“The black bean noodle delivery is here!” a young man’s voice called through the room. Sungyeol glanced over at the entrance to the police station and, sure enough, he saw the young delivery boy shouldering his way through the large glass doors with a delivery bag hanging from his fingers, his helmet under his arm.

Around Sungyeol, the officers throughout the room perked up at the mention of food.

“Did you order it?” one of the officers sitting at a cluttered desk, rifled papers in hand, asked his coworker. His middle-aged companion shook his head.

Sungyeol stood next to the once-immaculate desk of officer Kim Soohyun. But the chief’s desk was hardly immaculate anymore. Disheveled paper stacks, a glass of hot cider that had long since gone cold, and note cards scribbled on with hasty handwriting decorated his area. Soohyun’s face was alert, however, and his pristine posture was as striking as ever.

(Because Kim Soohyun is cool enough to warrant two pictures. :P)

Sungyeol also retained a sophisticated, if somewhat more elegant than professional, bearing and had been just as focused at the task at hand. He had been talking to the head officer in the room to see if there were any calls that had been made, any sightings of Gaein-ssi reported, any new information that could be gathered. So far, they’d had nothing. Not even so much as a witness report who’d seen Gaein-ssi.

The delivery boy who’d interrupted their conversation bowed in their direction in apology and called in a quieter voice, “Black bean noodle delivery!”

“Over here,” Dongwoo called beckoning the boy over. He lay sprawled in a chair on the other side of the room next to one of the windows, lounging in the spot where the most sunlight filtered through. The magazine that had been covering his napping face just moments ago, had slid into his lap as he’d sat up at the sound of lunch being delivered. Dongwoo stifled a yawn and rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

With the way he acts Sungyeol thought, you’d think he was a total vagrant; not a chaebol.

The delivery boy hurried over and handed the bag of food over to his sleepy customer, and Dongwoo, with a flourish, dug into his coat pocket for his wallet and paid for his purchase, adding a generous tip. With a grateful bow, and a big smile, the delivery boy turned and headed out the door leaving Dongwoo and the food he’d ordered the center of attention of all present in the room.

Not paying the slightest attention to the many policemen around him, Dongwoo stood, stretched his arms over his head, grabbed the bag and headed for the front door his food had just come in by. He called over his shoulder, “Yah, Sungyeol-ah, you’d better come now. I can’t promise that your share will still be there if you come out late.” He shot Sungyeol a mischevious smile and disappeared out the door.

“Excuse me,” Sungyeol murmured to Kim Soohyun. He bowed, and then followed his friend out into the brisk, cold air. Sungyeol blinked against the bright sunlight that showered its blindingly rays across the parking lot.

“Over here.”

Sungyeol looked down to see Dongwoo sitting on the bottom steps that led up to the entrance. He already had one large bowl of steaming noodles open, and was in the process of breaking open a pair of disposable chopsticks. Sungyeol rubbed his head tiredly. Although he was on constant alert, his body felt weighed down from the many days they’d shadowed the police station. The constant jump of hope every time they thought they’d gotten a clue, only to have the spark snuffed out when it turned out to be another dead end really drained the energy out of him. He and Dongwoo practically lived at the police station now. Of course, they went home to change and wash up, but now, they even slept and ate takeout at the station. This type of lifestyle, Sungyeol had to admit, was more exhausting than he’d thought.

He settled himself wearily by his friend and closed his eyes for a moment leaning back against the steps. Dongwoo wasted no time slurping up an impolitely large mouthful of noodles, and then tossing the other bowl of noodles and accompanying chopsticks into Sungyeol’s lap.

Sungyeol squinted one eye open to peer at Dongwoo as his friend continued to inhale his food as if there was no other purpose in life than eat. He cracked a small, tired, smile at Dongwoo’s seemingly endless optimism, and addiction to food. Sighing, he sat up and opened his own bowl of black bean noodles. He’d never eaten so much processed food before their little mission had started, but now he had to admit, he found the now familiar taste of fast food oddly comforting.

Twisting the cap off of his water bottle, he took a swig before breaking open his chopsticks and mixing the black bean sauce into the pile of noodles before him.

“I still can’t believe there’s been no reports at all.” Dongwoo complained. His breath hung in the cold air as he spoke. His nose had started running from the chilly air too. He sniffed in annoyance and kept eating.

“Tell me about it,” Sungyeol groaned in an undignified way that he’d never have shown to the officers inside the station. “You’d think something would’ve shown up by now.” He took a warm bite of food and relished the flavorful explosion of spices on his tongue.

They ate in companionable silence, side by side watching the parking lot as cars came and went, as people filtered into the police station and left. It wasn’t a very busy day for the police in terms of having people stop in. But the paperwork was never done for officers of the law as they had both discovered during their time there.

Out of the corner of his eye, Sungyeol’s casual observing brought to his attention a young girl who was making her way hesitantly towards the police station. Her dark, curled hair tumbled out from under a white-knit beanie. She wore a light blue coat, and clutched at her small shoulder bag nervously. Taking a step or two towards the station, she seemed to hesitate and take a step back. She repeated the process a few more times as though she couldn’t decide if she should enter, or leave the vicinity altogether. The girl, Sungyeol thought, was decidedly very pretty.

Handing his lunch to Dongwoo, Sungyeol stood. He made sure to make some noise so that she’d hear him approach. She did. As she saw him, he smiled reassuringly to her. “Excuse me, miss, but you seem troubled. Do you need any help with anything?”

She seemed to soften at the kindness in his expression and smiled slightly. “I don’t think there is anything you could help me with.” she confessed.

“Well we won’t know unless we try, right?” Sungyeol shrugged good-humoredly, “What seems to be the problem?”

“I want to report a missing person,” the girl said softly. Her eyes teared up and she