It was late at night and Soo-Hyuk was closing the case files he had been studying for a long time. He was too tired to think about anything else and went to bed. He often used to think that only work could keep him from thinking about Sabin, but even his small everyday actions made him think about her. Every night when he went to bed, he used to wonder if she was sleeping properly. He already framed the polaroid Haeun had taken for Hyungbin, and stared at her serene face.

“I’m sorry Haeun… I couldn’t even give you a proper wedding as Hyungbin. Did you miss me the same way back then, like I miss you now?” He held his head low as he took out the wedding rings Sabin had returned to him. “I can at least give them to you, for the wedding we never had in the past.” He placed the rings back in his drawer as tiredness took the better of him, and went to sleep.

(back at NFS)

Jae Yi rushed inside the building as fast as she could, and hurriedly put on her NFS coat. She was called into the main examination room by Professor Yoo. She couldn’t help but gasp at the scene in front of her, and the people in the room turned their heads in her direction.

“Come inside. We were waiting for you,” Professor Yoo said to her in a monotonous way.

“I’m sorry I’m late,” Jae Yi said as she wore her gloves and went inside. “Is Detective Joo In-Do handling the case?” She asked, spotting In-Do in the room.

“This is Detective Jang’s case. He was recently transferred to our department, and I’m just aiding this case,” In-Do replied.

“I see,” Jae Yi replied.

“Detective Joo, you can start with the details,” Professor Yoo said pointing at the examination table.

“This body was found near a natural burial site. The place is rarely visited by anyone, and it was found today by a man who accidentally stumbled upon it. The place is now sealed, but the body is unidentifiable. A social security card was found at the scene, but after looking into it, Detective Jang found out that the card belonged to a woman who was found dead four months ago after being reported missing,” In-Do explained.

“As you see that the facial bones are badly crushed, so after examining the body we found it to be the main cause of death. The death seems to have taken place two months ago. The clothes didn’t decay, and judging by the bone structure he appears to be a man in his early twenties. The card found at the scene suggests that he was either related to the dead woman, or they were killed by the same person. There was dried blood spotted on the glasses discovered at the crime scene. We are currently running some tests to find out further,” Professor Yoo continued.

“Does it mean that the killer might still be out there?” Jae Yi asked.

“The person who was charged as the murderer for the first victim is behind the bars, but it doesn’t rule out the fact that the body found today was his next target. It only has been a month since he was charged for murder,” In-Do answered.

“Jae Yi, I want you to run a scan of the face right now, and start performing 3D restoration. Detective Jang needs it for identifying the body,” Professor Yoo said.

“Right now??” Jae Yi’s eyes went wide as it was late at night, and past her working hours. Her job wasn’t the type requiring overtime work.

“Yes, as Detective Jang needs to find out the victim’s identity as soon as possible. He is currently looking at the missing persons’ reports made in the past two months, and it will be helpful if we get restoration results so he can compare them with the reports,” Professor Yoo answered.

“I will get started then!”

“I’m leaving the rest to you. I’ll be back in the morning. Lock the examination room after running the scan. My assistant will be here to move the body in two hours. He has access so you won’t have to worry,” Professor Yoo said while leaving.

“I will also get going then. Detective Jang will join you in a while. He’s on his way and will be here anytime,” In-Do said while gathering his belongings.

“Alright. Go back safely,” Jae Yi managed to say.

Jae Yi started the scan and stored the results on her hard disk before leaving the examination room. On her way to the 3D restoration room, she noticed that the hallways were darker than usual and the lights didn’t turn on as she passed by. She wondered if the security guards turned off the sensors as no one from the restoration team used to visit the department at night. She wasn’t scared but it made her uncomfortable. She couldn’t even turn on the flash because her phone’s battery was on low, so instead she chose to make her way using her memory. Right as she reached her department, a voice from behind made her gasp loudly.

“Shouldn’t you use the flashlight?” Someone asked in a calm voice.

“W-who? D-Detective Jang? Why are you standing in the d-dark?” She didn’t expect herself to stutter like that.

“Yes, it’s me. I actually used a flashlight, but kept it off to save the battery while waiting. Didn’t expect anyone else to come in the dark though. Let’s formally introduce ourselves after we turn on the lights.” His voice was still calm as he spoke.

Jae Yi entered the room and reached for the light switch. “It’s not usually like that. I think that someone turned off the sensors in the hallway, and at the same time my phone was almost dead,” she tried to recover from her embarrassment and started talking in a confident and friendly manner. She switched on the lights and turned with her best smile to greet Detective Jang, but all she could do was gasp again as she saw the person in front of her.

The other person also had a similar reaction, but in a less expressive way than Jae Yi. “Oh? Jae Yi?” He said as his surprise turned into a heart-warming smile.

Jae Yi wanted to cry from happiness, as the person standing before her was none other than her long-time best friend. “Jang Ho-Jun!!” She exclaimed without hiding her excitement and rushed to hug him, as he hugged her back.

“Even though I know you work here in the 3D restoration department, I didn’t think you would be the first person I’d run into,” Ho-Jun said.

“I didn’t know you were the Detective Jang they were talking about. Weren’t you working in Incheon?”

“I was transferred here recently and just got my first case.”

“I didn’t know you were the one I was working overtime for,” Jae Yi .

“And I didn’t know you loved hugs this much,” it was Ho-Jun’s time to and she immediately pushed him back lightly.

“It’s been a long time since we had seen each other, so don’t blame me for not noticing, okay?” Jae Yi pouted.

“I’m sorry to say this my lady, but you were so busy taking care of our beloved friend Sabin that you completely forgot about me.”

“You know it’s not like that! By the way, aren’t we here because of the case?” Jae Yi gasped again, remembering they were in the middle of a serious case.

“This is some really complicated scenario we got on our hands, right? By the way, did you start working on restoration?” Ho-Jun asked, turning his attention back to the reason they were there.

“Not yet. I just got the scans. I will first run the program to restore the bone structure before filling further details. Half of his face was crushed, so we might come up with more than one possibility. Firstly, I’m restoring the less damaged part and mirroring it,” Jae Yi said as she the system and started coding.

Ho-Jun grabbed a chair around and focused on the screen. “How long will it take?”

“Writing the code will take 10 minutes on my end. The rest will be handled by the program. I will just have to input the result of the scans, and then the program will intelligently learn the restoration pattern.”

Ho-Jun looked at Jae Yi, and was amused by her dedication towards her work. It was the first time in years that he saw her working. The last time he had seen her like that was when they were preparing for their college entrance exams back in the day.

“Interesting. So, how long will it take to get the results?”

“We will have to wait for 9 to 10 hours for the results. I will finish writing the code and then we’ll come again tomorrow. I will put access-restriction on the system, so you can rest assured. I’ll get the results for you tomorrow.”

“Sure,” Ho-Jun addressed with a smile that Jae Yi couldn’t see at that time.

“The code’s done!” Saying that, Jae Yi excitedly turned towards Ho-Jun without warning, and found his face inches away from hers.

Ho-Jun didn’t give any reaction, but instead leaned a little forward staring straight into her eyes. “You will be kissing random people at this rate, if you don’t take your surroundings into account,” he said in a low voice and moved backward.

“Hey! What do you take me for?” Jae Yi frowned while being flustered.

Ho-Jun just shrugged as he took his belongings. “I was serious,” he simply stated. “Aren’t you coming, Jae Yi?”

“Are we leaving together?”

“Why? Do you have any other task left?” He asked, smiling.

“No! I will come!” Jae Yi packed in less than a minute and was about to exit the room, when Ho-Jun stopped her by placing his palm on her forehead. “What now?” Jae Yi asked, confused.

“Are you not going to take off your coat?” He asked as he offered his hand to hold her things, so she could take her coat off.

She just smiled while handing her stuff to him, “Aye, your habits don’t change.”

“Say that about yourself,” he stated as he sighed.

“Okay, now I’m ready! Let’s go!”

They left the room as the restoration program kept running in the building.

__________________________________

Author’s Note: This is not a filler chapter, but actually related to the story. I know there are more Jae Yi scenes here with Ho-Jun, but don’t worry as they would actually fit in with the story. It was the opening of a new case that is going to turn the main character’s fates around later, and I wanted to introduce Ho-Jun before showing more of Soo-Hyuk. I will come up with a new chapter in the next few days, so look forward to that. I also welcome any suggestion, so feel free to comment or DM! What do you think about the story so far?