Questions and Answers
Unlikely, UnusualSehun was pretty excited to go to work by the time Monday rolled around.
He’d spent the rest of Saturday and all of Sunday letting Yixing’s words marinate. It was driving him a little crazy, so work was a welcome break from all of it. Plus they’d started the field work, so Sehun could actually leave the bureau and go do what he referred to as the “exciting” part of his job.
The week previous, they’d interviewed a few informants and determined some of the places where the pets were being kept. A group of investigators were sent out to the locations to do some scouting. A low risk assignment. The purpose: to confirm the accuracy of the informant information.
The warehouse he and Kyungsoo was assigned to was an accurate location. They’d only caught a glimpse of the situation inside, but it was atrocious. Sehun’s experience in the bureau usually meant that he’d be desensitized to this sort of thing, but that wasn’t the case this time. The scene made his blood boil.
The worst part was the waiting game. He could break all of them out right then, but then the pets in other locations would be moved and all their work would be for nought. They couldn’t let the criminals knew that they’d caught on.
Scouting was a necessary part of the investigation. They managed to weed out some unreliable sources and gain valuable insight into how the operation was functioning.
Today they were meeting another informant for lunch. She was one of the transporters for the trafficking ring, and she had offered a lot of valuable insight into the locations she was responsible for. Kyungsoo had been the one contacting her, so Sehun hadn’t met her yet.
“She’s quite pretty for being older,” Kyungsoo remarked in passing, “she looks a little like Lu Han.”
“Really?” Sehun said, but his brain was elsewhere, so the implications of that statement didn’t really sink in.
“Yep. And there’s the place.” Kyungsoo directed Sehun to pull into the parking lot.
They’d chosen a local cafe to meet at, a small one with nice coffee. Once they entered, Kyungsoo spotted the informant immediately and approached her. Sehun followed closely behind.
The woman immediately stood up once she saw the two men approach her, “Hello Investigator Do. And this is Investigator Oh, I assume?” Her voice had a nice lilt to it.
“That’s me. Nice to finally meet you, Mei.” Sehun smiled and held his hand out to shake.
She met his hand and Sehun noticed that she really did look like Lu Han. Although perhaps Kyungsoo had downplayed the likeness. She looked like an older, female version of the pet.
It was rather busy today, despite it being a Monday, so it took a while for the waitress came to take their orders. After they placed their orders, they made a little conversation. They didn’t talk about anything substantial just yet. After all, they didn’t want to be interrupted.
A short while later, the waitress came back with their food. Kyungsoo gave his thanks and told her to not bother them during the meal, and that he’d call her over if they needed anything, if she didn’t mind.
The girl agreed and smiled, leaving the group to eat in peace. Sehun continued to talk about current events like they were before, letting the conversation ease into the actual interrogation.
Sehun couldn’t help but think that Mei’s eyes were exactly like Lu Han’s. The resemblance was unsettling.
Once they had properly gotten settled in, Kyungsoo started the questioning.
“Has anything major changed these past few months? Movement, numbers, schedules?” He asked.
“They got large group of younger pets, maybe about 12, 13 years old? I think they’ll be sold in two weeks.” She responded, going into further detail about the timeline she assumed they would be taking.
“So these aren’t going to be trained?” Kyungsoo asked once she finished.
She thought about it for a moment, then shook her head no, “Lack of training is an attractive trait for that age group, so I’m pretty sure they’re planning to just sell them like that for the appeal.”
No matter how much Sehun dealt with this sort of thing, it was still repulsive. They were so young.
“And we know about the warehouses, but are there any other places where the operation is going down?”
She nodded, “There are, but the pets spend the majority of their time at the warehouses.”
“Do you know when the pets are at every hour of the day?” Sehun asked.
“It’s not that simple,” Mei responded, “think of the warehouse as the base for the pets. When they’re not needed, they’re at the warehouse. Depending on the pet, they’ll have different hours for training and the location where they are trained is different for each session.”
“And how do they assign the pets to their training sessions?”
“I’m not high up enough to know how they decide that stuff.” Mei said, taking a sip of her drink, “They just give us a timesheet in the mornings of what we’ll be dealing with that day and we just do it.”
And that was what took Sehun so long to even start the case. The leader of the ring was very clever, making sure that none of the employees knew exactly how the entire operation ran. The only way the investigators could figure out what was going on was to piece together the story from the details given by several different informants.
“Okay, that’s fine,” Kyungsoo reassured her, “do you know where training takes place?”
Mei nodded, “Each trainer is responsible for securing their own location, so it’s usually basements of their own homes or something like that. At least, that’s what the trainers I’ve talked with tell me.”
“Have the trainers told you anything else?”
“Yeah,” She replied, “most of them are moonlighters—they have their legal job during the day, training under a big corporation—and they’re doing this illegal gig to earn some extra bucks during their off-time. Training doesn’t pay as well as it used to with the big corporations taking over and all that, so they gotta do what they gotta do.”
Sehun nodded. Her story matched up with what some of the trainers had told them.
They continued to question her about particular details of the case, trying to match up information from other informants with what Mei would tell them. She responded diligently, and soon they’d run out of questions. Kyungsoo thanked her for her cooperation.
“I’m a bit curious about you, Mei.” Sehun asked after they called the waitress over for the check, “Why did you start pet trafficking?”
Mei looked at her empty plate for a while before meeting Sehun’s eyes again, “I went down a bad path when I was a teenager. I woke up from that in my mid-20s, tried to get on the straight-and-narrow, and I did for a while. But no respectable place was going to hire a high school dropout with a criminal record. Eventually I started dating a guy who as in this business, and he got me into it.”
Sehun decided that this was the right time to ask her the question that had been on his mind all evening, “This is a bit of a personal question, but do you have any kids?”
“I had one.” She responded.
“Oh I’m sorry.” Sehun said.
“Don’t apologize, Investigator.” Mei sighed, “It’s my fault anyway; I was stupid and eighteen. I was on bad terms with his father at the time and out of spite he abducted my baby when he was just about a month old. Lord knows where my baby is. I sure hope he’s alright.”
Oh no. Sehun took a deep breath, “How old would he be, about?”
“Almost 21. I had him in April.”
At this point Kyungsoo was looking wide-eyed at Sehun. He had figured out what Sehun was hinting at.
“Assume that I know someone who might be your son,” Sehun said, “would you like to meet him?”
A gasp, “How can you, Investigator? I’ve just met you today. Please don’t pull any jokes on me.”
Sehun smiled, “I’m not joking. I’ve known him for a while, and you guys looks so similar that I had to ask. But he’s been under some specific circumstances, so he might not exactly be how you’d expect.”
“I would really like to see him.” Mei said, voice urgent, “May I ask his name?”
“Lu Han.”
“Really. Lu Han.” Mei repeated, almost reverently, “That is a beautiful name.”
...
Sehun broke the news to Lu Han two days before the date he would bring him to meet Mei.
He didn’t want to stress the pet out too much, knowing how Lu Han got when he felt the need to impress. But he didn’t want to blindside him either, so he thought two days was a good compromise.
During dinner, Sehun tried to bring up the conversation as casually as possible.
“So Lu Han, how would you feel about coming with me to work two days from now?” Sehun asked.
Lu Han looked up from his food, “I would like that.”
Sehun made a motion for Lu Han to continue to eat and Lu Han returned to his food, eating it in that careful way he did.
“So, um, the reason for this, uh, occasion is that someone wants to meet you.” Sehun continued, a bit nervous, “But it’s not a coworker or anything.”
“I don’t mind.” Lu Han said, this time not looking up from his food.
“And uh, this someone might be related to you.”
“Okay.” Lu Han responded. A minute passed before he realized what those words meant. “Oh,” A pause, “oh, oh.”
“She might be your mother,” Sehun responded, “but I wanted you two to meet first and if there’s interest, we can do a test to find out for sure.”
Lu Han nodded. He didn’t say anything, taking his time to absorb all the information. He picked up his fork and started to eat again. Sehun stayed quiet.
“I think I’d like to meet her.” Lu Han finally replied after he’d finished his food.
“Sounds great,” Sehun said, picking up their plates, “I’ll make arrangements for you guys to meet at the bureau on Friday.”
...
The day finally rolled around. The two went through their typical morning routine, the only difference being that Lu Han dressed up to go out. And that they both got into the car to drive to Sehun’s workplace.
Actually Mei wasn’t coming until noon, but Lu Han had refused Sehun’s offer to pick him up at that time, instead insisting that he go along in the morning. Sehun didn’t mind either way, he didn’t have any “real” work today—because he didn’t count paperwork as “real” work.
Once they arrived, Sehun immediately look Lu Han to his office, trying to avoid seeing anyone he knew. Thankfully, that was successful, and Sehun made sure Lu Han was comfortable on the couch before settling down in front of his computer.
They’d barely been sitting for ten minutes before there was a knock on the door.
“It’s Kyungsoo.” Came the voice from the other side.
“Come in.” Sehun responded.
Kyungsoo opened the door and walked inside, making sure to close it behind him, “Lu Han!” He greeted.
Sehun was definitely beginning to feel like Kyungsoo preferred Lu Han over him.
“Kyungsoo!” Lu Han said, buried in the blankets on the couch.
Kyungsoo sat down next to Lu Han and ruffled his hair, “How are you feeling today?”
“A little nervous, but good.” Lu Han said, closing his eyes at Kyungsoo’s touch.
“There’s nothing to be nervous about, Lu Han.” Kyungsoo reassured, “The worst scenario is that she hates you and you’ll still go home with Sehun and we can pretend like today didn’t happen. But I doubt that will happen, because no one can hate you, Lu Han.”
Lu Han looked up at Kyungsoo from his mountain of blankets, “Really?”
“Really.” Kyungsoo responded affirmatively.
This seemed to put Lu Han at ease. Kyungsoo smiled and gave his head one last pat before going to talk with Sehun.
The two investigators quietly discussed the timeline for this afternoon, but were interrupted halfway through by a quiet whine from the couch.
Sehun leaned over his desk and saw that Lu Han was about to doze off, but holding on to consciousness as best as he could. Due to his excitement, the pet probably hadn’t gotten much sleep last night—or the night before, for that matter. Sehun smiled and asked Kyungsoo to move the conversation to the couch. Kyungsoo agreed.
Sehun sat on the couch and pulled the pet’s head onto his lap. Kyungsoo grinned and rolled the chair from the desk to where they were sitting and they continued the conversation.
Kyungsoo was going to pick up Mei from their meeting place and bring her over to Sehun’s office. That was where the two would meet while both investigators were supervising. The files they were submitting would disguise this as a normal informant interview, because the meeting might not be positively looked upon by the bureau. The higher-ups encouraged investigators to not be too personally involved in the case so they could be more objective. Sehun would normally follow this suggestion, but he felt wrong not to reunite mother and child.
“I’m just not sure if we can completely cover this without it being stupidly obvious.” Sehun was a bit concerned, particularly since they wouldn’t be talking about anything relating to the case once the two met.
“I can do the usual interview before they meet.” Kyungsoo suggested, “You probably don’t want Lu Han to overhear, right?”
Sehun nodded. Lu Han wasn’t faint-hearted by any means—Sehun knew this because he would occasionally be so frustrated that he’d talk about this case and all its gory detail to his pet and Lu Han didn’t seem too perturbed by it—but he’d rather not have him deal with that and this meeting all in one day.
“Alright then, I’ll be off. I’ll bring her here around 1300, so make sure you feed Lu Han before then.” Kyungsoo stood up and ruffled the pet’s hair.
Lu Han was sound asleep at this point, and did not respond at all.
“I swear you care way more about Lu Han than you do about me.” Sehun joked, “Hand me my paperwork and laptop before you leave.”
Kyungsoo gave Sehun a long look, “Of course. Lu Han is way less annoying,” he joked before chucking and grabbing the things off Sehun’s desk and throwing it to him, “I’ll see you in a while.”
After Kyungsoo closed his office door, Sehun opened his laptop and began to do his work, mainly answering emails and writing reports. Tedious work, but he assumed that the tedium is what made the exciting moments more exciting.
Plus the work didn’t seem so bad when he had such a sweet thing sleeping on his lap.
Lu Han’s breaths when he slept were quite heavy, but the rhythm was relaxing and helped Sehun focus. He managed to get a good amount of work done before he felt the pet move.
Sehun looked down to see Lu Han open his eyes and blink a few times. He looked up at Sehun and smiled, and Sehun’s heart melted a little at the cute face.
“Nice nap?” He asked.
Lu Han hummed a sound of agreement before rolling over and burying his head into Sehun’s shirt. Sehun laughed and ruffled the pet’s hair. He moved the paperwork over to the side and helped Lu Han sit up.
“Are you hungry? We should probably eat before Mei gets here.”
Lu Han nodded and got to his feet. Sehun did the same and cleared off his desk. He took out the food they’d packed that morning and gave Lu Han his share. Normally he’d eat in the cafeteria, but he wanted to keep Lu Han out of view. While the company didn’t have a policy against bringing pets to work, they probably wouldn’t be too happy with it, and considering the matter they were engaging in today, it was better if fewer people knew Lu Han was here.
They talked over the meal, and while Sehun tried several times to bring up Mei, Lu Han dodged the topic as much as he could. Sehun decided to let it drop. Things would work themselves out, probably.
After lunch, Lu Han settled on the couch with a book he brought while Sehun returned to his paperwork. Sehun was just starting to write today’s report when his phone buzzed.
It was Kyungsoo. They were heading over right now.
Sehun divulged this information to Lu Han before cleaning up his papers. He pulled over the two chairs at his desk to the couch and told Lu Han to stay put.
“I’ll sit next to you Lu, unless you’d feel more comfortable elsewhere?”
Lu Han shook his head, “No, please stay.”
Sehun nodded and paced the room one more time before he heard the knock at the door.
The investigator made his way over and opened it, “Come in.”
Kyungsoo walked in first, Mei following him. She spotted Lu Han immediately and stopped in her tracks.
Sehun closed the door while Kyungsoo guided Mei over to a seat. She was in a bit of shock and sat down.
Lu Han was clearly` nervous, looking down at his hands and fidgeting a little, the habit coming back again.
Sehun sat down next to Lu Han before introducing the two, “Mei, this is Lu Han, and Lu Han, this is Mei.”
“Oh my gosh,” Mei said, voice barely above a whisper, “you weren’t joking. He looks exactly like me.”
Kyungsoo sat down next to her and patted her arm, “Yes, the resemblance is uncanny.”
“Lu,” Sehun prompted, “shouldn’t you say hi?”
Lu Han looked up from his lap and smiled a little, “Hi.”
“Hi.” Mei greeted back, flustered, “Oh, I don’t even know how to act, you’re so grown, and this must seem like such a shock and everything…”
The atmosphere was very awkward. Lu Han looked to Sehun for what to do.
Sehun wasn’t too sure himself. So instead he decided to break to Mei what he’d been hiding for a while.
“So Mei, here’s the thing. Lu Han isn’t exactly… how do I put it? Normal?”
“Well I wouldn’t expect him to be, growing up without parents the way he has.” Mei laughed, but it was without humor.
“It’s not exactly like that,” Sehun said, “it’s more like he isn’t exactly like you or me.”
Her eyebrows went up, “How so?”
Sehun looked to Kyungsoo for help, and the other investigator responded, “There isn’t an easy way to put this, but I can try to finish the story of your son for you. After his father abducted him, he left him on a doorstep of what he might have thought was an orphanage. But it wasn’t. It was a pet trainer’s house.”
“Oh my god.” Mei said, hand covering , “Are you saying that he’s…”
Kyungsoo nodded.
“I can’t believe this!” Mei said, completely in shock.
“Now the good thing is,” Sehun spoke, “the trainer is an elite trainer, so Lu Han has more capacity and free will than the average pet.”
“Who is his owner?” Mei asked.
“Me.” Sehun said.
Mei let out a sigh of relief, “Oh that’s great. For some reason I feel a lot better knowing the it was you, Investigator.”
“You should,” Kyungsoo agreed, “Sehun hasn’t been making Lu Han act too much like a pet. But I can’t say that he’s fully human.”
There was a pause before Mei spoke again, “Lu Han, I’m so sorry.” Tears were forming in her eyes.
Lu Han looked up from his fingers and tilted his head.
“This entire thing was my fault,” Mei apologized, “if I hadn’t done all the terrible things I did, you wouldn’t be in this position.”
She closed her eyes and said under her breath, “I swear this is karma.”
Lu Han looked a bit confused and whispered just loud enough so Sehun could hear, “I don’t know what’s wrong.”
Sehun remained quiet. He didn’t know how to answer that.
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