"... And that's my story, inspectors."

The time was now a little after 10AM. Hoya and Kris, after recovering from their surprise, had brought the woman back to HQ with them. Finally, a chance to interview the elusive daughter of Lee Seonwoong! After confirming she was indeed the elderly man's child and not some fraud, they'd moved into one of the interrogation rooms (not the main one, because Chen had said he would be using that later). Chilly, dimly lit, and decorated with minimal furniture, Hoya thought it was a place better suited for torture. But then again, he wasn't really too concerned about that.

All that mattered was that they were going to get the answers they wanted about Lee Seonwoong.

Kris rubbed his temples. The polite and courteous expression he wore before was gone and had been replaced by a frustrated frown. "Let me recap everything you've just told us. Fourteen years ago, when you were twenty-one years old, you left your home and travelled outside the city. You walked right out with nothing but some money and the clothes on your back. It was hard, but you managed. You changed your phone number and didn't even tell your father where you were going. Eventually, you settled down in a different city- Gwangju, was it?"

"Yes," Lee Jangmi, the daughter of Seonwoong, answered. "I remembered my close friend from high school had moved there after graduation. I was fortunate at that time to still have her email address, and even more so when she allowed me to stay with her."

Hoya nodded. "Okay. That makes enough sense. It explains why your name didn't turn up in any real estate contracts after you left your home." Frowning, he crossed his arms and looked directly at Jangmi.

"But you still haven't told us the reason for your departure. Why did you leave, Ms. Lee? You had a comfortable life- no family problems, no financial issues, and no apparent signs of abuse. Why did you move out of Seoul without even telling your father?"

Jangmi released a deep, sorrowful breath.

"We never got along, my father and I," she responded quietly. A few unshed tears glistened in her eyes, reflecting the true feelings Jangmi had hidden inside of herself. "You were right when you said he never tried to abuse or mistreat me. We never struggled to pay our bills on time, either. Everything should have been okay... Still, I despised living with him. It was making me too stressed. It was a comfortable life, yes, but I disliked it very much."

She let out a short, unamused laugh when she saw the confusion on the agents' faces. "My father and I had very different opinions on my lifestyle." Jangmi gave them a bitter smile. "He wished for me to follow in his footsteps and become a researcher, particularly in the biological field. I refused. Science had never been my forte, you see... Instead, I wanted to become a pastry chef. I liked baking. It was what my mother and I often did together before she died."

Hoya gave the lady a pitying look. He had often heard stories of this kind of situation- tales of children who wanted to do one thing, but faced opposition from their narrow-minded parents. As a matter of fact, Hoya happened to be one of these children himself. From a young age, his only wish had been to become a criminal investigator, wearing cool suits and putting the bad guys behind bars. He had dreamt of nothing else, but his parents... His parents, bless their stubborn souls, had vehemently rejected the idea. Rather than fight crime and serve justice to the city, they'd wanted him to become a dentist instead.

Him. A dentist.

'But I'm lucky they accepted my decision in the end,'  Hoya mused in his head. 'There are times when parents don't even acknowledge their children's dreams, and force them to work towards something they won't be happy with... Sad to say, but it looks like that's what happened between Seonwoong and his daughter. I wonder why he wanted her to become a researcher so badly...?'

The mahogany-haired agent opened his mouth to offer his condolences. But just as he did, his partner chose to- rather ungraciously- intervene.

"So that's the story of your disappearance." Kris leaned back in his seat. He, unlike Hoya, tended to be less sympathetic when it came to this kind of matter. Life is tough, he often reprimanded the other agents when they showed pity for victims. With our line of work, you should be used to death and broken families and whatever else we find during cases. You can't shed tears for every dead body we come across.

Kris continued. "Now that we have that  over with, can you give us your take on your father's death? Before, when we were standing outside of his house, you mentioned something about debt collectors. That's been bothering me ever since we arrived here, actually... What were you talking about? Did your father have any reason to expect loan sharks knocking at his door?"

Jangmi stared at the tape recorder beside her. It was mandatory that every interview which took place inside of HQ be recorded on a cassette, no matter how long the questioning took. "There was a time when he had serious money troubles," she finally answered. "Before, you said that we had no financial issues to worry about. That's not entirely true. He tried to hide it from me, but I could tell... There were phone conversations I sometimes overheard by accident, and letters that I snuck into my room to read. It may not have been the right thing to do, but I had to know. I was a member of the household, after all."

"What happened?" Hoya gently probed.

Taking a deep breath, Jangmi murmured, "He was a researcher. I mentioned that to you, did I not? With a career such as that, it's expected you finish one study and move to the next within a certain period of time. Two years before I left my home, my father began a new study. It was a continuation of project he'd been involved with before, something about body cells and molecular structures. This one, he was to do with a partner. When they first began, everything was fine. Nothing went amiss, until..."

"Until?" Kris inquired.

The woman smiled bitterly again. "He chose the wrong partner," she said simply. "They were running low on funds for their research. They had already used up all of the money from their company. After a few days of struggling, my father's partner came up with the idea of borrowing cash. Not from the bank, though- from loan sharks.

"He convinced my father to go alone and strike a deal with them. My father- he could be quite the persuadable man- agreed and did as he was told. He returned with $700,000 and a contract..."

"$700,000?" The tall male let out a whistle.

Jangmi ignored his interruption. "Things proceeded as normal for the next couple of days. It looked as if they would finish their project in less than four months. But one day, as my father was entering his lab, he made a terrible discovery: everything had gone missing."

Hoya shot his eyebrows up. "You mean-"

The interviewee nodded grimly. "His notes, reports, lab journals, and formulas... Not a single one had been left behind. He couldn't even find the money he had borrowed from the debtors. It was obvious that his partner had taken everything. He'd scammed my father and ran off, hoping to publish the research they'd completed together under his name."

Stunned by this new information, Hoya blinked at the angry woman. "And what happened after that? How did your father manage to repay such a huge debt?"

"He was fortunate," Jangmi sighed. "The day after his research partner ran away, a lawyer came to our house. We were told that my father's cousin, who had always been fond of him, had recently passed away. She'd left behind an extremely generous sum of money for him in her will. It was enough to pay off both the loan and our bills for that month."

"Then why did you mistake us for debt collectors?" Kris stared at her. "If he paid everything off, they shouldn't have been looking for him again."

Her answer was short and cryptic. "You can never be too careful when it comes to loan sharks."

A silence fell upon the three people. Hoya was wondering what would be the best way to inquire without seeming like a heartless jerk when Kris, as usual, asked in a blunt tone. "Who was he, that partner of your father's? You never did tell us that."

Scowling, Jangmi told him the name of the man who had double-crossed Seonwoong. As Kris scribbled it into his notebook, Hoya glanced back at the woman sitting across from them.

"I'm sorry for your loss," he told her with a solemn expression.

Jangmi slowly nodded. Again, like when they had been standing outside of Seonwoong's house, a tear slipped out of her eye. The only difference was that this time, it was followed by another, then another, and then another, until finally, there was a stream of hot teardrops running down her face.

"I am, too," she said, regret and sadness cracking her voice. "I only wish I could have apologized to him when I had the chance."

------------

"You're ing crazy."

With a casual air, Chen leaned back in his chair and said nothing. It was noon at HQ, meaning he was due to be on his lunch break soon. He was a growing man after all, and if one expected him to keep up with his line of work, he had to get all the energy that he could. But at the moment, food was the last thing on his mind. Chen didn't want to eat  now. How could he? He had a suspect to interrogate.

Said suspect continued, growing more and more agitated by the second. "I'm telling you, I didn't do it. Why the hell would I? It's the truth- I didn't kill Minhee!"

The agent calmly studied the interviewee. His name was Kwon Changsun, a young man in his twenties. He had spiky black hair, an agile figure, and a face which, Chen supposed, was somewhat attractive to the opposite . Certainly that face was not appealing now. It was blotchy and had a thin layer of perspiration covering it, a mixture of confusion, rage, and frustration twisting its mouth.

Chen cocked his head to one side.

"The question was not about whether or not you killed her, Mr. Kwon. Am I so boring that you're having difficulties listening to me? Or is your guilt finally giving way to your conscience?" At these words, the portly man sitting beside Changsun raised his head indignantly. He opened his mouth to say something, but seemed to think the better of it. The man nodded tersely at Chen instead, as if gesturing for him to continue. Chen found him to be most amusing. This man, as Changsun's solicitor, had stuck to his client ever since the beginning of the interview. He'd jumped up at every comment Chen had made, attempting to defend Changsun with loud and outlandish retorts.

Hiding a smile, Chen carried on. "No, I did not ask if you murdered the girl. My question was, when will you stop lying to me?  I know that you loved Lee Minhee. I know that, contrary to what you may say, you harboured quite the forceful and passionate feelings towards her. Perhaps, on the day she died, you decided to confess your love for her. Perhaps she rejected you on the spot. Perhaps you felt so furious and anguished, you decided to kill her.

"I also know," he said in a quieter voice, "Where you were on the night of Minhee's death. You were not  at the Cloud Nine club downtown, as you claim. I'll say it was a well thought-out story- Cloud Nine, being a popular and busy place, is guaranteed to have a good deal of customers almost every night. With a room full of rowdy, intoxicated patrons, it would be difficult for any of the staff to back-up your alibi. Surely they would remember a fit, black-haired man sitting in one of the booths- but how many other black-haired men had there been that night?"

"Are you accusing my client of lying-" the solicitor began, growing red in the face.

Chen held up a hand to stop him.

"Yes," he said simply, "I am." He tapped the video cassette lying on the table before him. "As I said before, it was a nicely thought-out story. I might have believed it, had we not found evidence to suggest otherwise. I'm not sure if you've noticed, but the church is simple and rather behind times. As it hasn't been updated with the latest technology, there are no security cameras set up in the building. This obviously makes things more difficult for us. With no recording of the events of that night, we are forced to find the killer in the slower, old-fashioned way. But the convenience store across the street, on the other hand..."

Was it just him, or was Changsun beginning to sweat more? As sadistic as it was, Chen had to admit this was his favourite part about interrogating: trapping suspects like a tiger corners its prey, and watching as they frantically tried to smooth their lies over.

He went on. "Unluckily for you, Mr. Kwon, the convenience store happens to have security cameras. They're installed inside to catch petty thefts, but can film scenes outside as well. Scenes of a woman walking her dog, for instance, or a teenage boy skateboarding on the curb... Or you walking towards the church around the same time Lee Minhee was killed."

There was a deadly silence. For a moment, Chen took pleasure in the quiet. Changsun, he saw, had no idea what to do now that his cover was blown. New beads of sweat were forming on his forehead, and he quickly shot an imploring glance at his solicitor. The dumpy man, however, was speechless himself.

'What a funny little man. I wonder how he managed to earn his law degree? He wouldn't last a day in this building,'  Chen thought absentmindedly, before adding one last comment. "I'm sure you've figured it out by now, but the recording ended with you entering the church. The store workers forgot to change the tape to a new one, so regrettably, none of us knows what happens next. My wish is that you fill us in, Mr. Kwon. What was your next step after you went inside? We know Minhee had visited the church on the day of her death- we can't confirm it with the pastor as he was away on business, but again, it was taped by the security cameras. What did you do to her then?"

"Now, look here," the solicitor spluttered. Having finally recovered from his surprise, the lawyer tried to reinforce his authority and power to the others in the room. In Chen's opinion, he was failing brilliantly at it. "You can't just accuse Changsun like that, you fool. So you know he was at the chapel before the girl was killed- what of it? You don't have anything else to link him to the murder. There's no proof, no forensic evidence to make full charges. Quite frankly, Mr. Chin, I see this as a waste of time. This is the third time you've brought my client in for questioning. If you got nothing from him the last few times, I very much doubt you'll be able to pinpoint the murder on him today."

Chen didn't bother correcting the mispronunciation of his name. "That may be correct," he responded pleasantly, as if he were attending a tea party rather than a murder suspect interview. "But I'm still inclined to try. Though you should be aware... I'm afraid things are not looking so well for your client, sir. We have reason to believe he killed a young woman. Now, we have evidence of him being there on the evening of her death. I wonder, how will you defend Mr. Kwon from this mess?"

"That's it!" Regaining his senses, Changsun kicked his chair back. The accused male abruptly stood up and glared at Chen. He ignored the protesting lawyer by his side. "Alright, so you caught me. I was there, okay? I went to the ing church the day Minhee died. I thought she'd be there because she used to visit that place a lot... I didn't say anything because I knew you'd think I was going to kill her. But I didn't. I only wanted to talk to her about something. I couldn't even do that, because she wasn't there. I didn't see her in the church at all. I went home right after I looked for her, I swear."

The agent regarded the interviewee with a careful eye. Calmly, he said, "But I only have your word that you left for your home. How can I be sure you didn't actually go to kill the girl?"

"I told you before that I didn't do it!"

"Again, that's merely your word."

Swearing loudly, Changsun kicked his chair again. " you. this. I'm out of here. I already told you everything that I know- I don't need to stay here and deal with your anymore."

Chen, not feeling the least bit threatened, shrugged his shoulders. "If that's the way you feel. It's a shame you won't cooperate with us any longer. It would be easier if you simply told the truth... But not to worry." He smiled, noting the fear starting to flicker in Changsun's eyes.

"We have ways of finding out, Mr. Kwon. The identity of Lee Minhee's killer will be known to us soon enough."

Changsun paused where he was. He his dry lips once and opened his mouth to speak. Then, seeming to think the better of it, he gritted his teeth together. He stormed out of the room instead, not bothering to wait for his lawyer ("H-Hey, where do you think you're going? I haven't won this case for you yet!").

Chen waited until they had left the room. When the door closed shut, he reached for the tape recorder sitting at the end of the table. The agent rewinded the recording of the interview, then pressed the play button. But before he could listen to the tape, the door to the room suddenly opened once more.

"So, are you done terrorizing the poor guy yet?"

It was Chanyeol. Mouth stretched in a grin as always, the happy-go-lucky agent bounded inside and plopped down on an empty chair.

Raising a brow, Chen stopped the recording. "What are you talking about?"

Chanyeol nodded towards the exit. "The guy you were questioning looked like he was about to have a nervous breakdown. What did you do to him?"

"Nothing. At least, nothing particularly out of the ordinary." Chen eyed his partner. "Are you sure that was how he appeared? He seemed quite composed while he was in here. Violent and short-tempered, but not on the verge of hysterics."

"That's how it always goes," the taller man answered wisely. "They put on a tough guy act in front of you, but as soon as they walk out that door, they start panicking and freaking out about whatever you told them. Trust me, I've seen it enough. What exactly do you do to them?"

With his usual smile, Chen began to gather his belongings. "Like I said, nothing. I only do what's expected of me."

Chanyeol shook his head. "You're a scary person, you know that?" He watched his friend continue to clean up, not bothering to lend a hand. "Anyways, how was the questioning for you?"

"Tedious. He kept shouting about and making a fuss. I've never heard so many profanities in my life before. And it didn't help that his solicitor was present, as well. He gave the most ridiculous arguments I've heard from any lawyer... Incompetent man." The slender male glanced at his companion. "Do you want to listen to the recording? It's still in the tape player. Over there, on your left."

Grinning, Chanyeol reached over to start the tape. "Why not? Might as well do what I'm getting paid to do." Crossing his arms, he leaned back in his chair and began listening to the cassette.

"Why the hell am I here again? I already said that I didn't kill her..."

It went on for twenty-five minutes. Chanyeol, who was normally a fidgety person (free-spirited, he often claimed it was. Chen called it ADHD), now wore a serious expression. Focused on nothing but the recording, he didn't make a single noise until the interview was over.

"But I thought we agreed he didn't kill Lee Minhee?" Chanyeol asked when the tape reached its end. He wrinkled his nose. "Don't you remember what forensics told us? She was killed before  she was dumped in front of the church. From the convenience store tape, we saw that Kwon Changsun entered the chapel around 8PM. Minhee was murdered around the same time, yeah, but she wasn't with Changsun then. Not even close. I think Dongwoo said how she'd been killed in the cherry blossom park- something about finding traces of sakura petals on her body."

Chen slid the cassette out of the player and dropped it inside a folder. "I'm well aware of those facts. I only wanted to get a statement of where he'd been that night and what he was doing. I was becoming tired of his lies- I knew he wasn't at Cloud Nine like he said he was." He turned to Chanyeol and gave another smile.

"Besides, I wanted to frighten him a little."

"You're a really  scary person, have I told you that yet?" Chanyeol snorted. Rising from his seat, he stretched out his long, gangly arms. "But whatever floats your boat, I guess... Oh, wait a minute. Boat. That reminds me, I almost forgot to tell you..."

"Yes?" Chen raised a brow.

"You know how Kahi's trying to figure out where the mockingbirds came from? She was informed this morning of another trafficker by Han River. Smart idea, right? To travel by water to avoid heavy authority attention... Anyways, she went with a police team about two hours ago. Guess what they found?"

"What?"

Chanyeol turned to face his direction. With a grin lifting up the corners of his mouth, he answered Chen's question in what seemed to be a grimly pleased manner.

"A corpse. They found the dead body of the trafficker as soon as they stepped on his boat."

[A/N]  If you've noticed, this story is no longer rated M. I thought about it and decided to change it. This story won't really be that... mature.

I wasn't going to update tonight, but then I thought of you guys and changed my mind. I hope you enjoyed this update, my dear readers! Thank you for your support and your incredibly meaningful comments! You guys make skipping homework to write fanfiction worth it :'D