About time there was a new update, eh? I had no idea it had been so long, sorry :x

Much like all the other stories in this collection, it's not believable at all, so don't question it pls. It's more of a plot for a full-length story too, I suppose, so I'm sorry if it seems a little rushed *shrug*

Anyway. This one's... It has a bit of a morbid topic; sorry about that. So in a way it's pretty angsty but also fluffy. Eh... Just read it cause idk what I'm saying. I hope you enjoy <3 

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Seungyeon tucked her scarf a little bit more underneath the collar of her blazer, fully aware it would most likely pop free again in about five paces. It meant five paces of feeling a little bit warmer at least. She rubbed her hands together as she ducked down just enough to slip under the ribbon marking the scene of the crime. Another hit and run. It was tragic. She moved to the small, white tent; giant, white spots almost blinding her as soon as she pushed the plastic to the side to slip in. The contrast with the black night-sky was just too big.  

“Hey, Seungyeon.” Seungyeon rose her hand to Seunghee. “Hi.” It was a miracle how Seunghee never had the air of being tired. Even if they were here in the middle of the night. Then again, seeing a dead body probably managed to wake her right up. Seungyeon knew it did the trick for her. She had been doing this job for a while now, but she never really got used to it. Every time she’d see those lifeless eyes staring up at her... it was still unsettling.  

“What happened?” Seunghee finally straightened herself, the white plastic of her outfit crackling as much as the blue bags around her feet. “Obvious hit and run. She’s clearly been hit by a car,” her hand swept in front of her, indication from what direction the car had come. “Good news is that she at least didn’t suffer. Seems like she died immediately from the impact.” 

‘good’ news. As if anything about this was good. Seungyeon took a moment to take in the woman, if only to make herself feel worse. She looked about her age. Long brown hair. Too young to be lying here in the middle of the road, really...  

“Any idea what she was doing here?” Not that it mattered.  

“Judging from the receipt in her pocket,” Seunghee pointed towards one of the see-through bags lying safely on the side already, “she just did some last-minute shopping at the gas store in the street. We found her car parked not too far away.” She sighed, suddenly gnawing her lip. She hadn’t seen Seunghee like this too many times. It was worrisome. “Spit it out. What is it?” 

Another sigh. She pressed her lips firmly together. Seunghee started moving, holding the plastic of the tent to the side for Seungyeon to follow her out. She kept on moving for a while without a word, until she abruptly came to a halt. She held out her hand, indicating towards something. Someone.  

“.” It was the only thing Seungyeon could possibly say as her eyes landed upon a young girl sitting in the opened trunk of a police car. Some agents were standing around, but nobody seemed quite willing to get close to the girl. “It’s the woman’s daughter.”  

The girl’s hands were clenched into a blanket, wrapped around her shoulders. She wasn’t crying, but her eyes were red and puffy. Clouds were forming in the air with every breath she let out. It broke Seungyeon’s heart. “How old is she?”  

“Eleven.” Seungyeon shook her head. She was way too young to deal with the loss of a parent. This wasn’t fair. “Did we contact her family already?”  

Seunghee curtly shook her head, “not yet. She doesn’t really seem to have any close family.” Even worse. Seungyeon’s legs started walking before she could stop herself. She noted Seunghee didn’t follow her, instead walking back to the white tent a little further along.  

Seungyeon awkwardly pushed her hands into her pockets. She wasn’t too sure on how to even deal with this. She just knew that leaving this girl all by herself right now, was not the right thing to do. “Hi. What’s your name?” The girl looked up, blinking. She had obviously been zoning out before. Maybe that’s why she hadn’t been crying anymore.  

“Yujin.”  

“Hi, Yujin. Can I join you?” The girl took a moment before she nodded hesitantly. She moved to the side a bit, making room for Seungyeon to sit beside her. “I’m Seungyeon.” 

“You’re a cop.” It wasn’t a question. Seungyeon nodded. It was probably the badge hanging around her neck that gave her away. It was silent and Seungyeon rubbed her hands together, her eyes moving up to the pitch-black sky, trying to come up with something decent to say. “What will I do now? Where will I live? How will I make money?” Seungyeon looked down at the girl again. She shouldn’t have to think about these things now. Or ever at this age, really. It was sad.  

Seungyeon didn’t even know how to respond. She supposed the truth would have to do.  

“Hey, we’ll find your family. They’ll take care of you.”  

Wide eyes stared up at her, “I don’t have any family besides my mum.” . , , .  

“For now, Child Protective Services will probably take care of you until we find a place for you.” Yujin sighed, dropping her head as she pulled the blanket a little tighter around herself.  

Seungyeon hated herself for it, but she had to know, “did you see anything?” Yujin hesitantly shook her head. “It was dark. I only heard-” Her sentence died out and her shoulder started shaking again. Seungyeon moved a little closer, pulling the girl into her. She was so small that Seungyeon’s arm didn’t have any trouble fitting all around her frame. She was too small to face all of this alone. It wasn’t right. ‘It’s okay’, she wanted to say, but she knew that right now, nothing was okay for the girl. She remained silent.  

After a while, Seungyeon noted one of her colleagues, Hui, walking towards her. “We called CPS. We can bring her over right now.”  

Seungyeon nodded, pulling away from the girl. “Yujin, you’ll have to go with this man now. He will take you to people who will look after you for now.” Hui smiled reassuringly at the girl, but Yujin didn’t seem any more intent on getting up. She looked back at her, “I don’t want to leave you.” Seungyeon smiled, “It’s okay. I will check up on you really soon. I promise.”  

Yujin just blinked a few times, her voice barely above a whisper when she started talking again, “can’t I come with you?” Seungyeon bit the inside of her cheek, “I can’t-”  

“I promise I’ll be really good. Please. Please.” Oh my God. Seungyeon looked up at Hui, pleading for him to say anything. “Seungyeon isn’t really mother material. You might starve if you go to her place.” His voice was gentle as he joked, and Seungyeon could tell he was doing his best to sway the girl’s mind as gently as possible. Still, Yujin’s hands only clamped a little firmer around her upper arm. “Please,” she just said again, her cheek now pressed against Seungyeon’s shoulder.  

- 

Seungyeon flicked the light switch as she pushed the door to her apartment open with her hip. “I don’t really have a separate room so we might have to share a bed, Yujin. I can also sleep on the couch if you prefer,” she added the latter as an afterthought. Yujin shook her head though. “No. I want to be close to you.” On the way home she had heard more small sniffs from the backseat of her car. It was heart breaking. Seungyeon wished she could do more for the girl. But really, there was nothing she could fix here. The only thing she could do was make sure the guilty party got caught.  

“We will go get some clothes and stuff for you tomorrow, okay?” Yujin nodded, getting rid of her shoes. “Are you hungry?” Yujin shook her head. She looked even smaller now than she had before. Seungyeon didn’t know what to do. “You should eat something though. I have some left-overs in the fridge. Come on.”  

- 

“Hello?” she picked up her phone, keeping her voice low. Yujin had finally fallen asleep. It was almost 5 am by now. The girl had to be exhausted. Seungyeon was as well. At least she had gotten the girl to eat some of the ham and cheese macaroni she had made last night.  

“Hey, Seungyeon, it’s Hui. We have found a relative of Yujin’s.” 

Seungyeon let out a breath in relief, leaning her back against the wall next to the door to her bedroom. “That’s great. When can she come get her?”  

“Eh, it’s complicated.” 

Of course, it would be. “How so?” 

“Well, she’s her aunt, Jeon Somin. She’s Yujin’s father’s sister. But, apparently, she hasn’t been in contact with either the victim or her daughter ever since her brother died. Which was more than eight years ago. So-” 

“So, she doesn’t even know Yujin... and now she has to go live with her?” What a mess...  

“Yeah, I know. But what other option do we have? She can’t stay with you. Miss Jeon didn’t sound any more comfortable with it than us, but eventually she agreed.”  

Poor Yujin. Poor Somin. What a situation. Seungyeon shook her head, sighing into the phone. Hui must have caught it. “The good news is she doesn’t live too far away. We can go see her tomorrow with Yujin, together. That should make it a little more comfortable for them. What do you think?” 

Seungyeon hummed,” sounds good. But let’s do it later in the day. She finally fell asleep just now.”  

“Sure thing. I’ll come by around 1.30, okay?” 

“Okay. See you then, Hui. Thanks for your hard work. Sleep well.”  

“You too, Seungyeon. Goodnight.”  

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 

Seungyeon walked around her fairly small, grey car; opening up the passenger seat’s door to let Yujin out. The girl had folded the bottom of her pants so it wasn’t as long anymore. They had done some last-minute shopping which had resulted in maybe not-so-perfect fits. It had been either that though, or returning to the girl’s house for clothes. It would have been too hard as of yet, Seungyeon had figured. Honestly, she had no idea of what she was even doing. Usually she wasn’t as closely involved in this whole process.   

Seungyeon squatted down, one of her hands pulling out her scarf from her purse before firmly wrapping it around Yujin’s neck. It was way too big for her, really, much like the rest of her outfit. But at least she looked like she’d be warm. “You ready?” Yujin nodded even if her eyes were full of fear. She was a brave girl. Seungyeon straightened herself again, closing the door to her car before gabbing a small hand into her own. Even if it was cold, the hand felt clammy. 

She took in a deep breath, finding she was probably just as nervous as Yujin was. It was ridiculous. “Let’s go,” she said, unsure if it was meant for Yujin or to force her own legs to start moving. They did. Hui was already standing in front of the door to the house when they arrived, apparently having waited for them before ringing the bell. The house looked middle-class. It was small, but looked nice enough.  

As they waited for the door to open up, Seungyeon noticed Yujin, maybe unconsciously, move a little bit more behind her legs with every passing second. Seungyeon couldn’t believe she’d have to live with someone she didn’t know. This whole situation was such a mess. Yesterday, she was still on the road with her mother and now- 

The door opened up. Just a little bit. Just enough for a woman’s face to be visible through the small gap. “Hi. Are you miss Jeon Somin?” The question had the woman’s eyes darting around for a second, before they dipped lower and dropped upon Yujin for a moment. Then she looked up again. She was obviously nervous. When the woman finally opened up the door further, Seungyeon realized ‘nervous’ was an understatement. She looked terrified. “Yes. I’m Somin.” 

It was pretty ironic, because her whole outfit told Seungyeon she was probably some kind of spokesperson for her job or something. The blazer she wore screamed ‘confidence’ even if there was none to be found in her eyes. “Come in.” She stepped aside to let them all through. Seungyeon felt Yujin pressing into her leg the whole time.  

Somin awkwardly started walking, obviously not sure on what to do with her hands as they kept on over the fabric of her trousers. Seungyeon followed behind her. She heard Hui close the door behind them before doing the same. Somin stopped when they were all in the living area. “Sit down,” she gestured down to the couch, shooting shy smiles at all of them. “Do any of you want to drink something?”  

Seungyeon shook her head before looking at Yujin, “are you thirsty?” Yujin shook her head as well, her eyes never leaving Somin even if her hands were clenching onto the fabric of Seungyeon’s vest now.  

“Okay.” Somin pursed her lips slightly before also sitting down upon the couch. The silence was so awkward.  

“Hi, Yujin,” she eventually said, “been a long time since we’ve seen each other, huh?” Yujin didn’t move and Seungyeon’s eyes locked with Somin’s questioning ones for a moment. She smiled reassuringly.  

“You probably don’t remember me,” she tried again, “but I saw you last when you were a lot smaller. I’m ah,” she suddenly sounded uncomfortable, “your aunt Somin.” It was obvious it was the first time she had called herself such. The words pretty much got choked out, or so it seemed to Seungyeon. 

“I don’t have an aunt.”  

Ouch.  

Seungyeon clearly saw Somin gulp and she couldn’t even imagine for whom of the two this situation was tougher. “Don’t be rude, Yujin. She is the sister of your father,” Seungyeon spoke silently, knowing fully well everyone would hear her perfectly in the otherwise silent room.  

Yujin didn’t say anything anymore though, her grip still iron.  

“I ah... I’m going to get uhm...” Somin got up, her hands gesturing something inunderstandable, and Seungyeon swore she heard the woman mumble something that resembled ‘snacks’. She apparently couldn’t get out of the room quickly enough and Seungyeon couldn’t even blame her. Her hands came up to pry small ones free from her jacket. “I’m going to go to the bathroom really quickly, okay? I’ll be right back.” She nodded reassuringly and after a moment of hesitation Yujin mirrored the gesture, letting go of her in the process.  

Seungyeon hated to admit it, but it finally allowed her to let out a strangled breath. Amoment of freedom. 

Seungyeon walked in the direction Somin had disappeared. It didn’t take too long for her to find the woman. She was indeed in the kitchen, but apparently not very intent on finding snacks. She was sitting down upon a basic, wooden chair; her elbows resting upon a table made of the same material as her face was buried into her hands. Seungyeon pressed her lips firmly together before gently knocking the already open door with one finger. It was still enough for the woman in white to jump up from her chair and move towards a random cupboard as if Seungyeon hadn’t already caught her doing nothing before. “Oh, I was just-” She took a few seconds to try to come up with a decent ending for that sentence before just letting her breath out. “I was just having a mental breakdown, is all.”  

Seungyeon pushed her hands into the pockets of her trousers, smiling slightly. “That’s okay. I would be impressed, mostly concerned, if you weren’t.” Somin huffed at her before shaking her head ever so slightly. “This is the last thing I had been expecting. I don’t even-” She threw up her hands, once again not finishing her sentence. She just kept on shaking her head.  

Seungyeon moved a little further into the kitchen. She wasn’t entirely sure on what to say. That made two of them she supposed. She leaned her lower back against the counter onc