Grasp

21 - Desperation

A faint thud rang in the unusually quiet police station when an icepack was thrown on the table, catching Min Tae Gu's attention.

"Put that on your hand."

He only looked at the ice pack, deadpan, then redirected his gaze to the superintendent with a hiss.

"File. It."

If it wasn't for the fact that Min Tae Gu dropped by the precinct to report for Senior Inspector's Ha Chae Yoon disappearance, Superintendent Ahn would've detained him longer for assaulting a police officer who told him he needed to wait 24 hours to declare her as missing.

"You useless son of a bitch! Do you really think I'll let another 12 hours pass without my wife?!"

It was still too early for the superintendent—08:00 AM, when he came into the station only to find a raging Min Tae Gu, yelling at the officer whose face he just punched.

"Sir! calm down, this is proto—" another police officer tried to calm him down, but to no avail.

"You think I give a shit about your protocol?! My wife is missing!"

"RICHARD MIN!!!" The superintendent bellowed, warning him.

That's how Min Tae Gu ended up in Ahn Hyun Suk's office.

He would have never sought help from the police, never in a million years, but he found himself driving to her own station, hoping despite all hopelessness— that this was all some intricately planned prank of Ha Chae Yoon— that maybe, he'll find her sitting on her desk buried with her cases.

But she wasn't, and now he's sitting helplessly in front of the police officer, trying to report a missing person.

He was already so desperate... and he hated this desperation with every fiber of this being.

He hated the fact that she disappeared while he was with her. Hated the fact that if he had only come to accompany her in the restroom, maybe she would still be here. Hated the fact that just when he found a family of his own, it was taken away from him.. just like that.

Family. Their baby. Good god, his Chae Yoon is pregnant.

It had already been 12 excruciating hours. 12 excruciating hours since she disappeared into thin air. 12 excruciating hours since he had turned Seoul upside down to find her.

"I'm going to dispatch the best team to find her." A team had also been dispatched by him since 11 hours ago— his most trusted men were already out there looking for Ha Chae Yoon.

The superintendent turned to him, pretending not to notice his clothes filled with blood splashes— blood that clearly wasn't his.

Min Tae Gu's eyes were soulless, lifeless— Ha Chae Yoon took whatever was left of his soul and life with her. "Dispatch them now," he commanded, like he wasn't talking to a superintendent of the Seoul Police Department. He didn't care about respect, propriety, honorifics.

He never did.

All he ever cared about is her.

Five minutes, he was there in the superintendent's office, supplying information on where she was last seen? When? What was she wearing?

Now he realized that it was a huge mistake to sit on the chair because his adrenaline had died down and now he could feel his exhaustion. He had been running around restlessly— checking every street, every corner, looking for any trace of her, checking abandoned warehouses, safehouses, and even the bases of the people who butted heads with.