The Detective: Devil Within [Editing In Progress]

Ablaze: Part One

"Joonkyung!" a voice similar to Cap's echoed in the darkness.

I waited for the voice to call again, but it went silent... It must have been my head messing with me after days of sleep deprivation caused by the new case. Besides, it was also too early for Cap to be back here as he never came to work earlier than nine o'clock.

"Hey! Joonkyung!" It called again, louder and impatient this time.

I forced my eyes open and found myself flat on my stomach on my messy desk, peering through the blinding sunlight. But the office, again, was dead quiet. Only the tick-tocking of the old wall clock hanging high behind me hammered my ears.

I sighed, buried my face deeper into my arms as I let my eyes fall shut. Please let me get some more sleep.

"Yaaa!" Cap thundered suddenly, breaking the stillness of our humble office with the shrill of his light tenor voice.

I jolted backwards onto the chair, flushed with adrenaline. My blurred sight stared at a slender, black hooded figure in front of me.

"Y-ye-yess, Cap?" I blurted out.

"What time now, you punk?" He exploded, arms akimbo. His two big bloodshot eyes glared at me as my vision cleared up. "This isn't your freaking bedroom, young man!"

Although he was hot-headed, Cap rarely lashed out in the morning like this. He did get annoyed when I sometimes overslept after working the whole night, but it was never up to this level. The only possible explanation for this must be his wife back home. Because almost every time he came in a foul mood, it involved his wife, and today, since he had no other place to vent that anger, he just used me as his outlet; coupled with the fact that his breath already stank of nicotine and alcohol this early, there was no way I could be wrong about it.

"S-sorry, Cap... I'll go freshen up," I said as I sprung up, all at once, before tripping my own feet and plummeting back to the chair like an idiot.

Cap's sandy complexion slowly turned cherry. He squeezed his puffy eyes shut, sighing. A grim smile crossed his oval face.

Shit, I thought, he's going to kill me.

I shot to my feet again as if nothing had happened. Cap, interrupted by it, cast a murderous look on me with his mouth half-open, resentful for losing his last chance to share his wisdom.

I bowed my head, pretending not to see them, and just turned my back and sprinted towards the end of the building with relief washed over me.

In the restroom, after dragging myself to the nearest sink, I turned the faucet on and rested my forearms on the rim of the porcelain bowl to catch my breath. My head hung low between my shoulders.

When I was still in the force, running around like this right after waking up was never a big deal to me. It was a daily routine for us even, to be honest, and we also hardly slept during operations, most of the time; a couple of hours tops-if we were lucky. But today, I was not even chasing criminals, just running over a short distance in the same building, and my body was already half-dying. Does that mean I have passed my prime? Or am I just out of shape?

I splashed the water onto my face and grimaced as soon as the coldness numbed my skin. It was mid-December that day, the temperature had gone negative, and I forgot again that our building was not equipped with any water heater-not because we could not afford it, just that Cap was always against the idea, not sure why; Taehyun and I even offered to install one using our own money, but he still refused.

"Good morning, partner!" A clear, pleasant voice abruptly greeted me with a tap on my shoulder while I tried to feel my frozen hands and face.

"Hyung," I slurred.