Chapter Text
Till sighed as he stepped into the cafe, his eyes scanning the crowded room for Mizi. Mizi knew he hated crowded places, so a big cafe was not the best place to meet up, especially after the day Till had. He slid into the chair across from her and placed his bag down. “Mizi,” Till huffed, snapping his fingers in front of her face. “Mizi! Get off your stupid phone.”
Mizi finally looked up at him, smirking and reaching out to ruffle his hair. “Hey, cutie. No need to pout.” Her smirk morphed into a smile as Till pouted even more, and she giggled slightly. “What’s up? You seemed really upset on the phone.”
Till huffed again and batted her hand away. He hated being touched, even by his best friend. “Do you remember that internship I started doing?” Mizi nodded, fiddling with her phone case as Till spoke. Till chewed on his lip ring, trying to hide his annoyance. Everything seemed to be going wrong for him. “I got paired up with Ivan for a case.”
Mizi tilted her head and her smile slowly changed to a slight pout. “Sua’s brother? You know him?” Till nodded and sighed, rolling his eyes. “Of course I know him! We’ve been rivals for years!”
Till sighed as Mizi wrinkled her nose, pouting slightly. “Don’t look at me like that.” Mizi shook her head quickly. “Sorry, sorry. I thought Ivan was sweet! He’s Sua’s brother, after all.” Till shook his head firmly, reaching into his bag to grab his phone. “He’s the worst, Mizi! He’s nothing like Sua. He bothers me all the time and he’s always trying to one-up me!”
Mizi giggled slightly as Till spoke. “Sounds like he likes you, Tilly.” Till froze at the words, his eyes widening. That was absurd. Ivan, the university’s golden boy, Till’s arch nemesis, liking him? Till laughed, shaking his head and lightly pushing Mizi’s arm. “You’re insane, Mizi. He hates me.”
She just rolled her eyes, taking a small sip of her latte as she watched Till. “Whatever you say, Tilly.” Till huffed and sighed, pouting as he fiddled with his phone. Some notifications from Ivan popped up, but Till turned his phone off, not bothering to check the messages. He didn’t want to talk to Ivan. He never wanted to talk to Ivan. Besides, it's not like Till had any reason to respond. Ivan was just an obstacle in the path to Till’s career. If Till could just make it through one case, he’d be free to do anything. He could transition, he could get a good job and find the love of his life.
He just needed to make it through the internship first.
“Mizi, I gotta run,” Till said softly, smiling down at her as he stood up. “I’ll call you later, okay?” Mizi nodded and smiled as Till ran off, sighing softly. Till slipped out of the cafe, his boots hitting the ground hard as he ran. Till started to slow his pace when Anakt University came into view. Till smiled to himself. Anakt had always been welcoming and it was Till’s favorite place to be. Well, except for whenever his academic rival was there. “Hey Till~!!” a familiar voice came from behind Till, his pleasure shifted quite quickly when a hand touched his shoulder, he shuddered slightly before brushing his touch away. “Ivan.” Till said coldly, obviously annoyed with the figure looming over him. Ivan's happy smile flickered for a moment, he regained his demeanor when shifting himself to walk next to Till instead of behind him.
“So Till, did you see what we got assigned?” Ivan enunciated the “we” part drastically, why? Well Till didn’t know, he just immediately jumped to the conclusion that he was trying to make fun of him once again, after all he was pretty desensitized to his teasing, however the word “we” bothered him when it came from Ivan’s mouth. Ivan smirked slightly, wrapping his arm around Till’s neck and ruffling his hair. “We got assigned to a murder case! Isn’t that cool, pretty boy?”
Till huffed and shoved Ivan off of him, a barely disguised glare on his face as he crossed his arms. “First of all, I’m not your pretty boy. Second of all, I couldn’t care less what kind of case we got. I just want to get it over with so I can graduate and get away from you.” Ivan sarcastically pouted, grabbing Till once more, pressing his limits. “Oh come on, don’t be like that, pretty boy!”
Till just rolled his eyes again, sinking his teeth into his bottom lip as they walked. He absolutely hated the feeling of Ivan’s rough skin on his body, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. After all, he didn’t want to cause a scene. It would be much easier to wait until the end of the case in silence. “So, Ivan, do you know what kind of murder case we’re working on?”
Ivan smirked down at Till, silently admiring his messy hair and pretty eyes. Till had always had the prettiest eyes. Ivan was obsessed with the way they looked. After a few seconds, Till interrupted his gaze by snapping in his face “Ivan, you listening?” Ivan shook his head slightly. “Sorry, what were you saying?” Ivan said sheepishly.
“Well, I was talking about our new case. The one involving the woman killed at some warehouse casino? Didn’t you look at it, like at all?” Till said sharply, glaring up at Ivan as he tried his annoyance. Ivan just shrugged and continued walking, tugging Till along with him. “I glanced at it. But I knew my pretty boy would be able to fill me in!”
Till scoffed at Ivan’s answer, begrudgingly filling him in on what the case entailed. “Okay, the woman, which I believe was named Hyuna, was killed after her own showcase in an illegal casino. She was a cop, I believe?” Till paused, making sure Ivan was actually paying attention. He continued, “Which makes it all the more confusing. We don’t have much on her yet, but that’s it overall. Look at it yourself.”
Ivan just nodded along, only half-paying attention as they walked into the station. Watching Till speak, watching him move, was so distracting to Ivan. “Uhh… yeah! I’ll look at the file. We should probably check in, huh?” Till rolled his eyes and nodded, grumbling the entire time they signed in. Ivan was constantly breathing down his back and it was getting more and more annoying by the second.
Lily, the everpresent chief of police, poked her head into the lobby, smiling as she saw Ivan and Till. She was always so damn cheerful, and it really got on Till’s nerves. “Ivan, Till! Come on in! I have the case file for you!”
Lily, a fairly short woman with orange hair and bubble braids led us to some quiet, cold room. It seemed as though it was an interrogation room. “Where are the others? Mizi and Sua, I believe?” Lily asked kindly, rummaging through the files in a metal drawer.
Till furrowed his brow for a second, confused on why he heard his best friend's name being said, along with her girlfriend. Lily found the file and walked towards a table, laying it all out. “They’re working on this too?” Till questioned, looking at Ivan, who was smirking.
“You knew, didn’t you?” For some reason, Till was slightly offended that he wasn't told this information, not even from Mizi. He sighed in response, the weight of only being stuck with Ivan on this case completely off his shoulders. However, he knew Mizi would do something that would get on his nerves.
Till sighed as he grabbed the file. “Well, let’s get started.”