Role Model | Lee Taeyong

Nineteen ☻

|| NARRATOR ||

Another day passed which meant another opportunity for Taeyong to drink his problems away.

In the empty bar of the small city, the man sat alone at the counter, ordering another glass of whiskey that he quickly poured down his throat, the taste stinging his lungs but continued sipping anyways.

Being a detective was never going to be easy, Taeyong knew that the second he entered the police force. But he also never knew it was going to get this hard to the point where he's left with only one option; kill her before she kills anyone else.

What ever happened to us? Taeyong thinks, his head leaning against his sweaty palms. We used to be best friends. His thoughts ponder to the memories Narae and Taeyong would spend together, racing home after cram school and fighting over small things that never mattered. He hated Narae with the deepest part of his chest, but he still wished he could go back and fix his mistakes, so maybe both of them could have a normal life.

"You're drinking again?" The feminine voice says over his shoulder suddenly. He watches helplessly as Yeri takes the seat next to him. She always comes and sees him at his worst. He hates her for that. "Leave me alone, Yeri." He spats, annoyed. She looks at him, confused.

"Why should I?"

"I don't need you coming to me every time I feel like shit. Go do police work or something and let me be. I feel like I'm fucking dead all of the time." He complains lowly, his hand gripping around the glass cup. She tries to place her palm on his shoulder, but he quickly dodges.

Yeri was tired of his shit. One second he was this loving emotional guy who really made Yeri feel like a princess. And the next he thought random drunk who cuts off everyone because he has some serious trauma he needs to deal with. She just wanted him to trust her, that's all she wants.

Taeyong turned his head from her to the other direction, raising his hand to order another beer when suddenly he felt someone's warm hand impact with his left cheek, not too harshly but enough to make him flabbergasted. He grabs his aching skin slowly, turning his head toward the assaulter. "W-What was that for?!"

"I'm trying to snap you out of it! I understand you're grieving, you've lost so many people in so little time. But don't fucking take it out on me, and don't try to push me away!" Yeri yells at him. "Either you get your shit together or I'll make you." She seethes through her teeth.

Taeyong looks at her, thunderstruck. He had never seen Yeri yell like that. And it wasn't like she was mad at him, more like she was just mad because of him. Because he was this guy she liked so much and she knew he liked her back but he's too afraid to admit it out loud. That sort of mad.

Yeri pants from her sudden outburst, sitting back down on the seat. "Can I have a beer, please?" She says quietly to the bartender who grabs her a bottle of Corona Extra. She chugs it quickly. "Listen... I didn't come here to lecture you, I came here to talk about the case."

Taeyong remains quiet. "As I said before, we need to play Narae's game in order to win," Yeri says quietly. "That's bullshit. We can't beat her unless we kill her." Taeyong chuckles lowly. She hits his shoulder.

"Just listen to me. I was looking through the evidence and I came upon the notes that she had left behind. And on each of the notes, I noticed a red leader at the bottom of it." Yeri takes out her phone, showing the man a zoomed-in photo of blurry letters on the paper.

It was hard to see, so much so that Taeyong had to squint his eyes, but he definitely saw it. "SGT? What do those letters mean?" Taeyong says, his words slurred due to the alcohol in his system.

"That's what I came here to think about. I would ask maybe Yuta or Doyoung, but I trust you more with this sort of stuff." Yeri says, placing the phone on the counter while taking another sip of her beverage. The silence between the two was concentrated as they both thought to themself what possibly it could mean. Yeri was the first to speak.

"Maybe it's SGT, like the timezone? I did high school in Singapore when I was an international student, that was the timezone we used." She says quietly. "Maybe she's planning on escaping there, I don't know."

"No, it can't be. Singapore has one of the most advanced criminal systems in the world, they'd catch her as soon as she stepped into the airport." Taeyong reminds her. She sighs in disappointment as the duo start to drink together in silence once again. But, Taeyong realized something.

"Wait, remember that mafia boss from a couple of years ago?" He says as she perks up her ears. "Song Gangtae. But in the mafia world, everyone referred to him as SGT. What if it's referring to him?" He proposes the idea.

Yeri looks at him, her eyes brightening up as she smirks at him, impressed. "Now you're starting to think like a detective." She raises her beer, indicating a cheer as they both collide their drinks. "We should call the precinct, inform them about this and get a visit warrant for him in prison. Maybe he's the one that's been helping her all this time. Or he at least has an idea."

"Yeah, we should," Taeyong says, but he wasn't really paying attention. His focus remained on Yeri's face, on which he stared at deeply as noted down every small to big feature and habit of hers. How her ears turned tomato red when she drank, how she smiles every time she talked, how her nose scrunched up when she was annoyed. He studied her like a book.

"Why are you staring at me? Got something to say?" Yeri teases suddenly, as Taeyong was zoned out on her face and hadn't noticed that she was looking at him. Yeah, I do have something to say. He thinks, but he would never admit it out loud-

"I love you."

Yeri's smile disappears as she stares at him, her body frozen. She searched his face for a smile or even the tiniest bit of playfulness in his eyes, but she couldn't find any. He was dead serious, which meant she could be too.

"I love you too, Taeyong."