The branch of the police department that Jaejoong found himself at was a bit…different than what he had been anticipating.  It was larger for one and there were just so many people, he was briefly overwhelmed.  His ride over had been slightly problematic since his English wasn’t the best and his accent was thick, making communication difficult, especially when his driver had one almost as thick as him in yet another language.

               Eventually, they’d managed to understand each other but it took some doing.  He tipped the cabbie well for his efforts though and made his way into the building he was supposed to meet Officer Cho in.  The check-in desk was crowded with a semblance of crowd control organized by what appeared to be the rookies of the force.  They couldn’t have been more than a couple months out of BLET training…

              He was grateful though when locating his contact wasn’t half as difficult as he had anticipated.  Cho Kyuhyun was nothing if not well-known and when he managed to convey what he was there for, the aging desk officer was quite happy to show him to an office in one of the wings away from the general hubbub of the front.

              Officer Michaelson knocked on the door titled ‘Officer Cho Kyuhyun’ in professional print on a dull gold colored plaque.  “Officer Cho?  You’ve got an Investigator Kim here to see you,” he smiled, nodding in understanding when he received a positive response and gestured for their guest to step inside.

              “Thank you,” Jaejoong bowed politely, stepping past his guide and into a meticulously kept office that screamed a touch of OCD and all professionalism…except the science fiction looking figurines adorning one corner of his desk.  He couldn’t help but smile slightly at the out of place ornaments.

              “So you must be the new guy from Korea,” Officer Cho commented without looking away from his computer screen, the monitor reflecting off his black framed glasses, before he shifted back to look at an open manila folder on his desk, flipping through pages quickly to pause at one with an intense frown of concentration on his face.  He reached over to scribble something on the pad of paper on his desk, handwriting precise but rushed, pausing midsentence to puzzle at what he was writing.

               “Neh.  I’m Kim Jaejoong.  It’s nice to meet you, Officer Cho,” he greeted, extending his hand politely and waiting while the other seemed absorbed in his work.  His view of the young man’s layered dark brown hair was impeccable but it certainly didn’t tell him anything else about the uniformed young man.

                It took Kyuhyun a moment to realize the other was still waiting to be greeted in turn and he set the pages down with a stifled sigh.  “So you’re one of those types,” he nodded to himself, leaning forward reluctantly to shake the other’s hand, disregarding the brief confused expression on his visitor’s face.  “Just Kyuhyun,” he added firmly, finally meeting the other’s gaze.  The younger man’s brow furrowed though when he got a good look at who he was speaking with.

               Jaejoong bowed again with a hesitant smile, feeling somewhat awkward at the lack of general courtesy he had anticipated.  “Kyuhyun,” he corrected without pause.  “Officer Park said that you would be able to assist me with the Kim’s Assassination case,” he prompted, hoping to see some sort of recognition in the perceptive chocolate brown eyes behind the clear lenses.

               Instead, Kyuhyun’s face remained impassive as he muttered, “You should probably get a haircut if you don’t want to end up cornered in an alley somewhere.”

               “Eh?!” Jaejoong gasped in surprise, completely caught off guard by the random statement as he touched at the ends of his hair uncertainly.

               “You are way too pretty for a guy,” the younger went on, unrepentant with a smirk playing at his full lips.

               Had he been younger or not been used to such comments, Jaejoong may have reacted with outrage and while he felt the familiar sting of annoyance trailing over his skin, he refused to rise to the bait.  Perhaps this was what Jungsu had meant about being difficult to get along with.  “I can take care of myself,” he replied calmly, allowing his features to take a hard edge for just a moment.  Pretty he might be but that didn’t make him helpless by any means.

               Kyuhyun actually smiled at his response instead, seemingly satisfied.  “Maybe you can,” he commented in amusement, closing the folder carefully and stepping over to a filing cabinet before he put it away with meticulous care.  He flipped through a few more in the same area and then pulled out another one similar in appearance but with far fewer documents.  “You probably already have this but here’s the info we have on the Kim’s murder case,” he stated, tossing it across the desk so Jaejoong had a chance to view them.

               He took a tentative seat, pulling up the hard wooden chair closer to settle himself in.  “I saw some of it in Korea.”  His tone indicated he hadn’t seen nearly enough but this was helpful.

               “I have to give you credit.  It’s ballsy to work on your parent’s case.  Completely against protocol, I might add,” Kyuhyun commented dryly without any trace of humor, though his eyes twinkled, “But ballsy since you haven’t flown off the handle or fallen apart yet.”

               Jaejoong glanced at the younger male over the top of the folder and remained silent, focusing his full attention on the information within.  He figured the other officer was just testing him but still…  In the folder, there were pictures but they were all copies and he realized after a moment that the information had to have been faxed over.  A handful of new pages had been added in the time since they’d begun to compile the data too.

                Even though the attack had happened in Korea and thereby should have been relegated to their police force, apparently there was reason enough to believe the crime had originated on this coast.  Of course, that was what Jaejoong was doing here in the first place.  While he knew the majority of the gangs and crime rings in Korea, the ones here were unfamiliar and when he got to the listings for possible ring leaders, he started to stumble over some of the words.

                “The Triad?” he murmured with a familiar frown.

                “Eh.  We know it’s not them but we’ve got to keep an open list for any that it could be,” Kyuhyun supplied quickly.  “Personally, I’m leaning more towards the Azgard Cartel or the Ddangkoma Foundation.  Granted, it could even be the American Freight and Ferry Corporation.  They’ve got a huge fleet that regularly makes long distance trips that way.  It’s not too farfetched to think they’d be up to their necks in under the table dealings.”

                Jaejoong chewed on his bottom lip in thought as he skimmed over the profiles for the ones that Kyuhyun had focused on.  Until he had something better to go on, he was going to side with the young man; at least until he did or said something to make him think otherwise.  “I’ve seen these symbols before,” he commented, tapping at the insignias for the three companies.  A winged helm signified the Azgard Cartel; an open mouthed snapping turtle the Ddangkoma Foundation and a harpoon was the symbol of the AFFC.

                “I would hope so,” his companion snorted, focusing back on his work at hand, already partially dismissing the newbie next to him.

                “Are these their addresses?” he asked, trailing his finger along the lines that indicated what he figured would be their locations.  He figured anyway since the corporate address for the first one was located in California and both for the other two were based here.

                “Obviously,” Kyuhyun murmured distractedly, tapping his finger on his bottom lip as he squinted at the screen and back to his notepad.

                “Kyuhyun,” Jaejoong sighed, already tiring of his disregard for propriety

                “Not now, Jae,” he shushed animatedly, sitting forward in his seat and scrawling on the pad of paper again, ripping free a clean sheet and setting it beside the others.

                Perturbed by the quickly derived nickname, Jaejoong pursed his lips and was about to reprimand the younger male until he actually watched what he was doing.  Kyuhyun was playing a very fast-paced game of connect the dots with pieces of information that completely went over Jaejoong’s head.  His fingers paused on the paper and then jumped to the keyboard, flying over the keys madly in a loud tattoo that had Jaejoong leaning around to get a better look at.  “I take it you’re onto something?” he offered distractedly.

                “Can’t believe I missed it,” Kyuhyun grumbled under his breath, gritting his teeth in the same moment, making the words come out as a half-growl.  “The pistol was found here, but there were traces of the same gun residue located here and they were murdered here but he hid the gun over…” and he continued murmuring to himself until he sat up in triumph, brandishing a single scribbled on piece of paper in his fist.

                “Success?” Jaejoong asked with one brow raised questionably.

                Kyuhyun paused, his eyes shifting over the pages as he made sure before he gave a definite answer.  “Maybe,” he pointed at Jaejoong with his free hand, still not looking at the older male.  “Stay here,” he instructed, hopping out of his seat and rushing out the office door.  “Captain!”

                Jaejoong heard him hurrying down the hall, shaking his head slowly as he peered over the scattered remains of his brainstorming.  Presumably, he was good at what he did, but either he caught him on a bad day or he was regularly distracted and not predisposed to offer much assistance.  With a sigh, Jaejoong closed the folder in his hands and stood up, taking the documents with him as he searched out the copy room.  If he wasn’t going to help him with this case as he had originally thought, then he’d start the legwork on his own.

                Copies in hand in another manila folder in his briefcase, Jaejoong started to scope out the city.  The three supposed companies were all relatively local, though they took some driving to get to and in New York traffic, scoping them out took up the majority of the rest of his day.  He got out a couple blocks from each place to get a better idea of what he was looking at, relegating to poking around the outside unobtrusively first.  There would be time enough later to check out things inside when he was better prepared with more definite questions to pose.

                Tactfully, he waited until he was back in the safety of his cab before he started to jot down notes.  He’d learned long ago that men in suits carrying any sort of briefcase looked suspicious just standing on the sidewalk taking notes about nothing in particular.  His cab drivers were cordial enough but when he seemed more distracted about his own affairs they generally left him alone and turned the radio on instead.  Jaejoong found the background noise soothing actually…

                Near the tail end of his day, he was mildly surprised to find that he’d missed a call.  Checking the message, he found it was from Kyuhyun and he shook his head at the young man’s having found his number so quickly.  At least he was slightly repentant about his apparent dismissal of Jaejoong earlier and while he didn’t actually apologize, he didn’t seem the type anyway, the younger male did extend an invitation to join him for a drink one of these nights.

                Bemused, Jaejoong nodded to himself and resolved to take him up on the offer, just not today.  He was weary and his head was still spinning from everything he’d gone over and he still had to merge the data he’d gained from here to see what else he could match up at home.  He still had way too much work to do…

                A couple blocks from his apartment, he had the latest cab driver drop him off at the Delightful Delicatessen so he could grab a bite to eat and a coffee.  Distractedly, he checked his watch to see if he might have time to give Jungsu a call today, which was why he wasn’t paying attention to where he was going as he tried to enter his apartment complex.

                Bump!

                “Yah!” another male voice yelped when Jaejoong’s coffee splashed onto the taller male just coming out of the doorway.

                Mortified, Jaejoong gasped and hurriedly juggled what he was carrying to free a hand.  “I’m so sorry!” he murmured frantically, searching for napkins or something to help clean the stranger up.

                The other male hissed as he accepted the hastily claimed handkerchief to get the worst of the not quite scalding liquid off his person.  “Ayah.  I guess I should have been watching where I was going,” he forced a laugh.

                “Sorry.  That was my fault, really,” Jaejoong stated again, bowing low to help hide the embarrassed flush across face.  Not only did he manage to spill coffee on a random stranger, but said stranger also happened to be tall, dark and handsome.  He gave himself a mental face palm and stood upright, offering a tentative smile.

                “It’s alright,” he chuckled again, a lopsided smile gracing his lips as he finished patting himself down.  “I was going to have to change soon anyway,” he explained, glancing back over his shoulder as if confirming something.

                Intrigued despite his embarrassment, Jaejoong raised his brows, “Oh?”  Another mental face palm followed that utterance…  Oh?  That was his eloquent response?

                “Neh.  Just finished moving in,” the stranger smiled, dusting his hands off with a satisfied nod.

                “Hey.  I’m new too,” Jaejoong smiled, extending his hand in greeting.  “The name’s Jaejoong.”

                The stranger smiled in return and gripped his hand firmly, “Changmin.  It’s a pleasure to meet you,” he bowed politely, standing up and threading a piece of medium length hair that had escaped his short queue behind his ear.

                “Likewise,” Jaejoong nodded, reclaiming his hand with a nervous glance around.  “Did you need a hand with anything else?  I mean, the least I could do is to offer assistance after…” he gestured at the mess he’d made of the other’s clothes; at least they were jeans and a t-shirt at any rate.

                Changmin shook his head in pleased amusement and waved a polite decline.  “I was just getting my last bag from the van,” he nodded at the taxi still sitting in front of the complex.  “You’re welcome to keep me company on the way up though,” he chuckled, jogging to retrieve his belongings and pay the cabbie before returning to the entranceway.

                Jaejoong nodded with a chagrined smile once more and agreed, “Sure.  What floor are you on?” he asked, keeping pace beside the taller male.

                “The fourth floor,” he answered promptly.  “Room 414.”

                The number sounded odd for a moment until Jaejoong realized it was the one immediately above him.  “Huh,” he chirped thoughtfully.  At Changmin’s curious expression, he elaborated, “You’re in the room above mine.”

                “Huh indeed,” Changmin responded, his expression still open and easy going.

                “You’re not a noisy neighbor are you?” Jaejoong pointed his finger at the taller male in a slight teasing manner, eyes narrowed just a bit.

                “Hah!  You won’t even know I’m there,” Changmin winked, gesturing at the elevator doors when they eased open.  Graciously, Jaejoong stepped in first and pushed the fourth floor button only to frown when Changmin pushed the third for him in turn.  “You just look like you’ve got a fair bit of work to do,” he explained with a glance down at the briefcase and the partially eaten sandwich crammed in the same hand.

                “Ah…” Jaejoong nodded, scratching the back of his head.  “That I do.”

                When the doors opened on the third floor, Changmin waved at him as he stepped out.  “Thanks for keeping me company, Jaejoong.”

                “Sorry again about the coffee,” he apologized once more, bowing just outside the doors.

                “Don’t worry about it,” the taller male waved dismissively.  “Maybe I’ll see you around though,” he saluted as the doors closed on him, leaving Jaejoong standing in the hallway by himself.

                “We’ll see,” he hummed to himself, already focusing back on the work at hand now that the newcomer was out of sight.  He slowed down when he was passing the Lee brothers’ door, listening to their voices as they bickered good-naturedly over something, and then unlocked and stepped into his room.  Jaejoong stored the rest of his sandwich in the fridge and threw his briefcase on the desk in the study before changing out of his work clothes and into something more comfortable.

                As he settled in for a night of poring over the information and comparing notes, he forgot all about the new neighbor he’d met on his way in.  It wasn’t like he really had time to be making new friends anyway.  His parents’ assassin was still out there and the person who hired him had yet to be revealed.  No…  He didn’t have time for new friends right now.