Treasure: The Present || Ateez WooSanHwa

Chapter 23: Investigation On My Own

The Next Day:

Joong POV:

"So how's it going?" Jun sat outside of a restaurant with a friend.

"It's been alright. Why did you want to meet for breakfast? " Joong sat on the opposite side of the table, sipping his water.

"I can't catch up with a friend?" Taking a bite of his salad. "Actually I have something to tell you." Swallowing a drink of his water. "Have you seen Hwa yet?"

"Yeah I saw yesterday. Why?" His voice raised in concern.

"I saw him with San. He was wrapping Hwa's hands with bandages. I don't know what happened but his hand looked pretty bad. You might want to check that out."

"Oh that, I knew about that. I helped him yesterday." Taking a bit of his food.

"Can you tell me what happened?"

"He said it was an older man. Maybe in his 60s with scruffy facial hair, semi messy black hair, and had really dark angry eyes. To what Hwa told me, he was tall but not taller than 6 feet. Smelled heavily like smoke and reeks of alcohol. That's all Hwa told me." Taking another bit of his food, watching Jun's reaction. "Oh and some kind venomous snake tattoo. Why?"

"Oh I see. No nothing, I was just curious. Well I gotta get going to work now so have a good day, Joong." Excusing himself first.

Yeonjun POV:

After Yeonjun left, he quickly but safely drove to somewhere hurriedly and put on a disguise.

"Hello, welcome to Treasure's Boutique, how can I help you?" A rather tall black haired boy greeted behind the register.

"Hello, are you the owner?" Jun asked, scanning his eyes around the store.

"Yes I am. What can I do for you?" Placing flower pots on the counter, walking over to Jun.

"I work for a security company. One of your employees called us to fix your store security camera." Taking out a business card out of his back pocket. The top of the card says "Security Camera Company"

"I-I don't think we have reported any broken cameras. I don't believe any of them are broken either." Glancing at the camera above.

"I did." Wonho walked in just in time to sort out the confusion. "I'm sorry Seonghwa ssi, I didn't want to worry you about little things I can handle."

"Oh, that's totally fine. Thank you. The security room is in the back." Gesturing Yeonjun to the back.

In just 15 minutes, Yeonjun came out from the back, thanked the owner and walked out. Once he got in the car, he rang his parents, who are chief police officers/detectives alerting them he will be visiting them soon.

Walking into a police office just as if he was one himself, straight to his parents office. "Undercover Yeonjun still on the case." Slapping a couple security camera photographs onto the oak desk where his parents sat behind.

"Where'd you get this, son?" The two looked up, seriousness pecked their voices.

"Treasure Boutique front door security camera. A friend told me about an assault involving the owner and this man." Jabbing his pointer finger at the man's face in the photo. "His description of the man reminded me of Jongho ssi's father. I was curious and I went to fetch the tapes and took them with me."

"Good job, son. We'll take it from here." Attempting to take the photos in front of him.

However, Yeonjun pressed his hands on it, preventing his father from taking it with him.

"Excuse meee, I found them, I get to keep them. Let me take the case." Placing his palm on his chest as if he was offended.

"This is no time for jokes, son." His father's face was unamused.

"Do I look like I'm joking?" Suddenly Yeonjung's posture changed, his voice tinted with deadliness.

His father stood up, his facial expression grew intimidating but it didn't faze Yeonjun one bit. "Son, you are a model, not an official police officer nor an official detective. I will not allow you to keep up with this case. I will take you off this case right this second if deemed necessary."

"Why? Why can't I be a model and a detective at the same time? You guys put me on this case as an undercover cop in the first place. You both taught me never to give up something that I feel passionate about. I've been helping you on this case since I was a child and I've officially been on this case for 6 years. I will not back down from it, especially now. Even if you take me off of this case, I'll keep tracking them." Yeonjun passionately protested.

"Where are they? When did they come back? Have you talked to him?" His father pressured his son to answer as if it was a test.

"I don't know and that's why I want to find out. I'll track him down and I'll talk to him. I'm on to them, dad, let me crack the truth then I'll hand it to you guys. Please, this is important. They've hurt my friends and I'm not going to let them go. "

His father stayed silent, thinking about what Yeonjun just said.

"Dad, think about it. We're so close in finding them, if they find out the police are on their tail, they will flee. They might create more destruction if they found out you guys are on them. If I handle this just like I am now, we'll bust them down when they least expect it."

"Honey, I think Yeonjun is right. We taught him all this and maybe we should listen to what he's saying right now. If he needs our help, he'll come find us. We just got to trust him." His mother spoke up at last, placing her hand on his shoulder.

His father sighed heavily, shaking his head before surrendering, "Fine, we'll let you do most of the undercover stuff. HOWEVER, if there are any chasing or dangerous obstacles, we will step in no matter what. Understood?!"

"Yes sir. Yes ma'am. Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Giving the two a quick hug, grabbing the security photos before bursting out the door once again.

Yeonjun knew it was going to be dangerous either way. He knew that because he was caught in a crossfire before. Getting shot once in the upper arm. But of course he couldn't tell his parents, they would take him off the case right there and then so he kept it a secret.

[ Flashback ]

*This is back when the graduation incident happened and when everyone was sent to the hospital*

"Did you handle him?" Jongho walked briskly towards Yeonjun.

Yeonjun facing the streets and Jongho facing the building.

"Yeah, I called the ambulance and they're taking him to Seoul hospital where everyone is going," Yeonjun said with exhaustion in his voice.

"Good good." Just as they thought they could relax, Yeonjun's eyes widened, grabbed Jongho's shoulder, aggressively shoved him into the alleyway, "RUN!" And they took off running down the alleyways.

Just in that moment, they both heard a loud bang, someone was shooting at them.

*silently grunts in pain*

The two run without stopping for a second of rest. Quickly they entered another back alleyway but this one was behind a big mall so they knew whoever was shooting wasn't going to come down the alleyway.

Once they were sure they were safe, the two slumped down onto the dirty pavement from pure exhaustion.

"Holy shit Yeonjun, you're bleeding!" Jongho turned to see Yeonjun's upper arm covered in blood. In a hurry, Jongho took out his medical stuff from his backpack, starting to patch his wounds to prevent further bleeding and enough time for them to get to Jongho's secret hideout.

"I'll survive. It just hurts like hell." Breathing unsteadily from pain.

"You're not fine. This wasn't supposed to happen. I was supposed to protect you, I was supposed to be the one getting shot, not you!" Jongho raised his voice in concern for Yeonjun.

Of course in the end, Yeonjun survives after getting the bullet out of his arm and never telling his parents.