Luhan lets out a low whistle. “Jeez, so he really wasn’t killed in Seoul. You must feel super relieved to know that.”

“I am,” Jongin agrees, carding long fingers through his messy hair. “But it still doesn’t tell me where he is now or if he’s even still alive. After all, it was ten years ago when he visited Father Mathew.”

It’s Monday morning and he’s at Club Espresso with his friends, sipping on overpriced coffee and discussing what he’d learned from his trip to Jeonju. Chanyeol isn’t really listening; he’s leaning out of the booth, not-so-subtly watching Baekhyun’s as he leans over a table to wipe it down. Sehun, Luhan, and Victoria are listening intently, though.

“Still, you know more than you did before,” Sehun points out, sticking his finger nonchalantly into Luhan’s drink to scoop out some whipped cream.

“Hey!” Luhan complains.

Sehun sighs and extends the whipped-cream finger out to Luhan, who promptly the sweet substance off his colleague’s finger. Victoria and Jongin prudently choose to ignore the exchange.

 “That’s true,” Luhan says, blushing and wiping whipped cream off his lip. “You know that Rahee’s family name is Park and that her family lived in Jeonju at some point twenty or so years ago.”

“Yeah, but what do I do with that information?” Jongin asks helplessly.

Victoria rolls her eyes, drumming her long, red fingernails along the tabletop. “Are you a cop or not? You have access to more information than most people. You just need to know how to do it.”

“And let me guess.” Luhan grins. “You know how to find the info?”

Sehun scoffs. “Please. Everyone knows Victoria knows how to do everything.”

“Except pee standing up,” she agrees nonchalantly.

Jongin bats his eyelashes at her. “So does that mean you’ll help me?”

She rolls her eyes again, laughing. “Please, don’t do that. Your pretty face means nothing to me. I’ll help you since we’re friends. Also, you did kind of set me and Yixing up, so I guess I owe you for that. Even though you almost got me arrested.”

“Wait, so you and Yixing are officially an item now?” Sehun demands. “How did I not know this?”

Now it’s Luhan’s turn to roll his eyes. “Why do you think I’ve been spending the night at your place so often? Victoria is not quiet.”

“What can I say?” she replies, completely nonplussed. “Yixing is quite talented in certain areas.”

Chanyeol suddenly looks at them, Baekhyun having disappeared behind the counter once more. “Wait, Luhan’s been spending the night at Sehun’s place?”

Luhan blushes crimson, but Sehun just gives Chanyeol a kick under the table.

“Anyway,” Jongin plows on loudly. “Will you help me, Victoria?”

She pats his hand in an affectionate sort of way. “Of course. As long as you don’t try to be cute again.”

So, when they return to the precinct, Jongin and Victoria start digging. The problem is that Park is a very common surname, one of the most common in the country, and so there are millions of people with that name. Rahee also is a fairly common name. Fortunately, they know she was seventeen at the time of Kyungsoo’s birth so they can calculate her year of birth. Even knowing that, however, there are millions of people to sort through.

Jongin is sitting in his office one afternoon a couple of weeks later. He’s working on an actual case for the Chief. He’s put his career on the line too many times lately, and he doesn’t want to piss off the Chief again. He’s typing up a report when Victoria lets herself in calmly, holding a piece of paper in her hand.

“Hey Victoria,” Jongin says, hardly looking up from his computer. “What’s up?”

She waves the piece of paper around nonchalantly. “Oh, not much. I just found where Park Rahee is buried.”

Jongin nearly upends his cup of cold coffee. “What?” he splutters. “Why didn’t you say something!?”

“I’m saying something now,” she replies with a roll of her eyes, handing him the piece of paper. “She’s buried in Jindo.”

Jongin grins more broadly than he probably should over a dead person. “Does the express train run to Jindo? I need to buy a ticket.”

“Two tickets,” Victoria corrects.

“Two?” Jongin repeats.

She smiles. “Well, yes. I’ll be going with you. Honestly, I don’t trust you not to get into trouble, so I’ll be going to keep you in line.” She winks.

Jongin doesn’t say it aloud, but he’s really grateful Victoria is coming with him. Victoria is much better at keeping her cool in a dangerous situation than he is. He can also play it off as though Victoria is his girlfriend in case he finds himself in another situation like when he’d gone to Jeju, where everyone was suspicious of him. Plus he appreciates the company.

It seems like it takes forever for the remainder of the week to pass by, but eventually Saturday comes. Jongin meets Victoria at Seoul Station, where they catch the KTX down to Jindo. It’s a four and a half hour trip, the countryside whipping by outside the train windows, but eventually they’re pulling into the station in Jindo and disembarking, Jongin carrying both his and Victoria’s bags.

“I’m hungry,” she announces as they hail a taxi to take them to the guest house they’ve booked. “Let’s get some lunch before we go to the cemetery.”

Jongin wants to argue, as he’s anxious to find the grave of Park Rahee, but he’s waited this long and besides, Victoria is doing him a favor. “Sure,” he agrees, opening the taxi door for her. “I’m sure there’ll be something around the guest house.”

Sure enough, they find a little ramen café near their lodging. After checking into their room, they find their way to the restaurant and order lunch.

Victoria looks around the café as they eat. “So the cemetery isn’t far from here,” she says. “We can easily walk, although I suppose I should change out of my heels before we go.”

Once they finish eating, they return to the guest house long enough for Victoria to exchange her expensive stilettos for a pair of sensible sneakers and then they’re off, following the map on Victoria’s phone. It doesn’t take them long to find the cemetery. It’s older, some gravestones too deteriorated to even read. But there are a few newer graves at the front of the cemetery, and it’s to these that Victoria and Jongin make their way.

“Park…Park…” Victoria muses, bending down low to read the names on the stones. “There are a lot of Parks in here…”

There is silence for a while as they both wander among the gravestones, searching for the name.

Victoria is the one who finally finds it. It’s a little corner plot, the gravestone clear and the etching crisp. “Jongin,” she calls slowly. “It’s over here.” She points down.

Jongin picks his way over, being careful not to walk over any graves. He bends down, reading the name Park Rahee on the stone, followed by the dates of her birth and death. She’d only been nineteen when she died. Even though he’d never met her and she’d died long ago, he feels sadness over her passing. He wishes Kyungsoo had gotten to meet her.

He sits back on his heels. “So what now?” he asks. “We’ve found her grave, but now what do I do?”

“Look.” She points to the fresh flowers on the headstone. “Somebody has been here, and recently. Within the last week or so, I’d say. That means there’s somebody around here who knows something. Maybe we should try to find them.”

Jongin chuckles. “Ever though of becoming a detective, Victoria? You’d make a damn good one.”

“Thanks but no thanks,” she laughs lightly. “Too much of a risk of breaking a nail. I’ll stick to the front desk, thank you.”

So they make their way to the caretaker’s hut and knock on the door. He answers after a moment, looking surprised at having visitors. “Yes, hello? What can I do for you?”

“Sorry to bother you, sir, but we’re wondering if you can help us out,” Victoria says politely, pasting a sweet smile on her face. “We’re visiting the grave of our aunt and we saw that someone placed flowers there recently. Do you remember who it was? We’d like to thank them.”

“What gravestone?” the caretaker asks.

“Park Rahee,” Victoria answers.

He thinks for a moment. “Now that you mention it, I do remember seeing someone come by recently. It was an older woman, in her fifties I believe. She’s got a big birthmark on her arm. I don’t know her name, but I’ve seen her at the tea house sometimes. Maybe someone there can help you.”

After thanking the caretaker, they go in search of the tea house. Once there, they ask the woman at the counter if she’s seen a middle aged woman with a birthmark on her arm.

“Oh, you must mean Ms. Park,” the woman says with a smile.

Jongin starts at the name. “Park?” he repeats. “By any chance, is she related to Park Rahee?”

The woman’s smile falters. “Yes…they were sisters…”

“Does Ms. Park live around here?” Victoria asks. “We saw that she put some flowers on Park Rahee’s grave, and we’d like to thank her for taking care of it so diligently.”

“Sorry, but I don’t know where she lives,” the woman says apologetically. “But you can probably find it in the local directory. Her name is Park Chaeyoung.”

They thank the woman and then go to the library, which has copies of the local directories. There, they locate Park Chaeyoung’s address.

Jongin sits back, stunned. “She’s close,” he says. “Within an hour of the city…”

Victoria hums thoughtfully. “Do you want to go visit her? We should have time to go tomorrow morning before our train back to Seoul…”

“Yes,” Jongin says determinedly. “I definitely want to go see her.”