CHAPTER 8

TIN

Vel and Ping were already inside the meeting room when I arrived. Not like the days before, not alot of people here this morning. There's only me, The Commissioner, Vel and Ping and they all seem waiting for me.

“dr. Tin, please come in, we’ve been waiting for you”

I want to sit next to Vel but I don’t know if he is still mad at me or not. So just to be safe, I sit far from him, who sat next to Ping. I don’t know what these meetings are all about. Why is it only us here? And why is the Commissioner here?

The Commissioner sits on the chair at the end of the table then starts talking “dr. Vel, dr. Tin, you two know there’s no restriction about dating in this office, right? Everybody's free to date each other as long as it follows the Old Value, right?”

“Yes, sir” I answer with Vel in unison.

“That's why, I want you to answer honestly, are you two going on a date last weekend?”

I immediately turned to Vel when I heard that question and I could see his face turn pale. None of us answer him.

“That, of course, is your private life and if you choose to not share it with us it’s ok, it's your right. Besides, a pairing between an Enigma and an Alpha is the most ideal pairing in our society, I can be more happy and in support if that’s true. But… it becomes my concern when this is the narrative that is created among the people…”

A bunch of social media postings appear on the screen. One is a candid video of me and Vel while we dine at the restaurant the night we prevent the bombing. We were chatting and laughing happily, and yeah, it totally looks like we were having a dinner date. I don’t even have a time to question who took the video because the comment under the video are not really good:

“Wait, Are you telling me they are a pair?”

“Aren't they on a team that should be catching the thumb collector?”

“A serial killer is on the loose yet the people who should be catching them are going on date instead?”

“No wonder they were together when the bombing attempt happened, they were on a date!”

Some pictures of Tin calm me down after he apprehended the bomber are also there. All the comment are similar and all of them are bad.

“Catching a serial killer (NO) Going on a date (YES)”

“No wonder it took so long for them to catch the thumb collector, they are too busy going on a date.”

Some of them even use this as an opportunity to mock the Old Value.

“This is why we can  never trust Old Valuer, they are too busy consummate with each other and let the rest of us be killed by a serial killer.”

“They said Alphas are more superior than Betas, yet look at them busy dating while they have an important job to do.”

Vel's face looks horrified, he's at a loss of words and looks at the screen without blinking.

“How long has this been going?” I ask.

“Actually, the PR team started seeing the post on Monday but they didn't really take it seriously since it wasn't connected to the investigation directly. But it got worse since yesterday, more and more Beta influencers especially Gammas and Deltas post things like this” answer Ping.

“Does it appear on the news too?” Ask Vel finally said something.

“No, it only appears on social media,” answered Ping.

The Commissioner added “We are so lucky the media haven’t pick up this story yet, this narrative is not good for The Police Force as an institution”

We all go silent for a few seconds. This is really the wordt thing that can happened, We just minding our own business, why did those nosy Betas has to make it a big deal?

“What do you think we should do, sir?” I ask.

“First, I want both of you to tell me the truth, were you two on a date last weekend?” Ask the Commissioner.

Me and Vel look at each other, then Vel said “Yes, sir, Tin's dad send a formal request to my parents and they accepted it”

“Oh, that’s really good” said the Commissioner, sounding delighted for real. “Will there be another date?”

“Yes, sir” this time I’m the one who answered “Vel’s parent send a second date request and my dad accept it, we have a plan for a second date this weekend”

“That is truly wonderful!” The Commissioner said in an even more delighted voice.

Vel looked shy seeing the Commissioner's reaction.

Ping coughs loudly to remind the Commissioner that we are still in the middle of a serious talk involving The Police Force reputation.

Then, I suddenly realize something, is this the plan my dad was talking about? The plan to make Vel out from the investigation? If it is, then I hope the next sentence the Commissioner said is what I hope for.

“Well, as much as it is wonderful news for our society, we still need to think about our duty to maintain the good reputation of the Police Force.” He took a deep breath before continuing “That’s why I hope in the next few days the both of you can be a little bit laid low. Maybe for the second date you can go to places with less people”

“Yes, sir” we both answer.

“Well, that’s it…”

What??? That’s it???

The Commissioner stand from his chair and ready to walk out from the meeting room

“I'll let you all get back to work. I heard from Inspector Ping we already have specific clues about the suspect. Let the PR team blew up that news to the public and make them forget about you two go on a date”

“Yes, sir”

The Commissioner leaves without saying anything more.

Well, this is really disappointing. My dad's plan didn’t go as planned and I urgently need to talk to hin about this.

But, I remember I have a more urgent problem that I don’t know if it’s already solved or not. Have Ten talked to him yet?

When I’m about to get close to Vel, he is in the middle of a serious talk with Ping. I didn't catch the full conversation. I only heard some of the words.

“I'll talk to my brother” Vel said.

“The sooner the better” answered Ping.

I make a loud coughing sound like Ping did, to remind them that I’m still here.

Ping look at me with a sneaky smile and said “Well, better we get back to work”

Before he leave the room, he added “Congrats for you two, hope the second date going good”

Ping already disappeared from the room before I could say anything, while Vel only smiled and shook his head but didn’t say anything.

Finally there’s only me and Vel in the room, I come close to him, but before I can say anything, he talks first.

“Later, we’ll talk later”

“What? I haven’t say anything”

“I know you will say ‘can we talk?’”

“So you read my mind now?”

“That won’t be necessary, it all written on you face”

I don’t even know what he means by ‘written on my face’.

“I need a serious talk with you, but now I need to talk to my brother first”

“Ok… I guess”

I want to ask why he urgently needs to talk to his brother but I hesitate because I don’t know if that will make him mad at me more or not. So I don’t say anything.

Before he walked out of the room, he gave me a quick kiss on my cheek which surprised me so much I froze for a second.

“See you later” he added.

The moment I unfroze, he already leaves the room. I touch my cheek and think, so now he’s not mad at me anymore?

VEL

It’s really funny to see his face when I kiss his cheek. He must be quite confused now. He can’t be the only one who keeps teasing me, once in a while I also want to tease him too. I really want to have a serious talk with him but, right now I really need to talk to my brother.

It’s still 8AM so I have an hour before My brother goes to his morning class. The university where my brother teaches is named after our family's name. One of the oldest and the best universities in the country. I arrived at the university and went directly to his office at the Faculty of Psychology. I used to go to this campus too. Even after I graduate I come here all the time to visit my brother. But it's been 4 years since the last time I came here so this time it was kinda nostalgic to walk in here again.

When I arrive, I don’t even knock on my brother’s office door and directly come in.

P’Sai was in the middle of a phone conversation and looked like he was already expecting me. He makes a gesture to tell me to keep silent while he talks to I don’t know who on the phone.

“Yes, dad, I’ll tell him that” he said that to the person on the other end.

He’s talking to his father-in-law. P’Pon’s father is the media mogul in the country. And he is the reason why I urgently need to talk to my brother now.

“Thank you, dad, I’ll bring the little on to have a dinner at the main mansion, see you soon” P’Sai said before ending the phone call.

“Your father-in-law?” I ask even though I already know the answer.

He looked at me with a smug face before saying “As usual, I already do you a favor before you even ask me to. Now the absurd news about ‘two people in The Police Force going on a date instead of catching a serial killer’ won’t appear anywhere on the news. You’re welcome.”

“How did your father-in-law know?”

“He's like a living CCTV that knows everything that happened in this country. Of course he will notice when my brother becomes viral for the wrong reason on social media.”

I sigh a relief sigh “Say my thank you to him”

“Already did. He also congratulate you and said ‘I hope the dates will soon result on a marriage’”

I smile bitterly “Why did everyone keep being happy for me and congratulate me?”

“We rarely have a pairing of Enigma and Alpha in our society. It’s normal everyone is excited for you and Tin”

“Yeah… of course they did” I sat on a chair in front of him in an unenthusiastic manner.

“What? Why you look like you are not happy with this pairing, Mom and mama keep saying you two are perfectly match”

“I’m actually in the middle of a fight with him now?”

“What??? What happened?”

My brother is the person I’ve always trusted as a place to tell all my problems and to ask for advice. I can tell him anything and If I tell him not to tell our parents he won't. He's not always give the best advice, but he always gives the advice that I need. Sometimes I feel like he knows me better than I know myself.

So I tell him everything. From the fact that I had a one night stand with Tin before we knew each other's name and before we both knew we work for The Police Force. He laughed so hard at this part, because it was partly because of him and his husband. If he didn’t take me to that club and make me a total third wheel, I wouldn't end up having a one night stand with Tin. I actually kinda need to thank him for this because it turned out to be THE best one night stand I ever had and also the beginning of my relationship with Tin.

And I also told him about the fact that Tin is a psychopath and somehow made me keep thinking he's the suspect that we are currently looking for.

“Are you sure about that? Your profiling usually on point but you also make mistakes, right? " he said.

“That's the problem, I keep juggling between he is 100% the suspect and he is 100% not the suspect like 100 times this past week, because…”

“Your hole is his perfect alibi”

“Exactly”

“That's awkward”

“Exactly! If they ever call him as a potential suspect, he will definitely submit me as a witness”

“Yeah, that would be epic! I can Imagine he said ‘it can’t be me, I was inside dr. Vel the whole night’”

He totally laughs by his own words while I'm here covering my face because even just imagining that is already so embarrassing for me.

“But, it's totally fine now since everybody in the country already know you two are in the process of being an official pair, no one will think it's weird that he fuck you”

That brought me to tell him my next problem, about how he has such a huge sex drive to the point we can get close to each other without the urge to drop our pants.

“That's what you get when you are dating someone younger than you” my brother commented “I remember one time Pon hid himself under my table in my class. I unknowingly sit and start the class. I just noticed he was under there when he started unbuttoning my trousers and put my dick in his mouth in front of 58 of my students.”

I widen my eyes “That was wild”

“I was lucky the table completely hid what happened under it from my students' sight, but getting a blowjob while giving a lecture and also holding myself to not making any unusual sound was a God tier job, really.”

“Did you manage to hold it till the end?”

“No, I end up giving my students an assignment to do research outside the class 10 minutes after the class started.”

I laugh out loud hearing his story.

“But then, as a payback, I fuck him in that very class after I cum inside his mouth.”

“I have a feeling that’s actually what he wanted.”

“Yeah he probably did”

“In your case, it's more like ‘that’s what you got when you are courting your own student.’”

“That's also true. But my point is, when you meet someone so compatible with you, sex is just something you can’t control anymore. It's a blessing for us and that’s how we reproduce. And to think about it again, by the amount of times I cum inside him without condoms, me and Pon are actually so lucky I didn’t get him pregnant before we got married”

My jaws dropped to the floor “Brother!”

“But that’s probably mostly because he consume contraception pills, yet still, my dear bro, Don't tell our parents about this, please”

I just scoff and smile. I don’t need to tell him but he sure knows, I won’t tell our parents if he told me not to tell them.

“How about him? Is he more responsible than me?” My brother's voice is back to serious again.

I nodded my head “He is, he was talking about get me pregnant all the time, but he always respect me and always wear condoms every time we had sex”

“That's a green flag then. Not all psychopaths are a red flag, you and I know it better since we study about them. Me, personally, don’t care about what he is, what I care is who he is. If he treats my little brother right, then I have no problem with him. Sometimes you also need to tone down your own alert, you are dealing with too many criminals that you start to see everyone as one”

“Yeah, I think you are right”

And then I told him about Ten and what happened this morning.

“Did he even know that there was a time when you and Ping had something you called ‘a fling’?”

“Oooh…” stupid me! How did I just remember about that?

“Just think a way to tell him about it and make sure he didn’t react the same way as you did… or worst”

I smile dryly “That was really asuring, brother”

“Good luck with that, also remember, Ping is my friend, so please don’t make the psychopath go full psychopath on my friend”

TIN

I was waiting for Vel to come back to the office until lunch time but he’s not back yet. He only said he needed to talk to his brother and will talk to me after, so I waited. I can't even concentrate on my job because I keep thinking about him.

Was he still mad at me or not? What is the meaning of his cheek kiss?

I did try to text him but he hasn't answered me yet, so when a notification comes to my phone I immediately pick it up hoping it will be from Vel, it’s not. It was a text from my dad.

“Let’s have lunch together”

I just remember I also need to speak with my dad. It looks like his plan to make Vel out from the investigation team didn’t go as planned. He must’ve another plan, this is my dad we are talking about, he always has plan B to Z in everything.

I text him back with an answer “Ok, on my way”

Before leaving the office I looked at Vel's office, he still hasn't come back yet. Did he also have lunch with his brother? I look at my phone and he still hasn’t replied to my message. I added another text message, telling him I’m having lunch with my dad. Still no reply.

I really need to think less about him, am I? I keep having him in my mind to the point I can’t even function normally the whole day. For example, when I drive to my main mansion, my brain drives me to his mansion instead. I almost reach the front gate when I finally realize my mistake.

I quickly turn around and drive to my real destination. As a result, I arrived quite late. My dad was waiting for me at the front door while enjoying a cup of ice cream in his hands. Where did the 56 years old go? He looks like a total kid when he does that.

“Traffic?” ask my dad, didn’t stop scooping his ice cream.

“Yeah… kinda.”

“Ice cream?”

“Isn’t ice cream a desert?”

“Ice cream is good to be eaten anytime.”

He finishes his ice cream, a maid takes away the empty cup from his hand, then we walk to the dining room.

We have 2 dining rooms in this mansion. One is the big dining room for when we accept guests to have a meal in our mansion and the other is the small dining room, for just me and my dad to have a meal with some people close to us like my grandparents or my aunt or Ten. For today it’s just me and my dad.

The small dining room only has a small table with 6 chairs. On the table already served all of my favorite food. Of course my dad is not the one who cooks it. My dad can never be anywhere near a stove or any cooking tools because that will be a perfect recipe for disaster. My dad probably holds a degree in many fields, can play guitar, piano and saxophone, is a world class renowned artist, but he absolutely can’t cook. He will put anything that doesn’t need to be cooked in the pan and burn anything he tries to fry. The only time he is allowed in the kitchen is to taste the food.

Even an Enigma has something we're not good at. My dad said that makes us human, not God.

“How are you and Vel doing? Everything is fine?” ask my dad in the middle of the meal.

I told my dad about what happened this morning and how Vel confused me with his cheek kiss but ghosted me for half a day.

My dad smiled and said “You two sounded like an old married couple already”

“Did you and papa used to be like this too?”

“Nope, never, your papa was perfect, he never acted like that, but your papa was one of a kind so everyone else will be like… everyone else”

Of course my dad will use this opportunity to flex about papa. Even though it is sometimes annoying, I'm used to it.

“So, from someone who has never experienced this, should I ask for advice about what I should do?”

“Just have a talk with him when he gives you a chance, he gives you a kiss on the cheek, he is pretty much not mad at you anymore. Besides, he got something else he need to worry about”

He must be referring to the viral social media news about us

“Is that the plan you were talking about? The Commissioner only told us told laid low and didn’t say anything about having him out from the team”

“He will eventually but it goes slower than I expected because Vel family's in-law is the one who controls the media.”

“His family's in-law? So it must be why he wanted to talk to his brother”

“Yeah, he must be wanting to make sure this doesn’t appear on any news. So, I hate to say this but it will take a while for this to take the effect we wanted”

“That will be bad, because he is so close to catch me, last monday he manage to narrow down his profiling to someone who is 99,99% me”

“Really? He is that good huh? What is the profiling he made?”

“An Alpha, 24-27 years old, height above 175 cm, have a medical knowledge, never leave the country for long, and have a supportive family both mentally and financially.”

My dad looked genuinely surprised when he heard my explanation “He makes that profiling?”

“Yep, that’s me, right?”

My dad laughed instead. What? Did he go crazy now?

“Did the investigation team call someone for questioning already?”

“They haven’t, last time we have meeting they still slimming down the possible suspect and looking for more evidence”

My dad smile wickedly “Then we just need to wait, he already dig his own grave”

“What do you mean?” I'm confused here.

“Just wait until the investigation team call the possible suspect for interrogation”

VEL

I ended up staying until lunch time with my brother. He doesn’t have class today so I can stay longer to have a long talk with him.

He told me about his married life. And occasionally give me his wisdom that mostly doesn’t really make any sense.

“Don't immediately get pregnant and have a baby, just wait at least until a year or two, having baby is harder than not having sex for a week and I've experienced both”

This is my first long talk with my brother after I came back to this country. I was just glad I have a nice catch up with him so I don’t mind his nonsense at all.

The last time we had a talk this long was 2 years ago at his bachelor party. He moved his whole wedding to New Zealand for me because I said I can’t come home for his wedding. We held his bachelor party at a random pub in New Zealand. The other groomsman kept giving him drinks so he was half drunk almost the whole conversation and completely passed out by the end of the conversation.

I remember the last thing he said before he passed out was actually really sweet.

“I feel bad, I feel bad because I left my brother to get married first. I hope he will find someone for himself soon”

He was drunk dead while he said that but I know he was 100% serious about that. He just wants me to find someone for myself and have a happy marriage with that person like he did.

So, really, more than for the sake of the whole society, I really want my relationship with Tin to work for the sake of my brother and my family.

Because seriously, what is lacking from him? Aside from the fact that he is a psychopath, Tin is absolutely perfect. He is the almighty Enigma, coming from a good family, amazing in bed, also unintentionally cute and funny.

So I come to the office in hope to have a serious talk with Tin and fix our problem completely.

But, he’s not in his office. I checked my phone and just found his message. He had lunch with his dad, that’s why he’s not at his office.

I text him back “Have a nice lunch”

He didn’t reply back, he must be in the middle of lunch. I'll just wait for him at my office.

People in this office keep whispering and give me a weird smile every time they see me, that makes me want to just lock myself in my office till work hours are over. It must be because of the news. How long will a viral social media topic be forgotten and go away? I'm not familiar with the platforms so I don’t know. I just hope it will pass soon.

I'm busying myself with reading the newest report about the case. There’s nothing new, the investigation team didn’t find any abandoned incinerator that has the possibility to be used as a place to burn the victim's bodies. And they also still try to track down the organ trafficker's organization. So no real progress in this part.

I keep looking at the clock while I read the report. 2 hours have passed and he still hasn’t come back.

I continue reading the report from the forensic office. Also the same, no progress about the tools and the thumbs.

Another hour past. It's already 3PM when he finally reply “Let's have a talk at my home tonight. I don’t want to have this talk at the office while everyone is watching.”

I have to agree with him. Everyone already knows our relationship and they will have a wild guess if they see me being inside his soundproofed office for too long. Well, their wild guess is mostly true, but let’s not encourage them.

I text him back “See you tonight”

Around 4PM, he finally came back to his office. We agreed to talk at his house tonight so I don’t immediately run to him. But honestly, I miss him so much. Except for the time I sleep at night, this is probably the longest time I spend without seeing him or hearing his voice since we had our first date.

Either I'm crazy or just super horny, The image of him and his glorious thing suddenly appear in my head. I have to slap myself to bring me back to sanity. Tonight, we will meet tonight. Hold your horny mind, self!

I choose to focus myself back to work by maping every possible candidate for our suspect based on my profiling. So far the investigation team hasn't called anyone for interrogation because they want to gather more evidence. But just in case, I will do my own suspect filtering.

I'm too busy with work and didn’t even realize it's already night time. I look out the window and his office is already dark, a sign that he has already gone home.

I hurriedly pack my things, even take a suit from my storage for a change of clothes tomorrow, just in case.

I don't even know how long he has been home. I drive as fast and as safely as I can to his home. When I arrived there he had already changed into loungewear and smelled like soap. He already finished showering.

He smiles so widely when he sees me in front of his door.

“Did you have dinner yet? I'm in the middle of cooking dinner” he said after he let me in.

“You cook?”

“Nothing fancy though, everyone said my dad is perfect but he's the ultimate bad cook. So I want to be the ultimate perfect by becoming a great cook”

It didn’t surprise me if a person like Khun Jack is a bad cook. Most of us members of an old Alpha family never step foot in a kitchen. That place is for maids and the pro chef we hired to cook for us. My sister didn’t even know how to turn on a stove, I myself know a thing or two about kitchen tools because I learned about it when I lived by myself back in New Zealand.

So, what will Tin cooking taste like? If his cooking is edible that will definitely add some bonus poin for himself.

I sit at the counter in his kitchen and watch him cook some kind of spaghetti. He stir some creamy white sauce on the pan while adding some ingredients. He looks like a pro chef, but everyone can look like a pro chef. The taste of his cooking is what will prove either he is a good chef or not.

He finished stirring the sauce and poured it on two plates of spaghetti he had already prepared. Decorate the plate a little then bring it in front of me. Not gonna lie, it looks and smells so good.

He give me a fork and said “Bon Appetit”

I fork a bit of the spaghetti, not too much just in case it tastes bad, then put that bit in my mouth.

The taste definitely surprised me. It's the same as the taste of spaghetti in some 3 Michelin star restaurants.

“Wow! This is so good!”

He looks so satisfied seeing me happy with his cooking, he leans forward to me and asks “So you are not mad anymore?”

I finished chewing my spaghetti before I answered him “Ten was talking to me.”

“And…?”

“I am actually not really mad at you since the beginning but I need to keep things straight so we won’t have any suspicion or trust issues in the future.”

“Ok… that understandable”

“And… I also need to make a confession”

His face turned tense “About what?”

I took a deep breath “I had a some kind of relationship with Ping for a short time”

He blink a few times hearing my confession then laughed “That's it?”

“Why did you laugh?”

“Well, I thought the confession will be something more serious, turns out it’s just that, but, I can say we are even now, right?”

“Of course not”

“Why not?”

“Well, me and Ping didn’t live across to each other, and I only had sex three times with him”

“But you did have sex with him, right?”

“I did” I tried to find a reason to make my case not as bad as his and added “3 times boring vanilla sex”

I didn’t lie though, compared to my sex with Tin, my sex with Ping is too safe and soft and plain.

Tin chuckles hearing my reason “What do you think I did with Ten, then?”

“That… you need to tell me” I fold both my arm on my chest waiting for his answer.

I can see from his face he knows his case is definitely worse than mine and he is also looking for a safe way out from this question.

“Ok, then… what’s in your mind?”

I don’t even know why he asked me that question, he is digging his own grave.

“Did you kiss him?”

“Yes”

“Did you finger him?”

“Yes”

“Did you rim him?”

“Yes”

He is definitely digging his own grave. Everything he did with me, he did it with Ten too and it seriously angered me.

“Is there anything you haven’t done with him?”

“If there is, do you want to do it with me?”

“Try me”

He put on that wicked smile and answer “Toys, Ten never want to try any toys with me”

“Huh?”

“Do you want to do it with me?”