COLD CASE* *“A crime that has remained unsolved for a long period of time, has no new evidence, and has been deemed a low priority by its original investigating agency or department.”

“Still working on that cold case, Chief Bang?”

Yongguk lifted his head from his desk just to meet an interested look at the face of his subordinate yet his senior in same criminal department. “Ne, hyung,” he only hummed with a slight smile as he paid back his attention to the files on his desk and his eyes continued to scan the notes from left to right as he read.

He is way younger than that senior officer who asked him just now, yet Yongguk made his way to be the youngest superior officer in his department after his four years service as a mere officer five years ago because of his good achievement on resolving the case and catching the perpetrator in full tilt. Actually, he was being promoted to a higher position yet he refused it with a reason that he was still handling an unsolved case and that he might be consider that promotion later after he resolved that certain case.

“Geez, just call me ‘officer’, Sir. I’m still your subordinate anyway,” the older man said jokingly as he walked around to sit behind his own desk and gained a wider smile from his young chief.

“But you’re still my sunbae, hyung. And how can you never accept any promotion for yourself?” he tore himself from the files he read and stared at his certain senior, Kang Sooro, in disbelief.

What he gained was only a shrugged shoulder of his senior and a calm answer, “Don’t know, I think I’m too attached at this low position I had and this office.”

He gave him a certain look.

“Maybe similar reason with your refusal of being promoted as chief deputy, Sir,” the older man ended his sentences by attacking back his young chief playfully and chuckled at his own joke. He was pointing at the files Yongguk studied at.

He sighed. “I’m not ready yet for that position, hyung. I have a target to resolve this old case first before moving on somewhere else.”

His serious tone and his earnest looks somehow made the older man silent in admiration.

“You really admire him so much as your paragon, don’t you?” he asked in a different tone. Not playfully as before, but lot tender as what a brother usually do to his younger one, as the ‘him’ he was talking about was someone he admired as well, his deceased friend, the late chief who cannot make himself finishing the certain case he had. “It’s been almost fifteen years, the case was about to reach its statute of limitation anyway.”

Yongguk nodded merely as he was reminded the ‘him’ that was also his instructor when he was still in academy and he also nodded at the fact that the case was almost reaching its limitation. The ‘him’ officer Kang mentioned was Yongguk’s former mentor in police academy, and also his paragon as he found how admirable that man was. Yongguk was aiming to be an admirable officer like him once he graduated from academy under that certain man’s supervision. Yet, that man has died in his action even before Yongguk graduated and joined the force, leaving the case unsolved with many assessments went on the dead chief, Park Taeha.

“I still can’t believe that they said he was also the perpetrator of this case and was about to close this case being unsolved,” Yongguk sighed hard as he compiled the files in his hands. “I mean, look at how his death is unforeseen, some files said that he took suicide to hide his embarrassment, but I’ve just found that it was a pure accident. And there’s no evidence that he still keeping or hiding the lost jewel. It was lost to nowhere.”

“Pure accident? Really? How did you certain about that?” he asked in amusement.

“I’ve just found some witnesses of the accident—it was really hard since they had moved outside Seoul and they were just too old and barely remembered any scene of that accident happened