Chapter One; One Year Later

"Y-Yujin unnie!" Hyemi--a first year--called out, rushing towards me with a bunch of papers in her hands. "There was a school council meeting yesterday after school, you weren't there so I grabbed the forms and other papers for you." 

I smiled at the short and fragile looking girl in front of me, dressed in basically the same uniform as me but her's was blue, whereas mine was red. She'd sort of been like a little sister to me; without my asking, she'd taken the liberty of being my right-hand girl. She did her best to take notes on my behalf, grab missed work or forms, and even began joining me during lunch-- disregarding my discontentment. I guess you could say we were becoming friends, though I didn't have time for such luxuries.

The reason I'd miss so much was because of my work after school. For a long time now, I'd been working as an assistant investigator at the Police Station, during my time there --when I wasn't on a case-- I'd handled the phones and worked as a simple receptionist, taking notes on the tips we'd get here and there or notes and messages for H. Officer Kim. 

Old man Kim had become a father to me, he was someone I trusted deeply. It was a strict relationship we had when we were working together, but he never failed to make me laugh when he was deliberately trying to scare the new recruits, you know, just to see who had the most guts and see who'd run away with their tails in between their legs from his intimidation. 

"Thank you," I smiled politely, grabbing the papers from her. I looked them over, simply a bunch of suggestion forms for the next school trip. "I'll make sure to get these handed in on time."

Just as I finished tucking them in my bag, I turned to leave. 

"W-Wait!" She stuttered, hesitantly grabbing my sleeve. "I-I was wondering if you'd be free sometime, I have this assignment in English class. Everyone told me you'd be the best to ask, seeing as how you got the award in English last year."

"English?" I frowned, nodding my head to myself. "Um, I'd be happy to, just tell me when you're free. I'll try to book off work." 

Hyemi nodded with a cute smile on her face, one you'd see on a two year old after being told they'd be getting ice cream after dinner.

"Anytime you're free!" She smiled.

I nodded.

After a sincere thank you, Hyemi left and I finally began leaving the school. 

"You're late," He said as he raised his brow. "You go around saving cats again?"

"That was one time," I frowned jokingly, trying to muffle my laughter. "And no, I was busy talking to a friend."

"You?" H. Officer Kim teased, acting surprised. "I didn't know you had any! Considering how often you're here."

"How did we end up on this subject again?" I scoffed, grabbing some papers out of my folder. "Let's talk business. I've got a new case for you. This one is from Inspector Ahn, he dropped it off this really early this morning."

"This morning?" He asked, obviously confused. "You were here early this morning? You must have come earlier than me, because I was the first one here. "

"Yep," I smirked. "I came to get them because I heard he was stopping by really early. It was quite easy getting these, now that I think about it."

"You shouldn't be concerning yourself with this stuff," Old man Kim shook his head, taking the papers from me and reading them over scarcely. "You need to focus on your studies and such, maybe even consider finding a boy--"

"My studies are fine," I countered, getting reading for the skip in topics. "I'm good at this. You, yourself said so. I basically work here as an assistant now, I don't get why you're still against this."

Instead of building into it, he took a deep breath and led me into his office. Don't get me wrong, though I'd diverted the subject matter of our conversation, he completely knew what I'd done. He was probably already used to me changing the subject whenever he brought up boys. 

He took a good look over the papers and told me the plan on how he wanted to begin the investigation.

"This was about a few days ago," I'd obviously read the case file and simply summed up what I'd learned. "A girl, at the age of 10, was kidnapped and is being put up for ransom. We've been getting many cases similar to this one nowadays, human-trafficking has become one of the leading reasons behind our skyrocketing crime rates. We need to see what other information we can get. I'll go search at her school, maybe you could speak more with her parents. They just submitted this case yesterday after they'd gotten the ransom note."

H. Officer Kim simply nodded, leaning his head on his enclosed hands. "You've really put some time and effort into this, don't forget what we've talked about Baek. I'll follow up on the parents, you do what you can while searching her school. Also, do me a favour would you?"

I sighed at his reference to our usual conversations, ignoring it, I decided to tackle the second part of this conversation.

"Favour?" I raised an eyebrow with interest. A favour for old man Kim? YES. He'd never been one to ask for favours, and boy! when he did? It was like getting a big gift card. This wasn't something that came very often, nor something that I'd ever pass up. "What is it?"

"I...I'd like you to take a rookie with you. Work with him for the next while."

He looked dead serious, nervous even. I stared at him with suspicious eyes, trying to see what hidden agenda he had. 

"Who?"

He let out a slow breath before continuing, "You'll meet him in two days, you can investigate her school then. Thank you Asst. Baek. He doesn't have too much experience, just a simple background of working with another rookie but they'd taken a break after a few weeks. He's definitely not as experienced as you, maybe a bit lousy, but he'd definitely learn well from you."

I nodded, still suspicious of what he had behind that happy smile of his. "No problem, sir."

After leaving the police station with a copy of the case, the original had to be kept in his office of course, so I had one photocopied for my personal reference. I plucked a few hairs out of my face. It was getting really cold again, winter had slowly crept into my life and was ready to make a living hell out of it.

I hate the cold. 

I tugged my black Veda leather jacket closer to my body. I'd gotten it recently on sale and waited for the cold season to start for it to come into use. I shifted my handbag uncomfortably, the folders piling up made it bumpier than usual. I headed straight home, ready to take a nice long hot shower before tackling the school council papers and my daily homework.

It wasn't much of a walk from my house from the station, just about 15 minutes, but with the cold wind blowing me a step back every time, it felt as if it took over an hour. Luckily, I hadn't gotten sick yet this season, like I usually do, and I'm trying to keep it that way. 

Just as I unlocked my front door and tumbled into the warmth of my own home, Cho, Nam, and Jin came into view. My protective Cho is a large black-brown German Shepherd-Wolf mix with daring light green eyes. Whereas, Nam is a big baby when it comes to me but very on edge around new people, which is why when old man Kim came over to pick up some papers, I had to keep him and Cho locked up in my bedroom. He's not one to socialize. He's also a German Shepherd-Wolf mix, but instead of the dark mix of colours like Cho, Nam is a mix of dark grays with an undertone of white and brown seeping up around his legs. And lastly, Jin is my little cutie. He's not afraid to be friends with everyone, he loves anyone who'll rub his belly. Jin is probably the only one of my dogs whom acts like a family dog, unlike my other two big protectors. Jin is also pretty big, but isn't a German-Shepherd-Wolf mix, he's a Eura