Intertwined: Two fates

2 - Have we met before?

Captain Kim was silent for a while. Under the two ducklings' expectant look, he expressionlessly rolled a stack of paper into a tube and smacked their heads with it. "Baseless assumptions. Baseless assumptions. Everything is baseless assumptions!"

Lisa: "..."

Hoseok: "..." Why am I involved again? I didn't even say anything! QAQ

Namjoon grumbled under his breath. "You two are so imaginative. You should just quit being a police officer and write a detective novel instead!"

Lisa rearranged her bangs and argued. "But Captain, this is psychological inference. In the book 'Guide To Criminal Psychology: Level Beginner' written by the renowned criminal psychologist Shen Jia, every piece of evidence in the scene, no matter how trifling it is, can be used to do a profiling that will lead us to the culprit."

Hoseok nodded like a chicken pecking rice, so enthusiastic that his hair bounced all over the place. "Right, right, she's right!"

Captain Kim rolled his eyes. "Then why don't you learn under his tutelage and become a criminal psychologist instead?" With a huff, he entered the room.

"Captain!" The criminal policemen and technicians inside the room stood up to salute as soon as Namjoon entered the room.

Namjoon merely gave a perfunctory nod before turning his gaze to the screen which showed their current prime suspect, Jeon Jungkook. He was sitting calmly, a cup of warm water between his hands which he sipped once in a while.

Instead of a simple mathematics teacher, he looked more like someone who ought to hold a high position in a multinational corporation with his graceful and refined posture. His presence made the somber interrogation room seem like an extravagant office. Despite his gentle countenance, everyone could tell that he was an Alpha with how intense his aura was.

But really, this man was too unusual. As a Beta, Namjoon had met tons of Alphas in his line of work and they all acted as if the whole world should bow down to them. Even if they were polite, Namjoon could tell that they were forced to do so to humor him as the Captain.

But Jungkook... well, he was the most pleasant and humble Alpha Namjoon had ever met. His smile was genuine and he never used his pheromones to intimidate others either.

They had left him there for more than an hour. If it was someone with a guilty conscience, they would have started to show signs of restlessness, especially Alphas with their prideful and headstrong nature. As for Jungkook... either he was truly innocent, or he had superb psychological fortitude.

Namjoon said without averting his eyes from the Alpha. "Tell us what you have found, Jung Hoseok."

"Oh yes!" Despite his many shortcomings, Hoseok was a fast and competent officer. Of course he had already done his job. He grabbed his notebook and flipped the pages with a hum. "Zhao Yunji, 36 years old. Beta. Single. No children and spouses. She graduated from Seoul Art University eleven years ago and ever since then, there is no record of her applying for a job anywhere. Instead, she chose to stay at home and become a freelance artist."

"Wait," Captain Kim interrupted. "Eleven years ago? Then at that time, she was—"

"Yes, she was twenty five when she graduated." Hoseok tilted his head and uncapped his pen with his mouth, hastily jotting something down. His voice was muffled when he spoke, "She applied a few years late. In the database, it's stated for 'economic reasons'. Her background might have something to do with this..."

Captain Kim wrenched the pen cap out of Hoseok's lips, causing the latter to offer a sheepish smile.

Hoseok continued, "When Miss Zhao was nine, both of her parents died in a car accident and she was left in the care of her maternal aunt. Her mother and aunt had never gotten along, it was like they existed to be the bane of each other's existence. So you could imagine what kind of treatment she got in that household.