It was typical, that after months and months of rigorous planning, night after night of trying to sync up their schedules, and many texts and phone calls between them, that Jongdae would be late for their date. Misook sat at the table in the coffee shop they’d established as their ‘date location’ with a strawberry milkshake in front of her, contemplating what could have plausibly held Jongdae up this time. 

Chewing the inside of her cheek, she took her phone out of her bag and typed a quick text. 

12:38 To: Jongdae

Where are you? It’s unlike you to be late. 

From: Misook

Jongdae usually always had his phone in his hand, so realistically she should get a reply straight away. If he didn’t have his phone on him, he’d be on his laptop which could also receive texts, so she should get a reply either way. But she didn’t. 

Picking up her phone again she decided to try and call him. The phone rang five times before going straight to voice mail. She tried a second time. The same again, five rings followed by ‘Can’t come to the phone right now, busy working my magic’, a message that Misook both loved and loathed. Though at this present moment in time she was beginning to get worried. It was very unlike him not to answer his phone, especially if the call was from her. 

She decided to text him again. 

12:57 To: Jongdae

You’re beginning to worry me if you can’t make it please call me. 

From: Misook

Another fifteen minutes passed with no reply. Concluding that he must’ve forgotten, Misook finished off her milkshake and left the cafe. She’d question him about it later. 

When she reached the next corner she found herself passing by a TV and electronics shop, one that had opened just a few weeks prior and appeared to sell a number of colourful TV sets that put the ordinary ones to shame. It was a breath of fresh air to see a standard LG flat screen TV in bright orange rather than black, though Misook definitely wouldn’t want one in her room that’s for sure. 

The shop was actually situated next to the bus stop, and because the bus wasn’t due for another ten to fifteen minutes she had time to kill. The brightly coloured TV was set to the news channel, and she didn’t appear to be the only one watching it as the subtitles informed the viewers of what was going on around Seoul. Taking her phone out of her pocket she checked for any new messages. She had a couple from her sister, one from Kris and a couple from Joonmyun, one of which was labelled as ‘Urgent’. She was just about to open the urgent message when her phone began to ring. The caller ID told her it was Joonmyun. 

“Hey, what’s up?” She answered, her eyes absentmindedly scanning over the TV in front of her. 

“Have you seen Jongdae? He didn’t come back from the mission this morning.” Joonmyun answered, sounding out of breath. 

“What mission? He was supposed to be meeting me for a date?” 

“The mission isn’t important, but Minseok just came back covered in blood and Jongdae didn’t come back at all-” 

“Joonmyun, you promised me you were all done with missions, that you wouldn’t do these things anymore-“

The news story suddenly changed to breaking news. A Birdseye view of a what looked to be around five police cars and a police van, as well as two ambulances, came on screen. The entire area was cornered off around a block of flats that Misook recognised. Before she knew it she’d hung up the phone and taken off running. 

Luckily for her the house wasn’t that far away from the cafe and soon enough she’d reached the police block. It was times like these that she was glad she always carried her police badge with her, as just as an officer was abou