A city myth could be the lead that detective Kang Yeosang's been looking for to solve 29 missing children cases and salvage his career.
[ ONGOING ; SLOW UPDATES ]
started: 12/03/19
completed: -
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In the dead of night, another ferocious thunderstorm rattled the city and if Jongho wasn't leading the detective along so determinedly, Yeosang surely would've tripped over himself by now.
The pair were currently trickling down the back stairwell of the detective's apartment complex, racing towards the exit in almost complete pitch black. The emergency lights have all but burned out, their soft yellow glow only reduced to a measly circle around where they were mounted.
Yeosang found it hard to remember how he arrived at this moment through his sleepy daze and the terrifying claps of thunder, each one unconsciously tightening his grip on Jongho's hand. It was steady and strong, an anchor in the otherwise turbulent waters of his mind and being.
He struggled to recall; it wasn't like anything remarkably life changing happened over the past week — well, no scratch that. Nothing remarkably life changing happened to Yeosang over the past week.
Jongho, on the other hand, was constantly relearning about the world he once called home. He became silent and austere simply by watching it all — from rain spraying up in the wake of rubber tires to coveys of dark umbrellas flitting across streets after their speedy departure.
The detective didn't know why it all captivated Jongho so. In all honesty, nothing has really changed since their childhood days (save for some stores closing and new ones opening in their place, a few newly built skyscrapers and the color palettes continuing to dull.)
Despite all that, though — despite the fact that everything was still incredibly boring and dreary beyond belief — Jongho still managed to find fleeting moments of familiar color.
That's when Yeosang remembered the plan he and Seonghwa set into motion at the beginning of the week — a plan that was laid out to reveal those colors.
When Sorin's unexpected and teary outburst happened that morning, Jongho refused to speak to anyone afterwards.
Even when Yeosang took the conductor to work the next day with Seonghwa, he still wore a hangdog expression on his face. He'd slump in their cushy office chairs (eerily similar to Wooyoung) and stare blankly at his lap where his thumbs twiddled (the detail that differentiated him from Wooyoung, who rather reminisced out the window.)
Yeosang didn't pay much attention to Jongho that day or the next, as he was too absorbed in squaring away Mingi's case. The joy that swelled in his chest when he finally handed in the solved report to the receptionist — and the pride he felt when she looked astonishedly at the simple manila folder — was overwhelmingly unprecedented.
It was easily the happiest the detective has ever felt since he began working three years ago.
But immediately after his astonishing breakthrough, Seonghwa was quick to pull him out of the limelight's unfamiliar, but warm and welcoming glow.
