*flashback
"Why do you look so happy right now Eunnie?" Her mother asks as she walks hand in hand with Jieun.
"Because we're going to go to Jaemin's house right now! I haven't seen him in two weeks." She replies excitedly. Smiling ever so widely, showcasing her front teeths that were missing.
"You're that excited to meet him." Her mother says as she smiles at Jieun, to which the small girl nodded her head enthusiastically.

"Ari." Hearing that voice, Jieun's mother was immediately alarmed as she hid Jieun behind her.
"What is it now?" She replies, trying to not show her annoyance.
"I told you that I'd be back for you." Sujin answers, a menacing smile evident on his face.
"The only thing that you've done is harass me. I'd suggest that you leave me alone for good, that is if you don't want me to involve my husband into this? He's a cop and he could just as well arrest you right now." Her mother stated.
"Ugh that stupid husband of yours. He is what got between us!?"
"Us? There was never an 'us' to begin with Sujin. Are you still not over the fact that I rejected you back in college?" She tiredly sighs.
"Yes? You embarrassed me in front of everyone. How can I ever get over that. You chose that stupid police man over me. I'm going to be a millionaire soon Ari." He brags as she could just role her eyes at him.
"I don't care if you're a millionaire, you're still a womanising douchebag. Don't you even dare try to compare yourself to my husband. Now if you would, please leave me and my family alone." Her mother holding onto Jieun's hand quickly as she was about to leave.
"You're going to regret this." He says as he took a gun out of his blazer and shot it right at the women's chest before fleeing away.

Her mother fell to the ground, pulling Jieun with her. Jieun sitting there in her mother's pool of blood as she just stares at her mother dumbstruck.
"Mom, mom why are you bleeding." Jieun asks as she shook her shoulders to wake her up.

"Somebody help, please!"

..

"Dad why is Ji noona crying?" Jisung asks as he points at his sister. The five year old confused as to why they were in the hospital. All their father could do was just shake his head, this further confusing the boy.
"What happened to mama is she ok?" He kept asking, pulling onto Jieun's sleeve to get an answer out of her.
"Jisung." She said and pulled him into a hug.
"Why are you crying?" He asks again but this time in tears.

--- ৎ୭

She woke up from that dream. The first thing that she was greeted with was of a white ceiling. She looked around the room peculiarly. What was she doing in the hospital room again?

"You're finally awake!" Someone said as she looks to her side to see Jiwoo sitting besides her.
"Jiwoo what are you doing here?" She asks.
"Rotating shifts with Jaemin. He's currently out grabbing something to eat after I forced him too. He looked like a zombie and he didn't want to leave you alone." Jiwoo explains.
"How long have I been in here?"
"For about a day."
"Woah really?" Jieun going silent as she tries to remember the events that happened that led her here.

"If you're wondering what happened with my dad, surely enough after he shot you, the police came and arrested him. Just as how you deducted." Jiwoo spoke up as the girl looks over at her.
"How did you realise everything? Even that I was getting abused. You really are good at everything." Jiwoo asks.

"I'm not good at everything. I'm just good at observing things. I realised that you were getting abused behind closed door by the way that you act around him when the both of you are in front of a crowd. Jaemin did tell me how weird it was that one day you weren't acting clingy around him or any guys. Your dad probably forced you to get close to him, I don't think that you're interested in guys are you?" She says as Jiwoo's face brightens.
"Then that day when he got kidnapped. You didn't follow the car that took him did you? You knew from the start where you dad's alliances were planning to hide him, so you told me about their hideout. Soon enough, the next day on campus you were covered in bruises. Your dad probably figured out that you were the one who told us about Jaemin's location and did that to you. So I told the police to look into your case first.

"As for the rest, it was through minor hints that made me realise that your dad was behind everything. I looked at his past and found out that he's been harassing a women during his college days and I put two and two together and realise that the women was my mother." She explains as Jiwoo could just listen attentively.
"You're a bit too smart and knowledgeable for someone our age." She says as Jieun could just grin.

"What can I say, I'm a bit of a genius." Jieun shrugs as the two girls shared a laughter.

"Jiwoo I'm back--" Jaemin arrives in the room and once he sees that Jieun was awake, he drops the plastic bag that he was holding on the floor, before he froze in place.
"Jiwoo I think you can go home now." He says as he picks up the plastic bag and headed towards Jieun.
"Geez already kicking me out." The girl frowns before she got up and bid her goodbyes and leaving the two alone.

"Jieun I was so worried." He says and immediately pulls her into his embrace.
"Thanks for being worried about me. I'm all better now."
"Never do that again. Are you crazy?! Why would you risk your life for me?" He nags at her as she just chuckles.
"Because for you I'd risk anything."
He held onto her shoulders as he looks at her weirdly.
"What?.."
"What did I say?" Jieun says with a mischievous grin on her face.
"You know what you said." He tells her as she bursted out laughing.
"Here let me say it in a more simpler way. I like you too." She said as she tried to calm down from laughing too hard. Her waist was still hurting and she was laughing a bit too much.
"Well, I wasn't expecting to have had this confession in a hospital but I guess that's how things work out for us and it seems pretty fitting." He said before smiling softly at her.

"You wanted to resign yesterday because you knew that you were going to catch the criminal on that specific day were you?" He says as she nodded her head.
"You smartass. Well I guess, today marks the day where you'd stop being my bodyguard. But today also marks the day where you become my girlfriend." He said in pure joy as she threw him a look.

"That was so cringe."

Jaemin then sat down on the chair as he took out the food that he'd bought.

"So what are you planning to do now?" He asks her.
"Well, the reason why I wanted to resign yesterday was because I got another job request!" She said as his eyebrows raised.
"Already? I thought you didn't want to continue working with the police."
"No this one is a personal one. I'm doing it for a friend. Wait, where's my phone, I'll show you the email."

He took her phone out of his bag as he hands it over to her.
"Here." She said and showed him the email that she recieved. Jaemin immediately smiling once he views it.
"Seeing as he specifically chose you to do this case, I'm sure that you'd be able to find her. I'm pretty sure that you'd be able to bring a group of people out of their misery."

Good evening Jieun,

This is Lily's older brother. I wanted you to investigate my sisters disappearance. I have a feeling that she's still alive, I'm still holding onto that bit of hope and you're the only person that I'd trust who'd be willing to help me out. Of course you'd be paid. I'd do anything just to find out whether my sister is still alive or not. I hope I'm not putting too much pressure on you and you're willing to help me.
Please reply to me once you've made up your decisions.

Kind regards,
Xu Minghao.

་۪ ✿◞

[ THE END ]

Congrats you've reached the end of the book 🥳! I'm so sorry that it took me this long to finish the story. What started in January ended up finishing four months later. (And of course I had the sudden burst of motivation to write when I'm doing my finals rn lol) /pls pray for me HAHAHAH.

I hope you've enjoyed this story until the end. To all the readers who've managed to read until this far and who is bothered to read my authors note (I love you). Writing Jieun's character was really hard to say the least, I haven't written any female characters who's character is supposed to look strong 😭 so I'm glad that the next book is going to be a bit easier to write about.
I'm also not sorry that this book is a slow burn, this is me trying to torture you awowkwowk.

I'll end it here before it becomes too long. This is the first out of 6 books out the the 00'line series. I've hoped you've enjoyed it so far.
This has been derysaurus 🦋!