Two Months Ago

Night persisted to fall that day even though he thought that it wouldn't; the day had dragged on as if Atlas had fallen asleep on his endless journey. It had been an ordinary day; with an ordinary sunrise, the ordinary bustling of people on the pavement in front of his family townhouse, the ordinary clinking of instruments in the hospital where he underwent housemanship, followed by an ordinary sunset that he watched creep over the horizon like greedy fingers. His mind had been in the skies that whole day as he went through his stereotypical life as a med student, functioning spiritlessly through his work with the help of nothing but instincts. His eyes were empty, starry, glassy, but those orbs betrayed the worry he kept bottled up inside, but his normally no-nonsense seniors let him off for it, for they knew what he was going through.

Lee Jinki's sister was still missing.

One week ago, he had been a completely different person; bright, sociable, energetic and alert, with the makings of a surgeon with a bright future. He was independent as well, a lone brother amongst two sisters, one in college and another still in high school, both under his watch whilst their parents lectured astronomy in the States. He had been confident of his priority to care for both girls, but one fine day, when he was on his way to work, he recieved a call from Chaerin's lecturer that his sister had missed lessons last evening and that morning.

The odds of it was one in a million, and Jinki knew then that something was wrong.

He called every friend of Chaerin, every shop she frequented, the police station, the hospital, everywhere. No news of her, and so he filed a report of her missing.

They were still looking, and so was he.

Absently, he fitgeted with the scalpel he was been sterilizing in the icy storage room, only remembering the cold when the rotating air-cond blades directed at him, enveloping him in a momentary chill that froze him down to the core. His skin was blue, but his heart felt colder than ever before at every passing moment. He must have stood there for ages, lost in his thoughts until his senior – Dr. Yesung found him, shivering and with frozen lines down his cheek.

He was immediately given an antidepressant and sent home fifteen minutes before his shift ended.

That night he fell into a fitful sleep, tossing and turning with cold sweat trickling down his back. Then, the first hour he fell into slumber, he started to dream.

He was standing in the middle of a square in the late evening, as the skies were a fusion of purple and Prussian blue shades, blending together like water. The familiar bustling of life in and out of the subway exit up to the square had ended two hours ago when the tower clock across the road struck seven times. A familiar figure was sitting on a bench under the hundred-year-old birch tree in front of the tower, her black hair falling over her face like a silk curtain as she bent over some papers on her lap, absorbed in its contents. Jinki squinted as he tried to register her familiar outline, before recognizing the figure as his sister – Lee Chaerin.

His muscles automatically tensed and he was about to rush forwards when suddenly, the scene changed, melting away like murky water to form another scene, as though this was all part of a bad movie.

He was standing now in the middle of the road in an alley; the sides lined with trashbins and plastic trashbags neatly tied up in piles. A mangy black cat was perched on a recycle bin next to him, its lips. A van was parked inconveniently right outside a backdoor with a blue handle which looked oddly familiar to Jinki, but he couldn't remember where he had seen it.

Then, the cat next to him gave a blood-curling hiss. Voices floated into his ears and he started when the door swung open, followed by the emergence two figures. One of them was masked, and he was holding a struggling girl by the neck and face; the other stood at the doorway, his face shielded by the Japanese drapes hanging over the doorway. Jinki watched in horror as he dragged her down the porch with his gloved hands over the girl's nose and mouth with the manner of a lion dragging an antelope, and when her struggles started to get hysterical, crashed her head against the side of the vehicle. She slumped forwards, her limbs going limp and the door of the van slid open. There was someone waiting in the van.

He grabbed her arms and legs, hoisted her up and positively tossed her through the open car door before it slammed shut again. Then, the engine roared to life, leaving Jinki and the men in a gray cloud of dust.

When the smoke cleared, the masked man was gone.

A searing chill ripped Jinki right out of his slumber, followed by the shrill ring of the telephone on the side table. Without even allowing his mind to clear, he yanked the earpiece off its handle and muttered a rasp 'hello' into the microphone. His youngest sister – Hayi was in the room, shivering from head to toe as she watched the phone slide from her brother's blue fingers onto the carpet and his eyes widen.

"They've found her."

*

Present Day

Kim Junmyeon didn't see the the pistol coming until it was pressed at the back of his head, and cocked two inches away from his ear. He froze, his fingers tightening on the paper cup he was holding. His eyes darted sideways and he glimpsed the shadow of a tall figure looming behind his own. The silence in the subway tunnel was the kind that strained every fiber in Junmyeon's system.

The benches were empty, with one or two of them occupied by leftover rubbish and the walls rang with the rumbling of distant approaching trains. A station sign reading 'Station 2' rattled on a cuboid pillar, one of the screws of its four corners loose and its words still bold as ever when it was first painted.

The agent let his eyes rest on the sign, and said calmly, “Left cheek.”

“What?” the voice grunted, the pistol never leaving the back of Junmyeon's head by a micrometer.

“Wallet's in the back pocket, left cheek.”

“I ain't after your wallet, jersey.”

“Hell you ain't.”

There came a soft chuckle and Junmyeon flinched.

He had heard that laughter before. Abandoning all cautiousness, he spun around and found himself face to face with Yunho and the pistol between them.

Jung Yunho, Senior Investigating Officer of the South Korea Police Force.

“Ain't funny, man,” Junmyeon complained to his senior as Yunho tucked the pistol back in his coat, a grin on his face, “That thing could have gone off.”

“How was the blind date?," Yunho ignored his remark, scraping mud off the side of his suede shoes on the platform.

“Oh, lovely, I learnt a lot from her," Junmyeon's eyes glazed, "I learnt that some girls, do in fact pee standing up."

Yunho stopped scraping his shoes and threw up his hands, "I'm straight."

“e you."

“Transvestite?" Yunho stifled his laughter and went on scraping.

“I don't know, do I look like I even give a e? I just ran like hell as soon as I saw her at the urinals. The men's urinals, mind you."

"Huh?"

“Forget it."

“What are you doing here anyways, jersey?” Yunho asked, adjusting his tie absently as he stared in a straight line over Junmyeon's shoulder.

Jersey. He had nicknames for everyone.

“Kangsan Harbor was bombed a couple of hours ago.”

“Pssh,” Yunho blew out his cheeks, "told you."

“Well, dang lucky you told Micky, we managed to evacuate the area three hours ago. How did you know that the call wasn't a prank?”

“I didn't take seven-year-psychology courses for nothing, plus it helped that there were discounts on Groupon."

“Real funny.”

“I was trained to be a lie-detector,” Yunho shrugged, "it was in my course."

“It wasn't in mine,” Junmyeon cocked an eyebrow.

“Like hell it is, rookies these days only have to play DOOM to pass the law enforcement exams,” Yunho stretched his arms as Jumyeon gave him the hairy eyeball. Just then, Junmyeon's phone rang.

“How come they call you whenever there's a case and not me?" Yunho complained as the rookie fumbled in his pocket for the iPhone.

“Maybe 'cause of your Barbie Doll ringtone," Junmyeon shrugged and answered the call, feeling Yunho staring daggers at the side of his head.

Silence. Yunho made no effort to speak as Junmyeon's eyes wandered off to the sign. He could practically hear Junmyeon's breathing hasten. Then, he hung up and turned back to Yunho, who was busy prodding at an ant on a bench.

“Someone just filed a report of witnessing a kidnapping."

Yunho sighed, "great, Case 13, lucky number."

“I can take it if you're tied up."

“Freaking correct I'm tied up, I'm up my nose with cases." Junmyeon was silent as Yunho pulled out a paper package from his pocket. He unwrapped it and produced a doughnut.

“Okay," he murmured, okay."

“What?"

“The case is mine."

“That's up to Micky."

“Eh, think about it, Junmyeon," Yunho rolled his eyes, "if he hasn't dumped the fecking file on my desk yet, why would he call my rookie sidekick?"

Yunho took a bite into the doughnut.

“The witness claimed to see a girl being dragged into a car right behind the post office in Hongdae in some kind of a valley. He's being detained for now at HQ, Junsu's running the interrogation and paperwork and...”

“Talk to me about the witness,” Yunho cut in. He was obviously uninterested in the efforts of the other police force in Seoul. Only half of the doughnut was left.

“Well, he's a foreigner on vacation from Thailand, name's Nichkhun... whatever the hell his last name is."

The doughnut disappeared.

*

Jinki could see Chaerin fidgeting in her chair as she sat at the furthest end of the waiting lounge of Dr. Jieun's psychiatric clinic, her fingers knotting and un-knotting again and again as her eyes darted around the square room. He pulled up the magazine over his eyes once again, as though the miniscule words on the cheap paper would block out the disturbance he felt everytime she had to wait for her shrink. He glanced at the Citizen clock on the wall and put down the mag just in time to see the door swing open and Jieun beckon Chaerin into the room with a soft smile. Then, he pulled it back over his eyes again, as he heard the door shut softly and soft crying float through the keyhole into the lounge. Quietly, he let his heart sink, as heavily as a rock into the sea as he recalled the night they had found her.

She'd scared the daylights out of a group of college girls at a park when she emerged from behind the trees, clad in nothing but a thin slip of material. She was dripping from head to toe with olive oil and screaming for help as though someone was trying to strangle her then and there. The girls had called the police and let them seize her, kicking and screaming to the station before recognizing her as Lee Chaerin, the girl they had been looking for the past one week. She looked a fright – with a drastic loss of weight, portruding wild eyes and raspy, thin voice that called out for help even in her sleep made Jinki feel like he had lost his sister.

She was confined in a hospital for a month for evaluation before her condition gradually stabilized, with a diet that was forced into her and medical check-ups. Jinki's senior – Yesung was included in the medical evaluation and he concluded that she had not been, as Jinki had feared, been ually assaulted in any way. However, Chaerin's mental condition showed no improvement until Yesung recommended his old friend – Jieun to be her shrink.

After the case, Chaerin harboured claustrophobia and hydrophobia, and was under three different kinds of medication every morning before breakfast.

The doctors said nothing, but Jinki suspected that her kidnapper may have planned to burn her alive.

Jinki's thoughts were brought back to Earth with a bump when his phone vibrated in his pocket and he answered it.

“Jinki speaking."

“Jinki, I'm scared," his other sister – Hayi's voice floated into his eardrums. He felt his blood run cold.

“Hayi, where are you?"

“I'm at the post-office, it's pitch dark in here. The power supply went off fifteen minutes ago," his sister whispered into the phone, her voice betraying geniune fear.

Hayi had always been afraid of the dark.

"Then, get out of there, Yi."

"I can't, the doors are electrically operated."

Jinki sighed and glanced at the clock. Chaerin's session ended in half-an-hour.

"Alright, I'll bust you out of there in ten minutes," he said and hauled himself out of the lumpy setee, his phone wedged between his shoulder and ear.

"Please hurry, I'm scared. There's no one here, the workers have gone upstairs to check the power box."

"Okay, keep talking to me; it'll make you feel better," Jinki fumbled with his comb of keys as he walked to the car.

Why the hell are there so many chicken-shaped keychains?

"Aish, Jinki, just…" there was a loud crackle and a huge crash that sent Jinki pulling the cell phone from his ears in surprise.

"Yi?"

Static.

"Hayi?"

A scream broke out, sending a sickening chill down every nerve in his body like a plague.

Then, a dial tone rang out. He nearly dropped the phone; his palms were sweating so much.

"Yi? Hayi?"

Then, his steps broke into a run.

A/N – Hi, I'd like to apologize for this late update. Complications came up in AFF and so it was delayed.

AFF stinks. Royally.

But hey, it's up.

So, yay, I'm finally writing about Onew! (MAHCHICKENLOVERROCKS) I'm sorry if this update seems really boring but I'll spice things up in Chapter 2, maybe add a bit more weirdness and cussing.

To those who don't know, DOOM's a sniper game that was really popular during the 90's, I everyone in their 30's or late 20's and above know about it.

And NO, to any male readers out there, there are NO female urinals in the ladies. Period.

I hope you stick to the story! Thanks to my first ten subscribers for waiting so long with me – grthe05, kawaii-gizibe, nanana15, bigbangbias, Nahmaste, TheAwesomeWise, iLuvYesung (u nut), eisiou, portugirl, sachia!

Thanks for reading – may the odds be ever in your favour! (cheesy, but im addicted to it)