Detective Jeon (2) : He, Never Left | JJK

Ch5. O.R.O.

[ Seoul Police Department, MLR ]
( Micro Lab Room )

An average size room was filled with two adjustable tables and four chairs. Each table had two small cabinets with see-through glass panels, comprised of multiple medicine-like glass bottles with odd labels. On the right side table, a microscope and a centrifuge machine were placed along with glass breakers of varying sizes, capillaries, test tubes neatly placed on a stand, a glass funnel, a bunsen burner, and various other small and large equipment that Jieun couldn't decipher as she waited for Officer Seokjin to finish reading.

‘ I heard you're back! But who will look for you when you're the one who disappears? ’

- T

“Found it on Jungkook's car window,” said Jieun with a long, serious face.

Officer Seokjin took a deep breath and pushed back the hairs that were falling on his forehead. “Why didn't you tell him about it there and then? He's already working on this case.”

“Is he? So you guys think that this T is back in Seoul?”

Jieun waited for a few seconds as she tried to find the correct words. The way Jungkook was smiling and laughing yesterday, she thought things were finally going in the right direction for him. She didn't want to spoil that for him, especially not after such a lovely evening walk. “Sooyuki-shi told me earlier that it might be... might be Taehyung.” She sounded more surprised at the later remark.

“All the evidence points at him!” A deep voice caught Jieun's attention. She turned around and saw Jeon staring at the paper.

“You knew I was coming?” Jieun turned towards Seokjin and he nodded his head in a low yes.

“You forgot to turn off the notifications. His text popped up and I happened to read it while you were tying the seatbelt, yesterday.” Jeon placed a chair next to an empty table and politely asked Jieun to move aside.

"Ah!" Jieun flipped over the paper in his hand. "Take a look at this. What do you think? Is it really who you think it is?"

Detective Jeon pressed the square paper in his hand. It had a smooth texture like butter paper on one side and a rough sandy one on the other side. Oddly enough it showed light oily patches at different places when he placed it near the table lamp. Then he tore a piece of it and grabbed a tiny bottle of litmus solution out of a small cabinet under his desk. “Let's see.” Carefully using a dropper he placed a purple liquid droplet on the piece of paper. It quickly turned red. “Acidic!”

“I didn't know that the police department has mini lab of it's own.” Jieun was astonished to see that.

“It's something Jungkook and I made as a temporary arrangement to run quick tests.”

“My second major was in forensics with a special focus on liquid test dyes,” said Jungkook, closing down the bottle.

Jieun moved closer to the table and looked at the changed dye color. “So what exactly does this mean?”

“Cooking oil?” Officer Seokjin bent down and took out another bottle of dark reddish-brown liquid. Jieun looked at him with a puzzled face. He ran a liquid bromine test and finally confirmed his assumption. She immediately painted a picture in her mind of them as typical science nerds sitting in the front row of class who always brags about their majors being superior to others. But carrying out a litmus test? Even kids can easily do that!