[CONTENTID1]

Two is always better than one

Setting: Police AU || Notes: Just get inspired after watching a movie LOL

“Inspector Ken, are you okay sir?” Ken messed his hair. Ken’s subordinate bit his lips.

“Do you think I look okay, Hyuk?” The subordinate, Hyuk just smiled mildly. Ken sighed. “We lost of that bastard’s track again. I feel like .” Ken groaned as he placed his head onto the table on the top of scattered papers and pictures. Hyuk just exhaled, feeling bad for his boss. He knew the feelings exactly. After a week stakeout, they lost the trail of the main suspect for their case. A serial murder case that had connection with drug dealing which the cops nicknamed it as Mad Killer.

“Inspector Ken.” Ken looked up when someone stood in front of him. His junior in police academy.

“Yes, Hongbin. Wae?”

“Captain is calling for you.” Ken sighed and nodded. He got up and walked to his boss’s room. Ken knocked the door lightly and the voice calling him in heard. Ken slowly twisted the knob and entered.

“Oh, good. Come in, Ken.” Ken bowed lightly and entered, closing the door. He furrowed a bit when he noticed someone was sitting in front of his boss.

“You call for me, Captain Seo?” The sturdy man in uniform who was a rank higher than Ken (Ken is an Assistant Inspector while the captain is Inspector) nodded and gestured Ken to sit. Ken nodded and sat beside the unknown male. He took a glance while the unknown guy just stayed silent and looked at the captain all the way.

“Well, Ken. I hope you won’t get angry because this is not under my power.” Ken wrinkled as he turned to his boss. “Apparently, the higher-ups sent someone from HQ to help you with that big case. And maybe…he will be your permanent partner.” Ken widened his eyes.

“Wh- wait, what?” Ken turned to the unknown male at a glance then back to his captain. “But Captain, you know I-”

“I know, I know. But I can’t do anything; this is the order from the HQ. You know the police always work in partner and moreover, this is a serious case. HQ sent him for a reason too. He’s in expert in case about drugs. You might need his help.” Ken groaned.

“But sir-”

“Ken, greet your new partner, Leo. And Inspector Leo, this is Inspector Ken, the person in charge of Mad Killer case.” The captain cut off Ken’s words as he gestured them to greet each other. Ken huffed and took a glance at the other. The male, Leo took a glance at Ken also and didn’t say anything. “Well, I hope you two can work well. Remember our motto, partner is like one body.” The captain said before dismissing them. Leo gave a bow and left first. Ken stayed for a while.

“Captain, you know exactly I don’t want to work in partner anymore after that incident!” Ken raised his voice a little bit. The captain looked up to him.

“I know that exactly, Ken. But I can’t do anything.” Ken groaned and rubbed his face.

“Hyung, please…I can’t-” The captain exhaled.

“Ken…it’s time to forget the past. That incident is not your fault Ken. Hakyeon died not because of you.” Ken bit his lips.

“But I fail to do my part, to protect my partner. I’m in fault, Inguk hyung. Hakyeon hyung died for me!” The captain sighed.

“You shouldn’t think that way, Ken ah. And regarding Leo, I can’t do anything to stop it. Just, I think you and him will work fine. Just accept him, okay?” Ken groaned and got up, took his leave. The man sighed when Ken was out. ‘Sorry Ken, but I think it’s already time for you to get over his death. And I hope you don’t get mad if you know I’m responsible to this partner assignment later.’

“Yah, stop chewing gums! It’s annoying, the sound.” Ken took a glance as he was driving. Leo was chewing gum while looking through the case file. It’s already few days that Leo came in as his partner and Ken felt the other purposely made him annoyed all the time. The other ignored Ken’s warning. “Yah, are you ignoring me?” Ken growled.

“I heard you and gums are not terrible thing or something. Not like I’m smoking in your car.” Ken gritted his teeth. He parked the car when they arrived at the place. Ken turned off the engine and came out. Leo came out later, he looked around the place. Ken stepped to the door and knocked it.

“Hello, anyone inside?” Leo looked over the old building as he stood beside Ken. “Anyone home?” Ken knocked again and still no response.

“Just barge in.” Leo said nonchalantly. Ken squinted his eyes.

“Don’t be stupid. We can’t do that, we come without a warrant or something.” Leo just shrugged. Ken rolled his eyes and knocked the door again. “Hey, anyone’s home?” Leo stopped Ken’s hand who wanted to knock the door again. Ken looked at Leo. “What’s up?” Leo signaled him to stay silent. Ken wrinkled. A whispering noise heard from inside and a struggling sound heard after that. Leo took out his gun and Ken did the same when Leo let his hand go.

“Someone uninvited is inside and I’m sure it’s a bad news.” Leo whispered. Ken exhaled.

“We will barge in but don’t do anything stupid.” Ken said out of worry. He didn’t like this situation or any situation that will remind him of that day. Ken coughed a bit and talked a bit louder. “Looks like no one is here, let’s go back, Leo.”

“We should come back and check in two hours.”

“Good idea, let’s go.” Leo nodded as a signal and Ken kicked the door hard after 10 seconds. The lock broke and they entered with extra careful and aiming their gun to their front.

“Mr. Kim? Are you inside?” Leo called. They’re actually visiting one of the family members involved in the murder case to get some more clues after losing the track of the main suspect. Mr. Kim was the father of the second victim. The two cops walked to the opposite direction checking the 2-storey house.

“Ump! Ump!” Ken turned to the source of sound. Ken noticed legs on the floor behind the cupboard. He walked closer and found Mr. Kim was tied. The old man tried to say something when he saw Ken. Ken let his guard down as he approached the old man to help him.

“Look out!” Leo’s warning made Ken turned. There’s someone suddenly came behind him with a thick wood when he didn’t notice his surroundings. A fire was shot and the wood fell beside Ken. Ken turned in shock. Leo shot the mysterious male on the hand. The male groaned as he held his hand. He cursed when he noticed Leo and ran away to the kitchen. Leo growled as he chased over the male. Ken who was snapped from his shock noticed Leo was running after the guy.

“Yah!  Leo, where are you going?” Ken shouted.

“Catching the bad guy, obviously. Stay there and call for help for that man!” Leo said and left. Ken wrinkled when Leo was out from his sight.

Leo was on tail from that guy. They’re running far away leaving the house. The cop was cursing inside to that bad guy because he had to run. He also was stopped few times with the obstacles done by the running culprit but it didn’t slow him down. But unfortunately for him, Leo lost the sight of that culprit when they entered the small town and the culprit hid in the midst of many people. Leo gritted his teeth as he lost the guy, cursing himself for his failure.

“Sir, Sir.” The two inspectors turned to the subordinate. Hyuk showed them a file. “I found more information about the tattoo Mr. Kim described. When I heard his explanation, it rings a bell to me.” Ken looked at the file. Leo peeked from behind. “It’s a special tattoo and belongs to a certain gang, just like I predicted. The shape is taken after a constellation, Draco or dragon. The same tattoo on the third victim’s hand.” Ken looked at the next page.

“Black Fist.” Hyuk nodded. “The third and fifth victim gang’s name.”

“I think the killer perhaps from the same gang or their enemy.” Hyuk gave his hypothesis. “We definitely didn’t get the clear motive of this serial murder, but we got the connection now that all the victims are either ex-gang member or currently belong to a gang that do drug-dealing except the fourth victim. I also found a new piece of information.” Hyuk showed a paper. “The first victim, Jeon Wonwoo is actually ex-member of Black Fist and he’s not a normal member.”

“He’s the right hand of the leader, right?” Leo suddenly questioned. Hyuk looked at him and nodded.

“Yes, I come across his record of tattoo removal two years ago. He left the gang around that time too.” Hyuk presented his team leaders with another paper. “And I found this unusual thing in his contact list. We just got to decrypt his phone last night, finally. This number is saved under ID called Private and it’s not a phone number.”

“It looks like an account bank number if there’s no weird symbol.” Ken said. Hyuk shook his head.

“Map coordinates.” Leo said. Ken frowned and was about to say something but Hyuk cut him off.

“Yeah, Inspector Leo is right. It’s a series of map coordinate because it has more numbers to be an account bank and also the weird symbol placed in between the numbers. So we tried to match the coordinates on the map and there are 5 results matched.” Ken and Leo looked at the places.

“This is where the second murder takes place.” Ken pointed to one of the places in the list. Hyuk nodded.

“Yes, it is.”

“Why…” Ken thought about the pieces they had. Leo looked the place listed. He turned to the map that noted where each murder occurred. Leo snatched the paper in Ken’s hand. “Yah, what-”

“Shh!” Leo shut him up and wrote something on the board next to the map. He wrote down the coordinate and drew few lines on the map. Hyuk and Ken watched as Leo was drawing.

“What are you trying to do, Leo?”

“The places from the coordinates and the places where the murder takes place, if we drew in on the map…” Leo showed them the map. Ken wrinkled and Hyuk gasped. The same pattern as the tattoo. Leo underlined the other four coordinate and the centre from the drawing. “I can say these places will highly be the next murder place.”

“Why centre, sir?” Hyuk asked. Ken squinted his eyes.

“That is previous Black Fist’s hideout.” Hyuk looked back at the map and nodded. He noticed something after that and quickly turned to Ken. Ken was taking a breath. He walked to the board and numbered the five places Leo deduced just now. “You and Hongbin should go look at Place 1 and 4. I will go for 5. And you can bring someone else for 2 and 3.” Ken said and left. Leo wrinkled when he saw the sudden changing mood. Hyuk noticed Leo’s expression.

“Inspector Ken…has dark memory with Black Fist gang members.” Leo looked at Hyuk. Hyuk just smiled light and announced his leave, searching for his partner. Leo was left alone, exhaling as he stared at the places he marked.

“Red code from 9090. Red code. I need backup.” Leo wrinkled when he heard Ken’s voice through walkie-talkie. Someone on the line picked up Ken’s call.

“1900, what’s happening sir?” Hongbin’s voice heard. Leo pulled over his car and stopped driving for a while. He was on the way to the suspected place.

“9090, 9090. Few Black Fist gang were here and I need a backup ASAP.” Ken’s rushed voice heard. Hongbin told he will be there as he’s the closest to that place. Leo clicked his tongue and decided to call Ken’s phone.

“Yah, what’s happening? Red code?” Leo barked once Ken picked up the call.

“The man attacked Mr. Kim is here and they’re beating up someone…and he’s ex-member of the