Exception

XXI. Exception (3) - END

About two hours ago.

"Jooheon and Minhyuk are found unconscious at a car accident, and are now in the hospital. Daehyun is waiting in the interrogation room."

Inseong followed Chani down the corridor, but stopped in front of the door and turned to look at his colleague. "Thanks for assisting us in the investigation until now. You should go home and rest now."

Chani was about to refute but closed his mouth again. He know that whatever he said, Inseong would not listen. "Alright, but you better take a long holiday after everything sorts out, okay? I know Detective Lee also wants that."

Inseong's heart clenched at the mention of his friend's name, but he smiled at Chani. "Okay."

The questioning lasted for almost an hour, but Daehyun barely said anything. He showed no reaction when presented with pictures of Jooheon and Minhyuk, and a brief search confirmed that he had solid alibi for over half of the mysterious robbery cases. He did, however, try to put all the blame on himself, even once attempting to call himself the Storm Intruder. Obviously, he was an amateur perpetrator, perhaps someone who had the impulse to commit a crime for money.

This type of criminal was common, and Inseong decided it would be more beneficial to wait until Jooheon and Minhyuk regain consciousness rather than trying to dig for more information from a loosely involved accomplice like Daehyun.

Inseong watched as a few officers took Daehyun into custody, and then headed to his superintendent's office.

Having received a phone call early this morning informing him about major progress on one of the most trickiest cases, superintendent Bang Yongguk sacrificed his sleep and came to the police station. He told Inseong to close the door behind him and invited him to sit, but, as usual, the Detective remained standing.

"I'm here to give a report on our current progress in the Storm Intruder case." Despite being worn out from the events of the past six to seven hours, Inseong stood very upright and spoke with a firm tone. "We confirmed that the bag abandoned next to Nonghyup Bank contained cash and jewelry that once belonged to the bank. Multiple policemen as well as one citizen can serve as witnesses that Lee Jooheon and Lee Minhyuk are the ones who stole the valuables, and they were seen fleeing from the scene in a black car with the license plate 38-ju-4184."

As soon as Inseong started talking, Yongguk had rotated his chair so that his back was facing the detective the whole time. He remained silent and never once interrupted.

"Both Lee Jooheon and Lee Minhyuk's wards are guarded with policemen, and we will immediately question them once they regain consciousness. After rewatching the footage of the CCTVs and multiple black boxes, we cannot ascertain that these two are responsible for the collapse of the bridge, but the nature of this disaster is definitely suspicious, and various teams are assigned with the task of further investigation on the cause of the collapse.

"Other than this incident, we believe they are also involved in the chain of robbery cases that spread out for the past year. Confirmation for this is given by an important witness, Lee Jaeyoon. A more detailed report will be given to you later.

"Jung Daehyun is taken into custody just now. He was found to be involved with Lee Jooheon and Lee Minhyuk, and we have the reason to believe he might be an accomplice. We plan to detain him for further investigation." Inseong paused, expecting his superintendent to say something at this point. But Yongguk still hasn't moved an inch from his previous position, which slightly unnerved Inseong. He contemplated whether he should mention the supernatural phenomenons revolving this case.

He wetted his dry lips and stared at the back of Yongguk's head. "That is all for now."

The silence seemed to expand and grow around Inseong, wrapping him tightly and suffocating him as time passes. After what felt like ages but was in reality only about three minutes, Yongguk—without turning around—finally spoke. "Release Daehyun. We don't have sufficient reason to keep him here."

Inseong was stunned, but resistance from higher-ups to continue investigation was definitely not unexpected. "We do, sir. If you give me some time to write a full report—"

"Can you produce a reliable and reasonable one within ten minutes? An hour?" Inseong couldn't see his face, but he knew Yongguk's gaze was piercing.

The fact that he emphasized those two words scared Inseong. In order to really prove that Daehyun was an accomplice, he had to explain to him what he saw at the amusement park, when Daehyun controlled the weather, as well as the fact that Jaeyoon possessed the ability to see the past. Before all of this, he first had to convince Yongguk about the existence of super powers, otherwise none of it would make sense.

Needless to say, the probability of success was near zero. Even Inseong himself had trouble believing in supernatural abilities; he spent over a week living with Jaeyoon before truly accepting this fact. How on earth was he going to convince Yongguk now?

Yongguk sighed. "If you can't do that, then you may leave my office now. Do as I say and release Daehyun."

"No, please, listen to me first," pleaded Inseong. "If you've been keeping up with the progress of our investigation, you should know that this is an exceptional case."

"Okay, fine. Then give me one good reason why you keep insisting on detaining Daehyun. His background is clear and he never committed crimes before; he looks like a harmless citizen to me."

Inseong faltered. He knew the answer, but he couldn't say it. "We can't release him yet. We can't let dangerous people like him roam around in the public freely until we complete more research—"

"Research?" Yongguk raised his voice. "What are you blabbering about? I asked you to give me a reason, not to ask questions. Stop saying ridiculous things—"

"He's not a 'harmless citizen'!" Inseong shouted. "He has super powers, sir. I know it's hard to believe, but- please, just trust me. The witness I mentioned earlier—Lee Jaeyoon—he also has powers. He and I confirmed that Daehyun can control the weather, and we speculate that Storm Intruder can manipulate electronics; that's why he was able to hack the CCTVs and the vaults in the bank so quickly without leaving traces. It's all supernatural!"

Inseong had to catch his breath after blurting everything out. For a while, all he could hear was his heart hammering against his chest and his heavy breathing.

Slowly, Yongguk lifted himself up from the chair. He walked away from Inseong, towards the large window at the back of the office. He mumbled something that Inseong couldn't catch, and then chuckled. The eerie laugh sent chills down Inseong's spines.

"I like it. I like the idea..." Then, at the least expected moment, Yongguk turned around abruptly, and stared straight into Inseong's eyes. "Superpowers, huh?"

Inseong stumbled two steps backward, utterly shocked. Yongguk's lips stretched into a thin smile, and his eyes were a glowing scarlet red.