Fatal Trouble | Y.Jw

| 23 |

A ringing had caught the attention of the entire police station. Heads peeking up from their desks and all looking down to Detective Ahn, who was passing through. He quickly grabbed his phone and rushed into his own separate office to take the call.

Jungwon didn't pay it much attention. He had roughly fifteen hours to figure out where his perpetrator was and how he could stop him before the fifteen hours ran out. And to be fair, he had just stood and stared at various maps spread out on his desk for the past few hours. 

A few minutes passed and Detective Ahn barged out of his office, halfway into his coat before he started yelling out through the office.

"We have a missing persons case. Everyone needs to get out and get looking," he called out and immediately people started scrambling about, getting up from their desks as Detective Ahn rushed over to Jungwon's desk, "now you decide whatever you do, you're not under my orders-"

"Who's missing?" Jungwon frowned.

"Miss Young has disappeared from our surveillance officers," Detective Ahn murmured lowly, "did she have classes today?"

"Yeah... but she's just been-" Jungwon continued before immediately getting cut off.

"I don't have the time. She's disappeared and we need to get looking," Detective Ahn shook his head before rushing out of the office.

Jungwon stood in stunned silence. The whole room had been emptied in seconds, and he was left alone and confused by his desk.

"This cannot be right... I have until tomorrow... it's only... it's not even dinner time," Jungwon murmured in confusion and rummaged through his desk in confusion, trying to find evidence that he was completely right, "I have until tomorrow," he insisted to himself.

A frown seemed to have permanently etched itself onto Jungwon's face as he grabbed his coat and rushed out of the police station. He almost ran all the way back to his own apartment, mentally convinced Jiyeon would be there. They had only lost track of her because she biked another way back to his apartment and she was waiting in it. Jungwon didn't remind himself that she didn't have a key.

His apartment was empty once he reached the top of the stairs, it was even locked. Quickly he rushed in and started wandering through the whole apartment, checking the bedroom - the bed was still as messy as he had left it that morning. An empty cup of tea was still in the sink from the breakfast.

In the armchair in the living room, a dark blue cable sweater was tossed - a tad bit too small to be Jungwon's.

The entire apartment showed no sign of Jiyeon having been back since she left in the morning.

Within seconds Jungwon had been back on the street, hurrying down towards Jiyeon's apartment. He had to be able to find one of the police cars somewhere. He knew where they had to go, he just needed some of them to understand and come along.

Jungwon had only needed to reach his second location in mind. Outside the apartment building Jiyeon lived in two police cars were parked. Officers in hazmat suits and a few extra cops standing about to keep a watch on the street.

"What have they found?" Jungwon breathed out, having jogged up to the nearest officer.

"Nothing, they're just recovering things for the autopsy report," a cop casually replied, "need to check her DNA."

"What autopsy report?" Jungwon hissed, "She's missing, not dead."

"In these areas, it's about the same thing, buddy," the cop excused and patted Jungwon's shoulder calmly, "we're looking for a body, not a person."

"Where's the nearest pine-forest?" Jungwon questioned and swung open the door to the passenger side of the last police car.

"Pine-forest?"

"I know where she is," Jungwon excused quickly, "body or not. I know where you'll find her. Get in the car and drive me."

The two cops by the car exchanged glances as Jungwon got into the car, slamming the door and not even bothering to buckle his seatbelt.

Instead, Jungwon grabbed the police car's intercom and started to try and send a signal out to all the cars in the area.

"Whichever car you're in Ahn, you need to meet me by the nearest pine-forest, now," Jungwon sternly spoke as the two cops joined him in the car and started the car, "no sirens or whatsoever. The murderer doesn't need to know we're coming."

Once the car was on the street Jungwon let out a heavy sigh and ran a hand through his hair. One of his legs continued to bounce impatiently as his index finger continued to rub back and forth on his lips.

Every two minutes or so he would question how far away from the pine-forest they were. Could they speed up a bit? Did these two imbeciles of cops understand how important timing was at that moment? Did no one understand anything? Was Jungwon really the only one seeing what was happening around this case?