09: 'HETEROSEXUALITY IS A SIN'

AKA THE TIME GRAYSON WON AT GO STOP AND UNLEASHED SATAN

WHEN GRAYSON WAS young, good, charming but well affronted with morals not running askew - one of the few things he was warned going into the city the first time were cults. Seemingly nice people - an old lady, a boy or girl close to his age, chatting him about some menial thing in some menial place; the subway, outside of a shop, or even just on the road, then you'd find yourself being steered to a small place, enclosed or boarded up, or in a car of some sort, close to nowhere.

Then they'd pull out their god dogs and brandish their knives for some palm cutting and suddenly, you see nothing but the manic energy, and maybe this is why your parents warned you not to talk to strangers.

Cults weren't as bad as dissembled people. Or people eaters. But they were cutting it pretty close.

"Pray do tell, why am I playing the innocent college student?" buzzed Grayson's earpiece in the most melodical, deadpan voice.

Grayson flipped the comic, eyes to the panels but focused on the corner of his view where the object of the plan was in earphones, a simple bag, some books, lingered strategically in the library.

He was out of complete visceral way, but he would be the first thing you see. And Minwoo has a certain affection to people's eyes - an aura of innocence. Or... quiet charm.

If he wasn't glaring.

"Because you can pass off as a college student if you don't look like you're going to turn people's insides out, and two." Grayson permitted himself a simple grin, hidden quietly with the comic in front of his face. "You lost at Go Stop. You have to respect the bet, my boy. And stop glaring at the book. You're a college student, not a professional killer. Chill."

"It's not easy." But from Grayson's point, Minwoo had softened his features to somewhat of a passable worried young lad. His eyes skittered around the room conspicuously. Everyone else were actual students at the university. Both had acquired some fake IDs and weren't questioned. Exams were going on, so people were immersed in their studying.

"Stop looking around. You're too obvious." Immediately, Minwoo took his eyes down, jaw tight. "Relax. I won't let anything happen to you but you need to trust me a little. Just look like an easy mark. We'll be here for hours so just... study up?"

Minwoo sighed raggedly, as if he very much doubt he'd come out of this alive. Between the two, Minwoo was the one who took the steady role in the background. Grayson learned to rely on his voice and comments, turning left if he needed to, walking into a death trap willingly and with open arms if the plan said so.

And it isn't easy to rely on someone else after being in control for so long. And even before the two of them, Grayson had long suspected that Minwoo played solo, ruled by his own thoughts and plans.

Grayson was in the military - the reliance of soldiers for each other in combat was vital. You listened when ordered, you followed without question. You trusted your platoon, your fellow comrades with your life.

But Minwoo wasn't a soldier.

Grayson has never been sure what was Minwoo.

"Just don't get me killed, Gray." Minwoo softened his look, as if another person materialised with his partner's features. This guy looked calm, maybe a little stressed. He looked like he belongs in the background, but at the same time his good looks and something about him made you stop and stare.

Made you consider.

"I will try my hardest, sir."

• • •

If Grayson was going to be honest, the library wasn't the most fun place to spend hours of your time. Especially in Grayson's case where all he has to work out is make sure he can still see Minwoo - he's going to be honest that he's fallen asleep a few times.

More than once, Minwoo caught him and hissed in his ear, knitting profanities in between his name that would've shocked a little old lady with a heart attack.

The only thing that kept his mind a little bit busy was thinking about the case further. Prosecutor Jang Min Ki's wife, Rosalie Jang is a Korean-American born and raised in the States but moved to Korea after finishing her masters in Anthropology. She worked for the government for a while, met the prosecutor, but didn't marry him until she was a professor.

Her third child was kidnapped while she was at work. The prosecutor was always more or less indisposed, and she blamed herself wholeheartedly for not caring enough.

Which to Grayson was stupid. They were both working. From what he can tell, from putting himself in her shoes, anthropology must be a long time dream. Caring for other people is always subsequently harder than people might think.

Or maybe that's just because he's particularly selfish. Anyway. The kid was missing for a week, returned on the seventh day, and she changed. Gone was the lady who had passions for teaching and caring about others - she devoted herself solely on her children. She took anxiety meds, saw a psychiatrist and faced neighbourhood persecution. Spittle of gossip flew about her, about her kids, and she retreated further into herself.

Then she disappeared - permanently.

And now the husband thinks the cult, something called The Bounty Church of Holiness, might have something to do with it.

It was a weird church, even Grayson could admit that. Minwoo had curled his upper lip repeatedly while learning all about them - it's apparently an all-access building about worshipping your best self, vanquishing inner demons can acutely defeat actual demons you have in your life, and disappearing inside their numerous facilities for weeks on end is nothing new.

In fact, it was encouraged to separate yourself from the outside world. Gave you a far better connection with your 'inner self'. She had joined almost a year after her child's disappearance. When she would leave for days or week at best, she would tell her husband she'd leave there for a while, marking some side dishes and their expiration dates, reminding him of his pressed tie, so and so forth.

And she would always come back.

But it's been a while now, and there have been no signs of her. And the 'church', after the prosecutor demanded them directly about his wife's whereabouts, were confused. They said she only came there for a day and left.

The prosecutor called bullshit, but he was denied entry. Only members of the church were allowed entrance and members' profiles and files weren't allowed access. It was in contract somewhere.

"Bullshit," Minwoo had commented repeatedly. He was so immersed in going through everything about the 'religion' that he had completely forgotten about his banana milk.

Which was a first.

And forgotten to eat.

Which wasn't.

His final comment was - "If I start believing in this shit, I want you to gouge my eyes out and skin me slowly. I want you to wake me up and stab me. I want you to stuff salt in my wounds and make it hurt until I get my shit together."

Grayson merely lifted an eyebrow, shuffling the Go Stop cards. He was sprawled on the floor, ready not to play an unsuspecting college student if it meant Minwoo acting like a nondescript civilian. A thought that cleverly amused him.

"Stop spouting love sonatas and let's get this over with."

Minwoo was clever yes, he was good at everything and obsessed over the simplest thing. One track minded once he set for that route. Grayson was the one who smiled, who entertained. Placed in the middle of the room as a distraction while Minwoo's clever hands played the true party tricks.

But Grayson really wanted Minwoo to play the role of college student. So while the other man grumbled, Grayson kept his winning hand open, palm faced up. Grayson never took a lot of things seriously.

Not unless he really wanted something.

• • •

"I see her," Grayson muttered now, inconspicuous, hiding in plain sight between shelves, laid down on the floor as if he was snoozing. One eye peeked through lashes - and there was their mark. "3'clock, heading your way. You better get your charm on, Park."

Minwoo used his palm as if to cough. "Concern yourself, Gray. Let's do this." The girl - curled reddish brown hair, obviously dyed, pale skinny legs, and an all pink outfit - checked the paper the librarian gave her. The study desks have to be booked in advanced, and all Minwoo had to do was an easy hack in the system to create an error, booking desk 33 at the same four hours by a Lee Bong Gu and a Baek Anna.

Minwoo had hated the name ran after Grayson with his cane but it was worth the one black eye.

As she rounded up the corner to - surprise, surprise, a boy sitting in her seat, she tapped his shoulder quizzically, raising the paper. Grayson could read her lips and hear Minwoo's voice, slight annoyance, a huffiness, as he procured his own paper.

A few more words, a fake strangle of a sigh from Minwoo, and the girl disappeared, going back to the librarian with a skewered expression. As Minwoo prepared to 'chase after her', Grayson snorted.

"I didn't know love stories started out with annoyances nowadays."

"The objective is to woo her," Minwoo said patiently. "I would assume, being the daughter of a head cult leader and seeing how they offered 'help' from their church that she already knows all the tricks of niceties. She learned how to be wary of strangers. So the first step - dislodge that warriness by not appearing with the first sign of niceties."

"So you plan on alienating her?" Grayson raised a disbelieving eyebrow. Even he can't see how that would work. "May I remind you of the list people you've successfully alienated either left never coming back or with broken body parts."

"That's because I never wanted them to come back. This one... it's a ploy that even she can't stop from getting attracted to. It's like with drugs, dear boy."

At Minwoo's miraculous theory, the girl comes back, a flush of annoyance, but... Grayson was pretty sure she was checking him out now. Minwoo's back was turned, facing Grayson in the sea of books and students, and they stared right at his eyes.

"No matter how much they try to stop the urge, the taste of it always leaves them wanting more. Once the whiff is set - the hunt goes on."

Grayson's appropriate response was - "Okay, ew. Heterosexuality is a sin then demon, go eat."

Minwoo, for all intents and purposes for the dramatic - or what Grayson guessed was for dramatics, he never really knows - bared his teeth in the smile of hell itself. Eyes glinting, for one brief moment, reminded him that this was the devil at work.

Just one game of Go Stop and Grayson had unleashed Satan.