His Obsession ➸ Taekook ✓

- Fifty-fifth -

Seokjin was confused. Jeon Jeongguk. The potential killer. The name was horribly familiar. It sounded an awful lot like his friend. Maybe it was just a coincidence. The names were similar, but not identical. Jung Jungkook couldn't be Jeon Jeongguk.

Namjoon watched Jin's stressed expression with concern. He knew what the detective was thinking. It had crossed his mind too. After all, the pronunciation of the two names was almost identical. Especially as there was another detail to support this hypothesis.

Jungkook's arrest. He had been accused of having links with the mafioso Kim Taehyung. And, as luck would have it, he was also the killer's presumed accomplice. Even if the evidence was small, it was still an extraordinary coincidence.

"Jin..." Namjoon finally called him out. "Relax, it's unlikely to be him..."

But Jin shook his head.

"When I think about it, I don't know anything about his past." confessed the detective. "He didn't say anything about it. Nothing about his family, his childhood. I don't even know if he's from Busan or not! The little I know about him is what he told me..."

"He's a discreet person, and you're a talkative one, so maybe he's never really had the chance..."

But Jin wasn't convinced. He really didn't want to believe it, but the more he thought about it, the more obvious it seemed. He couldn't see it any other way. And that terrified him.

"We'll see." he finally replied. "Let's wait for Soobin to come back with the results."

Namjoon sighed, but nodded. After Mr Park's testimony, Namjoon had asked Soobin to look into the matter. That meant finding the file on this mysterious Jeon Jeongguk.

And Jungkook's too.

They waited for almost an hour, in a heavy silence. Jin tapped his foot nervously, staring into space, anxiety evident on his face. Namjoon couldn't help but feel guilty. He knew it wasn't really his fault, but... he couldn't stand seeing Seokjin suffer anymore. When they got together a few years ago, Namjoon vowed to make him happy. He had always failed.

Eventually, the door to the meeting room opened and Soobin entered the room, carefully closing the door behind him. He took a seat next to the other two men, who stared at him with wide eyes, literally hanging on his every word.

"So?" Namjoon asked, seeing that Jin was too stressed to ask anything.

"Well..." replied Soobin. It's... strange..."

The two investigators frowned at this answer, and grabbed the file the policeman handed them. They quickly opened it to read its contents, while listening to Soobin summarise the fruits of his research.

"From what I've found out about Jeon Jeongguk, Mr Park hasn't lied to us. His father did die in an accident, and his twin sister, Hyuna, died of cancer when she was ten. But after that, things get complicated."

Jin frowned and looked up from the file to concentrate on Soobin. Namjoon did the same.

"What do you mean?"

"It wasn't in the file, but some of the testimonies gathered by the police ten years earlier are quite disturbing." he explained.

"The police? Was there finally an investigation into the rape?"

Soobin shook his head.

"No, it never was reported. No, it was for the death of Chae Jeon, Jeongguk's mother. And that matches the date of the rape."

"And let me guess," continued Namjoon, "Jeongguk was missing?"

The young policeman nodded. So the boy had been raped, and then killed his mother before disappearing completely. And why? As if reading their minds, Soobin replied.

"Looking at her medical records, Chae was no longer alive. Her body survived, but her mind was long dead. The doctors didn't believe in it anymore. The only one who had fought so far to keep her alive was her son."

Jin dropped back in his chair, looking thoughtful, drawing the two men's attention to him.

"So, if he truly killed his mother, maybe it was to put her out of her misery? She must have been suffering from all that treatment, and after the horrible thing he'd just been through, he just couldn't take it anymore. So he decided to put an end to it."

"It's still murder, Jin." Namjoon said.

The detective looked darkly at him and the two glared at each other for a moment. They didn't agree on many things, especially when it came to justice. That was why they had broken up so violently and now hated each other at least as much as they loved each other.

"That's not the point." Jin replied. "So spare me your bullshit ideals. I'm just trying to establish his profile."

The cold, authoritarian tone surprised Namjoon (and Soobin), who swallowed and lowered his eyes. When he got angry, Jin could be terrifying.

"So?" the detective asked. "What else have you got?"

He turned to Soobin, who, impressed by Jin's angry expression, stammered for a moment before resuming his explanation.

"I-I found something really disturbing. In fact, a lot of the testimonies said that Chae had a daughter, but that she disappeared when she was a teenager. But Hyuna never went to school, she spent her life in hospital. And when I did some research, I found out."

He paused, searching for words under the watchful eyes of his two colleagues.

"When the doctors said that Chae had gone mad, that wasn't an euphemism. I think she made Jeongguk dress up like a girl."

The room fell silent, everyone shocked at the news.

"What if that's why those guys went after him?" Namjoon sighed. "Because they discovered his secret?"

"That's horrible..."

None of them knew what to say. What was there to say? It was awful. And despite what he could say, even Namjoon understood why Jeongguk had come to this. Why he was killing now. It wasn't forgivable, but it was understandable. Some pain never heals.

"Do you have a photo?" Seokjin asked in a small voice.

He wanted to know for sure. More than knowing if he was the killer, he wanted to know if the boy who had endured all those horrors was his friend. He wanted to know if, when they met, when they spent their years together, he was hiding this horrible pain inside him. Because if he had, Jin hadn't seen it. And it tore him up to think about it.

"Well... His file didn't have one, and honestly, I struggled to get the information I just gave you."

"Did someone try to erase it?" Namjoon asked.

Soobin nodded.

"So this Jeongguk had contacts in the mafia for a while now..."

"And the photo?" Seokjin insisted.

That was all he wanted to know. Right now, nothing else interested him. He just wanted to know who Jeongguk was.

"As I couldn't find anything, I called Mr Park back and he sent me a photo that the association had taken a little before the incident."

He took his phone out of his pocket and put it on the table, pushing it towards the two investigators. And when Seokjin looked at the photo, showing a fragile boy with dark hair and a mysterious look, he felt his blood run cold.

"Jungkook..."

~🥀~

Hello! I know you surely want to see Taekook again, but I think the next chapter will again focus on the three detectives! And after, promise, Taekook will come back!💕