AFTER DARK | Johan Liebert

Chapter 19: C.I.D - HE'S BACK!

"We're going to the police! We're going to the police!"

The children were chanting together as we walked over to the police station in our district. "Mrs. Krupin, will we see real guns there?" I looked at the child asking me. "Perhaps we will." "Cool! I'll take it and hunt down the criminals! Boom, boom!" "And then we'll take the police car and bring him to jail!" "I wanna become a policeman when I grow up!" I chuckled at the children's excitement. "I guess the children have watched to many movies", said Mrs. Weber, walking next to me.

"We have arrived!" Mrs. Weber clapped her hands to gain the childrens' attention. "The 1a will go with me into the main building. The 1c will go with Mrs. Krupin to the Kriminalpolizei (CID)! Afterwards, we'll switch!" "Alright, then!" I pointed at the space next to me. "We'll form two rows and head over to the CID building, right there!" I glanced at the named building, seeing our guide in the corner of my eye.

Wait.

I looked again.

It was a tall, dark-haired, handsome man.

And he looked similar to my ex boyfriend.

I froze.

Nonononono—

"Mrs. Weber, can we change classes-", I started, but she was gone already. The man looked back at me and looked as shocked as I was.

It was the guy from the bar.

We walked over to him. The children were excited, asking him all kinds of things. He was good with children, answering them kindly. "You can call me Finn", he told the children. Then, he stood up and faced me. I immediately winced just from having eye contact with him. Why him? Why did it have to be HIM?

"I'm Finn Hermann. I believe we've met before." He reached out his hand.

In my mind, I rolled my eyes at his ironic remark.

"Klara Krupin." I shook his hand briefly. "So, are you our guide today?" "Oh, not really. My colleague is going to do the talking."

And so it was. I stood next to Finn, behind the 1c, listening to his colleague telling the children all kinds of things.

"You look much better", said Finn quietly. "How have you been?"

"I'm fine", I mumbled. "That night was an exception. I was going mad."

"Did you get over him?"

"No. I didn't have to."

He looked at me in confusion.

"We started anew."

"After he rejected you?"

"He didn't do it because he didn't like me. But now, we start to get to know each other a lot more and I'm glad it turned out like that."

"I'm happy to hear that."

I frowned. "You do? I thought you think badly of me."

"I don't have a reason to do so. Not that I advocate heavy drinking to compensate, but your actions were understandable. Everyone does things they regret later on. I did the same a long time ago."

"You did?" Hesitantly, I asked. "... Was it because of your ex girlfriend?"

He nodded, watching the children. "She cheated on me."

I felt a slight sting in my chest. "She did? I'm sorry. That must have been horrible." He looked at me, observing my facial expression. The feeling we shared that moment... was probably empathy. 

"Well", he continued, "going through this pain makes you certain you wouldn't ever do this to someone you love." "Is there a way to be sure that someone wouldn't cheat on you?", I asked him softly. He thought about my question. "I don't know. But I hope that someday, I'll meet someone where I'm sure she'll always be loyal to me. I'm tired of games..." He smiled at me. "I hope your man is that type of person."

I hope that for you too, Finn.

Two days later, I went to Hamburg University. Today, Johan and I would go shopping for the motto party - at least for my costume. Johan had told me that he had bought his costume already. Miraculous, I thought. But he wouldn't tell me who he was going as. Excited, I hurried out of the S-Bahn and headed to university.

I could already see him. Quickly, I waved, grinning at him, happy to see him again. But he was far away, and he was talking to a couple of girls, smiling as always. I could see their faces - they were totally smitten by him. I could feel my heart ache, watching them. Was that jealousy? But I wasn't actually in love with him, right? I was attached for sure, but love? I thought about my conversation with Gabi. Had I lied to myself? They were laughing. I couldn't stand it, but I just stood there, frozen. Then, I saw one girl trying to reach out for his hand. He subtly pulled it away, and as he took a step back, he turned around, seeing me. His eyes slightly widened, and a wide smile appeared on his face. In an instant, he said goodbye to the girls and walked over to me.

"Sorry to make you wait. Shall we head out?"

Just seeing his smile warmed my heart. I nodded without saying anything.

"I missed you."

I winced when hearing that, looking at him. He continued. "How was the visit at the police station?" "Well, it was good. The children had fun, and I met an acquaintance there. How was your day?" "Nothing special happened." He took his car keys. "But just seeing you lights up my day." I looked away,  chuckling. "Why are you being so affectionate today?" We arrived at his car and he left my question unanswered. Then, he took a bag from the back seat and took two smaller bags out of it. "This is for you. Let's eat before we go." I took one of the two and opened it. "Oh!" Johan smiled. "You like these the most, do you?" I nodded. "Thank you, Johan!" That was the best Franzbrötchen I had in a while. And just the fact that he remembered my favourite food made me forget about the girls or any other doubts.

A/N: Hello! I'll proof-read this chapter tomorrow, but I wanted to post something today, so I'll publish it anyway. I just needed to write something today, and even if I'm not posting so much currently, I'm writing some of the scenes that will happen later on! Still, After Dark is 'just' a side project of mine. Actually, today has been a terrible day because I received some bad news regarding my future (nothing life-threatening, it's career-related) and it feels like my life-long dream will never be realised because that door was just slammed in my face. But writing this story helped me distract myself a bit. Anyway, have a nice weekend! :)