— For jelly_beanie123
    Thanks for reading my story and voting on it, it actually motivated me to start writing again🤗—
    

Jake woke up to the sound of the alarm on his phone. It was half past six.
His therapist had advised him on his very first session to adopt healthy habits. He had initially decided against it, but Mihee had tried hard to coerce him into following his suggestions. He didn't know why, but it was hard to say no to her.

He got out of his bed, his eyes half shut as he groggily made his way to the bathroom. He brushed his teeth and took a quick shower, heading out for breakfast.

Jake had always been a light eater. He didn't really care about food. For him, it had always been a single cup of rice coupled with ox bone soup for breakfast, no side dishes included. He finished his meal and impulsively picked up his phone.

Just like food, social media wasn't his thing either. The only social networking site he operated happened to be ktalk, and his profile wouldn't have existed there too if it wasn't for school and college  chat rooms. He didn't understand the hype behind sharing every single detail of his life and interacting with people all day long.

People are scary.

A person killed his eomma.

He took a deep inhale and counted till ten before exhaling, just like his therapist had advised him to. He kept scrolling through old text messages and smiling as his eyes skimmed through the hilarious exchanges between him and his friends.

DETECTIVE AHN : Jaeyun ssi

Huh?

Jake clicked on the notification.

DETECTIVE AHN is typing...

DETECTIVE AHN : We need you to be there at the station right now.
JAKE : Alright. Am I also supposed to bring my friends with me for investigation like you had told me to ?
DETECTIVE AHN : You don't need to call your friends, Mr. Shim. They're already here.

Huh?

His thumbs hovered over his keypad, wondering how to respond. But he didn't have to think of one.
Another text from Detective Ahn popped up.

DETECTIVE AHN : We require you to be here urgently as well. Please reach as soon as possible. Thanks.

Hadn't he interrogated him yesterday itself? What more did he want? Was he still under the impression that he could be the one to have killed his own mother?

DETECTIVE AHN : Like I had told you before, I'm going to be interrogating your friends as well. They're already here with me. Please get here as soon as you can. Thanks.

Oh.

Of course.

Either Ahn had entered a different level of enlightenment or he had earned a habit of repeating himself.

I get that my friends are there with you, thank you very much, he grunted.
Jake made his way to the shoe rack and pulled out a pair of sneakers, the very first one his hands laid on. He absentmindedly tugged at the laces and tied them, oblivious to the fact that what he had probably done right now would be considered nothing short of a crime by Jay.

He wore his cap and his mask, his hands hovered over the sunglasses but he decided against it.

'Me gustan tus ojos,' Mihee said in heavily accented Korean, her cheeks slightly flushed pink, her eyes averting away from Jake's whenever they met.
'What does that mean?,' he scrunched his eyebrows quizzically, looking her up and down.
Mihee giggled.
'Yah did you catch the mad cow disease or something?'
She shoved him. 'I hate you. You're annoying.'
'Likewise,' Jake scoffed.
Thirteen year old Mihee left, her high ponytail bobbing up and down as she walked. Jake didn't think she'd get this upset.
'Yah Mihee! I was joking!,' he scurried behind her, 'I'm sorry!,' he cried.

He chuckled. Mihee got upset really easily, but at the same time, it was so easy to win her over. She was just like that, just so cute.

Wait. Mihee is cute?
Since when?

He laughed nervously, scratching his head as his cheeks turned pink.

Mihee when she was thirteen. She was cute. All kids are cute. She was a kid. A cute kid.

'Gosh what the fuck am I thinking about!,' he held his head in hands and punched himself to senses.
'There must've been something in that ox bone soup,' he grumbled.
Or maybe I'm an idiot who has weird random scenarios in his head for thoughts.

He shook his head and continued to head out, bowing to the guard as left.
'Jake nim, wait!,' Hong ahjussi called after him.
'Yes?'
'Uhm...I don't know about the fashion these days, but er...I don't think...'
'Don't think what, ahjussi?'
The middle aged man said nothing. Jake followed his gaze to his sneakers. He slapped his forehead with his palm. 'Oh shit.'

If Jake was a famous celebrity this would've turned into a fashion trend and he would be a fashion icon. But unfortunately, that wasn't the case, so he just looked like a retard instead.

'Fuck I'm just gonna go and chance,' he rushed back in, wearing a different pair, trying his best to ignore the gardener and Hong ahjussi breaking into fits of gale. He dashed back out, this time actually wearing "a pair" instead of wearing two different shoes.

He reached the police station. He took off his mask.
'Detective Ahn,' he mouthed to the receptionist. She pointed to the left.

He entered the room nonchalantly. It had become a routine now, his visits to the police station. Jake didn't know if it was a good or bad. Did it mean they were getting closer to the killer or did it really mean as Detective Ahn had once quoted, that they were trying to find a needle in a haystack ?

'Good Morning, Mr. Shim. I'm Wang Li, and I'll be taking over this case from now on,' Jake found himself standing in front of a tall, graceful woman with striking black eyes. She shook his hand and smiled a close lipped, jaunty smile.
'Uhm, what about Detective Ahn?,' he quipped almost immediately.
Wang's smile faded. 'He'll be looking into the case as well, of course. But I will lead the investigation from now on. As you know, I found a lot of loopholes in the investigation conducted by the Korean Police Department and I'm here to rectify those.'

Jake didn't know there was a patriot inside him. Either that, or he has just grown slightly attached to Ahn, much to his dismay.
'Thanks to our low crime rates, the police don't have much work to do, you know,' he retorted.
'Anyways,' she spoke in heavily accented Korean, completely ignoring Jake's previous statement. 'I think we'll have to start from scratch.'

Huh?

Author's Note

Start from scratch what? 🤔
And yes guys, I'm back. Sorry if I kept you waiting for long 😅

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