„We are seeing each other only in unforeseen situations and damn… interesting, in my opinion,” said Lee in a cheerful voice, seeing Kan entering his office, even if who called him had been Kan’s boss, telling him that „a new job showed up at the horizon and that he has to catch those involved in that job on the hip or him, Han DooSan, forgets about everything and everybody, even that he is working for the law’s side, and becomes a criminal.”

„I am more tempted to say that who brought these problems over us has been you, Captain Lee,” answered Kan in the same demanding voice and somehow ironically too, just as he used actually to talk to someone each time he was feeling as being „stubbed” by that person’s words. „Not the other, but since Gu SilGi’s case, I feel that problems hover around us as if we are an open honey jar, right in the middle of the Prosecution and just to attract more flies, and the one who brought that bait there has been also you, Captain.” Then, Kan thew, on the desk, in front of Lee, a pile of photos with SolHi’s „fly.” „I want him alive! To let him without his head… we’ll be my pleasure,” Kan added.

Lee stared at Kan for a few seconds. Then, he took those photos in his hands and started to look carefully at them. „Who’s the guy?” he eventually asked.

„Well, this is your job, Captain… to find out his name, for… I don’t think that you have been named the Captain of the Organized Crime Group for nothing.”

Lee tsk-ed through his teeth, for Kan’s „bite” wasn’t something he liked: „I see that Han DooSan educated you well. Damn fighting dogs he has.”

„And if you want to have one with the same sharp fangs and damn loyal, I suggest you do me that favor to get the „fly.” I’ll take care of the rest.”

„The favor? To you? I thought that who needs this job is Han DooSan,” said Lee, leaving the photos to fall through his fingers. Then, he supported his elbows on that desk and later he laid his chest on them, and stared at Kan insistently.

„Let’s say that this is a favor that satisfies us both.”

„In which way? I mean… If I might know, of course,” asked Lee, turning that curious glance into a suspicious one, for even if he was more curious than suspicious, he couldn’t ignore his inner „doubtful dwarf,” that was all the time whispering in his ear to keep on Kan’s toes. And all that „curiosity” started to be felt more intensely since he saw the photos of the „fly,” and, among them, he saw SolHi, who was dressed differently in those photos. But even so, he recognized her as being part of the „bulldog DooSan’s team.” And that „bulldog DooSan” was Lee’s joke for DooSan since he was a little child, for Lee and DooSan’s father used to be very good friends, and even if for others that „bulldog” nickname could be something frustrating, it was of no offense for DooSan. More: these kinds of „jokes” were welcome between the prosecutor and the captain, helping them to be each time closer to each other.

„I can tell you only one thing related to my „request,” as I’m sure that you saw her in those photos: Ian SolHi!”

„DooSan’s partner?! But… I don’t understand what she has to do with this guy, who you asked me to investigate. More than that: I knew her as being more standoffish and not wearing such… clothes,” added Lee, a hint to how he saw her in those photos: using maquillage and a mini dress.

Feeling as if he was interrogated, Kan made a wry face and, even if he hated such kind of conversation, he decided eventually to give some details to Lee, for he realized that without them the captain won’t help them with that case. So, Kan sat down on one of the chairs found in front of the captain’s desk, and, half-heartedly, he snarled through his teeth: „Of course, this isn’t her… style. Let’s say that he was forced to use… such things.”

„Forced? In which way?” asked Lee, standing up and taking a few steps through his office. „Operative?”

„Bingo! Actually, it wasn’t our, but… we have been involved in it, eventually.”

„And you said that’s my fault,” mumbled Lee, but when he saw Kan’s squint at him, he grinned: „keep going! I just… said so.”

„The name of that „fly” is Do Hun Sok. 30 years old. But… even if we thought that we knew everything about him… it was just a big lie, for all the information we found about him in the police database was false and, eventually, we got to the same point from where we started: with nothing in our hands.”

„Hm, interesting! Continue!”

„The one who took actually care to everything be just a „masquerade” has been Nam Yun Ho.”

„The detective from Gi’s group?”

„Yeah, and we all found out in amazement eventually that his priority wasn’t to help the police, but himself: he tried to physically abuse SolHi tonight. And… we understood that all this operative has been well-planned just to attract SolHi in his trap, for he set his cap at SolHi since long ago. Actually, we grabbed him tonight in a motel room when he tried to hurt detective Ian after kidnaping her.”

„Ow, wait a minute! All this seems SF to me: kidnap, abuse, criminal organization and group… and all this inside the police department.”

„Trust me: I’m the same or even more dumbstruck than you are.”

„But… if you are here, this means you couldn’t find out anything from him.”

„Right! He decided that’s the perfect time to keep guard over his tongue! But… he’ll talk, eventually. I’ll take care of this. What bothers me even more than what happened tonight is this,” and Kan showed Lee a message received from SolHi: „sombe, the basement.”

„The basement?! And what is this supposed to be?”

„I have no idea, just as I don’t know how can we find out this.”

„Simple: talking to detective Ian,” Lee tried to be „smart,” but Kan rewarded him with another snarl. „I got it: there not possible right now.”

„True, for after this message, both prosecutor Han and SolHi vanished: as if swallowed by earth - their phones are turned off and they… gone.”

„Kidnap?”

„No, I don’t think so, for… the problem is that SolHi vanished after the operative, being under the drugs’influence, and prosecutor Han was trying to find her.”

„Whaaat?” squawked Lee, almost splitting Kan’s ears. „Drugs? And… how the hell you could let her…?”

„And do you think we knew that? We found out that she has been drugged after she was already gone. But… try to catch her, if you know where she is and, as I know SolHi and after everything that happened to her, we won’t ever find her. Only if she decides to turn back and… God knows when this will happen.”

Suddenly, Lee became incredulous, for everything he heard from Kan seemed thumping to him. So, he took his phone out of his pocket and called DooSan. But… the voicemail entered, asking him to let a message after the signal and, before hanging up, he mumbled something unpleasantly about DooSan.

Kan smiled instead: „incredulous, huh?!”

„What about you? Would you have believed this if being me? One makes a strange phone call, telling me that if I don’t help him, he becomes a criminal and then vanishes, another one comes to my office and shows me the photos of a „fly” and talks through his hat as if writing a detective novel, to finally find out that are two people missing… drugs involved… and a corrupt policeman that has been arrested into a two-penny motel for intending to abuse his colleague.”

„And to be your story even more spice, I serve you another meal with fresh meat,” Kan snarled again through his teeth and threw another photo, which he took out of his jacket pocket, in front of Lee.

Lee glanced at it, thinking that it was another photo like those already seen. But he right away wide-opened his eyes and mouth, seeing, in that photo, the same young woman SolHi saw unconscious on that floor, but the victim wasn’t anymore in that basement, but inside of a big trashcan, wrapped into a carpet, and only her bloody head was seen uncovered.

„Well?! Did this make you really curious?! If so, what about starting to work?!” Kan teased the captain, standing up and looking at Lee, who continued to stare at that photo. Then, without saying a word, Lee wrote a message in a hurry: „Everybody to the meeting room! Now!” and, taking all the photos with him, he left his office.

Kan looked for a few seconds behind him, but he didn’t follow the captain earlier than about 2 minutes after when he left the office with his hands stuck into his pockets and just whistling Past the graveyard.

***

„We all burnt out and damn well,” Gi mumbled, passing his fingers through his hair, tangling it even worse than it was already. Then, he looked around at all that hustle and bustle, for the crime with the young lady, found in the trashcan and wrapped in a carpet, was also given to him, and along with her criminal, he had to find Nam Yun Ho’s partner too, who vanished after SolHi entered the club to be kidnaped later.

„And you have it well deserved,” Kan told him in a hissing voice, for since SolHi had been hurt by Nam Yun Ho after she had been involved in that operative thanks to Gi, he started to hold a grudge with him. „If you had cleaned the mess in your own team, we wouldn’t have gotten here,” he added, approaching Gi and the rest of his team from the left, on that narrow and dark street where the young lady’s body was found in the trashcan. „News?”

„Yeah… that you’re blowing down my neck worse than ever these days,” Gi answered him, also hissing through his teeth, furious that Kan made him the only scapegoat eventually.

„I have known this since long ago, actually. But… I was asking about the dead one: did you find out who she is?”

„No, but… to be honest, I would have definitely liked to see your snout there instead of that girl’s. I would have breathed a sigh of relief, thus,” Gi said feisty and turned his back on Kan.

„I also think so, but… you won’t have ever this pleasure. At least not that soon,” said Kan in a sure voice. Then, he sweetly yawned and, also with his hands stuck into his pockets, he followed Gi, who was heading toward the CNS group that was looking around at the tires’marks left on the asphalt, at the crossroad.

„No cameras… no witnesses… no light,” mumbled Kan feisty, looking around and seeing almost everything sunken into darkness and understanding that one could have stubbed his own eye with his finger if not for the lights installed there by the policemen and the forensic.

Gi suddenly stopped, hearing Kan mumbling. Then, he turned on his heels and rushed toward Kan, as if intending to attack him, and this made Kan also stop, staring at his old partner and not understand what the hell was he planning.

Only one step from Kan, Gi stopped and, slowly bending toward him, getting his face closer to Kan’s, Gi snarled as if they were just two dogs preparing for a fight and showing their fangs to each other: „don’t you have anything else better to do than to follow me everywhere? We also know that there’s no camera, no witness, and that’s darker than inside of a grave, idiot. And… to be everything worse: we have you blowing down our necks.”

„If you say so: what I think is that having me here means luck.”

„Really?! And… may I know where that luck comes from?”

„From here!” Kan said calmly and smiling, showing Gi a text message received from Lee: „we’ll be there in five minutes!”

„Captain Lee?” Gi asked, confused. „What the hell is he doing here?”

„It seems that the dead one is from his group.”

„What?” squawked Gi. „The dead one is part of the Organized Crime Group?”

„Not really. Let’s say that she has only been… hired by them or „convinced” to work for them. But… she hasn’t been lucky if they found her like that eventually.”

„Mda… now I understand why that idiot didn’t fall for So: he knew that they were followed.”

„It seems so. And… right from the beginning, actually, for it seems to me that Nam Yun Ho was who ordered them to choose her as a victim and not she chose him as we thought. And… talking about choosing someone: I think that there’s one more person involved in this.”

„Someone else? Like?”

„Min SinJu!”

„Come on, Kan! I don’t think that Min SinJu is that stupid to attack SolHi so openly! More after her mother was found dead a few days ago only and that she suspected that he was involved in this. More than that: SolHi wasn’t involved in this operation right from the beginning. It happened because she and prosecutor Han came to that gym where we kept an eye on that idiot.”

„Maybe is like you say, but… I’m sure that your idiot knew who SolHi was right from the beginning.”

„And wherefrom did you find out this one? Again, your lonely wolf nose?! If so… take it easy, man! And… to be honest, I think that’s the time to get rid of that nose. Not the other, but… if it had worked as you brag, SolHi wouldn’t have gotten ever in this trouble, and you wouldn’t have made me the only scapegoat for this.”

„Listen, Gi… I won’t deny that you stuck in my craw after tonight. Yet… after the talk I had with Captain Lee and his team, I made some conclusions.”

„Conclusions? Like?”

„The basement! We must find that basement about which SolHi told me in that text message, and if we find it, I’m sure that we can find some hints that Min SinJu is involved in this, too. And if this turns to be true, I assure you that I’ll twist that cobra’s neck, with my empty hands by the way.”

„Stay in line!” the two detectives heard Lee’s voice behind them, and when they turned and looked back, they saw Lee approaching them along with a big guy, named Buffalo, whose blue eyes made him seem really adorable.

***

A drop fell on the floor. Then… another one… and another one, making that brown floor, discolored by time and by so many soles that stepped on it, be colored into a bright red, into a bloody red.

And those drops that were falling on that floor were dropping from DooSan’s hand, who was supporting his back against the bed, sat on the same floor colored by his blood while SolHi was sleeping, with the head laid on his chest and looking as if being from another world.

Suddenly, he came to his senses from that short lethargy, feeling a sharp pain in his hand. So, he looked at his left hand and he saw a deep cut on his palm while not far from them was a broken soju bottle.

Actually, DooSan broke that bottle, but not intentionally, for when he saw SolHi ready to jump through that open window and to end with her sufferance that made her feel no life in her chest, he felt that he loses his mind and, throwing himself over her to grab her hand, because of inertia, after pulling her toward him, they both fell on the floor and, on the way down, DooSan supported his palm on that bottle that broke into pieces because of the hit and cut his palm thus.

„Damn it!” murmured DooSan, seeing that the bleeding didn't stop. So, he squeezed his palm into a fist, trying at least to slow down that bleeding.

He winced instead, feeling SolHi moving at his chest and he right away looked at her, thinking that she awoke.

SolHi instead was still asleep, even if she had a tormented sleep, and this was seen as she was squeezing her fists and biting her lips, almost to the blood.

But… she was fine! She was safe… at his chest, and the fact that he could avoid a tragedy made DooSan feel that they’ll make it eventually.

„She’ll be fine!” DooSan finally murmured. „Tomorrow is another day!” he added and he touched SolHi’s head with his palm, gently pressing it to his chest, and later he kissed the top of her head: for long, with love, with fear, grateful that she was at that moment with him, breathing, for he thought that he’ll lose her that night, that they’ll lose their minds eventually, just as everything will be lost after that night.

God instead seemed to love him, and this was all that mattered: that they were both safe at that moment.

Then, he heard someone’s footsteps rushing on the corridor’s floor, and DooSan understood that the receptionist was finally turning back, for he saw when DooSan cut his palm and ran out of the room to bring the first-aid kit. A quarter an hour later, he wasn’t yet back.

„I’m sorry, prosecutor,” the young man mumbled, entering the room, and running. „I couldn’t find it as easily as I thought, for…,” but he kept silent, seeing DooSan motioning not to talk because this could awake SolHi, for DooSan was afraid that if she’s awake, it’ll be difficult to control her and God knows what she could do eventually.

„It’s fine so,” DooSan told the receptionist, seeing him looking for something else than bandages and some overdue liniment that was seen in that first-aid kit. „Give me only the bandage! I’ll take care of the rest.” Then, he supported SolHi’s head against the bed and bandaged his injured hand.

Meanwhile, the receptionist stood, only two steps from DooSan, and stared at how fast he was bandaging his palm. Then, that young man about 20 looked at SolHi’s asleep face and saw her making a wry face while sleeping and this amazed him so much, for he had thought that she wasn’t more than another woman that used to spend some time in their motel: lonely, unhappy, that used to drink a lot.

He had been wrong instead and he had understood this only when DooSan knocked on the window of his „office,” which was situated in the hotel corridor, barely breathing and squeezing a photo in his hand.

„Tell me that… tell me she’s here… for…,” DooSan mumbled between an avalanche of hissing breathe, for from the parking lot till the motel, about two blocks away, he ran, and he felt that his heart was almost to leave his chest and that all the air of the world was forbidden to him and when he finally found that air, he rushed to inhale it as if being a healing breeze.

The receptionist instead hadn’t understood a big deal from DooSan’s mumbling and was staring at him with wide-open eyes, thinking that the man in front of him, that was staring at him with frightened eyes, asking for hope from him, was just a simple crazy man that entered that motel by accident.

Only when DooSan stuck SolHi’s photo on the window, the young man had understood that it wasn’t madness seen in DooSan’s eyes, but fear: to lose someone and that’s why he ran all way there.

„Yes. She’s here. She stayed in the motel about two hours ago,” the receptionist mumbled, still staring at the photo and finally recognizing in that photo the young woman that owed him money for the rent and who came there with a lot of soju bottles. „She’s in the 403.”

DooSan instead didn’t stay to wait for more explanations. He right away ran along the corridor, looking for the door with the 403 number on it. The numbers instead were „dancing” in front of his eyes instead and, not being able to see them, made him feel that he was losing his mind.

„It’s not here! It’s the second floor,” the receptionist shouted at him, being next to the stairs and waiting for DooSan to come to his senses from that turmoil, and, after DooSan got next to him, they rushed up the stairs.

In front of the 403 room, they stumbled against a new barrier: the door was locked from inside and the receptionist told DooSan, in a half-shaking voice, when DooSan shouted to him to bring the key: „there’s only one, and that single key is inside the room, with the client, for…,” he winced instead when DooSan kicked eventually that door, making it hit the wall. And this happened exactly when they heard SolHi’s shout to be left alone.

„No word about this to anyone,” DooSan told him in a demanding voice after he finished bandaging his hand. Then, he took the wallet out of his pocket, gave the receptionist a good tip, and, taking SolHi into his arms, he rushed to leave the room.

At first, the receptionist stared in amazement at DooSan, who rushed to leave that place as if being cursed. Then, the receptionist looked at all those bottles still unopened that were seen on the floor, and mumbled: „and the rest? What the hell to do with the rest?” But he had no choice but to clean the traces of that unpleasant event and to forget what he saw. That’s why he took the bag seen on the floor, the same bag SolHi used to bring those bottles there and started to put the bottles inside it, as if he was trying thus to wash the shame of the past, hiding under the door mat those empty bottles which had been used by someone just to simple drown his pain in their content.

***

The hissing breathing of someone, who deeply breathed in, was heard around as if that person kept the air inside his chest for long to let it exit his body later, through his nostrils, when he finally felt his heart madly beating inside his chest.

And namely, that whistle made DooSan wince and glance frightened around. He calmed down instead when he saw that they were still in the emergency room and that it was SolHi who had a hissing breath while being asleep.

„I just fell asleep,” mumbled DooSan, breathing a sigh of relief and sitting again on the same chair that was next to him. After that, he took SolHi’s hand into his as if being afraid not to lose her again.

SolHi instead didn’t run: she was sleeping for about two hours already and this was a good sign as the doctor told him. More, it was good for DooSan, who had been damn scared by her twice that night: first - inside of the motel when she tried to jump through the window, and secondly - being already outside of the motel while heading toward the car.

It was then when SolHi suddenly awoke and slapped his arm to let her down. Then, when her soles finally touched the ground, she ran toward the bushes, covering her mouth with her palm. After that, it took her about five minutes to feel her stomach release.

DooSan approached her while she was vomiting and slowly tapped her back, trying to calm her down, and that kind of helping someone, DooSan learned from YuSan, who taught him how a man that suffers after a good drunk must be helped.

But his attempt of calming her down failed, for SolHi suddenly started to hissingly breathe and touch her throat with both palms as if trying to push someone’s hands away, someone who seemed to have strangulating her at that moment, blocking her pipes. Then… the nightmare came: feeling that she can't breathe, SolHi stretched both hands toward him and when she felt his arms with her palms, she started to squeeze them, asking for mercy while her body was shaking hard and this made DooSan think that it was her end for sure.

But… it wasn’t, for right away the ambulance came and the paramedics checked her, they told him that SolHi just had a panic attack and that she’ll be alright.

„Thank God,” murmured DooSan being already in the hospital and the doctor told him that the analysis is good and that it isn’t as bad as they thought at first.

Actually, what Doosan had been so afraid of was that SolHi had mixed the drugs with the alcohol, with a lot of alcohol as he saw on that motel… all those empty bottles on the floor. But it turned out to be just fear and nothing more.

„She had luck,” the doctor said while checking the blood results. „She drank that alcohol about two hours after they gave her the drugs. Thus, the doses weren’t that big, for if she had consumed that alcohol right after they gave her the drugs, then… she would have died for sure.”

„She would have…,” this was what mattered for DooSan, for this meant the „past,” that she was already safe, that he was with her, and that he could take care of her to recover after that nightmare.

But… DooSan was yet aware that it could have ended tragically and this was only because he ignored SolHi’s feelings, and some other important details.

„I should have not allowed you to enter that operative,” murmured DooSan, caressing her hair. „I should have taken care of you more. But… there’s no lost time. Not yet.”

He remained with the hand hanging in the air eventually when, looking at SolHi, he saw her eyes opened, staring thunderstruck at him as if she didn’t expect to see him there, and the fact that she opened so suddenly her eyes made him feel as if caught red-handed.

He came to his senses right away and withdrew his hand, clearing his voice to win some time. Then, he looked elsewhere, mumbling: „are you awake now?”

„Mmm,” SolHi mumbled and forced herself to sit. Her eyes instead were still focused on DooSan, for she found his behavior damn weird. Especially she considered weird the fact that he was caressing her hair. „Why are we here?” she finally asked, when she understood where they were.

„Just… a panic attack,” DooSan rushed to tell her while looking all over, but not at her. „But… you are fine now. And the doctor says that we can go as soon as you will be awake.”

„I’m already awake,” SolHi slammed the words, staring at him.

„Well… you’re right!” mumbled DooSan, suddenly standing up. „Let’s go then!” taking the blanket off her legs and, grabbing her arm, he tried to help her to stand up.

Upset, SolHi glanced at him: „do I look like a child?”

„No, but… let’s not tempt fate,” he said, forcing her to stand up eventually, helped by him. „You are leaving the hospital eventually, after a panic attack. I can’t be… indifferent,” he mumbled, staring elsewhere, for he didn’t know why, but he felt SolHi’s eyes focused on him and her glance was somehow burning him inside, making him feel guilty.