[Fic] Between the Lines - 2/3
Feb. 15th, 2010 10:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coley_merrinTitle: Between the Lines
Author: Coley Merrin
Rating: PG-13 for now
Pairings: Siwon/Hankyung
Genre: AU. Crime. Drama/angst/romance.
Summary: Hankyung’s new partner isn’t much an enigma, not like their cases are. Every day, their safety on the line, to help the people who have no way to help themselves. It's part of his job to entrust Siwon with his life, but who can protect them from each other?
A/N: I probably don't need to inform anyone of this, but despite my hundreds...if not thousand +... hours watching crime/cop/mystery/lawyer/what have you dramas... I am no expert. I have probably scoffed at the screen more times than many. Um. So yes. Doing my best. \o/ And...sorry for the wait~
***
***
“I think you’d better stick to one boyfriend, don’t you?” Siwon teased the woman. “You seem to have left part of your dress at home. I hope Mom and Dad didn't see you leave like that.”
Hankyung, having focused hard on his beer, suddenly wondered if he was hearing the conversation correctly. His head turned without his consent, staring between the two. He’d just started feeling sorry for himself, that he had thought he and Siwon were fairly close, as friends, and yet he didn’t know that he was dating? He wasn’t sure how he was supposed to think of that. He wanted to think that they knew almost everything there was. Except, that he was hiding his preference for men from Siwon, and the fact that he would date, kiss, or sleep with Siwon without much of a second thought.
“I hope you know I'll tell them that I met your new partner before they did,” she said, sounding rather smug. “This is Han Geng?”
“Hankyung. Hankyung.”
“That's not what you call him.”
“Because I’m talking to you!” Siwon sputtered, before seeming to find himself, looking to Hankyung finally. “I’m sorry. This is a weird introduction, but Hankyung, this is my sister. Who apparently would like you to think we’re very weird.”
Siwon used his Chinese name when talking about him to his sister? And she was his sister. Not his girlfriend. Which meant… Siwon was still single? He felt a stupid, giddy rush of relief. Just because he wasn’t dating a woman now didn’t mean he wouldn’t tomorrow or next week. But still. He’d have until then to dream.
“He’s cuter than you described, but I know better than to trust you. It’s nice to meet you, Hankyung. I hope he told you he had a sister?”
“Yes. Yes. He did!” A few times. He thought. “It’s nice to meet you, too.”
He could see a resemblance now that the abstract thought of them dating had been lifted from his eyes. And the ridiculousness of it all stumbled through him.
“You’ll bring him over?” she was telling Siwon severely. “Mom and Dad are waiting.”
“Yes. Yes. We’ll talk about it. Go find your boyfriend.”
She kissed his cheek again. “Good. You two have fun on your little date. Nice to see you…Han Geng!”
He could do little more than wave as she disappeared, and Siwon all but slapped himself in the forehead.
“I’m sorry…I don’t know if we’re related. I think she got picked up on a beach somewhere.”
Hankyung laughed. “Don’t worry. Family is like that sometimes.”
“Did you want to find a table?”
A date, he thought, swallowing. He followed Siwon, wading out until they found an abandoned set of seats. Not a table they could sit across from each other at, but squished in beside each other, shoulder against shoulder and thigh to thigh.
“I feel like I should have my arm around you,” Siwon joked.
“It’d probably give us more room,” he said.
Luckily, despite the crowd and the music, it wasn’t so loud that they could not hear each other. And Siwon did, in a way, do what he had suggested. He pulled his arm up, so that his forearm rested on Hankyung’s shoulder, hand all but resting on his chest. It allowed them a little more ease of sitting, and brought them that much closer.
“Sorry again about my sister. My parents would love to have us over for dinner, so they can meet you. They’ve been asking for a while, but, well. I guess I liked keeping you to myself.”
Siwon squeezed his shoulder, touching him in a way that Hankyung had gotten used to. It was a very Siwon thing to do, right from the start. Not because it meant something. Just because it was Siwon. But the way Siwon offered the invitation, as though he were speaking of a girlfriend, made his stomach a little shaky. He knew a lot of partners who were well acquainted with each other’s families, but to hear Siwon put it quite like that…
“I’d like to meet your parents,” he said, smiling and gripping his beer a little tighter.
“The brat might be there, too,” Siwon said, but there was fondness in his voice.
“You call me Han Geng to her?”
Siwon’s mouth parted, and it nearly distracted him until he realized Siwon was wriggling like a needy puppy.
“I don’t call you that at work, because I know you’re trying to fit in as much as you can. And it’s not because you don’t, or that your name matters, but I didn’t want to make it…” Siwon waved his hands as though that was getting his point across quicker. “I didn’t want to make it an issue.”
He had started to think of himself as Hankyung almost, knowing that if he did not he would start signing his name wrong, wasting too many forms. But to know that Siwon thought of him, not as a name he used to present him to a workplace, but as his own name?
“I’d think as my partner you have that right,” Hankyung said. No…Han Geng.
Siwon’s smile was so bright he almost had to look away. “We’re a good team, partner.”
“We are.”
“I had fun today. To our partnership and friendship,” Siwon said, lifting his glass in toast.
The cheery sound of their glasses clinking was quiet. He had had fun as well, with Siwon. Solid in their partnership. And friendship, well. To call Siwon that, he counted himself lucky indeed. He let the music distract him, Siwon’s fingers tapping time against his chest, commenting on people who wandered by. They stayed long after they watched Siwon’s sister leave, Han Geng holding onto Siwon on the drive home, long after it was was safe for Siwon to drive. A little cooler on the back of the motorcycle than he’d been used to, but he managed.
They called out that they’d see each other tomorrow, and Siwon drove off before Han Geng even entered the building. It hadn’t been a date. But it had been wonderful in itself.
***
Getting a call to a murder scene wasn’t anything unusual. They’d developed a rhythm, and would continue to do so, Han Geng imagined. The address of where they were going, programmed into their GPS gave him a momentary pause.
“Is that… That’s right near where our first case was, isn’t it?” he asked as he drove, Siwon in the seat beside him. Even two and a half months later, there were some things not easily forgotten.
“Yeah. Too close. The call indicates a young female, naked. Shot.”
Not only close in location, but in details. A serial killer, maybe? It was eerily the same. Young, college student. Shot in almost the same place, body dumped. No care for her dignity, or her life. It was one of those things, something that he felt deep inside him, that it was the same person who had killed both women.
“There has to be some mistake made,” he said softly, as they watched her body carefully being bagged. “This time.”
“We did everything we could last time. We’ll do everything we can to make sure it doesn’t happen to someone else.”
And right then, they had a family to visit.
***
They reconstructed the girl’s life, piece by piece, much as they had done before. Where she lived, went to school. Comparing the information they gathered to their first case, to find any threads, any connections, something that might turn into leads. And as they went, at first it seemed that there were no connections. Different schools, different apartment buildings. They lived close to each other, but that in itself was not particularly telling until they could trace their routes. Perhaps they shared a bus, or…
That was when they found the gym. Siwon’s hand nearly shook when he read out the name, watching Han Geng’s eyes widen, flipping the page in the file. If the gym was the same.
“Yes,” Han Geng said. “The first victim used that gym also. Maybe someone is using that place as a snatching point. If so, we need to to get down there. If someone knew her, if someone saw her with someone, we might have our guy.”
“I think only one of us should go,” Siwon said, leaning in. “I think one of us needs to stay here, keep going through this. Maybe something else will show up. This is a break, but if it’s not the one we should be following… We know this case best.”
Han Geng nodded, their eyes catching. “Okay. If you go, then, I’ll keep going through this. If someone else is free, you should take them, just in case.”
“I don’t know if we have that kind of time. I’ll call you as soon as I know something.”
“Be careful!”
Siwon shot back a smile, got one in return, and was gratified to know that even when he went alone, he had a partner backing him up.
***
The gym was fairly new, from within the last year or two. When they had gone there to inquire after the first murder, management had been helpful if understandably wary. No one wanted their business to be linked to a crime like that. It was guaranteed to drive away customers if they thought some kind of killer might be stalking the patrons. So Siwon wasn’t surprised by the look on the face of the manager. Definitely it wasn’t happiness to see him.
But when he asked after the second girl, revealed she was dead, he got resignation. The man ran a business, but he wasn’t a monster. They spoke to the trainers, waiting for the front desk attendant to return from break, and Siwon wasn’t giving up. This couldn’t be just a coincidence. He wouldn’t bet his life on it, but there was that feeling again. They had found a break, and they were so close. It didn’t do to go running after it empty headed, but the more time that passed, the less someone would remember, the less likely they were to learn what they needed.
“I know her,” the desk attendant said, her eyes huge as she looked up at Siwon. “Did something happen to her?”
“She was murdered,” he said, not sugaring it, but also not being vulgar about it. “When did she last come in? Was she with anyone?”
“Last night… No. The night before that. I remember because I just got back from dinner, and she was saying she was going to get something to eat.”
“Alone?”
“No…One of our regulars left with her. He comes in every day, sometimes twice.”
Alarm bells were so loud in Siwon’s head that he almost could not hear over them. “He was in today?”
“He left with…a girl, a few hours ago,” she said. And gasped. “Do you think he did this? Killed this girl, and… Oh, no!”
Siwon looked to the manager. “I need all the information you have.”
***
Lee Jaesook, 37. Lived near the gym, a patron for six months. Signed in and out both times right after the two murdered girls, and a third time after a third girl that Siwon had a bad feeling about. It had taken the man two months to work up the courage to kill again, but if it was that he had a taste for, then there was no telling how he might escalate. It was only days after the last. If he needed that thrill again, and got the opportunity, there could be another girl right now in danger or already dead.
“I don’t like it,” he told Han Geng as he turned on the car. “Get as many officers as you can to his home address. I’m going to head over there right now. I just have this bad feeling.”
“Checking it out is one thing. I don’t think you should try to go in. You need to wait for us. I’m on my way right now. Twenty minutes, Siwon.”
“I’ll wait if I can. If something looks off, and I have to go in… Hurry.”
“Be careful!”
He would be. But his focus, while yes on his own safety, was on the girl who could be in the hands of a killer.
***
The neighborhood was quiet, which he didn’t like. Quiet neighborhoods meant fewer people to pay attention if a man was holding women captive and killing them. He parked a couple houses down, noting the car sitting in front of the house with the still-open door. It wasn’t his plan to go storming the house on his own, but he wanted some idea of what they would be looking at when the others got there. Killers could get jumpy, do things quicker, once they had a victim in their hands. And he didn’t want to be that person thinking if he’d been there just five minutes earlier, he could have saved her life.
All of the shades were drawn, another bad sign, and he edged along the side of the house.
“We’re en route,” Han Geng said in his ear.
“I’m going to head to the back of the house,” he breathed.
“Siwon, I don’t think…”
“Just a second.”
He dropped his earpiece over his collar, listening, watching as he neared the corner. A small hand wagon, a garden.
Because of the quiet, the muffled boom was that much more startling, and he pressed himself against the side of the house. “Shots fired,” he said, knowing Han Geng would hear him. “I’m going in.”
He heard the faint buzz that indicated that Han Geng was shouting at him. And his instinct was to kick in the door, get inside as quickly as was possible.
But he saw the wire, as he slid back the glass.
And it broke.
The air around him trembled, and he didn’t remember hitting the ground.
***
His head ached, Siwon realized, as he woke. It took several minutes for him to orient himself, at first dizzy an nauseous, and then finally, some semblance of order came into his brain.
There was a dusty rag in his mouth, and it made him assess his limbs. No stabbing pain, that was good. Though something on his leg hurt, warmth dripping down, tickling his skin. He’d been cut, somehow. There was something tied over his eyes, too, but he thought that the room he was in was dark as well. From the sounds his feet made, scratching dirt into a rough floor, it sounded hollow. But maybe that was his ears. Had there been an explosion?
His wrists had been bound behind him, some kind of metal chair, and he worked them gently, testing. He was lucky to be alive, but who knew for how much longer? He didn’t hear sounds of another person, but if he’d been abandoned, then Han Geng would find him. Han Geng was on his way. He had no concept of how much time had passed, so the reinforcements could be right outside, or they could be miles away. He knew Han Geng had heard whatever had happened, and he knew that whatever obstacles there was, he would be coming. He allowed himself a moment of sick fear, imagining the worst, Han Geng finding his body, and shook it off. That wasn’t like him. Strange, that he saw Han Geng, and not his sister or his parents.
If Siwon was alone, there was no danger. If there was still someone here, then they could be coming into a trap.
“You’re awake,” an unfamiliar voice said, sounding far too close.
And for not the first time in his life, Siwon was afraid.
***
Author: Coley Merrin
Rating: PG-13 for now
Pairings: Siwon/Hankyung
Genre: AU. Crime. Drama/angst/romance.
Summary: Hankyung’s new partner isn’t much an enigma, not like their cases are. Every day, their safety on the line, to help the people who have no way to help themselves. It's part of his job to entrust Siwon with his life, but who can protect them from each other?
A/N: I probably don't need to inform anyone of this, but despite my hundreds...if not thousand +... hours watching crime/cop/mystery/lawyer/what have you dramas... I am no expert. I have probably scoffed at the screen more times than many. Um. So yes. Doing my best. \o/ And...sorry for the wait~
***
***
“I think you’d better stick to one boyfriend, don’t you?” Siwon teased the woman. “You seem to have left part of your dress at home. I hope Mom and Dad didn't see you leave like that.”
Hankyung, having focused hard on his beer, suddenly wondered if he was hearing the conversation correctly. His head turned without his consent, staring between the two. He’d just started feeling sorry for himself, that he had thought he and Siwon were fairly close, as friends, and yet he didn’t know that he was dating? He wasn’t sure how he was supposed to think of that. He wanted to think that they knew almost everything there was. Except, that he was hiding his preference for men from Siwon, and the fact that he would date, kiss, or sleep with Siwon without much of a second thought.
“I hope you know I'll tell them that I met your new partner before they did,” she said, sounding rather smug. “This is Han Geng?”
“Hankyung. Hankyung.”
“That's not what you call him.”
“Because I’m talking to you!” Siwon sputtered, before seeming to find himself, looking to Hankyung finally. “I’m sorry. This is a weird introduction, but Hankyung, this is my sister. Who apparently would like you to think we’re very weird.”
Siwon used his Chinese name when talking about him to his sister? And she was his sister. Not his girlfriend. Which meant… Siwon was still single? He felt a stupid, giddy rush of relief. Just because he wasn’t dating a woman now didn’t mean he wouldn’t tomorrow or next week. But still. He’d have until then to dream.
“He’s cuter than you described, but I know better than to trust you. It’s nice to meet you, Hankyung. I hope he told you he had a sister?”
“Yes. Yes. He did!” A few times. He thought. “It’s nice to meet you, too.”
He could see a resemblance now that the abstract thought of them dating had been lifted from his eyes. And the ridiculousness of it all stumbled through him.
“You’ll bring him over?” she was telling Siwon severely. “Mom and Dad are waiting.”
“Yes. Yes. We’ll talk about it. Go find your boyfriend.”
She kissed his cheek again. “Good. You two have fun on your little date. Nice to see you…Han Geng!”
He could do little more than wave as she disappeared, and Siwon all but slapped himself in the forehead.
“I’m sorry…I don’t know if we’re related. I think she got picked up on a beach somewhere.”
Hankyung laughed. “Don’t worry. Family is like that sometimes.”
“Did you want to find a table?”
A date, he thought, swallowing. He followed Siwon, wading out until they found an abandoned set of seats. Not a table they could sit across from each other at, but squished in beside each other, shoulder against shoulder and thigh to thigh.
“I feel like I should have my arm around you,” Siwon joked.
“It’d probably give us more room,” he said.
Luckily, despite the crowd and the music, it wasn’t so loud that they could not hear each other. And Siwon did, in a way, do what he had suggested. He pulled his arm up, so that his forearm rested on Hankyung’s shoulder, hand all but resting on his chest. It allowed them a little more ease of sitting, and brought them that much closer.
“Sorry again about my sister. My parents would love to have us over for dinner, so they can meet you. They’ve been asking for a while, but, well. I guess I liked keeping you to myself.”
Siwon squeezed his shoulder, touching him in a way that Hankyung had gotten used to. It was a very Siwon thing to do, right from the start. Not because it meant something. Just because it was Siwon. But the way Siwon offered the invitation, as though he were speaking of a girlfriend, made his stomach a little shaky. He knew a lot of partners who were well acquainted with each other’s families, but to hear Siwon put it quite like that…
“I’d like to meet your parents,” he said, smiling and gripping his beer a little tighter.
“The brat might be there, too,” Siwon said, but there was fondness in his voice.
“You call me Han Geng to her?”
Siwon’s mouth parted, and it nearly distracted him until he realized Siwon was wriggling like a needy puppy.
“I don’t call you that at work, because I know you’re trying to fit in as much as you can. And it’s not because you don’t, or that your name matters, but I didn’t want to make it…” Siwon waved his hands as though that was getting his point across quicker. “I didn’t want to make it an issue.”
He had started to think of himself as Hankyung almost, knowing that if he did not he would start signing his name wrong, wasting too many forms. But to know that Siwon thought of him, not as a name he used to present him to a workplace, but as his own name?
“I’d think as my partner you have that right,” Hankyung said. No…Han Geng.
Siwon’s smile was so bright he almost had to look away. “We’re a good team, partner.”
“We are.”
“I had fun today. To our partnership and friendship,” Siwon said, lifting his glass in toast.
The cheery sound of their glasses clinking was quiet. He had had fun as well, with Siwon. Solid in their partnership. And friendship, well. To call Siwon that, he counted himself lucky indeed. He let the music distract him, Siwon’s fingers tapping time against his chest, commenting on people who wandered by. They stayed long after they watched Siwon’s sister leave, Han Geng holding onto Siwon on the drive home, long after it was was safe for Siwon to drive. A little cooler on the back of the motorcycle than he’d been used to, but he managed.
They called out that they’d see each other tomorrow, and Siwon drove off before Han Geng even entered the building. It hadn’t been a date. But it had been wonderful in itself.
***
Getting a call to a murder scene wasn’t anything unusual. They’d developed a rhythm, and would continue to do so, Han Geng imagined. The address of where they were going, programmed into their GPS gave him a momentary pause.
“Is that… That’s right near where our first case was, isn’t it?” he asked as he drove, Siwon in the seat beside him. Even two and a half months later, there were some things not easily forgotten.
“Yeah. Too close. The call indicates a young female, naked. Shot.”
Not only close in location, but in details. A serial killer, maybe? It was eerily the same. Young, college student. Shot in almost the same place, body dumped. No care for her dignity, or her life. It was one of those things, something that he felt deep inside him, that it was the same person who had killed both women.
“There has to be some mistake made,” he said softly, as they watched her body carefully being bagged. “This time.”
“We did everything we could last time. We’ll do everything we can to make sure it doesn’t happen to someone else.”
And right then, they had a family to visit.
***
They reconstructed the girl’s life, piece by piece, much as they had done before. Where she lived, went to school. Comparing the information they gathered to their first case, to find any threads, any connections, something that might turn into leads. And as they went, at first it seemed that there were no connections. Different schools, different apartment buildings. They lived close to each other, but that in itself was not particularly telling until they could trace their routes. Perhaps they shared a bus, or…
That was when they found the gym. Siwon’s hand nearly shook when he read out the name, watching Han Geng’s eyes widen, flipping the page in the file. If the gym was the same.
“Yes,” Han Geng said. “The first victim used that gym also. Maybe someone is using that place as a snatching point. If so, we need to to get down there. If someone knew her, if someone saw her with someone, we might have our guy.”
“I think only one of us should go,” Siwon said, leaning in. “I think one of us needs to stay here, keep going through this. Maybe something else will show up. This is a break, but if it’s not the one we should be following… We know this case best.”
Han Geng nodded, their eyes catching. “Okay. If you go, then, I’ll keep going through this. If someone else is free, you should take them, just in case.”
“I don’t know if we have that kind of time. I’ll call you as soon as I know something.”
“Be careful!”
Siwon shot back a smile, got one in return, and was gratified to know that even when he went alone, he had a partner backing him up.
***
The gym was fairly new, from within the last year or two. When they had gone there to inquire after the first murder, management had been helpful if understandably wary. No one wanted their business to be linked to a crime like that. It was guaranteed to drive away customers if they thought some kind of killer might be stalking the patrons. So Siwon wasn’t surprised by the look on the face of the manager. Definitely it wasn’t happiness to see him.
But when he asked after the second girl, revealed she was dead, he got resignation. The man ran a business, but he wasn’t a monster. They spoke to the trainers, waiting for the front desk attendant to return from break, and Siwon wasn’t giving up. This couldn’t be just a coincidence. He wouldn’t bet his life on it, but there was that feeling again. They had found a break, and they were so close. It didn’t do to go running after it empty headed, but the more time that passed, the less someone would remember, the less likely they were to learn what they needed.
“I know her,” the desk attendant said, her eyes huge as she looked up at Siwon. “Did something happen to her?”
“She was murdered,” he said, not sugaring it, but also not being vulgar about it. “When did she last come in? Was she with anyone?”
“Last night… No. The night before that. I remember because I just got back from dinner, and she was saying she was going to get something to eat.”
“Alone?”
“No…One of our regulars left with her. He comes in every day, sometimes twice.”
Alarm bells were so loud in Siwon’s head that he almost could not hear over them. “He was in today?”
“He left with…a girl, a few hours ago,” she said. And gasped. “Do you think he did this? Killed this girl, and… Oh, no!”
Siwon looked to the manager. “I need all the information you have.”
***
Lee Jaesook, 37. Lived near the gym, a patron for six months. Signed in and out both times right after the two murdered girls, and a third time after a third girl that Siwon had a bad feeling about. It had taken the man two months to work up the courage to kill again, but if it was that he had a taste for, then there was no telling how he might escalate. It was only days after the last. If he needed that thrill again, and got the opportunity, there could be another girl right now in danger or already dead.
“I don’t like it,” he told Han Geng as he turned on the car. “Get as many officers as you can to his home address. I’m going to head over there right now. I just have this bad feeling.”
“Checking it out is one thing. I don’t think you should try to go in. You need to wait for us. I’m on my way right now. Twenty minutes, Siwon.”
“I’ll wait if I can. If something looks off, and I have to go in… Hurry.”
“Be careful!”
He would be. But his focus, while yes on his own safety, was on the girl who could be in the hands of a killer.
***
The neighborhood was quiet, which he didn’t like. Quiet neighborhoods meant fewer people to pay attention if a man was holding women captive and killing them. He parked a couple houses down, noting the car sitting in front of the house with the still-open door. It wasn’t his plan to go storming the house on his own, but he wanted some idea of what they would be looking at when the others got there. Killers could get jumpy, do things quicker, once they had a victim in their hands. And he didn’t want to be that person thinking if he’d been there just five minutes earlier, he could have saved her life.
All of the shades were drawn, another bad sign, and he edged along the side of the house.
“We’re en route,” Han Geng said in his ear.
“I’m going to head to the back of the house,” he breathed.
“Siwon, I don’t think…”
“Just a second.”
He dropped his earpiece over his collar, listening, watching as he neared the corner. A small hand wagon, a garden.
Because of the quiet, the muffled boom was that much more startling, and he pressed himself against the side of the house. “Shots fired,” he said, knowing Han Geng would hear him. “I’m going in.”
He heard the faint buzz that indicated that Han Geng was shouting at him. And his instinct was to kick in the door, get inside as quickly as was possible.
But he saw the wire, as he slid back the glass.
And it broke.
The air around him trembled, and he didn’t remember hitting the ground.
***
His head ached, Siwon realized, as he woke. It took several minutes for him to orient himself, at first dizzy an nauseous, and then finally, some semblance of order came into his brain.
There was a dusty rag in his mouth, and it made him assess his limbs. No stabbing pain, that was good. Though something on his leg hurt, warmth dripping down, tickling his skin. He’d been cut, somehow. There was something tied over his eyes, too, but he thought that the room he was in was dark as well. From the sounds his feet made, scratching dirt into a rough floor, it sounded hollow. But maybe that was his ears. Had there been an explosion?
His wrists had been bound behind him, some kind of metal chair, and he worked them gently, testing. He was lucky to be alive, but who knew for how much longer? He didn’t hear sounds of another person, but if he’d been abandoned, then Han Geng would find him. Han Geng was on his way. He had no concept of how much time had passed, so the reinforcements could be right outside, or they could be miles away. He knew Han Geng had heard whatever had happened, and he knew that whatever obstacles there was, he would be coming. He allowed himself a moment of sick fear, imagining the worst, Han Geng finding his body, and shook it off. That wasn’t like him. Strange, that he saw Han Geng, and not his sister or his parents.
If Siwon was alone, there was no danger. If there was still someone here, then they could be coming into a trap.
“You’re awake,” an unfamiliar voice said, sounding far too close.
And for not the first time in his life, Siwon was afraid.
***
