Hyun-woo had vanished into the crowd by the time Min-jun rushed out into the streets. Damn, he’d forgotten how fast he was. Min-jun took a step back, then forward, unsure of how to proceed. Wolgwang City had been built like a maze, full of back streets and alleyways leading nowhere. Hyun-woo and he had often speculated that the person who’d designed the city must’ve been a sadist, with how complicated it was.
But Min-jun always found a way to catch up to his targets. If the streets weren’t helping, move to higher ground. It won’t give him a bird’s eye view, but he’d be able to see two or three streets down at least. A box of crates caught his attention, lying underneath the eaves of a flat, tiled roof.
That could work.
He climbed the crates, and then hopped onto the roof, feeling the tiles bend slightly under his feet, the roof creaking under his weight. Good thing the wind was behaving. It had been too long since he’d done this last. Here was hoping he didn’t accidentally break his leg while climbing. Hyun-woo would kill him if he so much as scraped his knee. Rather counterproductive if you asked him, but Hyun-woo worked in mysterious ways.
He stood upright on the roof, and with his near-perfect eyesight (which he was quite proud of, mind you), he caught sight of the two men running two streets down from where Min-jun stood.
Looks like they’re heading north. Min-jun hated to lose sight of them, but he had their general trajectory, and he didn’t want to risk missing the jump from one house to the next.
He climbed down from the house, apologizing to the surprised residents as he ran onto the next street. It didn’t take long before he was upon another rooftop, following Hyun-woo’s familiar gait. Still north. He jumped off and continued to run in their direction. By the fourth stop, he managed to catch sight of the other men stalking Hyun-woo. Ah, so they were leading him there.
And Hyun-woo was leading Min-jun there, too. If his calculations were correct, they were headed toward the dead-end in the northernmost part of the City, near the tea store they’d outed as a drug hot spot last year. He wouldn’t be surprised if he’d run past that window knowing Min-jun would go to Madam Sa’s upon arriving in the city. That meant there would be a fight. Min-jun had a small knife on him that the King had gifted (annoyingly. The man really didn’t take his threats seriously), but that wouldn’t be enough in an altercation with multiple men. Min-jun was no superhuman.
Hyun-woo cornered his target, and his target’s friends cornered him. Three hulking men in peasant clothes ready to run him through with the knives at their sides. Min-jun had laid himself down on the rooftop above them, peeking over the edge.
And I’m supposed to do something about them? Hyun-woo had always saddled him with the dirty work.
“Finally caught you, you meddling little bastard,” one of the men said, approaching Hyun-woo with a crooked grin on his face, showing off chipped teeth. An experienced fighter, if his stance was anything to go by. “I’ll ask you one last time: How did you know we’d be there?”
“Funny,” Hyun-woo said. He took a step back but otherwise stood his ground, keeping an eye on his assailants and his target. “I’m the meddling one but you’re the one asking questions that don’t concern you.”
The man continued in his predatory prowl. “Let’s see how cocky you are with that tongue of yours cut out.”
Min-jun stiffened and his hand scraped against a loose tile. A terrible idea came to life in his mind. He whispered a quiet apology to whoever the building belonged to and then wriggled the slate tile from its spot on the rooftop. He felt around for more. He only needed three anyhow. Unless he missed, which was unlikely. Ah, there. And another one to the right. Oh dear, these things were heavier than he thought they’d be. It wouldn’t end up killing them, would it?
There was no time for second-guessing. He stood up, aimed, and threw it down onto the head of the man advancing on his partner (ex-partner). Out like a light. He collapsed onto the ground, first onto his knees, and then face down in the dirt. A rush of blood stained his white headband red. The rest of the men all swiveled around to look at him, and he took full advantage of the temporary shock. He managed to get another one straight in the face. The man fell back, nose bent at an ugly angle. The other wouldn’t be so easily caught. He pivoted on his heel and ran as fast as he could.
“Hey!” Min-jun yelled after him. They always ended up running. The cowards.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
He’d moved too recklessly then, spurred on by his indignance, and his foot ended up in the wrong place. The ground beneath him shifted as he fell back on the uneven slate roof, the curves jutting into his back. He hit his head on the way down, feeling it shake his skull. And then, since gravity dictates all that went up must eventually come down, he continued to slide off the roof, and into the street.
Instead of cold, unforgiving pavement, he landed in Hyun-woo’s waiting arms, solid and warm. The autumn wind blew through the streets, waking him up from the shocked daze. Hyun-woo held him close, keeping an eye on their final target.
“Took you long enough,” Hyun-woo muttered, close to his ear. Behind them, the criminal started to make his great escape, creeping quietly
“Have I ever told you that you have a very strange way of saying thank you?”
With Min-jun still safely lodged in his arms, Hyun-woo took a step back and put a knee to the escaping criminal’s stomach. The man doubled over from the pain, coughing the air out of his lungs. Another kick came down on his back, and the man dropped down on his knees, whimpering from the pain.
“What’d he do?” Min-jun asked as Hyun-woo placed him back on the ground. His ex-partner wasn’t usually this hard on them.
“Larceny, aggravated assault, and slander.”
“It ain’t slander, it’s true! I heard it straight from the horse’s mouth,” the man wheezed. Min-jun’s heart clenched a bit. How pitiful the man looked, like a rabbit trapped in a snare. Hyun-woo could get a little intense sometimes, but this sort of anger was rare, saved only for the worst of crimes.
Hyun-woo stepped forward to punch him around some more, his foot coming down on the man’s chest. Min-jun put a hand to his ex-partner’s chest, pushing him back from the cowering man.
“Let’s just take him back to the Bureau,” he suggested. The man behind him nodded vehemently in agreement. “Uh . . .” He glanced back at the man’s injured accomplices, still unconscious. “Well, I suppose we’ll have to take them before their friend comes back.” He glanced at the criminal. “You.”
“Heh?” the criminal replied. “You think you can talk however you want with elders just because you’re a noble, you little punk?” Hyun-woo put more weight onto the foot stepping on the criminal’s chest, causing him to flinch from the pain. “Alright, alright, I’m sorry!”
Min-jun ignored the slight, more concerned with how they would drag all three of them to the Bureau. “You’re going to carry the smaller one over there. Think you can manage?”
“You can’t boss me around!”
“I have a knife if you’d prefer to have that stuck through your chest instead.” Min-jun dug into his robes and pulled out the small dagger. The man gulped at the sight of the sharp blade.
“Alright, alright, alright.” And so, with the tip of a knife pressed to his back, the criminal picked up the smaller of the two men.
“Hyun-woo, tie us together.” They always carried rope with them. Usually, it would be to shackle the criminal, but he needed his hands to carry the man. This would have to do.
Hyun-woo tied the rope around Min-jun’s left hand and the criminal’s right, binding them. Then, he went over to the other unconscious man, the one who had yelled at him, and bent to pick him up as well.
“How come you can’t carry him?” Hyun-woo asked, glancing at Min-jun’s free hands like they’d done him wrong somehow.
“Because . . . I don’t want to?”
Hyun-woo pinned him with a glare but walked out with the man over his shoulder regardless.
. . .
They walked out of the Bureau empty-handed. Some of the younger officers took the three off their hands, identifying them as part of a troublemaking gang of thieves that had recently taken over Wolgwang City. They said they’d send compensation over to their Agency in the morning.
They walked out of the Investigation Bureau, leaving the smell of sweat and despair behind them. The building was taller than most, with two floors, one with the office workers, and one with a record of every criminal incident since Wolgwang City’s founding. It was still striking that they needed a whole floor for something like that, but Wolgwang City had a history of criminal activity. That last few years that Min-jun had spent there were calm in comparison to what it had been a decade or two ago.
“So,” Hyun-woo started. “What brings you here? Thought you said you’d never come back.”
Min-jun’s mood instantly soured at the memory of how he’d been tricked into coming on this damn trip in the first place. “An annoying acquaintance . . .” He trailed off toward the end, a terrible realization dawning on him.
His Majesty! I’d left that bastard with Sa! Who knew what he’d gotten out of her by now?
“Fuck!”
Hyun-woo raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. “I’m flattered but aren’t you married?”
. . .
The King and Sa were still chatting away by the time Min-jun returned, laughing over liquor and food, their conversation light and friendly. They looked like the best of friends. Every part of him tensed, as panic rose in him, alarm bells going off in his head. The King could get five different questions answered in one word. How long had it been since he’d run off? Ah, he’d been stupid, so very foolish.
The restaurant was rowdy, people gathering for drinks before the Festival kicked off in a few days. One person nearly poured their drink onto Min-jun’s clothes. Candlelight lit their way. All of the tables were full, and old off-tune songs were sung into the warm, heady air of the restaurant.
The King’s face brightened as their eyes met, but it was Sa who opened her mouth first.
“Jun-ah,” she greeted. “Where’d you run off to? We were just talking about you!”
“Were you?” Min-jun said, through clenched teeth. “I can’t imagine I’m that interesting of a topic.”
“Oh, don’t be so modest,” Sa said, slapping his shoulder. “You’re full of embarrassing stories, and your friend here wanted to hear all about them.” She raised her wine cup and tipped it toward him. “It’s ‘cause you’re so damn tight-lipped all the time. This wouldn’t happen if you just told people more about yourself from the get-go.”
“I’ll take your advice, noona,” Min-jun said.
Sa turned back to the King, waving her hand at him conspiratorially. “Oh, there was also this one time when –”
“Alright, that’s enough,” Min-jun said, dragging the King up with him.
“But I haven’t even –”
“Enough,” Min-jun said, pulling the King toward the door. Surprisingly, the King made no protests, a smile teasing the corner of his lips. “It’s getting late. We can talk more tomorrow.”
Sa frowned, but there wasn’t much else she could say. She watched them leave, her brow creasing, pretty face concerned. “Oh. Alright then. See you tomorrow.”
Hyun-woo followed close behind them. Together, they exited the restaurant into the busy streets. The sun had set now, and above them, a bright full moon illuminated the night sky. A cool breeze swept over them, and the King leaned in close to his ear.
“You know,” he said, arm around Min-jun’s shoulders, “this wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t left in such a hurry.”
Min-jun shrugged him off, fuming, his teeth grinding together, lips pulled down in a scowl. “What did she tell you?” he hissed, taking the King by the collar.
“Hey, Min-jun,” Hyun-woo said, raising his arms between them, “calm down. It was just some small talk.”
“Indeed,” Cheol agreed, smiling down at him. “It was just some small talk.” He leaned in to whisper in his ear, breath caressing it. “My dearest consort.”
They stared at each other for a moment, and Min-jun got the odd feeling that the King was cross with him. Over what? Leaving him at the restaurant in favor of chasing Hyun-woo? How childish of him.
Hyun-woo cleared his throat. “Okay, so are you married to the King or not, because you two seem very touchy-feely.”
“We do not!” Min-jun screamed, a bit louder than he’d intended, and then stormed off.
“Where are you going?” Hyun-woo called after him.
“Your place. We’re staying there.”
Hyun-woo let out an appalled squawk. “My place? I never said you could stay with me. Hey, wait up!”
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