The precinct was an old 1897 Victorian building squashed between two Seoul high rise buildings on the urban arc of town where ordinary citizens did not dare step.

Inside the ceiling hung low beside their heads and the lighting was not the only thing that had to be fixed.

At the far end of the room two light-hearted men lay melted in their chairs as they watched the once crowded room dissipate into a few late stragglers.

The horizon cast an alien glow as the sun retired into the night moon began its shift. Now the two men beside the window were the only bodies of warmth in the cold clear cut room.

The clock upon the small alcove ticked steadily. Jonghyun prepared himself for the long night ahead as he pulled down the coffee machine lever half-heartedly already knowing that it refused to serve him the warm liquid.

“Someone…should really fix that coffee machine.” Jonghyun jerked his chin towards the machine as he reluctantly poured himself some cold water. He grabbed two bottle of soju and wedged a cap-opening between his teeth.

Jonghyun saw the taller man’s eyes flicker.

“You should know better than to drink on duty. If you get caug-“

The shorter man inclined his head towards the other.

“Yeah I know what will happen to my guts but look,” Jonghyun flicked a shot-glass towards Onew and smiled thinly, “it’s the last shift tonight and we’re the only ones here, let’s just drink and talk. Anyway, on Saturday nights like this, this place is a ghost town.”

The older man wheeled his chair closer to Jonghyun and gave a grin himself. “Fine, let’s drink and get fired tomorrow morning.”

 

 

The familiar chime told the two drunken men that midnight had come. Both of them had taken off their overcoats that were now slewn across the floor and their ties had been loosened, their sleeves rolled up to their elbows.

“You know, I wanted to be a hairdresser when I was a kid; spiking all that fur up seemed fun. I don’t even know why I became a detector.”

“Detective,”

“Detective,”

“A lousy one at that,”

“I was always bad at finding things, you know. Once I lost my phone, and then I realised it was in my hand ha!” Jonghyun chuckled to himself and sighed. His eyes were lidded and lids pearly from lack of sleep.  He hadn’t used honorifics all this time but Onew didn’t mind.

A car pulled into the parking lot of the precinct at the moment. Jonghyun and Onew straightened up – honestly surprised at the visitor at this time of night.

“You better go clean up a little bit, Jonghyun. I’ll take care of this one.”

Jonghyun didn’t make an effort to disagree and clambered to the bathroom.

 

 

The toilets at the precinct were fairly clean, probably because they were rarely used. Everyone was always busy rushing around on cases to ever really stop and think about their bladder. After using the toilet, Jonghyun stared at himself in the mirror. His hair was dishevelled and cuitained his eyes from view while his cheeks had hollowed in and his eyes seemed to be bloodshot. He matted his hair down with cold water and proceeded to straighten up his clothes and wash his face. With a little bit of cologne he always carried around he got rid of the smell of soju. He was about to exit the toilet block freshened up when he heard a gunshot. He knew the sound well, this part of town was frequently used for military training but this shot was one of a revolver – a gun that all detectives carried around with them. Jonghyun had never heard a shot so close by.

Onew. An intruder? Jonghyun decided that stealth wasn’t the option he should go for. He ran down the corridor that he had previously walked in to get to the toilets and stopped at the foot of the door.

“Hyung?”

It was eerily quiet. Jonghyun stepped inside the room but stopped in mid-step. A barrel of a gun was inches away from the side of his head and the shooter was someone he knew very well. His own sunbae.

Blood crystalized in his chest as his eyes slunk to the side, he dare not move his head.

“Hyung, put the gun down.”

Onew’s gun shivered but stood it’s ground against Jonghyun’s temple.

Finally it moved after a short pause. The gun was pointing to the floor, to a body.

“Look,”

Jonghyun raised his eyes to see a crumpled figure, it’s back towards him, curled up in the corner of the room. The lights had been turned off but from the dim light coming from the moon he could make out splotches of blood beside the dead body of a woman.

“Did you…shoot her?”

“Yeah, I guess I did. I shot her in the neck, just like I would have to a deer on the hunting field.”

Onew’s voice wavered and sunk in places as if he had a bad cold.

Jonghyun turned slowly to face his sunbae. Now he saw the tears crawling down Onew’s face as he crumpled onto his knees.

“I didn’t…mean to, you know, shoot…anyone. I was scared a-and drunk and I didn’t know what was happening. It was dark-k and I thought, I thought…”

The shorter man’s mind was coming to a sharp point. All the alcohol that had blurred his brain was now leaking out and it was clear to him now.

He remembered his sunbae’s words “Fine, let’s drink and get fired tomorrow morning.”

If he didn’t do something Onew wouldn’t get fired tomorrow, he would be locked up or even killed.

So many things were rolling inside his head but Jonghyun decided that he had to make sure that no one found out about this, if they did not only will Onew be jailed but he himself would get fired for being drunk on duty and unlike Onew’s previus words he didn’t plan to lose his job.

But if he helped Onew destroy all of the evidence pointing towards a murder and got caught, he would too be jailed and have his life taken.

There’s no one here. It’s 2am in the morning, no one is out.

“H-Hyung, get a cloth and start wiping up the blood. Then help me carry her to my car. I-I’m…going to take her to the mountains with the gun and I’m going to bury her, okay? You…”

Jonghyun’s voice trailed off as he saw Onew’s bloodstained shirt and the fresh cut on his collarbone.

“Hyung, you go home and clean up. Burn your clothes and treat your wound and take a long hot shower and forget about this, okay? When I get back we’ll take the day off and talk about what we’re going to do.”

Jonghyun was surprised by the finality of his voice, usually Onew would be the one ordering him around. But in this situation, he was glad that there was no one to argue.