Junhee jumps when the door unlocks, swinging open to reveal Minji, carrying a cage in her hands. The grim reaper crow, whose name Junhee forgot to ask, squawks in surprise and promptly disappears in a puff of feathers.
Some grim reaper you are, Junhee thinks to himself mockingly. Maybe the crow is still hovering around, just invisible and possibly telepathic. Getting jumpscared by a mere mortal.
Instantly, he feels the pinch of talons on his shoulders. “I don’t have to be telepathic to tell what you’re thinking,” the crow whispers in his ear. “It’s written all over your face. I did not get jumpscared just now. That was a perfectly normal reaction to someone walking into the room. I was offering her a seat.”
Junhee’s skeptical, but he doesn’t answer, lest Minji thinks he’s going mad for talking to air. “What’s up with the cat?”
Minji shushes him. “Be quiet, the kitty is sleeping! We’ve gotta take care of her for now, since she needs regular ointments and bandage replacements.” Very gently, she lifts the cat out of the cage and into a makeshift cat bed made of cardboard and newspaper clippings. “We’ll have to let her go when she’s better, but… For now she can stay with us.”
Somehow, Junhee feels like he too is a stray Minji had picked up and decided to care for out of the goodness of her heart. Unbeknownst to the detective, her ‘stray’ musician has also picked up a stray of his own.
The next few days pass in a similar way - working their way through minor cases like thefts while Minji tries not to accidentally offend clients and Junhee tries not to accidentally die; taking care of the injured kitten, who has now been christened Byeol; the crow sits on Junhee’s shoulder and reacts to what Minji in real time says like the worst second conscience ever. Things like that. Minji makes Junhee sleep on the couch, which he’s fine with, honestly. The way his bones react in the morning tells him he’s slept on worse things before.
Junhee also meets Minji’s journalist roommate Choi Bora. Apparently, she hadn’t been home lately, instead sleeping over at her boyfriend’s apartment because they were working together on an important article. Needless to say, she was less than amused to see a stranger sitting in her apartment like he owned the place. She’d stared at him for a solid minute, then looked at her phone, whispered no goddamn way, then stared at him again like he’d grown two extra heads.
“Hi, I’m Junhee, I’m Minji’s new sidekick, don’t worry, we’re not dating,” was how Junhee had introduced himself. “She’s just letting me stay here for now because I, uh, got evicted from my old place.”
Bora had just nodded, dazed. She was still looking at him like he’d grown three heads instead of one. Junhee rolled his shoulder enough to send his crow companion flying off just to check if Bora was looking at the crow instead of him, but nothing happened. She was really just staring at him. Awkward. “Hi, I’m Choi Bora, nice to meet you, Junhee.”
Junhee has never seen anyone run away so fast after seeing his face.
Junhee gets used to his new version of ‘normal’ until they get their first big case of the week.
Minji keeps it shrouded in secrecy at first, whispering into the phone and refusing to tell Junhee any more than the bare minimum. All Junhee knows until they get to the scene of the crime is that it’s a commission from the police. It doesn’t help that his neighborhood friendly grim reaper crow has gone missing for the last two days too. He’s not getting information from anyone, anywhere. It sucks.
When they get to the crime scene, Minji walks up with an official Police Consultant badge, showing it to the officer guarding the security tape. There’s quite a commotion going on outside, several security guards shooing civilians away from the scene. Junhee almost gets caught up in the crowd and mistaken for the suspect with his black jacket, jeans, mask and cap. The only way he manages to convince the officers to let him go is by using his connection to Minji. Oh, and the suspect didn’t wear glasses, unlike Junhee. His vision is a lot clearer now that he has glasses, actually. He’s sure it feels better than using contacts, although he’s not entirely sure why he’s so certain about it.
Junhee ducks under the tape to find Minji talking to a policeman. He looks rather high-ranking, by the way he stands closest to the body and watches over everyone else. He’s handsome too, but with a severe scowl on his face and clothes so carefully ironed even the straightest ruler would be jealous. He’s an inspector and Minji’s friend from the force, Junhee overhears from another lower-ranking officer. Newly promoted, too.
Junhee peeks around the inspector, seeing-
“Oh.”
“Yeah,” Minji murmurs. They both look down at the bloodied body lying on the floor. It belongs to a boy, no older than twenty. Junhee steps closer to get a better look at his face, and a sense of familiarity arcs through him. He takes a step back, immediately feeling queasy. The detective glances at his rapidly paling face, wincing with a sigh. “This is why I didn’t want to tell you.”
The inspector looks at Junhee suspiciously. “Who’s that?”
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“The Watson to my Sherlock,” Minji announces. “But he has a head injury instead of a leg injury, and it’s not something I can gaslight him into fixing either.” The inspector only looks more suspicious of both of them now. Junhee holds his stare without wavering, but damn, it’s more intimidating than he thought. “Ayo, Chung-jae, stop scowling,” the detective laughs. “He’s an amnesiac. We’re just hiding his identity for now because of-” she waves her hands around vaguely, “-case reasons.”
“Right,” the inspector drawls. “And you couldn’t think of anything better than making him look like an idol or a criminal?”
“Don’t insult my clothing choices,” Junhee retorts. “I wear what I want.”
“Suit yourself, then.” The inspector extends his hand, his face relaxing enough to finally show a smile. He still looks like he’s constipated. “I’m Kang Chung-jae. Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Watson.”
“Likewise.” Junhee takes the inspector’s hand, shaking it. “You can call me Junhee, by the way.”
"Like the singer? Jun something?"
"Aha, of course not, what makes you think that?"
The inspector looks at him strangely. “Alright then, Junhee Watson. Duly noted.”
Junhee subtly shakes his hand behind his back, feeling the tingles rush through his palm and fingers. Kang Chung-jae has quite the firm grip.
Chung-jae walks the two of them through the scene of the crime, quietly explaining all the information they have on the victim, how he died, leaving no gruesome detail out.
His name is Son Dae Hyuk, the inspector tells them, aged twenty years and three months. He was the oldest member of GENES1S, a boy band from Star Entertainment that had just debuted half a year ago. His stage name was Day, a play on his name and a reference to his sunny personality. He was poisoned, according to the vomit next to the body and the foam covering his lips. The poison was in something he’d eaten or drank, and when Minji coaxes Junhee into smelling Dae Hyuk’s breath, it smells like almonds. Like cyanide.
Junhee still feels dazed.
Star Entertainment sounds all too familiar, and he swears he knows more about GENES1S than his brain is telling him. He knows this feeling churning in his gut all too well by now.
It’s survivor’s guilt.
Minji keeps telling him he has nothing to be guilty of, it wasn’t his fault he survived when the two other men who were with him at the time died in the crash and he forgot who they were to him. Minji tells him it’s not his fault he can’t remember anything but gut feelings and reflexes, but Junhee knows better.
The universe is trying to kill you to set the balance straight, a voice whispers in his head, you shouldn’t be alive. Avenge yourself, or suffer from karmic debt.
In other words, he looks at Dae Hyuk and thinks to himself - shit, that could’ve been me.
A broken body on the street to be taken apart and investigated. A soul to be grieved.
In moments like these, all he can do is look at Dae Hyuk’s unmoving body and try not to flinch. It doesn’t take long for him to feel uneasy with the scene in general, and when he looks away briefly, he realizes there’s a boy staring at him from a distance, peeking out from behind a corner.
He lifts his hand with a small, inconspicuous wave. You might want to walk away.
The boy points at himself with a look of shock on his face. Are you talking to me?
Junhee nods.
This time, it’s the boy’s turn to flinch, looking down at his shaking hands. Junhee’s eyes widen when the boy seems to flicker where he stands, fading to translucency and back.
“Sorry,” he mutters to Minji, “I gotta take a step back. The smell is a little too…” He pinches his nose, hoping she understands the gesture.
The detective has a palm over her nose, and she nods and waves her latex glove-covered hand. “Yeah, yeah, I get it. Don't run too far, though!”
Junhee is already gone by then, beelining towards where he saw the half-transparent boy. He rounds the corner, finding nothing. It's a dead end, so there's nowhere the boy could've gone but out, but Junhee hadn't seen him walk out, so where…?
"Jun-sunbaenim?"
Junhee jumps a mile high. He hadn't heard anyone walk up to him! And why "sunbaenim"?
"Jun-sunbaenim, aren't you supposed to be…?"
Junhee finally picks up the guts to turn around. Standing behind him is none other than the murder victim, Son Dae Hyuk. Same cotton candy pink hair, wide eyes, hoodie and jeans. He looks as pale as Junhee feels. If the body is there, but the victim is also standing here, does that mean-
"Sunbaenim, I don't really remember what happened, but if I'm dead, and you can see me, does that mean you're also- No, I heard Manager-nim and Bodyguard-nim both passed away, but you disappeared…" He gasps, picking at his nails. "Did you get kidnapped? And your kidnapper killed you? Oh, Sunbaenim, I'm so sorry-"
Junhee tries to stop the boy from picking his nails right off his fingers, only for his hands to pass right through.
"Oh." Dae Hyuk's teary eyes get wetter yet. "Sunbaenim, you're alive! I'm so glad! I've already accepted whatt happened to me, it doesn't really hurt as much as it did before, but me and everyone in GENES1S were so worried, 'cause nobody knew what happened! It must've been even harder for Hyunjun-hyung, since you guys were so close! I heard he took a few days off just because he was so stressed out trying to find out what happened to him."
Junhee swallows the ashes in his throat, gently interrupting the idol's rambling speech. "I'm sorry, but do I know you?"
Son Dae Hyuk's expression shatters completely.