CHAPTER TWELVE: Madness

[Jessica's POV]

Jessica paced the police station. She had contacted the detective who had worked on Tiffany's case immediately after the phone call. The man on the other end of the phone had hinted that the police was corrupt, but she trusted this officer. He would not have helped catch the two gangsters if he was paid by their gang.

The police currently had a technician trying to trace her last phone call. They had determined that the two dead gangsters were part of the Goldmoon syndicate, and shortlisted a number of suspected top dogs. They had also found the two missing persons that might be related to this case. It turned out that there was another pair of detectives from Uijeongbu who were managing two similar Goldmoon kidnappings that took place just after the two gangsters were killed.

Sooyoung and Hayeon burst into the office area. Jessica had just remembered to inform them.

The phone trace results came out and it was a failure. "They used Taeyeon-ssi's personal phone, so the telecomm should have the records of the nearest broadcast station. I think you're right, Jessica-ssi. Somebody in the police is mucking around."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that we will have to proceed carefully. I promise you we will do all we can to find her. Please go home. We'll call you when we need information or when we have concrete updates. Staying here doesn't help us."

Jessica walked out of the station with Sooyoung and Hayeon. 

Hayeon got in her face. "If anything happens to unnie, I will never forgive you."

The two of them had taken a taxi here. Jessica drove them back to Gwanak before going home. 

Jessica spent the whole night pummeling her punching bag. She checked her phone. Nothing. She took a shower and allowed herself a one hour nap because she was useless tired. When she woke up, which was easy because she spent most of that nap lying on her bed staring at the ceiling, she grabbed her car keys.

She took the elevator down to the lobby, and when she stepped out, there was a small box on the ground. That was unusual. It had her name scrawled in large black marker on it. She ripped it open to find a small black USB drive. It had to be from those Goldmoon ers. She went back up to her apartment and her laptop.

There was a single file, an MP4 clip. She double-clicked it. The video definition was good. The clip was clear but the sound sometimes dropped out momentarily, as if to cut out somebody's voice. The man in the video had his face blurred.

The first thing Jessica saw was a medium-close up shot, from the upper arms up, of Taeyeon staring back at her. Taeyeon seemed to be sitting on a chair. Her face was purple with fresh bruises and cuts, some still leaking blood. The torn collar of her shirt was stained as well. When she opened , Jessica could see the bloodied teeth and gums. 

Jessica did not feel guilt, fear or worry first. Those were secondary to the rage. 

"Jessica, take care of Hayeon and Soo for me. But if they don't like it, then nevermind... Hayeon, Soo, I'll always love you." Taeyeon's voice was hoarse and thick. She plastered a fake smile on her face. Jessica hated it.

Taeyeon's eyes darted to the side for a split second. She opened , but her voice was so low that Jessica couldn't make out what she was saying. 

Her eyes darted again and she coughed. When she spoke again, Jessica could hear her. She was reading off a script. "Chanwoo-ssi w-was defending Goldmoon's reputation behind bars when he was ambushed by two D-double Dragon cowards. Chanwoo-ssi did not receive emergency treatment in time."

Taeyeon's eyes suddenly widened in panic. Jessica heard a dull crack, like a thin tree branch being snipped off. Taeyeon's face contorted in a scream of agony. Her wide eyes relaxed as they lost focus, and then a man's finger pushed her head back up and struck her across the face to keep her awake. Taeyeon twisted in her chair, clearly tied down to it. She was gasping and sweating, trying to get used to some new source of pain. 

It was excrutiating to watch. Jessica's hand reached up to wipe her eyes and she realized she was crying. She snapped the laptop shut and staggered to the bathroom.

Jessica clutched the sides of the toilet seat as she retched into it. Her stomach was empty since yesterday, so only acid came up. It burned . Jessica grasped the toilet handle and flushed. She knelt on the ground. She wished Tiffany was here with her. It was selfish and disgusting. 

Jessica didn't know where to start. She couldn't pound every gangster she pulled off the streets until she found a member of Goldmoon, and even then she didn't know how to get from that to Taeyeon's location.

Just chill. Think about it, Jung. You have a crap ton of resources at your disposal, even if the police can't really help. There are non-corrupt cops at Seorim who are loyal to you. There are also guys from shadier places who might know some contacts. They're loyal to you too.

Jessica pulled out her phone. She wasn't going to call Sooyoung or get in touch with Hayeon. They didn't need this, and mostly Jessica couldn't deal with their emotions right now. She called the gym and told Lee that she would be coming, and in need of a big favor from everyone, so, just for today, don't accept anybody into the gym who Lee didn't trust. Jessica then called Detective Kang. "They sent me a video. I'll bring it to the police station now."

She went back to her room and pulled the lid open. She just needed to know the rest of what happened to Taeyeon. That was all. She unpaused the video.

Taeyeon was visibly paler. A man with his face blurred out walked into view. He was wearing a swanky white suit spattered with blood, and Jessica was sure some of it was Taeyeon's. Jessica was going to pull his from out of his eye sockets. He forced Taeyeon's head down out of view and secured it with his knee. Jessica heard Taeyeon groan and then chuckle. The man seemed to say something- his blurred jaw was moving but Jessica couldn't hear him, and Taeyeon's giggling only worsened. Because of the camera angle, the man was mostly blocking her view, but she heard Taeyeon's giggles turn into hysterical sobbing.

Jessica felt a twinge and realized she was biting her hand and let go, leaving shallow teeth marks in her skin. This was nothing.

The man finally finished whatever he was doing, and got off Taeyeon. He walked off camera again. Taeyeon sat up, but was now hunched in, violently shuddering in her chair and as white as sheet. With great effort, Taeyeon looked up at the camera, directly at Jessica. Jessica knew Taeyeon wasn't really looking at her, but it felt real. It knocked the wind out of Jessica.

The video ended. 

Jessica was used to straightforward people. Her parents, Krystal, Tiffany, her coaches and gym buddies were far from subtle. Taeyeon was different. Taeyeon behaved childishly around her friends so that they could feel close to her without knowing her, so that they only had to care about their own feelings and problems. But over time, Jessica had rare moments when she got to see Taeyeon vulnerable, and she slowly recognized that she had to second-guess what Taeyeon was thinking. Being with Taeyeon was ninja work; she had to 'look underneath the underneath'. Jessica was fine with the smoke and mirrors since Taeyeon was always there for her when she needed it.

But in those last few seconds of video, Jessica had seen Taeyeon clearly. For the first time since Jessica got to know her, Taeyeon was thinking of no one but herself. She just wanted all the fear, pain, panic and desperation to stop. Taeyeon would never give that sadistic white suited bastard the satisfaction by saying it out loud, but her eyes were screaming for someone to save her.

There was nothing sanguine about this revelation. It was just the ugly truth of being burned by evil.

Jessica stood up. She needed to stay mad for now. It was her fuel, and lame feelings like worry or guilt would only get in the way. It was easy to turn the rage up. She had never wanted to kill a man so much in her life.

Jessica brought the USB drive to the police station to hand it over. There were no prints on it except Jessica's.

"Next time, bring evidence like this to us first," Detective Kang said.

"Right. How is the investigation going? Do you know who did this?"

"We managed to find that Jung Chanwoo is the step-brother of Goldmoon's second-in-command, Kim Jiwon. I have two officers tracking him down. If we find him and follow him, he might lead us to Taeyeon-ssi."

"How hard is it to find this guy?"

"I thought it would be quick since Kim Jiwon is high profile, but they haven't been able to locate him yet."

What else?

Nothing else.

What's the police doing?

Are you questioning my investigation? We're working around the clock here. I can vouch for all my officers.

Jessica yanked the car door shut and drove to Seorim. She called Nichkhun. The campus police officer had not been back to the gym ever since Tiffany died, but now she needed all the good cops she could get working on this. She told him to go to the gym.

True to his word, the gym owner, Lee, had only allowed her friends into the gym to work out. "Guys, Taeyeon's been kidnapped by the gang that killed Tiffany."

Everyone here knew Tiffany. Some of these men, like Nichkhun, were police officers; others were from the rougher side of town and they had contacts. All of them immediately dropped what they were doing and surrounded Jessica with questions. Those who knew about the breakup had an unfavorable opinion about Taeyeon, but she was Jessica's girl again, and besides, this was an entirely different matter. 

"You can't trust the authorities with this," Nichkhun said. "Goldmoon is big. They have tabs everywhere, and you're talking about their Number Two. Even if this Detective Kang is clean, some of his colleagues won't be, and that'll be enough to impede his investigation. This isn't a big case. It's a local case concerning three civilian hostages who won't make an impact on the rest of society. Nobody's going to go against Goldmoon for this."

"What can I do? There's nothing else I can do."

"I can't speak for the rest of the guys, but I'll help you."

The other men murmured their assent. All of them left the gym to search for their own leads.

Jessica waited for exactly sixty minutes in her apartment. She went at the punching bag in her room until her arms felt like lead and her chest was burning. She took a cold shower before going to the kitchen to pour a cup of water. Taeyeon's sketchbook lay on the dining table. Jessica picked it up and flipped through it. Taeyeon's drawings had gotten visibly better towards the back. There were still a few empty pages left. Jessica turned back to the last filled page, but the tears in her eyes blurred the clear pencil lines. Tears splattered on the pages.

Jessica closed the book and walked to Tiffany's room. She opened the door and a musty smell hit her nose for all of two seconds. She chucked the sketchbook in and slammed the door shut.

Then Jessica grabbed her car keys and went out again. She drove around pointlessly, scanning the sidewalks. Every stoplight, she checked her phone. Her gas tank emptied out and she went to refuel. At the gas station, she bought a kimbap and wolfed it down. She didn't dare think about anything, but Taeyeon was all that was on her mind.

A/N irl: Taeyeon and Sunny's cover of Ma Boy is my favorite SNSD performance in a long time... They looked like they were just having fun as singers instead of having to perform like idols. 

A/N fic: I switched POVs because being with Jessica was just more meaningful. I read about mobs to know how they work, but then staying with Taeyeon became imperatively descriptive. And when I was done writing, it seemed unnecessary to be so graphic since reporting everything that happened at the warehouse wasn't moving the story forward. It's just a string of bad things happening to her while the real developments are outside. So, idk... switching to Jessica's POV seemed better.

I don't know... but thank you for reading:) Whether it or not, I'd like to do better, so let me know what you thought about this chapter!