Close To Midnight

Chapter 13

Nayeon sat back against the seat, arms around Mina who had her eyes fluttered shut. The slow rising and falling of her chest told her that the younger girl had fallen asleep. Jihyo raised one of her eyebrows and suppressed a smirk as they got out of the car. Nayeon looked absolutely lost with the feather weight bundle in her arms. Like an animal that didn't know what to do with a human who had fallen into their territory.

"We can't just leave her alone." Min-Jun noted as Nayeon deposited Mina gently on the couch. There were two rooms in the flat. Going by the nearly arranged room on one side and cluttered one on the other side he knew the girl shared the flat with someone chaotic.

"Should we wait for her flatmate to return?" Chiho asked, a faint crease forming between his eyebrows as he observed Mina. The girl was injured, the neighbourhood was questionable, they couldn't just leave her alone with the door unlocked. He was a henchman but he also had some humanity left in him, something he was positive Nayeon was far removed from.

"We can't." Nayeon scratched the side of her chin. They had a task set for the night. Jung-Hoo wouldn't be too happy if they missed it.

Jihyo tilted her head to the side. A thoughtful expression crossed her face. The task for tonight needed muscle. And between Nayeon, Chiho and Min-jun they could manage it well without her. "I'll stay with her until she regains consciousness. You get the job done."

Nayeon shrugged, her hands in her pocket as she looked at Jihyo. The slight relaxing of the muscles in her forehead told Jihyo that she was relieved to get out of an unfamiliar situation like this.

____

Jeongyeon was on the verge of screaming. An uncontrollable rage coiled deep in the pit of her stomach as she punched the wall repeatedly.

"Stop. Please stop." Chaeyoung tried to pull her away. "Your knuckles are bleeding."

"I don't care. I'll fucking kill the bastards." Jeongyeon's hand moved to take the gun resting against her hip. She was livid. She was furious. The one witness they had was gone.

"Jeongyeon, please stop." Chaeyoung blocked her path, flinched slightly when the older girl roughly shoved her away. Her shoulder connected with the wall and she let out a hiss of pain.

That seemed to catch Jeongyeon's attention. After a long tense moment of staring at Chaeyoung, Jeongyeon lowered her gun and crouched down next to her partner. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you."

"Well, you did." Chaeyoung's voice cracked a little as she rubbed her shoulder in a soothing manner.

"They killed our witness. Run him over. Do you not understand? Our only lead is gone. Poof." Jeongyeon tried to hit the wall next to Chaeyoung.

Chaeyoung grabbed her hand before she could break her knuckles. "We'll catch them. We'll definitely catch them." She repeated like a prayer until she felt some of the tension leave the taller girl's body.

Dahyun watched the scene before her with a worry niggling her mind. She couldn't lose her best detectives to this case. Something had to be done. They needed to find the mole in their office. Find out who leaked the information about the witness.

"Gather all the officers upstairs for a meeting." She told Tzuyu and Momo sternly.

___

"You make me so proud." Jung-Hoo patted Nayeon's shoulder with a crooked smile on his face. He was getting old, he needed someone to carry on his legacy. Nayeon was ruthless. Cold-blooded. Behind the pretty features and intense eyes laid a monster that he had fed and nurtured through the years.

"He looks at Nayeon like she's her bloodhound." Chiho gave Min-Jun a long look.

"That's all we would ever be in this world." Min-jun turned around a corner, entering the street of Mina's house.

Chiho nodded. If it wasn't for the four hungry mouths in his family he had to feed, four people who knew nothing about the kind of work he was doing, he'd leave this job in a heartbeat.

He looked at Nayeon who walked ahead of them, he wondered what drove her to do this job day in and day out. She scared him sometimes. Every one of Jung-hoo's men had some back story to them. Nobody willingly chose this life. Nayeon, however, seemed perfectly at home in the evil that lurked around them.