27 Fork in the Road

With Ponkan escaping June's immediate space every time, the production team had to change some scenes to respect Ponkan. They just ended up separating the two for the scenes, while June decided to stay away from the cat to keep it from getting too stressed. In the end, they just made the female lead choose not to approach him as a cat.

***

The female lead walked inside the cafe again, hoping to find more clues about the case. She made a beeline to the counter where [June] was waiting for orders. With a knowing yet ridiculing smile on his face, June greeted the cop.

"Still here to suspect me, officer? Didn't I tell you that I have never been to Clarice's apartment?" He still took a large cup and prepared his marker. "Should I get you our house blend special for today instead?"

"N-No, get me what I ordered yesterday—iced strawberry latte…" She took the offer of getting her order.

"Okay, but no. You didn't get an iced strawberry latte yesterday. You ordered a banana shake." [June] laughed as he wrote at her cup. He then placed it down and only gestured to the seats for her. The cop slowly retreated as if she was thinking, her eyes on her cup at the table.

When other people came to order, [June] kept on writing on the cups. The cop was watching intently from her peripheral vision, so she was not surprised when her order came in a few minutes. She took a good look at [June's] writing, seeing the distinct way he wrote her name 'Stella'. At this, she took a photo of her cup and sent it to her tech team.

She then whispered as she made a phone call. "Hey, I sent you a photo. Doesn't it match the handwriting on Clarice's body?"

["The distinct connection of S and T is uncanny, but we need more proof to cross-reference. Maybe, get him to write down an address or something. The more words, the better."]

"All right. I think I know how to get that." Stella, the cop, giggled as she ended the call. It's just that when she moved her head, she noticed how [June] was standing there, smiling down at her. "W-What? Did you remember something about Clarice?"

"Not really. Our boss just thought that you worked so hard in looking for whoever killed Clarice." [June] smiled as he leaned down and placed a small plate of a glazed donut right in front of her. "He wants to give you an incentive. Even if you'd never catch the killer since you keep on looking in my direction…"

He bent down lower, almost whispering in Stella's ear. "Ms. Cop, why don't you look away now? Who knows, the real killer might just be there somewhere else…"

[June] then glared at the shoulder of the cop. He used his hand to pinch the cat hair that was left on Stella's shoulder. "Heh, do you have a cat, Ms. Cop? Looks like a shorthair. Clarice also had one in her apartment. I wonder what happened to it."

"…are you looking to take care of it, Mr. [June]?" Stella noticed something wrong with his words. That was why she asked with a smile.

The man only flicked his gaze at her face while pocketing the cat hair inside his apron. His voice was even filled with derision. "No, I don't keep animals. They're destructive and stinky. I even have traps around my place to keep them away. Also, I will be fired if I bring animal hair to work."

[June] finally left and went to his station. That was also when Stella grabbed her drink and the glazed donut with her as she left. Along the way, she found a homeless guy and gave her food to the old man. She then took out her phone. "Hey, can you get someone to ask the manager if they had ever given [June] a memo about bringing animal hair to work?

"Get this: he doesn't have a pet, and he knows that Clarice had a shorthair cat in her apartment." Stella chuckled as she felt good. "Didn't Clarice keep her cat a secret because of her kitchen work? I think we're getting there."

***

"Cut!" The director called out after the long take.

After a few more minutes, they would tape the chase and takedown scene. June had to change to a different shirt to keep up with the illusion that it was another day. The crew of the cafe also helped with switching the design of the menu and the boards. Bit-role actors and actresses also swapped with the new batch, the extras also preparing for their semi-realistic scenes.

When June was being handled by the stylist, he could see how the team was asking cars to barricade the alleys to make sure no one would mistakenly ruin their shots. After all, June's time was expensive. Booking him for only one morning and one night was all they could do with the budget for the episode.

However, for some reason, Lantis's words weighed heavily in June's mind. He needed to watch out for Lantis's signs if he wanted to survive the shoot unscathed.

***

Bang! [June] pushed the back door open to escape. He took off in his uniform, feeling the stinky air of the alleyways on his face. When he glanced behind him, Stella and her partner were just meters away from him. He faced straight and grabbed at the stacked boxes to make an obstacle for them.

"Hey! Freeze!" Stella yelled as she forced her way through the boxes, kicking the things out of the way. She kept on screaming to distract the fleeing suspect from noticing that her partner had taken a shortcut to catch him from the front.

[June] only looked forward as he relied on her voice to gauge their distance. Since it was getting weaker, he knew that he was gaining distance. It's just that he was now faced with a fork in the road.

***

Before the takedown, June had to cross an intersection. When he glanced at the parallel side of the alley, he could already see the street. There was a car positioned perpendicular to the alley as if blocking entry to where they were running.

It's just that… he didn't know why his entire body cried for caution when he ran past it. It was so strong that his legs even fumbled, causing him to trip and roll on the ground.

"Shit!" June cussed out loud as his face met the dirt, realizing that a nightmare was about to play right in front of his eyes.