Picture Perfect | k.th

Chapter 19

"I don't think there's literally any good adventure associated with the police station," Taehyung huffed, letting himself be dragged by me.

After my last encounter with Hyungseo, there were some dots I had to connect. Call it a gut feeling, but there was something that I had been missing this whole time. I paid a little more attention to the news in the recent months and came across a priceless fact. The names of his unsettling portraits were in fact the names of the people who had gone missing recently and appeared in an unusual fashion upon their return. Those portraits, they were burned in my head and they were in fact exact replicas.

Hyungseo burning my portrait and all his subtle hints about his motives was enough for me to take this adventure up a notch. It wasn't exactly harmless anymore. And as much as I loved a good thrill, getting caught up in something to this scale was not a bucket list item. So as much as it pained me to do so, I needed to get help from the person I trusted least.

My father.

Chief of Police, Kang Seonho.

Taehyung slipped his hand into mine, giving me a reassuring nod. The last thing I'd ever want to do is get help from the man who ruined my mother's life and happiness. Who threw the most wonderful woman in the world away for a promotion and short lived sex. But Hyungseo was a potential kidnapper with magical paper.

With Taehyung's condition vastly improved and Hyungseo's danger must more eminent, I dragged him along with me for moral support.

We stepped inside the station, met with the hustle and bustle of officers working several different cases and handling all sorts of business.

The minute one of the officer's made eye contact with me, it was like a silence fell over the whole station.

Taehyung attached himself to me nervously. His only perception of law enforcement was through news and media so I could only imagine what he was feeling.

Whispers erupted like a wildfire across the station. Everyone lowered their head, talking in hushed tones of shock and confusion.

"Is this a Code Orange?" Someone shameless asked.

Jeez, he even had a code waiting in case I ever decided to show my face at the station.

"Come on," I said annoyedly, pulling Taehyung towards the Chief's office.

"Umm...are you sure we can stroll in? I'm all for casual adventure of new experiences, but not if I'm going to go to jail. There's so much I haven't achieved in my young life!" He cried dramatically.

"Oh relax drama queen. No one is gonna touch you while you're with me," I huffed.

"S-Sohee...you can't just w-waltz in," an officer stammered.

I rolled my eyes, "Then the quicker you help me, the quicker I'm gone. I need to see the Chief."

"Your father is busy right now dear, you could just call him—"

"It is imperative that I talk with him immediately," I reiterated.

"Sohee, your father can't just drop everything to hash it out with you. He's got a job to do," a woman tentatively spoke up.

Oh ho, here we go.

I whirled around to face her. Min Yiseok, the conspirator in my father's idiocy.

"Do you want to rethink sticking your nose into my business?" I warned.

My father was the one who messed up. And I would always be angry at him for it. But it was hard not to see this woman as the one who willingly played a part in my family's demise. I could be civil but it definitely didn't abstain her from my judgement.