13: 'I WANT A BLACK CASKET'

AKA THE TIME THEY PREPARE FOR WAR

"We can't do anything about it," was the final thing the agent said, shifting his stand over at the sand. The three of them had chosen to meet at the underbelly of the pier. The waves were wild after eight, and it numbed the sound of conversation. Or the way Minwoo's eyes narrowed, speaking first.

"What do you mean you can't? We uncovered a big mess behind one of your most perfect prosecutors."

"And it doesn't help," the agent muttered over wearily. His eyes looked worn with their shadows deep. He had disappeared again once the files and photographic evidences were sent. The body in the Church, the body in the wall, the boards. Everything Rosalie Jang made and connected.

"Listen guys, I'm sorry, but with the case against Chairman Lee is far more important right now. My superiors are not going to do anything. And if both of you do anything to pull out anything you have for this case, they will shut you down."

Grayson smiled faintly. "A threat. Now this just got very exciting."

Minwoo's face doesn't change. "I am inclined to agree."

"I'm sorry, okay? The prosecutor is a horrible man, trust me, all I want is to lock him for two murders, but we need him to lock up a far more horrible man. We're trying to get them one bit at a time."

Grayson notched an eyebrow. "And the bigger fish far more important?"

The agent's face was clamped in a grim line. "Unfortunately. So I would appreciate if you two just keep it mum for now, okay? People are already in the places you sent over. They're going to take everything and prepare the case against the prosecutor. Right after the Chairman's case is done, we'll make a move."

"But that could be in years," Grayson countered. "The prosecution's counter-argument right now is flimsy. Nothing they have will stick. I don't know if you remember that the statutes of limitations was brought back in 2087 and we're not sure the time period of Ms. Inside the Wall's been... inside the wall."

"I understand that. But this is evil and lesser evils. We have to get this guy first. Then we can work on with the prosecutor. And even if it passes the statutes of limitations, the case can still be re-opened using Rosalie Jang's case."

Grayson made a face. "That's the shadiest way to do a murder case."

The agent stared at him, but Grayson was unperturbed. He was back to his old self, cheery and wearing that shit-eating grin. Before the agent could go through the lines he rehearsed, Minwoo tapped his cane on the stones.

"Fine. Do what you need to do. Send the next case for us soon or I'm the one who's going to start a riot. Grayson let's go."

- - -

As the car stopped at a stoplight on the way back, and Grayson, on the passenger seat, pursed his lips.

"Somehow, I don't believe you're going to let this go that easy."

"Somehow, you grew brain cells while I was away."

Grayson chuckled. "And your joking has improved since getting a girlfriend. How was it like, by the way?"

"I'm not going through that with you, Gray. Don't even try."

"Okay." Then he checked his surroundings. "Yeah, this isn't the way back."

"Thank you, Sherlock, we're not going back. I'm dropping you off where I found Rosalie Jang. Her body is underneath the floorboards of House 08. Get it, will you?"

Grayson rose a slow, judgy eyebrow. "Oh yes, of course I will. Not a problem at all." Silence. Then, "Don't you think they already took her body?"

"They would've had a hard time trying to find her body since I told them her body was in House 02. And that she was laid out on her bed like she was sleeping, if it wasn't for that thin strip of broken flesh in her neck... Again, they should really check properly for information they receive."

"Considering they hold a tight leash on our necks, I kind of assume they have to think so." Grayson tapped his fingers over his knee. The roads were empty at the time. Most people put themselves in curfew to keep out of any crossfire. No one knew who you would find roaming on the streets, inside apartments and on top of rooftops. You never knew who was preparing for war or was hired to kill someone for the night.

It was better to lock your doors and keep your curtains tight. Less you see something you shouldn't and become a witness. Witnesses, after all, are nothing more than annoying chances you have to get rid off.

The cold night whipped in a strange song, and Grayson bit his bottom lip, trying to place his mind with Minwoo's. It always leads to no avail, as the boy in question had the minds both of a computer and a vault guarded by intricate locks and red herrings. A sphinx who asks questions and guards who are willing to die for the sake of its contents. You could not even come close to it, much less unearth it.

But slowly, like a slow, biting honey, thickening as it continued through the throngs of his brain - a plan.

And a seedy, no good plan that contains a lot of pissed people and a death sentence.

"The only way to get to Rosalie Jang's case," Grayson started, his voice hesitant that it paused in more words than one. "- is to settle Chairman Lee's case. To settle Chairman Lee's case... you'll need information. Seedy, no good information that can land him in bars without a second thought. For someone who is that high and that old, he's probably buried his secrets with the dead... so who else..."

Grayson had a name - or as it goes - a title just at the edge of his tongue as if saying it could produce the person in question like a demon in a swirl of black and red foam, the smell of blood and greed swirling in their noses.

Minwoo stopped at a food chain parking lot, the 24 hours drowned them in yellow and blue fluorescent. He pulled the car to a standstill and turned to him. His face, creepily blank.

And there, Grayson found his suspicions true.

He uttered one word, as if titling their entire predicament, "fuck."

The Madam, a woman of importance to the Northern cities, who caused riots and turned kings into dead pawns, lying in a pool on her feet. Her red dress, her red heels, the tilt of that smile that could make a grown man slit his own throat.

The woman Minwoo needed to betray to finish a job that isn't even his.

"Couldn't you just ask her for it?" Grayson asked lamely.

Minwoo raised an eyebrow. Of course not. You bartered with a woman like that. And just the presence of a barter in question is already a hefty fine that could be paid by a common courtesy when they had did the job at the hospital. But even Grayson knew they had nothing to barter with the information that big.

To bring down a king, you have to pay a king in kind.

"Even if it does work - how the hell are we going to like, I don't know - do it? Execute? Think? Plan?" It was wild, it was playing with death and betraying the one woman who can successfully make them disappear from the face of the world as if they didn't exist at all.

"To get to her," Grayson noted how Minwoo didn't use her titled name as if devices could be placed around them, made him wary of everything so suddenly, as if the eyes of God were on judgement, watching them just above the skies. His voice was quiet like a serpent, like a lover whispering sweet nothings. Grayson also noticed he didn't have a particular emotion again.

"We need someone bigger, or big enough."

"No one is big enough," was Grayson's quick reply.

Until his thoughts reeled and he huffed out a strangled laugh.

Korea, made a whole by 2036, become divided in the game of the underworld. Those who could rise above else rose to start their own sections, to defend their sectors and fight back to those who tried to take it. They recruited muscles and brains and second in commands and built their empires by the blood and secrets of others.

The Madam was in charge of the Northern territories, her current status inspired fear and hatred and anguish to those who dared cross.

While The White Tiger, effusive, controlled, brazen - controlled the shadows of the Southern territories. No one knew what he looked like, only that his soldiers wore the proud tigers etched in any part of their clothing and skin, a tattoo of a curled tiger with lilies around his feet, posed as if he had been stalking a prey and met his beady eyes at the beholder. Fangs hidden, but ready to curl and snap.

The White Tiger of the South, someone who matches his northern counterpart equally.

"He's powerful enough," Minwoo replied quietly, his voice and face held nothing. Nothing compared to the range of emotions that shifted in Grayson by a mile a minute. All these information flashing in its counterpart in his face. Wild currents shifted Grayson like a wild sea of emotion, but Minwoo was immobile as the Dead Sea with no air and living thing underneath its glass-like surface.

"You're fucking crazy," Grayson finally exhaled, eyes wild, breath knocked.

So many variables, so many moments for any plan of his choosing to go wrong. Chairman Lee, The Madam, The White Tiger... Minwoo was about to play his hands at not just pawns or bishops or kings. Kings were always meant to be important but fall easily at the first sign of a threat. No. Minwoo was readying his hands to play queens. Queens who could see all, who put their best foot forward and prepared to unleash hell upon solid ground.

Minwoo was readying himself to play god.

"You remember The Madam's daughter?" Minwoo turned the radio on full blast, nearly drowning his words. Grayson winced but read his lips. "She mentioned a daughter who did her time at the hospital with the underground cannibals."

"D'you want me to flirt with her?"

"No. At least, not yet. First, I'm going to get close to the Tiger. I have something he wants."

"What?" Grayson really wanted to ask How, but the appropriate want of a man who had everything was intriguing.

"The same list of names The Madam acquired that day, all those clients, those politicians, celebrities, and their children. The list that quieted them into her hands like nothing else but mere pawns."

"You said you didn't have that list."

"Of course I have that list," Minwoo replied easily, tapping a gloved finger over the steering wheel, staring straight ahead. "You didn't think I'd let her get all of that information and keep it to herself? Greedy women are still people who have hungered greed. She saw a chance and she took it."

"So you already gave your forehead a red target the minute you took the same information you were supposed to give just to her." Grayson was in a state of almost monk-like peace. Like the universe making sense and everything else going senseless. Minwoo had signed his death the minute he stepped into that vehicle with him.

"Technically, I didn't. I did give her the information and I did keep that information to myself when the agent asked for them. She knew we had our necks on a leashed and she had people inside. She wanted the information to herself. What I didn't tell her is that I will keep the information to myself." A wisp of a smile on his lips. "This is a classic move fairies and demons do in fairytales. You listen to the words you speak above all else. You never know when you end up selling your name."

"She's going to kill you," Grayson said nevertheless because this fact has to be brought to light at some point. Minwoo waved it away.

"Our heads have always had a red line, Gray. She's just another person on the line. The White Tiger will want the same information - it's the only thing he doesn't have that makes him slightly lower in their hierarchy right now. She has more people to bribe and to play with - people he might not do the same too. All he needs to do is help you pose as one of his Tigers and prepare for war."

Grayson couldn't even blink.

He was almost too afraid to ask.

So Minwoo continued as if he had spoken. "They've been preparing for war for years, Grayson. Though the waters are calm now, both sectors are keeping their soldiers trained and ready. They're just waiting for someone to make the first move. And right now, with The Madam privy with this information, she has more people to pull strings. More politicians under your pocket will mean a bigger chance of winning. And he will want this list. And he can use me as an excuse to start war. It's perfect."

"Wait, why would I need to pose as one of his Tigers?"

"Every girl has dreamt of a love story, hasn't she? One she kept close to her heart no matter how old she gets. She dreams of the perfect guy, the perfect wedding, the perfect love story. And what is the greatest love story ever told?"

Two families. A pair of lovers. A poison... and a dagger.

Grayson's blink is slow and judging.

"You're joking."

"I'm betting both our lives here, Gray, and besides, I never really know when to joke."

"Try at our funeral next." He ran a hand through his thick hair. "This seems like the appropriate time to tell you want I want a black casket."

"Why not a casket made of diamonds? What we're about to do... we could get rich beyond belief." A war, when you're not the one holding the gun, is the best time to place bets.

"So that's the plan? Betray the North and blackmail her to get the Chairman?"

"That's for later, for now we plan a meeting with The White Tiger." His eyes flashed. This game meant destruction. And only when gods are quiet when you know they mean to wipe the world.

"Then we start a war."

 - - -

END OF SEASON 01

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