An honest lie | Kim Taehyung (editing*)

- Idiot -

XXXI

The red marker circled Ellen's picture until her whole figure was surrounded by thick red paint, centralizing her presence in the middle of the big glass case board. Red arrows pointed from her to different writings and pictures as the detective's orbs followed every single detail and pieces of information that linked her to all they had discovered so far. It wasn't much. Not nearly enough to find her.

If she was alive, he had to give her credit for her implacable skill of hiding from the eyes of the police. Or at least so it seemed. He started wondering whether she had been receiving help from someone. No, scratch that. It was more than obvious she wasn't alone in this, and whoever was helping her, had done a really good job at hiding her.

His eyes then moved to the picture of her withdrawing money from that bank. No one had seen her, no camera after that spotted her. It was safe to say she had planned all of it. Or they had planned all of it.

Taehyung had given Jungkook the task to take care of the car accident, as he focused on finding any clues on Ellen. He searched for her name in airports, bank accounts, jobs, hospitals. Nothing. Not even her shadow.

Taehyung dropped his arm to his side, still holding on tight on the marker, and clenched his jaw while gazing sharply at her photo.

She had been missing now for more than a month and there was no sign of her yet. He considered whether it was time to consult neighboring police departments for any means of help, but remembered how Leo asked him to not involve too much attention from others' eyes.

Taehyung clicked his tongue at the thought, not comprehending why he would even care about his image when his fiancé had supposedly disappeared out of the face of the earth. It made no sense at all. None of it did.

He growled with clenched teeth and threw the marker across the table as it fell on the floor, rolling towards the sofa of his office and disappearing under it. Taehyung scoffed at the sight and moved past the desk as he squatted and stretched his arm to grab it. While struggling to reach for it on the dusty pavement, he cursed when his nose started itching badly.

Just then, the door busted open and someone's feet came to his view from under the couch, yet he ignored it, still trying to grab the object that had dared to escape his wrath.

"Taehyung!" Jungkook yelled out of his lungs and scrutinized the place in search of the detective. He scowled and wondered where he might have gone to this time when a sudden violent sneeze jolted him on the spot.

"Tae?" He called again with perplexity trying to find him with his doe eyes. He moved to the side and finally spotted him behind the sofa, as half of his body was laid down on the floor and half-hidden under the sofa.

"Taehyung?"

"I can hear you I'm not deaf." He replied in boredom.

"Then why didn't you answer?"

"I'm- kind of- busy-" he struggled while forcing his whole shoulder to reach the stupid marker. "-at the moment!"

Jungkook gazed at him with an amused expression before he simply pushed the sofa with force, revealing the rest of Taehyung's body, as well as the red marker located inches away for his stretched long fingers.

Taehyung froze and shut his eyes while sighing heavily at his stupidity. He grabbed the marker and sat up while dusting his shoulder and pants. He then faced Jungkook's giggling figure and cleared his throat, hoping he wouldn't mention the embarrassing moment.

"Got it." He mumbled before placing the marker on the desk and moving back to the glass board. "Thanks for your help, you can go now."

Jungkook eyed him with concern, he knew he must have had a lot in his mind since the simplest thing that could happen to him, would block his mind to the point of losing the capacity of his brain cells, which reminded him of the reason he came to find him in the first place.