'FOR ALL THE GHOSTS THAT ARE NEVER GONNA CATCH ME’
THE GUN SHOT rings through the mansion like a tear in the space-time continuum and everything in taemin's body freezes like a picture. his mind goes completely blank, nothing but white noise echoing inside his ears. for a moment he is so stunned, he doesn't know what that sound was, his brain flipping through the pages of synonyms for what it could have been. maybe it was something falling, or something banging? could it have been a single firework going off somewhere? he isn't sure how that makes any sense, but the idea of a gun going off doesn't make sense either.
__________
when he first sees hyunwoo walking through the hallway with the gun in his hand, taemin's blood runs cold and the air around him refuses to enter his lungs. he isn't sure what to say or how to dissolve the situation, but he knows that he must, as quickly as possible. he can't let hyunwoo have it, he can't let him keep it. god knows what he'll find on it or with it, and taemin would rather just shoot himself in the head then let his secret come loose.
he tries not to let his shaking hands be too obvious, folding them in front of him while he does his best to convince hyunwoo not to call a meeting, that it would only worry everyone. he tries not to seem too panicked, tries to keep his voice low as usual and his eyes dead like normal. he doesn't let any emotion come onto his face, except for that split second of surprise when he first saw him. that's plenty acceptable though, right? surprise at seeing a gun? at seeing hyunwoo with a gun? it doesn't exactly paint hyunwoo as the murderer, simply because he's found it, but it's not a good, safe feeling, knowing he has it.
taemin would much rather get it back, honestly. more than any amount of diamonds or jewelry yang might have stashed in this house, taemin needs to get that gun back before they find something incriminating on it. he's not sure how, but his mind is reeling too much to think clearly.
is he breathing heavily? is he seeing straight? he has got to keep his wits about him, not look too distracted or terrified. never let them see you afraid.
__________
as one might expect, taemin rushes towards the source of the sound, assuming it came from the room where he'd left yang and a mysterious stranger together alone. he doesn't know who this guy is, only that he had been invited to the party in a few days, along with a number of other strangers, and yet, here he is quite early. taemin hadn't had anything ready for him, and was quite surprised to see him on the front doorstep, but the man huffed and puffed his way inside anyway.
the guy looked really awful, unshaven, disheveled, sort of a mess, and taemin had wondered why yang would want him there in the first place, but he'd insisted that he'd been invited to the party. even after explaining that the party wasn't for a few more days, he was insistent. taemin brought him to yang in the greenhouse, then left as instructed, and the only things he could catch before leaving earshot was that they knew each other and this man was very, very angry at yang.
but then again, who doesn't have beef with yang?
__________
he listens to hyunwoo reveal his experience with the gun and holds his thoughts in the palms of his hands, gripping his fists tightly, folded behind his back as he stands against the wall. he is watching them all sitting in dining room, his eyes flitting across the room at everyone's shocked faces because, of course, they wouldn't know anything about it. well, maybe soojung might have some suspicions, but she hadn't been there in the greenhouse, she doesn't know what went down.
if he speaks up now, they'll all assume he's the culprit, of everything. they're all rich and free, what the fuck do they know about blackmail or how one person can hold so much power over another? what the fuck do they know about pain and entrapment?
__________
when he gets to the greenhouse, the man is a mess on the floor, the blood is everywhere and yang is yelling at him.
"what the hell did you do?!" taemin tries not to hyperventilate, but he's only ever seen so much blood one time before, and that guy, his former friend, had been dying in a gutter at the time. this man is definitely dead, that's for sure; eyes open, bullet hole in the chest.
"i had no choice, alright?!" comes the reply, which isn't something taemin believes entirely, because what sort of logic is that? "he came here to kill me! do you hear me?"
taemin can't even look up from the body, can't take his eyes off the blood, can't focus on anything except for the fact that someone has just died in the house he's hiding in to get away from a murder charge. this is such a clusterfuck. he starts sputtering, and talking nonsense-- they should call the police, but the police can't be here, and how the hell are they gonna explain this to soojung, and--
yang grabs him tightly by the back of the neck, his meaty fingers gripping him painfully and tightly enough to make bruises. it's something yang does often, which is why taemin has to always wear classic butler uniforms; the cravat covers the marks. "listen to me, you worthless piece of shit, you are going to do what i tell you, or you're dead, do you understand me?" he aims the gun directly into taemin's face. "do you understand me?"
__________
he listens to anything anyone has to say on the subject, stays mute while they all wonder about where the gun could have come from. he wants to stop them when hyunwoo and eunji suggest hiding the gun, but there's nothing he can say to convince them not to, except the fact that he wants it... but he can't give himself away, he can't let anything slip. not while there's a detective sitting right there, scanning everyone's faces.
he must remain resolute, like a statue, eye-contact with no one, because he can't hold his gaze in one place long enough, except zeroed in on the weapon on the table. he must get it back. he doesn't know what sort of clues are on that thing, doesn't know how many bullets are left, but he knows...
if they bury it, he will unbury it. if they hide it, he will find it. he knows ways about this mansion that no one else, not even soojung, knows. he'll watch them, he'll come for it. if he has to, he'll kill for it.
__________
"here, take this and hide it," yang commands, shoving the gun into taemin's hands while he himself starts trying to move the body. taemin has to think quickly, which is damn near impossible at the moment, but he sees a plant and digs a hole in the soil. this will have to be good enough.
after that, he and yang pick the body up and take it outside to hide it. the blood gets everywhere on taemin's clothes and the floor and the walls and the ground outside. it takes him hours to wash everything down, three showers to rid himself of the smell of blood, and a lie to soojung about feeling too sick to keep her company. she doesn't seem to know anything and taemin would rather keep it that way.
he stands completely still and motionless in his bedroom, in the center of this madness, and feels like a ghost inside his own body. is he dead yet?
