Muhan Train (BTS)

5

It was about 9 pm and most of the police officers were all marching out of their cubicles, thankful for the night that indicated their leave from work. In the fairly dark office, Aoi's lamp lit up the space in her cubicle as she wrote down all she needed to take with her when boarding the Muhan Train.

"Gun, torch, handcuffs . . ."

She mumbled under her breath, the words coming out of her mouth transformed into words written on the sheet of paper. She wrote them down with unnecessary force, so the letters scarred the paper deep.

Aoi huffed when the force had become too much as the pen pierced through the sheet of paper when she was writing. The policewoman was in a terrible mood that day; she wanted to take all the precautions while boarding the Muhan Train, as to be prepared to meet criminals running it. Although, because no one took this case seriously, she wasn't granted a search team for this mission, and was asked to go all alone to investigate it.

She wasn't scared of going alone, it was more of how no one cared to take the Muhan Train case seriously. An illegal train was running along the tracks of Korea and no one was bothered? What if the train was smuggling drugs into the country? What if the train contained looted materials? What if the train was bringing soldiers from North Korea into the country? Yes there was no evidence since the past decade on if the train was dangerous or not, but Aoi doubted the skills of every single police officer she worked with - she wasn't going to be convinced without properly investigating the train herself.

Aoi sighed and gazed at the clock - 30 minutes to 10. She stretched on her seat and rubbed the sleepiness from her eyes. She was usually asleep by now, but today was when she was to board the Muhan Train to see what the deal was, so she was staying up late in her cubicle. The train station was quite far away so she decided to leave the police station at 10:30 pm and head to her destination so she wouldn't be late to catch the Muhan Train.

It was one hour to 10:30 and Aoi's eyelids started feeling heavy. She tsked at her sleepiness, pinching herself to keep from dozing off. It wasn't long before she was caught by surprise when a bitter aroma met her nostrils.

"Sleepy yet?" a voice sounded and Aoi unconsciously stood up.

Kim Seokjin was holding two mugs of steaming coffee and smiling at Aoi. Aoi immediately performed the attention pose while greeting her senior.

"Good night Mr. Kim."

"Good night Mr. Kim?" Seokjin laughed at her choice of words and even Aoi turned beet red at her strange way of greeting. "I think I was right in assuming that sleep is taking over your brain Aoi," Seokjin laughed and gestured to one of the cups of coffee he was holding in his hand. "This'll help, it's a cold night as well."

Aoi bowed to the chief commander and declared her gratitude for his kindness in a stoic voice. Seokjin laughed at her robotic mannerism, but deep down he experienced a tinge of sadness; he wished Aoi would be more relaxed and casual in his presence. Nonetheless, he approached her and handed her a cup of coffee and started sipping on the other.

"Come to my office, I need to give you something," Seokjin said. If it was any other person, Aoi would've immediately declined and plopped herself down on the chair behind her. Her legs barely had enough energy to stand, let alone walk. She was so tired she could pass out right here on the floor and wouldn't even care if the coffee mug fell on her face. But seeing that it was the chief commander, Aoi's brain automatically told her legs to move and she followed Seokjin's lead to his office. She was conscious of her tiredness and kept on sipping on her coffee with the desperate need to cure her heavy eyelids.

But as soon as she entered Seokjin's office, she immediately noticed a small transparent vase that held a single yellow rose that was on his desk. The reason why the flower piqued her interest was that Seokjin had never been one for flowers, as he was allergic to pollen. Yet a small yellow rose was presented on his table. Why? Did he have a lover? Did a lover give him that flower?