young gods / lie : park jimin

004

Lee Jaeyi

"Here," Hoseok handed me a thin file from his desk.

"Thanks," I say, taking the file and flipping it open. It's two page, uselessly pinned to the file. We're at the east Seoul precinct, the district that took care of the Minah's boyfriend's case.

"Where's the rest?" I ask, confused as I flip the paper and find it blank. The file pocket has three glossy pictures tucked in it. But that's all.

"That's it," Hoseok says with an apologetic smile. Jimin steps forward to glance at the papers from over my shoulder. "It was you garden variety suicide. His name was Lee Won Tae. They found his body, a noose, and a suicide note signed with his name. He had no known family left, no one to push for further investigation. There wasn't even an autopsy request."

My eyes flash up to his. "No autopsy request? Where is his body, right now?" I ask.

Hoseok shrugs, shaking his head. "Probably in a drawer at the morgue," he guesses.

"Could you locate it for me?" I ask, handing Jimin the file. He takes it, turning away from me slightly to set it on a desk so he can remove the images.

"Of course," Hoseok says, already reaching for the phone on his desk. I turn to Jimin, lowering my voice.

"There's nothing on this man or this case," I say, taking the file and reading the report out loud. "Man of late twenties found hanging by the neck in his apartment. A suicide note recovered. No signs of a struggle."

"Here," Jimin shows me one of the photos. It's the crime scene, quite a crappy quality.

"What the hell is this?" I ask, reaching for the other photos.

"There's all the same," Jimin says with a sigh. "They didn't even bother with taking good photos." I released an annoyed breath.

"Who's the team leader in charge of this report?" I leaned over to talk to Hoseok. He's talking rapidly on the phone, but he points to an occupied desk. My anger spikes finding a middle-aged man clipping his toe nails, using a case file to catch the pieces.

"Son of a bitch," I growl taking a step towards the man but Jimin reaches for my arm, intercepting me.

"Take it easy," he murmurs.

I meet his eyes with a sweet smile that doesn't fade as I walk up to the officer and tap his shoulder. "Excuse me?"

"What?" He doesn't even look up. My temper raises, I turn to Jimin for support. His eyes beg me not to hit the man.

"Are you the man in charge of the Lee Won Tae suicide case?" I ask.

"The boy who killed himself? Yeah, I am. Why?" He strained to clip his little toe.

"Who the fuck decided to assign such an incompetent person to the case?" I ask and toss the picture onto his desk.

His head slowly leans up to look at me as his tosses his nail clipper onto his desk, annoyed.

"Who the hell are you?" He asks.

"Wrong answer," I say, "is it just you, or it an entire team of armatures?"

"Listen, lady, I don't know who you think you are-"

"Why did you take such bad photos? People might tell you that you're a joke, but you should at least take you job seriously." I roll my eyes. He stands up, his eyes bulging in outrage. Jimin takes quick steps towards us until he's behind my left shoulder.

The officer had opened his mouth, no doubt to say some unpleasant things to me, but then he makes eye contact with Jimin. I've never seen it, but I've been told he can be intimidating.