ʟᴜᴘɪɴ│ᴛᴋ [complete]

.6. ɪɴ ᴡʜɪᴄʜ sᴏᴍᴇᴏɴᴇ ɪs ɢɪᴅᴅʏ

This was the last newspaper of the pile. The Thames Herald. A quick glance confirmed the story he was looking for hadn't made it to the front page. The young man nonetheless began turning the pages, skimming through the various headers. He was about to close the paper when, instead of a sigh, a chuckle escaped his lips. There it was. Lost in the miscellaneous news items. The one article he had been waiting for.

He carefully cut out the story, wrote a few words on a card, and called his butler. "Deliver it anonymously to the same address as last time."

"Yes, sir."

"And make a reservation for two at Romao's Kitchen for tomorrow night."

"Will do, sir. Will it be business-related?"

"No, it most definitely won't."

♠

Jungkook was in a good mood. In fact, he was in a great mood. He had a date—A DATE—with Taehyung tomorrow! Wait. Was it really a date? Or was it just a friendly night out? In any event, they were going to spend some time together. Just the two of them. Dinner (hopefully a romantic one), followed by a recital... And then perhaps, if the weather allowed it, a nightly walk in the park. What about afterwards?

He mentally slapped himself for letting his mind go down that road as the barber applied a strongly scented aftershave on his face. "You're all set, sir!"

Our young detective looked at himself in the mirror and grinned. He couldn't believe all this pampering he had decided to indulge in was for none other than Kim Taehyung.

He was well aware of the fact that he must have appeared very silly to the people he passed by on his way home, grinning blissfully at the thought of his first date with Tae, but he didn't care. What he didn't know was that his mood was going to get even better.

As soon as he entered the flat, the door to the kitchen flung open. Lizbeth greeted him with a quick bow and said, "Sir! You were right! Our delivery boy was indeed quite hungry."

The young man walked into the kitchen to find the street urchin stuffing his mouth with home-baked cookies. The boy promptly stood up, suddenly feeling trapped. Jungkook carefully closed the door and smiled. "I see you are enjoying Lizbeth's wonderful treats!"

The kid nodded, mouth still full. The housekeeper carried a tray with an envelope sitting on top of it. "Is this what you brought this time?"

Another nod.

"May I ask who it is from?"

"A fan of yours. Sir."

"So you can talk! Can you tell me more about this mysterious fan?"

The boy realized his mistake and shook his head, eyeing the door.

"Who gives you these missives?"

"Someone."

"Where do you meet them?"

"He knows where I hang. He finds me."

"Oh, so it's a he."

The youngster bit his lips.

"How much does he pay you to deliver these?"

"Enough."

Jungkook pulled out a large coin from his pocket. "How about that: I'm going to open this letter and read it while you use the pencil and paper Lizbeth is going to hand you to draw this someone for me. And then I'll give you a tip for the good work you've done. Deal?"

"Deal."

There was no letter inside the envelope however. Just a cut-out article and a name card which read:

It has begun.

A. L.

Jungkook glanced at the story and instantly burst into laughter, at the sight of the heading:

Worldwide famous clown, Jung Hoseok, gets his legendary smile snatched

What is this? A joke?

The article being relatively short, he soon looked up to find the boy holding out his hand. "I'm done."

"Good."

The transaction was swiftly completed, to both parties' satisfaction.

"You shouldn't have given him that coin," said Lizbeth after closing the front door.

"Why not?"

"He drew you a stick man."

Jungkook chuckled. "Indeed! But take a closer look at its face!"

"I don't see anything that could help you identify anyone."

"You see Lizbeth, that's why I do what I do."

"I only see a circle, and what resembles a mustache."

"But not just any mustache my dear Lizbeth. It's a French mustache!"

"Plenty of people curl their mustache, sir."

"Sure. But how many of them have a connection to me?"

—

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