My Guy  

Wenjay was blissfully unaware that he had been officially added to Mingyoo's "My Guy" list.

Of course, Mingyoo's "My Guy" had a slightly different meaning than what Sang understood by it.

As Sang was heading downstairs, Wenjay was in the yard giving Patton, the dog, a check-up on his now healed family jewels. Rommel, the cat, was squatting nearby, watching with a hint of reverence in his eyes towards Wenjay, the second-in-command of the household.

"Oh, so you're the animal whisperer now? You've got a heart of gold, don't ya?" Sang greeted Wenjay with a cheeky grin, way friendlier than he ever was with Mingyoo.

Wenjay felt a chill down his spine, "Boss... Sir!"

Sang chuckled, "I'm off. I'll be back to check on Mingyoo in a couple of days. Make sure you take him to the hospital." He added Wenjay on WeChat and sent him the hospital's public account. "Keep an eye on his medical records and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

Wenjay nodded, feeling like a parent picking up a mischievous kid from kindergarten.

Sang affectionately patted Wenjay's shoulder, "I like you, kid. You've got a good head on your shoulders and some mad skills. Take care of Mingyoo, will ya? He's a handful - greedy, lazy, messy, smelly, full of hot air, and a drama queen. But deep down, he's a good egg."

Wenjay was baffled at how "good egg" was the conclusion after that laundry list of flaws.

And what did he mean by "mad skills"? Did Mingyoo spill some beans?

After seeing off Sang, Wenjay went upstairs to find Mingyoo. He walked in to find him changing clothes, wearing saggy pajama bottoms and nothing else, revealing a chiseled torso that could have been carved by Michelangelo himself.

Wenjay couldn't fathom how he had to sweat buckets at the gym just to maintain a four-pack, while some people could laze around for months and still have an eight-pack as if they were born with it.

Life is just not fair, is it?

"He's gone?" Mingyoo hopped over to the sofa, sniffed a T-shirt, realized it was used, and switched to a shirt instead.

Wenjay, standing opposite him, noticed a gnarly scar on Mingyoo's left chest, similar to the gunshot wound on his leg. He recalled the medical records mentioning a gunshot wound to the chest…

How on earth was this guy still running around and smoking like a chimney with injuries like that? Was he made of adamantium or something?

"What are you looking at?" Mingyoo glanced at his own chest and said, "Gunshot wound, pleural adhesion, quit smoking - he told you all that, didn't he? Where are my smokes? Hand me one, will ya?"

Wenjay took out the pack of cigarettes, walked to the bathroom, and flushed them down the toilet.

Wenjay looked utterly baffled, "Dude, you're hardcore!"

Wenjay came back and said, "He told me to take you to the hospital first thing tomorrow. And if you smoke again, I have permission to shoot you... Can you lend me a gun first?"

"No way, Jose! Go ask whoever gave you that permission!" Mingyoo grumbled, rummaging through clothes on the sofa. Wenjay watched him sniffing shirts like a bloodhound and finally lost it, grabbing a clean T-shirt from the closet and tossing it to him.

Mingyoo caught the T-shirt, mumbled thanks, and then said, "Fetch me some pants too, will ya?"

Wenjay rolled his eyes to the heavens, grabbed a pair of jeans and threw them at him, "What's next, you want me to diaper you?"

Mingyoo, hopping into his pants, retorted, "How do you even know how to do that?"

"Because I'm a preschool teacher!" Wenjay snapped, fighting the urge to grab a gun and shoot him right there. Instead, he found himself involuntarily picking up the dirty clothes from the floor.

He noticed that Mingyoo was actually quite clean; his clothes didn't smell sweaty. How did he even sniff that out?

But this cleanliness was utterly useless! It only added to the laundry load!

"Thanks, man." Mingyoo seemed a bit guilty, rubbing his knee, "How about I treat you to a fancy lunch in the city? It's your birthday, right? You into fruit cake or chocolate cake? Yahlin mentioned you love steak. I know this great steak place, but it's kinda far. I ordered a helicopter, but it won't be delivered until National Day…"

Wenjay's inner monologue was screaming, "Why don't you just fly there yourself?"

Wenjay couldn't help but feel a little satisfied seeing Mingyoo ruffled. "Nah, I'm good. A bowl of noodles will do."

Mingyoo didn't say much after that, just fiddled with his phone. Wenjay, having picked up the clothes, sat across from him and asked seriously, "Sang mentioned you're quitting. Is that true?"

Mingyoo frowned, "Why did he tell you everything? What did you do, hypnotize him?"

"Maybe it's because he's a married man," Wenjay said. "He must be an honest husband and thinks all men are like him."

Mingyoo gave him a sidelong glance, "Are you implying something? Am I not honest?"

Wenjay snorted, "You know what you did."

Mingyoo sighed, "Okay, I might have kept a few secrets. But don't you have secrets too?"

Wenjay's heart skipped a beat. Mingyoo continued, "You hacked into the Criminal Investigation Department's intranet and dug up Mandy Wu's profile. You think I don't know?"

Wenjay's first thought was that his secret agent Omega Girl had been exposed. Then he realized Mingyoo said "you" and not "your accomplice". So, Mingyoo thought Wenjay did the hacking himself?

Wenjay decided to roll with it, "Yeah, I looked into Mandy Wu… but you lied to me too! Three years ago, you didn't tell me the truth. I remember now, we met more than once. You took me to do something important, meet someone important… Don't even try to make up stories. I won't ask you anything more. I'll remember everything eventually!"

Mingyoo sucked in a breath through his teeth, "You're really something, remembering all that. I knew you were a keeper… But why did you look into her?"

Wenjay replied, "Curiosity."

"Why are you so curious?"

"Psychological rebound," Wenjay said. "The more you try to feed me BS, the more I want to know the truth. A little online digging led me straight to Mandy Wu."

Mingyoo was silent for a moment, then said, "I guess there's no harm in telling you, so you don't go snooping around and get us both in trouble. Mandy was my father's adopted daughter, my sister, and a member of the Super Case Division."

Wenjay was taken aback that the person who adopted Mandy was Mingyoo's father. Mingyoo continued, "You probably know her family was wiped out in a revenge attack. I spent years trying to get her to let go of her hatred and embrace life positively. I thought I succeeded, but she used her position to find and kill the culprits."

His voice was calm, but Wenjay could sense an indescribable disappointment and pain. "Why didn't she just have them arrested and tried in court? Why take matters into her own hands?"

"Lack of evidence," Mingyoo said. "It was an old case, and they were slick. We couldn't nail them, and two prosecutions failed. I noticed Mandy was off, so I suspended her and got her counseling. The counselor said she improved, so I let her return to work."

Mingyoo played with his lighter, lost in thought. "Soon after, the suspects were murdered. I suspected her, but found no evidence. More criminal suspects were assassinated similarly. I set a trap to test her."

"I wish I had been wrong. But my gut is never wrong," Mingyoo leaned back, his voice heavy. "Seeing her at the scene, my mind went blank. I couldn't believe my sister, whom I raised for 15 years, had become a cold-blooded killer."

He paused, "She shot at me to escape, and I had no choice but to shoot her down. I was in a coma for a month. When I woke up, the Super Case Division was suspended, and everyone was under investigation. Including me."

Wenjay looked at Mingyoo's dejected face and sighed, "Is that why you're quitting?"

"Partly," Mingyoo pondered.

Wenjay was uneasy, having learned such a huge secret. "Why are you telling me this? Isn't this top-secret stuff?"

Mingyoo nodded, then looked at him, his eyes gleaming in the shadow, "Wenjay, what if there's a job that can satisfy your curiosity, pays a seven-figure salary, but involves investigating supernatural cases with some risks and challenges. Would you consider taking it?"

"What do you mean?"

"I want to hire you as my assistant," Mingyoo said earnestly. "Will you accept this offer?"