The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance • Monsta X

i.

"And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so?

I did.

And what did you want?

To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth."

― Raymond Carver, A New Path to the Waterfall

--

"Remind me why you transferred here?" Officer Lee asked, rolling to a stop at the stop sign. Jooheon was giving Hyunwoo the tour of their district, which left a lot to be desired. Cracked sidewalks sprouting with weeds, boards covering shop windows that had been smashed with bricks, unfinished or abandoned complexes empty of residents. Even the streetlights looked reluctant to be there.

To say the least, it wasn't particularly hospitable. "Just needed a change," Hyunwoo answered vaguely, looking out his window. There were a few boys grouped together on the corner of the intersection, one of them leaning against the streetlight, but not many other people out on the street.

"If you were looking for a vacation, then the Tampa suburbs were a poor choice," Jooheon commented lightly, not seeming to care whether or not Hyunwoo was planning on sticking around but still wanting to throw his two cents in anyway. "There's nicer parts of Florida if all you want is a little sun and some palm trees."

"I'm not here for a tan," Hyunwoo replied, looking over at the officer that had been appointed as his partner and temporary mentor. "There just wasn't much to do at my old precinct."

"That won't be a problem here," Jooheon said with a slight upward quirk to his lips, but his eyes stayed dark and troubled. "Drugs are probably our biggest problem, but there's a lot of small-time crime to keep us busy. Someone breaking into the gas station for a bottle of vodka. Stuff like that. Small enough to cause trouble, but big enough to summon a cop car."

He sighed as they cruised through what looked to be another low-income neighborhood. "But in the time it takes you to apprehend one offender, three other petty crimes have occurred." Jooheon shook his head as he slowed down to a crawl, seemingly driving aimlessly around the area. It was hard for Hyunwoo to tell if they'd already been down this street or not since they all looked similar to him at a first glance. "To your right is one of our watch zones," Jooheon said, and Hyunwoo looked out his window, trying to take in the scenery and commit it to memory.

There was a scraggly chain link fence surrounding the property, which included a nearly empty expanse of cracked blacktop that backed up to a three-story building that seemed to provide low-quality housing for local residents. Each unit had a balcony that overlooked the blacktop, and most balconies were empty save a cheap folding chair and the occasional small table. Hyunwoo counted a total of two plants, one of which was already long dead and the other of which was well on its way.

"Why is it on your list?" Hyunwoo asked as he continued soaking in details. A cement curb lined the parking lot, and a few crushed cans lined a small length of it like lonely soldiers marching along the perimeter.

"It's essentially one big drug den," Jooheon said with a sigh that was more than just disappointed. He sounded frustrated, too. Like he had something personally staked on the success of the property.

Or maybe the people in it.

"You think someone's running something out of here?" Hyunwoo asked. One of the cans wobbled in the breeze and pitched forward, clattering against the blacktop and falling still.

Hyunwoo drew his attention away from the fallen soldier and back to Jooheon as his partner spoke up. "It's not exactly a singular cohesive organization. And the dealers don't live here, not to my knowledge. But they get the residents hooked on their drug of choice – heroin, mostly. Cocaine for some."