Lost and Found

Taehyun's pov

I was still standing by the door to inspect the narrow shoe cabinets on both sides of the walls when she boldly turned the lights on and knocked on every inch of the room, to the extent where she's tapping the ceilings for any possible opening using the clothes rod she took from the cabinet near the toilet.

Regardless if the owner was here or not and I'm just glad to know it's empty.

"Hey, give it up." I sighed. "He's not here anymore. Probably never had but we all focused on the easiest task of assuming things without hard evidence."

"No…" she muttered and slumped over the double mattress. I approached her silently and tapped her right shoulder as a sign of sympathy for a possible loss and she didn't even bothered to shook it off. She just stared blankly on the white, empty toilet wall.

"We need to go before she comes back." I said softly. "Tell your men to leave us alone and we'll let you off the hook for the time being."

"Whatever, I don't care anymore…"

I shook my head and left her lying on the bed because the sun could rise anytime soon.

I turned the lights off before someone takes notice, however, as I faced the shoe cabinet as high as my thigh, it moved sideways on it's own.

It was attached to the wall next to Mi Young's bedroom where I stood. The creaking slowly continued till the wooden rack showed me a faint ray of light illuminating a small passage in between walls.

I held my breath while observing and stepped back to avoid getting hit by that light I presume was a form of flashlight.

I gasped at the long black hair crawling out, groaning softly like some ghost on tv.

"Fuck…"

That stranger and I both raised our heads towards the bed when Cass cursed to herself and screamed on top of her lungs against a pillow.

I knew there and then that the perpetrator will attack her but hearing a cocking of a gun meant bad business so instead of asking, I had to take extreme measures such as pushing her against the shoe cabinet.

A gunshot filled the air and my ears could barely hear anything afterwards. I quickly reached out for the light switch and noticed Cass was already strangling the woman who turned out to be Mi Young herself.

She's slightly bleeding on her left temple and the corner of the mouth which I'm pretty sure was all my fault.

"Wait, stop!" I grabbed her fingers off before Cass ends up killing her but I wasn't as successful when she punched her face.

She fell on her back and Cass immediately went for the weapon lying on the floor a meter away. She pointed the gun towards us and asked, "you bitch! where's Beomgyu?"

I felt goosebumps at the sight of Mi Young giggling and even nudged her own forehead into the weapon as if she's taunting Cass to pull the trigger.

"I don't know what you're talking about but if you kill me, you go in prison."

"Don't act innocent. You are the only person who could've done something to Beomgyu because he never left this building the day he began skipping his classes."

Mi Young laughed and spit blood towards her. "It seems like you haven't seen the footages from the security cameras. There's no proof he never left as you claim."

Mi Young attempted to steal the weapon from Cass so I had to take my shirt off and tie her wrists behind her back.

"Yeah because you edited them." Cass revealed and this is the first time I've heard about it. "I placed my own cameras outside on every angle and it doesn't match some clips yours."

"Are you hearing this dear officer? Breaking and entering and even filming without consent!" Mi Young faced me with disgusted expression, "why are you letting her roam around a private property and tie me out here like a criminal?"

"Don't worry, once I proved your innocence I'll let you go."

"And I shall sue your ass for trespassing and harassment." She threatened. "Don't think you'll see the end of it."

"Fine by me." I shrugged my shoulders and opened the door as soon as I heard the sirens approaching the site. "You can stay on the station for the rest of the night because it's gonna be loud out here once we strip all the walls to find out what's inside."

"W-wait, you cannot do that." Her cocky tone suddenly changed and I was more than relieved to see her panicking for real.

"I can't, but she can." I gestured my head for Cass to enter that suspicious secret entrance and she did it without second thought.

"I can't believe you're working with someone shady! You're a fucking cop for fuck's sake act like one and protect us civilians!"

"We only protect law abiding ones." I know I'm gonna get lashings for this but I'm so tired of losing every case we've been working on for days and nights. Particularly this one.

"Oh my god Beomgyu what happened to you!!!"