»«»«»«»«»«

| 𝟶𝟻:𝟻𝟻:𝟺𝟶 𝙿𝙼 |

The car screeched hard as it reached near his house.

"You want to come inside or talk here?" Jin asked as he undo his seat belt.

"My car is better option in my opinion as people say walls have ears." Jin laughed at Yoongi's remark and nodded in agreement.

"You'll never change seriously. Okay, make it quick, we don't want to look suspicious here."

Yoongi pulled out a bag from the passenger seat at the back and opened it to reveal a bunch of plastic bags, mainly used to preserve proof samples from crime sites. Jin was looking at him weirdly. "Don't look at me like that. I didn't have the safety box with me today to keep all these."

"Good excuse. But if you're going to ask me to examine those then let me remind you that they need to be in good condition first."

"Don't worry they're in good condition." He pulled out all the plastic packets that were in the bag and handed them to Jin. "These are the things I found in the hospital and I need you to examine them all."

"A hairpin, a key, a lock- wait, how did you get the lock out from a door? And what's this?! Old man's hairs?! Are you serious, Yoongi?" Jin gave him a look, while looking at the plastic from different angles, which he held in the air.

"These are NOT old man's hairs. These're cob webs."

"WHAT?!" He threw the packet at Yoongi which landed on his face. "EWWWW!"

Yoongi sighed and caught the packet as it slid down his face. He said with gritted teeth, "These aren't real cob webs. These're artificial, made of aerosol if I'm not wrong."

"Really?!" Jin took the plastic and placed it near his nose and widened his eyes in surprise, "Woah! It really smells like aerosol!" His eyes went to look at the rest of the plastics in which he could see some medical instruments. He asked, "And why did you bring all these instruments from there?"

"These're the main proofs of the whole thing that I'm assuming right now. I need you to check the DNA fingerprints on it. Its not too late, so maybe you can find something."

Jin noticed how desperate Yoongi looked while he was saying all those, but he had to break his trance. He looked at him and said, "Yoongi, I hope you know that there's no way that the doctor will touch any instrument with bare hands and thus it implies we cant find his fingerprints here. And for the patient, there's 99% chance that all the instruments got treated with disinfectants after its usage so I'll never be able to find his DNA from any of them!"

Yoongi messaged his temples and mumbled, "I should've asked you to save it."

"What?"

He took a deep breathe and looked at Jin, "Hyung, I'm asking you to run an examination on them after knowing all of these. Who knows, we might find the unexpected thing!"

"I dunno what you're expecting-"

"I'm not expecting anything, that's why I said 'unexpected'."

He sighed and put it inside the bag and took it with him. Before leaving the car he said, "I'll run the tests on them by tonight, the sooner the better. Maybe by day after tomorrow I'll be able to inform you about the results."

Yoongi nodded with a smile. "Thank you, hyung."

Jin knew he cant win in this conversation like this, so he simply decided to examine them all and prove his point. For him its just a waste of time, but for Yoongi its more than a challenge.

He nodded in return and left the car with the bag.

»«»«»«»«»«

He pulled out the jacket from the door hanger and put it on, from outside the room sound of rice cooker could be heard. He came out of the room with a bag to meet his sister's confused stare.

"You're going out?"

"Hmm." He nodded as he sat down. "You making the dinner?"

She nodded in response and quickly sat on the opposite seat to Haneul. "Where?" She asked as he started eating the ramen, "I mean, did you find a place to start your clinic here, or its any hospital this time?"

He gulped down a mass of ramen and struggled to reply, "I cant get into any hospital you know- but yeah I found a place to start a clinic for poor. I'm going to check the place tonight and maybe start by coming week."

Haeun smiled at that but it soon turned into a frown. "If Dad would've been here, he would've been so proud of you Oppa and also he could've helped you to clear your name as well-"

She got interrupted at the sudden sound of metal as he put down his chopsticks and looked at her, "Its not about clearing my name Haeun, its about me. I don't want to serve people with rusty mind."

His eyes darkened. A different expression slowly took over him, which she could hardly decipher and which at times scares her.

"Hey, you want the kimchi we bought while coming here?" She tried to change the topic.

This has always been effective. His expression changed to normal and he smiled with a nod like a kid. She placed the bowl full of  kimchi beside the ramen and he cheered like a kid.

As he was eating in relish Haeun decided to ask him for the permission.

Yes this is the right time!

"Uhm, Oppa?"

He motioned her to speak as he was too busy in relishing the food without any disturbance.

"As you're going out now, can I then go out to buy some groceries?" He immediately looked up with his mouth fool of ramen. "I used to stay in here for some time and I think I should be used to go out in here like Busan, so..."

She trailed off while waiting for her brother to finish.

He gulped down whole of it and then said, "Well...I guess you should. But, its already dark. Do you think its okay for you to go out now? I can buy the groceries before leaving-"

"It alright, Oppa! Don't worry much. I'm all grown up to go out at night too and its not that late. You can drop me by the store as well!"

He nodded and said, "Okay then dress up quickly. We're going to leave as soon as I finish this ramen. You got 3 minutes!"

She saluted and ran in her room while he laughed at her act.

»«»«»«»«»«

| 𝙶𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚓𝚞; 𝟶𝟼:𝟶𝟺:𝟻𝟶 𝙿𝙼 |

Hoseok's trance broke after hearing the announcement of the arrival of his train.

Thankfully he got a seat this time as it wasn't overcrowded like the train he took from Seoul to here. And luckily it's a window seat.

As the train started to move, the sceneries kept passing by fast and faster. He saw his life scenarios passing by like that too and suddenly stopped at an abandoned station where he's at right now.

Today's incident in the hospital was that station for him...

≡≡≡≡≡

"Where do you think you're going Hobi?!" She yelled after him and pulled by his arm which was about to touch the door knob.

"Noona!"

"What noona, huh?" She glared at him and took him away from the translucent door and pushed him. She exclaimed in rage, "When you left both of us and flew away, did you ever think of this noona or that old man there, who's fighting for his life and always blamed himself for your actions? DID YOU EVER?!"

Hoseok slowly looked down, shame and despair engulfing him from every corner of darkness. Yes, darkness. The only thing he got in his life.

"Go. I'll not stop you. Just remember all these happened just because of YOU!"

"Noona-"

"And yes- Don't.ever.call.me.that.again! Understood? I'm not your sister anymore. Our relationship ended the night you left home."

He sighed and nodded bitterly. Tears threatened to fall and he wanted to hold onto her like he used to do as a child after getting haunted by a nightmare.

"Okay...I won't go in. And I'm sorry for what I did-" Before he could complete his sentence she left.

He smiled bitterly while trying to hold in his tears and took a glance at the lying old person through the glass window.

His trembling hand touched the glass screen in desire to hug him and cry on his lap.

"Sorry harabeoji."

≡≡≡≡≡

"Sorry harabeoji..."

Hoseok sniffed his nose and got his handkerchief to wipe off the tears quickly.

He tried to distract his mind into thinking about something else, that's when the flashback of him leaving the meeting rudely came in his mind.

Mentally slapping himself, he quickly fished out his phone from his pocket and send a message.

"I just hope he didn't mind me leaving like that."

Mumbling to himself with a childish smile, he went back to look outside through the glass window.

»«»«»«»«»«

| 𝚂𝚎𝚘𝚞𝚕 |

The sudden of incoming notification in his phone got him interrupted from his trance and he went to check it, leaving whatever he was doing.

It was a message from Hoseok.

✉️ 𝗠𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 17:15 pm ^

Hobi ✨

𝚂𝚛𝚢 𝚑𝚢𝚞𝚗𝚐 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝. 𝙸 𝚠𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚐𝚘 𝚖𝚎𝚎𝚝 𝚖𝚢 𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚋𝚎𝚘𝚓𝚒, 𝚠𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍'𝚟𝚎 𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚜𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚟𝚒𝚜𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚜 𝚝𝚘𝚍𝚊𝚢 𝚒𝚏 𝙸 𝚠𝚊𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚊𝚗𝚢 𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚛. 𝚂𝚘 𝚑𝚊𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚛𝚞𝚜𝚑 𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚃_𝚃

Replying with a 'Its okay. Have a safe journey', Yoongi put down his phone.

And went back to look at the puzzle game, half done and rest scattered on his table. He couldn't focus, the only thing he's doing is fiddling with a puzzle piece with his eyes fixated somewhere in front of him.

Just like the case.

A lots of proofs are in their hands and yet they're finding new proofs as soon as they're digging more which's changing the whole direction of the case. It feels they're just circling around the same place but can't find a path to come out of a round puzzle.

Talking about new proofs and here comes another one. His phone buzzed and the caller was a surprise himself.

"Hello? Is this Detective Min?"

Yoongi got baffled hearing the word 'Detective' attached with his surname. His identity is more confidential than a detective from Police Department, so hearing that is definitely not a good case. This mainly happens during criminal interrogations.

He answered after few seconds, "Yes and who's calling?"

"Hi, I'm Henry Chang. The son of Chang Dong Wool, whose death case you're working on now."

He have heard of his son from Mr. Chang's manager earlier but didn't know that he's here. Last time he heard of him, he was in Canberra.

Well, he must be here because of Mr. Chang's funeral.

For Yoongi, these things are unusual. He didn't attend his father's funeral because no one informed him and his mother. And he don't even know the meaning of the word 'father' to a child, he never got the chance to know and never will he.

"I see. Nice to meet you, Mr. Chang-"

"Ah- no no, you can call me Mr. Henry cause that might be confusing and I'm not too old than you I believe."

Yoongi smiled at his friendly tone and replied, "As you wish. But there must be a reason for you to call me if I'm not wrong..."

"You got it right. I want you to know few things about my Dad, which I believe will help you with the case. So, can we meet tomorrow or any day in the coming week?"

Yoongi gave a deep thought about his schedules and meetings and decided to go with Monday, which's the next day. He himself was in rat race with the case as Youngdo promised the head of CODE and also he could sense the hurriedness in Henry's tone.

"Okay then make it tomorrow. You don't have to come in our office, lets meet in a cafe which's away from the usual places you go and make it look like you're meeting a friend."

Henry replied hurriedly, "Okay I'll text you the location. And thank you for your time, I hope you understand why I couldn't talk all about it in phone."

"I understand and that's why I reminded you about the precautions. We don't know who's keeping a watch on us, so being careful is the least we can do for ourselves."

Their call ended few moments later with 'Good Night' from each side. Yoongi sighed deeply as he put down his phone on the table.

Now another set of theories coming...

Yoongi's eyes went back to look at the same place as they were before, somewhere in front of him. Which was nothing but a black board with the number 13430 written on it with a chalk.

...when I'm yet to understand this one.

»«»«»«»«»«

It was not that hard to find his place than she thought it would be. But getting inside the apartment without being caught like a burglar seems to be a hard thing to do.

"Who're you?"

Sudden jolt of nervousness ran through her veins as she looked at the direction of the voice. It was an old lady, who was looking at her with a questioning look.

In all awkwardness she just gave her a smile.

The woman didn't smile back instead interrogated her again. "Who're you? And-" Pointing at the lock which she was holding, she asked, "What're you doing?"

Haeun tried to say something but nothing was coming out. 

She panicked.

"Hello! I'm talking to you! Aren't you going to answer? What're you doing in my house? Who're y-"

She took a deep breathe and signalled her to stop asking question. "I'm looking for a dentist, Dr. Hong Sangwoo. I've heard he stays here."

"Pfft! Stays? Make it past. He used to stay here, that also a long while ago. I've heard he left for Busan after that." Seeing the bitterness in her tone, it seemed he barely had a good impression on her. 

"But I heard he left Busan recently and that's why I came here to visit him."

The woman shrugged and said, "That I don't know. He didn't come here. Must be staying somewhere else to hide from the debtors!"

Haeun got baffled. 

Debtors? What'd he do for which he'll have to hide from debtors?

She looked at her with curious glint in her face and asked, "Why he'll have to hide from debtors?"

"All for money! He cheated on the hospital he used to be a doctor of and left with all the money! That's what everyone says." The lady scoot closer to her and lowered her tone, "People says that he debted a lot from loan sharks as well, which made him to run away. But he could've at least pay my rent before leaving! Damn, that year went under huge loss!"

"I see..." Haeun nodded with a confused expression. 

Many things aren't matching from what she knew about him or what her brother told her about Dr. Hong. Its feeling like she found a new set of puzzle pieces for the same puzzle, but she'll have to find the real ones now.

"But how do you know him? Are you here for tooth checkup or something?" The old lady asked, breaking her trance in the midst.

"Uhm- yeah something like that." Haeun smiled and said, "And thank you." She bowed and left quickly.

Since she will have to reach the grocery store and head back home quickly before Haneul arrives, she didn't waste much time there. But while walking way back home with the groceries, her mind kept on recalling what that old lady told her about him.

She couldn't understand who to believe and who to not. She felt tired of all the lies surrounding her.

Haeun stopped in front of their apartment and looked up at their balcony to notice no sign of light, which means Haneul hasn't come back yet. 

She sighed in relief and mumbled, "It was a long day."

____________________

Posting after almost a year ig 0_0 but I had a different plan actually...

I'm trying to finish the book soon so its unedited, but then I remembered that I'm a procrastinator :) still I'll try to finish this fast and start a new book, hehe.

- Nik