-hyung mentioned that Hongbin-ah was looking for the video files. Please, don’t hurt me.”

...video...files…

All the energy and rage fled Taekwoon’s body in an instant, having him slumping down in his seat, forehead against the table. He was never going to open his eyes again. He was going to live there, at that table, in that position, for the rest of his life. “You deleted the videographer files and took the hard discs…” Taekwoon mumbled it into the table’s surface. Of course he did. Only Jaehwan would think to make such a big deal out of that when there was a murderer on the loose. Who else would confess to their ‘crime’ in such a way and not think someone would think otherwise? Only Jaehwan.

Slightly confused, Jaehwan glanced down at Taekwoon’s prone from on the table and quirked an eyebrow. “Yeah, wait,” a sudden gasp erupted from him, hand slapped over his mouth and everything, “what did you think I meant!?” Taekwoon tipped his head to the side so he could glare at his friend with one menacing eye. “Yah!” It was the onset of a Jaehwan hysteric, “You thought I was the murderer?! How could you? How could you?!” Shame disappeared with the onset of persecuted hurt and Jaehwan put on his best pout, “I can’t believe you thought for a minute, no a second, that I was the murderer! You actually thought I could do that, hyung? You thought I would do that to you?”

Guilt built up around Taekwoon in stacks. He’d actually believed that for a moment, that Jaehwan would do such a thing. What was wrong with him? He knew, absolutely, that Jaehwan was incapable of murder but still he’d let himself believe it. And for a couple of seconds he’d honestly felt real hate, it shamed him. Jaehwan had come to him to reveal what could be crucial information, and he’d thought the worst of him.

Rising, he reached out and pulled the pouting man into a tight but brief hug. “Sorry,” he offered quietly and gave a tight squeeze before pulling back, head lowered. An encouraging hand that he assumed was Wonsik’s ran up and down his back. “Sorry,” he repeated again, unsure of what else to say. Jaehwan had never accused him of being the murderer despite signs pointing that way. It was such a poor way to repay him.

But Jaehwan could only keep up his pout for so long and shrugged slightly, “As long as you learned your lesson.” He spouted with a cocked brow and a small smirk on his lips. “Maybe this means I could totally go for one of those hard roles now!” Taekwoon wasn’t so sure but nodded anyhow, feeling like he owed him that much.

“So,” Hyuk’s voice broke through their reconciliation. “Why did you delete the files?” The ring leader of their investigation got straight to the point, probably because his break was going to be over soon. “And when?” The ever present spiral bound notebook flipped open with a flick of his wrist and Hyuk settled his pen on the page where he’d detailed the information about the recordings.

“Oh,” Jaehwan gave a winning smile toward the youngest, pleased to get to talk about what he’d really come there for. “It was before opening night. I think a day or two, after the videographers had already done all of their filming.” Which explained how Jaehwan had done it since the theatre had been available to all of the cast at nearly any time before it was taken over by the police. “Yoona-yah asked me if I could delete a couple of the files for her since she knows I toy around with computers at home. The files were just a precaution because she’d seemed pretty adamant about making sure there wasn’t a trace of the file around.”

“But why?” Wonsik asked, lips formed into a slight grimace. “What was on the video?”

“I don’t know I promised not to look. I didn’t think it was that big of a deal at first, there were so many hours of footage and not just for that day but all three days the videographers were there. The hard discs weren’t organized at all so I didn’t know which one had the right file. Getting all of them out of there was a pain.” Jaehwan grinned and scratched the back of his neck. “I had to hide in the a/v room until after Hongbin-ah was done taking pictures of the theatre. It took forever!” But he didn’t look all that bothered. “I was going to go over them and then just get rid of the ones for that same time period but Yoona-yah ended up taking them all. The other files are saved on the computer though so I figured it’d be okay.”

So, Yoona had wanted to get rid of the files? Why? Taekwoon’s lips pursed and then thinned into a line. Nothing was making any sense. “Did I really screw everything up, hyung?” Jaehwan looked at him earnestly and Taekwoon felt like putting his head back to the table. Only made him rage off five years of his life in the space of a minute.

“You helped!” Hyuk answered for him, cheerfully even, pen whizzing around this notebook with the new information. Jaehwan brightened at that though and gave his actor smile, the one he used to try and look the best in pictures. “So, what are the odds that we could get an audience with her?” Hyuk glanced around, the table, eyes wide with excitement while the others just blinked at him. “Oh, come on, we’re getting to the good stuff now!”

“Can I help?” Jaehwan’s voice was almost cautious in asking, eyes darting toward Taekwoon as if to ask for permission to join their little team. “I want to help, to try and make up for the mess I made, is that okay? Here, look, I’ll text Yoona-yah and ask her to meet me for drinks tomorrow! We can talk then okay?” He’d say that Jaehwan sounded more excited by the second as he whipped out his hand phone to type furiously.

With only a nod from Taekwoon, Wonsik offered the official welcome. “You’ll be agent Ken.” Hyuk couldn’t hide his giggle. “I’m agent Ravi, this is our deputy director agent Hyukkie.”

“Welcome to the Investigation Squad Alpha!” Hyuk cheered.

Taekwoon rolled his eyes and left his forehead against the table. Hongbin was right, they did sound like a cheesy anime.