08

The sane may not always be the best

"MR. JEON AND MR. KIM?" announced the air hostess, making every head in the landed aircraft rise.

Jungkook looked at Taehyung, apprehensive. He, too, shared a look of mirrored confusion and raised his hand up.

"We're here, how may we help?"

"If both of you would just follow me this way, sirs," she said, a tone of urgency clearly evident in her voice.

The other passengers were all staring at the couple, looking as dark as coal. Much darker than when they had settled in their seats.

Seeing no other way to escape this, Taehyung and Jungkook followed her. Jungkook murmured a comforting "don't worry" to Taehyung as they reached closer to the exit.

The man seated in the aisle seat next to the two, scoffed as he spotted someone waiting for them in the exit. He turned to his wife who was seated in the aisle on his left.

"Probably caught for participating in criminal activities. As expected from these homosexual bastards. Did you see how they were cuddling each other?"

"Nasty end these unnatural folks always come to," she sighed, shaking her head.

"That's right, did you see the police inspector outside? He looked like he had caught some huge fish. Caught in the act, I presume. Imagine what the kids will say when we tell them about this?"

*

"I apologize for taking you off the aircraft so unceremoniously; I thought that the sooner we meet the better," Hoseok spoke as he gazed at the nervous men behind him from the rear view mirror of the car.

Wheein, who was on the wheel, didn't look behind and focused on the road instead. She was afraid that the excitement of indulging in conversation with Kim Taehyung would distract her from the streets.

"It's no problem," Taehyung said, fidgeting anxiously. Jungkook was unconsciously biting his nails.

"Even though you didn't ask, I am Jung Hoseok, the officer-in-charge of your father's case. You can refer to me as Inspector Jung," Hoseok began, careful not to mention Namjoon's death. "This is Jung Wheein who is second-in-charge, to put it lightly. She's Chief Constable Jung, for you. Have you read the newspapers recently?"

Shooting a swift glance at Jungkook, Taehyung nodded, a little too quickly.

"Does that mean-"

"Yes, we know of my father's death," Taehyung interjected. His voice shook a little.

Hoseok pursed his lips and added, sounding a little uncompassionate: "I suppose that saves us some precious time. We received your telegram just a few days after the unfortunate incident. Can we know what it was in context of, just to confirm some details?"

Taehyung sighed, his rich baritone more apparent. Besides that, Wheein noticed that he didn't possess any of the feminine airiness homosexual men were stereotyped to have.

"There isn't too much to reveal, I'll have to be honest," he admitted. "As you may have gathered from my letter, I had received a letter from my father, about a day after he passed away (if the date revealed by the newspaper was true). In it, he wrote that he wanted me back and participate in the family business as he was disappointed with my cousin, Seokjin. That's the summary of it, at least."

Hoseok hummed, jotting down a few notes on his pad. "Any particular reason?"

A little embarrassed, Taehyung shared another look with Jungkook. "Actually, it was because of my marriage with Jungkook. I cannot possibly fathom how exactly he learned of it, because it was a very quiet affair."

"Oh," said Hoseok, clearly startled with the reason.

Jungkook spoke for the first time. "I know what you're thinking. The man who kicked out his son because he liked men, invited him back for marrying a man? It's pretty simple. I am a self-made man who has a successful career. I'm not a bratty heir, so I have my wits about me. Thus, it ensured a strong business bond backed with marital relations."

Wheein had to agree with him there. Jeon Electronics had one of the most successful adverts over the past few years and they had just driven past a billboard advertising their latest products. The way Jungkook worded it, didn't indicate that he was being obnoxious - it only stated the plain, blunt truth.

"Whatever the intention, my father wanted me back. And after much thought I wrote to him only to discover two days later that he was no longer here," Taehyung sighed, a sardonic smile playing on his lips. "Poor devil. I guess Seokjin won again."

Deciding not to question whatever Taehyung meant by that statement, Hoseok continued to drive on, inviting silence once again into the vehicle. From the rear-view mirror, he could see that Jungkook had squeezed Taehyung's hand as a gesture of comfort. Taehyung's face, however, didn't yield the desired result and looked rather perturbed. He gazed outside the window as they drove past the city center, where most of the shopping was done.

In the next second, what Hoseok saw was something that he could never get out of his mind.

On Kim Taehyung's flawless visage, appeared a momentary expression of unadulterated rage. Maybe the conversation had touched a raw nerve. And just as quickly as it had appeared, it was gone.

And so was the city-center from their sight.

*

Outside the Dionysus Hotel, Taehyung and Jungkook got out of the car, unloading their luggage from the trunk. They thanked Hoseok and Wheein for their kindness before they started to wheel their suitcases on the stone laid path towards the lobby.

Overcome by her curiosity, Wheein finally blurted:

"Why aren't you staying with your family at the House of Kim? Why go through the lengths of booking a room at a hotel when you could just spend the next few days there until the funeral concludes?"

For the fourth time in the day, Taehyung looked at Jungkook. However, this time, he shared a smile with his husband before turning to the siblings.

"I thought it would be obvious, miss. We wouldn't exactly feel comfortable in a house with a murderer, would we?"

With that statement, Taehyung nodded to the two of them and began walking back to the lobby, followed by Jungkook.

"A peculiar lot, you think?" Hoseok asked, as he found his sister left speechless for the first time.

"Not at all. The sanest of them all, in fact," she said and to Hoseok's utter bewilderment, grinned widely.

"Things just took a turn for the interesting, Hoseok. Don't you think?"

Recalling their conversation with the couple, Hoseok nodded in agreement.

"Indeed they did, Whee-Whee," he agreed.

"Indeed they did."

1,116.

Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: AzTruyen.Top