“You’re looking particularly lovely today, Victoria,” Jongin says sweetly, setting a cup of Victoria’s favorite coffee on her desk.

She looks up at him with the flat look of someone who knows she’s being buttered up. “Whatever you want, Jongin, the answer is no.”

“Who says I want something?” Jongin asks innocently. “Can’t I tell my favorite receptionist that she’s looking beautiful? Of course, you look beautiful every day.”

Victoria rolls her eyes. “Damn, you’re laying it on awfully thick today. That must mean that whatever you want is twice as bad as it usually is. So my answer is a double no. Whatever it is, it’s not happening.”

Jongin gives up pretending. “What if I give you something for your help?”

Victoria laughs, taking the coffee he’d brought for her and sipping it. “What on earth could you give me that I can’t get myself? Have you forgotten who you’re talking to?”

“I could give you a date,” Jongin grins, knowing he’s found Victoria’s weak spot. “With the person you have a huge crush on.”

Victoria scoffs. “I don’t have a crush on anyone,” she lies. “And even if I did, it’s not like you would know.”

Jongin waggles his eyebrows at her. “Don’t sell me short, Victoria. I am a detective. And I know that the person you like is Chinese. And he’s roommates with a certain psychologist from our very own precinct. And his name is-!”

Victoria kicks him in the shin to get him to shut up. “Have you been stalking me, you creeper?”

“I’m just very observant,” Jongin says smugly. “So what do you say? I’ll set you up on a date with him in exchange for you doing one teensy-weensy little thing for me.”

She groans, and Jongin knows that he’s won this battle. Boys – good-looking ones, anyway – are Victoria’s only weakness. “What is it?” she demands, running her fingers through her hair wearily. “What illegal nonsense do you want me to get up to this time?”

“Nothing too big,” Jongin says, although it’s totally not true. “I need you to write up a fake warrant, pretend to be a social worker, and get Kyungsoo’s case files from the Seollak-gu Adoption agency.”

Victoria stares at him. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“It’s the last time I’ll ask you to do anything illegal, Victoria, I swear!” Jongin begs. “It’s just that you’re the only person who can help me.”

She growls at him.

“And I’ll be on the phone with you the whole time,” Jongin assures her. “But I can’t go myself because I already spoke to one of their agents on the phone and she’ll be suspicious if I turn up. It can’t be me.”

Victoria holds up five fingers. “Five dates. Five dates or I’m not doing it.”

“Okay, five dates,” Jongin gives in quickly. He hasn’t actually asked Yixing if he’d go on a date with Victoria yet, but Victoria is a goddess and even if Yixing doesn’t swing that way this week Jongin is fairly confident Yixing would help him out. Anyway, he figures it’s better to act now and ask questions later.

Victoria groans. “You’re lucky I like you, kid. Otherwise I would’ve tossed you out on your ages ago.”

Jongin grins in response.

It takes Victoria a few days to perfect her fake warrant – which will get both her and Jongin thrown in jail for quite a long time if it’s discovered – but then it’s time to act. They drive there in Jongin’s car, which is subtle and doesn’t attract too much attention.

“Okay, put this earpiece in,” he instructs her, handing her the tiny electronic device. “That way we can communicate discreetly the entire time you’re in there.”

“And what do I say if they ask why I’m looking at old records?” she asks. “They’re going to want to know why social services is suddenly interested in a boy who disappeared ten years ago.”

Jongin shrugs. “Just tell them that we’re looking through some old cases and we’re hoping to come up with some new information. You’ve got the warrant. They don’t have a right to question you past that.”

“Yeah, our fake warrant,” Victoria grumbles.

Jongin pats her hand. “You’ll do fine. Just pull your bad-, I’m-in-charge attitude and nobody will give you .”

“Easy for you to say,” she grimaces. Then she takes a deep breath. “Okay. Let’s do this before I totally chicken out.”

Jongin watches with bated breath as she exits the car and goes into the building across the parking lot. He turns up the volume on his own earpiece.

“Can I help you?” he hears the receptionist ask politely.

“Hi, my name is Mrs. Lee. I’m with social services,” Victoria answers in a calm, steady voice. “I have a police warrant here for case number 654992. I need any documents you have pertaining to this case.”

There is a pause while the receptionist pulls up the case in question on her computer. “Can I see your warrant, ma’am?” she asks, and there’s a note of suspicion in her voice that makes Jongin cringe. “Everything looks to be in order. Can I ask why social services is suddenly interested in this file? This boy was adopted decades ago.”

“I’m afraid that’s classified information,” Victoria says coolly, and Jongin has to silently applaud her ability to keep calm even in this sort of situation.

The receptionist seems miffed. “Of course. Please follow me this way.”

There is the sound of heels on a tile floor, a door opening and closing. Then the receptionist says, “Please wait here and I’ll get the file for you.” The door opens and closes again.

Then Victoria says, “Jongin? Can you hear me?”

“Loud and clear,” Jongin answers. “You’re doing great, Victoria.”

“This woman doesn’t believe me,” Victoria hisses into her mouthpiece. “You should’ve seen her face when she was looking at the warrant, Jongin. She doesn’t believe it’s real.”

“You’re overreacting, Victoria,” Jongin assures her. “Just relax. Everything is going to be okay. You just have to stay calm.”

“If you tell me that one more time, I’m going to rip your ing balls off,” she threatens.

Jongin winces.

There’s the sound of a door squeaking open slowly.

“Victoria?” Jongin demands. “What’s happening?”

“I’m peeking into the hallway,” Victoria whispers back. Then she curses under her breath and the door closes again. “She’s not getting the file,” Victoria hisses. “She’s on the phone. She’s calling someone!”

Jongin fights the urge to panic. “Maybe she’s not,” he suggests, his own heart pounding. “Maybe the phone rang and she had to answer it?”

Victoria is cursing in Chinese again. “Sorry Jongin, but I can’t get arrested over this. Date or not, I’m bailing.”

Jongin can’t say he blames her, honestly.

There is the sound of the door opening again, and then Victoria in her breath suddenly.

“Did you need something, Mrs. Lee?” It’s the receptionist, back from her phone call.

Jongin can hear Victoria’s ragged breathing in his ear. “I was looking for the restroom,” she says smoothly.

“I’m afraid our lavatories are for staff use only,” the receptionist says coolly. “Please, just wait a few minutes more. I’ll have the file to you in a jiffy.”

The door closes again.

After a few seconds, Victoria says, “Dammit. She locked the door. I’m trapped in here!”

“Look around,” Jongin instructs. “There’s got to be another way out of there.”

“There’s not, Jongin!” Victoria hisses, and she’s verging on a full-blown panic attack by this point. “There are no windows and this is the only door!”

“Well, can’t you pick the lock or something?” Jongin demands helplessly.

“Oh yeah, I went to a special lock-picking school,” Victoria retorts sarcastically. “I can’t pick a ing lock, you twit.”

Jongin chews on his bottom lip, trying to think of a way to get Victoria out of there. He’s just come to the conclusion that he’s going to have to go into the building and somehow rescue her himself when a police car with the lights on pulls up to the back of the building.

Jongin feels his heart drop all the way to his toes. “Oh my god…”

“Oh my god what?” Victoria demands, her voice several octaves higher than normal. “What’s going on? Jesus, Jongin, tell me what’s going on!”

“The cops are here!” Jongin practically shouts. “Get out of there!”

“Easier said than done,” Victoria snaps. “I didn’t suddenly become a lock-picking expert, you know!”

Jongin runs his fingers through his hair. “! !”

“Not helping,” Victoria snaps.

Jongin doesn’t know what to do. He’s ruined his career, and Victoria’s as well. And now he’s never going to find out what happened to his best friend.

There is a strange screeching sound in his earpiece and then nothing.

“Victoria?!” he exclaims. “Victoria, what’s going on?”

But he gets no response.

He’s not sure just how long he sits there in the parking lot, slouched low behind the steering wheel of his car. It seems like hours, though it can’t have been more than a few minutes.

Jongin is on the verge of a breakdown. He’s not sure what to do. Should he go in and try to reason with the cops? Should he just wait there and see what happens? A part of him almost wants to drive away and leave Victoria to deal with it on her own, though his conscious immediately berates him for even thinking it.

Before he can come to a conclusion, however, the cop car at the back of the building pulls out of the lot, the lights now off. Almost at the same time, the front door opens and Victoria walks out, a manila folder tucked carefully in her arms. She opens the car door and slides into the passenger side seat.

“Victoria!” Jongin breathes in relief. “Thank god you’re okay! I thought we were caught for sure!”

“You and me both,” Victoria snaps, and he can tell that she is beyond pissed off. She shoves the folder at Jongin. “Here’s what you want. And you can promise me a date with the king of England and I still wouldn’t help you anymore. You almost got me arrested.”

Jongin clasps the folder to his chest, swelling yet again with hope that this, finally, might be a real clue as to his best friend’s disappearance.

“But how did you get past the cops?” Jongin wants to know, putting the car in drive and pulling out of the lot. “I thought for sure they were going to see right past the phony warrant.”

“Oh they did see right through it,” Victoria grumbled. “It’s just lucky for us that the cops who answered the call were Sehun and Chanyeol.” 

So Jongin got Kyungsoo's case file. Do you think it'll help him find Kyungsoo? 

Also, hi! I'm back! Finally!

I'm really sorry for the extended hiatus. There was the wedding, the honeymoon, coming back to Korea and getting settled in again. Then both my husband and I had some serious health issues, so that kept me from updating for a long time. But I'm back now and I promise fast updates in the future! 

Thanks for sticking around with me through this long hiatus!

Here are some pictures from the wedding