I know I’m late to the party for this ask game, but in the spirit of Halloween, I simply couldn’t miss out! So…
As he opened the door he looked automatically at Colman's bunk. It was empty. For one horrifying moment he contemplated the idea of an assassin on the loose, unsupervised, on a ship. It was especially disturbing when their first meeting had been under very similar circumstances, right after Colman committed murder.
Then Colman poked his head round the half-open door, and Yo-han felt rather silly.
"Don't open it too wide," Colman said, oblivious. His jaw was covered with shaving cream. "I don't need bruises too."
Yo-han sidled through the door. Whoever had decided to place the sink behind it had clearly not thought that through. Colman continued shaving. Yo-han tried not to worry about an assassin wielding a razor.
Where had he gotten the razor, anyway? It wasn't Yo-han's. His was still safely in his suitcase, which hadn't been opened. He could tell because it had a very fiddly lock and he was the only person who knew how to open it without breaking it.
"I was thinking," Colman said, "what about your family? What if what's-his-name goes after them?"
"I warned them before we left."
He'd shown his stepmother the contents of the package to make sure she believed him. That had been possibly the only time in her life that Seo Hui-jae had been willing to listen to Yo-han. He was reasonably sure that nothing would happen in his absence. He didn't like his stepmother, but he pitied the criminal dumb enough to even think of harming her children.
"And what about clothes?"
"We can buy them in Yokohama." Which unfortunately meant that Colman would continue to look out-of-place everywhere for the next two days at least.
"Food?"
"Also in Yokohama."
"Money?"
"I have some in the Bank of America and the Bank of England." This wasn't the first time Yo-han had found himself taking an unexpected trip without time to bring money with him. He had learnt his lesson after a very uncomfortable week in Mongolia.
Colman nodded, apparently satisfied. "Well, at least one of us has thought this through. There's just… one thing. That might be important." He suddenly became very interested in his reflection. "I know your opinion of my morals in one way."
That was a funny way of saying "I kill people for money and you don't approve".
"There's something else that… you might prefer to have your own room if you know." Colman wiped the shaving cream off and turned on the tap with a bad attempt at nonchalance. "I like men."
Yo-han was about to make a sarcastic reply along the lines of, "If you did you wouldn't kill them!" Then his brain caught up with his ears.
At about the same time Colman continued, "And women, too, but that's not so important right now. So." He cleared his throat. "I'm not interested in you personally, no offense, but I thought it'd be better to tell you. Than, than have you find out later and accuse me of lying."
There was a story there. Not a pleasant one, from the sounds of it. Yo-han politely didn't pry.
"Don't worry," he said. "I don't mind."
He hoped that would be the end of the subject. Unfortunately it wasn't.
"That reminds me!" Colman turned away from the sink with a disturbingly triumphant smirk. "I heard about one of your recent cases. It involved men like me. Someone called Eames, wasn't it? And his lover Lord Kirkpatrick?"
Yo-han thought some very impolite things about the blabbermouth who had spread the uncensored version of that story abroad. How on earth had Colman heard about it when the police didn't know the real facts? "Lord Kilskeery. And how did you hear about that?"
"Funny story, that. My most recent ex-lover was Mr. Eames' old friend. He used to have a crush on Kilskeery, in fact. He told me about the murder and your involvement. Something seemed fishy about the whole thing. Did you really not catch the killer?"
"…I did."
Colman grinned. "Was it Kilskeery?"
"No."
That wiped the grin off Colman's insufferable face. "It wasn't? But I was so sure!"
"You were wrong," Yo-han said, and took great delight in how irritated Colman looked.
Adding HFOD's taglist: @lightgriffinsect, @oh-no-another-idea, @kittensartswriting, @akindofmagictoo (Let me know if you want to be added/removed!)
