Deep End | Hyunlix

45

Felix stepped out of the club, the cool night air slapping him in the face like a rude awakening. But it did little to clear the fog pressing in at the edges of his thoughts. His heart was still hammering, breath uneven as fragments of the night replayed on a loop behind his eyes. Changbin's voice still lingered in his ears, those words, whispered low and close, laced with venom and truth. He had been watched. Observed. Followed.

The realization twisted like glass in his stomach. He had thought he was in control, thought he could play this game from the shadows. But it turned out, someone else had been holding the pieces all along. The bitter taste of vulnerability sat heavy on his tongue. He had come looking for answers, intent on finding Hyunjin, on dragging some sort of truth into the light. Instead, the night had morphed into something darker, more dangerous. Every step forward only unraveled more questions, like pulling on a thread and watching the whole fabric fall apart.

Felix closed his eyes for a moment, the memory of Hyunjin's voice, low, trembling, echoing in his mind. The confession hadn't been what he expected. There had been something raw in it, something unguarded that shook Felix in a way he hadn't prepared for. He had seen glimpses of Hyunjin's walls before, carefully constructed and fiercely protected. But tonight? Tonight, one had cracked wide open, and for a second, he'd seen what lay beneath.

And it had terrified him.

He wasn't sure how he got home. The city passed in a blur, his body moving on autopilot while his brain remained stuck in that dim corner of the club, heart echoing with truths he wasn't ready to name. His mind was a storm, a whirlwind of logic clashing against longing, of duty versus desire. One part of him screamed to act. To call it in. Bring his team up to speed, tell them what he now knew. The Snake Eye Clan. The possible involvement of Hyunjin. Changbin's veiled threats.

But then there was the other part. The part that had been growing quietly, insistently for weeks now. The part that couldn't forget the way Hyunjin's fingers had lingered on his arm. The way his eyes softened when he let his guard down. The way his laugh, rare and fleeting, felt like something Felix would do anything to hear again.

He scrubbed a hand down his face. Could I really do it? Could I arrest Hyunjin?

The sharp knock at his door jolted him like a slap. He froze, heart slamming against his ribs. His apartment was silent. Too silent. Another knock. Firmer. More urgent.

Felix was already halfway to the door before he even registered moving. His instincts flared, warning him to tread carefully. This wasn't the time for recklessness, not when everything was teetering on the edge of unraveling. His hand hovered over the lock for a beat longer than necessary, breath held like it might stop the inevitable.

Click.

The door creaked open and there he was.

Hyunjin stood in the dim glow of the hallway like a shadow pulled from a dream or a nightmare. He was dressed in a plain black hoodie, the sleeves pulled over his hands, hair slightly mussed like he'd run his fingers through it too many times. His face was pale, drawn tight with exhaustion and something else, uncertainty. Maybe regret. Maybe fear.

Felix swallowed hard. "Hyunjin."

No response. Just the sound of Hyunjin's shallow breathing, the rise and fall of his chest as if he'd run all the way here.

Felix felt something inside him twist. This wasn't how he'd pictured their next meeting. Not after what he'd learned. Not after what had been said.

Still, he stepped aside. "Come in."

For a moment, Hyunjin didn't move. Then, wordlessly, he brushed past Felix, slipping inside like a ghost. He moved with a strange stiffness, as if unsure whether he was allowed to be here. Felix closed the door behind him with a soft click, the finality of it echoing in his chest.

Hyunjin stopped in the middle of the living room. He didn't sit. Didn't pace. Just stood there, eyes cast down like the floor might offer him answers.

Felix's gaze lingered on him, cataloguing every detail, the slope of his shoulders, the tension in his jaw, the way his fingers twitched where they hung by his sides.

And then something else hit him.

Brown.

Felix's breath hitched. Hyunjin's eyes were brown. Not blue.

Not the striking, stormy blue Felix had memorized, admired, fallen into. They were brown now. Deep, unreadable brown.

The panic rose fast and sharp.

"What... what do you want from me, Felix?" Hyunjin's voice cracked through the silence, low and hoarse. "What do you need to hear?"

Felix opened his mouth, then closed it again, the words catching in his throat. He stepped forward, pulse quickening. "The truth."

Hyunjin gave a breathless, bitter laugh. "You think you want the truth."

"I do," Felix said, quieter this time. "Please."

A long pause. Then, Hyunjin lifted his eyes. "I don't think you're ready for it."

Felix's jaw tightened. "Try me."

"You're a detective," Hyunjin said, not a question, not a guess. A statement. Resigned. "I've known for a while."

Felix's stomach dropped. "How long?"

Hyunjin's silence was louder than any answer.

Felix stepped closer, the space between them shrinking like a vice. "Hyunjin."

The older man looked up again, eyes now unreadable. "You have no idea what you're getting into."

"Then tell me. Show me." Felix's voice softened. "Because I care. And whether I want to or not...I care about you."

Hyunjin flinched, barely perceptible. "Then you should walk away now."

"I can't."

Another beat of silence. Then, finally, Hyunjin said the words that shattered everything.

"I'm the leader of the Snake Eye Clan."

Felix felt the floor drop out beneath him. He had guessed. Suspected. Danced around the possibility like a man avoiding a trap. But hearing it, hearing Hyunjin say it, with that quiet finality was different. Devastating.

"No," he whispered, denial sharp in his throat.

"Yes." Hyunjin's voice was like iron now. "I run things you don't even see. I keep the peace in ways the government won't acknowledge. I make the deals. I keep the order."

Felix stumbled back a step, eyes wide. "Then everything was a lie. The way you looked at me. The way you...what we did...your eyes...Hyunjin..."

"That wasn't a lie," Hyunjin said, voice trembling now, the mask slipping. "I didn't plan for you. I didn't mean to let you in. But you..." He broke off, then continued, barely audible. "You got under my skin. You stayed there."

Felix's breath caught.

"I don't want to feel this way," Hyunjin said, pain raw in his tone. "But I do. And that terrifies me more than anything else."

Felix couldn't breathe. Couldn't move. Everything was unraveling and he couldn't stop it. "I should arrest you."

"Then do it," Hyunjin whispered. "Right now. Cuff me. Take me in."

Felix looked at him, really looked. At the vulnerability, the ache beneath the defiance. And he realized, with a cold shiver, that he couldn't.

He wasn't ready and that scared him most of all.

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1214 words