08; The suspect

The first week of their undercover mission was nearing an end. And as Park Jimin walked – the soles of his sneakers slapping the pristine marble floor of the hallway with each step – he felt sweat form at the edge of his hairline and his blood rate spike with adrenalin.

The plan today? Infiltrating the bathrooms after school.

What he imagined would be a walk in the park and something he’d quickly get out of turned out to be one of the most vexing things besides his partner and his housecat. And what was shocking being how honestly difficult it was to make progress with the mission, because whatever information they received on the case was vague and pointed in no general direction… so much so, that Jimin slowly began to seriously consider the case one of supernatural roots.

Jimin reached the end of the corridor and stopped, pressing his back against the wall before peeking his head around the corner. One of the school security guards were present, and the officer watched as he yawned, glancing at his watch every few seconds. The corridor was empty. There was not a sound save for the thundering of Jimin’s own heart as he watched carefully for the guard’s next move, keeping as still as he could.

‘There’s a window period between each guard and their shifts,’ he recalled Kyungja’s explanation earlier in the day. ‘They each leave precisely 2 minutes before the shift ends, leaving the bathrooms unguarded for that short duration.’

Jimin’s eyebrows rose in surprise. ‘What? If that’s the case, wouldn’t the kidnapper just go ahead and use that time to run in and nab whoever they like?’

She shook her head. ‘Doubtful. The suspect seems to have specific targets in mind. It’s highly unlikely that they’d take the risk for just any student.’

‘So what’s the plan?’

‘The school is on lockdown at 5PM sharp. At 4 is the last rotation. We rendezvous just before then and if I’m correct, we make our move and inspect the venues as thoroughly as we can.’

‘Got it.’

‘And one more thing, Park…’

Jimin gulped. He didn’t like the cold tone that replaced her earlier one of slight speculation and watched her as she stared at him sombrely.

‘We’re in the field this time. Don’t forget that. One wrong move and it’s over. Do I make myself clear?’

Or in other words, whatever you do Park Jimin, do not screw up. The young officer chanted all sorts of encouragements to himself as he waited at the corner in anticipation. On any other occasion, being in the field meant he’d be equipped with the necessary tools to complete the mission; one of the most important being his gun. And the fact that he was back in a real life situation where he felt exposed after weeks of the God-awful menial things he’d been doing at the police station while on temporary probation didn’t help his concern.

Jimin glanced at his watch discreetly and noted the time: 15.55. It was earlier than expected but the guard kicked himself off the wall and took in his surroundings for a moment before stalking off casually, and the undercover officer watched his retreating back dwindle in the opposite direction. He didn’t know if he could call it luck, but he was definitely saved the trouble of dealing with a way to manoeuvre around the security if perhaps he decided to approach in the direction he was hiding… but where was Kyungja?

Jimin didn’t dwell on her whereabouts though for long. He had no time to waste before the security on rotation returned. The moment the man in navy uniform was completely out of sight and the hallway was without students or staff, he made his move. Unexpectedly however, one of the classroom doors behind him swung open, startling Jimin. He gasped unconsciously but a hand quickly covered his mouth, stifling the sound from escaping. The hand; he quickly realized; belonging to Kyungja.

‘Yah…!’ he shouted softly, removing her hand just as quickly as he struggled to control his heart attack induced state. ‘Don’t sneak up on me! Like ever!’

Perhaps this was the point where she rolled her eyes at him disbelievingly, but what Jimin noticed was quite the contrary. Kyungja’s eyes – to his utter surprise – twinkled with what he had a hard time believing was delight. It looked as if she just witnessed something incredibly fascinating the moment she arrived, and he glanced behind her at the room she appeared out of, noting it was the chemistry lab… well, not that it really made any sense to him. Or maybe his nerves were far too shot at this point to question her about it. Park Jimin was never one to stomach sneak attacks, which was probably why he and horror movies never set off on the right foot either.

Nevertheless, a look of utter disgust crept on Jimin’s face at the unthinkable things that he was just witness to. The fullmetal Robocop? Displaying anything but her robotic default look? The eyebrow thing in particular was what he noticed, considering he was unusually close to her at that point, and quickly realizing their proximity he reared back an inch.

‘Do you by any chance have acid reflux or something…?’ he whispered with an appalled crinkle of the nose.

Kyungja frowned again; this time an expression he was much more used to which eased his concern in turn. Excuse me? He could just imagine her asking in that incredibly bland way of hers, save for the mechanical frown. However, the questioning look she made was short-lived. She began making several hand gestures – each looking incredibly complex – and Jimin stared perplexed by whatever it was she was trying to tell him.

For the duration of the past few days Kyungja actually found the man more tolerable than she imagined. Never in her life would she have thought he was capable in the least, but cooperating with him wasn’t that bad. In fact, thinking back on Jongdae, she couldn’t help but accept the fact that he was far more bearable than the latter… however there were times when she wondered why on earth she ever believed such things at some point. And one of those times were now.

It was amazing – really – how even in the direst of situations, the man could not keep himself from talking.

‘What? What are you saying? And why are we even whispering?’

Ignoring the pleading look on his face as he stared at her in expectation of a verbal response to her plan of action, Kyungja ignored his concerns and proceeded towards the bathrooms with cautious glances. And noting her advances, Jimin followed suit. The two glanced at one another and reading each other’s determined expressions rather than words or even more confusing gestures, they each entered their respective rooms: Kyungja in the female restroom, and Jimin the male.

The moment he entered the room, the first thing he was greeted by was a bombardment of pristine clinical tiles. The walls and floors were matched by Italian-imported marble much like the school hallways and shimmered richly under the yellow light that escaped in from the adjacent window. Jimin glanced to his right at the row of closed stalls, and on his left where a matching row of basins and other decorative pieces were. He’d seen the restroom in photos Yoongi had provided them with in the briefing documents, but now that he was seeing it with his very own eyes, Jimin couldn’t help but wonder just how much it must have costed the school to build such an over-the-top bathroom of all things…

Not that he dwelled on the thought any longer, though. Because quickly recalling the time limit on his mission to avoid any suspicion, Jimin began his investigation. He searched the empty restroom’s walls, taking in the large window across from him that was barricaded quite heavily with steel bars. He could only imagine this was one of the extra steps the school had taken to prevent a repeated missing student fiasco, and directed his attention to the ceiling. He approached one of the closed stall doors to get a closer look at the high vent when a soft sound reached his ears.

Jimin’s eyes widened. What was that? It sounded to him like soft crumpling but he couldn’t be sure. Alarmed, he waited a few seconds and strained his ears for the sound again… however this time, there was nothing but silence.

Huh, he shook his head, frowning slightly in confusion. Weird.

He returned to the mission, pulling out his cell phone and brought up the flashlight. He directed it towards one of the two small vents in the rooms above the toilet stalls, where a brief shimmer was produced as the light hit each one. He wondered what it was for a moment but noticed that the cream steel faces were heavily-glazed… and the fact that they were far too small for a human being to fit into. So that ruled out any possible internal outlets the kidnapper utilized.

Biting on his gums tiredly, Jimin decided to check the stalls. He pushed open the doors as he went along, inspecting each one thoroughly for anything out of the ordinary to no avail. Suddenly the ghost stories he heard were beginning to make the most sense, because he found nothing out of the ordinary during his search. And despite the little time he had to do so, Jimin was incredibly meticulous.

But alas, there was nothing. Just what on earth was going on here? Even in the photographs when the commissioner had explained to them the details of the event, he had specified there was no sign of forced entry into the venues… which could only mean one thing: it was an inside job. A seemingly perfect one at that too.

The case was turning into something more complex every time he attempted putting the pieces together. It was so vexing that Jimin found himself sighing aloud when he reached the stall at the very end, using his foot this time to lazily kick it open… however the moment the door swung open, what Jimin imagined would reveal another empty space proved his expectations wrong. And suddenly the strange sound he heard earlier when he entered the restroom made perfect sense.

There was someone occupying the stall, but clearly not for obvious reasons. It was the Kim kid he sat next to in chemistry who ever since that incident in the cafeteria, had been relatively scarce during lunch. The moment Jimin placed his funky hair, a look of surprise