Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Rescue
She mulled at the thought while staring at the barren glass. Jeongyeon could see her reflection staring back at her with hooded eyes, yet nothing came upon her. The darkness outside should remind her it was past midnight. That she has to sleep but she was standing in the living room, looking through the pane windows, hoping to be able to read her foggy mind.
"What's his real name?" He asked.
"I —" She took a pause. "We don't know."
"His face... any details you can offer?"
"I didn't see it clearly," Jeongyeon explained, eyes downcast. "But Seokjin, I know he's there. We just haven't met him face to face. But I saw him. I saw his back."
"Jeong, we can't just rely on hunches. And more importantly, we can't identify someone's identity just by looking at his back." He stopped and released a weary sigh he's been holding for long. "You know that."
Jeongyeon's strained voice faltered at the end. "I know."
And the remainder of the conversation fell as a hum inside her ears, and as if her mind strayed far away, it finally did. She knew she shouldn't be blaming Taehyung, and for all reasons, she shouldn't be blaming the one thing that saved them — that stupid kiss. If he hadn't interluded in that critical time, pulled her, and kissed her right and there, she would have had the opportunity to see the assailant's face. Now, probably, they would have a case to crack. But they didn't, and they're rowing back to zero again.
So, was it Taehyung's fault? Jeongyeon asked herself.
No.
He saved her again. For the millionth time, he was there in a breadth's hair, pulling her out from her impending doom.
Was it your fault then? Jeongyeon hesitated.
I don't know.
The glow from the screen of the laptop and the occasional nods from Taehyung signaled her that the two were deep in conversation. She saw his eyebrows crease at something Seokjin said from the other line, something she defied to listen to. Taehyung nodded again, lips muttering a low 'yes', 'I understand', fingers on his chin in such concentration she'd seen many times before. After that, there was a palpable silence even Jeongyeon failed to ignore.
Finally, she heard Seokjin say.
"You both have two days to do your research. Don't go to the field unless I say so, understand?"
Now she was standing here in the middle of the night, still as a statue, not able to mute her inner turmoil.
It was two days. Two fleeting days doing everything they thought they could, but they hadn't gained one thing from their search. Names, pictures of persons involved, the so-called name of that damn organization, evidence of their hijacked operation... nothing. It was as if they were fixing a complete puzzle, small fragments are nowhere to be found. They're as if waiting for a catch in a deserted lake, only to come back empty-handed. They thought they had infiltrated their system – they both joined online bidding, joined conversations of wealthy politicians, drug dealers, and mafia leaders to extract answers that may lead them to their source, but they outwitted them, paralyzing their system instead.
