They parked their car in the precinct’s parking lot, struggling a bit to find a good spot and ending up parked very far away from the entrance, since the place was very full.

The two were mostly silent on their way back from the Kim’s’ house, both in deep thought, and a bit shaken up by the sudden change of mood on their case. Most of the extravagant excitement that they felt when given that more complex case was turning into worry now that a murder was involved. It was their most wanted field of investigation, so it was important that they did well; they wanted to show the chief their potential.

But at the same time the undying feeling that they’d be replaced dug at their hearts. They were known as rookies, and so the chief didn’t know them very well, he didn’t know if they were capable or not. Not even the detectives knew.

“Let’s go in.”

Jongdae said, looking off to nothing. The car was stopped, and turned off, but for some reason the two didn’t remember to get out. They were too distracted, and until Jongdae spoke up, they had just stayed sited in silence.

Minseok didn’t answer, just opened his door and stepped out. The sun was shining bright, almost precisely at the top of their heads, as the clock was reaching noon. They had at first planned to eat their lunch on the way back to the precinct, but they ended up skipping it completely, as they didn’t feel hungry, and their minds completely forgot about the necessary meal when they were facing much serious things.

“We can do this.”

Minseok suddenly said, managing to make himself heard as Jongdae had just gotten out of the car. The younger detective looked over at his partner, and a confident smile was forced onto his lips.

“Yeah, we will. We want to be homicide detectives anyway; we’ll deal with cases like this every day in the future.”

Jongdae responded as they started to walk to the entrance.

“And we’ll solve them all; just like we’re going to solve this one.”

Minseok completed. Sometimes it was hard for those two to keep an upbeat attitude, but they hadn’t been kicked off the case yet; they couldn’t just give up, they had to keep working. And if that took cheesy pick-me-up conversations to get them going, they wouldn’t complain.

As they walked through the doors of the precinct, they naturally moved towards the stairs, expecting to pass by unnoticed like they usually did, but someone called out for them this time, making them stop on their tracks.

The high pitched – and already slightly uncomfortable – voice brought maddening screeches back to their memories, and they almost didn’t have to turn back to know who it was.

They saw the middle aged woman from their previous case just getting up from the waiting bench – that sat by the entrance – agitatedly wobbling her way towards them.

“Detectives! Finally!”

She practically screamed, and the two were already starting to understand that the annoying tone was probably her default way of speech.

Neither answered her right away, turning over to one of the officers who were on the counter near-by, handling the entrance. The man met their eyes, and right away started to explain the situation without even needing to be asked.

“I’m sorry detectives, she insisted to speak to the two of you, she said that no one else other than the ‘Important detectives’ would be able to help.”

There was a clear condescending tone – filled with a bit of sarcasm – in the officer’s voice, and the two men knew that the lady was probably giving everyone a hard time while waiting for them.

With a twitch of hesitance, the duo turned back to the woman, and they tried to fake some concern, but they were not being very convincing.

“What’s the problem, ma’am? How can we help you?”

Minseok asked, slightly distracted. He just wanted to ignore her altogether and go up to their desks. They had more important things to work on.

“It’s that terrible man again! That horrible filthy criminal man! The worst possible neighbor there could be, that man!”

The woman was angry, and she could clearly go on insulting her neighbor for a long time, but the look of both detectives faces urged her to move on, and so she did.

“That evil man is impossible! He’s been insulting me, calling me names! But that’s not even the worst! He’s going after coconut, my baby! He’s cruel to her; I’m even scared to let her out to the yard now, after what happened! That sick twisted man, there’s a special place in hell for him!”

She took a very quick pause to breath, and Jongdae was about to remind her that it wasn’t the neighbor who had stolen her dog, the animal had escaped on its own – and Jongdae would have escaped too, if he had to be that lady’s pet – but she went back to speaking right after her sharp intake of air.

“He threatened to kill her yesterday, after you left, you know? And he really said it like he meant it, it was horrifying!”

She clasped her hand onto her chest, and seemed to hold back some sort of tears, her nearly-crying voice being even more annoying than her normal one.

“And now my baby is sick!”

She had to pause again, letting out a screech that vaguely resembled a cry before carrying on.

“She had to be taken to the vet last night, because she looked so terrible, and the vet told me that she had eaten poison! Rat poison! I don’t have that in my house! And my poor baby had to take a medicine that made her throw up the entire night, and she’s still at the doggy hospital!”

Jongdae and Minseok strongly stared at the woman, simultaneously wondering why they were wasting their time listening to that. But she didn’t even give them a break to intervene; she just started getting more and more worked up, her voice raising.

“That man! He broke into me house, and poisoned coconut’s food! You have to go there!! You have to search his house and find the poison, and then you can use those scientists of yours to compare it to the food left over, like they do on TV, and then prove that he did it! You have to!”

The two hesitated, waiting for her to continue talking, and only a few seconds after realizing that she was now waiting for a response.

“Ah… Ma’am, I’m very sorry, but we’re currently very busy on another case…”

Minseok started, and he saw her face starting to twist into a wicked expression, so he made sure to quickly continue talking before she was able to open .

“But! Er…”

He started, and with a quick look around – and a fast check at a name tag – he chose the poor victim who would have to deal with the crazy lady.

“Officer Lee over here is more than qualified to help you! He’s a very dedicated worker, just like the two of us, and he will not let you down! He’ll make sure to investigate it all very properly, he was well trained.”

He said as he pulled along another man who was idle. By the officer’s face, the woman had clearly already managed to annoy him too, but he couldn’t dare to refuse, when Minseok – a higher hank detective – was putting him on the spot like that.

The woman hesitated, eyeing officer Lee up and down a couple of times with some suspicions, before looking ready to go.

“Okay. Let’s get going, before that terrible man destroys the evidence.”

She said, and started rushing out of the precinct.

Minseok still had a hold of the officer’s arm – from when he pulled him closer – and took a quick moment to advise him before letting go. He did feel a bit sorry for the terrible assignment, so he wanted to at least help him a bit.

“Check for signs of a break in, and talk to the neighbor, but if it is all clear then don’t waste too much time on it; that woman is a bit delusional. And her dog was rummaging through trash out on the streets yesterday morning, it could have eaten that poison anywhere else.”

Even after being let go, the officer didn’t move, looking back at them with a pitiful ‘don’