We got an 838, Southern Gangnam, requesting a patrol to check.”

838 – Neighborhood Disturbance

“0568 here, eta 1 minute Southern Gangnam, copy dispatch.”

“Copy 0568, we’ll relay the address to you.”

The patrol officer got out from the car and looked up at the non-descript exterior of the four story apartment building. Hidden behind the sky scrapper of Gangnam District buildings was another part of the town – the bad part, known mostly for their obscured ion, back alley drugs dealings and teenage brawls – unlike the glitz and glamour that usually define Gangnam, the people who live here could barely meet ends need.

Checking the address once again just to be sure, the officer walked tentatively toward the darkened building. It was only a little passed 8, yet the building looked deserted, somehow the officer didn’t think that was the case. He knew that the people around here could smell cops from hundreds miles away, they probably saw him parked the car and decided to lay low.

He took the old stairs – after looking for lift to no avail – and walked down the dimly lit aisle until he reached the apartment number given by the dispatch. The apartment was quiet, no sign of the neighborhood disturbance as reported.

Was it just a prank call?

“Police. We got a report that...” he went silent when his knock pushed the door opened slightly. Frowning at the unlock door, he reached back, unclipping his service weapon out of the holder and used the back of his hand to open the door further, gun at the ready.

“Hello. Anybody home? It’s the police checking.”

He entered the apartment carefully and staggered back slightly when he saw the sight in front of him.

“Oh my god.”

***

Byul parked her SUV a couple of distance away from the crime scene, ambulance and two other patrol cars already parked in front of the quiet building, just as expected from this part of neighborhood, no one was curious to see what’s all the hustle and bustle are about, preferring to lock themselves inside the safety of the apartment and want nothing to do with police.

The detective pulled her black hair into a low ponytail and approached the nervous looking young uniformed officer, “Officer on duty?”

“Yes mam!” he saluted

Byul’s eyes landed on the Kang written on his name plate and nodded, “What we got here?” 

“We got a DB. No sign of breaking and entering, the body still warm when I got here.”

“Have you searched the whole apartment?”

“Yes, no one else is in the vicinity and at first glance it doesn’t seem like there’s anything missing, but I will check again.”

Byul looked around the surrounding area, doubt creeping at her that the neighbor would say anything, this kind of area, most of them turned a blind eye, “Canvas the neighborhood, find out if the neighbor see or hear anything else.”

“Mam, yes mam!” he gave another salute and quickly ran away from her.

Byul heaved a heavy breath, ascending the staircases slowly, she saw the bright lights emanating from the only opened apartment door.

“Detective Moon Byul Yi, badge number 20141906.” She identified herself to the officer guarding the entry way before ducking below the police tape to enter the scene. Flashes invaded her line of sight as the crime scene investigator took pictures of the body. Another team already waiting at the side line, waiting for the officer in charge to give them an okay to get the body back to the morgue.  

Snapping the latex gloves into place, she crouched low beside the dead woman’s body and inspected the head wound, “What do you think, Seulgi?”

The young crime scene investigator looked up from her camera and shrugged, “Bad neighborhood.”

Eyes not straying from the body in front of her, she solemnly nodded, it was a senseless death, but then again, nothing ever make sense about murder, no matter the reason.

Byul sighed and stood up, “You done?”

With a nod from Seulgi, Byul motioned toward the two guys from the medical examiner office, “Take her to the morgue, I’ll get down there after I finished looking around here.”

“Yes, Detective.”

She looked around the small apartment, it was not well maintained, the wall looked like it desperately need a repaint, the blue color was so washed out it turned nearly yellowish white. The couch was old, she spied a spring emerging from one of the seat. It didn’t look like robbery especially since there was no force entry. Was it personal?

She opened the refrigerator and spied the content before checking out the messy bedroom.

“Are we sure that the apartment was empty.” She asked out loud as she walked out of the tiny bedroom and moved toward the center of the room. Her eyes scanning every inch of surface of the living room area, searching for something.

“Officer Kang said that the apartment was empty when he checked it.” One of the uniformed officers informed the detective who currently crouched low spying the doll house hidden beneath the dining table.

“Maybe.” She said quietly. Her latex gloved hand reached out and opened the doll house door gently.

A pair of fearful eyes looked directly at her. Tear marks stained her chubby cheek and Byul let out a deep sigh, “Maybe not....”

Smiling gently at the little girl, Byul reached out her hand, “Hey there... it’s okay, I’m a police officer. You’re safe, sweetheart.... Do you want to come out now?”

The girl – who couldn’t be older than 3 years old – remained on the spot, sitting there inside the doll house hugging her legs close to her chest. Byul saw a glint of gold on her neck, a gold chain with a name pendant, “Wheein... is that your name? Can I call you Wheeinie?”

Silence.

A calming smile remained on Byul’s face as she laid down on her stomach, hands propped against her chin, maintaining eyes contact with the little girl all the time, making sure that the little girl’s attention remained on her face so that she couldn’t see the buzzing activity behind her as the EMT crew put the victim’s body in the body bag.

Was it her mother?

“Is that your bunny? What’s her name?”

Another silence.

Byul puffed out her cheeks, “I kind of look like a bunny myself. Do you want to be my friend?”  She scrunched up her nose, making weird faces as her trained eyes tracked the girl’s body for any physical injury. Relief washed over her when she couldn’t see any notable injury.

She wasn’t harm, but she probably witnessed the bloody murder and it was traumatizing enough.  

The girl’s lips moved up slightly. A minute movement, but Byul was grinning from ear to ear already.

“My name is Moon Byul Yi. I’m a detective, do you want to see my badge? I’m going to show it to you, okay?” Byul slowly moved her hand toward her shirt, unpinning the small silver badge that she pinned there, identifying her rank as a detective.

She showed the silver badge to the little girl and smiled, “Wheenie-ah, see this?” Byul struggled a little, not sure how to explain that the badge means that she took an oath to serve and protect the people.

“Is pretty”

She was amazed when she heard the little girl whispered voice and nodded vigorously, “Yes, it’s pretty, just like you.” She grinned and offered her badge to the girl who took it tentatively, her cubby fingers enclosed itself on the slightly oval emblem.

“Wheenie-ah, the doll house kind of small right? do you want to come out from the doll house and play with me instead here? Outside? Where it is bigger? We could play anything that you want, or... are you hungry? I’m kind of hungry though, I haven’t eaten anything since this morning. We could go and grab some ice cream if you wanted.”

Byul rambled on as the little girl just stared at her, but she picked up the sign of interest on the little girl’s eyes when she mentioned ice cream. Of course, all children loves sweet thing, “Do you like ice cream, Wheenie-ah? I do, I really like vanilla flavor, not really adventurous am i?

Adventurous? Really detective? Does the kid even know what that word means? She scolded herself internally but grinned from ear to ear when a soft voice answered her, “I like stawbeyyi…” the ‘R’ unspoken but understood.

Byul nodded, “We could get strawberry ice cream for you and we could share my vanilla ice cream too if you want.”

Wheenie nodded her head once and Byul had to restraint herself from shouting.

“Do you think you want to come out now?” she asked softly, noting the look of uncertainty on the little girl’s face. Minute passed and Byul waited patiently, keeping her smile on her face the entire time until the little girl moved slightly, crawling out with difficulty since her left hand still gripped her bunny ever so tightly and her right hand still got Byul’s badge in them. It took her awhile to crawled out from the doll house, hands quickly reached out and encircled itself on Byul’s neck, her face soon followed, burying herself into Byul’s embrace.

Byul was floored as warmth soon envelope her, the smell of baby powder invaded her nose and she quickly gathered the child into her arms. Holding onto the precious bundle in her arms, she rose up, whispering sweet nothing into the child’s ear before she addressed one of the uniformed officer there, “I’m going to take her out for food, finished up here and we meet up at the station.”

She didn’t see the salute nor care about the following, ‘Yes, mam!’ that the officers gave her, her attention already fully focused on the child in her arms.

***

Byul could barely get another word out of the little girl when they ate in a nearby eatery, true to her words, she bought ice cream, after she fed a healthier choice of food to the obviously starving girl courtesy to the owner, since she was definitely clueless on what would a three-year-old would eat.

“Yeah?”

Byul cringed when her sergeant yelled at her from the other line of her phone, “Yes, I know, no, I’m not taking her to child service, you know how the system works, they would just put her in an overcrowded… I… Yunho, listen to me.” Byul rarely used her immediate officer given name so that got him to shut up for a bit.

“I’m taking her with me, she’ll be safe with me and at this point, she’s our only material witness to the crime, we still don’t know anything and I don’t want her to be taken by someone. I’ll take whatever responsibility, just… trust me on this. I’ll be in soon.”

She ended the phone call, Yunho is a decent guy, but he could be a bit too uptight. She saw Wheenie’s eyes nearly dropping shut as she hugged her bunny even closer to her chest, trying her hardest to stay awake. Even though she told Yunho that she would take care of the girl, she needed in the station right now and she can’t take the child with her.

Sighing, she brushed Wheenie’s bang as the little girl finally lost her battle with slumber, scoping her up into her arms, she paid the bills and walked out from the restaurant, one destination in mind.

“Hey, I’m at the entrance, do you mind coming down? You told me you are free tonight, right?” Byul laughed nervously and thrummed the steering wheel with her left hand to ease her nervousness, “Okay, I’ll wait, hurry.”

She waited for 10 minutes before a silhouette clad in a short dress with long cardigan left unwrapped on the left shoulder approached her car, she lowered the car window and gave Hwasa a small nervous smile, “Hey.”

The dark haired woman leaned against the car with a come hither look that made Byul’s nervousness skyrocketed, “So, are you finally going to take me out on a date?”

“Actually… I need a favor.”

Hwasa lives only a couple of doors away from her own unit and they exchanged a couple of flirtatious banter for months now. Byul knew that tonight is the Jazz singer day off, since she already hint not so subtlety to Byul that she would welcome Byul at her apartment anytime.

“Yes? You know I would do anything for you.” Hwasa purred and Byul could feel her heart rate spiked, the woman’s voice always did funny things to her.

“Awesome, would you mind?” she motioned toward the car door and quickly exited when Hwasa back away from the car. She briskly opened the back door and unseated the sleeping child.

“I need you to look after Wheenie for a bit.”

The look on Hwasa’s face was priceless, but Byul didn’t have the courage to laugh, especially not after the singer threw dagger at her.

“Excuse me!!???”

“Shhh… you gonna wake her up, look, we just found a murder victim whom we think is her mom, she was trapped with the body for I don’t know how long and I don’t want the child service to take her, I barely made a rapport with her as is, I can’t take her to the station and I need to get back there for a couple of hours, please, she’s asleep already so just let her sleep in your place and I’ll get her off your hands. Just a couple of hours.” Byul rushed through her words, her hope rose when she saw Hwasa’s face softened when she heard the story and her eyes landed on the sleeping child on her arms.

“You owe me.”

“Definitely.”

“At this point, just dinner won’t cut it.”

“I’ll be your slave for a day.”

A throaty laugh left her lips and Hwasa shook her head, “Tease, you just a tease, alright, give her to me.”

Byul handed the precious bundle carefully and Hwasa nearly coo at her, “She’s so pretty… are you sure that it was her mother?” Hwasa softly caressed the sleeping child’s cheek, heartbroken for her.

“I don’t know but… so far, all clues leading up to that fact.”

“You know my password, just let yourself in after you finished.”

“I really owe you one.”

“Go and catch the bad guy.”

Grinning, Byul gave her a two fingers salute and walked back toward her car, “I will. Thanks.”

***

Byul rushed through the police station, skipping two stairs at the time to cut down time toward the 3rd floor, the homicide department.

Seulgi was putting up her pictures on the new murder board when she arrived, Yunho already sitting on her desk and Suga, the newest addition to the team, sat on his own chair opposite of her desk, already with his notebook open.

“What we know so far?”

“Good of you to finally join us, where’s the kid?”

Byul threw a look at Yunho and just briskly nodded, “Somewhere safe, so? ID?”

Seulgi shared a look with Suga before clearing and rattled off from her notes.

“Victim’s name is Jung Chae Yeon, 22 years old, non-permanent work, mostly waitressing. Parents lives in Jeonju, has been estranged since she left home with her then boyfriend, pregnant out of wedlock, I guess it’s safe to say that the little girl is her daughter, unfortunately, we couldn’t find any birth certificate. Her older sister coming in to identify the body, the mother... wasn’t necessarily coherent after I delivered the news and the father didn’t want to speak to me.” Seulgi finished her run down and stared expectantly at Suga.

“The neighbors were not much help, the victim kept to herself, they rarely interact, she lives alone with her daughter though, no known friends or boyfriend. Heard the grapevine gossip that the victim.... well, the victim might be moonlighting and had a bad habit, a sniffer.”

Byul remained silent throughout the rundown, soaking up all of the information, creating a puzzle in her mind that tried to fit together – a part of her was heartbroken when she heard that the victim might be ing herself and use drugs – Did Wheeinie witness all of it? She sure hopes not.

“Murder weapon?”

Suga shook his head, “We canvassed the neighborhood but found nothing, yet.”

Yunho had been uncharacteristically silent during the whole thing, staring at the woman in front of him with keen eyes.  He knew her since the academy, they were on the same batch, Byul graduated top of her class unlike him, yet, six years out of academy, he’s already a sergeant while the headstrong woman is still a second grade detective.

Standing there with jeans and leather jacket, Yunho got to admit that the cool beauty is really easy on the eyes, she radiated confidence and intelligence and wisdom beyond her years of 29, she was THE poster child of the police academy.

Moon Byul Yi is a good cop, competent, resourceful, tenacious, and smart to boot, she has everything going for her to go all the way to the top, if only she was not so open about her uality. South Korea still got a long way to go in terms of respecting woman’s right and in respecting marriage equality, yet, instead of bowing to the norm and kept her preference for woman on the safety of her own bedroom, Byul was almost unapologetic about it, hence, the stagnant in her career, no matter how many cases that she cracked, no matter how much of an asset she is, unless she stopped being a lesbian, she would never go far.

But for now, she was nearly in a legend status, with some of the younger ones like Suga and Seulgi respected the out of her and willing to do anything just to work alongside her, while some old croons still sneer and made her their bathroom jokes but begrudgingly acknowledge her talent, so maybe... maybe in a not so distance future.

“Follow up on the rumors, if she was indeed moonlighting I want to know the list of her clients and whether she has a pimp or working alone. If she’s using, I wanna know who her dealer is. Go.”

Suga nodded and quickly gathered his notes and left.

“Call me when the sister arrived, I want to talk to her.” Seulgi nodded and also left, leaving the two senior officers behind.

“I’m gonna go down to the morgue, anything else you want to talk to me about, Sergeant?”

“Watch your toes, we don’t want any trouble with another department, especially child services.”

Byul’s eyes darkened and her face hardened as she casted Yunho with a cold look before she gruffly nodded, “Got it.”

A pained grimaced crossed Yunho’s face as he watched his ex-partner walked toward the lift that would took her to the basement morgue. He sighed and slightly pray that nothing will turn out wrong in this case, for Byul’s sake.

***

“What do you got for me, Doc?”

Byul breezed through the cold room and found herself looking at the only source of warmth and light in this whole dreary basement.

Looking up from the cold body laid on the metal gurney in front of her, Yongsun gave Byul a bright smile, “My favorite detective.”

“The one and only, at your service.” Byul grinned back before her smile faded away when she saw the half-finished autopsy, “Sorry to interrupt, but do you have anything for me so far?”

“Blunt force trauma to the head.”

“Figures as much.”

Yongsun nodded and shifted the head a little to the side, the hair around the wound already half shaved to make it easier to see the wound, “See here? Someone bashed her head with something long and rounded.”

“Like a rod?”

“I...”

“still haven’t concluded the autopsy so you can’t really say.” Byul finished Yongsun’s words with a grin, they worked together for so long, she knew what the straight laced medical examiner were thinking, “But hypothetically speaking, it would be something like a rod?”

“Hypothetically.”

“Anything else?”

Yongsun nodded, she carefully picked up the victim’s left arm, “See the marks? Your victim was a user, I’m running toxin screening, and we’ll know more after I got the result.”

Byul solemnly nodded, she looked at the young pale face and wondered what went wrong, she knew that it was a futile thought, but she cannot help herself to wonder, such young life, such a wasted potential.

“No known defensive wounds, my best guess is the first blow was hard enough to render her unconscious and the rest of the blows were delivered to make sure that she won’t be able to survive. I know that she was fully clothed when she was found, but I ran kit just to be sure.”

“Time of death?”

“She yet to reached rigor mortis, I would say 6 to 7 PM.”

Not long before the patrol office found her body.

“Thanks, keep me posted.”

Yongsun noticed the tiredness hanging heavy on Byul’s eyes and her concern grew, “You okay?”

“Yeah, just... some cases just hit you harder than some. She was too young and she left this cute little kid....” Byul pinched the bridge of her nose to stave off the headache and smiled tiredly, “How long do you think you will be? Want me to drive you home?”

“Are you coming on to me?” Yongsun teased to lighten up the mood and returned Byul’s smile with one of her own.

Usually, Byul would retort with another tease of her own, but today she really didn’t have the energy to do so.  

“Go, rest up, I bring my car to work today, so you don’t have to worry.”

“See you tomorrow, doc.”

Byul waved and walked out of the morgue with heavy steps. The work... it never got any easier.

***

Byul let herself in into Hwasa’s dark apartment and took off her shoes, padding slowly toward Hwasa’s bedroom, figuring that she would found them there.

She felt a rush of warmth flush her body at the sight that greeted her – Wheeinie sleeping soundly with Hwasa reclining on her side, watching the tiny toddler with a small smile on her face – She leaned against the door and took in the sense of calm that wash over her.

“Are you going to stand there all night?” Hwasa’s husky voice broke her out of her reverie and Byul smiled at her softly.

“It was a nice sight.”

Hwasa hummed and rose up from the bed and walked toward the obviously tired detective, “You ate?”

“Yeah.”

“You looked like you need some wine.”

“I wouldn’t say no.”

Hwasa drew the un-protesting cop into her arms, body flushing against each other, Byul automatically tightened her arms around Hwasa’s body and rested her forehead against Hwasa’s shoulder, relishing the warmth of her body.

“You looked like you need a hug as well.”

“I do...”

Minutes passed and Byul would be contend just embracing the woman, but Hwasa has other thing in mind, releasing the hold, she took Byul’s hand into hers and pulled the cop into the living room instead, “Come on, I have a bottle of wine with your name on it.”

Hwasa’s fingers combing through her hair almost lull Byul to sleep, resting her head on Hwasa’s lap she stared at the ceiling and the heaviness of today almost melted, almost... but the painful reminder of what’s to come was sleeping peacefully in another room.

“What would happen with the kid?” Hwasa broke the silence, hand brushing softly against Byul’s overgrown bangs.

“Depends. If we could track down the father, then she would go to him, but...”

“But what?”

“She lives alone with a young mother who ed herself and a drug addict, i don’t want to assume, but I think the father left them, she couldn’t or wouldn’t go back to her parents, so... I don’t know, if no one wants her...”

“You know that you couldn’t help anyone, right?”

The burden of the world was not her own to carry, some many people had told her that, yet Byul couldn’t help herself, especially not this time.

“She’s just a kid...”

“And you are just human...” Hwasa leaned forward and brushed her lips softly against Byul’s forehead, a small token of her affection.

Words caught in her suddenly constricted throat, “I better go, it’s late.”

“I have a big bed.”

Rueful smile graced Byul’s face but she simply rose up from her position, adjusting her wrinkled shirt just to have something to do with her hands, “I’m a restless sleeper.” Was her only excuse while she put her leather jacket back on.

“I better get Wheeinie.”

Carrying the girl carefully in her arms, Wheeinie only stirred slightly, the toll of the today taking control of her tiny body and blessed her with a deep slumber.

Hwasa kept the door open, one hand reached out and found itself entwining and warming Byul’s cool fingers, “Call me if you need anything.”

Tugging Hwasa’s hand slightly to pull her closer, Byul landed her lips on Hwasa’s cheek, lingering longer than necessary to convey her gratitude, for taking care of Wheeinie, for giving her a short reprieve from the darkness of the world.

“I will.”

Hwasa watched as the detective walked down several doors away from her and entered her own apartment before closing her door, hoping that the detective would have a little uninterrupted rest.

Byul single handedly fluffed her pillow before putting Wheeinie down, she reclined on the bed and for a while just watched the rise and fall of Wheeinie’s chest, her peaceful resting face a little balm on her battered soul.

“Don’t worry babylove, I will always protect you.”

Byul whispered and brushed a soft kiss on Wheeinie’s forehead before slumber took her away for a while.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Author's Note:

Hi. Its me. Again. Hope you are not bored seeing my name keeps popping up. 

This story has been in my hard-drive for a while, unfinished, cause I'm not really sure what i'm going for, but I dont find a lot of case fic in this fandom and thought, why not, right? it would be Byul centric with a sprinkle of other characters here and there. I never written anything like this, so please cut me some slack, i'm trying my best though. 

Since this is going to be multi-chaptered, please share what you thought so far and what you expect from this story. Talk to you guys soon. 

Cheers, 

Gabe