Following up on the lead from the 911 call, it didn’t take long for Jungsu to track down Kyuhyun’s whereabouts. He was knocking on the door of the young man’s townhouse the next day but there was no answer despite the car parked in the driveway. Jungsu turned to leave. He’d have to come back later.

“Yes?” A voice stopped him in his tracks. Jungsu looked back to see one eye peeking through the door held open just a crack.

“Hello. Kyuhyun?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m Detective Jungsu Park with the SMPA.” He held up his badge for Kyuhyun to see.

Kyuhyun removed the chain lock and opened the door just wide enough to properly see the detective. “Hey, let me see that again.” He motioned for Jungsu to raise his badge again. Jungsu raised an eyebrow but obliged nevertheless. Kyuhyun nodded in recognition of his credentials. “Hello, Detective.” He opened the door just slightly wider. Jungsu could see that the young man was still in his pajamas.

“You have a minute?”

“Uh, no. Sorry.”

“I just have a few questions. It’ll only take a minute.”

Kyuhyun bit his lip while he internally debated his next move. He huffed and nodded. “Okay. Just hold on a second.” He closed the door.

Jungsu stood on the porch for a few minutes. He heard movement from behind the door after his patient wait. The doorknob jangled and the door flew open. Kyuhyun had changed out of his pajamas. His face also seemed brighter and more alert.

They stared at each other for a few moments. Seeing how he wasn’t being invited in, Jungsu spoke up, “Well…can I come in?”

“Oh, sure.” Kyuhyun held the door open for Jungsu, who walked in and took a seat on the L-shaped couch.

He took in his surroundings. From what he could see, Kyuhyun liked his electronics; if the large flat screen television, gaming console, and surround sound system were anything to go by.

Behind him, Jungsu heard the doorknob lock being turned, followed by the door being closed with a little more force than was warranted. Jungsu turned at the loud thud but his eyes only met the closed door without a trace of the young man.

“Kyuhyun?” Jungsu quickly scanned the apartment. “.” He leapt to the door and fumbled with the lock. He burst out of Kyuhyun’s townhouse. Kyuhyun was already in his car looking over his shoulder as he backed out of the driveway. The fuming detective ran up to the car and opened the driver’s side door. He grabbed Kyuhyun by the nape and with much force pulled him out of the car and slammed him on the ground, face first in the freshly watered grass.

Kyuhyun’s car slowly rolled away and stopped when it hit the mailbox at the end of the driveway.

“Why you runnin’, you slimy--rat-bastard?!” Jungsu pressed Kyuhyun’s face deeper into the ground. He reached behind his back for his handcuffs. Making sure to be as rough as possible, Jungsu twisted both of Kyuhyun’s arms back and secured the handcuffs tightly around Kyuhyun’s wrists then used the back of Kyuhyun’s head to help himself stand up, further squishing his face into the ground.

He roughly pulled Kyuhyun to stand up. “You happy now?” Jungsu asked as he pushed Kyuhyun to his car. Kyuhyun only groaned in pain as he was shoved into the backseat of the detective’s car.

Once he had Kyuhyun in the backseat and he slammed the door shut, a white wave washed over Jungsu’s eyes. He felt lightheaded as he let the rage leave his body. He stood in place until he was able to regain his composure. That’s when he became aware of Kyuhyun’s muffled words from inside the car, “…police brutality… hurt… … my in’ face.”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

The interrogation room was bleak and bland, as if they had followed a formula for the typical interrogation room and tried to make it even plainer than that. The only items present were two chairs and a folding table pushed up against the wall. A two-way mirror occupied a large part of the wall opposite the table.

Kyuhyun became self-conscious of his movements and posture the second he saw the two-way mirror. He sat with his hands folded on the table. He willed himself not to look in the direction of the mirror, adjust his knuckles, or bob his knee while he waited for Jungsu to come back.

He felt the nervousness rising in his stomach. He tried to calm himself with deep, steady breaths.

Jungsu’s anger seemed to have subsided by the time he left him in the room, or at least it was not at the same level as when he tackled him on his front lawn. The detective had even offered to get Kyuhyun something to drink. He was taking a bit longer than he thought normal but he wasn’t in a hurry to see said detective anytime soon.

Moments later, he heard the door open and turned to see Jungsu come back with a water bottle in one hand and a cup of coffee for himself in the other.

“Here you go.” Jungsu set the water bottle down in front of Kyuhyun.

“Thank you.” Kyuhyun wiped the sweat off of his hands on his thighs. He made himself busy with opening the bottle but his hands seemed to have lost all their strength. Try as he might, his hands couldn’t grip the cap firmly enough to twist it off.

“Hey, are you okay?”

“Yeah?” Kyuhyun sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

Jungsu almost felt sorry for Kyuhyun. Almost.

He reached over and opened the water bottle for Kyuhyun. He stared at him as he timidly drank from his water bottle, side-eyeing him between sips; a far cry from the person who was bold enough to try to elude him earlier.

Kyuhyun felt like a child, a child that was sitting in the detention room across from the principal. The major difference being that as a child it was called 'suspension'. Now it was called 'prison-time’.

He didn't like the silence in the room but Jungsu's eyes boring into him felt much worse. It was hard for Kyuhyun to endure. He was close to asking what he had been brought in for, aside from evading, but he couldn't find his voice.

After the long, uncomfortable silence, Jungsu spoke up, “Why did you run?”

Kyuhyun exhaled. “I don't know.”

“Oh, no. Don't start with that crap. You could do better than that. Why did you run?”

Kyuhyun shrugged. “I didn't want to talk to you.” He averted his eyes away from his interrogator.

Jungsu couldn't help himself. He burst out laughing at Kyuhyun's answer. “You didn't want to talk to me so you ran. That makes a lot of sense, Kyuhyun.” He scoffed and shook his head. “Let's get real. You ran before I even got a chance to ask you my first question. You've been here for a little over,” Jungsu paused to check the time, “forty minutes and you have yet to ask me why I brought you in, why I wanted to question you in the first place. What do you think that tells me?“

'. I knew I should have asked.' “W-what is this about then?”

“Too late. Why don't you go ahead and answer my first question properly. Why did you run? What weighs so heavy on your conscious that you felt like you had to run from me?”

“I didn’t do anything,” he mumbled with his head hung.

Deciding to start working on his rapport with Kyuhyun, he patted the young man’s shoulder. Kyuhyun winced at the contact. The soreness was starting to set in. “Don’t worry about it. This is just something I have to do. It's all just procedure. You’re not in trouble for running but I do want to know why you did.”

Kyuhyun covered his face with his hands. He made circular motions over his eyelids with his fingertips before looking back up at Jungsu, as if expecting further instruction.

Jungsu sighed. “Listen, I need a break but I'll come back. Hopefully you'll be ready to talk when I get back.”

Kyuhyun watched Jungsu’s back as he left him alone in the interrogation room again. He rested his forehead on his forearm on the table and looked down at his feet. The countless amount of time he had spent watching procedural dramas didn’t help him then. He was at a loss not knowing whether or not to request the services of a lawyer or try to talk his way out of his predicament.

‘I’m pretty sure I covered all of my bases anyway. They wouldn’t be able to pin anything on me, at least not anything that would hold up in court.’

A whimper escaped his lips. ‘I don’t want to go to prison… I want my mom. I want my pop. But I can’t tell them about this. They’d be ashamed…’

 70° at 1PM- warmer than it should be, even for us this time of year.

This story is turning out to be longer than I thought it’d be. Oh, well. See you at the next chapter.