What if...? || Markhyuck

-35-

[november 2020]

Eenie, meenie, minie mo.

Catch a tiger by the toe.

If he hollers, let him go.

Eenie, meenie, minie mo.

[donghyuck]

"What the fuck is this?!" Marco yelled at entire office. All three of us shuddered in response to this manifestation of fury. He made it clear to us that the matter was serious. Much more serious than we thought at the moment, although I learned everything just few minutes ago. Steven and Minhyung had to deal with it all night.

Marco paused an excerpt from the morning news that reported the brutal murder of a young policeman who was shot after only a week of service. He was twenty years old. Before his death, he reported to the police station that he saw a man throwing a large black bag into a ravine and that, in his opinion, it was probably corpse. He decided to investigate the situation, asking for help if necessary.

"Tell me, what is this, boys?" Marco asked again, more calmly, as if helplessness was consuming him from the inside. He rubbed overworked head slowly.

"A small accident at work," Steven said, unimpressed by the whole situation. He didn't see the problem at all and I didn't really see it either. Such things have already happened here. The policemen were killed in our basements and after a while everything consigned to history. The only major problem now was finding another place to get rid of the bodies and what they can conclude from searching the ditch. People were throwing garbage there, we were throwing away corpses - all in the conviction that the bottom of the abyss doesn't exist. What if it turns out differently?

"Who shot?" Perez sighed heavily.

"Me," Mark confessed, his throat tight after a long silence.

A bell rang me out of my sleep. I glanced at the phone. It was four in the morning. There were not many options on the list of those who could bounce at my door at an hour that I couldn't qualify to the night but it wasn't appropriate for the day as well.

I dragged myself out of bed, hoping it wasn't the police. I've never been ready for this eventuality. When the bell rang again, I was going down the stairs in my classic pajamas set, shirt and boxer shorts. When I opened the door, I saw Minhyung shivering with cold. It wasn't such a tragic temperature today but I didn't get much time to think about all this.

"Hi," I greeted quickly and Lee just came in and hugged me tightly. After initial amazement, I returned the embrace, kicking the front door to its proper place. "Something happened?" I finally asked, gently combing the boy's hair, then kissed his really frozen cheek.

"No, nothing," he murmured in a falsely amazed tone that I could already recognize. "Something must happen to visit my boyfriend?" he was surprised in a way that once made me feel guilty that I asked such a stupid question at all. Now, however, I knew this mechanism perfectly. Minhyung explained himself, masking all the problems that affected him as soon as he could. He overshadowed the real life tragedy by a way of conversation that gave me unequivocally to understand that something had happened with him that is incredibly hard for him but he can't talk about it, he can't put it into words. To an outsider, Minhyung may seem to be in a good mood. The truth is, however, that everyone who knows the boy personally knows that he never has a good mood, and if he has somehow miraculously - he doesn't externalize it to such extent as when his world is collapsing.