Work Text:
Jang Hanseok.
Jang Junwoo.
Chayoung stared darkly at the two names written in her contacts — as if the two of them were different people. Some faulty machinery within her phone had created two contacts with the same number, two names. While one had been her obedient intern with his outbursts in English, the other was a psychopath, happily killing in cold blood. They were different people. They had to be.
No.
She should know better now.
She had witnessed firsthand his killings, seeing the suffocated bodies of her witnesses – friends that she had made – in that van down in the marshes. She had seen it when the news broke of a prosecutor's death, staged and done by him. She saw the intent in his eyes when he stared at her and Vincenzo from up from the stage, drenched in pig's blood.
They couldn't be the same person.
There's no drug quite like denial.
Because they were the same; the one who had followed her home pouting in the back of her moving truck was the one who had killed the ones she loved. Every time she looked at her photos, she finds the ones she took of her intern on the day they had gone out shopping together. She had trusted him, and she had been lied to.
He had hurt her, much deeper than she would ever accept. He was the one person she could depend on when her father was killed when everyone had left her side. He had been the one to sit beside her, brooding as he comforted her silently, rubbing her back as she sobbed before her father's grave.
Chayoung shuts her eyes as she sinks her body against her mattress, messily discarding her phone onto the side, unable to think about it more. Coincidentally, neither contact was blocked nor deleted, simply existing within her phone for another day. She would delete it another day...
Junwoo's eyes are light as he smiles, turning back every few seconds to make sure she's there. She's following behind him, her gaze ever so impassive, but she knows she's happy. This was the one day they had off after working here for so long, and although she had profoundly complained about not wanting to go with him, she ended up doing so with a smile.
"Sunbae!"
"You're gonna continue calling me that outside office?" Junwoo has slowed down, walking beside Chayoung as his eyes remain giddy and his eyes bright.
Junwoo tilts his head as if he had been asked an obvious question, his voice filled with sincerity, "Of course, Sunbae! I respect you too much to call you anything else, whether it's in office or outside."
Chayoung rolls her eyes, her voice sing-song as she replies, "Your flatteries aren't going to make me go out with you, Junwoo."
He juts out his lower lip, his eyes glinting with mischievousness. "That hurts, Sunbae," he answers, rubbing his heart, "You may have broken my heart just now."
Chayoung tsks at his jokes and pats him softly in a joking manner. She turns to meet his eyes, a brow arched, "Well it's a good thing you're my intern and not my lover, hm?"
"Mhm," Junwoo hums in reply, sounding void of emotion, skipping ahead of her once more as they continue into the large mall.
They end up shopping for longer than she would have expected, her buying another suit set and some sunglasses. Junwoo on the other hand merely glances at what she's getting, compliments her choice, and goes on to wait for her to buy it. Chayoung decides that going with him wasn't that bad, seeing that he knew all the brands and current trends particularly well.
"Junwoo? Are you going to buy anything?" They've stopped to get some ice cream and were currently sitting across from each other. He's been holding all her shopping bags and paying for everything – she doesn't know how he has so much money to spend, seeing that he was only an intern, but she supposed that Wusan just pays well – but hasn't bought anything for himself.
He shakes his head, wearing yet another smile, "No thanks, Sunbae, it's fun enough seeing you pick things."
She glares at him, a suspicious look within her eyes, "That sounds awfully close to crossing the line."
Junwoo's eyes become tranquil, vacant, before morphing into yet another pout. "Sunbae, that's not what I meant. I just like hanging out with you!"
Chayoung makes a mock disgusted face at him, but says nothing in reply — even she couldn't truthfully deny that she had fun today. "...Whatever," she mutters, finishing her ice cream in a final gulp as Junwoo continues smiling in front of her.
She awoke not long after the dream ended, staring blankly at her ceiling. Her memories were so vivid and so clear, yet they felt as if they were hidden in the past. The man that she had joked and laughed with, was now the same man she was fighting against. Her head hurt. Chayoung sucks in a shaking breath, rolling to the side as she brushes away the past and falls asleep once more.