The Dahlias (10)

Jina walked into the police station after her school was over for the day. She casually hummed to herself as she strolled through the precinct. One of the cops frowned as the little girl happily passed by.

"Little girl!" he called. Jina stopped in her tracks to see an elderly cop approaching her.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"Hwang Jina!" she chirped.

"Why are you here? This is no place for a child!"

"I'm here to meet the lady cop!" she said.

"Lady cop? We have many female cops here. Who are you looking for?"

Jina thought for a moment. She really could not recall her Lady Cop's name! "Uh...the really pretty one," she said. "She's not so tall but has large eyes like mine and a round face. And she curses a lot!"

The officer understood whom she was talking about.

"You mean Detective Jeon Gayoon?" he asked.

"Yes!" Jina exclaimed, remembering her name. "That's my Lady Cop! Where is she?"

"She has gone out," the officer said. "Why don't you wait at her desk?"

"Alright!" Jina said happily and strode off towards Gayoon's desk. She put her bag on Gayoon's chair and sat on it, marveling at all the files on the table. She took one file, careful not to drop it and turned the pages.

There were a lot of complicated things written in there. The file she was holding contained details of a rough looking man in his fifties. His picture was stapled on the upper right corner and his details were written beside it.

"Han Joowon," she read out loud. "Taken in for murder."

She flipped the pages and tried to read more about the criminals. While she understood little of it, the file fascinated her. The criminals were arrested for different offenses and some looked very dangerous to her young eyes. Did the Lady Cop really deal with them on a regular basis? How did she catch them?

"Wow," she whispered, turning the pages. "This is so cool!"

She put the file back in its place. Gayoon's police cap was lying on the desk. She took it and put it on her head.

"Now I'm a detective," she announced. Pointing ahead to no one in particular, she said, "You are under arrest!"

That was when it hit her. If she wanted to be a proper detective, she should be catching criminals!

"That's right!" she realized. "I should catch the bad guys! That's what the police do!"

She got off the chair and heaved her chest high. "Detective Hwang Jina to the rescue!" She declared gleefully. "Time to catch the baddies!"

Jina marched ahead towards the jail. But the criminals in there were already caught. Where would she get more criminals? Thinking hard, she wandered around the precinct until she came across a room labeled as 'Interrogation Chamber."

"What's this?" she wondered out loud. Opening the door, she peered inside. Inside the room was a large glass window. Behind it was another room where a man sat on the table. Jina tried to open the door to the other room but it was locked so she peered through the glass window.

To her surprise, she saw another man in the corner. He was pale and pearly, almost transparent like Casper was. But the thing that shocked her was not his presence. Rather, his appearance was more shocking.

He looked exactly like the solid man sitting on the chair, looking desperate.

The spirit was looking at Shawn but on an instinct glanced sideways. He could not see beyond the glass wall but he knew that someone was watching him from behind it. Frowning, he approached the window.

Jina was frozen to her spot, unable to move. She did not know why but this spirit scared her. It was trying to see through the glass window, sensing her presence. There was something sinister about this ghost which alarmed Jina's little mind.

The spirit extended its hand. The pale arm was passing through the wall as if it was air and was almost touching Jina's throat…

Suddenly, someone pulled Jina back and before she knew it, she was being dragged out of the room. Paralysed with fear, she looked up to see a tall and handsome man had just rescued her from that spirit.

Taejoon, who was passing by, noticed the little girl in the interrogation room and pulled her out of there.

"Who are you?" he asked. "And what were you doing in there?"

"I-I…" Jina stammered but she was too shaken up by the ghost she had just seen. In her short life, she had never encountered such a malicious spirit before. Even though it did not see her, it seemed as if it felt her. The spirit was not a good one and even Jina, with all her bravado, was scared of it.

"I…" she tried to form coherent words but she was so scared.

"Jina!"

A familiar voice called out at her. She spun around and to her relief, it was Gayoon. Not wanting to waste another second, Jina ran towards Gayoon and jumped into her arms.

"Jina?" Gayoon was surprised. The little girl was shaking in her arms, feeling extremely terrified.

"Jina are you alright?" she asked in alarm.

"She entered the interrogation room," Taejoon informed her.

"What?" Gayoon exclaimed. "Where are the officers who were supposed to be on guard? They were not supposed to move an inch from there!"

"I don't know but they are going to bear the brunt," Taejoon replied. "I'll place a complaint too. This is careless! A little girl was able to get into the interrogation room which was left unguarded...The Chief will go mad if he hears this."

"I'll take care of her," Gayoon said. "She's my guest."

Taejoon nodded and Gayoon took the scared little girl away from the place. She reached her desk and put Jina on the chair.

"Jina, you shouldn't casually stroll around here!" she scolded her. The girl looked deathly pale and whimpered.

"You should go home," Gayoon suggested. "Do not ever roam around this place alone. Alright?"

"There are two of them," Jina whispered.

"What?" Gayoon asked in confusion.

"Two," Jina repeated. "There are two of them."

Before Gayoon could ask again, her phone rang up. It was Jaein.

"Yes, Jaein?" she answered. "What's the news?"

"I know who the corpse belongs to," Jaein stated. "You're not gonna believe this."

"Whose is it?"

"It belongs to Lee Shawn," Jaein revealed.