“Are you sure?” Haeun hissed over the phone at the detective in charge of Baekhyun’s case, Ong Seungwoo. 

There was a brief pause before the man sighed audibly through the phone. This was the first time she had spoken to him over the phone, and it seemed like he was just as annoyed with her as she was with him. Just from the not-even-completed conversation the two of them were having, it was clear that he was an arrogant detective that seemed to have a stick up his at all times. He spoke to her in clipped tones and felt the need to explain everything as though she was a clueless idiot. In fact, he reminded her of a stricter version of Baekhyun considering he also shared the inane hatred for defense attorneys. Guess it didn’t even matter to him that she was defending one of his own. She already had enough of a headache dealing with Baekhyun’s case and dealing with the pain in her shoulder from the bruise — which just didn’t seem to want to start healing — so she certainly didn’t need to add to that by dealing with an irritable detective.

“Yes, we’re sure. We asked them to run the ballistics test twice. The gunshot shelling found on the ground and the bullet found in the victim both match Byun Baekhyun’s gun.” Which they had yet to confirm was his gun, but she had a feeling that she shouldn’t bring that up. He’d only go into the evidence of the situation and tell her that they found the gun in his hands.

Seungwoo continued speaking, and Haeun tried really hard not to scream out in frustration. “Not to mention the fact that his fingerprints were all over it. There was gunpowder residue on the gun as well, so we know it was definitely shot.”

“How did the results come in this quickly anyways?”

He sighed audibly, and she resisted the urge to verbally agree with him.

It was one of those days.

“It’s a high profile case that the higher ups want to get  through the system as fast as possible to minimize press interference. Once the news of the murder goes public with the fact that the main suspect is a police officer, the public is not going to be happy.”

Tapping the end of her pen against the desk, she sighed into the phone. “Okay, thanks, I guess.”

He sighed again, and this time she lifted the hand with the pen up in the air to make a vulgar gesture with her middle finger to absolutely no one, pretending that it was him that was in front of her instead of an empty room. Honestly, it was a good thing no one could see into her office. 

“By the way, his bail was posted an hour ago.” Haeun froze, dropping the pen from where her hand was up in the air, and it hit her desk with a clatter.

“What? By who?” she asked, sitting up straighter in her chair as an idea struck her.

“Detective Park Chanyeol. They left just a bit ago.”

Haeun stood up and jammed the phone between her ear and her shoulder as she began to pack her stuff up. She shoved all of the loose papers into a folder, not caring whether they were in order or not, and she didn’t even bother getting her jacket on, instead choosing to leave it hanging on the coat rack in the corner of her office. She had to get to Baekhyun before he changed his clothes and ended up mixing them with his other laundry, and she was definitely not looking forward to meeting him outside of, well, jail for the first time since the courtroom incident.  

“Got it. Keep me updated.” She didn’t bother waiting for a response before hanging up, shoving her phone in her purse and basically running out the door.

“I’ll be back in a few hours!” she called out to Siyeon as she left, ignoring her assistant’s confused questions and praying that she wouldn’t run into Wooyoung.

Thankfully, a quick glance down the hallway showed that the door to his office was closed, and he was in the middle of a meeting with someone. Letting out a quick sigh of relief, Haeun made her way down to the parking lot and fumbled with her phone for a bit before she managed to connect her phone to the car’s Bluetooth system to call Chanyeol.

“Pick up, pick up, pick up,” she muttered as she heard the dial tone. She nearly cried out with happiness when she heard the tell-tale click of the phone being answered followed by a gruff greeting.

“Hey, Haeun.” She heard a faint buzzing in the background, and she couldn’t tell if Chanyeol was in his car or just standing really close to a refrigerator. 

“Chanyeol! Is Baekhyun with you?”

“Yeah, I’m driving him to his place now.” Haeun cursed softly when she realized she’d been unconsciously driving to the precinct, and she made the first right turn that she knew would take her closer to the apartment complex where Baekhyun lived. She’d never been there before, but it was in Baekhyun’s file that she had spent plenty of time staring at, so she was somewhat ashamed to admit that she may have memorized the address and knew exactly where he lived.

“Oh great. Baekhyun?” There wasn’t an answer for a moment until Chanyeol coughed. Haeun gripped the steering wheel harder when he didn’t respond.

“He’s...not in the best place right now, Haeun. Is there something you need?” 

“Is he still wearing the clothes from the night of the murder?”

There was a brief pause. “Yes.”

“When he takes them off, use gloves and put them in a plastic bag. Please, for the love of god, do not wash them.”

“Why?” 

“It’s probably best that I don’t explain this over the phone,” she replied. If Baekhyun wasn’t doing well mentally — which she really wasn’t surprised about — then this wasn’t the time or way to tell Baekhyun that he was going to trial because the evidence really was stacking up against him. Although, considering that he had to post bail and had probably already received word about him going to trial, she doubted that he didn’t already know about the evidence. The trial date would be posted tomorrow anyways.

“Okay. Are you coming over to Baekhyun’s place?”

“Yes.” 

“Do you even know where it is?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“You’ve never been there, though?”

“Shush. I have my ways.” 

“Is your ‘ways’ his file?”

“Possibly.” Taking a quick glance at her surroundings, she gave them an estimate of 15 minutes till she reached his apartment, and she honestly hoped that she’d get there while Baekhyun was showering or something so she could talk to Chanyeol without having to deal with Baekhyun’s presence. The entire situation was still weirding her out, and she wasn’t sure how to deal with everything. 

True to her estimate, she reached Baekhyun’s apartment nearly 15 minutes later, but she spent five minutes in her car making sure she was presentable and didn’t look like she ran into a hurricane and ran back out. She attempted to order the papers so she could talk about the case with Baekhyun, but she realized that it was probably best that he didn’t have to deal with logistics of the case just yet, and instead, she would try to hear him out properly without the worry of cameras or microphones. 

Knocking on the door, she was thankful to see Chanyeol. His usual bright face was grim with stress, but she stepped over to him to hug him anyways. It was always nice to hug Chanyeol since it felt like a big bear was giving her a hug, but it wasn’t exactly comfortable to stay in that position with the height difference. <