failures III » kpop ✓

chapter 8

· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ 08 « twisted reasoning »

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'' Why do you care about me, detective? '' I asked, staring at Byun Baekhyun with an unimpressed expression on my face. The pad thai that we bought at a cheap corner stall already stunk up the tiny booth of the coin karaoke place and I was beginning to get affected by the detective's very obvious growing impatience. He was tapping his foot against the ground and stuffing the noodles in his mouth as if they were the best thing that he ever ate, but I could tell that he was just trying to buy some time. The only question was - why? '' People are usually scared of me. It's either fear or respect, that's all that I get from them. ''

I was spinning the chopsticks around in my hand and frowning in thought. My food remained untouched, but I did already drink both mine and Baekhyun's bottles of beer that he bought to go along with it. He tried to convince me that it wasn't a good idea to mix alcohol with the painkillers that I swallowed to fight the aftereffects of the wound on my head, but I ignored his weak attempts at talking some sense in to me.

Eventually, the detective sighed and murmured: '' I've seen worse. ''

We were sitting on the sofa that was occupying one side of the tiny booth, while some upbeat song was playing on the machine in front of us. I was tempted to grab the microphone and start singing, but I held myself back. Instead, I finally tried to make myself more comfortable on my seat, put my leg over Baekhyun's and started eating. '' Should I be relieved, offended or worried? Or all three of those things? ''

The corners of his lips twitched and curved in to an amused smirk, then he pushed my leg off his lap and said: '' Probably all three of those things. By the way, thanks for agreeing to come here, even if I- ''

'' Oh, I know that I shouldn't have listened to you, but curiosity got the best of me, '' I admitted and raised my shoulders in a careless shrug. In reality, I had no idea what Baekhyun and I were actually doing in the booth of that dingy and dusty karaoke place, but I wanted to find out. I knew that at worst case scenario, I could always pull out my knife and fight my way out of it. He already showed that he wasn't capable of actually hurting me and was prepared to risk way more for me than I actually deserved.

Baekhyun closed his now empty paper box of noodles and looked at me. '' What are you thinking about today? ''

He asked that question in a specific type of way, almost as if he was afraid of the answer that he was going to get.

'' I'm always thinking about everything or nothing. There is no in between. ''

He frowned in confusion and carefully asked: '' What makes the difference? ''

I turned my head and looked directly in his eyes. He waited for me to say something, but I stayed silent. I thought that perhaps the look in my eyes would tell him enough, or at least the way my pupils were, dilated to the point where you couldn't even see the original color of my irises, but he didn't seem to understand, so I bluntly explained: '' Benzos. ''

I could tell that Baekhyun and I were waiting for somebody, but I was truly shocked when I saw the person who eventually knocked on the door of the karaoke booth and stepped inside. It was already starting to get late by then, it was long since the sun went down and he was dressed for another night of roaming around the red light district. I didn't know him personally, but I did encounter a few other people like him. They were special types of social workers, sometimes working for clinics, other times for organizations and they had the habit of snatching boys and girls of the streets and trying to give them better lives. More often than not, they didn't try hard enough to help them and their failed attempts pushed them even deeper in to the hell that they promised to save them from.