~ Hongbin’s POV ~

Maybe it should have been strange, sitting down to a meal like they all hadn’t just had the most intense ual experience Hongbin had ever been a part of. It should have been, Hongbin was very aware of that, but it wasn’t. And he really wished that he could explain that better than ‘it just wasn’t’, but words failed him. How they could go from lying exhausted and on Taekwoon’s bed to casually re-dressing and going about their business was absolutely beyond him. It wasn’t helped by the fact that neither Taekwoon nor Ravi seemed at all bothered by it, maybe it was normal for them. (Though Hongbin knew that, at least with with Ravi, it wasn’t.)

And he wasn’t helping matters himself much either. Hadn’t he been the one to volunteer to change the bedding after well… they’d made a mess of it. While Taekwoon had said he needed to make dinner and only pointed toward the linen closet, Hongbin had slid right in like he was honestly comfortable being so domestic in Taekwoon’s space. Maybe he was, and wasn’t that the most strange part?

Since meeting Taekwoon nothing in his or Ravi’s life had the chance to settle down, everything had been moving, for the better and worse. Mostly for the better, Hongbin thought but still he sort of wished he had the breathing room to get his feet under him. And not just because he’d gotten tied up inside a murder investigation. All facets of his life were changing, getting recognition for his photography for once, finding himself in a relationship with someone he’d spent probably too many nights thinking of, and especially finally admitting his love to Ravi. At the end of it all, when he did finally take a breath, what was he supposed to do with his life then?

“If we stare long enough eventually he’ll notice,” Hongbin tuned back into the conversation in time to hear Ravi snicker. He blinked once, twice, before his eyes refocused onto his two companions. The both sat with him at Taekwoon’s elegant glass dining table, a veritable feast set out in front of them, courtesy of their host. (Hongbin never would have guessed that Taekwoon would be so proficient in the kitchen.) In his own way, Taekwoon had been trying to show off to them, a fact Hongbin had picked up on.

“Sorry,” he ducked his head sheepishly and stole another bite from his bowl. “Just thinking about stuff.” And that didn’t sound lame at all, he thought dryly. “Did I miss something?” Probably everything. How long had they been sitting there already? How long had he not been paying attention?

“Are you okay?” Taekwoon gave him a look of concern and reached over to press the back of his fingers to his cheek, checking his temperature. A small grin broke out across Hongbin’s face, it felt odd to be looked after by the stoic man, but nice in its own way. Taekwoon drew his hand back and frowned, “you don’t feel sick.” Did he have a lot of experience checking on sick people? There was so much about him that Hongbin didn’t know.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Banishing his concerns for another time, Hongbin sat up straighter in his chair, “sorry.” Taekwoon looked for a moment like he wanted to press the matter but kept his silence. Ravi on the other hand just gave him an encouraging nod and smile, much more familiar with his moods. “Anyhow,” he reached back to rub the nape of his neck, “you guys wanted to talk about what happened today. Your texts sounded serious.” Or they had at first. They’d run the gamut from frantic to anxious to incomprehensible to ‘never mind false alarm’ and something about Ken.

Ravi gave a slightly apologetic look and a shrug before picking up another piece of meat. “We really thought we’d had the case solved.” He gestured once with his chopsticks before stuffing his mouth full, not that he let it deter him from speaking. “Ken-ah texted Taekwoon-ah this morning ‘confessing’ to his crime.” An exaggerated eyeroll told Hongbin this clearly wasn’t the case. “It was pretty convincing honestly, when I first read it, I thought he was confessing to the murder too. Anyhow,” he swallowed and grinned, “we decided to meet at Coffee House, you know, public place and all. And long story short, he was the one who deleted the video files you saw.”

“What?” It caught him off guard, Ken wasn’t even on the list of people Hongbin suspected for that. He’d almost been sure that it was Hakyeon. “Really? I’m surprised, though I don’t know why. I don’t even really know him, but I guess I wouldn’t have pegged him as someone involved at all. Why did he do it?” Still, it felt weird, like maybe he needed to re-question every aspect of the case again.

Taekwoon’s lips pursed into a frown, “Well I know him and I wouldn’t have thought he was involved either.” A dark look passed over his face, “Jaehwan-ah was used, nothing more.” The finality with which he said it made Hongbin glance toward Ravi quickly. So, who had used him?

“Ken-ah said that Yoona-ssi asked him to remove the files,” Ravi restlessly ran a hand through his hair, “but it was before the murder actually happened. According to Ken-ah, he did it a few days before opening night and he took the hard copies too. Which she also took.” Hongbin frowned, so was Yoona the killer?

“They were dating.” Both Ravi and Hongbin glanced toward Taekwoon.

“Ken-ssi and Yoona-ssi?” Hongbin asked, face tilted.

“What? No.” Taekwoon shook his head as if to remove the idea, “Woobin-ah and Yoona-yah were dating. I found that out at the funeral. Along with Manager Hakyeon having lost ‘so much’ money because of gambling with Woobin-ah.” Hongbin had no idea what ‘so much’ could mean but coming from someone who had enough to own and operate a theatre, he was going to assume that it was not a small amount. But what did that all mean?

Rubbing at his temple, Ravi squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. “We need Hyukkie for all of this, he’d want to know.” And Hongbin quite agreed. “But those are both motives right? Money and desire, that’s what Hyukkie had said were common motives.” The three of them sat silent at the table for a moment, contemplating. Were those enough to warrant killing someone? No, he couldn’t think like that, nothing seemed like a good enough reason to kill someone. But they had to face facts. Someone had been killed, therefore someone had to have a reason to do it. “Thanks to Ken-ah, we’re going to talk to Yoona-ssi about the tapes tomorrow afternoon though, you should come. It’ll be me, Hyukkie, Taekwoon-ah, and Ken-ah.”

“I can’t,” Hongbin frowned though, wishing he could. He had been curious as to what was on those tapes. “Manager Hakyeon texted me asking if I’d come in to take pictures of the theatre before they got it cleaned back up. Something about preserving the moment in time and something about a website page? I don’t know, it kind of came out of the blue but honestly it sounds pretty interesting.”

“Oh,” the sound of chopsticks being set down with a clatter accompanied Taekwoon’s soft voice, “that was my fault.” Why would Taekwoon want that moment saved? “I know my prop gun is in the theatre somewhere, it has to be. If Manager Hakyeon opens the theatre then the killer might have a chance to return and remove it. I told him you wanted to take photos so you could search, sorry for not telling you sooner.”

It wasn’t a bad idea, Hongbin thought, but he wasn’t sure how he was supposed to find a prop that the police had missed in their own searches. He wasn’t an expert on police procedure, but he could imagine they were fairly thorough in their hunts. Still, they already knew that every one of the suspects had been searched before leaving the night of the murder, which meant that the missing gun was somewhere there. Unless Hakyeon had been the one to take it away in which case they’d never find it. “Where would I even begin looking?”

Another pensive look from Taekwoon, “I’ll go with you, we’ll cover more ground if we split up and search the theatre. Did Manager Hakyeon say if he’d be there too?” Hongbin shook his head, thinking the same thing Taekwoon was. If Hakyeon was the killer, then he didn’t have anything to worry about, that gun would be long gone. And if he wasn’t, then he wouldn’t have any problem with Taekwoon poking around… unless he thought Taekwoon was the killer. “There are many little places it could be hiding.” That was what Hongbin was afraid of, what if he missed it?

“Will Ken-ah still want to work with us if you’re not there, Taekwoon-ah?” Ravi asked around another mouthful of food before swallowing. “He doesn’t really know me or Hyukkie. And neither would Yoona-yah.” Hongbin nodded, as much as he didn’t like it, Ravi probably needed Taekwoon’s help more than he did.

“Jaehwan-ah will help because he said he would, you can count on that.” Taekwoon didn’t look pleased though, seeing Ravi’s point. “When are you going to the theatre?” He spoke toward Hongbin.

“Right after work, especially if I’m going to be trying to search, I’ll want as much time as I can manage.” Hongbin frowned again, “...do you think we could tell Manager Hakyeon what’s going on. I mean, he’s either already moved the gun or he doesn’t know it’s there. He’d want to help, wouldn’t he? I mean if he’s not the killer.”

“But what if he is, Hongbinnie?” A slight look of worry crossed over Ravi’s face, “and then he feels like you’re onto him. That’s dangerous. Do you feel like we can trust him that much?”

“Should we not?

Both of them turned toward Taekwoon. “I’ll come to help you before I have to go with Jaehwan-ah for interviewing Yoona-yah.” It wasn’t an answer to the question of Hakyeon, but Hongbin took it to mean that even Taekwoon wasn’t sure. Trust no one, he reminded himself, except for Taekwoon and Ravi. (And Hyuk, he added.) He’d have to rely on Taekwoon as much as he could for the time he was there. Hell, maybe he’d get lucky and trip his way over the prop.

It was with a busy mind that Hongbin crawled into bed that night. Though Taekwoon’s bed was much better suited to trying to fit all three of them together. At least worrying about falling off the edge was no longer a prime concern. But given the thoughts in his head, he almost wished it was. Ravi had somehow managed to sprawl out between himself and Taekwoon, clinging to the both of them. He could feel the brush of a kiss against the back of his neck. (A slowly growing regular occurrence before bed since hand Ravi had confessed. Apparently it had been on the list of things Ravi always wanted to do.) And Taekwoon’s arm wrapped around them both pulling Ravi back to nestle against his broad chest.

They’d all almost wordlessly slipped into an ease of routine, adjusting to each other. Another one of those changes that had come into his life. The soft sounds of Ravi snoring drifted from behind him. Well, not everything changed. It probably said something that it was a comfort to hear him drop so easily into sleep when normally it had him amused or annoyed. Thoughts plagued him as he shut his own eyes. What if they didn’t find the killer? What would happen to Taekwoon? The theatre? How could they all go on knowing that there was someone who’d gotten away with murder among them? What if the production kept going and it happened again? What if it happened to Taekwoon? The thought nearly broke his heart. “Go to sleep, Hongbin-ah.” Taekwoon rubbed his thumb over Hongbin’s shoulder. Slowly, he tried to let his thoughts fall away one at a time. “I’ll take care of you.” A warmth bloomed in his chest. “I love you.”