“I’m surprised you answered my text so rapidly. I never knew you would be the type of person to do that since you’re a very busy guy,” Bryan said as he casually leaned back on the bean bag chair and took a sip of his warm glass of green tea.
Jimin, on the other hand, was rubbing his hands firmly and kept his forlorn gaze on the table, gulping anxiously till he started to talk in a whisper. “I’ve been having dreams lately. Actually, it’s been going for quite a long time and I’ve become restless…”
“I see. What are they about?” Bryan asked.
Jimin blew the air out for a few seconds to process his thinking. He dropped his head down in stillness, saying. “My high school past.”
“Ah, it should be fine. You know, to live like a rebellious teenager,” Bryan shrugged.
“No, it’s not… I wasn’t a very good kid at all. I may be smart and a top-class president, but I did some horrible things to my classmates, my best friend Tae, and-”
“Wait. You’re telling me that you were-” Bryan knitted his eyebrows in alarm
“That’s right. I was once a bully,” Jimin admitted and continued on. “You see, there was this girl and I can’t remember her name, except her face. She was a new student when she transferred to my school and Taehyung was the first one to approach her out of all students there. We introduced ourselves to her and became friends. During those days, we hung out after school, then things had altered for me where I began to make fun of her looks, ripping off her music sheets, letting my new group of friends assault her, and spreading rumors. Looking back to it, I never had a shred of guilt until now… Every dream is the same repetitive dream I have about her and they’re haunting me…”
“Do you try to, at least, write them down or figure out that maybe those dreams can somehow be sending you messages? Because if that’s the case, maybe it’s a sign…” Bryan pointed out.
“I-I… I don’t know,” Jimin stammered faintly, grabbing his face to ponder.
“Have you ever thought of forgiveness?” Bryan queried, but Jimin only frowned, which he scoffed and shook his head in disbelief. “You never did, huh?”
“How can I? I don’t think I can find her anymore. Even if I show myself, she would be utterly disgusted by seeing me.”
“Let’s not make assumptions about that. She may have forgiven you or forgotten you.”
Jimin exhaled a long breath and massaged his knuckles. “So what now?”
“You should be asking yourself that because it seems very important to you,” Bryan said.
“What about your friend, Valerie? Did you find her?” Jimin wondered.
“Umm…” Bryan paused to get up from his chair and went over to his computer desk. He clicked on the folders that contained all the files from recent to previous. The documents popped up on the screen, depicting the pictures, symbols, and words being outlined with red arrows and circles. “I’ve collected the faces of every suspect, our allies, and the places we’ve encountered. So far, there’s not a single trace left of Valerie and I’ve asked the officials, even the Seventeen members if they know or have seen her, but still nothing.”
Jimin softened his melancholic eyes a bit and offered by saying. “I can help you…”
“You will?” Bryan lit up in astonishment.
“Yeah, because she’s the one who brought my group back together when we shunned her out. I was rude to her the first time you both came here and I sincerely owe her,” Jimin stated, biting his lip with a frown.
“I feel the same as you. I’m sure all of them do,” Bryan said and continued to scroll the screen moderately. "Man, looking at these makes me want to shave my hair bald."
“You interrogated EXO and GOT7 before?”
“Hmm. Why?”
“It’s just-” the phone suddenly rang in Jimin’s back pocket where he pulled it out to answer. “Hello?”
“Ah! Chim, I want to inform you that your next meeting will be scheduled for next week. I will send out the list of what you and your members will be doing,” a male voice said happily with a formal tone.
“What kind of meeting is it?” Jimin asked monotonously.
“An expert trainer will be talking to you about fitness and wellness,” he said.
“Didn’t we have that twice?”
“Then, what do you suggest, Park?”
“I was thinking we could do something fun. You know, play ping pong against each player,” Jimin pointed out.
“That is fine, but again, we will still have to discuss and share your idea with them. Don’t be late. You know the drill. Bye, bye,” Mr. Si-hyuk apprised briefly.
“Bye, PD,” he said and ended the call with a beep sound. He pressed his lips into a thin line in thought. “I’ve got to go. I’m all beat today. I’ll visit sometime right after next week.”
“No problem,” Bryan nodded as he watched him exit the door. He wheeled around to face his computer and scrutinized one of the document cases about EXO & GOT7. The crimes were listed in eighteen pages and he took a little while to reflect.
The moment where he got shot and fought Sehun’s subordinates off on the Yangyang Express highway left him mortified. And the worst part is, he didn’t listen to the simple advice in the Floralistique shop. He had only one job and that was to watch over his best friend, but failed.
He always has a conjecture on how Mr. Daechi knew that it was going to happen. Bryan assumed that the old man had an intuition when he stared at him and Valerie solicitously. Still, it is an obscure thing which he can’t brush aside.
He’s in gear between his part-time work and the unsolved cases and is planning to visit some of his acquaintances by next week.
A text tone shortly alerted him as he read the message from his girlfriend, Ava.
“In the next couple days…” she smiled with a secret wink.
Bryan was a little puzzled since she doesn’t know what kind of surprise she will be giving him. He swiftly dismissed it and just resumed his probe.
The police station was constructed into three subdivision floors and Mr. Reen, the head chief of the police department, was striding carefully to scrutinize each cell. He then stopped by near the door to face the window and pulled the handle open. His footsteps made a clunking noise that caught the others' attention. He pursed his lips and began to talk.
“Gentlemen, your appointment with Bryan will be held in a couple of days. As of now, I will let you off the hook, but you will still be put under the surveillance camera,” he informed when he was observing back and forth. However, none of them made a response, so he assumed that they did. He gestured to them to stand up before he huffed under his breath by watching them shuffle out. “Lucky chumps. Let’s see if you behave nicely this time.”
They all rolled their eyes at him dully and kept nudging their shoulders away from the securities’ hands.
“Just what are we needed for?” Mark mumbled.
“Another duty to clean up shit?” Youngjae guessed.
“Again? Boring…” Yugyeom said.
“Whatever. I just want to get this over with and go back to my sleep,” Jin-young grumbled.
“That’s a bummer because we got to stay up the whole night to do work,” Jay B stated.
“Insomnia is indeed a harrow,” Yugyeom noted.
“At this point, we might as well get used to it,” Bambam said.
“Don’t tell me you’re actually comfortable with this,” Youngjae scowled in disgust.
“Hey, I’m willing to accept anything that goes on in our life,” Bambam shrugged calmly.
“Boys. Stay where you are,” the first security guard instructed.
“Why?” Mark questioned skeptically.
“There’s someone waiting for you,” the second security guard noted.
“Who?” Jin-young asked blankly as they were all standing in the same area until their eyes widened on the person they were awestruck to see.
“No…” Mark gaped his mouth open in shock.
“Miss me, assholes?”
He slicked his hair to the side as the sunglasses were removed and clipped onto his white collar shirt. He gripped onto his dark blazer suit with cunning, sharp-witty eyes and smirk that were both displayed across his face.
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Jackson Wang.417Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk5oFqBKZgO
