LOST STARS

Chapter 31

It was in the middle of that night, rather very early in the morning of the next day when the doorbell of the Min household rang. There was an urgency in the ringing, as the person pressed it repeatedly.

Yoongi ran to the door thinking about the thousand possibilities and opened the door to a police officer standing at his door.

"Professor Min?" The inspector asked.

"Yes, Inspector, Yes. Tell me please. Any news?" Yoongi asked, hoping this was about them finding Jungkook.

"I am Detective Seokjin, from Boseong. I am here for the missing report that was filed for Jeon Jungkook... did you file it in Seoul yesterday?" The tall detective asked. Seokjin couldn't believe his eyes and ears. What was the connection between this fine looking gentleman, living in a beautiful house, and Jungkook? And where the hell was Aehyun?

"Yes Yes, yes, detective. It was me. Did you find him?" Yoongi asked with a ray of hope peeking inside his heart.

"Does he stay with you? Here?" Seokjin asked, taking a little peek inside the house.

"No. His house is in the market street." Yoongi replied, showing his disapproval of the peeking.

"He stays alone?" Seokjin locked eyes with him and asked politely.

"No. He stays with someone else there." Yoongi was a little skeptical about the tone of the questioning now.

"Can you take me there?" Seokjin asked, heading to his Jeep.

Yoongi's first preference right now was finding out about Jungkook. So he didn't resist the request before taking a minute to freshen up and get into the detective's jeep.

Soon the entire party was at Taehyung's door, and Yoongi knocked, realizing it was not locked anymore. The exhaustion and lack of sleep had caught up with Taehyung's search last night as he came back home with a broken heart.

This was his third attempt at catching Jungkook. Jungkook, for Seokjin, had gone missing three times.

First, when he was kidnapped from his house.

Second, when Taehyung got him to sit on the trolley, he ran off into the Boseong market.

And the third was now. Seokjin was even more determined than the first two times to catch both Jungkook and Taehyung.

Surprisingly, it was Seokjin who first realized that Taehyung wouldn't be able to hear the knocking. After all, he had had a long, what do you call it, cat-and-mouse relationship with Taehyung. He tried to push his way in by kicking the door down but coincidentally, Taehyung walked out, absolutely nonchalant, with a toothbrush in his mouth.

Seokjin had seen enough of these shenanigans but it was rare that Taehyung didn't manage to surprise Seokjin. The kidnapping case of Jeon Jungkook was still an open case at the Boseong Police Station. Thus, when the Seoul Police Station called them asking for them to share some details for a Jeon Jungkook, Seokjin was amazed and torn simultaneously. Even though legally the case file was open, in his own mind it had been closed.

In his heart of hearts, he knew even Jungkook's father wanted it that way. After the statutory limitation of time was over in such cases, the missing person was supposed to be declared dead and their entire worldly possessions would go to the next of kin. Here it was supposed to be given to Jungkook's father and thus it was no surprise that he never pursued the matter much, just decided to silently wait it out.

So for all practical purposes, right now there was only one person in the world worried or bothered about Jungkook missing - and that was a new character for Seokjin. An Ethics professor at Seoul University, Min Yoongi.

"Aehyun, enough. Let's go now," Seokjin tried saying with authority.

"Excuse me, what are you saying?" Yoongi tried to stand between the detective and Taehyung. But by now Taehyung's right hand was already handcuffed.

"Thank you, Mr Min. You have no idea about the entire backstory, I'm sure. Also this has been going on for the better half of the decade. I request you to kindly get out of the way." Seokjin said hurriedly. The pace of things had changed fast as the detective pulled Taehyung along and started heading towards the staircase. Taehyung kept looking at Yoongi pleading for him to do something. And Yoongi couldn't do much at that point except watch helplessly, as he was riddled with the guilt of leading the detective to Taehyung directly.

Over the past few days of meeting Taehyung, Yoongi had started thinking that he understood Taehyung and his world. He would be lying if he said that he hadn't started drawing up imaginary scenarios of him and Taehyung living a life together. He very well knew it was wrong at so many levels. So many levels, but he couldn't help it. His heart had this tendency to rule over every other logical fibre of his body when he was with Taehyung, his Aehyun. And now, as he stood and watched Taehyung being handcuffed to the backseat of Seokjin's jeep and then being driven away, Yoongi realised that there had never been a single scenario in his life where he had understood Taehyung.

It was a matter of 30 minutes, and Yoongi sat stunned in front of the inspector at the Seoul Police station.

"But if the detective did not bring him here, then where did they go?" Yoongi was tired, confused, and sad.

"See, I have told you whatever I knew about the case. Detective Kim is quite senior to me and I cannot ask him a lot of questions. I hope you understand." The inspector said, offering a cup of tea to a disheveled Yoongi sitting in front of him. He sipped on his beverage before saying, "As far as where they went, the case is from Boseong, the suspect is from Boseong, and the detective is from Boseong - I can give you one guess to the correct answer to

Seokjin arrived with a handcuffed, dishevelled, and troubled Taehyung to the Boseong Police Station. It was nearly the middle of the night, and the rains outside were torrential. He asked his staff to provide some food and water to Taehyung as he headed to the first floor of the building where his senior was situated. He needed to brief him about the developments.

"Hmm. So the case is still open? The Jeon estate is still with the court and state. We thought it would go one way but now..." the head of the department said and looked at Seokjin.

"But, sir, the professor told us that Aehyun was actually looking after Jungkook all this while. And now Jungkook has run away." Seokjin was confused as to why he was advocating for Taehyung.

"Does this narrative help solve our case? I need it closed today . We have a missing person's file with kidnapping as a charge. We have a person in custody now who Jungkook was last seen with. He is deaf and mute - he won't be able to say anything. Just close the case. This boy - Aehyun - kidnapped Jungkook, and when he couldn't recover the money he had hoped for, he took Jungkook away from here and killed him. Simple. Jeon estate will finally be free and Kang will stop hounding us. DO YOU GET IT?" The senior asked in a low threatening octave.

"But sir, that is wrong. We can tell Kang what happened and we can look for Jungkook also..." Seokjin was still talking when the phone in the room rang.

"Do as I said and now leave." His senior said and showed him the door.