Chapter Text
At 8:00 a.m., Dr. Kim Seungmin arrives at SKZSKZ cafe, the same time he always has for the past three months.
He orders an iced americano from the barista, an overworked but cheerful guy by the name of Bang Chan, and sits at his usual table on the far left side of the cafe. He fixes his round glasses on the bridge of his nose and pulls out the morning newspaper, purposefully avoiding the gaze of Lee Minho, another regular whose unemployment allows him to spend too much time lounging about in SKZSKZ cafe. Granted, Lee Minho is also the building owner, and thus the man Seungmin pays rent to every month for his measly dental clinic on the 2nd floor of the same building, but even for someone who considers himself to have quite the agreeable personality, it’s people like Lee Minho that Seungmin can’t stand the most.
Seungmin has plans today however, plans that are far too precious to be derailed by the likes of Lee Minho. Seungmin tunes out the pointless chatter of Lee Minho ordering his morning coffee from Bang Chan and instead keeps a careful watch of the cafe entrance out of the corner of his eye.
At 8:08 a.m., the person Seungmin has been waiting for arrives through the double glass doors.
The owner of SKZSKZ cafe, Mr. Cho, is a grouchy looking man, the kind of person who leaves a disagreeable taste in one’s mouth just by looking at him. His most noticeable feature is the huge mole on his right forearm, a detail that makes him incredibly hard to forget once you see him.
Seungmin hasn’t forgotten.
He remembers the red hot flames of that day. The taste of ash on his tongue and the itch of hot air running along his skin. The horrific sight he’d endured, of his friends’ bodies covered all over with mottled burns, of the strangled screams in their throats eaten away by flame and ash, of their bleeding hands that had torn away at splintered burning wood in their desperate attempts to escape.
Seungmin hasn’t forgotten any of it. And he most definitely hasn’t forgotten the sight of that large mole on someone’s forearm, as the person behind all his friends’ injuries dropped a lit match into a trail of glimmering oil and set Seungmin’s home aflame.
Seungmin offers Mr. Cho a courteous smile like always, to which Mr. Cho only scoffs in response as he heads towards the back of the cafe, likely to give the poor barista even more work to do. Seungmin swallows any biting words he might have for Mr. Cho. They’re not worth wasting his emotions on, especially once Seungmin’s done with what he has planned for the distasteful owner of SKZSKZ cafe.
Seungmin takes the last sip of his coffee. It leaves a cold trail that slides down the back of his throat all the way to his stomach, and Seungmin can’t help but shiver. Even after his horrific experience with the worst of heat, Seungmin still doesn’t like the cold. His friends used to laugh that it meant his heart was warm, but Seungmin disagrees. He’s not the leader of the Puppy mafia clan for nothing, and a warm-hearted person could never plot a murder as cold as the one Seungmin is about to commit.
He pushes his empty glass aside and begins to stand up when the glass doors open for a second time, and someone Seungmin isn’t expecting walks in.
“Hey, Dr. Kim! I thought I’d find you here!”
The fleeting annoyance at being interrupted is pushed down by the overwhelming affection Seungmin has for Dr. Yang Jeongin. He’s the closest thing Seungmin has to a work mate, a surgeon who runs a small clinic across the hall from Seungmin’s sham of a dentist clinic. His youthful demeanor shines through especially in moments like these, when he smiles so big that his eyes almost close and disappear behind his raised cheeks, and Seungmin can’t help but smile back.
Out of the corner of his eye, Seungmin watches Mr. Cho wander past the wooden dividers that separate the main cafe from the back area where the storage room, the employee break room, and the bathrooms are. He can’t risk drawing too much attention to himself, especially now that Jeongin has just arrived to greet him, so he sits back down with a huff as Jeongin pulls up a seat and calls out his order of a coffee and a scone to Bang Chan, who looks absolutely delighted by Jeongin’s presence.
Seungmin can’t blame him.
Jeongin is young for a doctor, and just the sight of him leaves Seungmin with a strange urge to pamper Jeongin with an affection that Seungmin hadn’t realized he was capable of.
“You don’t normally come to get coffee on Tuesdays,” Seungmin comments, reaching out to pinch Jeongin’s cheeks before his hand is quickly batted away.
“I know,” Jeongin replies as he fixes the bangs of his styled white hair. “But I thought I’d take a day off today. It’s the anniversary of something important that happened in my career, and I didn’t want to spend it alone, so I came to find you.”
“Something important? Like what? You look like you only just graduated medical school last year,” Seungmin teases.
Jeongin rolls his eyes at him with a snort. “I’ve been a doctor much longer than that, Dr. Kim. You would know.”
Seungmin does indeed know. It’s one of the first things he’d learned about the doctor, that Jeongin used to practice medicine at a much larger hospital in the city before ultimately coming to the small town of SKZ to open up a small clinic of his own.
Seungmin doesn’t like the way Jeongin says that though. There’s a look in Jeongin’s eyes, a tone in his voice that makes it sound like Jeongin knows something about Seungmin that he’s not supposed to know, and as someone whose real job involves detecting lies and getting rid of people who know his secrets, Seungmin doesn’t like it one bit.
Before Seungmin can question Jeongin however, his attention is distracted when the doors open a third time, and two people walk in.
The first, Seungmin recognizes as Seo Changbin, a detective and long time friend of Mr. Cho, though Seungmin has noticed that lately, the detective has been frequenting the cafe more often, and the owner has taken the habit of disappearing out of sight just before Seo Changbin arrives.
The detective does a quick scan of the cafe, nodding in Seungmin and Jeongin’s direction before letting out a heavy sigh when he finds the owner nowhere in sight. He dusts off the sleeves of his nice leather jacket and walks towards the back of the cafe to join Lee Minho, who is still sitting by the counter chatting to Bang Chan.
Behind him is someone Seungmin doesn’t recognize.
The stranger lingers at the front door of the cafe, dressed in stylish clothes that make him look almost like a performer who’s just stepped off the stage. His large sunglasses hide his eyes from view, making him largely unidentifiable as he too looks around as if in search of something.
When he fails to find what he’s looking for however, his entire stance changes. He straightens up and marches up to the counter with a swagger fit only for the biggest of celebrities and loudly orders a cup of coffee. The sound of his voice startles the three at the counter, and their surprise seems to startle the stranger in return, as he immediately bows deep and apologizes for the sudden disturbance.
“That guy… he looks familiar,” Jeongin mutters as he rests his fingers on his chin. “Sounds familiar too.”
“Really? I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone like that here before.”
“I don’t mean it like that,” Jeongin says, shaking his head. “I don’t know why, but he kind of reminds me of HAN.”
“HAN? You mean the love of your life?” Seungmin teases, his mouth breaking into a big smile as he raises his eyebrows suggestively at Jeongin.
“Oh shut up, I caught you listening to his music the other day,” Jeongin scoffs, though he’s already reaching into the front pocket of his lab coat to pull out his precious photocard of HAN, a dashing young man who is a member of the world-wide famous idol group SoKZ and who has the title of the world’s number one idol. The photocard is carefully protected by a plastic top holder and decorated with cute little stickers, and it is Jeongin’s “most prized possession,” as he’s reminded Seungmin almost every day since they first met.
Jeongin pats his photocard fondly before tucking it back into his lab coat.
“You just don’t fully understand his charm yet.”
“Well, I sure hope HAN is nothing like that,” Seungmin laughs, glancing towards the stranger in sunglasses just as he breaks into a tune to reject the latte Bang Chan has just made for him and order an ice americano instead.
It’s a sight that makes Jeongin chuckle too, rare from a man whose only passions in life seem to be practicing medicine and fanboying over his idol.
“Do you think he’ll become a regular here?”
“Who knows? I’m sure Chan would love the extra income though.”
“He certainly deserves it,” Jeongin sighs. His eyes flit outside, and he suddenly hastens to his feet. “Well, here comes Hyunjin. I’ll be back.”
Jeongin hurries away, his white lab coat fluttering slightly behind him. Seungmin watches the hem of it disappear past the dividers Mr. Cho had disappeared behind earlier, just as the door opens once more to welcome a cheerful young man wearing an apron over a soft lilac sweater.
Hwang Hyunjin is a kindergarten teacher at the preschool across the street. He used to teach Mr. Cho’s daughter, which is why he first started coming to SKZSKZ cafe, or so Hyunjin had told Seungmin when they first met. Nowadays, he comes for the coffee and to hang out with the other regulars of the cafe, which includes…
“Dr. Kim! We meet again!” Hyunjin laughs, a bounce in his step as he strides up to Seungmin’s table. “You still owe me a tonkatsu from last time.”
“Ah, yes,” Seungmin says, remembering the last time they met, when Seungmin had lured Hyunjin to his clinic with a promise of a meal, only to trap him in a dentist’s chair, using the excuse of giving him a cleaning to extract information about Mr. Cho from Hyunjin. He tugs at the sleeves of his lab coat. “Maybe next time. I’m still waiting for my next paycheck.”
“Business still not doing well?”
“Something like that,” Seungmin shrugs. It’s not a lie. His dentist business isn’t doing great, but that has more to do with the fact that his license is a fake and that Seungmin has more experience using drills and needles to kill people rather than to clean people’s teeth.
Hyunjin doesn’t know that, of course. He’s an innocent citizen whose job is to nurture the youth, who will likely live his whole life without ever getting a glimpse of the dark underbelly of society.
Seungmin likes that about Hyunjin though. It’s rare to find someone who is so honest with his emotions while still retaining the innocence of someone who trusts a little too much. They’re not quite friends, but Seungmin thinks positively of Hyunjin nonetheless.
“By the way, I thought I spotted Jeongin before I walked in. Where’d he go?”
“Probably the bathroom,” Seungmin says, gesturing in the direction Jeongin had disappeared in.
Hyunjin lets out a small hum of disappointment. It’s rather funny, how openly Hyunjin attempts to dote on the young doctor, and how openly Jeongin rejects all of Hyunjin’s attempts at affection. Seungmin’s not quite sure if there’s a reason why Jeongin so actively avoids Hyunjin’s affection in particular though. He once thought it must’ve been because Jeongin harbored feelings for the cheerful teacher, hence the sensitivity to Hyunjin’s touchiness, but Jeongin had given Seungmin such a look of disbelief and disdain when Seungmin mentioned it that Seungmin had given up on the thought altogether.
Whatever the real reason is, it’s obvious that Jeongin has been avoiding Hyunjin, specifically when Seungmin is around. Seungmin has caught the two chatting as usual in the cafe when he isn’t there, but Jeongin will often leave to find someone else to talk to when he sees Seungmin coming towards them.
Hyunjin hasn’t seemed to notice this pattern in Jeongin’s behavior though, and Jeongin has otherwise given Seungmin no impression that he might dislike either Seungmin or Hyunjin. In fact, it’s almost as if Jeongin is trying to get Seungmin and Hyunjin to spend time together, even though his expression suggests he quite dislikes the sight of them together, which… is certainly just one more thing Seungmin finds baffling about the young doctor.
“Oh, by the way, did you see anyone you didn’t recognize in the cafe?” Hyunjin suddenly asks, breaking Seungmin’s train of thought.
Seungmin immediately glances towards the stranger in sunglasses, who has settled down in a seat by the counter and has already begun to chat up a storm with Seo Changbin and Lee Minho.
“You mean someone like that?”
Hyunjin glances over, and his eyes immediately light up in recognition.
“Someone you know?” Seungmin asks as Hyunjin straightens up hurriedly.
“Yeah, the internet friend I told you about last time,” Hyunjin says cheerfully. “We agreed to come here and meet today.”
“So that’s why you’re here on a weekday morning,” Seungmin muses, glancing back at the stranger who is now laughing loudly at something Lee Minho just said, while Lee Minho looks back at him with a fondness that doesn’t suit a man like Lee Minho. “Well, at least he doesn’t look like a bad person, but he’s definitely weird.”
“Hey, don’t say that about someone you don’t know,” Hyunjin says with a disapproving frown. When he makes that face at Seungmin while standing over him, Seungmin wonders if this is the same look Hyunjin gives the many young children who are his students, and the idea always bemuses Seungmin.
“Don’t laugh,” Hyunjin scoffs, slapping Seungmin lightly on the shoulder before carefully retying his long black hair and fixing his bangs. “I’ll introduce you and Jeongin to him later. Jeongin’s going to lose his mind.”
Seungmin raises his eyebrow. “Why?”
“It’s a secret,” Hyunjin laughs, winking at Seungmin before sauntering off to greet the stranger, who smiles wide as he greets Hyunjin enthusiastically and joins him at a table across the room.
At that moment, Seungmin catches the muffled sound of someone raising their voice. His ears prick up at the sound, a habit from his days of eavesdropping on conversations held quietly between rivals and enemies of his mafia clan. He hears a door open, the quiet murmur of something that sounds like Jeongin’s voice, but anything after that is lost as the glass doors of the cafe open loudly again one more time.
Sunlight spills in behind the footsteps of Lee Felix, the owner and baker of the next-door bakery Sunshine Desserts, a man so charming and innocent that he’s also known as the building’s resident angel. The light gives his blonde hair a golden glow that sparkles like the radiant smile on his face, as he walks by Seungmin’s table with a large brownie container in his hands and cheerfully calls out, “Good morning, Dr. Kim!”
“Good morning,” Seungmin can’t help but smile back, and Lee Felix’s smile only grows wider before he continues on his way to the counter, where he gives his brother, Lee Minho, a big hug.
In the corner of his eye, Seungmin watches Bang Chan wipe his hands off on a dish towel as the brothers move to sit down on one of the couches in the cafe. The barista then says something to the detective and heads off behind the divider, probably to get something from the storage room. Jeongin emerges momentarily afterwards from behind the divider. He glances towards Seungmin and seems to brighten at the sight of him, but he’s sidetracked as the detective calls him over to chat.
Seungmin lets out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. He’s strangely disappointed that Jeongin didn’t beeline back to their table, and that feeling only grows heavier when he watches the Lee brothers chatting happily on the couch.
Lee Minho is smiling as he listens to Lee Felix tell him about the brownies he’s brought with him in the large plastic container in his hands, and Seungmin can tell that smile is genuine unlike the artificially pleasant smiles Lee Minho normally hangs on his lips when he speaks to others.
Lee Minho is only easy to read in moments like these. His emotions show more openly on his face, and in these moments, Seungmin forgets his dislike of the man and sees only a normal person who simply cares a lot for his brother.
For someone like Seungmin, whose only family has always been the people who work for him in his mafia clan, their bond makes Seungmin just a little jealous. He obviously cares very much for his friends in the mafia, but at the end of the day, Seungmin is in the business of murder and crime. To Seungmin, it is normal to risk his life to plot Mr. Cho’s murder in revenge for what he’s done to the members of his clan, but things like small chats about nothing and open affections don’t come easily to Seungmin. He doesn’t terribly care for these mundane things that normal people get to do, but at the same time, while watching the people in this small cafe interact, Seungmin can’t help but wonder what a life like that might be like.
“You look like you’re thinking too hard again, Dr. Kim.”
Seungmin glances up as Jeongin slides back into his seat. Jeongin’s in the middle of waving at Hyunjin, who delightedly waves back, and the sunlight from the window casts a soft glow around the side profile of Jeongin’s face, which is otherwise cast in shadow. He looks just as carefree as he did when he first walked into the cafe, but there’s a strange stiffness to Jeongin’s movements, as if he’s trying too hard to act casual.
Seungmin’s eyes must’ve lingered a little too long, because Jeongin is suddenly laughing as he turns to Seungmin fully and says, “Do I have something on my face?”
“Ugliness,” Seungmin blurts out, shoving his thoughts away in a faraway corner of his mind.
Jeongin pulls a face at Seungmin. “For someone who doesn’t get along with Minho, you sure joke a lot like him.”
It’s Seungmin’s turn to scowl. The sight makes Jeongin laugh just as Bang Chan comes by bringing Jeongin his coffee and scone. Seungmin hadn’t noticed Bang Chan come back into the main cafe area, but he supposes it must have been while he was busy staring at Jeongin. A quick glance around the cafe tells him that Seo Changbin and Hyunjin have both left their seats as well, perhaps also to use the bathroom, considering that no one has left through the front door yet.
“Would you like another coffee, Dr. Kim?” Bang Chan asks as he takes away Seungmin’s glass.
Before Seungmin can reply though, Seungmin’s ears prick up again. Someone is yelling behind a closed door again, and this time, everyone in the cafe turns towards the wooden dividers at the sound of a door being forced open and slammed back shut again.
In moments, Seo Changbin storms out from behind them. He doesn’t seem to notice everyone’s eyes on him. He instead just returns to his seat and pulls out a small notebook, where he begins to scribble something furiously onto the pages.
In the silence that follows, Seungmin turns to Bang Chan and says, “All right, I’ll have another iced americano then.”
Bang Chan smiles politely back with a nod before he retreats back to the counter, where he gives Seo Changbin another worried look. Lee Felix also gets up from the couch at this moment, still holding his large container of brownies, and hurries off before Lee Minho can reach a hand out as if to stop him. He opens the container to offer Seo Changbin a brownie, his voice too low and quiet for Seungmin to make out what he says. Only when Seo Changbin takes a brownie and smiles back at Lee Felix does the young baker leave another brownie for Bang Chan before hurrying off past the dividers too, probably to find Mr. Cho.
“I wonder what that was about,” Jeongin comments as he takes a sip of his coffee. His eyes are narrowed slightly at Seo Changbin, who has set aside his notebook to converse in quiet tones with Bang Chan, who seems slightly distracted as he savors the brownie that Lee Felix had left him.
Seungmin simply shrugs. They don’t say anything further until the barista returns with another glass of iced americano for Seungmin. Just as Seungmin takes a sip, Jeongin comments again, “Don’t you usually only have one cup of coffee in the morning?”
Seungmin gulps forcefully.
“Just felt like having another one since I’m stuck here talking to you,” Seungmin lies.
Jeongin raises an eyebrow, unconvinced, but then his phone dings, and he immediately gasps, “Ooh, HAN just released a new music video!”
The stranger across the cafe lifts his head up at that. Seungmin swears he sees the hint of a grin on his face before the stranger turns his attention back to his phone. As Jeongin hurriedly pulls out his earphones, Seungmin is left to dwell on his thoughts in the silence that remains, staring warily at the big, wide smile Jeongin has on his face as he bops his head quietly to the music playing through his earphones.
Jeongin’s right.
Seungmin is a man of habit, and he only ever has one coffee, no matter the occasion. It’s surprising that Jeongin would’ve noticed such a thing about Seungmin, and just a little worrying that Jeongin would point it out. It’s normal for Seungmin to know about these habits of people in order to plot out people’s deaths and take advantage of people’s weaknesses, but Jeongin isn’t like Seungmin. He’s an average citizen, and to have picked up on even Seungmin’s morning coffee routine could only mean one thing.
Jeongin must have been paying attention to Seungmin, and in Seungmin’s business, one only pays attention when one needs something from another.
Seungmin thinks back to Jeongin’s words in an earlier conversation.
“I’ve been a doctor much longer than that, Dr. Kim. You would know.”
Seungmin still doesn’t know what Jeongin is implying there, but it worries Seungmin all the same.
Could Jeongin know? That Seungmin wasn’t a dentist, that he was actually part of the mafia?
If Jeongin does know… Seungmin would have to kill him. He’s killed plenty of people for pettier reasons before this, so the thought itself shouldn’t have been such a big deal, but for some reason, the thought of killing Jeongin makes Seungmin’s chest hurt.
He doesn’t want to have to kill the young doctor with the big, bright smile, and he hopes such a day will never come.
Seungmin decides to turn his attention back to his coffee in the hopes it would distract him from these unpleasant thoughts. Once he’s gotten more caffeine into his system, Seungmin can finally turn his mind to the more important matter at hand.
Mr. Cho’s murder.
Seungmin had only decided it wouldn’t hurt to enjoy another cup of coffee while he waits for the cafe regulars to leave because he’s clearly missed his chance to corner Mr. Cho alone and murder him. Seungmin wouldn’t be a member of the mafia if he weren’t capable of adjusting his plans on the fly when it comes to murdering someone, and an unexpected boom of business on a normally dead Tuesday morning isn’t going to stop Seungmin from making sure Mr. Cho gets what he deserves.
It does strike him as odd however, that there are so many people he hadn’t expected to be here in the cafe this morning. Other than Bang Chan and Lee Minho, Seungmin is normally the only customer of SKZSKZ cafe on Tuesday mornings, as has been the case for months. It’s why Seungmin had originally chosen today to enact his plan to murder Mr. Cho, but it seems he’s miscalculated. All the cafe regulars have seemingly decided to come by today for a visit, and all of them seem to have need for either the bathroom or for Mr. Cho himself, given how many people have disappeared behind the wooden dividers where Mr. Cho had went.
Seungmin watches as Hyunjin finally returns from what must be the bathroom, given how the kindergarten teacher is still wiping his wet hands off on his apron. When he gets back to his table, he directs the stranger he’s sitting with towards the bathroom as well, just as Lee Felix appears once more, just barely hiding the slightly sad look on his face, the plastic container in his hands still holding the same number of brownies as it had earlier.
Upon seeing his brother, Lee Minho stands up.
Seungmin immediately straightens up in his seat.
For a brief second, there’d been a flicker of murderous rage in the hardened gaze of Lee Minho’s eyes.
It’s gone so quickly that a normal person might’ve thought they’d imagined it, but Seungmin would recognize that look anywhere. It makes his heart race in his chest, even as Lee Minho’s face remains inexplicably calm while turning to his brother.
“Did you find him?” Lee Minho asks quietly, but not quietly enough to avoid Seungmin’s ears.
Lee Felix shakes his head, face turned away from Seungmin, and mumbles something so quietly with his deep voice that Seungmin can’t fully make it out.
“Well, you tried your best. There’s really no need to waste your time on someone like him,” Lee Minho replies, which doesn’t seem to make his brother feel better, but Lee Felix is eventually distracted when Bang Chan comes by with a slice of cake, “on the house” as Bang Chan loudly declares, in exchange for the tasty brownie Lee Felix had given him.
Hearing Bang Chan’s praise clearly lifts Lee Felix’s mood, but in the moments that he’s distracted, Seungmin watches Lee Minho take the chance to walk towards the wooden dividers, disappearing quickly behind them. Seungmin catches the brief sound of the stranger’s voice and Lee Minho’s in response, but all is quiet for a few moments as two separate doors open and close shut.
Seungmin counts to five, just to give Lee Minho time to do whatever it is that he’s planned to do, but before he can stand up, it’s once again Jeongin who distracts him.
“That was amazing!” Jeongin exclaims, ripping his earphones out of his ears and holding them out expectantly towards Seungmin. “Come on, you have to take a look. HAN looks so handsome in this music video.”
“Is that all you have to say about your idol’s new music?” Seungmin teases.
“Of course the music is amazing too! I just think you should learn to appreciate the aesthetics of his music videos just as much as his music,” Jeongin huffs, still holding the earphones out to Seungmin.
The right thing to do would be to tell Jeongin he’ll listen to the song later. He’s curious what could’ve made Lee Minho look so murderous, and what actions the man whose emotions Seungmin can’t read will take, and Seungmin’s instincts tell him he’ll see a Lee Minho he’s never seen before if he follows the man now.
Yet despite it all, Seungmin finds himself rooted to his seat as he reaches a hand out for Jeongin’s earphones.
“The music video will blow your mind,” Jeongin says excitedly, scooting up closer to Seungmin and ignoring Seungmin’s hand as he places one earphone directly in Seungmin’s ear and the other in his own. His attention is already fully back on his phone screen, not even checking to see if Seungmin’s paying attention, as if he can’t imagine that Seungmin would want anything more than to watch a music video of his idol.
Jeongin’s wrong of course. Seungmin couldn’t care less about who HAN is, and yet, Seungmin can never seem to resist the innocent sparkle in the doctor’s eyes whenever he begins to gush about his favorite idol. He almost forgets to turn his eyes from the sight of Jeongin’s side profile so close to his own face, and only remembers to glance at the music video when he hears the chorus of the song kick in and draw his attention.
“It was great, wasn’t it?” Jeongin asks when the music video ends. He’s absolutely beaming now, and Seungmin can’t help but smile back. Without meaning to, he hears himself agreeing with whatever Jeongin says, nodding enthusiastically at calculated intervals to encourage Jeongin’s excitement, and even letting Jeongin play the music video one more time.
The song has barely started the first verse however, when Seungmin’s phone suddenly buzzes in his pocket.
He checks the caller id discreetly and immediately gets up.
“What’s wrong?” Jeongin asks, pausing the music video to look up at Seungmin in concern.
“Nothing, just need to answer a phone call,” Seungmin says. “I’ll be back.”
He’s already hastening to the back of the cafe, past the wooden dividers, where the hallway towards the bathrooms offers him some privacy from the peering eyes of the other cafe regulars. He makes his way further down the hall, passing first the storage room, then the employee break room, and steps in the bathroom, checking that all the stalls are empty before locking the door behind him.
“Hello?” Seungmin asks when he picks up the phone, his voice cold and demanding.
“Boss, are you at the SKZSKZ cafe?”
Seungmin’s eyes narrow. “I am. What’s the matter?”
“You need to get out immediately. Someone sent an anonymous tip to the police this morning that someone from the mafia is there right now.”
“Who?” Seungmin hisses, eyes flitting towards the door as if anticipating someone might break down the door to find him.
“We’re looking into it. They haven’t identified the mafia as you yet, but we’ve got info that the police plan on locking down the building while they search for evidence.”
“If that’s it, then don’t worry. I saved a copy of the files I need on a USB and erased everything else yesterday to prepare for my plan today. I’ll leave right after I murder Cho, and then we can figure out who the traitor is.”
“Ok, boss. We’ll let you know if we find any new leads. Be careful.”
Seungmin hangs up and lets the silence linger heavily in the air for a few more moments. He then washes his hands and face in the sink. The normally filled paper towel holder is down to its last sheets, but thankfully, the last two sheets are enough for Seungmin to carefully dry himself off before rolling up the sleeves of his lab coat. The tattoos of his mafia clan are inked all along his right forearm, the number of which represent his authority in the clan while also acting as a symbol of fear for those who offend them.
If what his subordinate said is true, then Seungmin is out of time playing the friendly dentist in the SKZ building. He’d wanted to murder Cho in a way that wouldn’t affect the cafe regulars’ lives in too dramatic of a way, but those times are gone.
He’s going to find Cho and murder him now. And once he’s done, he’ll leave without a word and go back to his real life as a mafia clan leader.
Seungmin unlocks the bathroom door and slips out quietly, careful not to make a noise as he guides the door shut behind him. He then opens the door to the storage room and walks inside to find a knife. The doors in the SKZSKZ cafe are almost never locked properly, and Seungmin knows that there’s extra kitchen tools inside the storage room, from the times he’s peeked in while Bang Chan has gone in to get something.
Search as he might though, Seungmin can’t seem to find any kitchen knives. There are plenty of butter knives stored beside the forks and spoons, but those aren’t nearly sharp enough to do lethal damage in one blow. There is however an empty box laying on its side, the label of which tells Seungmin that it must have once held the kitchen knives Seungmin’s currently looking for.
Bang Chan must have taken them out earlier, Seungmin supposes, as he looks around the storage room and settles for an ice pick gathering dust on one of the bottom shelves. Seungmin remembers Cho ordering one with the idea that Bang Chan could use it to carve out ice cubes by hand for their cold drinks, and the barista, having already been the only employee at the cafe with plenty enough on his plate, had tucked it away in a corner of the storage room until Cho forgot all about it.
And now, Seungmin was going to use that ice pick to kill Cho. With enough force, Seungmin would be able to thrust it right through Cho’s throat, ensuring that he’d suffer a long, painful death while strangling any screams the man might let out as he slowly bled to death.
Seungmin slips out the storage room quietly and heads for the employee break room. He presses his ear to the door to check the state of the room inside and immediately frowns.
There’s no noise at all coming from the other side of the door. It’s completely silent, as if no one were in there at all. Yet Cho had to be inside, because he mostly definitely wasn’t in either the bathroom or the storage room, and he hadn’t left the cafe either. Even if Cho were just lounging on a chair, Seungmin is sure he would at least hear the creak of a chair groaning under the weight of the large man, or even the semblance of a snore if Cho had fallen asleep.
To hear nothing at all is odd. In the worst case scenario, Cho is inside, hiding his presence, laying in wait for Seungmin’s ambush, and so Seungmin tenses as he quietly pushes open the door.
The first thing he sees is Cho sitting in a chair, his back facing the door where Seungmin is standing. He’s slumped forward slightly, as if he were just asleep, but when Seungmin shifts his eyes downwards, his breath hitches in his throat, and the ice pick slips from his hands before he can tighten his grip on it.
The sound of it bouncing on the floor is shrill in Seungmin’s ears, as he tries to process the sight before him.
There’s a knife in Cho’s back, buried deep just off center from where his spine would be. The back of his sweater is soaked in blood, and some of it has dripped down the back of the chair and formed a small pool of red at Cho’s feet.
Cho is dead.
Someone’s killed him before Seungmin.
And that someone has to be one of the people in this cafe right now.
Seungmin runs his choices through his head.
His pride as the mafia makes him want to turn right around and demand to know who killed Cho, because the idea that someone’s killed his revenge target before him is absolutely unacceptable.
The rational part of Seungmin knows he should just leave. Cho’s dead, and his goal is accomplished, even if not by his own hands. With the police on the way to try and trap him, the smart thing to do would be to disappear now, even if it means letting the suspicion of Cho’s murder also shift on him. He has his ways to avoid the police, and it wouldn’t be the first time he’s almost been caught for murder, so running away now would just be business as usual.
It would, however, be the first time he’d get framed for a murder he didn’t commit, and the thought of it ticks Seungmin off. He might be a criminal in his daily life, but Seungmin won’t stand for getting framed for Cho’s murder if he runs away, and he definitely can’t stand the idea of never knowing who was the bastard to killed Cho before him.
His choices are clear. He can either run away to stay safe, or stay to find the real murderer while risking being caught as the mafia.
Almost a year ago, when Seungmin had first taken on the identity as the dentist Dr. Kim, Seungmin knows his choice would have been the former. His mafia clan is the most important part of his life, and he has to avoid any risk of getting caught.
Now though, Seungmin finds himself wavering.
Perhaps he’s let the people he hangs out with influence him too much. He’s more emotional and impulsive than he used to be, swayed just by the thought of wanting to know who the real murderer was, and a part of him falters too at the thought of having to leave without even a goodbye.
If he leaves now, Dr. Yang Jeongin is sure to call out to him with that glowing smile on his face, and he’s bound to look crestfallen, perhaps even grow suspicious, if Seungmin ignores him to head for the exit.
Will Seungmin really be able to make it to the exit without even glancing at the first person he’s ever called a friend?
He’d been okay with the idea when he was still planning Cho’s murder, but now that Cho’s dead and Seungmin hasn’t even gotten the revenge he was looking for, Seungmin’s left with lingering regrets that he wouldn’t have had if he were actually in need of running from the police.
There’s only one thing for Seungmin to do.
He picks up the ice pick from the floor and hides it inside a secret pocket in his lab coat. He doesn’t have time to put it back where it belongs yet, so his only option now is to hide the only evidence of his murderous intent until he gets the chance to return it where he found it.
Once the ice pick is properly secured, Seungmin gives Cho’s dead body one last irritated glare, before he wipes all the murderous thoughts from his face and screams with all his might.
He staggers backwards dramatically, slamming into the wooden dividers behind him as all the people inside the cafe rush into the hallway. There’s panic on some faces, concern on others, all perfectly crafted masks Seungmin now knows, as Seungmin shakily points a finger at the open doorway to the employee break room before him, his voice filled with the perfectly mimicked terror of a victim traumatized by what they’ve just seen.
“Someone’s killed Mr. Cho!”