“Detective Mun,” Detective Dong-yul shook his superior reclined back in the driver’s seat with a hat pulled over his eyes.  “Detective Mun.”

“What?” The man slowly pushed his hat up, shifting his attention to his subordinate with a slight scowl across his tired worn face.  Dong-yul motioned his chin in the direction of the house they were currently watching.  Detective Mun sat up, looking just in time to see a man exit through the security gate.  “The bastard’s finally on the move.”

“He gave us the slip last time,” Dong-yul frowned.  “Where do you think he’s going?”

“I don’t know, I’ll follow him on foot to find out,” Detective Mun replied grabbing his wallet and cigarettes from the dashboard.  Unbuckling his seatbelt, the man waited until his target had rounded the corner before exiting the car.  Following around the corner, Detective Mun pulled a cigarette from his pack, his eyes always trained on the man who was unaware that he was being trailed.

Detective Mun never let go of a case, not once in his entire career.  He definitely was not going to let this one go.  When he first picked up the case of Yoo Youngjae’s abduction months before, he had no idea the case would open up to a much wider flood gate.  After Ahn Soonim’s disappearance, the case took a nosedive as his leads hit brick walls.  None of her family or coworkers could provide any information on where she was headed.  Speaking with Mi-Yun was an exercise in patience.  The young woman’s mind was so fragmented with trauma, piecing together the events leading up to Ahn Soonim and Yoo Youngjae’s vanishing only wasted the time he could have spent looking for the two.

Just when his boss told him to let the case go, handing it over to federal agents to process one of his officers busted a small gambling ring of hoodlums who were more than willing to give him a piece of information for a lesser sentence.  At least three men mentioned meeting Ahn Soonim from when their boss Lee Sang-chul was hospitalized.

Checking on the lead sent him right back to Hanyang University Medical Center where many of the nurses spoke of how Soonim was adamant about the man not being thrown out of the hospital despite Dr. Jin Suk concerned about the safety of the staff.  It was Soonim who took it upon herself to be his personal nurse during the stay of Lee Sang-chul until his later release.  Detective Mun pieced together that during the time of Lee Sang-chul’s hospitalization, the two became good friends.  Sang-chul more than likely had a hand in helping Soonim escape, but to where was the question.

When first approaching this lead, Lee Sang-chul admitted to knowing Ahn Soonim, only at a professional level.  Detective Mun knew the gangster was mocking him when claiming he had no idea where Ahn Soonim was, or even capable of committing any type of crime.  During that time Detective Mun had no evidence allowing him to searching the house for clues.  The few weeks spent trailing Lee Sang-chul always proved pointless.  On more than one occasion he gave detectives the slip or misled them on a wild goose chase.  Even after constant failures to provide Yoo Youngjae’s family and friends with information, he turned down all his superior’s advice to drop the case and allow the federal agents to handle it.

It was his case.  He made a promise to Youngjae’s friends to bring him back alive.  He would suffer these failures for a chance like this.  Today was going to be the day he found that information out.  Traveling a few more blocks to from Sang-chul’s house, Detective Mun slowed down finding the man round another corner.  Delaying his steps by a minute, the detective finally rounded the corner discovering Sang-chul crossing the street to a nearby post office.  Lighting up a cigarette, the detective waited until the man was exited the post office.  Pulling out his phone, he called his subordinate to follow the man on his routine of the day before entering the post office himself.  Walking up to the mail worker Detective Mun flashed his badge receiving her immediate attention.

“A man just came in here to drop off some mail,” Detective Mun replied pulling out the picture of Lee Sang-chul.

“Yes he did,” the woman said with an immediate nod.

“I need to see that mail,” Detective Mun ordered, ignoring the murmur of the other post office patrons.  “I don’t want to have to come back with a warrant if you find it a problem.”

“What’s going on out here?” Another mail attendant came out from the back with a frown, looking at Detective Mun who flashed his badge.

“I’m Detective Mun.  I have reason to believe that one of your mail patrons is aiding a suspect who kidnapped a young man back a few months ago.  I need to see where he just dropped off mail to be delivered.  I have reason to believe that his mail is the key to returning the young man to his family,” Detective Mun replied.

“Kidnapping?” The two mail attendants looked at each other then the detective who pulled out a picture of Youngjae, pushing it to them.

“This young man was kidnapped and held hostage over the course of two days before his kidnapper disappeared with him.  The woman who did it is very unstable and may be using drugs to keep him from reaching out for help,” Detective Mun replied, pulling out a picture of Soonim, he slid it across the counter for the two attendants to look at.  “She is also wanted for the murder of her grandmother, and attempted murder of Go Mi-Yun, her cousin.  Both she committed in the process of abducting this young man.”

“Gyu-Ri go get the mail,” the male attendant said.  The young woman ran to the back to rifle through the mail that was just taken to the back.

“Thank you very much for cooperating with the investigation,” Detective Mun bowed.

“Are you certain about this woman kidnapping this young man?” the attendant stared at the picture of the seemingly innocent woman.  She didn’t look like someone who could be responsible for murder or kidnapping.  She reminded him of his daughter.  A wholesome girl who found it impossible to talk to a boy without running away embarrassed.  Detective Mun pulled out a picture of the scene at the cabin.

“She looks innocent but this is what she did,” Detective Mun voiced seeing the man pale in horror.

“Sir, here’s the mail.”  The young woman came back with a bundle of letters placing them on the counter.  Picking up the photos he placed down, Detective Mun shifted through the mail until he found a letter addressed to a Yoo Soonim.  Ripping the letter open, he found an international check for five thousand dollars, as well as a long letter giving a report of everything that was happening in Korea.  Looking at the envelope, Detective Mun swore.  Pulling out his phone again, he dialed to his station.

“Shi-woo get the feds on the line.  Tell them that we have a lead.  Then send In-Su and Jiyeon to the parents to let them know what is going on.  Dong-yul is trailing Lee Sang-chul for me to find out if we can dig anything else up,” Detective Mun said.

“What about you sir?” Shi-woo inquired on the other end of the phone.

“I promised those boys I would let them know if I found out anything knew.  I’m going to head to them now that I have this evidence.  I will bring it back to process once I am done there,” Detective Mun said.  “And get a warrant to search Lee Sang-chul’s residence.  Last time we had nothing on him.”

“Yes sir,” Shi-woo replied hanging up.

“Thank you both for your cooperation again,” Detective Mun said.

“That boy, will you be able to find him?” the male attendant wondered.

“With this piece of evidence, I have a good feeling that we can bring him home to his family, and put her away for a long time,” Detective Mun nodded.

~~~

“All right, that’s it for today,” Manager Kang clapped his hands gathering the young men’s attention.  “That was a good practice.  You can head back to rest now.”

“Hyung can we go get something to eat?” Zelo inquired to Yongguk.

“What did you have in mind?” Yongguk turned his attention to Zelo, out the corner of his eyes he saw Daehyun was already heading for the exit of the practice room.  “Daehyun.”

“I’m tired,” Daehyun called over to his shoulder, not waiting to hear Yongguk’s response.  BAP’s leader exhaled conscious of the fact Daehyun was still taking everything much harder than the rest of them.  When management divulged to keep practicing and moving forward without Youngjae there, Daehyun raised the most hell over the situation.  He refused initially saying nothing could be fine when Youngjae’s absence was a constant reminder of what transpired.

The only thing that stopped Daehyun from leaving the group to search for his friend were Himchan and Zelo both expressing Youngjae would wish for him to preserve their dream.  To move forward and trust that everything was being done to locate him.  Daehyun knew they said it to appease him, to not cause discourse during this scandal, but they were wrong.  Youngjae would want them to be out there tracking Soonim.  To put everything on hiatus until this was solved.

Fans constantly probed him and the other members for information during small fan signings on the story management put out about Youngjae being injured and needing a hiatus to recuperate.  Prying into affairs on whether it wasn’t simply a case of the male quitting BAP due to bullying or some other ludicrous reasoning.  Every time a fan enquired it took everything in Daehyun to lie.  He desired to tell them the truth, to vent his anger towards the fandom that both criticized and idolized them.  Instead he made statements of Youngjae wishing to return as soon as possible to the stage to see fans.

“Jung Daehyun?”  Springing out of his thoughts, Daehyun regarded Detective Mun waiting for him in the lobby of TS Entertainment.

“Detective,” Daehyun nodded at the man.

“Are you and the others heading back now?” Detective Mun walked up to the young man.

“I was heading back.  I don’t know what they plan to do right now,” Daehyun shook his head.  “Do you have any information for us?”

“I have a lead,” Detective Mun smiled.

“Will this one carry somewhere?” Daehyun lacked the will power to be hopeful over the course of the last few months the detective came to give them reports.  Each account of activity the police were taking in finding Youngjae grinded the knife hilt deeper into his gut.  Leads yielded disappointments while the detectives could only apologize when bringing more crushing news of the trail going cold.

“We finally have something on Sang-chul,” Detective Mun grinned pulling out the letter addressed to Soonim.  “This letter states that Lee Sang-chul knows exactly where Ahn Soonim is, and places him in aiding her since the abduction.  With this piece of evidence we can now searching his house for more information.  Once that happens, it’s only a matter of time before we pinpoint your friend and federal agents will be able to bring him home.”

“Are you certain?” Excitement bubbled to life inside Daehyun, taking the letter to scan over the information there.  “How were you able to get this?”

“We staked his place out this morning, we finally have the bastard,” Detective Mun answered placing a hand on Daehyun’s shoulder.  “I promised I would get your friend back, I will not let you down.”

“Will this man be brought up on charges as well?”

“I will sure as hell make sure he gets time for it,” Detective Mun nodded.  “I need to get that to the labs to process as evidence.”

“Won’t my prints and yours show up?” Daehyun frowned.

“Leave that to me when the time comes,” Detective Mun said receiving the letter back from Daehyun.  “Dong-yul is trailing Lee Sang-chul, so there’s no chance for him to get away from us.  I guarantee you that your friend will return to you soon.”

“Thank you for your hard work,” Daehyun bowed feeling a weight lifting from his shoulders.  He really did hope that things were looking up.  He didn’t want to imagine what Youngjae was going through with that lunatic.  Putting this in the past needed to happen as soon as possible, for the sake of everyone.

A/N:  Finally had a chance to update this with fighting a cold then all the craziness of interviews and work.  I think I'm going to ignore all the stress for now and focus on what I really love doing more.  So expect more updates from me on a semi regular basis unless something changes.  I thank everyone for their interest in this story.  I'm really excited to get everything underway.  Thanks once again for the encouragement readers.