The past is sometimes too real to ignore...

Once we reached the office, I went into my cubicle while Woohyun went to see the Head of the Department to hand in some important papers.

I my computer, trying to arrange the papers on my desk to get ready for work. I was about to call Sungyeol to see how far he had progressed when there was a knock at my cubicle door. I looked up to find Youngjae, carrying a bulky file and wearing a non-amused smile.

“Hey Youngjae, what is it?” I asked.

He marched into the room and put down the file on my desk. I saw the name Kris Wu Yifan stamped across it along with the case number.

“Okay, so when I said I was the brain of this department, I didn’t mean I want to do boring paperwork and research only. Sungyeol can’t do this to me.”

I shrugged, reaching for the file.

“Last time I checked, Sungyeol’s your superior so yes, he can do this – whatever this is - to you.”

Youngjae grimaced as if he was talking about a particularly unpleasant drink he had had.

“Sungyeol told me to stay at the station and dig up information on the victim and his friends and employer and stuff like that. He won’t let me go out in the fields or talk to anyone – he’s punishing me for mouthing off that night, about me being the brain around here.”

He gave me a morose stare and I felt a bit sorry for him – Sungyeol could be childish and obstinate at times but I didn’t want to interfere between them. Like everything else, Sungyeol would forget about it soon enough. I told Youngjae as much and he looked a bit assured.

“So the victim is Kris Wu Yifan, a Chinese national, but he has – or had a Korean work VISA. He’d been modeling for a couple of years; he’s with Star Destiny Company – they train models and also get them jobs. His family is in China. Recently, he moved out of the company dorm and rented an apartment,” Youngjae recited as I skimmed through the papers in the file.

Someone had to inform his family in China. In my opinion, this was the hardest part of our job – to inform a mother that her son would never return home. That made us the harbinger of bad omen.

“Well, call his family in China then,” I said.

Youngjae seemed uneasy. It wasn’t the most favorite job around here, talking to overwhelmed family members who refused to believe they had lost someone so dear.

“Can’t Hana noona do it? She’d be better at it,” he suggested in a small voice.

I was surprised.

“Hana’s in office? I thought she was on vacation?”

Youngjae shrugged, backing out of the office.

“I’ll send her to you then. I have to go back to Kris’ financials and telephone records.”

The next person to visit me as I was working through all the information Youngjae had gathered on Kris was a voluptuous woman, smartly dressed in a grey suit. Jung Hana threw back her long dark hair and smiled at me widely. She looked different from other days; she was wearing thick make-up and even though she looked y, I thought she looked pretty without so much make-up.

Even though Hana seemed intimidating at first, she actually had a cute personality. Those who knew her agreed that she was pleasant to work with and she was a good friend.

She pulled a chair in front of me and sat down.

“I broke up with that weirdo, before you ask anything,” she said matter-of-factly. That answered my question of why she wasn’t vacationing in Jeju Island with her boyfriend like she was supposed to.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said, trying to sound compassionate. Honestly, as bad as that sounded, I knew that her relationship wouldn’t last long. There was nothing wrong with her boyfriend, but Hana was too obviously not interested. I couldn’t understand how the men she dated couldn’t see that.

Hana waved her hand as if it was nothing.

“I wasn’t particularly fond of him,” she said nonchalantly.

“Of course not,” I muttered under my breath. Then I said out aloud, “Since you’re here, do you mind phoning the victim’s next of kin and letting them know?”

I passed her the sheet of paper bearing Kris’ contacts.

She took it in her hands, examining it carefully.

“What’s this one about?” she asked.

“A model. Shot. Dongwoo was talking about a second wound, but I’m not sure.”

I extended a picture of Kris towards Hana, who frowned.

“Never seen him, but why is his file in our database? Anything serious?”

She was interrupted by Woohyun, who poked his head inside and said, “Captain wants to see you, Myungsoo.” To Hana, he smiled, but didn’t ask her why she was in the office when she was supposed to be on leave.

“I was just going to read up on that,” I told Hana in answer to her last question, “but can you do that? And get Woohyun a copy of the files if Youngjae hasn’t already.”

“He did,” Woohyun confirmed. I nodded and followed him out of the room, leaving Hana to gather up Kris’ file from my desk.

“What is it?” I asked my partner as we crossed the passage, on the way to the Captain’s office.

The Captain usually didn’t call us to his office often. In fact, I probably hadn’t been his office in a couple of months.

“The new detective,” Woohyun replied briefly as he knocked on the Captain’s door.

As he pushed the door open, I caught a glimpse of Lee Howon seated behind his massive desk, his eyebrows in a frown, just like they always were. Lee Howon was a buff man; despite his average height, he had an impressive physique. He was dressed in a suit, and the only odd thing about his impeccable appearance was the ugly purple tie he wore every single day.

When I entered the room, I found another person standing in front of the Captain – he had a bad habit of forgetting to tell people to take a seat. Woohyun usually sat down without invitation and for the past 6 months, I had been doing so too. Luckily, I hadn’t been subjected to the glare I had expected to receive from the Captain.

The new detective, I supposed, was a young lady, probably in her mid-twenties. She was also dressed in a black suit, minus the purple tie. Her hair was neck-length, and for some reason, she looked very familiar. She would probably be taller than Hana, and younger too, but she had stern, knowledgeable eyes that told me she wasn’t a newbie.

Suddenly, like a bolt I realized where I had seen her before – she used to be a junior at our high school. Her name was…

“This is Detective Gong Minji,” the Captain launched without any greetings. I was used to his abrupt behavior so I simply smiled at the new detective, who bowed.

“She’s new here, so she’s going to be your associate.”

I looked from Woohyun to Howon, confused.

“Sir, I already have an associate – Sungyeol.”

Howon looked confused for a moment too before fixing his eyes on Woohyun.

“What about you?” he asked.

“Jung Hana is my associate, Sir,” Woohyun replied.

I thought our unit was not lacking manpower. Woohyun and I, as the chief detectives, both had associates, Sungyeol and Hana. And we had a junior detective, Youngaje, for Sungyeol and Hana to train. We really didn’t need a new recruit so I was surprised when I heard that we would be getting a new detective.

Howon turned to Minji, his eyebrows so closely knit together that they looked like they were connected.

“Looks like there is no place for you here,” he told her without any compassion. Minji, for the first time I had entered the room, changed her expression; she looked stricken. Woohyun searched her face, then said, “Sir, I’m sure we can fix her up with something. She can be a junior to Hana. Youngjae is more of Sungyeol’s man.”

I couldn’t understand why Woohyun was trying to give her a place in our department so badly. He was definitely a kind person, but I had never actually seen him lobby for someone, especially someone he didn’t know.

I was wrong there, however.

Looked like, I wasn’t the only one who had a past with Gong Minji. I realized that after coming out of the Captain’s room, who had agreed to let Minji stay as a junior and given us the shared task of introducing her to the others.

From the conversation they shared, I figured that Minji used to work with Woohyun in the last department he was at. Minji was most likely his junior, maybe even his protégé, because their conversation wasn’t awkwardly formal.

“Sorry we’ve been babbling off,” Woohyun apologized to me at one point about the conversation he was having with Minji for the last 15 minutes and wasn’t including me in. I was actually a bit jealous, and maybe that was expressed a bit as I said unintentionally bitingly, “Oh no, carry on. Don’t mind me.”

“I actually know detective Kim too,” Minji said, surprising me. I hadn’t realized she had recognized me – I thought it had been too long.

Woohyun was curious to know how we knew each other, so I explained, “We used to go to the same school, she was a junior.”

Raising an eyebrow, Minji said, “I thought I was more than a junior. I mean it wasn’t a long time but we still dated.”

Woohyun looked at me in askance, but I was too shocked to answer. I had no idea she would actually bring that up in front of Woohyun. I didn’t expect her to remember it either. It had happened so long ago and it wasn’t a serious relationship either; I couldn’t go as far as to call her my ex-girlfriend.

“She asked me to the prom, and after that she confessed she had a crush on me. I couldn’t say no because I was too – well, I just didn’t want to make her sad. But once I left high school, I didn’t contact her,” I told Woohyun once we had introduced Minji to Hana and told her that she was her new junior. Hana, who had been poring over Kris’ files, didn’t look too enthusiastic about a junior but greeted Minji politely.

“Cold-hearted Kim Myungsoo,” Woohyun teased, but I only laughed. I was actually being kind; I hadn’t wanted to lead her on, and I couldn’t love her. So the best thing for me to do was to cut her loose.

“We have to get back to work though,” I told him seriously and he nodded. “Hana, fill us in,” I added to the detective who just walked in through the door, with Minji carrying a file behind her.

“Well Kris is 26. He works for Star Destiny Company, so you can have a look there. He was convicted for drug dealing and possession a year ago, but he helped them by giving them some important names, so he was let go with a large fine.” Hana looked at Woohyun, who was frowning. “He’d been clean since then I think. He didn’t get into anymore trouble. I informed his family, they are devastated.” Hana paused, sighing. “They’ll arrange to bring him home but I had to tell them they couldn’t do that until this case is closed.”

Minji, who seemed to be taking notes behind Hana, now said, “Shouldn’t we talk to his friends and family in China? They might know something about it.”

I looked at Woohyun, who still wore the frown on his face. It was the kind of expression that meant he was trying to recall something. He used to work in Narcotics, maybe he was familiar with Kris’ case. But when I looked at him in askance, he shook his head.

“Yes, that’s true Minji. Why don’t you do that? You’ve got a copy of the file, right? Call up his family and any friends you can get hold of and ask them,” Woohyun explained. He then turned to Hana. “Take Youngjae and search Kris’ apartment.”

“Youngjae can’t, Sungyeol told him to stay at the office,” I informed. Woohyun grimaced – Sungyeol’s childishness was really troublesome at times.

“I can manage alone,” Hana said quickly, looking at the disgruntled expression on Woohyun’s face. She always had Sungyeol’s back.

“It’s okay,” I said, nodding at Hana. She and Minji left the room. “So we go to Star Destiny?”

Woohyun agreed but he still didn’t look completely placated.

“Youngjae’s working on Kris’ telephone records and financials. He is doing something.”

“Yeah. Call up Sungyeol and see how far he has reached, won’t you?”

I looked at my partner - this was the beginning of another journey, by the end of which we hoped to shed light on the murder and apprehend the murderer, bringing him to justice.