“No… Uncle! Uncle!”

The young boy shook the motionless body of his uncle in panic as he felt hot tears streaming down his cheek. His mind was blank, his body was full of anger and the inside of his chest was full of pain and sadness.

“Uncle! Please wake up! Don’t leave me…”, the young boy sobbed as he tried to wake up his uncle one more time. However, he already knew that it would be useless, since his uncle has mercilessly been shot  in his chest.

When the young boy already assumed his uncle died, he finally broke down in tears and heavy sobs, holding the cold body of his uncle in his arms as he hid his face in the crook of his uncle’s neck, not caring about the body being lifeless.

“J-Jungkook…”

The young boy jolted by the weak and shaking voice of his uncle as he stopped crying and looked up to his uncle’s face which was stirring from the pain. “U-uncle? You’re still alive?”, the boy astonishingly screamed out as he touched his uncle’s cheek with his shaking and cold hand. His uncle smiled weakly at the touch, and the boy couldn’t help but smile back, hoping that his uncle could still be saved.

The boy wanted to call for help, so he immediately took out his cellphone and dialled the emergency number. However, before he could even do this, he felt his uncle’s hand on his, stopping him from dialling the 911 number. The boy looked at him with a questioningly face, wondering why his uncle stopped him from being saved from death. The uncle seemed to hear his unsaid question.

“Jungkook… Be well, arrasseo? D-don’t do stupid things. Be a g-good man for your future wife, a-and a g-good father for your future k-kids. It’s a p-pity that I can’t see them, but i-it’s alright”, his uncle whispered with a shaky voice, trying to hide his pain and tears of sadness.

“P-promise me one th-thing. B-be a good police officer, u-unlike me…

And s-save that girl”.

~

“That’s an interesting story”.

Hyeri took a sip of her Fanta after she said those words and wiped off with her sleeve. Jungkook hummed in response as he leaned back against the cold wall. It was 2 AM and Jungkook has been accompanying Hyeri in the cage for already 3 hours. Jungkook tiredly yawned as he stretched his arms.

Hyeri looked at him with a weak smile. “If you’re tired, you can leave you know?”, Hyeri said as she also leaned back against the cold wall, letting out a sigh as she stared at the grey bars of the cage. Jungkook let out a chuckle as he put down his beverage.  Jungkook honestly didn’t want to leave the cage. He actually liked sitting here, talking with Hyeri about some random or whatsoever. Jungkook even told Hyeri about why and how he became a police officer. Nobody, except for Taehyung, knew about the story of his uncle. Yet here he was, trusting Hyeri out of nowhere and telling her the story of his past. He did not know why, but there was something about this girl that made him… Very comfortable.

“I’m cool. Besides, I’d still talk to you if I would be out of this cage. Being on night shift is kind of… boring”, Jungkook chuckled as he turned his head to Hyeri. Hyeri just nodded in response slowly.

“By the way, the moment before your uncle died, he was saying something about this girl that you had to save?”, Hyeri asked as she turned her body to the officer, looking him in the eyes now. Jungkook raised his brows questioningly and just nodded in response. “Yeah.. What about that?”.

Hyeri shifted her eyes away for a nanosecond, before shifting them back to the officer again. “Well, have you found her already?”, Hyeri asked curiously as she unconsciously moved closer towards Jungkook. Jungkook noticed this and suddenly got a bit nervous as she came closer, but he eventually tried to get rid of his nervousness as he cleared his throat and tried to think of a good answer to her question.

“No, I haven’t. To be honest, I don’t even know which girl he was talking about. I don’t know her name, her whereabouts…”. Jungkook paused his words for a timid second as he just blankly stared into space, suddenly feeling this sad and empty feeling in his chest.

Jungkook let out a huge sigh before going on. “I don’t even know if this girl is still alive… All I know is that she has been –or still is- a victim of this mysterious murderer case my uncle was investigating”. Jungkook then let out a chuckle, making Hyeri raise her brows questioningly.

“Sadly, this case costed my uncle his life…”, Jungkook whispered softly, but loud enough so that Hyeri could hear everything.

Hyeri suddenly felt bad for the police officer next to her. Although she had a horrible past herself, Officer Jeon’s past was just as bad as hers. Hyeri suddenly felt this… ‘bond’ with the officer. She knew that, if she would tell him her story, he’d understand. He would probably understand why her perfect and happy life from three years ago turned into a rotten one like this.

“Do you want to hear my story?”, Hyeri suddenly started to speak. Jungkook jolted out of his daze as he looked up to Hyeri, meeting her brown, slight watery orbs which somehow managed to make him a little bit nervous.

Hyeri actually wanted to ask further. What case his uncle was investigating, why he was murdered, and most of all: this mysterious girl Officer Jeon had to ‘save’. Was she still in danger because of this? And why was she even in danger? Hyeri did not know why, but she had this curiosity about the officer’s past.

However, Hyeri eventually decided not to ask further. Besides, it was none of her business. But she was wondering why the officer was telling her about his past. She met him only today and they were already talking like they have known eachother for years. Not that she minded. Hyeri somehow felt comfortable talking to a ‘stranger’ like this. A ‘stranger’ that apparently opened up very easily.

Maybe it was her turn to open up towards people too. And maybe this was her chance to do so.

“Do you want to know the reason… why I turned into this?”, Hyeri asked as she pointed to herself. Jungkook slowly furrowed his brows, wondering why she was so negative about herself. Okay, this girl had a criminal record and did several wrongdoings in the past, but Jungkook somehow still thought this girl was okay.

“What’s wrong with being like who you are now?”, Jungkook asked curiously as he picked up his beverage and gulped down the cold and fresh liquid.

“What? Did you just really ask me that?”, Hyeri laughed out loud as she looked at him like he got crazy. Jungkook just shrugged as he took another big gulp until the can was empty. Hyeri just stared at the officer gulping down his coke as she let out a huge sigh, leaning back against the wall and closing her eyes for a moment.

“Officer Jeon, you saw the information in that database of yours. I’m a criminal. I do things I’m not supposed to do at this young age”, Hyeri softly said as she opened her eyes again, now turning them to Jungkook, who was looking at her with his soft, dark-brown orbs. When she looked into his orbs, Hyeri felt this weird sparkle inside of her that she hadn’t felt since she had this silly crush on a guy in middle school. She decided to ignore the sparky feeling in her stomach before going on.

“Like, I steal things. I gamble, I negotiate with gangsters for money. OH, and don’t forget the gun incident!”, Hyeri said as she counted her wrongdoings on her small fingers. Jungkook shifted his eyes to her fingers as he listened to her words. It was just now that he noticed her fingers were pale to the fullest, and that’s when he knew her hands were really cold. Jungkook had to resist the urge not to touch her fingers and to warm them up.

“Yeah..”, Jungkook sighed, trying to find an answer. Something that he could say to the girl. To convince her that she was not that bad at all. However, before he could even think of this, Hyeri started to sp