25th JUNE, 2017

"Huening?" My eyes found Yuna, who had a sly smile curling the ends of her lips, her fingers lazily holding upon a wine glass. Her bedazzled necklace set and the glamorous black dress with silver accents could've easily been the best out of all, but of course, I wasn't gonna flatter her.

However, that's the thing about parties thrown by high rankers-- you just gotta make it into a fashion show and there's no other way around it. I, myself, had a black tuxedo on with silver chains and cuff links, letting my dark hair fall loosely around my head.

"What will you give me if I tell you a secret?" The officer asked, crossing her legs.

"What secret-"

"Answer me first."

Yuna just had this ability to change into a whole new personality to adapt to whatever she wears. You can trust me when I say this, she was a totally different person on a normal day.

I thought for a while. "Would a shopping coupon work?"

She scrunched her nose. "Thank you, but no. Try again."

Of course I was aware of what exactly she wanted, and she knew that. There was no point in beating around the bush.

"Dinner at my house it is."

"Oh darling, you know me so well." She leant back on the couch, gesturing to something or someone behind me. "Look over there."

A slow jazz played over the low din of the guests present. The hall was big, of course, and near the long dinner table stood Jeongin chatting away with someone.

I turned back to Yuna. "It's just Jeongin. What's the secret here?"

She shook her head, laughing a little. "Not Jeongin, idiot, look at the one beside him." And I did.

It was a guy-- medium height, lean figure, attractive features and those wide, wide shoulders. He wasn't someone I knew, but his sneaky glances told me just enough. The guy didn't seem all too interested in what Jeongin had to share.

I wasn't gonna get any sort of sleep, was I?

~-~-~

1st JULY, 2015

It's been, what, six hours? Six hours since my conversation with Yunjin and I had barely anything to go by.

The TV was on, and so was my brain, honestly.

'Think, think.' I bit my bottom lip, my eyes going unfocused.

According to Yeonjun's report and the 119 dispatch records, Bea died early in the morning, around 7:10 to 7:30. The suspect list was long.

Shin Yuna, Inspector; she was present with me at Senior Jung's anniversary party till around 00:30. After that, she probably headed home, but one can never be too sure. The next day was a Sunday, church day for Yuna. She was pretty religious, so there was hardly any way she would've missed it, but that was still a question.

Even if she did attend the church and, let's suppose, was on time as well, there was still a big timeline gap. Church usually started at 8:00. Between 00:30 and 8:00, her activities weren't known of.

Jeongin, Sub-Inspector ; he was also there at the party. I was in my room with Theo, Senior Jung's distant cousin, when he had called me to let me know of his departure from the venue. According to my call logs, that was exactly at 00:49. After that, nothing that I knew.

Jeongin's mom, however, had gotten much more sick in those days and needed on-time medications of the right dose. Jeongin used to take care of it all, so he had to be at home between 6:00 to 7:00 at all costs. Bea's sight of death was two hours away from his house.

Other tha these two, there's captain, Jungkook and Jongho, all of whom were wrapping up a case. Jongho was at the Bureau itself until 6:30. Captain was there along with him.

Jungkook left the Bureau at 21:40 for a dinner date with his wife of three years. He had been going on about the said date for the entirety of a week before, even took recommendations from us. If my calculations were right, they must've left the restaurant after 23:00, after which he was off the line.

So many faces, but who hid it the most? I won't know. Was I being biased? I won't know that either. Was I trying really hard to just forget and move on, as if I heard none of the bullshit Jennifer had spewed? Maybe I was; unsuccessfully so.

My head fell back, eyes blankly staring away into nothingness.

Nothing. The word's a joke that no one laughs at. A nasty, cruel joke that eats you away bit by bit until you are... well, nothing.

My ears felt a bit stuffed for some reason. The TV played some old songs, nothing I could really decipher. My mind ran a marathon of eternity-- round, and round, and-

"You are at home?"

I lifted my head, shifting my gaze to the front door. Riki stood there, his bag hanging over one of his shoulders.

So bad of me, I didn't even hear him come. "You don't want me to be here?"

He just rolled his eyes, closed the door and dropped his bag to the ground before himself dropping down beside me on the couch. Now I could smell the fresh scent of teenage. It was disgusting.

"I thought you'd be wherever you were yesterday." The side eye he presented for me was not an unusual sight. It meant no good.

I threw him a pin-cusion. "Yah! Get your mind out of the gutter."

He only laughed. "What? Don't act like I did not hear you bottoming in the middle of the night."

"That was almost a week ago!" I couldn't help the heat arousing on the tip of my ears. "You could've told us if it was bothering you, asshole." Okay, I regretted as soon as I said that, even more when I saw his face of displeasure.

"Oh, and risk seeing you in a compromising position? No thanks, the voices are enough of a nightmare." And he was laughing again.

I won't deny though, seeing him laugh always gave me this deep feeling of satisfaction.

You see, Riki here was my cousin, as in the son of my mother's sister who married a Japanese man-- an architect by profession.

They had a small family of three, living amongst the sceneries of Hokkaido. Riki was four when his father started gambling out of greed, turning up drunk for almost every night. He wasn't abusive, but his new habits made the family suffer financially.

Uncle Nishimura died when Riki was a mere eight. He was killed in his house itself, in front of his wife and son.

After that incident, Aunt and Riki shifted to Seoul where they tried to normalize their lives again. Little did we knew, Aunt had developed some severe mental illnesses. She'd run out of the house and would be found at random places talking to herself. At first, we thought she just needed some time to herself. Her medical reports said she had symptoms of Schizophrenia.

Finally, after two years, my parents had managed to admit Aunt in a mental hospital and had decided it was best to take an eleven year old Riki in.

Now he was fifteen, and I couldn't be any more proud of him.

"Are you hungry?"

"I am glad you asked. I'm absolutely starving." I ruffled his hair, my smile almost irresistible.

"Mom did send some pies this afternoon."

~-~-~

2nd JULY, 2017

Captain Lisa had a strange habit.
"Do you think she can hear us?"

"I highly doubt."

She went to and fro and to in her cabin, her headphones covering her ears. I wondered how she didn't manage to go deaf already. Even I could hear what she was listening. It was a Girls' Generation song, and Yuna was quite irked with that fact.

"She is doing her thinking,"

"Listening to 'I got a boy'?! Last time it was Mozart!"

"Just-"

"Alright!" Lisa took off those large pieces of personal speakers off of her head before she took up her usual stance-- back straight, shoulders hunched, hands clasped behind the back, and that sharp gaze to make anyone shiver. "Jongho-ssi, Kai-ssi, both of you are gonna go back to Busan. Look for that man with Bea in the photograph asap."

"Why me again, tho?" That was supposed to be me whining, but then my eyes met Lisa. "Me and Jongho it is."

"You went there last time. You know the place better." Then she paused. "Jungkook-ssi would've accompanied you both, but we have an upcoming board meeting."

Did we even have any choice?

"Anyways, Bea's mother has agreed on answering a few questions in custody of the Sydney police. All three of you will join that video conference, and Yuna-ssi, make sure you provide me a report by tomorrow morning. Is that understood?"

After a few nods and agreements, we were dismissed, and I found myself in my cubicle, twirling a pen around my fingers like it was gonna help at all. My eyes were trained at a picture frame sitting beside my work space, but my head wandered somewhere else. Clock said that I still had a whole hour before the interrogation, and in the meantime all I could was think, which I most certainly wasn't doing.

I pushed my revolving chair to the back, just enough to look around outside the cubicle. The cyber department chaps were having a heated argument at one end of the aisle. On the other side, I saw Jeongin, his eyebrows knitted as he skimmed through a file. He was heading for his cubicle right beside me.

"Hey mate, is everything alright?" I asked, entering into his work space. Jeongin looked up.

"Oh, Kai. I found something here." He passed the file to me. It was Bea's bank statement.

"Goddamn." I couldn't even believe. Jung Bea had a whooping twelve million won in her bank account, all white money. Like, wow.

"I know right. Someone named 'Bai Jing' would monthly transfer money to her in large sums, most of which she'd withdraw for god knows what."

"And did you try to get your hands on this Bai Jing's bank account?"

Jeongin shrugged. "I did, but his account has already been closed..." Then his gaze went to wander, affixing upon the floor. "What if... what if this is the guy we are looking for? Bea's boyfriend?"

~~~

Fun fact: Riki(NOD) HAS seen Kai(NOD) in a compromising position before, although he is still a bit traumatised to actually say it out loud.

Credits to choibinnies_bear and their amazing book for that Kai x Theo bit<3