1, 2, 3 → LEE HEESEUNG

𝙴𝚙𝚒𝚜𝚘𝚍𝚎 𝟻

『Present, Cafe』

"Would that make you, Lee Heeseung?" Jina asks, hesitantly. Wariness flows along with each of her words, her uncertainty equally present. Whenever the two meet eyes, she feels like a deer in headlights and immediately looks away. It may be viewed as rude, but she keeps her eyes on her mug, occasionally glancing up at him. As time passes, she starts to find him less and less pleasing to be with. Whatever godly reputation he carries around with him is far from obvious. No matter how hard she looks, she can't find any trace of it anywhere. Really, he acts like more of an airhead than EJ. Soon, Jina begins to come to a series of realizations that she make her want to pull all her hair off of her head.  First, being that the more she looks for it, the farther away any sign of his professionalism will drift away from sight, going into the negatives. The next being that she'd rather give up her job and work at the grungy office a few blocks down from the cafe than sit down and banter with him. Then, the last being that EJ has incredibly low standards if he idolizes the man in front of her (who looked more like a schoolchild than a district attorney).

Heeseung, on the other hand, can't keep himself from smiling. Thoughts weave in and out of his head, millions to zero to millions all at once. Of course, this is how he always gets when he gets to meet new people, but this time he doesn't have to hide his enthusiasm. There's no grim veil he has to wear while offering sympathy, there's no barrier between him and this other person. Or so he thought. Nonetheless, having a partner in crime (well, a partner to solve crime) makes his heart soar to another galaxy. He won't be alone for this case, which is a change from all his years of working for the firm. 

Though he does not find her nearly as attractive as Sunoo described, he does admit she isn't terrible either. Her type of look isn't the most striking or eye catching, not the kind that sends butterflies swarming through your insides at the sight of a smile. It's the low key kind, the type that if you look for it, you could fall for it. Not upfront and immediate, but after observation, it ends up packing a punch. Not that he'd know what it'd be like watching her smile. In the ten minutes of him arriving, the girl in front of him hasn't moved her face from its neutral expression. Even as they greeted each other (nothing much, just a hello and a small bow) she remained stone-like. Does he have a statue or sculpture in front of him or is it a real human? At times, he finds it hard to tell. 

After he orders coffee, the two sip away at their drinks. Awkward silence invades the space the between them, but it's inevitable given the pairing. Not knowing what to do, Heeseung finds himself watching Jina, trying to observe something that would put her more at ease. Each attempt at conversations is immediately shut down with some kind of sharp response or simply no reply. The back and forth is not unlike the stereotypical teenagers and their parents, muttering not more than a singular sentence and getting annoyed over the most insignificant things. Nonetheless, he persists and tries to find something to talk about. Surely, two people have to have at least some common ground, right? There has to be at least one topic that they could banter about. Yet, each time Heeseung tries, it only misses by the length of several seas. 

"What kind of coffee do you like," he asks, desperate to find something she'd be willing to talk about. 

"What does it matter?" she replies, still not looking at him. 

"It doesn't, but I-" he doesn't even get to finish his sentence. 

"Mr. Lee, I'm a busy person with many reports to finish and other places to be," she interrupts. "I'd prefer if we can stick to the problem at hand instead of making small talk over unimportant matters." 

"Oh, okay then," he says. "So what do you know?" 

"Murder happened on Thursday, August 20 at 1:30 a.m, on 2nd Street. One victim, stabbed four times through the chest," she answers monotonously. "No physical evidence yet but our forensic science technician team will get it in our hands soon. Both of us have been called in by an anonymous person as far as we're aware who has relation to the suspect in some way, presumably a family member."