the naked face || bts

twelve

It had started to snow again. From the street fifteen floors below, the sounds of traffic floated up, muted by the white, cottony flakes in the arctic wind. In a lighted office across the street he saw the blurred face of a secretary streaming down the window. 'Norah- are you certain?'

'When it comes to movies, you're talking to a walking encyclopaedia, babe. Teri was living with the head of Continental Studios but she was keeping an assistant director on the side. She caught him cheating on her one night and she stabbed him to death. The head of the studio pulled a lot of strings and paid off a lot of people and it was hushed up and called an accident. Part of the arrangement was that she get out of the acting industry and never come back. And she never has.'

Yoongi stared at the phone numbly.

'Yoongi, are you there?'

'I'm here.'

'You sound funny.'

'Where did you hear all this?'

'Hear it? It was in all the newspapers and fan magazines. Everybody knew about it.'

Except him. 'Thanks, Norah,' he said, and hung up. So that was the 'casual incident'. Shin Teri had murdered a man and had never mentioned it to him. And if she had murdered once... Thoughtfully he picked up a pad and wrote down 'Shin Teri'. The phone rang. Yoongi picked it up. 'Dr. Min...'

'Hello.'

'Just checking to see if you're all right.' It was Detective Jimin. His voice was still hoarse with a cold. A feeling of gratitude filled Yoongi. Someone was on his side. 'Anything new?'

Yoongi hesitated. He could see no point in keeping quiet about the bomb. 'They tried again.' Yoongi told Jimin about Seokjin and the bomb that had been planted in his car. That should convince Jungkook,' he concluded.

'Where's the bomb?' Jimin's voice was excited.

Yoongi hesitated. 'It's been dismantled.'

'It's been what?' Jimin asked incredulously. 'Who did that?'

'Seokjin. He didn't think it mattered.'

'Didn't matter! What does he think the Police Department is for? We might have been able to tell who planted that bomb just by looking at it. We keep a file of MOs.'

'MOs?'

'Modus operandi. People fall into habit patterns. If they do something one way the first time, chances are they'll keep doing it the same- I don't have to tell you.'
'No,' said Yoongi thoughtfully. Surely Seokjin had known that. Had he some reason for not wanting to show the bomb to Jungkook?

'Dr. Min - how did you hire Seokjin?'

'I found him on the net.' It sounded ridiculous even as he said it. He could hear Jimin swallow.

'Oh. Then you really don't know a damn thing about him.'

'I know I trust him. Why?' 

'Right now,' Jimin said, 'I don't think you should trust anybody.'

'But Seokjin couldn't possibly be connected with any of this. My God! I picked him out of the list at random.'

'I don't care where you got him. Something's up. Seokjin says he set a trap to catch whoever's after you, but he doesn't close the trap until the bait's already been taken, so we can't pin it on anyone. Then he shows you a bomb in your car that he could have put there himself and wins your confidence. Right?'

'I suppose you could look at it that way,' Yoongi said. 'But-'

'Maybe your friend Seokjin is setting you up. I want you to play it nice and cool until we find out.' Seokjin against him? It was difficult to believe. And yet, he remembered his earlier doubts when he had thought Seokjin was sending him into an ambush. 'What do you want me to do?' asked Yoongi.

'How would you feel about leaving town? I mean really leaving town.'

'I can't leave my patients.'

'Dr. Min-'

'Besides,' Yoongi added, 'it really wouldn't solve anything, would it? I wouldn't even know what I'm running away from. When I came back, it would just start all over again.'

There was a moment's silence. 'You have a point.' Jimin gave a sigh, and it turned into a wheeze. He sounded terrible. 'When do you expect to hear from Seokjin again?'

'I don't know. He thinks he has some idea of who's behind all this.'

'Has it occurred to you that whoever's behind this can pay Seokjin a lot more than you can?' There was an urgency in Jimin's voice. 'If he asks you to meet him, call me. I'll be home in bed for the next day or two. Whatever you do, Doctor, don't meet him alone.'

'You're building up a case out of nothing,' countered Yoongi. 'Just because Seokjin removed the bomb from my car-'

'There's more to it than that,' said Jimin 'I have a hunch you picked the wrong man.'

'I'll call you if I hear from him,' promised Yoongi. He hung up, shaken. Was Jimin being overly suspicious? It was true that Seokjin could have been lying about the bomb in order to win Yoongi's confidence. Then the next step would be easy. All he would have to do would be to call Yoongi and ask him to meet him in some deserted place on the pretext of having some evidence for him. Then...

Yoongi shuddered. Could he have been wrong about Seokjin's character? He remembered his reaction when he had first met Seokjin. He had thought that the man was ineffectual and not very bright. Then he had realized that his homespun cover was a facade that concealed a quick, sharp brain. But that didn't mean that Seokjin could be trusted. And yet...

He heard someone at the outer reception door and looked at his watch. Hoseok! He quickly locked the tapes away, walked over to the private corridor door, and opened it. Hoseok was standing in the corridor. He was wearing a nicely fitting bright green shirt and jeans. He was dreamily lost in thought, unaware that Yoongi was watching him.

Yoongi studied him, filling himself with his handsomeness, trying to find some imperfection, some reason for him to tell himself that he would be wrong for him, that he would one day find someone else better suited to him. The fox and the grapes. Freud was not the father of psychiatry. Aesop was.

'Hello,' he said.

He looked up, startled for an instant. Then he smiled. 'Hello.'

'Come in, Hope-ah.'

He moved past him into the office, his firm body brushing his. He turned and looked at him with those incredible dark eyes. 'Did they find the hit-and-run driver?' There was concern on his face, a worried, genuine interest. He felt again the insane urge to tell him everything. But he knew he could not. At best, it would be a cheap trick to win his sympathy. At worst, it might involve him in some unknown danger.

'Not yet.' He indicated a chair.

Hoseok was watching his face. 'You look tired. Should you be back at work so soon?'

Oh God. He didn't think he could stand any sympathy. Not just now. And not from him. He said, 'I'm fine. I cancelled my appointments for today. My exchange wasn't able to reach you.'

An anxious expression crossed Hoseok's face. He's afraid he's intruding. Hoseok- intruding. 'I'm so sorry. If you'd rather I left...'

'Please, no,' he said quickly. Tm glad they couldn't reach you.' This would be the last time he saw him. 'How are you feeling?' he asked.

He hesitated, started to say something, then changed his mind. 'A little confused.' He was looking at him oddly, and there was something in his look that touched a faint, long-lost chord that he could almost, but not quite, remember. He felt a warmth flowing from him, an overpowering physical longing- and he suddenly realized what he was doing. He was attributing his own emotions to him. And for an instant he had been fooled, like any first-year psychiatry student.

'When do you leave for Europe?' he asked.

'On Christmas morning.'

'Just you and your wife?' He felt like a gibbering idiot, reduced to banalities. 'Where will you go?'

'Stockholm- Paris- London- Rome.'

I'd love to show you Rome, thought Yoongi. He had spent a year there interning at the American hospital. There was a fantastic old restaurant called Cybele near the Tivoli Gardens, high on a mountaintop by an ancient pagan shrine, where you could sit in the sun and watch the hundreds of wild pigeons darken the sky over the dappled cliffs. And Hoseok was on his way to Rome with his wife.

'It will be a second honeymoon,' he said. There was a strain in his voice, so faint that he might almost have imagined it. An untrained ear would not have caught it. Yoongi looked at him more closely. On the surface he seemed calm, normal, but underneath he sensed a tension. If this was the picture of a young boy in love going to Europe on a second honeymoon, then a piece of the picture was missing. And he suddenly realized what it was. There was no excitement in Hoseok. Or if there was, it was overshadowed by a patina of some stronger emotion. Sadness? Regret?

He realized that he was staring at him.  'How- how long will you be away ?' 

A small smile crossed his lips, as though he knew what Yoongi was doing. 'I'm not certain,' he answered gravely. 'Areum's plans are indefinite.'

'I see.'

He looked down at the rug, miserable. He had to put an end to this. He couldn't let Hoseok leave, feeling that he was a complete fool. Send him away now. 'Hoseok...' he began.

'Yeah?'

He tried to keep his voice light. 'I really got you back here under false pretenses. It wasn't necessary for you to see me again. I just wanted to- to say goodbye.'

Oddly, puzzlingly, some of the tension seemed to drain out of him. 'I know,' he said quietly. 'I wanted to say goodbye, too.' There was something in his voice that caught at him again. He was getting to his feet.

'Yoongi...' He looked up at him, holding his eyes with his, and he saw in his eyes what he must have seen in his. It was a mirrored reflection of a current so strong that it was almost physical. He started to move towards him, then stopped. He could not let him become involved in the danger that surrounded him. When he finally spoke, his voice was almost under control. 'Drop me a card from Rome.'

He looked at him for a long moment. 'Please take care of yourself, Yoongi.'

He nodded, not trusting himself to speak. And he was gone.

The phone rang three times before Yoongi heard it. He picked it up. 'That you, Yoongs?' It was Seokjin. His voice practically leaped out of the telephone, crackling with excitement. 'You alone?' There was an odd quality in Seokjin's excitement that Yoongi could not quite identify. Caution? Fear? 'Yoongs- remember I told you I had a hunch who might be behind this? I was right.'

Yoongi felt a quick chill go through him. 'You know who killed Taehyung and Ara?'

'Yeah. I know who. And I know why. You're next, hon.'

'Tell me-'

'Not over the phone,' said Seokjin. 'We'd better meet somewhere and talk about it. Come alone.'

Yoongi stared at the phone in his hand. COME ALONE!

'Are you listening?'

'Yes.' said Yoongi quickly. What had Jimin said? Whatever you do, Doctor, don't meet him alone. 'Why can't we meet here?' he asked, stalling for time.

'I think I'm being followed. I managed to shake them off. I'm calling from the Five Star Meat Packing Company. Look it up on Google, it's near the docks.'

Yoongi still found it impossible to believe that Seokjin was setting a trap for him. He decided to test him. 'I'll bring Jimin.'

Seokjin's voice was sharp. 'Don't bring anyone. Come by yourself.'

And there it was. Yoongi thought of the pink princess at the other end of the phone. His guileless friend who was charging him fifty dollars a day and expenses to set him up for his own murder. Yoongi kept his voice controlled. 'Very well.' he said. 'I'll be right over.' He tried one parting shot. 'Are you sure you really know who's behind this, Seokjin?'

'Dead sure, Yoongs. Have you ever heard of Don Vinton?' And Seokjin hung up.

Yoongi stood there, trying to sort out the storm of emotions that raced through him, He looked up Jimin's home number and dialed it. It rang five times, and Yoongi was filled with a sudden panicky fear that Jimin might not be at home. Dare he go meet Seokjin alone? Then he heard Jimin's nasal voice. 'Hello.'

'Min Yoongi. Seokjin just called.'

There was a quickening in Jimin's voice. 'What did he say?'

Yoongi hesitated, feeling a last vestige of unreasonable loyalty and- yes, affection- towards the childish and silly tall man who was plotting to cold-bloodedly murder him. 'He asked me to meet him at the Five Star Meat Packing Company. It's near the docks. He told me to come alone.'

Jimin laughed mirthlessly. 'I'll bet he did. Don't move out of that office, Doctor. I'm going to call lieutenant Jungkook. We'll both pick you up.'

'Right,' said Yoongi. He hung up slowly. Kim Seokjin. The jolly Mario-man from the web. Yoongi felt a sudden, inexplicable sadness. He had liked Seokjin. And trusted him. And Seokjin was waiting to kill him.