The Diamond Race | discontinued

chapter 19

10:00 Seoul, South Korea 37.5665° N, 126.9780° E

Everything was upside down.

Literally.

Junior Detective Jungkook was thinking.

Upside down.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jungkook could tell that Namjoon was trying not to stare at him for his unorthodox thinking habit. Feeling more dizzy than inspired, Jungkook came out of his hand stand.

"Think of anything?" Namjoon glanced down at the newspaper in front of him, then back at Jungkook.

"Nothing yet sir." Jungkook blushed. He silently reprimanded himself for showing such an odd habit in front of Namjoon, his hero. It was truly embarrassing.

Namjoon turned back to the newspaper his eyes settling on the name at the bottom of the front page article.

Head Reporter Seokjin Kim.

Namjoon had dealt with plenty of reporters in his career as a detective and none, not a single one, had come close to getting under his skin like Seokjin. The other man had a penchant for finding out undisclosed details and sharing them before the police could release them to the public. Not to mention his annoyingly precise questioning of law enforcement when major cases broke out. He was always in the front row seats during press conferences with his shiny recorder and it did nothing more than piss Namjoon off. Now here he was, the head writer on the case of Park Haeil's death, which meant Namjoon would have to face him again.

Namjoon sighed and sipped his lukewarm coffee before tossing in the trash beside his desk. It was as if the universe was out to get him.

"Jungkook, do you still have that witness recording from the cleaning lady at the Shilla?"

"Yes sir."

"No need to call me that." Namjoon muttered.

"Call you what sir?" Jungkook tipped his head as he handed Namjoon the device.

Namjoon felt awkward saying it, but he said it anyway. "You don't need to call me sir. It's too much."

"Then what should I call you?"

"Namjoon is fine."

"No honorifics?" Jungkook blinked in surprise. He had never heard any of his seniors forgo honorifics, if anything, they wanted more of them.

"There's hardly anything to be honored when it comes to me." Namjoon sighed.

He pinched the bridge of his nose and rubbed his eyes. He was tired. Namjoon had spent the night wide awake, sifting through case material. There was hardly a concrete motive for the case, and then there was the four mysterious people. One woman and three men. It was puzzling. There were four people around Park Haeil before or after he died, and Namjoon couldn't trace a single one of them. Tucking a pen and notepad in his pocket, Namjoon stood up.

"Jungkook, let's go out for a bit."

At Namjoon's words, Jungkook sprang up like jack-in-a-box, shuffling around quickly in the small office to reach for his coat.

"Where are we going?" Jungkook tossed his keys from hand to hand.

"Breakfast." Namjoon replied. "You haven't eaten anything yet, have you?"

Jungkook looked down at his toes sheepishly. So Namjoon had heard his stomach rumbling.

"No, sir."

Namjoon didn't bother correcting Jungkook. He had a feeling the younger would keep calling him sir no matter what.

He nodded. "Let's get food. No one functions well without food."