Wonho and Jooheon didn't get back until the early hours of the morning. Despite the time, they seemed neither tired nor restless.
Hyungwon was still asleep, as were Shownu and Minhyuk.
Changkyun was not.
He stood up as they walked in and met them in the kitchen.
He stared at them for a moment. "Where's the ice cream?" he asked, his voice low.
Wonho stared back at him for a long moment. "We must have forgotten it. Sorry."
Changkyun was silent, and despite no one saying anything, they all stayed where they were, still, silent. "It's pretty easy to forget something you were never planning on doing," he agreed after a moment.
Wonho twitched, but Jooheon didn't react.
"There's a scratch on your face, Wonho. It looks painful. It's new, isn't it?"
No response.
"And your shoes look muddy," Changkyun commented casually, looking down at their footwear before looking back up at their faces, scanning for any tells. "Since you weren't off buying ice cream, what exactly were you two doing?"
Wonho opened his mouth to craft another lie, but Jooheon took a step closer, moving in front of Wonho as he spoke.
"We buried our friend, and then we fixed the problem," he said, his voice low and even.
Changkyun didn't let his face give anything away. "There are lots of problems. I'm not sure which one you're referring to."
"I'm talking about the one who murdered and molested mentally-disturbed, troubled boys who had no one left in the world to protect them," Jooheon said, his voice still the same volume. He wasn't nervous or twitchy; instead, he spoke with a cool confidence, his words factual rather than arrogant.
"That problem," Changkyun said. He looked down for a moment, dropping the charade they'd been playing. "How did you kill him?"
"I had Wonho contact the guard who got you and Hyungwon out. He lured Irving into the parking lot. Then Wonho and I threw him in the back of the truck and drove to the lake."
"And?" Changkyun asked, looking up. He was scared at the fact that what he was hearing didn't really affect him. "Did you strangle him, strip him, weigh him down with rocks, dump him in the lake?"
"Maybe," Jooheon said, tilting his head. A small smile crossed his lips, one that wouldn't ever quite fade from Changkyun's mind. "Or maybe he wasn't dead when we let him sink." Jooheon shrugged, an innocent look crossing his face, but Changkyun couldn't forget the expression he'd seen. "My memory isn't so great. Maybe that's what happens when I forget to take my pills for a few days." He yawned before smiling at Changkyun. "We'd better get some sleep. It's pretty late, isn't it?" He chuckled. "Or early, technically. Good night, Changkyun. Or good morning."
He walked past Changkyun out of the kitchen, Wonho following closely behind, and Changkyun didn't stop them.
He knew that what they'd done was wrong, but...
He couldn't quite bring it in himself to condemn them.
And shame. He felt ashamed that he'd been too cowardly to take part, but the thought of doing that to a person, even a bad person, made his stomach twist and turn within him.
The soft padding of sock-enveloped feet on the kitchen floor alerted him to someone's presence. He turned to see Wonho, hesitating in the door frame.
"You're aren't going to sleep?" Wonho asked softly.
Changkyun paused. "No, I don't think so."
"I don't think I can, either," Wonho admitted, sitting down at the kitchen table and rolling his lips inward, pressing his teeth down lightly on the delicate flesh.
Changkyun nodded but didn't take a seat.
"What are you thinking about?" Wonho asked some time later. Maybe a minute, maybe ten. Time had become inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.
"About how much Hyungwon is going to hate me," Changkyun admitted, not speaking directly to Wonho but rather addressing the kitchen ceiling.
"He won't hate you," Wonho said after a moment, looking down at the table. "I don't think he can." Changkyun hummed but didn't reply. "Do you think...he hates me?"
Changkyun still didn't look at Wonho. He found it difficult for some reason. Maybe because he knew what the boy had done. "Why did you do it?" he asked after a moment. "Why did you kill Irving?"
Wonho was quiet.
"Was it for Kihyun?"
Wonho shifted in his seat.
"Or for Hyungwon?"
"I felt like I owed it to him. Hyungwon," Wonho said, his voice quiet, and still, Changkyun didn't look at him. "I've let him down so many times. And I thought, if I did this, maybe...maybe it would mean something."
"And? Does it?"
Wonho's answer was soft and honest. "I don't know."
The two sat there in silence while the early morning shifted into simply morning.
Then Changkyun picked up the phone and, although his fingers trembled, he spoke in a smooth voice. "Yes, I'd like to admit a new patient."
