2014 // Days: 4 Hour: 0

“It’s starting again.”

He nods in acknowledgement of the ticking time.

“We have twenty two hours.” Soojung turns to him and away from the timer on the big screen, glossy eyes injecting hope into his soul. “Can we really do this?”

“You’ve never doubted me all these years, Jung. Don’t start now.”

 

2014 // Days: 0 Hours: 2

“You have to tell him.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, I really don’t.”

He can’t just give it a rest. “Soojung –“

“Suho” She retorts, looking down into her coffee stained paper cup.

“He might get lucky and wake up this time,” Suho’s sounding like a lecturer with all his ridiculous hand movements, “But what if he doesn’t next time? At this rate, Sehun’s going to get himself killed for real any day now.”

“I…” Soojung starts but stops to offer a polite smile to yet another officer on shift, then, “Look, you’re right and you know you’re right but I just can’t deal with this right now, okay?”

“Why?” There’s a cheeky little smile on his face when he says, “Because everyone’s listening in? For god’s sake, everyone in the force knows, Soojung.”

Groaning, she buries her bird nest of a hair in her hands. “When can we go in and see him?”

Tsking, he complies anyway and offers the first useful response since his arrival at the hospital. “The scary nurse told me, as soon as the doctor finish checking up on him.”

The hall had been cleared out since six in the morning, reporters rush hours started by three thirty and took their three long hours to nose dive through the pile of surgeons walking around without their scalpels. Bathroom trips became a joint task and she had to be baby sat by some sort of authority to not pee herself, this would explain why the caffeine is not doing its best work since she only got a taste when Suho managed to sneak his way some badge flashing actions an hour ago.

“You’re a smart, intelligent woman, highly accomplished in her field of work.” Suho attempts again at his persuasion. “You and Sehun basically live together so why not do the mature thing and talk to him about how you feel –“

Raising her index finger, Soojung hushes him. “This is not an appropriate discussion for an employer and his employee.”

“Seriously?” He asks in exasperation, raising his brows. “How long have we known each other again?”

“Since high school,” She mumbles but says quickly before Suho could start another one of these torturous debates, “But that isn’t relevant, I still work under you and so does Sehun.”

“Technically,” Suho says then pause, obviously unsure of his argument, “You two don’t work for the force, he’s more of an independent detective that butts in on every case before the crime unit gets there and actually, that goes for you too.”

Soojung’s too tired to meet his smugness with a glare, he has a point and she’d rather not let him know she agrees. “I’m calling this conversation over.”

“B –“

“And you can’t order it not since you’re not my boss,” She adds hurriedly, feeling a small jolt of accomplishment when he recoils with a childish pout, “You said so yourself.”

Leaning over to the bin, he disposes of his cup with a small ‘thud’, murmuring under his breath, “Can’t believe the idiot’s hailed the ‘detective of our generation’ but can’t figure out something as obvious as your crush on him.”

“It’s not obvious!”

Suho his head. “You’ve liked him since senior year, it’s pretty obvious.”

“Since when does time determine these things –“

“I’m getting tired of arguing about this, Soojung.” Suho says with the nerve he has, pulling out the vibrating phone out of his pocket and shoves it so close to her face, the text message becomes too blurred to read. “We’re allowed to go in now. Let’s get him something to eat –“

But Soojung was already walking off.

 

2014 // Days: 4 Hours: 3:08

Sehun’s a born liar – it’s a talent that runs in the family, so his father tells him. A good thing or a bad thing, no one has gotten around to solving that mystery. But he doesn’t like to do it. There are ways to avoid it; methods of diverting attentions, sudden expose of your counter chatter’s secret or more simply, strategic planning on timing – when to walk away.

Neither of these works on Soojung, partly because she knows him too well and partly because she’s intelligent enough to see through it.

He could lie to her but he doesn’t like to do it.

She could ask him if they’re going to survive this but she doesn’t like to do it.

Sehun knows her full trust is with him but when she’s pacing back and forth and gnawing away on her already brittle nails, it starts to drive him a little bit nuts.

“Stop”

She spins around too quickly, slipping slightly in those slippers. “God, I don’t understand how you stay so calm – you shouldn’t be calm!”

“You don’t think rationally when you’re in a state of frenzy.” He tells her simply, resting his chin on his pale knuckle. “Has Lee Jonghyun checked out of the hotel yet?”

“Yeah…” Soojung says with raised brow, marching over to the dining table, overflowing with paper works that’s been stacking up for days and nice. “But what does he have anything to do with this round?”

Rising to his feet, Sehun takes the file from her and heads for the kitchen, frowning at the screeching tea kettle. “I think he might know more than he let on.”

She catches on easily, she always does. “If you think he’s the ‘fake player’, then we might as well go after all the players that have ever been involved in the game.”

“He’s a special case –“

“Why do you think that?”

Automatically, she yanks the third drawer opens and he takes the cue to pull out two mugs, filling hers up to the brim and his, half way. “He doesn’t have a good reason to accept the invitation in the first place – others were tricked,” He explains, pointing to the blurred picture of Lee Chaerin from three cases ago, now stuck to the empty wall above the couch, “Or were desperate to pay off their debts or like our last victim, Cho Kyuhyun, he needed the money to pay for his girlfriend’s leukemia treatment –“

“Wait,” Soojung interrupts, leaning against the counter with one finger up to single a pause from him, “He’s in a similar situation with Im Yoona, he lost the last round and got the chance to clear his debt if he could pull off Song Qian’s murder.” She looks unsure, not at him but her statement as she blows cold wind into her tea. “And he didn’t kill her –“

“Why didn’t he kill her?”

She blinks, takes a sip of the warm liquid. “What do you mean why?”

“According to the witnesses, he could have easily killed her.” He points out and pushes a box of last night’s pizza to her. “Why not just do it and run? It’s hard enough to track down most of the targets they assigned you to but he managed to find her in less than two days.”

“Determination doesn’t call for conspiracy, Sehun.”

“No, no, of course not.” Sehun shakes his head, beginning to flip through the file with the knowledge that he won’t find more than he did the first time. “Attempting to shoot a woman he’s been following for two days in broad day light, on a Sunday, at COEX – that, calls for suspicion.”

Soojung considers this for a moment, biting her bottom lips as if this is a riddle to be solved when in actuality, it can’t anymore obvious than this. “It’s always possible that he lost and decided he needed to kill her then and there. The report stated that he was hysterical with his attempt to shoot her.”

“Maybe,” he agrees, half heartedly, shoving the untouched piece of cold pizza into , “But maybe not.”

 

2014 // Days: 0, Hours: 2:21

“It’s been a minute,” Sehun says as-a-matter-factly, clasping on his wrist watch and throw one leg over the bed, “Do they not have any sense of time around here? One would think a highly rated hospital as this would know a thing or two about punctuality.”

“Sehun,” Soojung warns him, snatching away his coat before he could, “It wouldn’t kill you to stay in bed rest for a while longer.”

Suho snickers, a hint of smile playing on his lips. “You’ll get discharged before you can your way to the complaint department, don’t get so whiney.”

“Why are you here, by the way?” The blonde asks, dully scanning the other man up and down. “Shouldn’t you be finding your way to the nearest police unit that needs some bossing around?”

Rolling her eyes, Soojung gives an unappeased look that Sehun promptly ignores and Suho notes with a grimaced. “I’m going to ignore that because you nearly got yourself killed – again.”

“Funny, isn’t it?” Sehun says with a bitter edge, “You’re the cop and I’m the one getting shot at most times.”

“That says something, doesn’t it?” Suho quips, busying himself with an outdated version of flappy bird on his phone.

“That’s enough,” Soojung slices through the childish banters with finality, walking back to Sehun’s bed side with a half glass full of water, “Both of you, seriously Sehun, sometimes it’s like you never left high school.”

“That’s not possible,” He replies with a shake to the head, drowning down the water, “People’s mind mature along with their body, your personality and attitude towards your surrounding won’t be able to remain the same –“

Suho groans. “She doesn’t mean it that way –“

“Then what way does she mean?” Sehun questions, looking at an agitated Soojung and back at Suho again, “Of course, Soojung can be referring to your pointless attempt to insult me and my dead pan response to all of it but she would be incorrect.” He nods at her and she crosses her arm, her hip jutting out as she waits for him to continue the unstoppable, “Back in high school since I was a minor, I found a much more subtle way to wound your pride as a way to show my respect. You were the captain of the police force.”

“Well, now I run the crime unit,” Suho says dryly then lifts up his jacket, “And I still carry a gun.”

Soojung buries her throbbing head in her hands, mumbles, “This is going to be a long morning.”

 

2008 // 14th April, Friday

“Oh my god, I’m not sure if I’m glad or horrified,” Luna exclaims to the clear, blue sky, “No one is late to school today and on a Friday too. Soojung,” she says suddenly, throwing her arm around the younger’s girl shoulder and tugging her with violent force, “Do you think the world’s coming to an end?”

“Unni,” The petite brunette groans, “Our school’s not that bad.”

“That’s kind of sad,” she frowns, kicking the nearest pebble, “Some rebelling school boys would make coming to school worth while.”

“No way,” Soojung teases, pushing against her a little, “You would never! You’re on the student council, you know.”

“So?” Luna asks, nudging Soojung with her elbow, “I still like cute, bad boys with loosened tie and grade A bed head. Anyways,” she hums, straightening and saluting her in some humor act, “Prefect, I now leave the rest of this sacred duty to you.”

Soojung grimaces, her hands on her hip. “You mean another ten minutes of waiting for some student to turn up half an hour late?”

“Very, very sacred,” Luna emphasizes the second very with a eating grin, “That’s why I’m leaving it to my favorite dongsaeng to guard our prestigious institution.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she waves the older girl off, “You can go to gym, I don’t think anyone think they can turn up this late and sneak in anyway.”

“You never know,” Luna sings as she skips off.

Soojung shakes her head but turns back to face the rusty school gate anyway. They’ve made it impossible to climb, she used to think that during her first year but learn soon enough that when there’s determination to avoid Friday night detention at all cost, there is a way. It’s like a death sentence, she’d know because she supervises every two weeks – it comes with the badge.

Shivering, Soojung wraps her plaided scarf tighter around her neck. Out of all the days, they’ve got to assign her to today’s shift – chilliest it’s been in Spring so far this year. She can barely feel her fingers and so her suspicion for frost bite begins.

“What the hell –“ She curses, swiveling around to find an image to match the sound of hurrying footsteps coming her way. “Is that –“

Oh

Se

Hun

“You’ve got be kidding me.” Soojung mutters to herself, sprinting up to the gate until her face was pressed up against the bars. “It is him – third time in two weeks.”

He never bothered to try and sneak in properly. That’s no Oh Sehun’s style, he’s all runs and jumps and no apologies about any of it. Most students think it’s his way of expressing his superiority to the rest of them. He’s got that natural ‘too cool’ vibe to him to do what the rest of them do and begs for a one off from whichever ‘friend’ is on shift that day. Contrary to hallway gossips, Soojung thinks he’s just not much for words or interactions. They’ve been in the same class since middle school and she’s willing to bet that he would confuse her with one of the girls in their Chem class.

“There’s no point in running,” She shouts loud enough for him to hear, “You’re twenty seven minutes late.”

There’s no sign of stopping and he looms closer by the second, the rough sole of his sneakers hitting the ground echoing in her ears in sync with her heart. Hurriedly, she rips out a detention slip and clicks her pen, scribbling late notice on it with scrawny writing that is unrecognizable as her own.

Is he even athletic? Soojung asks herself but is answered when he quickly and effortlessly, climb his way up the gate and swing one leg over, no fear in losing a limb as he climb only a little further down to make a jump at a height most people would describe as ‘insane’.

“Wha –“ There are no words she can find to describe the current situation, “What do you think you’re doing?”

Sehun doesn’t bother to register her standing point, only a few steps away in distance, instead he straightens his blazer and dashes off in the same direction that Luna went – the gym.

Dumb struck by his carelessness, Soojung stands with mouth agape. Prefect duty forgotten, she doubts rules will hold him down anyway.

 

2014 // Days: 4, Hours: 3:40

“Give it a rest,” Soojung moans, his coat in a tired attempt to drag him away, “He’s not home – “

“Or he is hiding.” Sehun makes that judgment in confidence, gripping her hand to stop her from dragging him away from the intercom of room 136.

“And if he does,” she says roughly, “We can’t just burst in there without a warrant,” sighing a little, she pulls her hand out of his and places it on his back, “Sehun, come on, we’re wasting time.”

With a scowl on his face, he gives a stiff nod.

“Suho said they’ve got a suspect in custody,” she tells him with intent to sound hopeful but her sigh has diminishes any trace of it, “We should go check that out first, maybe we’ll find new information to help us.”

He’s silent for a long moment, both hands buried in the pockets of his coat and a tense expression on his face as he releases puff of foggy breath after another. “What if it’s a trap?”

She blinks. “I don’t understand.”

“What if,” he pauses then regain himself with brown eyes molding into her own, “What if and this is an if – what if this suspect is staged, someone sent he or she over to distract us – lead us to all the wrong places, give us all the wrong clues.”

“Maybe we should talk to her first before we actually jump to conclusion.”

“We have approximately eighteen hours and a few minutes left,” he tells her the obvious and makes it sound even deadlier than the reality they’re living, “If my calculation is correct and it is,” at this Krystal roll her eyes and walks off, knowing he’s hot on her trail, “Then another ten minutes ride to the station, most likely another twenty to even possibly thirty minutes of interviewing this so called suspect and if we get nothing – we’re back in our apartment, back at square one –“

“Then we better use our best investigating skills and rules her out as a fake.” She yanks the car door open, watching as he begrudgingly get in the passenger seat. “If she even is one.”

 

2014 // Day 0, Hours: 2:53

She tried not to mention it but in the end, she can’t really help herself.

“What if you’d have died today?”

Sehun doesn’t turn but he’s watching her from the corner of his eyes. “That’s a rather odd question to ask, Jung.”

Soojung shrugs.

“If I’d have died today,” he begins, staring ahead at the patchy wall, “I would have died today and…I wouldn’t be here, sitting next to you in the police station.”

She chuckles dryly at this. “You’re telling me things I already know, Sehun.”

“How should I have answered that question then?” Sehun says easily, taking a sip of his coffee and crinkling his nose at it in distaste before abandoning it on the empty seat next to him. “It’s an hypothetical question, it’s impossible to justify it with a useful response because there simply will be no truth in it”

“Okay,” she accepts in a small voice then, “Would you have any regret it if you have died?”

He ponders over it in the only way Sehun can – grim silence with pursed lips, looking displeased with having to take more than a second to come up with a fitting answer. “Yes – yes, I would actually.”

“Yeah, what?”

“It – “ he swivels his head around to glance at her a little, a hint of a smile she knows is the most he can form, “It would be most inconvenient to have to leave you behind, Jung, you already know that.”

She did but that doesn’t mean she gets tired of hearing it from him. “Yeah then I –“

“You two,” a rumbling voice came from the chief’s office, “Get in here. Now.”

“He looks exceptionally angry for a man who just caught an incredibly sought after criminal.” Sehun whispers loud enough for her to shoot him a pointed glare to shut him up before he could say anything more.

A heaving sigh is the warning sign for her to behave and Sehun to cradle his head in his hands – Park Yoochun usually brings out these kind of reactions in people.

“What did I tell you?!” Is his opening line, nothing original because Sehun’s lacking any interest in this conversation already as he drops down on the chair in front of Yoochun’s cluttered desk. “Huh? What did I tell you?”

“To wait for your signal,” then added quickly, “Which would not have worked because,” Yoochun’s eye twitch but it’s not like it ever stopped Sehun before, “Waiting for one of your officers to give me signal, would cost you, if not all then most of any breathing, living thing in that building and,” He throws up the Rubik cube he’s plucked out of his bag, the one the authorities have confiscated since the incident. “What you’ve been working towards for the last seven years – Shim Changmin.”

Soojung averts her gaze from the two because it could get ugly and she’d rather not involve herself in their affair. Sehun says what he wants to even if he knows he shouldn’t. Shim Changmin’s been a touchy topic for Yoochun for as long as she could remember. No one likes to talk about it.

Yoochun lunges at him, fists curling to stop himself from getting them bloody. “You’re suspended.”

Sehun raises a brow. “I don’t work for you, or anyone as a matter of fact.”

Ignoring him, the older man runs his hand through his messy tresses and throws a glance in her direction. “You can continue on worki –“

“Soojung does not work for you either.”

“No,” Yoochun says softly, “But she can if she wants to.”

“You mean for free? With no pay check –“

“That’s enough, Sehun.” She hisses then turns to Yoochun, seemingly awaiting for her response to his offer. “I’m touched that you still want my assistance, Yoochun but Sehun and I are partners, I don’t think I’d be able to work well without his help.”

Scoffing, Yoochun circles around his desk and mumbles to himself. “Give it a few years and he won’t be around to be a smart for the both of you.”

Sehun rolls his eyes, swinging his “Wishing me dead, isn’t going to help you out, Yoochun.”

Twisting the knob like he would with Sehun’s gut, he points out the door. “Get out”

 

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A/N: Well, that was the first chapter! Tell me what you think? And I hope I've gained your interest to keep reading, subscribing to this story xx