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CHAPTER ONE — ❛ VIOLENCE BOY AND OTHER BAD PEOPLE ❜
If I'd have to choose a scent that best describes my life, I'd probably go with coffee.
My childhood was painted in blood and misery, but things were different now. Life had become a routine. A blur of cheap caffeinated drinks, paper cuts, explicit crime scene photos and unventilated offices. Working outside of the police station was a rarity and I spent most of my days secretly daydreaming about the violent, the painful, the evil and everything else that used to terrify me.
'' Careful what you wish for, Chito. '' Hyuk's warning hung in the air between us, like an ominous predicament of the future. I was leaning against the police station's vending machine and holding some case files for him, while he was buying one espresso after another, pouring the watery brown liquid in his large tumbler and stacking the empty cups in the trash can. '' Sometimes, it's better to not know the truth. Remember the story that I told you last week? My whole life, I thought that my parents liked my twin brother more than me. Eventually, I decided to confront them about it and it turned out that I was right. My mother never wanted to have two kids, let alone twins. If she could've made a choice, she would've only kept the cuter one. ''
Hyuk tiredly yawned, stuck another paper bill in the old vending machine and hit the button for more espresso. It was early in the morning, sunlight was pouring through the windows and the police station was bustling with life. Detectives were walking up and down the hallways, discussing recent high profile cases with their colleagues and working behind their desks. Cigarette butts were already accumulating in their ashtrays, which just got emptied by the night shift cleaners.
Hyuk wasn't the most sympathetic listener, but I didn't have anyone to talk to besides him. He didn't say it out loud, but I knew what was going through his head. It's happening. She's finally going insane. And there was a good chance that he was right. He usually was.
Lately, I've been having these horrible nightmares and waking up in tears. At first, I didn't think much of them and blamed it on resurfacing childhood trauma. I thought that the nightmares would eventually stop, but instead - they got worse. I couldn't clearly recall any of them, but every morning, I would wake up with the agonizing sensation that I was running out of time. The worst thing of all was that I had no idea why and I couldn't do anything but keep living, the same way that I always have, only with water slowly pouring down my throat.
'' By the way, where did you go last week? '' Hyuk broke the silence and poured another cup of steaming espresso in his tumbler. Just four more and it would be full. That painful dose of caffeine was just enough to keep him awake until lunchtime. '' You abandoned me on the beach in Incheon. I spent the afternoon picking through washed-up jellyfish and searching for body parts. ''
'' It started raining and I suddenly remembered that I left my laundry out on the balcony, '' I jokingly replied, took a sip from my own cup of coffee and started flipping through one of the files that I was holding for him. I was still a newbie and my boss didn't give me a lot of real work, but Hyuk was in charge of handling family-related crimes. Nobody else from our department was soulless enough to deal with grieving families, murdered lovers, bloody sibling betrayals and violence committed over inheritance. The last detective that tried to take this burden upon his shoulders, ended up going a little crazy and thinking that his wife was secretly poisoning his food. '' Who's family are you going to ruin today? ''
