An honest lie | Kim Taehyung (editing*)

- Digging deeper -

XIV

Jimin rushed into his apartment looking for Taehyung.

"Tae!" He shouted while panting around the house in hopes of finding him sleeping.

"Where the hell is he?" He grumbled in frustration.

But he figured he wouldn't have found him that night, since he remembered he had a bad habit of dozing off at his office. Blowing out an exaggerated sigh, he dropped on the couch and tried to keep patient for the morning since it was too late to take the bus there. Until then, he decided to keep researching what he had found.

On the other hand, Taehyung was indeed sleeping uncomfortably on his desk under a pile of files and documents. Hours had passed, and the light of the sun peeked from the far horizon of the awakening city, illuminating a vast and thick morning fog.

As he was peacefully traveling through his dreamland, suddenly he creased his eyebrows and flinched. It took him a moment to come back to reality and open his eyes. He rubbed them and ran his fingers through his silky brown hair, as he slowly looked around his office with half-open eyelids.

What kind of dream was that?..

He thought to himself, while recalling what he had dreamed about. Once he realized where he was, he glanced at his wristwatch and huffed.

Since it was already early in the morning he didn't bother to head back home, but rather decided to grab something to eat. He could literally translate the complaints of his growling stomach for hunger.

He lazily got up from his seat and spread his arms upwards letting out a satisfying yawn trying to recollect his mind. He slowly walked out.

But he wasn't given enough time to do so, that the door opened right at his face, which made him slightly stumble back as a reflex.

Jimin entered the room looking exhausted and drowsy. Messy hair, dark circles, and a dead expression wouldn't even be enough to illustrate his condition.

The disappearance of Ellen had definitely had its toll on him him.

Taehyung's eyes shot open and stared at his friend stunned. "You look... terrible."

The shorter man snorted and pushed Taehyung back into the office. "I need to talk to you."

"I was about to get some breakfast-"

"That can wait!" He cut him off showing him a photocopy of what seemed to be an internet article.

Taehyung's eyebrows joined in confusion and snatched the paper from his hands.

"What's this?" He looked up to Jimin, who just gazed at him and back at the article.

The detective understood that it had to be something important and looked through it with a momentous expression, totally forgetting of his irresistible tiredness.

"Harassment towards women at work?" He read out loud the title. He lifted an eyebrow and eyed Jimin.

"Keep reading."

His eyes moved downwards. "It says about where these incidents mostly occur." He kept reading.

The paper had allocated the type of harassment of different jobs and locations with the determined information under each one of them.

For a start, gender and race-related ones were placed in the beginning, followed by religious motives and sexual orientation.

But as he moved to the next page, he noticed something interesting.