home, kim jungwoo

22

when the sunsets i'll get to see your face.

GUT-WRENCHING REALIZATIONS 

When Jungwoo left that morning, his nerves sky-rocketed. He tapped rapidly on the steering wheel and ever so often he took glances at the combination of letters and numbers on the paper in his passenger seat.

The sun was nowhere to be seen as the night was not leaving anytime soon. Instead, the light posts, stoplights, and occasional store sign paved the way bright enough.

He had the urge to run his hand through his hair; a habit to combat stress, but he didn't want to mess up his hair, nor go into the station already presenting stressed.

His phone -connected to his car- rang loudly, shoulders rising as he pressed a button on the wheel, letting the call come through.

"Jungwoo, you're almost here, right?" Johnny tensed, his voice only being loud enough to be heard over the rumbling sounds in the background of the call.

"Yeah, I'll be there soon, how is everything there? Is everything okay with you?" Jungwoo questioned, taking a turn onto the street where the station was.

"It's crazy man, everyone's panicking if any of there information was hacked into, I'm okay though, mine's safe," Johnny reassured as Jungwoo made it to the building, parking quickly.

"Okay, that's good to hear... I'm here." He delivered, turning off his car and scampered into the building, worried about his identity and if it would be safe.

The sliding doors opened at his presence and the fluorescent lights greeted him. The open space where the cubicles lined up in rows had all his co-workers buzzing around.

Panic noises filled the air and the display on the platform had the video that caused this early morning.

He strode over to his desk, with the folded paper clutched in his hand. Sliding his chair out he sat in it and began to unlock his computer.

His screen lit up, the home screen welcoming him as files were on the screen. With one of the files that were locked he clicked on it, typing the cryptic combination on the paper, unlocking the file.

He skimmed through quickly, looking for anything out of place or missing but luckily for him, nothing was messed with. That was until he noticed something odd.

Files from his security camera outside of his apartment were missing, the ones from the past few days.

His head tilted slightly at the oddness and began scanning the file, hoping that they were at the bottom, but they weren't; the footage was gone, erased.

His body ran cold, worry and confusion filled his mind as he got up quickly, looking for Taeil. Briskly, he walked through the hallway, stopping at the door that had Taeil's name on it.

Stepping into the dim room that had multiple screens on the back wall, he made his presence known by the door clicking shut.

The chair went spinning around, stopping at Jungwoo's figure as the older smiled at his appearance. But when Jungwoo's voice spoke out shakily, Taeils sweet smile dissipated.

"My security camera's footage is missing, it's supposed to be updated automatically in the file, but it's not there." He was anxious, his mind running that he was being targeted for some reason.

Taeil although had something to say, kept it to himself and began typing meticulously, looking for answers to the missing footage.

But nothing prevailed in the few moments, everything was truly wiped clean making Taeil slump into the chair then spoke, "It could be possible that it just wasn't saved, I'll get someone to go check out the camera later, don't worry too much, I don't see how this could be related to anything."

Taeil found everything he said to be true but he couldn't deny the little thought that this was connected to the case, and that made him worry.

Jungwoo understood what he was saying, nodding before leaving the room. He continued walking back into the open room, finally running his hand through his hair as people walked up to him.

"We just got a call, a new victim, and Taeyong wants us all to go to the scene," Ten mentioned as Yuta beside him stood, watching Jungwoo's lips form a tight line.

The three walked right back out of the unit as the atmosphere became deary.

In the car, Yuta spoke his thoughts clearly, "I can't believe our system was hacked by whoever this guy is." His tone had frustration as he drove them to the scene.

"The guy probably knew that hacking us would distract us enough to do this, I mean none of our personal information is gone nor any information on the case, he just wanted to taunt us." Ten added as he went through the manila file he brought, skimming over information on the previous crime scenes.

Jungwoo wanted to tell them about his anxiousness, due to his missing footage but he kept quiet, not wanting to distract anyone, as Taeil told him it was probably a malfunction in the system.

But even though he didn't want to speak about that he had something else on his mind, "I think after we inspect there we should go to the previous scenes, there has to be some sort of connection."

"I agree, he did something to lure them, or at least there had to be some way he learned about their daily tracking," Yuta offered as the two hummed at his statement.

Parking, they all got out of the car. Jungwoo slipped on the latex gloves, the others following suit. There was the yellow tape that separated the house and the street, and police cars that were parked carelessly as a small group of people swarmed.

The three ducked under the tape, walking up to the steps, opening the white door revealing a sight that no one wanted to see. "It's the first one not in an alleyway," Ten grimaced as the foyer's walls were splattered with crimson liquid.

Jungwoo held his breath, as they got closer to the living room where the victim's body was propped up against the brick fireplace, with the stitched mouth.

"Well it's definitely our guy," Yuta murmured, noticing the signature as the three all dispersed, looking through the room where numbered cards were.

Jungwoo crouched down, inhaling deeply from the horrific sight, seeing the murder weapon beside her; the shining steel knife coated in blood.

He shivered unknowingly as his body reacted weirdly to the victim. Something seemed similar, it was almost like he could see someone else inside the women.

Pushing away his feelings he got up, moving to the dining table where letters stacked up messily. The resemblance took him back to his first moments in Akina's apartment. Her countertop that was covered in letters just like this one made him pause. A trickling coldness rushing through him.

His mind raced through the previous victims, connecting a thought that he didn't want to be true. He glanced at the victim who was being covered with white plastic as he swallowed.

She would fit the unsub's victimology.