[C h a p t e r 4 7]

Lay’s phone vibrated noisily on his desk, slowly crawling its way across the surface as he looked up from his paperwork. Letting out a tired sigh, he picked up the phone without bothering to check out the caller ID.

“Hello?” he answered, rubbing his eyes with his thumb and index finger tiredly. he had been staring at page after page of forms and he was ready to retire for the day.

There was a small silence before a voice he hadn’t heard for a couple weeks spoke. “You haven’t been picking up my calls for over a month now, Lay. Is everything alright?”

Hearing Sehun’s voice over the phone startled Layout of his dreary state, sitting up even more uptight in his chair. “Se-Sehun?” he stuttered, unsure of how he should talk to him. Truth be told, the reason he hadn’t been picking up his phone calls was because of the ‘date’ he had taken him out on. he just didn’t know how to react to his sudden confession, and even more so to his kiss which he found he had enjoyed.

“Are you alright, Lay?” repeated Sehun in concern. Lay felt a pang of guilt for having ignored him for so long, hearing him so worried about him.

“Ev-everything’s fine, Sehun,” he managed to reply after a short silence. “If there isn’t anything important, I guess you’d better hang up now because I’m actually rather busy at the moment.”

Lay waited for his reply but was met with silence. As the quiet seconds ticked by, he wished that he would just say something already, rather than leave him waiting. Finally, he said, “Is that how everything is?” Lay felt guilty as he heard him say that and the feeling only intensified when he began to laugh disappointedly. “I should have realised you weren’t interested in taking things further after avoiding my calls for so long. I suppose I shouldn’t bother you any further seeing as you’re ‘busy’ with work. It was nice knowing you, Lay. You won’t see my annoying face or hear my annoying voice any more.”

“Wait!” blurted Layout before he could stop himself.

There was a pause as Lay mentally kicked himself before Sehun said, “Yeah?”

An awkward silence fell between them as Lay struggled for the right words to say to Sehun, although he had no idea what it was that he wanted to say to him. This was a very new and unique situation to Lay, something he had never been through before. Hell, he never expected to go through such a situation.

“Err…” he began, trailing off as he scratched his head nervously. This was not easy stuff. He had to admit that although he had been avoiding Sehun, he had also missed his small teases and general good nature whenever he was around him. But whenever he rang, the image of him kissing him that night at the zoo would surface to mind and he found herself too embarrassed to answer the phone.

“Err… It’s not that I don’t like you or anything…” he said after some time, trying to calm his fluttering heart. Already, the memory of him kissing his rose to the surface and he blushed profusely. Growing flustered, he snapped nervously into the phone in an attempt to hide his embarrassment, “I don’t care anymore! Do what you want! You don’t have to chase me anymore if you’re gonna give up that easily!” he then proceeded to hang up the phone, throwing it onto the table as if it had burned his hand. Pulling up his legs into his chair, he hugged them as he nervously chewed his bottom lip, staring at the small mobile which lay on the desk. Then suddenly it vibrated once more and Lay jumped slightly in his chair, spooked, before he hurriedly picked it up.

“I told you to do whatever you want!” he whispered furiously, aware that the other officers in the station were staring at him. “And stop calling me already!”

Sehun laughed merrily on the other end of the phone. “And here I thought you had begun to hate me!”

“Who said anything about hating you, jerk?” he snapped, his earlier embarrassment gone in light of his anger. “What I feel for you is more than hate. I despise you, Mr Arrogant.”

“Oh? Is that so? Then if I am so arrogant as you so suggest, may I assume that right now you are thinking about that kiss we shared at the zoo, which is why you’re suddenly snapping at me to hide your embarrassment?” he asked, a mischievous hint in his tone.

Lay’s face flushed a deep shade of red at those words, embarrassed that he had managed to guess right. Then, recovering, he said, “Who remembers such a thing? That wasn’t such a memorable moment! And why would I yell at you because of that?”

Again, Sehun just laughed at his outrage. “Oh, maybe because you actually enjoyed it but aren’t willing to accept the truth yet.”

“Why, you-” began Laybut he was cut off.

“Don’t start ‘why, you’-ing me, Lay. Admit it – you’ve already fallen for me, haven’t you?” When Lay remained silent at a loss for words, Sehun’s smile grew wider at his end of the phone. “You have fallen for me, Detective Lay Yixing. Otherwise, you probably wouldn’t have spoken so softly with me earlier when I was acting so dejected.”

Lay opened mouth to retort back but nothing came out. His mind was a blank right now, all except for one treacherous thought that echoed across his mind – he was right. He realised that he had grown to enjoy his company, even in those few moments they had shared together. He had indeed felt sorry for him earlier at hearing how disappointed he was, and was indeed afraid that he would stop seeing or calling . But then he realised something. He just said that he was ‘acting’ dejected.

“You jerk…” he growled out in a low voice. “You were just pretending to be disappointed before, weren’t you? You lied to me!”

“Well, I wasn’t exactly lying. I was disappointed that you might really want to never see me again but somehow… I just knew you wouldn’t be able to resist me,” he laughed into the phone.

“You bastard!” shouted Lay, feeling as if he just wanted to strangle the idiot to death. “You think it’s alright to play with someone’s feelings? Just you wait,  Sehun. I’ll-”

His retort was cut off by the beep on Sehun’s end of the phone that indicated he had an incoming call. Sehun pulled the phone away from his ear and noted the caller ID that said the incoming call was from Luhan. Placing the phone back to his ear, he said, “Well, it’s been nice playing with you, Lay. We should do this again some other time. Don’t disappear for another month okay, ‘Aggi’?”(baby)

Lay was about to shout something nasty at him in retaliation when he suddenly hung up the phone. Fuming slightly, he snapped his phone shut once more and dropped it onto his desk. Who did he think he was, calling him something so sickening as ‘baby’? As he began scribbling furiously on the back of a piece of scrap paper to relieve his frustrations, Park Jiseok suddenly stepped out of his office.

“Everyone involved with the Dawn case, come into my office now,” he announced, a grim expression on his face.

Surprised at the sudden announcement, Lay glanced over at Henry and saw him as pale as a ghost. He watched as he slowly stood and made his way over to Park Jiseok’s office, walking as if his spirit had left his body. Puzzled, Lay just stood and headed over to the superintendent’s office with the few others who were working on this case with them.

Once everyone had gathered in the small office that belonged to their boss, Park Jiseok looked up at his men with that same grim look on his face. “Dawn is finally back, killing two women in a flat this afternoon.”

And at that exact same moment, Sehun heard Luhan say, his voice cracked and on the edge of tears, “She’s… she’s dead, Sehun. Krystal’s dead and it’s all my fault...”

Jessica sped as fast as she could towards her mother’s flat, her father following close behind after parking the car some distance away from the police barricade. She managed to slip past the police with ease, leaving her father behind to explain that they were relatives of the ones who were murdered. Jessica’s heart pounded wildly in dread, unable to believe what her father had just told him, mere minutes ago in the ice-cream parlour as she was about to finish the shift. That gnawing feeling in the pit of her stomach that had been bothering her for most of the day grew into a sense of panic at the news, and she instantly regretted not going with Krystal when she had asked her along. ‘If only I had just gone with her, maybe…’ Jessica shook her head as she tried to shake that thought out of her head. Now was not the time to think of ‘what if’ scenarios.

Her feet pounded up the stairs towards the third floor, shoving the way through the other officers and personnel that were milling about in the hallway, her mind set on reaching her mother’s room to confirm with her own eyes the horrible news. Luhan watched from his position at the end of the hallway past the scene of the crime, his face appearing blank and giving off the impression that he wasn’t affected by the events around him. But if one were to look closely, one would notice the red tinge to his eyes that indicated he was on the verge of crying.

Jessica skidded to a halt as several police staff carried two stretchers out from within the room, the bodies lying on them covered with a white sheet. She took a dazed step towards the bodies, shoving off the officer who had come to restrain her as she ripped the white sheet back. Tears broke free of their hold as Krystal’s pale white face met her eyes, bringing home the truth that she was, in fact, dead. She stepped over to the second stretcher, pulling back its sheet to reveal her mother, also lying dead on the stretcher. Then, walking back to Krystal’s stretcher, Jessica fell to her knees beside her dongseang, her tears flowing like a river down her face as she wailed like an injured animal.

“Dongseang, how could you? How could you suddenly leave me like this? How could you, how could you, how could you?” she cried painfully, seeking out her sister’s cold, dead hand. She inhaled sharply at how cold it was, the hand which had always seemed so warm to her was no more. Looking up, into her face once more, her eyes then travelled to where she noticed the horrifying welt and the congealed blood which covered the front of her body. Her gaze hardened as her fist tightened, her sadness giving way to rage. She stood up, gazing around wildly for someone who could answer her questions. Then, spotting Luhan standing at the other end of the hallway, she stormed over to the man, gripping her tightly by the front of her shirt.

“You ing bastard! I trusted my sister to you and you let such a thing happen! I thought you said you loved her? Then why is the woman you love dead? Answer me, damn it!” shouted Jessica, furious as she shoved Luhan against the wall.

Jay was about to step in to intervene but Luhan held up a hand to stop him. “I deserve this, Jay. Let her do whatever she wants to with me.”

That passive comment only served to fuel Jessica’s rage further and she raised her hand to deliver a slap into Luhan’s face. Luhan slumped against the wall as Jessica released her after theslap, breathing deeply as her rage died down slightly. “You bastard!” she shouted, the tears beginning to fall again as she stared at Luhan, helpless. “Why aren’t you fighting back, damn it? Why aren’t you denying that this is all your fault? Why?” she shouted .

Luhan remained silent in his spot on the ground, slowly looking back up at Jessica. Jessica’s eyes then connected with the man’s and he was startled by the devastated look he saw in them. “It is my fault, Jessica. I knew that this would happen to her one day but I still kept her by my side. So please, beat me up for the worst mistake I ever made in my life.”

Those words only made Jessica feel even more frustrated and angry but she restrained herself from kicking the man, instead turning away to attack the wall. “Why did this have to happen? Why, why, why?” Turning back to look at Luhan, she snapped, “Who did it?”

Luhan only turned away, refusing to answer. “You don’t need to know. I don’t want you to get involved in this matter. Krystal would hate me for it.”

Jessica rolled her eyes in frustration, leaning down to grip the bigger man’s shirt once more. “I said, ‘who did it’? You don’t need to judge whether I should get involved in this matter or not because that is for me to decide, not you. Now, tell me,” she said, her voice lowering to a deadly note. “Who killed her?”

Luhan met jessica eyes and was impressed by the strength of spirit and desire for revenge he saw within them. However, before he could answer, someone stepped up to the trio to intervene.

“I can see that we’re all getting along well here,” said Lay sarcastically as he stared at the two of them on the floor. Henry peered over his shoulder at the scene with a blank look, his face revealing nothing of what he was thinking.

Jessica reluctantly released Luhan as she stood up and faced the two detectives. “Who are you guys?” she snapped, annoyed that she had been interrupted in her interrogation with Luhan.

Lay looked taken aback at Jessica’s curt remark and frowned slightly. “We should be the ones asking that. But judging from what we heard of your little argument with Mr Luhan, you must be Krystal s noona, Jessica .”

Jessica’s eyes narrowed slightly at Lay’s comment. “How do you know who I am?”

This time, Henry was the one who replied. “We are the detectives in charge of this case. Our department has been chasing this assassin for years, but with no luck.” He then stepped out from behind Lay, walking over to help Luhan back onto his feet. “And we would like to ask you guys a few questions in relation to this latest murder.”

Luhan pulled his arm out of Henry’s grip, adjusting his suit calmly as if he had not just been beaten up by Jessica. “I do not need to answer any of your questions, Detective. I’ll get my lawyer to issue you a statement of my involvement in this matter and we shall leave it at that. Just my presence here at the murder site is more than enough damage to my reputation than I need.” As he made his way past Henry, he sent one last glance over at Jessica. “If you wish to continue our conversation, Jessica, then you are free to visit me anytime. I am willing to help you in any way regarding your sister’s death, and believe me; I will not let the matter of her death rest until the culprit is brought to justice.” As he said these last few words, Luhan’s glance travelled over to the two detectives briefly before she her spot and continued off down the corridor.

Once Luhan was out of sight, Lay and Henry then turned to Jessica. “We have already interviewed your father regarding the matter of your sister’s untimely death. We just want to ask a few questions, just in case any piece of information that you may have will help lead us to the killer,” said Lay.

Jessica glanced warily between the two detectives, suddenly feeling exhausted as her grief returned to her once more. Closing her eyes painfully as she resisted the urge to breakdown again, she slowly nodded her head. “Alright, I’ll answer your questions.”

Tbc.

Okay,  I must say that I'm a person who doesn't like to swear, but in this case, I suppose it suits Jessica's emotions perfectly. So please excuse the few 'f' words you see in here. And I put in that little Sehun-Lay moment ^^

Next Chapter: Ambers afterthoughts and Jessica pays a visit to Luhan...