c h a p t e r   t w o

The local police station was almost like a second home to me now.

And that, I realized, was incredibly sad.

Maybe it would make more sense if it was a home to me because I was a troublemaker and was thrown in the cells a lot. But no, I was never that kind of a person. Instead, it was a second home to me because I was always bailing out Cal.

Yep.

Well, there were times when it was my close friend Ben who did the honors. Or sometimes even my best friend, Jinae. But Ben was out of country visiting his parents, and since Jinae was currently sitting through an exam, I found myself walking towards the police station in the daytime, wondering what possible trouble Cal could ever get in at two p.m.

The truth was, I didn't particularly care that much for Cal. Or really anyone else who liked to waste their life away partying, drinking and regularly causing disturbances, so that begged the question: why was I bailing him out when I could be at home preparing for an exam?

Probably because Jinae and Ben weren't all that ready to give up on him just yet.

I wasn't sure, though. I wasn't a sucker for his routine, starry eyed with the possibility that he might change. But then again, maybe it was just me secretly hoping. Hoping despite all the facts.

And he never changed.

Almost two years now and he hadn't changed.

I guess aside from Jinae and Ben, my reason for bailing out Cal more so was because of how Officer Jeon was with me. It was like after that first time I was here, he started to pity me. And now he knew how caught up we were in this habitual thing and would often concede to letting Cal out. Sometimes though, he held strong that Cal should wait it out and receive a punishment. To me, Officer Jeon always felt like a man who saw the world in black and white with no grey areas at all—he knew what was right and what was wrong and he definitely didn't like Cal.

I remembered the first time I was here. I was a sophomore and that was two years ago, bailing out Cal for the first time. Now, even though I was in the middle of my senior year, I realized things hadn't changed all that much.

I sighed. This needed to stop soon.

I mean, we were running out of Bail-Cal-Out money, for God's sake.

I pushed past the front door and entered the station, moving down the wide hall only to see someone leaving as I entered, walking by the wall towards the doors from where I came.

I'd seen him before.

Same moonlight hair, same ambiguous eyes, same form-fitting uniform (although this one arguably had a ton more badges on it now).

I couldn't not recognize him.

If I liked him two years ago, he was arguably better now.

And man, I was a goner.

Quite literally. It was just when he was passing by me when I felt my foot slip because of my idiocy—I was looking at him when I should've been looking at where I was going—and I lost balance in the most ungraceful way, tipping forward and going timber. Crap.

I braced for the impact; but before I could come face to face with the marble floor, a hand wrapped around my upper arm and another at my waist, steadying me in place firmly.

I dragged my gaze up from hand at my waist up at the owner and I held my breath.

So close.

That was when time completely stopped for me.

"Alright?" He asked.

Ah, liquid gold.

Then his hands slipped away and I instantly felt abandoned, which was absolutely ridiculous.

"You should be more careful," his tone was neutral in his advice as eyes dipped to the sign to the side that said Wet Floor.

And just like that, he was gone.

I entered the busy forefront of the station where the area was a flurry of activity as uniformed officers ran from desk to desk, huddling together over tables and answering the constantly ringing phones. It was odd to me, because every time I'd been here, there had been only maybe three or four officers around at most, not the estimated ten to fifteen I saw right then.

I felt slightly off-kilter and more than little out of my element even though I'd been here many times before and it had nothing to do with the change of pace of the environment.

It was because of what happened in the hall, I knew.

I hesitantly made my way over to Officer Jeon's desk at the end, pausing in front when I spotted that he too was equally busy as he ruffled through some papers on his desk.

He looked up to see me, his hands busy and eyes harried, "Have a seat, Faith. I'll see to you in a minute."

"What's going on?" I asked him, now slowly getting kind of intimidated by the dynamic of the station.

Before Officer Jeon could answer, the sound of a door banging open interrupted the buzz of the entire work space.

"Jungkook."

I turned around to see a man with startlingly red hair standing at the doorway of a room I'd always wondered about since it was never open whenever I'd been here. He had on thin rimmed glasses and he looked almost haggard, as if he'd been working far too long.

"You got the call," he said accusingly as he glared at Officer Jeon.

"Sergeant Park," Officer Jeon held his hands up. "You need to calm d—"

"God, enough," the redhead cut in. "You know what I want. I can't do this shitty desk-work anymore. I need to go back in the field."

"Jimin hyung," Officer Jeon sighed. "You were benched for a reason. I know you want this case but—"

"Jungkook," the man said again, eyes urgent. "It's Hoseok. Of course I want this case. It's why we all want this case and you know it."

"Pardon?" Officer Jeon raised his eyebrows. "We?"

"Jin just called because he heard the news," he answered. "And I know Yoongi was here. Cut it out, I need to be in on this."

I felt awkward hearing in on this conversation—which was clearly a private one—even if I couldn't understand much of it. They didn't seem to care about that, though. I tried to sneak a glance at the large groups of officers I'd seen coming in and noted with annoyance that most of them somehow managed to disappear.

I saw Officer Jeon nod slowly. "I can't promise anything but I'll talk to Captain Bang."

The redhead seemed to take that as a positive. "You do that. I'm going to go outside to get some fresh air."

"You need it," Officer Jeon muttered to himself as the man in the glasses walked to the back where the hall lead to the double doors. "You look horrible."

I cleared my throat promptly at that moment.

He seemed to look apologetic when his attention was back on me and opened his mouth to say something. He stopped when his eyes flickered to something over my shoulder and suddenly, his irritated face was back.

"What now?"

I turned around, expecting to see the redhead once more but was definitely surprised to see him again instead.

Thanks for reading! :)

-lexy