Fatal Trouble | Y.Jw

| 2.15 |

Impatiently Jungwon tapped his fingers on the table. He felt slightly guilty for not being clear about where he was going that Saturday night, but Jiyeon seemed to be just fine when he left. Quietly dancing around the kitchen with her headphones on and preparing a little dinner for herself. She simply waved him off when he had called out to her that he was leaving.

"You're late," he remarked as he watched the man walk into his old warehouse and up to the table Jungwon had dragged out to the middle of the floor in the light of the moon.

"You'll survive five minutes," the man chuckled and sat down across from Jungwon, "is this an interrogation?"

"Conversation," Jungwon clarified and folded his hands over his stomach.

"You kept your part of the deal?"

"No police," Jungwon hummed and quirked a brow at the man.

"I came alone. My men have more important things to do," he shrugged and Jungwon hummed, "not curious?"

"Not about them," Jungwon shook his head and glanced around, "cliché with a warehouse."

"Yeah... but it really is quite handy," the man excused and glanced around, "what'd you want?"

"Why her?" Jungwon squinted his eyes, "you've picked some random student in a little irrelevant town. Why?"

"Well... why did you pick her?" the man chuckled and leaned his elbows on the table. Quirking his eyebrows as an amused smile grew on his face.

"She's brilliant," Jungwon murmured and the man hummed with a small shrug.

"She is. But that's not what I meant," the man remarked, "working with her is one thing. Why did you pick her of all the women you've had the inconvenience of working with over the years. Why'd you like her so much?"

"She's brilliant," Jungwon repeated.

"Really? That's why?" the man questioned and Jungwon shrugged, "continue. What about her?"

"Opinionated," Jungwon calmly stated and the man nodded with every statement, "fearless. Kind. Gentle. Observant... pretty."

"She really is," the man nodded.

"So you're some angry incel?" Jungwon questioned and the man only shrugged.

"She's a threat," the man stated and Jungwon frowned, "you still don't know I'm the mayor?"

"I figured, but the wrinkles, sagging eyelids and grey hair kinda made it hard to see," Jungwon excused earning a tense silence from the man across from him, "so she read the exposeé, so what?"

"Miss Young and I have history before that," the man sighed, "she was new at the station."

"So?"

"You see... my previous assistant and I had... an interesting relationship," the man chuckled, "she didn't think everything we did was something she had agreed to. The very first case Miss Young transcribed. A mayor is always innocent of course, and she was not convinced."

"I could imagine," Jungwon hummed.

"I offered to talk it out with her over a glass of wine, funny she didn't like that idea so much," Jungwon had snorted, interrupting the mayor's explanation, "she's been good at keeping quiet so far. But she's been loud since the exposeé."

"So?"

"I can't have a tainted reputation," the mayor reminded, "and it got more fun... because you came along and took a liking to her."

Jungwon stared at the mayor for a few seconds. The mayor's smile only spread with each passing second, looking more and more sickening.

"Does your men-"

"Know everything," the mayor nodded, "in detail. They get paid... most of them are previously convicted of something. She's hiding a treasure under those sweaters you know?"

"The eggs," Jungwon sternly stated and the man hummed, "Why eggs?"

"They can be substituted for blood in baking. Why not the other way around?" the mayor shrugged, "shame she didn't survive now that you made Miss Young remember everything."

"You just want her eliminated?" Jungwon questioned and the man nodded, "Why not just shoot her?"

"That would be the sane thing to do, wouldn't it?" the mayor chuckled, "it's funnier to watch her get more and more deranged. She got sleep medication prescribed a few weeks ago, did you know?"

"The doll, why are you building a doll of her?" Jungwon questioned instead of acknowledging the mayor knowing something he didn't. Quietly he reminded himself that the mayor only found it more enjoyable if he got any reactions.

"I've come to find that I enjoy the feeling of cutting through flesh and bone with whatever tools I have available," the mayor excused with a shrug.

"You're a serial killer then. I should be calling the police," Jungwon pointed out.

"You should, but wouldn't," the mayor remarked in amusement.

"And why not?" 

"Where do you think my men are right now?"

Jungwon stayed quiet and squinted her eyes over at him. He already knew now that he thought about it. Instead of saying more the mayor simply sighed and got his phone out, holding up a picture of Mrs Mae, who was sitting in her rocking chair with the electric guitar she had bought when her husband conveniently died a few years ago. Jungwon almost snorted at the sight.

"Could be from any random day," Jungwon pointed out.

"Oh my bad," the mayor excused and showed the next picture.

Jiyeon was sitting quietly in the living room. A book in her lap. She never read out in the living room when Jungwon was home. It was the same sweater she had been wearing dancing around the kitchen a few hours earlier. The book was the same he had seen her pick shove in her back yesterday before going out to coffee with Mrs Mae. It could almost only be from tonight.

"Good at taking those pictures, isn't he?" the mayor snickered and looked at the picture himself, "he was in for quite a while for violence against some women, you know how it is. Are you gonna call the police though?"

Momentarily Jungwon's jaw clenched before he pursed his lips. Taking a good long stare at the mayor.

"She's been paranoid too, thinking someone is always watching her. Tried to get medication for it, but she can't pay that much for a good therapist and she's a bit loud and talks over herself about her patients if she gets a biiiiit too much, you know," the mayor chuckled and did a drinking gesture with his hand.

Abruptly Jungwon stood up, staring down at the mayor who only smiled in return. Not saying a word Jungwon headed straight for the exit, deciding he didn't want to waste any more time. He had to get home.