Blood Runs Hot

TW for police interaction, blood mention, severe mental health issues including delusion, obsessiveness

As I sit on the floor of my dingy cell, I scratch a crude portrait of Seo-joon into the cracking paint of the stark white walls. "This could never be a display of all his glory but at least I'm doing something for him. I know he would appreciate my efforts." I say, content with my work.

"For the love of God, can you shut up in there!" I hear from the cell next to me. Of course, these commoners would never understand the powerful connection between him and me. As I reach back for the brick I was using to etch my image into the wall I hear my lawyer's voice call "They're ready for us in the interrogation room."

Jeremy, my lawyer, is nothing impressive to look at. His cheekbones are barely visible, patchy skin, and a total and complete lack of any boyish charm. Nothing like my Joonybear. He escorts me into a dimly lit room with a large window I assume I am being watched through. Two burly men sit at a small wooden table. One pulls out a chair for me. "Have a seat and help me paint a picture of yesterday's events." He says calmly.

"He seems like he wants to get my side of the story" I think to myself as I slide my chair forward to meet the table. "Once they hear about my lovebug and me, then they will understand and I will be free to go." The other officer, an older man with a beer belly stares at me intently. "Where were you last night at 6 pm?" The officer barks this at me and I am taken aback. "I was in line for the Tempting F8 concert. I had VIP tickets."

Usually Tempting F8 VIP tickets are prohibitively expensive. Lucky for me, Seo-joon was watching out for me as always and made sure I won the fan art contest, so the ticket to meet my soulmate was entirely free. Hopefully my love doesn't notice the bags under my eyes. I barely slept in anticipation of our first embrace.

The doors to the venue open and waves of people begin pouring in. I follow the crowd back into the VIP area and wait patiently for my turn with Seo-Joon. As the line moves forward I start to see him. First the top of his head, then his face, and then his beautiful collarbones. Soon enough he is fully visible to me. He notices my gaze and smiles lovingly at me. Butterflies shoot through my stomach and I can barely contain myself.

Before I realize it I am at the front of the line. The rest of the boys seem eager to meet me as well but of course, I request a photo of just Joony and me. He happily obliges and wraps his arm over my shoulder as we pose for the camera. He smells like petrichor and vanilla. The light flashes and he waves me goodbye. I'm sad I have to leave him so soon but I admire his dedication to his other fans.

The officer who pulled out my chair for me, Officer Thompson according to his badge, smiles gently at me. "VIP tickets! How exciting. Have you been a fan of Tempting F8 for a while? They're my daughter's favorite band." He winks at me as he says this. "You're daughter has great taste. Who is her bias?" I reply sweetly. "Um. She's not really a very biased person. Very non-discriminatory, that girl." I laugh quietly to myself. "No, a bias is her favorite member of the group." "Oh... I think his name is Suh-Gwen?" I quickly do some deep breaths like my new therapist told me to do when I get frustrated. "Seo-Joon, it's Seo-Joon." He laughs a little bit too jovially for my liking and replies "My mistake. I apologize for any offense."

According to the clock on the wall, 34 minutes have passed since we entered the room and they haven't asked me anything about Seo-joon and I's relationship. Just random questions about what types of medications I am on and if I've ever been hospitalized before. I cannot understand how any of this information is relevant. "We found a napkin from The Fortnight Hotel in your bag, have you stayed there recently?" He is talking about the napkin Joonybear left for me on the table in the VIP room. His hint at where to meet him.

The Uber pulls up to the building and I quickly check through the folder of hotel layouts I have created of all the hotels in the area Seo-joon would be likely to stay at. "He wanted to make this more fun for me!" I say to myself. "Uh, sure. Whatever you say. Remember to rate five stars in the app!" The Uber driver replies. I exit the SUV into the back alleyway next to the hotel.

"The fire escape should be on this side." After I've pulled myself up onto the stairwell I call the front desk. "Hello, this is Amy Schreiber, Yoon Seo-joon's assistant. He seems to have fallen asleep before telling me his room number. Do you mind looking it up so I can deliver his costume for tomorrow night's show?" The woman on the other line replies simply with "Hold please." Congested-sounding music starts playing through the speaker of the phone as I sit on the cold metal stairs. "I should have brought a jacket." I mumble to myself.

After 6 minutes and 37 seconds, the woman's voice comes back over the speaker "Room 571." I hear, and then the woman hangs up. "Well, I guess all that physical training was worth it." I mutter as I begin to climb the steep black stairs up to the 5th floor.

"My boyfriend was staying there last night." I reply to Officer Thompson. "Very nice of you to visit your boyfriend, was he visiting from out of town?" "Yes, from out of the country. He was here on business but made sure to make time to still see me." I reply with a smile. The other officer stares at me, almost in disbelief. "There was video footage of you climbing up the fire escape, why wouldn't you have just gone to the front desk?" He asks sternly.

It's not as if I hadn't thought of just going to the front desk and pretending to be his manager. With the laissez-faire attitude of the woman working the front desk, I probably could have gotten away with it, but I couldn't risk Joony's reputation as a single idol. He needs to pretend we aren't in love so that his fans won't turn on him. Some fans can get so nasty, but it's just because they don't understand how powerful true love can really be.

As I climb the stairs to the fifth floor I stop for a second to check my supplies. Butterfly needle? Check. Tubes for the blood? Check. A bandage in Seo-joon's favorite color, blue? Check. As I'm rifling through my bag I drop a needle and it ricochets down the metal stairs. "Good thing I brought extra. That's one thing I know Joony loves about me, how prepared I always am."

Once I draw up the blood for our necklaces I plan to wait there until morning to surprise him. I know he's expecting me but we didn't communicate which night I'd be coming. I had a hard time not spilling the beans to him over Twitter DMs but he hasn't been replying to my messages as quickly due to being on tour. I love how committed he is to his career but I'm excited for when he retires so we can start a family.

"I thought that might wake him up, I was just trying to be courteous of his busy schedule." "Of course, of course. That's very sweet of you, you two must care very deeply about each other." Officer Thompson replies. "Yes, very much so." "What is your boyfriend's name, if I may ask?" "Seo-Joon, but I like to call him Joonybear." The look on Officer Thompson's face changes in a way I can't quite place. "How did you two meet?" He queries. "We met on Twitter. He followed me back on June 9th, 2020 at 6:41 pm central." Both officers shift around in their chairs and look at one another. Officer Thompson lets me know he and his coworker will have to step out for a moment.

"They must have to collect themselves after finding out I am THE Seo-joon's girlfriend. They're probably calling him right now and he will sort all of this out." I think to myself. Jeremy looks at me in disbelief. "You're incriminating yourself!" He whispers urgently. "I can't defend you properly if you reveal everything!" He seems exasperated, but I'm not sure why. "I know we were trying to keep our relationship under wraps but I know Joony would value my freedom over his career. Plus there are plenty of idols with girlfriends!" I reply, trying to reassure him.

As I traverse the last set of stairs to the 5th floor I see flashing blue and red lights coming down the road in front of the hotel. I try my best to shimmy through the window before they arrive but I'm just a few seconds too late. "Stop where you are, an officer will be coming up to get you in just a moment." "An officer coming to get me? Why? Well, I suppose I better cooperate, my mother always told me to follow the orders of the police"

The older officer steps back into the room. His badge is worn from years of work so I cannot read his name. He sits back down at the table. "We found an unopened butterfly needle at the scene, would you happen to know anything about that?" He asks. "Yes! That was mine, I dropped it scaling the stairs. I was worn out from going up so many flights and became clumsy. Oh, is this all because I littered? I promise it was an accident!" The officer looks at Jeremy, who shrugs. "Why did you have a butterfly needle on you to meet up with Seo-Joon" "Oh, that's easy! I read a fan-fiction about how if you and your beloved wear vials of each other's blood around your necks it will bond you for life. It was only the next natural step in our relationship." With a nod to Jeremy, the officer exits the room again and Jeremy follows behind.

I sit under the half-lit fluorescent lights in the interrogation room for another 37 minutes. "Maybe they had to call Joonybear again to confirm the details of the plan. It would be really weird for someone to do this without the other person being expressly okay with it, after all." I say to the barely furnished room. Both officers step in again, along with Jeremy.

"Your court date will be September 12th at 11 am Please dress appropriately and show up at least 15 minutes before your scheduled time." Officer Thompson says. "I'm going to court for littering?!" I reply. "Can't you just give me a fine?" "You're under arrest on suspicion of attempted assault, not littering." The older officer replies. "Assault? I would never assault anyone! You must have the wrong person. Did you speak with Joony? Is he on his way to see me yet?" Officer Thompson sighs an exasperated sigh. "Yoon Seo-joon has chosen to press charges for your attempted break-in, as well as for attempted assault."

I can't believe what I'm hearing, my beloved would never press charges against me for an act of love. "There has been some kind of mistake, please call him back and he will tell you that you have the wrong person." I plead with them. "Please don't give us a hard time, we're just trying to do our jobs. If you cooperate with us you have the chance of getting a lesser sentence" Officer Thompson says, pulling a pair of handcuffs from his belt. As tears roll down my face, I place my hands behind my back. The handcuffs are hard and cold against my wrists. I am scared to spend any time in prison but at least I will get to see Joonybear again in court.