Letters from the Void // ASTRO ✔

Chapter 43

Taehee laid down on the cold tiles, legs and hands bound and her mouth gagged. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness, and she made a mental note that there were no natural light coming from anywhere. It was possible she was being held underground- which another distant memory of Eunwoo's apartment came to her uninvited and at that moment she felt like she wanted to cry. It all hurt; her body and even her heart. She was sweating; the air ventilation at the area was bad. The air was so still she felt like she couldn't breathe properly. The air had a bad smell, and every time she inhaled, the smell of bleach entered her system.

Am I dead?

She couldn't make out her surroundings so she couldn't even guess where she was, exactly. There was a lamp, the ones people used back in the olden days- where you have to use oil instead to light it up. She had never seen it before as nobody used those kinds anymore. Where on earth was she? She tried moving her body, but it hurt to even move an inch. The back of her neck hurt the most; her ID chip wasn't there anymore.

Her body was controlled again; she remembered jumping out the window, almost hurting herself. She felt the fear but she wasn't able to do anything about it. She brought herself to a shady warehouse, where she found a scared teenager beside a man who seemed so fatherly, except for the fact that he had a sinister expression on his face. She was knocked out cold from a blow on the back of her head, and the next thing she knew was she woke up here. Obviously, she had no way of contacting the others; her commander was left back home when she was forcefully brought away. She figured no one would be able to locate her since she was now a body without an ID chip.

She whimpered, but she couldn't properly call for help. Her mouth was gagged, and her throat was dry. The nauseating smell entered her nose again, and it stung her eyes. She wanted to cry, but no tears came.

Kim Taehyung... Cha Eunwoo... Anybody please save me...

***

Moon Bin stepped on the accelerator as he looked once again at the address of Lee Jinhong's summer house address. After looking at it countless times and making sure he had memorized it, he expertly weaved in and out of traffic. The traffic jam wasn't that bad, and they managed to arrive faster than expected. Taehyung, who sat beside him, was the first to alight the vehicle, followed by the rest. He turned to Jin Jin, Sanha and Areum. He said, "I think it's best for the three of you to stay here. So if anything happens, you can call for help. If we're not out in 30 minutes, call for backup. That connects straight to the station." Moon Bin pointed to the communication device beside the steering wheel.

As they agreed, Taehyung looked over the gate and made a mental note about the presence of CCTVs around the area. The security seemed tight, as even the gates had multiple electronic locks that seemed impossible to crack into.

"How do you suppose we enter this house? The security seems very tight," Taehyung was starting to get worried. "Even if you decide to do it illegally, I don't think there's anyway around it."

"Did you forget that I'm a detective?" Moon Bin winked. He reached for his commander, typed something on the screen and in that instance, Eunwoo and Taehyung could hear the sounds of the gates being unlocked. "It's not illegal, but it's not legal either." When Eunwoo put up a questioning eyebrow, Moon Bin tried to explain, "The police has a system that allows you to break into anyone's house, especially a criminal who won't come out and we're forced to drag him out on our own. It's like an ethical break in. The problem is, to have access to the system, you have to go through a lot of procedures and you're sworn to use it with the highest responsibility. It's a system protected with the highest security. Anyone found using it for a wrong purpose would be caught and fired, with possibly no chance of joining the police force anymore."