[CONTENTID1] 1 [/CONTENTID1] [CONTENTID2] Death [/CONTENTID2] [CONTENTID3]

Rule #1: The human whose name is written in the Death Note shall die.

“Kang Seulgi!”

Seulgi knew exactly who it was before she even turned around. There was no other voice more distinct than Wendy’s—at least not in Department 5, where all the new recruits were collectively sent to immediately after graduation to prove themselves through lighter, easier, and of course, less dangerous cases. 

“Hey! Are you on lunch break already?” Seulgi said, tightly holding onto the no longer crispy chicken sandwich that she had managed to sneak into the lunch group order at the very last minute, nearly two hours ago.

Wendy had the same excited, bright smile as she did almost every time Seulgi saw her. The two of them met in a Criminology class back during their academy days and have been close friends ever since. 

“Yeah, I got all my paperwork done early,” she said, sitting down next to her under the shaded bench outside the courtyard—Seulgi’s daily lunch spot. “The real question is, why are you just now eating? Your break was supposed to be at noon today, no?”

Seulgi took another bite before thinking of replying. 

“You know what, don’t even say anything,” Wendy said, smirking. “You look like you’re completely starving, which could only mean one thing.” She twisted the cap off her new-hire water bottle. “You stayed and volunteered to help Joy again, didn’t you?”

“How’d you know?” 

“This is the only third time you’ve done it. When are you ever gonna just let her handle her own workload?”

“I didn’t do her work for her,” Seulgi said, picking out a slice of tomato that should’ve never been there to begin with. “I helped her. There’s a difference.”

“You’re too kind sometimes,” Wendy said, ripping a packet of ketchup with her teeth. “Just because you graduated top of the class in every subject doesn’t mean you owe it to anyone to help them with everything, you know.”

“But she’s not that familiar with forensics and they keep giving those papers for her to sort.”

“Hmm…they do give her a lot of forensics stuff, now that I think about it,” Wendy said, furrowing her brows curiously. “But still, it’s not your job to help her everyday. She signed up for this, just like the rest of us.”

Seulgi smiled. “My father once told me that if you have the power to help others, you have an obligation to do so. It’s not an option, but a responsibility.”

“Ah…is that the moral code you live by? Not gonna lie, that sounds exhausting.”

“You think so? Fine, next time you have a question about federal relations, I’ll—”

“Except me! You should help me whenever I need help.”

“Always with the double standards,” Seulgi said, chuckling.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Wendy smiled innocently.

On the surface, Wendy always appeared to be a bright, bubbly, and sometimes clumsy girl, but her memorization skills were top-notched, being the only agent in the department with photographic memory. In fact, the two of them once competed against each other in the final round of the annual Memory Competition, where Wendy ultimately left everyone shocked at her ability to recite up to 200 digits of pi—after only looking at it for 10 seconds. 

“Speaking of your dad, that’s the first I’ve ever heard you talk about him. Is he also an agent?” 

Seulgi shook her head. “No, he was a police officer.”

“Was? Oh, did he retire?”

Seulgi took a brief second before answering, trying not to show any weakness in her voice so that Wendy would not feel guilty for bringing it up. “He actually passed away when I was ten.”

“I—I’m so sorry…”

“Don’t be. It’s been 13 years.”

“Can I ask…if he…” Wendy paused, unsure if she should continue the question. 

“Go ahead.”

“Did he die in the line of duty?”

“No. He died off duty.” Seulgi paused. 

It was not a story that she enjoyed telling, but making it taboo to talk about would have meant that she allowed it to control her. 

“I don’t know the exact details, just what my grandma told me based off what the witnesses told the police. But he was with at dinner with my mom one night and as they were leaving to their cars, there was a robbery nearby. It was an elderly couple, and my parents came to their rescue. My dad tried to fight them off while my mom hid them in their car.”

Wendy’s eyes widened. “That’s amazing of them.”

“Yeah, it is,” Seulgi said, feeling proud for a split second up until she remembered that there wasn’t a happy ending to the story. “But they didn’t make it. The robbers managed to take my dad’s gun and my mom ran in to help, but they were outnumbered.”

“Wow, was your mom also an officer? That’s really brave of her.” 

“No, she was a lawyer.”

Wendy was quiet for a bit, not really sure what else to say. “Do you know if the robbers ever got arrested?”

“They didn’t. They were killed while escaping. Their car crashed or something like that, I can’t really remember what it was.”

“Jeez…one hell of a night that must’ve been for the police department.”

“Yeah, that—”

“Unnies!” a voice suddenly called out from behind them. “Something crazy just happened!”

Joy came running out frantically, almost tripping over the large rocks that separated the flower garden from the sidewalk.

“What is it?”

“Look! The CEO of KJ Group passed away suddenly in the middle of presenting their new prototype,” she said showing them her phone. “On live TV too.”

Wendy gasped loudly. “That’s crazy! That presentation was the latest talk around town! I was even going to tune it for it.”

Seulgi’s eyes widened as she watched the replay of the prestigious Mr. Kim falling over in mid-sentence on stage in front of a giant audience. It was incredibly shocking to witness, even if she hadn’t met him any more than a few times throughout her life—despite him being her best friend’s father. 

“Did he have a heart attack?” Wendy asked, examining it closely.

“It doesn’t look like one,” Joy said, rewinding the clip. “He’s not showing any signs of a heart attack at all. He doesn’t hold onto anything or wobble, he just fell over out of nowhere.”

“Brain aneurysm?” Wendy said, looking to Seulgi for her thoughts.

Seulgi shook her head. “He would have showed signs of a headache for at least a split second if he had an aneurysm.”

“…What the hell happened then?”

“I don’t know, but we should take a trip there to find out more,” Seulgi said. 

Joy looked at Wendy nervously. “N-now? But this isn’t going to escalate to us for a while—if at all. We don’t have permission, we’re just juniors—”

“Then we’ll go get permission,” Seulgi said, confidently. “I’ll go ask the direc