When Shadows Fall | BTS Kim Namjoon

Chapter 20: Tracks

I walked up to the police station desk. "I'd like to see Lee Jeongho if I could, please?"

The man behind the desk blinked and checked something. "Name and case?"

"Jeong Chunhwa, about the Seong Hajun case."

He picked up the desk phone and pressed a button. "Lee Jeongho, sir? There's a girl here to see you, named Jeong Chunhwa, about the-"

I heard a muffled curse from the phone. "Send her in."

The man directed me to an office in the back, and I knocked on the door.

"Come in," Lee Jeongho said.

I entered. "Thank you for seeing me."

"What is it now?" he asked. "Still wondering who killed your pretty boyfriend?"

I crossed my arms. "Yes, as a matter of fact. But what's more important is these." I put the roses on his desk.

"And what are these?" he asked, eyebrows raised. "Don't tell me you're back with the whole rose thing!"

"I found this freshest one on a bench in a park, and the others were on a pile behind the bench, some of them only days old, some weeks. This bench-"

"Do you have a picture?" Lee Jeongho interrupted.

"Yes," I said, pulling it up on my phone and handing it over. I rolled my eyes thinking of when I'd run back from my car to take a picture because I had forgotten in my haste to get to the police.

Lee Jeongho grunted and handed the phone back. "And you think this is connected to you because...?"

"Because that bench is where I usually go on my lunch break for my internship, and I've met a male friend there a few times. The pile seemed approximately to date from the last time we met, so I think he's warning like he did with Hajun."

"Who?"

"I don't know!"

Lee Jeongho put his hand on his head. "Warning? This is ridiculous."

"Look, it's too much to ignore! Three times-"

"The first two were your door and your car?"

"My desk and my car, yes."

"So places specific to you. A park bench is not specific."

"But..."

Lee Jeongho stood up. "I am done with you. This is not a concern for us. Try to control your attention-seeking, please." He picked up the roses on his desk and threw them in the trash.

I got angry again. "Please listen! I feel like-"

"That's enough. I have work to do." He took my elbow to lead me out of his office.

I pulled out of his grasp. "Work to do? How about actually working on Hajun's case? It's been four months and we haven't heard anything!"

He looked at me with a cold face. "We have more pressing matters to attend to, and there is very little evidence to go on."

I laughed out loud. "I used to hold the police department in high esteem, you know? But after recent events I've had to revise my opinion. It took you three days to find Hajun, you can't solve his death to save your life, and you won't listen to civilians who feel threatened!"