「 lukewarm | yang hongseok 」

[ e i g h t ]

08 | shoot me

Hongseok was once again doing night rounds, but this time he had a certain reason why he had to be there. He caught wind that something might happen in the depths of the city, but which part he did not know. He had a good premises where he had to be and thankfully, he had Shinwon and Changgu to help him cover the large area of land they had to keep an eye on.

The police officer wandered around in a normal sweater, jacket and black pants, but on his belt held a small hand gun along his walkie-talkie amongst other things to help him. He ran a hand through his hair as he circled his area for the fourth time this evening and hearing nothing especially important from his friends, he believed that he was wrong.

It had been a full month and a half since Hongseok had these mysterious deaths fall on his lap, but he was getting no where. He kept on hitting dead ends and loose threads that didn't seem to go anywhere, and he was losing hope quickly. And it wasn't like those murders were slowing down - of course there weren't as much, but one murder is still one too many. He also saw that the activity was slowly becoming more sporadic, sure, but they were also much more daring and hasty, yet clean enough that he couldn't get any answers or even a lead.

The killings were slowly escalating to people who weren't rich or high importance now, some would be every day people and he knew that not just anyone were killing those specific people. Their deaths were too meticulously planned, too coordinated to just be a 'regular' murder (but he believed that no murder was regular). Those people who had been killing the rich have a signature, and the same ways of death were found on the bodies.

But why, why were all these people being killed?

Hongseok couldn't wrap his head around it. There had to be a motive, everyone always has a motive for something.

With a long sigh, the man took out his phone and dialed his friends' numbers, pressing the device to his red ears as he sat down on a bus stop bench. "Hey Changgu? Sorry about dragging you into this - I think we should call it quits and just go buy a drink. It's almost 11 o'clock and nothing has happened -"

His voice trailed off as he saw that oh-so iconic drug dealer handshake, raising a brow as he slowly stood up and removed his phone from his ear. "I'll call you back, I think I see a drug deal about to happen - I'll text you the location. Give it to Shinwon as soon as you get it then head towards it", Hongseok quickly ordered before hanging up and following those two guys. He kept a good distance behind them, but it wasn't so great that he couldn't see them.

He quietly weaved through the waves of people on the side walks, but as he followed the two guys he realized that less and less people were on that path. He noticed that there were less lights and the shops seemed to be devoid of customers, the stores having that ugly, flickering florescent lighting in it that just screeched 70s.

Those guys quickly made a harsh left, entering a dark alley way. It might be a trap, Hongseok thought to himself, but nonetheless, he had to investigate. Although his heartbeat was slowly accelerating, he had to push forward for the sake of protecting the people, for protecting his son.

The policeman quietly crept into the alley way, pulling out his hand gun and held the trigger tightly. He heard the sound of hushed voices, hurrying his pace as he followed them. As he twisted and turned with the alley slowly becoming more narrow, Hongseok thought that it would lead to a dead end, but no - it was the complete opposite.

The narrow nook slowly opened up, leading him to a part of town he never knew existed. It was as if he went through the wardrobe from Narnia - it was a whole different world. It was much more dark with black or dark grey buildings along with narrow streets and barely any street lights. All of the buildings looked abandoned with their broken windows and chipping paint, but it's hazy, lit up neon signs state otherwise. As Hongseok walked around, he saw that there were not only bars and strip clubs, but in the shadow of buildings he saw blackmarket vendors parading in the streets selling almost every illegal gun, drug, weapon, and anything illegal under the sky being sold right on the streets or in shops. Through cracked windows, he watched as underground fighters punch, kick and do anything that would cause blood. And through more windows, he continued to be more and more disgusted with this life.