Zhang Yixing hurried his way into the police station, right hand clutching onto a cup of coffee and left arm holding a folder full of files against his chest. He sipped a bit of his coffee as he walked. Bitter. Yixing made a disgusted face behind the cup; he squinted his eyes and stuck out his tongue, clearly displeased with the taste of his coffee.

For some reason Yixing was unable to wake up at 6:00 a.m. today, instead he woke up feeling groggy when the hour hand of his watch pointed to the number eight. This of course, resulted into him missing his breakfast. Usually Yixing would take his sweet time to take bus number 88, the bus that goes on a detour which takes him even further away from his workplace, in order to get to his favorite café. Buy a cup of coffee, a medium caramel latte, to both fresh and sweeten his day up. Under today’s circumstances, considering that he was supposed to start working at 8 a.m. sharp and he was already late, he was unable to do so. But Yixing, due to the habit of coffee drinking in his years during his time in university, refused to work without coffee, thus leading him to buy coffee from a local coffee shop just beside the his workplace.

The result? Yucky coffee.

After inserting in the laboratory key, Yixing pushed the door in. His assistant won’t be arriving until later on in the afternoon today, so he will have around four hours to himself; that is if his assistant shows up on time. Knowing him, he will probably arrive a good half an hour later, giving Yixing another extra thirty minutes. Yixing didn’t really mind, since he could get most of his job done by himself anyways, though his chief insisted on getting him an assistant. It was ironic too since Yixing’s assistant is roughly four years older than him.

His task for the day was quite simple, all the mundane things a forensic scientist would do. Analyze a couple of blood samples for a few investigations needed for court next week and run an entire body check on a corpse that just came in the mortuary yesterday.

The only difference was forging the results for one blood test.

The reason for the blood test was a hit and run incident. A middle age man riding a bike was run over by a car at approximately 2 a.m. of last Friday. The driver was nowhere in sight and did not show up to identify themselves.

The police had checked all security cameras nearby, minimized and identified six suspects; all whom had drove their cars around from 1 a.m. – 3 a.m. The forensic team had also discovered blood that did not match the blood of the victim at the crime scene, the blood was then sent to Yixing for him to identify. The next day, the culprit’s father showed up.

Blood can’t lie, just like fingerprints. The blood sample from the crime scene matched almost identically to one of the blood sample the suspects had provided, the young and snobbish looking rich man. Yixing could easily picture the young man being sentenced to court and spend his time in jail for a couple of years. He could also picture the media and all of the angry comments to be made by netizens criticizing the sin he committed. 

Yixing remembered the young man’s father from two days ago, sitting in the backseat of a black limo, chin up and eyes starring the front. The moment Yixing was invited into the car by the butler he knew what the man wanted. It was the usual I-will-give-you-money-and-you-will-do-everying-you-can-to-set-my-son-free-of-charge-and-you-can’t-reject-me-because-I-am-very-powerful.

Yixing thought that the man was too old to be this innocent, who thinks that he can bribe any people with his money and frighten them with his power. Most of the cases it would be true, but Yixing knew of one person, that one person who can turn away from such offer without a blink of an eye or any second thoughts, that one person who holds firmly to the justice he believes in. Unfortunately, Yixing was not that person. Unfortunately, that person was no longer by his side to remind him, of what Yixing used to believe in.

Yixing also knew, the moment he nodded his head and left the limo, millions of dollars had entered his bank account. A normal person would check his bank account to see whether or not the other side had kept their promise. Yixing was not an ordinary person. He couldn’t care less about the money. Still, he accepted the man’s bribe.

Rubbing his temple to ease the headache he had gotten from oversleeping. Yixing simply torn the sticker from the test tube holding the blood sample, which had the name labeled on, and switched it with a different test tube. Then, writing on the document paper, a brief sentence about the new result.

Scapegoating. It wasn’t something uncommon for him, at least, not anymore.

Yixing hoped that today will still be a good day. He was starting to miss someone terribly again.

♔♜♔♜♔♜♔♜♔

Luhan had agreed to meet with Lee Changyu at the East City Area of Beijing, China, right at the fifth red and green light of the East Street, around the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, at exactly 8:30 a.m. sharp. He checked his watch again.

9:02 a.m.

Inhaling deeply, Luhan tried to contain his temper. He had already concluded the reason behind Lee Changyu’s absent. The old man had forgotten.

Refraining from calling all the way to the United States and cursing at Changyu for breaking his word, which Luhan really shouldn’t considering that Changyu was a well respected seventy-three years old man who also happened to be Luhan’s mentor.

Signing, Luhan adjusted the crooked hat on top of his head. Beijing’s sun was being relatively nice to him today, seeing that Luhan hadn’t visited his parent’s hometown in such a long time. Luhan had known the large capital of China by heart, from the names of all four thousand streets – the old and the new, the small and the big – to the popular tour sites. He didn’t really need Changyu here, in terms of knowing the directions, Luhan knows far more than Changyu, who wasn’t even born in Beijing and had lived most of his life in the United States.

Luhan only needed Changyu to get past the doors of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau.

Considering what happened last time when he openly revealed his identity to Kim Jungkwan, he really didn’t want the same thing to happen again. But now, what other choices did he have other than this?

♔♜♔♜♔♜♔♜♔

Yixing had ignored all the gossiping that were traveling outside of his laboratory; something about a really handsome detective, such and such.

The corpse from the mortuary had brought the chilly air out into the laboratory. Yixing held his shivers in, not bothering to put on an extra coat. He felt that it was unnecessary to take off his lab coat, put something on, and wears his lab coat again. It was too much work.

Yixing had always been lazy.

Putting on his gloves, Yixing picked up the hands of the dead woman. Yixing had the tendency to start his examinations from the hands, instead of the usual head to toe or toe to head. Again, Yixing was no ordinary person.

He discovered distinct little details about the corpse that were a tad bit unusual, although Yixing couldn’t quite put the connection of the small details together. He was just a forensic scientist, not a detective. Though Yixing knew someone who could put these insignificant clues together in a flash…

Abruptly, Yixing stopped his train of thought. Shaking his head firmly, Yixing tried to get rid of the image of the person inside his head. He was thinking too much about him today. It wasn’t something he could stop; still Yixing engrossed himself once again, hoping to stop the heartache.

Yixing was too absorbed into his work, and by the time his stomach started protesting by letting out a loud growl, it was already past 1 p.m.

“You are really stubborn you know,” said Yixing, speaking directly to his stomach, who wouldn’t stop making the noise.

He contemplated for a place where he could satisfy his stomach and reward it for all its hard work today; Yixing had forgotten to pack a lunch due to the rush this morning. After deciding, he grabbed his wallet and keys. Locked the door of his laboratory and walked towards the exit until he heard the familiar voice of his assistant.

Checking his watch, he calculated that his assistant was already an hour late for work. Yixing wasn’t one to give lectures to someone he didn’t care much about, but considering that his assistant’s action might very well reflect back to him, Yixing decided to talk to him about this sort of behavior.

His assistant was walking and speaking to someone beside him. By the tone of his voice he was trying to fawn on the stranger. Yixing snorted inwardly, if his impression on this assistant of his was zero before, it had just dropped to a negative number.

The stranger seemed to be annoyed by the man’s constant talking; his head was down, not even bothering to give an appropriate answer instead just an occasional hum. As if feeling someone approaching them, he raised his head.

Yixing froze.

The stranger froze as well.

Yixing felt his heart beating faster and faster, as if wanting to jump out of his rib cage. He could feel the tears collecting in his eyes even when he told himself that he will not, will not cry.

After a few sharp inhales and exhales, Yixing managed to bring himself to look into his eyes.

“Luhan,” Yixing managed to say with a small bitter smile forming at his lips.

♔♜♔♜♔♜♔♜♔

Yixing watched as Luhan took sips of the latte, his pink lips pursed together.

The café was surrounded by the warm, softly lit light. The whole atmosphere was very comforting and helped to ease the awkwardness between the two.