TIP #18: “Il n’y a pas de crime en étant gentil”

(There is no crime in being kind)

“Why do you look so down?”

Suho questions his friend across who has been out of sorts since he stepped into the precinct. Usually, he will be irked with Baekhyun’s chattiness but he feels odd without it today.

Baekhyun shrugs moodlessly, “Nothing much.”

“By the way, how’s Kai? I haven’t seen him for a long time.”

“Never better. Why don’t you go ask him yourself?”

“I’m quite busy, as you can see.” Suho flaunts the pile of notes on his desk, “Plus, don’t you catch up with him often?”

“Yeah, guess he’s good now that he’s taken an interest to someone.”

Suho leans forwards, his meddling instincts coming to light, “Ooh, that’s something new isn’t it?”

“Probably.”

“Yah, why are you far from enthusiastic here? We are talking about Kai. And a woman. In one freaking sentence!!” Suho explodes with excitement.

“Who said I wasn’t?” Baekhyun says incredulously with little energy.

Suho lets out a tiny smirk, “Hmm? I wonder.”

“Anyway.” Baekhyun shifts the subject and peels away from his chair, “Have you gotten the information that I asked you to check on?”

Suho stiffens for a while before he nods, “I do.” He swivels his head left and right, “Come to my office, this is not really a suitable place to talk about it.”

After making sure no one is watching, Suho peeks outside the one-way glass and stealthily lowers the binds.

“What’s so secretive that we have to do it in here?”

“Look,” Suho settles a black file on top of his desk and lets out a wistful sigh, “I conducted a background check against an innocent citizen without prior warrant from my superior, okay? We are talking about top rated confidentiality here. This is beyond the rules of conduct. Heck, this is beyond my own morals. I don’t even know how you talked me into this.”

Baekhyun waves his long speech off, “Yeah yeah. Thanks a lot, so what have we got?”

“This, my friend, is between us both men, so don’t go around telling other people.” Suho massages his temple before flipping through the pages, “Bae In Hya. 22 years old. A teacher at Daisy Nursery. Recently moved into an apartment at Jongno District 23 Building 5, has a—“

“Can we skip those miscellaneous info?” Baekhyun urges impatiently. He is getting tired of the cop beating about the bush.

“Uh.” Suho mutters lamely and continues reading the file, “Her father died in a murder case. The suspect is still on the run. We still don’t have any leads of his appearance.”

“That I know, any new data?”

“Well not exactly..” Suho trails off and flips to the last page, “I do have some interesting trivia here, but it won’t really be that relevant since it’s not that new data. It’s dated 8 years ago.”

Baekhyun shuts his eyes, “Just tell me, God, you’re such a nag, Suho.”

“Dude, be thankful that I’m even spending 10 minutes inside this damn office with you.” Suho indignantly complains. He does get pouty sometimes eventhough he carries a serious profession. Baekhyun only hopes that he will never get to see the aegyo he probably does with Naeun at home.

“Sorry, I got carried away.”

Suho’s face falls, “Sorry? Did you just say, sorry?”

“Okay, that’s enough.” Baekhyun scowls with a warning.

He braces himself for whatever lump of data that might connect all these throbbing questions lingering in his mind. Baekhyun swallows in anticipation as he sees Suho’s eyebrows arch together.

“Oh? This is unexpected..” He perks up seeing the second partition of the folder flap.

“Well, go on?” Baekhyun quirks a brow.

“It states here; Case #5196. 3 December 2007, at about 2:45PM in Daejeon High Court, Miss In Hya came barging into a court hearing in a high school uniform and declared that she was an eye witness to a hit-and-run accident.”

“What?? Hit-and-run accident??”

Suho nods his head.

“As an eye witness? You mean to say, like, she came forward without having anything to do with the victim’s family? Like, no relations at all? Really?”

“That’s correct.”

Baekhyun can’t help but gape in awe. Even since young, In Hya was already someone who had commendable virtues. It’s not an easy thing to do, afterall.

“Yeah. Unfortunately, she did it in the presence of the defendant, aka the driver. From what it’s written here, he got super mad and even created a scene in the court.”

“Are you serious?” Baekhyun feels his lung constrict, “What did he— the defendant do?”

Suho purses his lips as he reads the massive chunk of heavy law citations, “Long cut short story, he swore to kill her and tried to strangle her in the room.” Suho passes the statement with no serious consideration, “But obviously, he got detained so all was well.”

“Who was the driver?” Baekhyun asks with a stern voice.

“Let’s see..” Suho thumbs to the next page, “Jeon Wonwoo. An engineer before he served time. Probably he’s 34 now, since he already spent 8 years in that hole.”

“Hold on a second, let me get this straight.” Baekhyun announces while brushing his chin, “You said ‘already’, does this mean.. he’s out of jail?”

Suho smacks his lips, “Yeap, for a while already. No signs of activities from the past few weeks though.”

“Dammit!” Baekhyun clenches his fist under the table while hissing to himself as the brutality strikes him, “What was she thinking, meddling with something dangerous that’s none of her business?”

“Dangerous is right but I must say, that she has a high sense for justice. Not many people would be willing because they are fearful of the perpetrator. Must’ve taken her a lot of guts. And for that, she should be a proud cop of Korea, just like me.” Suho blindly applauds.

Ignoring his friend’s far-fetched suggestion, Baekhyun presses on again, “Why didn’t the victim’s family members come forward? Why did it have to be her?”

“Like I mentioned earlier. She was an eyewitness. To say it more clearly, she was probably the only one who saw the accident taking place. There were no CCTVs at the road site too, so they couldn’t get hold of any recordings.” Suho explains calmly. He looks up to see Baekhyun looking aghast and squints his orbs, “Why are you checking up on this In Hya anyway? Did something happen recently? It’s strange for you to go through this much trouble for someone else.”

“Hah? No, nothing of that sort. She’s just the girl that Jongin likes.” He rubs the back of his neck while admitting and before Suho can probe more queries, Baekhyun cuts him off, “Why didn’t the victim testify in court? I mean, they didn’t wait until he or she got out from the hospital? As compared to some random stranger providing an alibi, wouldn’t their own statement be more accurate and precise?”

Suho’s face turns solemn seeing how simple-minded his friend is. He casts his file aside and clasps his fingers together.

“Oh Baekhyun, the victim died. Even before she could make it to the hospital.”

* *

“Is your uncle okay?” In Hya whispers behind Yunae’s pigtails, stealing glances at the kitchen.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with him too.” Yunae shrugs while explaining, “He’s been acting like that all morning.”

It’s true, Jongin has been pacing up and down eventhough the entire house has been cleaned spick and span. There’s no reason for him to be bustling around.

“Maybe he’s extra nervous because you came today, Ms Bae.” Yunae innocenty remarks.

In Hya blinks in surprise, “M-Me?” She scoffs and fans the heat from her face, “N-Nonsense!”

“Here.” Jongin appears out of nowhere and she lets out a stiffled scream, then covering her face in utter embarrassment.

“Woah, sorry if I surprised you.” He apologizes while soothing her back.

Yunae grins seeing them interact. Somehow, she has gotten used to In Hya visiting every Sunday and how Jongin blushes from the way he looks at her. Heck, it is pretty obvious to a 5 year-old kid too. A warm feeling resides in her heart.

“I’m really sleepy.” Yunae suddenly yawns, making both adults turn to her.

“Hey, we agreed on no skiving until the end of term.” Jongin disapproves quickly.

“Let her rest for a while.” In Hya defends, “Maths can be quite draining.”

Jongin looks at her unsurely before granting Yunae a power nap on the couch. In Hya takes the opportunity to stretch her arms and rolls her shoulders. Now with Yunae fast asleep, it’s alone time with her and Jongin and in order to let things run normally, she dismisses funny thoughts about last night’s surprise kiss.

“So.. it was your birthday yesterday huh?” Jongin starts the conversation going.

In Hya lets out a sheepish smile, “I was surprised you found out.”

“It’s honestly not that hard, In Hya.” His lips curl knowingly.

Darting around the house, his eyes fall to the cabinet below the flower vase and Jongin crawls over to the wooden furniture. He slides out the lower compartment and takes out a photo album. In Hya too, curiously drags herself next to Jongin.

“Wanna see Yunae when she had her first birthday?” He offers in coincide, “She was a really chubby baby.”

Her eyes sparkle in exchange, “I’ll love to!”

Jongin rummages through the sachet for a while before turning to her regrettably, “Ah, I just remembered I left it in one of my sketchbooks. Wait here while I go get it upstairs.”

While waiting, In Hya peeks inside the drawer and sees 2 other photo albums; one labeled blue with ‘Kai’ that has been scribbled over ‘Kim Jongin’ and the other album with a pink label with ‘Kim Jiyeon’. In Hya hesitates looking at both albums for a while before she takes out the one with blue lab