chapter fourteen

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DEAD AS A DOORNAIL

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His laugh pissed Jeongin off.

"Who are you?" Jeongin asked, uncrossing his arms and taking a step towards them.

"Me?" The male leaned against the couch again. "Lee Felix. Used to own the watch."

Jeongmin frowned and glanced at her brother. That didn't match.

"Is this your house?"

Once again, Felix smiled. He even looked around and pouted, like it was funny. That disgusted her.

"I don't see anyone else here."

Why would Hyunjin give her the wrong address? It couldn't be a coincidence, those things didn't even exist. Hyunjin wanted her to meet Felix, yet the question mark on Jeongmin's head was on a different thing now.

How did he know about the watch?

She didn't tell him about it. She wouldn't be that careless.

I hate you, Changbin.

"And you don't happen to have a brother...?" She insisted. It was hard for her to connect Hyunjin to that story.

"Not really." Felix took a deep breath, running his hands through his wet blonde hair while slowly moving his head. "It was never given to me." 

At that moment, they could no longer distinguish theatre from honesty. 

Felix was a weird guy. He had a watch worth more than she could count, yet lived in a house slowly falling apart, more fragile than a straw one. Besides, she'd thought rich people had better manners. Like, real better manners.

Something in there didn't add up.

"So you live alone." She said, and Jeongin clearly didn't like her intervention. 

 "You wanna go check my room?" Felix pointed at the ceiling with a smirk on his lips, his eyes looking right into hers. In three seconds, there was no answer, which made him laugh. 

Jeongin didn't know the guy they were leading with, yet he felt that the less they stayed in that house, the better. On the other hand, Jeongmin didn't stop questioning him, and that caused him to get uneasy. Jeongin wanted to avoid further interactions, yet he had no way of transmitting that message to her.

Telepathy had never worked between both of them.

"The man we were looking for isn't you," Jeongin said, catching Felix's attention. "We are sorry for wasting your time." 

Jeongin had already reached Jeongmin to leave when Felix stopped him with his bare foot.

"You're not going anywhere."

That time, he wasn't smiling.

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"Where the hell is Jeongmin?" Seungho, the café's manager, asked Hyunjin, bothered.

"You want a cup of tea?" The other male asked back, raising his eyebrows.

"She's one hour and a half late. Explain this." He was an impatient man, a very impatient one, so people kind of were impatient with him too, and Hyunjin believed it was fair enough. In fact, if that was not about Jeongmin at that time, he'd piss him off more, just for the fun of it.

"She called, saying she's sick," Hyunjin explained, yet Seungho didn't really seem convinced. "She went to see a doctor. Jeongmin said she wanted to talk to you, but you hadn't arrived yet, so I said I'd pass the message..." His voice lowered the more words he said as Seungho just rolled his eyes and left.

F.cking rude.

"Tell her to bring me the doctor's note once she's strong and healthy!" He yelled from the breakroom.

"Why is he even bored? There are no clients anyway." Hyunjin complained lowly, resting his elbows on the counter. 

The summer was ending, which meant that, in about two weeks, clients were going to stop coming. A room that was once packed to the rafters would, in no time, be as dead as a doornail, and Hyunjin knew the meaning of it when it came to his wallet. 

He just prayed there would be no layoffs.

"Hey, bro." 

The familiar voice caused him to lift his head, smiling as he saw Changbin.

"Hey! Want a piece of cake? A super crispy patty maybe?"

"No, sorry. Already had lunch." The male said, sitting on a stool in front of his friend. "So did you do-"

Changbin didn't even have to finish the sentence. Hyunjin knew it already.

"Yap, I did all as planned, no worries." He stretched his arms and neck as he felt his body tenser than ever. "But make sure Jeongmin doesn't get hurt in there, okay?"

"Like you care." Changbin laughed, pointing at the coffee machine. "Gimme a long black."

"What are you talking about?" Hyunjin asked back, chuckling as he turned to prepare the coffee. "She's my friend."

"Yeah, but are you hers?" The male tapped his fingers on the counter, leaning in. "'Cause, you know, friends don't really send their friends to their graves."

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