Chapter Text
The moment the bus sped off, an old-looking shack greeted Lee Chaeryeong. She shouldn’t have been expecting any grand. Gravity Falls is a small town (even some people from her hometown didn’t know such place existed), where everyone knew each other and its trees and flowers and grass. She eyed the shack and clutched her baggage tight, letting her mind process that she’ll be spending her whole summer vacation in this place.
She jumped in her place when the door of the shack flew open with Lee Felix running to greet her. “Chaeryeong!” He shouted, and as soon as he was in front of her, the ‘S’ that spelled the word “SHACK” suddenly fell off.
Felix cringed, but shrugged it off and smiled after. “That happens a lot.”
[OPENING.]
Chaeryeong had a hard time adjusting to the place. Apparently, having summer in Gravity Falls - in her cousin’s tourist trap, specifically - meant having a summer job and not having time to be alone in her room. She didn’t even have a room to her own and had to share with Felix. Sure, she loved her cousin, but she missed being alone. It’s been like that all her life and all of a sudden she’s surrounded with familiar strangers.
“I’m home!” Said Felix as he entered the store, groceries in both arms. As usual, he had a wide smile painted on his face. Chaeryeong was about to correct him that this was the Mystery Shack, but she quickly realized that her cousin (and Felix’s older brother), Lee Minho, turned their home into a tourist trap. So technically Felix is home. “And I’m baking brownies today!”
Ryujin whistled from the counter and beamed a smile at Felix. “Can I have two?”
“I’m baking plenty, so yeah, probably.” Felix’s eyes roamed around the room, pausing to smile at Chaeryeong, then eventually stopped when he spotted Han Jisung who was busy entertaining one of the customers. His smile only grew and he skipped his way to the kitchen, but of course not without an ingredient or two falling from his bag.
Chaeryeong continued to clean the jar that contained a bunch of fake eyeballs. She nearly scoffed while looking at the attractions of the place - obviously, all of those were fake. There was even a bit of glue evident in one of the “Monstrous Nightmare’s” fake fangs. The Mystery Shack was known to be filled with peculiar things, but really, the real mystery was why loads of people came. But she has to admit, Minho’s business attracted a lot of customers, and now he’s practically swimming in money.
“Look alive, people!”
Speaking of.
Minho stood at the doorway, a bunch of what looked like signs tucked into one arm while his other hand held a can of soda. Chaeryeong frowned. He was going to ask someone to run an errand again.
“Not it,” she said immediately, turning to continue cleaning. She heard Ryujin chuckle and felt Jisung’s gaze briefly land on her.
“I haven’t even said anything.” Minho approached Chaeryeong, still holding the signs. “You’ve done a great job cleaning that jar, huh.”
“I’m not yet done, sorry,” she said, still wiping.
Minho laughed. “Meh, I’ve got no choice but to have you put up these signs, though. Jisung’s busy entertaining the customers, and I must admit, he’s doing a good job with that big mouth of his. And you need some air! Walk around a bit. Exercise. You look so dull and out of energy, which makes me forget that Ryujin’s the asthmatic one here.”
Chaeryeong sighed and turned to her cousin. “Fine.”
“Good! These should be hung at the trees at the woods—”
Her eyes widened. “Oh, that’s a no, no, Sir. I do not want to go anywhere near the woods.”
“Why not?” Minho frowned.
“Because it’s the woods,” Chaeryeong reasoned like it explained everything. “Minho, I’m telling you, even when I just barely pass by that area I get goosebumps and everything about that place shouts ‘CREEPY’”—she raised her pitch at the last word for emphasis—“you’ve lived in Gravity Falls for years, and you should be feeling the same thing—there’s just something… Mysterious in this town.”
Minho stared at Chaeryeong, a bit too long for her liking, but she noticed the perplexed look in his eyes, like he was thinking of considering Chaeryeong’s opinion. But it dissolved as he raised an eyebrow at her. “Of course it’s mysterious. I have a whole tourist trap named ‘Mystery Shack’!”
“That wasn’t my point!” Chaeryeong groaned, almost stomping her feet in the process.
“Your point makes zero sense, cousin.” Minho waved her off with the can of soda still in his hand. “Everything you hear is just local legend. Now help boost up my business, will you? I’ve got merch to sell, you’ve got signs to hang.” He threw the pieces of wood on the floor and left the room.
A long exhale ran past Chaeryeong’s lips.
* * *
Minho is close to being a millionaire by now, but he can’t afford having decent advertisements or whatever for the shack. Chaeryeong frowned (when did she not?) at the signs in her hands. It looked cheap, DIY—it looked like Minho didn’t even put an ounce of effort into making it. If it was the other Lee who’d done these signs, though, it’d be filled with glitters and stickers and maybe even googly eyes.
If that’s the case, then Minho’s signs could suffice. Felix is an artist (mainly a chef, but he likes art, too), but most of the times his masterpieces (and his personality itself) contradicted the whole atmosphere of their business.
Chaeryeong was down to hanging the last sign, but instead of having the nail sink into the trunk of the tree, it produced a clunk! sound instead, leaving her surprised. Her brows furrowed as she let her fingers run along the tree, eventually finding a dent. The thought of “opening” the tree sounded incredulous, but like what she had said earlier - Gravity Falls is a strange town. The trunk of the tree opened, revealing a lever.
Her heart pounded loudly inside her chest, thousands of voices arguing in her head. Should she open it and possibly get herself into trouble? Or should she just pretend that she saw nothing?
Chaeryeong tried to shoo away the slight paranoia building inside of her and decided to look around a bit more. The small area was filled with dust and cobwebs, indicating that it’s old. So if she ever pulled the lever down, there was a higher possibility of nothing happening, right?
Chaeryeong inhaled sharply as she pulled down the lever. Something behind her opened with a cranking sound, and as she turned around, a perfectly square-shaped hole greeted her. She gulped down the excitement she felt and approached the hole slowly, peeking a little. She expected something grand; maybe diamonds, maybe a safe or—she’s ridiculous by thinking it—a wand.
It was none of those. Chaeryeong’s excitement didn’t falter, though. What laid inside was a book, also covered in dust and cobwebs. She blew the dirt away and eyed the object. Again, just like anything else in Gravity Falls, it wasn’t grand. But it still managed to stand out in a way—its cover was leather and painted red, with an illustration of a six-fingered hand glued on it. Not to mention that the hand was gold (and that it had six fingers) and labeled as ‘3’ (and had six fingers!).
She flipped the book open, letting her eyes carelessly scan the pages. She caught words of ‘syringe’, ‘gun’, ‘dagger’, ‘air’ and even illustrations. She tilted her head and went back to the first page which contained the date it was first written—July 21—but there were no traces of its author.
“I’ve written everything we’ll probably need to survive this strange town,” she read aloud. An eyebrow went up at the word ‘we’. “This isn’t much since we’re facing the supernatural, but it’s enough to face the criminals that get drawn to this town somehow.”
Chaeryeong pursed her lips. “Why would anyone list it on a journal?”
“You have a journal?”
“Fu—!”
Chaeryeong almost cursed when a deep voice—ironically, its tone was laced with joy—spoke behind her. The journal was buried deeper than it could possibly get against her chest as she turned to give Felix a scowl. The latter gave her his usual toothy smile before sitting on a log. “I thought you were supposed to be hanging signs? Why are you on a treasure hunt?”
“I am not on a treasure hunt.”
“Then what are you hiding?”
“Nothing? I mean nothing! Yes, nothing!” Chaeryeong stammered. She unconsciously hugged the book tighter when Felix jumped off the log and started laughing. “What’s so funny?”
Felix rolled his eyes. “Nothing? Yes, nothing!” He mocked, and Chaeryeong wanted to punch him for the good impersonation he did. “Come on, you’re seriously hiding something from your cousin?”
“Can’t I?”
“I’m older, so no, you can’t.”
“That’s an unfair point of view.”
“What are you hiding?”
Chaeryeong sighed, defeated, and brought out the book. Felix’s eyes widened in amusement as he let his gaze linger on it. But when he reached out to touch the thing, Chaeryeong retreated it, earning a pout from him. Before he could even whine, she puckered her lips at the paper he was holding. “What are you hiding?”
The pout on his lips didn’t even last for a second. Suddenly, Felix was smiling and jumping again, saying, “Right! I almost forgot we had to go to the town center to distribute these.”
He showed her a handful of flyers that said, ‘We put the fun in ‘No reFUNd!’ . “Minho came up with a new motto for the shack! Of course I didn’t like it, but he suddenly told me that I could design the flyers. And now he’s letting me display my artwork in the town center! Of course I want you to tag along with me.”
“I’ve never been to the town center,” she said. “What’s it like?”
“Stores and stuff,” Felix answered as he started to walk. “It’s not far from here, we could walk. Also I wanted you to come because I thought maybe you’d feel more comfortable there since it’s more… ‘Urban’-like, if you know what I mean. There’s an arcade, restaurants, fast food chains—no McDonald’s, I’m sorry—also a mall and thrift malls and—”
Suddenly the walk didn’t feel that long with Felix rambling on and on. The dude seriously never ran out of topics. He knew every gossip about every townsperson they passed by. Nothing serious, nothing worthy to take note of, Chaeryeong thought. Until Felix stopped in his tracks, and his expression turned dead serious. She was about to ask if there was a problem, since her cousin abruptly halted when the town center was already in their view, but he beat her to it by saying, “I remembered something that Minho told me whenever we went to the town center.”
“Um… Look out for potential business competitors?” Minho most likely said something like that.
Felix shaking his head at that caught Chaeryeong by surprise. He scanned their area and went closer to her, speaking in a low voice, “Watch out for the twins, he said.”
“Uh…”
“The Hwang’s, who live in the Bang Manor.” Felix continued walking, but his steps became smaller. “Never engage with them. Most of the time they’re in the town center, helping out the police from what I’ve heard, but sometimes they perform at the Tent of Telepathy for extra income.”
“But… What’s with the Hwang’s? With these twins? Why should we be cautious of them?”
Felix shrugged. “I don’t know. What I do know is that my brother doesn’t like them because his whole aura darkens whenever it’s about the twins—that’s saying a lot since he always has a dark look on his face, but apparently it could get worse whenever there’s some news about the Bang Manor, or the Hwang’s, or whenever the Tent of Telepathy is featured on TV.
“I never met them, I don’t know what they look like,” he continued, “but Minho told me that once I encounter them—and he always hopes that I don’t—I’ll know who they are immediately.”
Chaeryeong tried to process everything her cousin told her. “What’s the Tent of Telepathy like?”
“It’s… Well, based on what I saw on TV, it’s a tent, and the twins perform there.” Felix looked up at the sky as if his memories were plastered there. “I’ve never got to watch them perform. My brother turns off the TV before the actual show could start. But it’s almost the same business with my brother’s shack.”
“Don’t you think that’s the reason why Minho hates them so much?” Chaeryeong was laughing now. “Because he’s insecure that someone actually competes with him?”
Felix frowned. “I don’t know. I never thought of that because like what I said, that dark look on his face—”
His sentence was cut by a frighteningly close bang! and before they could even react, a man fell in front of them, causing the cousins to scream. Felix’s first instinct was to tug on Chaeryeong’s shirt, stuttering and fiddling with his words, “What—where—how—”
Chaeryeong’s eyes were wide, her surroundings silent as she only got to listen to the loud and fast footsteps of her heart. Her feet were glued to the ground, her orbs never leaving the man’s body. She studied it carefully, somehow relieved that the man didn’t show any signs of being hurt, since there weren’t any blood since he fell. Maybe he dropped due to the shock his body felt, since the bag he was holding suddenly got a hole out of nowhere. Bits of coins fell from it, and Chaeryeong was able to grasp what was happening—they were a robber.
“Le-Let’s… Let… Let’s leave,” Felix struggled to suggest. He was still tugging on his cousin’s shirt. “I—I don’t like them. I think it’s them.” He gasped, clutching tighter. “Ryeongie, it is them.”
Chaeryeong’s brows met at the tip of her nose bridge, but it took her a while to stray her gaze from the man to the people Felix were pertaining to. She could only bite back a gasp when she saw ‘them’—faces resembling each other, styled with black clothing from head to toe, chains dangling from their waists. Chaeryeong felt like even the gods would be scared just by sparing a glance at them, but what frightened her more was how the male loaded his gun before pointing to shoot at the robber, his eyes clearly devoid of any emotion, devoid of any mercy.
She discarded the logical side of her that was trying to hold her back and instead let her gut take over, letting it push her until she arrived in front of the robber, spreading her arms to serve as a human shield. She tried to not think about how dumb she looked as she shouted, “No!”
Her breathing only grew heavy when Felix ran towards her, spreading his arms beside her with a forced grin. The wind carried the flyers he was holding; the flyers he worked so hard on, the flyers he wanted to show to the people at the town center. Chaeryeong tried to let the feeling of guilt subside—she saw how her cousin was so excited to share his small masterpiece to the other people, but that wasn’t possible because of the stupid stunt she pulled off now.
No, a voice inside her said, this all happened because of the twins.
Speaking of the twins, their eyes were now on the cousins. If the former were annoyed or even felt the tiniest bit of annoyance because of the intruding, they didn’t show it. They seriously knew how to bottle their emotions inside of them. They also knew how to pierce someone with just their orbs.
“Why are you here?” Chaeryeong whispered to Felix. “You could’ve just ran off to somewhere safe.”
“And leave you behind? No thanks.”
Chaeryeong felt something tug at her chest. “Thank you.”
“I could still shoot, you know.” Both of them looked at the twins again as the male started talking. He wasn’t pointing his gun anywhere anymore, but he started playing with the weapon as if it was a mere toy. That didn’t put Chaeryeong to ease. Seriously, who was this guy? Who are they? Even if the female was doing the bare minimum, with no weapon visible on her, Chaeryeong still felt like she was also danger. “I could just kill you”—before Chaeryeong could even blink, the gun was pointed towards her—“and you —he pointed the gun at Felix—“before finishing that robber.”
“You wouldn’t,” Chaeryeong prompted. Gods, she just had to say that, didn’t she?
The male lifted an elegant brow before throwing the gun to his sister. The latter caught it quickly, aiming at Felix, and Chaeryeong wasn’t given a chance to process anything before the female twin pulled the trigger.
Her mind went blank, her heart doubling over at what just happened.
Felix’s eyes widened, his whole body shaking as he dropped to the floor. Chaeryeong ran immediately to his side, checking where he got hurt while her mind was trying to come up of ways to aid Felix or at least call the nearest hospital. She saw how her cousin didn’t hold back any tears, how he’s forcing yet another smile. Chaeryeong’s hand was shaking, too, as it hovered over Felix’s torso. That’s when she realized.
“You’re not hurt,” she whispered.
“But I saw it,” he replied, his voice small. “I saw the bullet, I thought it was going to go straight through my skull… Ryeongie… That was more terrifying than any other horror movie I watched with my family…” Her heart sank at his tone, at how her cousin was trying so hard to not let out a sob.
Chaeryeong bit her lips. “It’s okay, Felix. You’re okay, alright? Keep it together.”
She exhaled through her nose loudly before turning to the twins. The brunette focused on the anger that was starting to fuel inside of her as she stormed towards the two, her fists clenched just in case she needed to punch the twins out of their twisted minds. That sounded impossible. But that didn’t mean Chaeryeong was less willing to try.
“What were you thinking?!” She demanded right in front of the female twin. The latter didn’t even blink.
The male twin let out a humorless laugh. “We were thinking of getting rid of nuisances.” He threw a side-glance at his sibling, “I didn’t even know why she didn’t finish Freckles Guy on the spot.”
“Why, you—!”
Chaeryeong wanted to punch him, maybe kick his shin or crotch after, and she almost did but was stopped by the threatening look on the male’s eyes. Her fist stopped mid-air and her eyes fluttered, feeling hopeless just like that. For a second she thought looks could kill—at least his could. But she was vaguely aware of Felix groaning as he struggled to stand up, and that made her tighten her clench again, letting the male twin know that she wasn’t afraid.
The son of a bitch only chuckled. “Punch me. Go.”
“No,” the female twin decided to intervene. “No one else but me gets to punch you, Hyunjin.”
‘Hyunjin’ arched an eyebrow at his sister. “Come on, Yeji, at least humor the girl.”
“As far as I could remember, that’s not a part of our job,” ‘Yeji’ said, dismissing her sibling with a wave of her hand. She turned to Chaeryeong with an unreadable look on her face. “Do you still insist on getting on our way?”
Chaeryeong hesitated, but nodded firmly afterwards. “Yes, definitely, absolutely.”
Yeji scoffed. “You’re defending a robber. A criminal.”
“And you’re killing a person,” Chaeryeong rebutted. “I really don’t condone anything he has done, and I see the same thing with what you’re doing. Who are you to say if someone deserves to live or not?”
“Who are you to say if someone deserves to live or not?”
“What?”
“From your point of you, my brother and I think that this man deserves death,” Yeji explained, putting a hand on her hip. “You say we’re not in the place to judge someone’s death, but who are you to say that this man still deserves to live?”
“Oof,” Chaeryeong heard Felix say. Suddenly she didn’t care if her cousin almost got killed, she will punch his guts later.
“He’s just a robber,” she decided to say. “Put him behind bars, not inside a coffin.”
Yeji smiled. At least, it managed to look like a smile. Chaeryeong couldn’t tell what was going on inside her head. “Are you sure he’s just a robber?”
Beads of sweat started to form on the crown of Chaeryeong’s head. It wasn’t as if she was starting to run out of rebuttals, but if she let herself be intimidated by Yeji’s eyes, she might as well be unable to speak. If she let that happen, which she wasn’t planning to. Chaeryeong read once that no one could make you feel inferior without your consent.
“I don’t know what that man did, but he doesn’t deserve death.” The words were laced with conviction, hoping to get through the hard skull of someone who obviously doesn’t have a single ounce of mercy. “No one does.”
“Let’s just kill her,” Hyunjin complained, growing impatient.
“You’d have to kill me, too!” Felix shouted from behind. When Hyunjin raised an eyebrow, Chaeryeong heard her cousin take a step back.
Chaeryeong’s eyes must have been deceiving her as it stared at the female twin, who was now sporting an amused smile on her face. Yeji turned to look at her sibling, who in return knit his eyebrows together. Chaeryeong wasn’t completely sure of it, but it looked like the two were conversing with their eyes. Maybe one of those twin-telepathy things? Maybe.
Hyunjin rolled his eyes before glaring at Chaeryeong. “We’re not killing you.”
“You aren’t supposed to kill anybody.”
“Are you sure it’s a nice decision to let someone this annoying live?” He asked his sister. Yeji didn’t respond. “If you’d dare push my buttons further, I’d be more than glad to engrave a bullet in your chest. But as of now, you’re coming with us.”
Chaeryeong felt Felix’s presence beside her as he spoke, “Uh, to where , exactly? And why must we follow you?”
“To the police station,” Yeji explained, walking towards them—no. The female Hwang passed right them, and the next thing Chaeryeong knew, she was putting handcuffs on the robber. Huh. The four of them have been stalling for too long, and the man didn’t even take a chance to escape. “You can’t refuse.”
“And we can’t because…?” Chaeryeong asked, looking at Hyunjin for answers. They locked eyes at that moment, and unlike what happened countless of times earlier, Chaeryeong now saw Hyunjin as someone of authority. Like he was a prince whom everyone must follow. “Right. To the police station. With you.”
* * *
“Ah, the Hwang’s are back! With the robber, too.” The four of them were greeted by a man of average height, his facial features looking too soft for someone who’s in the police department. But Chaeryeong didn’t want to know how he’d look like once he’s on duty. The man radiated the aura of a bear—gentle and careful with his steps, but could turn viscious once attacked. “Oh, company?”
“Yeji brought them, even though I didn’t want to,” Hyunjin explained with a frown. “I thought this robbery case would be easy since we’ve handled a handful of this kind of situation, but the man just had to run and I almost, almost killed him.”
The policeman laughed, patting Hyunjin on the back. “You and your dark sense of humor, Hyunjin!”
Chaeryeong winced. That didn’t sound like a joke.
“I try to be funny, Hyunwoo-ssi,” said Hyunjin, a small smile etching on his lips. “Anyway, after my sister explains whatever she’s planning to do, we’re done for today.”
The policeman—‘Hyunwoo’, from what Chaeryeong heard—threw a knowing glance at Hyunjin. “You still don’t want to look onto the recent case? No one could solve it.”
“I’d love to look at it but…” Hyunjin started to say, but was cut off immediately by Hyunwoo.
“Then why don’t you accept it?” The older started to frown. “You and your sister could solve riddles and other brain-wrecking cases within less than a second. Not a single soul in this station could understand the clues the culprit sent. If the child still’s missing for a month, we’d have no choice but to tell her parents she’s… Well…”
His voice trailed off, but Chaeryeong knew what he was trying to imply. That was enough for her to insert herself in the conversation (even though she felt she shouldn’t have been listening to it in the first place) and say, in a disappointed tone, “That isn’t fair.”
Beside her, Felix mumbled something she couldn’t hear, while Yeji stared intently.
Hyunwooraised an eyebrow at her. “It’s been almost 20 days since the child disappeared, twenty days since the culprit started sending cryptic messages that no one would understand since”—he briefly glanced at Hyunjin—“since we’re not particularly good with riddles. In those twenty days, I doubt the suspect hasn’t laid a finger on the child.”
Chaeryeong felt her stomach tighten. She tried to not imagine of anything horrible happening to an innocent child. Just how many crimes happened in Gravity Falls? Who knew a town as small as this was capable of having cases such as missing children with the culprit sending codes and riddles for the policemen to solve? It’s like straight out of a Sherlock Holmes movie. A movie that excited Chaeryeong ever since she was little, but having to witness it in real life made her feel sick.
“What do the riddles say?” Felix asked, much to everyone’s surprise. He managed to flash a small smile at them. “I’m only asking because I think my cousin could be of help.”
Chaeryeong threw Felix an incredulous look. He could’ve been saying, “I offer Chaeryeong as tribute!” There wasn’t much difference.
Yeji cleared her throat before Hyunwoocould answer, directing everyone’s attention towards her. “This is exactly why I had them tag along, Hyunwoo-ssi. I knew they could be of help to the police station.”
Creases appeared on Hyunwoo’s forehead. That was basically his reply.
“My brother and I have our plates full nowadays, if you haven’t noticed,” she explained further. “Surely, you’ve noticed how we’ve been dropping by less than we usually did. And we only handle small cases now—robber on the run, hostage-taking, bomb-defusing—because we’ve had less time to handle complex cases.”
Was Chaeryeong hearing things correctly? Robber on the run, hostage-taking, bomb- defusing? All of those were considered small things?
Hyunwoo lifted an eyebrow at Chaeryeong. “Well, if it’s Yeji Hwang who recommended you… Do you think you can look onto the messages right now?”
“Now, as in, now now?” Chaeryeong asked, taken aback by the sudden events.
Hyunwoo snickered and looked at the twins. “Are you sure someone who can’t even comprehend basic sentences be able to analyze the messages we received?”
Yeji didn’t entertain Hyunwoo. Instead, she let her eyes rest on Chaeryeong.
The latter exhaled sharply through her nose. Then, she faced the officer. “Let us take a look into it.”
“It’s with Officer Kim Yugyeom as of the moment,” said Officer Hyunwoo. “But I do have it in my notes. I took a picture of it so that I could—I don’t know—figure it out at home but no, I’m still left clueless.”
As Officer Hyunwoo took out his phone, Felix gathered courge to ask, “Is that legal?”
Hyunwoo beamed a smile at them. “I’m the authority, everything’s legal!”
Chaeryeong frowned.
“Hyunwoo-ssi, if it’s alright with you, my sister and I should head out already,” Hyunjin said when Hyunwoo started searching on his phone. The policeman didn’t even have time to greet them goodbye, because the twins already turned their back on them, leaving the station immediately.
But of course not without Yeji looking at Chaeryeong over her shoulder, giving a message with her cat-like eyes, as if she was saying, Don’t disappoint me.
Chaeryeong could only refuse the strong urge to roll her eyes.
Those twins weren’t even officers, they weren’t even politicians or anyone of authority yet it seems like they expect respect from everyone they meet. Maybe it’s because they’re rich? Chaeryeong could tell it from the way they carried themselves. Maybe their parents or guardian raised them with the idea that money equates to power. A pity, if that’s the case.
“Here! I should just send it to you, right?” Hyunwoo asked.
“Sure,” said Chaeryeong as she fished out her phone from her pocket. “Can you AirDrop it?”
The officer’s eyes narrowed. “AirDrop?”
“Ah, send it to me instead, officer,” Felix said as he took out his phone. After a minute, Felix thanked the officer, but before Chaeryeong could even peek at the messages she was supposed to solve, Han Jisung’s name lit up on the screen—it didn’t read “Han Jisung”, but it was a ‘Sungieee’ with heart emojis on the side.
Felix yelped and fumbled with his phone before answering the call. He side-glanced at Chaeryeong before putting it on loudspeaker, “Sung, you called?”
“Yeah, because Minho forgot where he put his phone and he wants you to come home, like, ASAP.” Chaeryeong could hear her cousin grumbling in the background. “Minho, even though he looks grumpy, says he wishes you come home safely.”
“We will, don’t worry. We’ll just say goodbye to Officer Hyunwoo then we’ll be on our way.”
“Officer… Hyunwoo…?”
At the background, Minho could still be heard, “Hey, I know that guy! Why are they with him? Where are they?”
“You just had to,” Chaeryeong spat, almost face-palming.
“I—” Felix gulped as realization hit on him. He shook his head instead. “Just tell my brother we’ll be on our way.”
“I will,” Jisung said. “For real though, take care, mmkay?”
Felix’s face flushed, making him look like a strawberry with the freckles dusting his cheeks. He managed a nod, even though Jisung couldn’t really see him through audio call. “Yeah, we will. Thanks.”
He ended the call, looking at Chaeryeong and immediately saying, “I don’t have a crush on him.”
“Never said you did,” Chaeryeong quipped, not holding back a teasing smile. “Though I did notice.”
“You think he notices?” Felix asked, genuinely worried. Chaeryeong started to walk—she did wave goodbye to Officer Hyunwoo, though—with Felix trailing behind her. “I’m not really good at hiding what I feel. Does he think I’m a fool?”
Chaeryeong was taken aback by the last question. “No, of course not! Not when you subtly give him extra pieces of your pastry.”
“Am I really that obvious?!”
Chaeryeong laughed as she pat her cousin on the shoulder. “To a genius like me, yes. To Jisung? Not so sure.”
Felix rolled his eyes. “You just wanted to call yourself genius.”
“Just wanted to lay out some facts.”
“Humble brag.”
Even when the sun was close to settling down, the cousins took the time to walk leisurely on the way home, not minding if Minho would be fuming mad (because they went home when the Shack was closing, which also meant they just skipped their duties at home), or if they would both be given extra tasks at the store tomorrow.
Besides, this walk was the least rest they could get today.
They still had a case to crack later.
[END CREDITS.]
“Late.”
“We’re sorry,” Hyunjin spoke for the two of them. He didn’t explain further. He doesn’t think he could—at least that’s what Yeji reminded him multiple times already.
“Late. Again,” Seo Changbin said, crossing his arms. “I’ve already prepared dinner, and you’re just in time, Chan just finished studying.” He turned his back on them as he started to walk inside the manor, with the twins following silently. “Also, Hyunjin, tidy yourself before going to the dining. You’re—”
“I know,” Hyunjin said, completely aware of the dirt staining his black polo.
“Changbin?” Yeji called in a soft voice. Even though his sister was fierce and had built a rather strong flame of confidence inside of her, those characteristics dissolved into thin air once they step foot inside their ‘home’. “Did Chan study with Yuna?”
Changbin looked over his shoulder before shaking his head, making Yeji hang her head.
Hyunjin pursed his lips as he heard the guards close the humongous doors of their mansion. He briefly fiddled with his fingers before calling Changbin and asking, “So… We’re eating dinner with him?”
The older guy didn’t even bother looking as he answered with a low “yes”.
It was Hyunjin’s turn to hang his head.