Conceal

Kihyun returned home after a normal day of work, took the usual route back to his apartment and collapsed onto his couch like he always did. It was just a normal day, until the moment he opened his bag after 5 minutes of sitting on the sofa. Everything stopped being normal from that moment onwards.

    He touched the unfamiliar packet of white powder and lifted it out of the bag with a trembling hand. Before he even had time to truly acknowledge the identity of its contents, he threw it as far away as he possibly could with his shaking arm and took short rapid steps backwards towards the opposite side of the living room.

    He didn't realize this was exactly where he wanted to be until he saw the home phone right next to him on the TV counter.

    Kihyun's best friend Jooheon replied before the first "beep" ended.

    "Hyung! What's up?"

    Jooheon barely had enough time to finish his usual greeting before Kihyun spoke, voice stiff. "Someone placed drugs in my bag."

    He hung without waiting for a response. He didn't need one. He wasn't even sure he could take any.

    Now all Kihyun had to do was wait. He was normally a patient person, but somehow even the idea of waiting scared him.

    After 15 minutes, Jooheon knocked at the door of Kihyun's apartment. Kihyun opened the door and attempted to look fine using the slightest curves of his lips. Jooheon gave his friend a long, firm look of concern before pulling Kihyun into a deep embrace.

    Together they entered the apartment and into the living room, ignoring the strange packet completely, which was now rested on the tabletop with the help of some precious courage Kihyun had painfully mustered before Jooheon's arrival. Jooheon took a seat on the couch while Kihyun made tea in the kitchen.

    With two steaming cups of black tea in their hands, the friends were ready to talk.

    There was no point taking an indirect route here. They had a problem, and there was only one way to solve it. Jooheon took a sip of tea and went straight to point with a grim expression, "Did you tell anybody else about this?"

    Kihyun shook his head two times, but replied with a simple "no" after a few moments of silence, as if a vocal confirmation would make the situation sound less serious than it was.

    "Good," Jooheon said, nodding, a frown forming on his face. "No matter what the situation is, we can't say anything to anyone. If we don't say anything, no one will know what happened. And if no one knows about this, nothing will ever happen to us. Understand?"

    Kihyun fought the urge to look at the incriminating evidence lying on the table just a few metres away. He couldn't believe something that he would normally only see on TV shows and movies had happened to him, in real life. In those stories, no one told the police, and he could finally empathize with those people. No one would believe what he had to say, what his side of the story was. Not with the concrete evidence right under their noses. He stared at his cup of tea instead, into the darkness of the bitter liquid, contemplating, but not really thinking at all.

    He only looked up from his beverage when Jooheon gently placed a hand on his shoulder. Kihyun smiled gratefully.

    Jooheon returned with a smile of his own, full of care and sincerity, but also one that was forced and unnatural, different from his usual carefree self. "Don't worry, some big news will replace this case soon, and this will be forgotten in no time. We'll get through this together."

    At the word "together", Kihyun was reminded of someone. "How about Wonho? Should we tell him?"

    Wonho was Kihyun's second best friend, and together the three of them made an almost inseparable trio. They did everything together, and it was a rule to keep no secrets between them.