Just Two Kids

They were just two kids once.

Kim Jin Ae and Kim Junsu.

Two different ends of the spectrum.

The world, to Jin Ae was one filled with risks she was willing to take. However, the world was stupid too. People were stupid, making her wish to take those risks on her own. Risks like hanging from bridges and standing in front of an oncoming train.

To Junsu, it was full of adventures and possibilities. However, it could also be cruel. He wanted to share those adventures and possibilities, but people often ignored him, annoyed by his outrageous laugh and need to use that laugh for almost every situation that hinted at it.

It was unusual for two such opposites to strike an alliance, but they did.

“Yah,” Jin Ae growled when Junsu sat his tray across from hers. “Who said you could sit there?”

“No one,” he answered, scowling at her.

Junsu rarely scowled. Hardly was there ever a moment when his face was without a smile. But it'd been one of those days, like a group of second years throwing his backpack up into the tree where it decided to reside until he was late for class trying to retrieve it.

“Well, you can't sit there,” Jin Ae growled. “Get lost.”

Junsu rolled his eyes and picked up his tray. He turned to find the cafeteria packed, all empty spots from before had been occupied by inanimate objects when their owners had seen his approach. He looked back over his shoulder at the dark haired girl chomping on her meal while reading a thick book. She glanced up at him and their eyes met for a flitting moment.

She saw a helpless puppy that needed a place to sit. Junsu noticed much more. He saw a girl with problems, attitude and emotional. All bark, but maybe some bite too.

Jin Ae scoffed and smacked the table surface in front of her. “Stop gawking and sit down. You're embarrassing yourself.” Junsu blinked at her, astounded by the offer. She looked up at him again. “Yah, are you deaf? Sit down, I said!”

Junsu hurriedly slid his tray to the table and sat down, staring at the girl with shady hair and malevolent eyes. “My name's Junsu,” he said. “What's yours?”

“Don't talk to me,” she grouched, eyes locked on the text of her book, eyebrows furrowed in concentration. “We're not friends.”

“We could be.”

“No, we can't.”

“Why?”

“Because.”

“That's not a good reason.”

Jin Ae's glaring eyes snapped up to his. “Shut up!”

Junsu shut his mouth. He caught the advance of a tall boy and his face immediately flushed with first-year jealousy. Kim Jaejoong, the boy with all the pretty girls following him around...Couldn't he leave this one to Junsu? Just one? Junsu didn't have smoldering looks and brooding personality, but at least he could actually talk and make a good conversation. And he had the ability to smile which was something Kim Jaejoong seemed to lack.

“Jin Ae.”

“What?” she snapped, making Junsu leap in his seat. Her head swiveled to see Jaejoong before going blatantly back to her book. “Don't you have girls to charm somewhere?”

Jaejoong sighed. “Mom and Dad have to work late and I have practice after school. You're going to have to walk home.”

“Fine,” Jin Ae quipped.

Without a word, Jaejoong turned and waltzed away.

Junsu's jaw was hanging open. He leaned over the table, making Jin Ae lean back. “You're Kim Jaejoong's sister?”

“Adopted,” she answered. “Why?”

“He's so...popular.” A glare thrown at the boy's retreating back. “You don't look popular.”

“No, because I'm a bitch and everyone knows that.”

“You're pretty though.”

Her face froze in alarm and she blinked before glaring at him. “You don't know what that word means,” she replied before going back to her book. Junsu didn't miss the slight flush in her cheeks.

From that day on, the two of them were “attached at the hip” as Junsu's mother liked to say. The first few days were rocky, with Junsu ignoring her threats of punching him if he didn't leave her alone. He continued to follow her home, his mouth working the entire time from everything between their school work to how green the grass was. Eventually, Jin Ae's threats diminished and she let him walk beside her.

“Do your parents work late all the time now?” Junsu asked, about a month after they'd crossed paths.

“Yeah,” Jin Ae asked, looking across at the other sidewalk. “They're really busy.”

Unknown to Junsu, the only day both her parents had worked late was the day her brother had announced it. Jin Ae would never admit she liked the company because that was too far out of her character. Plus, she didn't want the blabber mouth to actually think she liked his company.

Because she didn't.

He was just a lost puppy who needed someone to give him attention and she had nothing better to do.

The gap between them grew smaller through their first year and over that summer. By their second year, Junsu finally had someone that could take all his talking and obnoxious laugh—though Jin Ae told him it was cute—and Jin Ae had someone as a verbal punching bag when she needed it. Someone who wouldn't leave her when she went too far.

Drama always was around and times were tough for Jin Ae; they fought and blew up on each other more than once, but they helped one another through it and to graduation. They went to different colleges, though almost met up every weekend to hang out, watch movies, or play something involving a ball. Anything with a ball was suitable for Junsu; he'd chase the thing around, again, like a puppy.

Junsu was the first to know about Jin Ae's career choice and the worries that involved her families reactions. He stood by her, knowing others wouldn't. He hugged her tight when she was shouting at the top of her lungs how much she hated her family for not supporting her and 'hating' her. When bad things happened early in her job, Junsu was there.

He was always there, always ready to be a shoulder, a hug, a phone call away. Never once did it dawn on Jin Ae that there were other motives besides friendship.

Junsu loved Jin Ae, more than anything. Growing out of a high school crush was expected, but the feelings never went away. Instead, they increased. The older their relationship became, the worse Junsu felt. He watched as the pretty, bratty girl with legs too long became a beautiful woman, breathtakingly so.

But he couldn't do anything. He couldn't ruin the friendship they had; they were best friends! Friends, he kept telling himself. She was far too independent and after the one relationship—with that stupid-ass lawyer—ended in disaster, Jin Ae swore to never date again. She was done with being romantically involved and that was that. Such a thing broke Junsu's heart a little, but it couldn't be helped; Jin Ae didn't know. She was oblivious about the constant looks he gave her, that he bent over backwards for her and was there as fast as he could be to comfort her when she was fragile.

Because Jin Ae wasn't fragile. She was a bottle of pent up frustrations and fury. He loved her for every ounce of quick-tongued aggression that she wasn't afraid to hide. You knew where she stood and she was bold and too proud, but that's what was so amazing about her. She could lash him with words and he didn't care. That had to be real love, or else he would have given up on her years before. But what was the point of it being real love? What was the point in loving someone when they didn't love you back?

But she knew what he felt now; she knew all about the love and bottled feelings. He'd ruined it. He'd made her guilty and scared and she'd kissed him. She'd kissed him. And it had been the most incredible...exhilarating moment of his life. As if his entire being had waited for that moment to happen. Something snapped into place and a fire surged in him for a split second.

It was gone soon after. The gap between them had grown again, possibly too far for them to ever fill. He'd been a jerk to her, but he knew Jin Ae couldn't think straight. It was a reflex, an un-characterized one, but a reflex none-the-less.

His heart was getting torn, trying to tell him what was right and what was wrong. He couldn't take advantage of Jin Ae when she was like that—even though he'd wanted to. His hands ached to hold her, his lips begged for hers again. But he couldn't do that to her. Junsu wasn't that type of person.

Elegant, needy fingers ran through his hair, nails scraping his scalp. His lips caressed the delicate skin at her collarbone, the stressed tendons in her neck. Tremors ran through a heated body.

His name was whispered, breathed into the shell of his ear, laced with a longing he'd craved to hear.

“Junsu...”

A shiver went through his own form. His hands pressed harder against her lower back, between her shoulder blades, holding their bare skin together, flush against each other.

It was better than he imagined; what he'd been waiting for.

A sharp pain sliced across his cheek and he was pulled to consciousness, painfully so. A roaring in his skull flared, stomach clenched and bile threatened to rise. Cold metal bit into his wrists, bound behind him. The rest of the body felt numb and sluggish as if still in a dream.

A rough hand grabbed his jaw and jerked his head from the droop. His eyes pulled open, swollen and bloodshot. Vision flickered, blurred at the edges. An unfocused face loomed in front of him. He did not know the man, but the man seemed to know him.

“Tell me everything you know about Detective Kim,” he said.