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A doorbell rings.
He gets up from the sofa and goes to answer. As he opens the door a couple of glassy eyes look straight at him. A smile.
“Hi, uhm, I may need your help.”
He raises his eyebrow. What does he want from him? They are not even friends...
“I may need to hide a body. Hyoman's body, to be precise.”
Seongje sighs and a what the fuck is all he can say, before Juntae slips inside his living room, making himself at home.
“Oh, is this your videogames collection? Cool!” The little Eunjang starts wandering and snooping around Seongje's house, as if he hasn't just come in with a very weird request. Seongje is baffled, shocked. It takes him a bit to come to his senses and when he does, Juntae is curiously observing his D&D miniatures with glittering and amused eyes. And he's so fucking cute.
No, wait. Earth to Seongje. The body. Hyoman's body. Juntae clearly said he needs his help to hide Hyoman's body. “Can we just go back to the point, Little Lamb? Because you can't just storm into my house — also, to be honest, how the fuck do you know where I live? — and tell me that you have Hyoman's body to hide, then start poking around through my stuff — Hey, that's a limited edition, can you please put it down, thank you?”
Juntae looks back at him, a witty smirk painted on his (way too pretty) face and in the most innocent way ever he just chuckles, bringing his hand up to cover his mouth. “We are neighbours, Seongje, of course I know where you live. And regarding the body, yeah, it just happened. Will you help me?”
“What the fuck it just happened? You say that when you fall down and get hurt, or when your baseball team loses a game, not when you have to hide a fucking corpse!”
“It was an accident, okay? He tripped on his own and hit his head.”
“And you never considered calling an ambulance?”
“Unfortunately, he died right on the spot. And we were kinda fighting so I don't want the Police to suspect me, you know how it works.”
“No, I don't.” Juntae looks at him with a judging, resting face. “Fine. I used to beat people in High school, but I was never involved in murders.”
“Neither was I! So, I need my record to be immaculate and now that this idiot died in front of me, it's ruining everything. Will you help me or not, Geum Seongje? I'm losing my patience here.”
He doesn't raise his voice, he doesn't need to. His tone alone is enough to give Seongje chills through his spine. Juntae is not desperate, he realises. He's confident that he will get the help he wants without question. He's deliberate.
“Fine. I'll help. Where is the body?”
Juntae suddenly smiles and his whole face brightens. “He's on our rooftop! Come!”
“Our rooftop?” Seongje repeats, grabbing his keys and following Little Eunjang out of the door. “Where do you live precisely?”
“Uhm? I'm in unit 13 on the 4th floor!”
Thirteen and four... Numbers connected with death and misfortune, Seongje can't help to notice. He rolls his shoulders, ignoring that. “Since when? I've never seen you around.”
“Oh, that's because I'm always on campus for my assignments. I moved here like a couple of months ago and after a while I saw you coming into this building. I got curious and checked for your name among the mailboxes at the entrance.”
“I don't know if I should feel flattered or threatened, Little Lamb.”
“You don't have to worry, most of the time I'm a friendly neighbor!”
“I guess Hyoman got on your bad side then…”
“It was an accident, Seongje. I've already told you this.”
“You did, I was kidding.” Probably.
While talking, they finally reach the antipanic door that leads to the rooftop. A big Out of order. Do not open. Dangerous door. sign is hanging on it.
“So, this is your doing, isn’t it?”
“Couldn't risk someone seeing it, and I know that usually people don't use this door, but you never know, I guess.”
“This is insane, but okay, let’s go.” Seongje rolls his eyes and breathes in, trying to prepare himself — it’s not that he sees a corpse everyday after all, he just hopes there is not that much blood or an open skull, he has never seen a brain in real life but it doesn’t sound alluring.
Juntae gives him a tissue so, slightly trembling, Seongje pushes the door open, without touching it directly.
Hyoman lies there, on the rooftop’s floor, in a cramped position — prone, with his neck twisted on the right side, his face disfigured with fear and what Seongje interprets as pain. One of his shoulders looks dislocated, with the arm unnaturally bent. The smell of blood is so strong, and even if Seongje is quite used to it, combined with the vision of a human dead body, it makes his stomach flip and he needs to bite his inner cheeks to stop the incoming gagging.
Then he turns to Juntae.
Seo Juntae, the shy Little Lamb from Eunjang. He remembers meeting him in high school when he was part of the Union, he remembers saving him from bullies and, of course, he recalls developing a big ass crush on him after. Because even if Seo Juntae was physically weak, he showed the courage and the loyalty of a lion. Back in that dusty and dark warehouse, his heart was stolen by a fierce look and a loud “No”. How could Seongje not be taken aback and stay indifferent to this funny fellow?
When Seongje looks at him on the rooftop, years after their first meeting, he thinks his panicked look is reflecting in Junate’s face, because that’s normal, right? When you see a corpse, even if it’s a person you don’t like, it should be unsettling, and scary.
But Juntae looks so relaxed, with his hands in his jacket’s pockets, his head softly tilted on the left, eyes focused on Hyoman’s dead body, silently scanning and studying every detail, as if he’s trying to memorise them all. Then a small, satisfied grin curls his lips as he nods, chuffed. There is no trace of fear, disgust or any usual reaction in front of a fucking corpse.
Seongje is, once again, dumbfounded and speechless. Juntae’s merciless and confident expression makes his heart beat like crazy — How can he be so hot and cute and… No, wait, it’s not the right time to do this, Geum Seongje. Why the hell does he look so calm? Is it because he studies medicine? Is he used to seeing corpses?
“So, this is the situation.” His crush — now partner in crime — interrupts his flux of consciousness. “We need: gloves, hats to cover our hair as much as we can, a big plastic sheet and maybe an oilskin, we never know. Mmm I’d love to feed him to pigs, but we live in Seoul, it would be weird for two college students to buy or even look for pigs, so we need to make it look like an accidental death.”
“Wait, I thought you said it was an accidental death.”
“Yeah, exactly what I said.” He smiles at him, then looks back at Hyoman’s cramped body and puts a hand on his own chin, with a focused expression on his face.
“Will you tell me how it happened at a certain point?” Seongje insists. The doubt is eating him from the inside. Was it really an accident? Juntae is too relaxed and he can’t believe a soft person like him is able to kill someone else, even his own bully. But… Is Juntae actually the soft and kind guy he thinks? Or was it just an act? Seongje is not sure anymore. He needs the truth or he won’t be able to sleep anymore.
“Mmm I actually don’t remember that much.” Juntae answers. His voice is still calm, distant, as if he’s talking about a book or a movie, and not a messy situation he has dragged Seongje in. “We were kinda arguing and then he tripped, fell and hit his head.”
“He tripped on what? And his position is so unnatural… It’s disgusting.”
“Oh, that’s because we were up there.” He points at the small storage room that their building has. Or is it a boiler room? Seongje doesn’t know, this is like the third time he comes to the rooftop and he never cared about this kind of stuff and his attention was all captured by Hyoman to notice his surroundings, so he didn’t even realise they were actually close to it.
“What were you doing up there? It doesn’t look like a good place to hang out. Also, wasn’t Hyoman your bully in high school or what? Why was he here in the first place?”
“You are asking too many questions.”
“And here I was thinking that I should ask even more!” He’s exasperated. The more Juntee acts cold and distant, the more anxious he gets. “So, are you going to answer?”
“That’s not important, Seongje! We need to cooperate and move the body! It’s almost dark and we need to act before dawn! I can’t carry him alone, that’s why I called you. I thought… I thought I could trust you, but maybe I was wrong.”
“No, wait. Juntae.” Seongje stretches out his hand to reach Juntae’s elbow and stop him from leaving. “You can trust me. I’m the right person for this and I promise I won’t tell anyone. I swear. My lips are sealed and I’ll help you, whatever you want me to do, I’m on this ride. But—”
“Are you really on my side, Seongje?” Juntae is now pouting, eyes shiny with tears. He takes Seongje’s hand in his tiny ones — and Seongje can’t resist comparing their size difference, Juntae’s are so small, he looks so adorable. “Can I trust you, Hyung?”
Hyung… This is a dirty trick. How can he say no to that pretty face and pleading voice? Geum Seongje, you are such a pushover…
“Of course you can, Little Lamb. I just need to know some things, you know. To protect you.”
“You don’t have to worry. Just trust me, okay, Seongje? Seongje Hyung?”
That honorific again. God. “I may be damned but I’ll trust you, Juntae. Give me orders, what do you need me to do?”
Juntae’s feral smirk appears again on his face.
***
When Seongje opens his apartment’s door again a few moments later, his mind is exploding. This is not real, it can’t be real. C’mon, did you drink last night, are you hallucinating? He can’t really be doing this. No way.
His body moves as if he’s in autopilot mode and he absentmindedly looks for the stuff Juntae has requested: hats, gloves and plastic sheet. Easy. He has all of these items and he thinks he also has in his car a sort of oilskin from the last time he had been hiking. Will it work? He doesn’t know, he doesn’t know a fucking thing now, except that Seo Juntae needs his help and that he needs to be quick.
By the time he’s finished gathering everything — he also packs, as instructed by Juntae, a pair of flashlights, face masks, packing tape he’s now glad he has kept for years in a forgotten drawer, some lighters just in case, disinfectant, new rags he still hasn’t taken out of the plastic and a bottle of hydrogen peroxide — the sun is almost setting already.
The plan is to wrap Hyoman’s body into the plastic sheet on the rooftop, clean the mess and remove not only the blood stains but also possible fingerprints, and lastly, under cover of darkness, move the body from the rooftop to Seongje’s car.
It seems easy peasy.
Spoiler: it’s not.
Seongje — hat, mask and gloves on — is still trying to understand how to lift the corpse and he’s already soaked in cold sweat, regretting every bad life decision.
Hyoman was heavy when he was alive, but now, his body is ten times heavier and it took Seongje and Juntae all the strength in the world to roll him up in the plastic and transform him into a disgusting rotten burrito.
And the smell, oh God. It was the worst part of it. Please don’t throw up, please don’t throw up. If you throw up it will be the end of us, please. I should have bought some clips to close my nostrils, fuck.
Once the corpse is fully covered, the two of them start cleaning everything, and it’s really a painstaking work. Seongje doesn't think he’s a clean freak, but he actually likes his house and desk tidy and clean so he often does the chores meticulously, but obviously this is on an entirely different level. Every nook and angle is wiped down until everything is spotless.
Only when Juntae is satisfied, they stop. “Good. It’s almost time to bring that downstairs.” Again, the way he talks about Hyoman is so cold and distant. Well, he bullied Juntae for years after all…
And as expected, silently coming down the stairs is no easy task with a corpse on your back. They choose to use the service stairs because there are less risks to meet someone on their way and the elevator is actually too small for the three of them, so here they are, trying to overcome this Herculean labour.
Seongje, being the tallest and the strongest, pulls up more than Juntae, so at the end of the first stairwell, he’s drenched in sweat.
“Are you okay, Little Lamb?” he asks with a broken breath.
“This idiot is so bulky, for God’s sake. But yes, I’m doing fine. You can do this, Hyung.”
Like a lightning hitting him up, a goosed rush of adrenaline fills Seongje’s body, and for a moment, he doesn’t feel tired or stressed. Everything is fine, he can do it. For his Little Lamb who believes in him and calls him Hyung. Dragging the body into Seongje’s car looks almost effortless, after all those stairs, and when they finally reach the ground floor without much of a problem, they slip up: Juntae will bring the car to the back of the building, leaving Seongje alone with Hyoman. Or what’s left of him.
“So, Hyoman, you fucking donkey. What have you done to my Little Lamb to die like this, ah? I’ve told you countless times to leave him alone. Not just me, though. I can mention at least four other people who’d definitely kill you if you touched Juntae. So why are you still around him, you dipshit?” he laughs, realising he’s basically talking to a dead man. “I guess you won’t bother him from now on. So do us a favour, and stay well hidden forever.”
“Seongje! I’m ready!” It’s Juntae’s soft whispers to shake him back to reality, so he once again prepares himself to lift the body and load it on his shoulder, before placing him into his trunk.
***
Hands on the wheel, Seongje’s brain is working at the speed of light. They’ve done it. He’s driving with a fucking corpse in the back of his car and they are going to bury him somewhere in the mountains. It will be a long ride, he’s sure of it.
He can almost imagine the police coming to his door in a few days and dragging him away with at least three different charges. How will they find him? Desperate, smelly and unshaved? No. Clean, perfect hair, perfect teeth, perfect outfit — wait, is there a perfect outfit to be arrested with? A tracksuit? A casual cardigan and shirt? Glasses on or glasses off? If he has to be arrested and be seen on the evening news, he wants to at least leave an impression on his public. “Hot man arrested for having buried a human body. His excuse: my high school crush told me to.” Pathetic. You are a fucking loser Seongje.
Next to him, Juntae giggles. “Don’t worry too much, Seongje. They won’t catch us. I promise.”
“Are you in my head now?” He quickly glares at him, before setting his eyes on the road again. This kid terrifies him. How could he guess what he was thinking like this?
“Mmm, let’s say you are an open book to me. And the way you are squeezing the poor wheel like a snake kinda gives you away. Relax.”
Juntae reaches for his hand, making Seongje loosen the grip, until his knuckles finally turn from white to a livelier colour, with the blood now able to flow again normally.
Then, Juntae does something completely unexpected that Seongje almost loses control over the car. He pats his head, murmuring softly something like “there, there”, as if Seongje was a dog.
After regaining his composure, and believe him, it took all of his strength to do so, looking back at it, dealing with a dead man and bringing him down the stairs at midnight was a child’s play. He breathes slowly, collecting himself and bringing his mind back to the task. He needs to be lucid.
“Oh, turn left here, Seongje.” And once again, as Juntae says, Seongje acts. Like a marionette in the hands of his puppeteer, he lets the other control him, as he drives through the night, towards a destination he doesn’t even know.
But he trusts Juntae, it’s almost impossible not to do so, when he looks so relaxed and carefree. He knows what he’s doing, as if he imagined and calculated this over and over again… No, Seongje. It was an accident, he said. Stop questioning him. Everything is going to be okay. You need to protect him and make his plan impeccable.
So he keeps driving and driving, with Hyoman’s stench filling the car and giving him the chills. When they left, they switched on the AC and they stopped in a supermarket to buy some ice cubes to try and slow the decaying of the corpse. It’s just October but the weather outside is helping them — it’s freezing today.
“Are you cold, Juntae?”
“A bit, but it’s okay. We are doing this for a reason.” He replied, eyes still fixed on his phone and the map, shrugging his shoulders. “And we are almost there.”
The "almost there” he was talking about turns out to be half an hour later and an awful lot of treacherous switchback roads surrounded by ravines. Not your safest road for a night drive, but Seongje is a good driver, and the idea of making a mistake is way much worse than the scenery. Making a mistake in a situation like this means getting caught and Seongje knows he is not allowed to be flawed. He needs to protect Juntae and safely bring him back to his ordinary life. So he drives slowly and cautiously, holding his breath at every turn.
When Juntae asks him to stop, he obeys, without questioning. Following the nerd, the two of them get out of the car and start walking, as Juntae explains the next steps of the plan.
“There is a well over there, look.” He points at something. Seongje can’t see a thing, it’s too dark, even with the flashlights on, and his vision is not that good, but he trusts him. “We will throw Hyoman in there, then cover him with some plants. This part of the mountains is not good for hiking and there are lots of wild animals.”
The moment he mentions this, strange noises start coming from the woods around them, as if their dwellers wanted to remark on this last part. For the nth time that day, Seongje feels chills coming through his spine. He gulps, clenching his fists to calm himself.
“So I think no one will find him for a while. And when they do, nature should have already used him for some good, for once in his life. Questions?”
“Many. But I won’t ask. Let’s just get it done and go back home. I seriously need to smoke now, or I’ll go mad.”
Juntae laughs softly. “We can’t go back after this. We have another task to complete before declaring victory.” He pats Seongje’s shoulder and beckons him to help with their current mission.
Seongje rolls his eyes, as he opens his trunk and once again touches Hyoman’s body though the plastic sheet and the oilskin he’s wrapped in. It’s cold, flaccid and more and more stinky. And heavy, for fuck’s sake. Is it my impression or it keeps getting heavier? He surely was an eye-sore when he was alive, but at least he always kept his distance from the Wolf of Ganghak. Memo for next time — if I want to kill someone, I will burn him. Burying is too wearing.
“Why didn’t we burn him?” he thinks out loud, suddenly realising there could have been a better option.
“I’ve actually thought about that, but I wasn’t one hundred percent sure. And we couldn’t have burned him on our rooftop either so I guessed, since we were going to move the corpse once, we might as well hide it where no one would find him. At least for a while. But that’s why we need to do something else before going home.”
“What else then?”
“Getting an alibi, you silly!”
Ah right, an alibi. Seongje has been too immersed into everything that he never thought about the basics of a crime — the alibi. The only thing that could help them get away with it. Or could definitely crush and ruin them forever.
“I’m all ears.”
“Let's finish here and I’ll explain everything.”
So, they do their best to drag the corpse all the way to the well, and since Seongje looks worried and extra careful with his steps, Junate tries to calm him a bit “We will cover our footprints later, don't worry. And also your car’s tire tracks.”
How far has this kid planned? It amuses and scares Seongje at the same time. But at least now he knows the answer to the famous hypothetical question “if you were to hide a body, who would you call?” Seo Juntae, of course. And something like pride and satisfaction fills his heart when he realises he’s also Juntae’s first pick.
He finds himself smiling like an idiot, while moving a corpse in the moonlight, trying to throw him into a well. And here he is, happy and joyful, hoping that his crush would finally let him out the friendzone — he was never his friend, but Seongje chooses not to dwell in details. Not now, not here. Not when there is nothing right or normal about what they are doing.
Focus. He needs to focus.
They are almost done. Then he won’t smell Hyoman’s rancid stench anymore. He couldn’t burn this fucker, but he’ll surely burn the outfit he’s wearing. And he’ll need to wash his car properly to get rid not only of the evidence, but also that reek.
Everything is going smoothly, almost too smoothly, when he sees Juntae in front of him tripping under the load weight. He suddenly lets the body go to help him get back on his feet again.
“Juntae, are you hurt? Let’s take a break. Do you need—”
“No. Let’s go, Geum Seongje, we need to hurry and go away. Remember that we need to clean the area too, we can’t afford any mistake nor delay.” Juntae’s voice is low and menacing, so Seongje nods and takes the corpse on his shoulder alone. He needs to be stronger and help the Little Lamb more.
The four-eyed boy doesn't even try to stop him or share the burden with him, he just accepts it and starts walking, leading the way once again.
When they finally reach the well, Junate helps him throw the body in and — oh Lord, what a relief! The hard part now is really over.
Seongje looks at Juntae. “You did good, kid.”
“Mm, you too, Hyung. Thank you.” Finally, a shy smile crosses Juntae’s face. “I’ve been a bit tense since I fell, I’m sorry I took it out on you.”
“Don’t even mention it.” Seongje feels adrenaline running through his body and gets closer to the shorter boy.
He feels the urge to touch him, to hug him, but he knows Juntae won’t be at ease, so he just gently brushes his nose with his finger, leaving the little nerd dazed and stunned. Seongje grins, indulging in this little act of intimacy. There is a line between them, and this is not the right moment to cross it. But maybe, he can move it a bit, can’t he? “So, let’s cover our tracks and get the hell out of here!” With this heartbeat reaching the speed of light, Seongje tries his best to look cool and win Juntea’s favour.
Predictably, moving some leaves and covering their footprints — as well as the tires tracks — is much more simple than moving a corpse around, and they are fast but meticulous. By the time they finish, the sun is just starting to rise.
They leave the mountain, with their biggest secret hidden in there, without looking back. What is done is done, they can’t turn back time and maybe they don’t even want to. A new day is starting and there are still a few things to do, before being free. Seongje doesn’t know if their plan will work, but of one thing he’s sure: they won’t ever come back here.
As he drives back to Seoul, Juntae says. “We need to collect Hyoman’s phone. It’s not that far from our apartments, but I need you to change into something that Hyoman would wear. I’m sorry for that.”
Juntae’s idea is to grab Hyoman’s phone and use it to give anyone the illusion that he’s still alive. Since he has no family and just a few lackeys but not real friends, he’s sure no one would actively look for him for a while. This will buy them time to create an alibi for the days after, in case someone would find the body and — if they are lucky — pinpoint the moment of death a day later his actual death. At this point, Junate and Seongje just need to be elsewhere with friends who can testify for them, just in case.
So, with a terrible windbreaker and pouch, in perfect Choi Hyoman’s style, Seongje goes to collect Hyoman’s phone — he finds it well hidden in a park nearby their building and once again Seongje forces himself to stop asking himself questions he isn’t sure he wants an answer to. How the hell is Hyoman’s phone here? Why did the fucking donkey leave it here?
“We actually met here.” And once again, Juntae knows what he’s thinking. “And you know how he forced me to steal phones in high school, right? I was scared he would call someone to pick on me so I sneakily took his phone and hid it here.”
“It makes sense.” Seongje replies. The hell it makes sense, the phone is buried under a tree. If Juntae hadn't told me, I would never have found it!
After giving him some other instructions, Juntae leaves him alone. He is going home, taking a shower then heading to university. He already has plans with the Eunjangs to have lunch together and watch a baseball match in the afternoon. There will be lots of people around and he’ll make sure everyone remembers him well.
They part like this, without ceremonies, as if the night before hasn’t pulled them closer. Maybe it was all Seongje's imagination after all…
So, tired and disenchanted, Seongje goes back to action and like a spy in a movie, he starts using Hyoman’s phone, buying some food and replying to some online posts, trying to copy Hyoman’s manierism. He even sends some messages to his lackeys, telling them he’s going out of the city for a few days. Some of them replied with an emoji or just an “ok”. Hyoman wasn't respected even among his own aides. Poor donkey. Seongje shakes his head, judging him severely, as he switches the phone off. He removes the sim card and the SD card, which he plans on destroying later.
He’s walking near the Han River by now, so he just tosses the cellphone into the water, waving it goodbye, as it sinks and disappears forever.
Then he changes again in a public toilet, being careful that no one is paying attention to him and finally goes home to take a shower and prepare the alibi. The next step is to find someone who will definitely remember him. And who’s better than him?
He takes his phone, which stayed at home the whole time, and scrolls through the saved numbers.
“Yah, Na Baekjin, it’s been a while. Where are you?” At the other end of the call, a sigh answered. Seongje smiles and leaves the house again, phone in one hand and a cigarette in the other.
***
A couple of months later, there is still no news about Hyoman’s disappearance, so Seongje starts relaxing a bit. What a weird feeling. He knows he did something awfully wrong but he’s more worried about Juntae’s future than his own.
They decided it was best to part ways for a while but he misses him badly. Fuck, I should have asked when I could contact him. I’m going crazy, I need to see him. He lights a cigarette, while staring at his damn quiet phone.
Then, a notification appears.
Soju and beef tonight?
As if nothing happened, Juntae is back into his life.
That evening, all the nervousness he has been feeling since the day they buried Hyoman resurfaces and invests him like a tornado. He trembles. Him. The feral Wolf of the neighborhood, who used to be feared and worshipped. Trembles at the thought of seeing his nerdy crush after months. What a pathetic loser, Geum Seongje.
When he arrives in front of the restaurant, Juntae is already there, with his cute pink and baby blue cardigan, fixing his glasses while reading something across the street. Then, their eyes meet and Seongje’s heart stops beating when his Little Lamb smiles at him.
Juntae runs to him and suddenly grabs his collar and pulls him closer, then he kisses him, without even giving him the chance to say hi. Seongje’s eyes open wide and he almost trips in surprise. He feels so tense and the thrill he has been sensing all this time still lingers in the air and boils in his vein. But Juntae’s lips are too soft and inviting to be ignored, especially after years of secretly pining and yearning and months of waiting. So, he seizes the opportunity and, pulling himself together, hugs him, wrapping his arms around his waist and deepening the kiss. He can feel Juntae smiling against his lips and smiles back. If going through hell was the way to heaven, then he chose the right path.
“This is your reward for your precious help, Hyung. Thank you. Now, you can let me go. What about a dri—”
“Mm? You are not going anywhere, Little Lamb. You owe me, and a kiss won’t be enough to repay me.”
“What do you want then?” Juntae chuckles softly and looks at him with eyes full of fondness and complicity, and Seongje feels like he was already expecting this reaction. Once again, Juntae managed to make a fool out of him.
“Let’s date, Seo Juntae. Give me a chance.”
***
EPILOGUE.
27 years later.
The two of them are watching the TV together, laying on the sofa, Seongje scratching Juntae’s back, as they always do after dinner, the house filled with only the voices and buzzes of the movie, so silent now that their kids moved back to Seoul to attend university, so it’s become their routine to just sit together and cuddle before going to bed, as if they are recharging each other’s energy after a long day.
Suddenly, the movie is interrupted by some breaking news. Apparently someone randomly found a dead body on an off the beaten track hike of Mount B., in a very deep well.
“The authorities are already on the spot, but the NFS says that the body had probably been there for at least twenty years. The local police is trying to identify the victim but it’s very difficult because of the high degree of decomposition of the skeleton. Let’s ask the Chief of G. Police station, Kim Hyoseok. Hello, can you please give us some more details?”
“Unfortunately we can’t say much, the victim’s identity is still unknown.”
“Is it a murder?”
“As I said, we are just at the beginning of our investigation so we can’t share intel. But we are not excluding the accidental death too.”
Seongje turns to Juntae, to comfort him and assure him that it’s too late, the crime was barred by the statute of limitations so they don’t have to worry — they may not have killed him but they still hid his body — but his husband’s eyes are glittering, he’s intrigued, amused. A large vicious grin, the exact same he had when he went to find him to ask for his help, is crossing his face.
“Honey, can you be honest with me? It’s been so long and we are married and I love you with all my heart…” Seongje inhales. “Can you please tell me what really happened that day?”
Juntae turns to him and simply watches him with the most innocent and cute expression ever, eyes full of love and affection. Then he giggles and leans to gently press his lips against Seongje’s.
“I thought we agreed it was an accident, yeobo.”