Chapter Text
“Your name, from today on, is Lee Yongbok. You were born in Jeju Province…”
“What about his accent, sir?”
“He can control it. So, you were born in Jeju Province and you moved to Seoul when you were a young, and your dream has always been to become a police officer. You attended the Korean National Police Academy, where you were an average student, and you’ve only graduated three years ago. Since you’re so lucky to still look young despite your age, you’ll pretend you are seven years younger. Are you listening to me, Felix?”
“Yes, sir.”
“So, how old are you and what’s your name?”
“Twenty-five, sir. My name is Lee Yongbok.”
“Good. You’ll find everything you need in this file, together with your new personal documents and the key to your new apartment. The apartment building is in a residential area, with a beautiful park and a good school nearby. Why do you think I’ve chosen that for you, Felix?
“I want to find a wife and start a family soon, so buying an apartment in that area is a good start for that.”
“You’re ready to start your new life, then. Good luck.”
“Thank you, sir.”
֍🚔⸙🚓👮֍👮🚓⸙🚔֍
Felix’s heart starts beating faster as the Uber pulls over right in front of the apartment building, and by the time he gets out of the car and the driver unloads his suitcase and backpack from the trunk, he already feels so dizzy that he almost drops right there, on the fucking pavement. His superior believed that buying a plane ticket for Felix and sending him on his way was already generous enough, and Felix didn’t have the energy to argue or ask for another police officer to accompany him.
Ever since his seven-year-long undercover mission ended, almost four months ago, Felix hasn’t had the energy to deal with almost anything. To his superiors, however, whatever he’s going through mentally doesn’t matter too much, as long as the external wounds have mostly healed. So Felix had kept quiet, and forced himself to endure the never-ending trip from Sydney to Seoul, ignoring the dull pain in his body and the fear that he was being watched all the fucking time.
As he starts walking towards the entrance, Felix feels more uneasy and anxious by the second. His throat almost closes in on itself by the time he gets inside the elevator, and he feels like he can breathe again only after the metal doors open and release him from the cage of death. Felix hasn’t felt comfortable with tight spaces ever since… no, he refuses to think about everything that’s happened to him. Just like his superior told him, he has to bury all the dark memories of his past.
Such a joke, isn’t it? Felix grits his teeth as he reaches the apartment he’s been given and unlocks the door with the key he found in the file. Everything is a joke to his superiors, starting with the apartment they’ve given him, that’s on the tenth floor, when they should’ve known that Felix can’t deal with tight spaces, such as the elevator, and he can’t climb the stairs either, because he hasn’t completely recovered from having both his legs broken – technically, Felix has completely recovered physically, but every time he finds himself looking up to a flight of stairs, he gets chills down his spine and he freezes in his spot, unable to walk up a single step. The psychiatrist that he was sent to was more than happy to sign any document that was necessary for Felix to be released back into the world, and the man couldn’t care less about whatever trauma Felix was still dealing with after the seven-year-long undercover mission. Another joke is the name that his superiors have chosen for him, calling him a dragon, as if to mock him for returning beaten down and broken.
“So lucky to look so young,” Felix murmurs as he walks into the apartment and he’s greeted by a round mirror on the wall, right next to the rack where he’s supposed to hang both his keys and his coat.
For the past four months, Felix has tried his best to avoid looking in any mirror, because he’s still – and always be – so disgusted with himself. He remembers how proud he was of himself, seven years and four months ago, when he was first presented with the undercover mission. He had finished top of his class at the academy, and being selected for such a complex undercover mission was yet another proof of how valuable Felix was as a police officer. He was twenty-five and full of hope, and now he’s thirty-two and broken, and yet he still looks the same. Still, having to pretend he’s twenty-five and he has finished the academy for three years is the biggest joke ever.
Felix feels like he’s being asked to pretend that the undercover mission never happened, and that arises the worst feeling ever inside of him. He feels like he doesn’t matter as a person, and that he’s being discarded only because he hadn’t returned as a hero.
Felix hates everything his superiors represent, all those old men dressed in expensive suits, with not even a small crease in sight, and who believe that people like Felix is now, police officers covered in scars, both on the outside and on the inside, ruin their perfect image. It’s no wonder that Felix was transferred to another continent altogether, all so that his trauma won’t stain the police department in Sydney any longer. Felix has served his purpose and has given everything he had during his undercover mission, where he managed to infiltrate one of the most dangerous drug organizations in the world and taken it down from the inside. What he should’ve done was to return as a victorious hero, receiving praise left and right, not with both his legs broken, his mind shattered and his spirit completely crushed.
“Home, sweet home,” he forces out, then brushes his fingers through his shoulder-length black hair.
His new life begins now, whether he likes it, or not.
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“Boss, the new police officer that was transferred to our department hasn’t come to work yet. Should I give him a call?”
As the only woman in the Criminal Investigations Department, and the twin sister of the department’s captain, Hwang Yeji is the only one allowed to enter the captain’s office without knocking or announcing her presence and waiting to be allowed to go in. This is why, every time something bad would happen, Yeji was the one who would tell the news to their boss.
“Hyunjin?” she insists, flicking her bright orange hair over one shoulder. “Are you still alive?” she asks, walking around the desk and stopping right next to her brother.
Yeji smiles as she finally understands why he wasn’t saying anything. To anyone walking inside the office, they would’ve seen their boss sitting on his swivel chair, with the back to the door and him facing the window. In reality, Hyunjin was not facing the window… he was sleeping. Considering that their latest case had kept all of them in the office for the past three days and nights, it’s no wonder that even the almighty Captain Hyunjin would fall asleep unexpectedly. Instead of waking him up, Yeji brushes her fingers through her brother’s crimson hair, pushing it away from his forehead, then covers him with one of his jackets and closes the blinds, so that the early morning sun wouldn’t disturb him.
She’ll just tell everyone else that he’s on an important online meeting, and she’ll call the newcomer herself. Yeji is seconds away from leaving the office when Hyunjin starts moving, and the jacket she covered him with slips to the floor.
“Yeji,” he murmurs, his voice hoarse with sleep. “What is it?”
“Damn, and I tried to be quiet,” she replies, sighing. “The autopsy results for the second body just came in, and Dr. Lee also wants to talk to you about something that he thinks it’s weird about the body, so you should go see him,” she adds, and walks back to him, deciding to keep quiet about the newcomer not being at work yet.
“Okay, and? What about the newcomer?” Hyunjin asks and stifles a yawn. “It’s 9:25 am, if he isn’t here, then he doesn’t want to work here. Fire him.”
Yeji groans, half amused and half exasperated by Hyunjin’s strictness, then she leans with her hip against his desk. “He’s barely twenty-five, cut him some slack.”
“So? When I was twenty-five, I was the first to arrive at the station.”
“Yeah, but you’re a freak, little brother,” Yeji teases him, grinning as Hyunjin’s frown deepens.
He hates it when she calls him that, especially because she’s just ten minutes older, and it doesn’t fucking count.
“I’ll go call him, and see what happened,” Yeji says, and gets her phone out of her pocket. “And depending on his answer, you can do whatever you want to him. Deal?”
“What’s his name?”
“Lee Yongbok.”
Hyunjin snorts. “The mighty dragon of being fucking late to work. When he answers tell him not to bother to come if he’s such a useless excuse of a…”
The rest of Hyunjin’s words come out muffled, as Yeji slaps her palm against his mouth, right as their new colleague answers the phone. He doesn’t say anything, only picks up the phone, and Yeji feels a bit weirded out by this, but she chooses not to dwell on it too much.
“Hello, this is Hwang Yeji from the Criminal Investigations Department, is this Lee Yongbok?”
“Yes.”
A shiver runs down Yeji’s spine because of how deep Yongbok’s voice is… and also, because of how cold and detached he sounds.
“I, uh… well, I’m calling to ask if you knew you were supposed to come to work today. You should’ve been here at 7 am, and it’s 9:30 am already and…”
“I’m here,” Yongbok replies.
“Where?” Yeji asks, feeling dumb all of a sudden. “At the station?” she adds, wincing when Hyunjin rolls his eyes at her. “I mean… tell me where you are so I can come get you, you’ve been waiting in the lobby, haven’t you? Ha ha ha, I swear I’m such a scatterbrain, I was supposed to come downstairs in the lobby and show you around, right?” she continues, getting more weirded out as the seconds go by and Yongbok remains quiet.
“Thank you,” he eventually responds, then immediately ends the call.
“Fire him,” Hyunjin deadpans. “If he’s unable to come by himself, then he’s useless.”
“There’s fresh coffee in the break room,” Yeji says, completely ignoring Hyunjin’s words. “I’ll go greet our new colleague,” she adds, feeling guilty that she didn’t think to check the lobby.
The Criminal Investigations Departament is on the third floor of the police station building, and of course a young newcomer wouldn’t dare to come by himself. Yeji almost slaps herself in the face when she notices the dozens of missed calls from the secretary downstairs, and it all happened because she forgot her phone on silent.
“I’m so sorry,” she apologizes, pressing her palms together as she finally reaches the lobby, and the middle-aged secretary throws a dirty look her way. “Our latest case has turned us all into zombies, I swear,” Yeji adds, then gently places a box of cookies on the secretary’s desk, and the woman’s eyes light up. “Thank you for taking care of our new colleague. Where is he…?”
Yeji’s eyes widen as a tall and thin black-haired man walks towards her, and her mouth drops open when their eyes meet. The first thing she notices about him is how gorgeous he is, just like a fucking model, not a police officer, and the second thing she notices is the multitude of freckles decorating his beautiful face.
“Lee… Yongbok?” she asks, looking the man up and down, and she feels even more shocked when he nods. “I’m Yeji, so nice to meet you, and please forgive me for making you wait for so long. Our latest case is killing us.”
Yongbok nods, and Yeji’s mouth dries when she notices a black wisp of hair escape from the tight bun he tied his hair in, and she needs all her self-restrain not to reach out and tuck it behind his ear.
Yongbok is… Yeji’s type, totally, and he’s so gorgeous that she’s willing to break her only rule, which is not to hook up with her work colleagues. She’s broken this rule once before – not that Hyunjin has to know, especially because the man she hooked up with isn’t even working with them anymore.
“Let’s get you upstairs, so you can meet the boys,” she adds, cursing herself for how hoarse her voice sounds.
Yongbok nods again and follows her to the elevator, and Yeji mutters a curse under her breath when they find out that the elevator is out of order.
“Oh well, it’s just three flights of stairs,” the orange-haired woman says, smiling as she reaches for Yongbok’s shoulder. “Come with me.”
She’s surprised when he moves, evading her touch, and she gets even more surprised when she notices Yongbok’s face turning as white as sheet the second they reach the stairs.
“You okay?” Yeji asks, tilting her head to the side in confusion. “The Criminal Investigations Departament is on the third floor, so we have to take the stairs, because the elevator is out of order,” she explains, and chuckles a bit, to try to disperse the tense atmosphere. “Yongbok?” she insists, moving to touch his shoulder again, but to her surprise, the black-haired man evades her touch yet again.
What shocks Yeji the most, however, is to see Yongbok turn on his heels and walk away from her. He doesn’t turn around and he doesn’t stop until he’s out of the building, leaving Yeji to look after him, her eyes wide in confusion.
֍🚔⸙🚓👮֍👮🚓⸙🚔֍
Felix knows this is ridiculous, and he’s acting like he’s insane. Just like the pretty policewoman said, they only had to go up three flights of stairs, because the elevator was out of order, and the Criminal Investigations Department was on the third floor of the building.
Felix can’t fucking do this, no matter what it means for his future. If he’s going to be fired because of this stupid thing, then so be it. He can’t really force himself to take those stairs, no matter what it means.
He pulls his blanket over his head, as if to shield himself from all the evil in the world.
He’ll try again tomorrow, and maybe the elevator won’t be out of order then.