Park Soomi

"I-It doesn't even matter."

"Jimin..." I reached towards him, instinctively wanting to comfort him after hearing the tragic news of his brother. But Jimin flinched and turned away, his hand lifting up to rub his temple in distress. I could see it on his face, how hard he was trying to act okay with it all. But he wasn't okay. There was no way he could be.

"No, sis, it's fine, really. I didn't know he existed my whole life anyway. Why should this change anything?"

"Because he's your family. Your own blood. It's okay to be affected by this," I reassured him.

"You're my family. He- he's just a stranger I'll never know."

"But maybe you can." Yoongi started. "He's presumed dead, but only because there hasn't been any record of him, of residences, attended schools, anything, since he was a kid. There is no cause of death mentioned anywhere on his file. He could still be out there if I just try looking—"

"Yoongi, please, don't. I..." Jimin paused, struggling to say his next words. There was a glint of pain in his eyes as he visibly gulped. "I am disappointed, okay? Yes, I wanted to meet him. But I don't want to get my hopes up again, so just leave it. By tomorrow, you won't even be around anymore. You should focus on more important things."

"Tomorrow?" Yoongi questioned, and I had to hold myself back from saying something while Jimin was still in the room. As I turned towards Jimin, he mustered a sad smile.

"Thanks for watching over Soomi and for trying to find my brother. Good luck with everything." The two exchanged warm, solemn looks before Jimin exited the room. Once he was out of sight, so too was the last excuse keeping me from facing the inevitable. I sighed, not wanting to look Yoongi in the eye, despite knowing for weeks that this day was rapidly approaching.

"Wow. That quick, huh? You know, for a long time, I thought this day would just never come."

"But it's not fair." The words escaped without a second thought, but instant regret followed. "I mean, we just... I finally..." I couldn't find the right words, and I realized it was because I didn't know what they were. What even are we? Where do we go from here?

"Hey, like Jungkook said, this isn't goodbye. In fact, I'd say this is good for us," Yoongi said, "because there can actually be an us now."

I bit back a sneaking smile, but the moment his lips curled up, his infectious grin sent a wave of warmth throughout my body.

"This can be a fresh start for us, you know, where things are finally normal for a change." Yoongi snaked his arms around my waist, and I jumped out of impulse, frantically glancing around for anyone walking into the living room and catching us.

"Yoongi! Someone could see us," I whispered, trying to break out of his arms, but his hold around me only tightened.

"Then let them see us. See, that's one of the perks of the new change. We won't have to hide anymore."

"Don't get too ahead of yourself," I said with a laugh. "You're not quite off the job just yet." I gently pushed at his arm, and he finally released his grip with a sheepish smile.

"My bad. Might be getting carried away."

"Well, I wouldn't be opposed to hearing more about what this big change would entail."

"Hmm, I won't be by your side 24/7, but we can do what normal couples do and go out on dates. I won't be living under the same roof anymore, which is good since I probably shouldn't move in until at least the second date," Yoongi joked. I lightly laughed, anticipating what more he had to say. "But most importantly, our time together could just be about us. Not about your dad, about work, just us."

I couldn't help myself anymore as I got on my toes and placed the palm of my hand on the back of his neck, pulling him in until our lips touched. The moment I closed my eyes, I could feel the tears of happiness slowly trickling down.

"What happened to not getting caught?" he asked. Even with closed eyes, I could feel his grin just centimeters away from my lips.

"Maybe I'm just a rebel after all," I said while pulling away from him. "So any chance I could get a sneak peek of these amazing new plans you got for us? We can go out for dinner—"

Yoongi's smile faltered at the mention of any plans, a crack finally emerging on what seemed like too perfect of a moment.

"I- I can't. I told my boss I'd be coming into the office for the rest of the day."

"But Jungkook is still planning to stay for a bit..." I mumbled. I couldn't hide my disappointment, not caring at all about how childish I must've sounded in this moment.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry, but I want to look a bit more into Jimin's brother." Yoongi revealed.

"Really? But Jimin—"

"Said he doesn't want to look for him anymore, I know. But you know him better than anyone, right? So am I wrong to say that he actually doesn't want to give up on searching for him?"

I hesitated, reflecting on the expression on Jimin's face when Yoongi broke the news, the split second of disappointment that flashed in his eyes before he recomposed himself. The tone of his voice still resonated in my ears, and I sighed.

"You're right. Just don't tell Jimin about this. And promise you'll be back soon?" I asked hopefully. Yoongi smiled, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.

"I promise you, Park Soomi. This isn't a goodbye. It's just a 'see you very soon."

━ ⋆⋅❈⋅⋆ ━

Min Yoongi

"Great to have you back here, Yoongi. Work has been piling up since you took the Park case," Namjoon explained as he quite literally piled papers after papers on the desk in front of me. "Safe to say, you probably won't be seeing a free day any time soon."

"I thought you said I could come review the file for Jimin's brother?" I grimaced at the massive pile of case folders in front of me, knowing very well that my days were about to be filled with busy work and boring, mundane tasks.

"Fine, fine, but start looking into that pile soon. I've already ordered the cases by priority."

"Sure thing, Namjoon."

"I'd prefer if you'd call me boss," he grumbled in harmless annoyance, and I let out a dry laugh while rolling my chair over to the nearest computer. "So how do you feel now that you're finally off the Park case? Must be nice, not working on such a dangerous mission."

"Hmm? Yeah, I guess," I mumbled in response, though I was preoccupied browsing through the database of records. The rhythmic clicking of the keyboard filled the room as my eyes quickly scanned line after line, soaking in all the information. There's got to be something, some kind of lead.

"Also, Yoongi, about the agent you requested to watch Seokjin's apartment—"

"Oh right." The clicking of the keyboard ceased for a second as I shook my head, realizing that it totally slipped my mind to update Namjoon on the matter. "I forgot to tell you. You can remove the agent from his post. Seokjin messaged us back, and he's fine."

"Really? On his phone?" Namjoon seemed confused by the news for some unknown reason. "Didn't you say he left his phone in the apartment? I was gonna let you know that the agent reported no activity outside the apartment complex." My ears perked up at this revelation. I tried my best to multitask and absorb everything being thrown at me. But I could feel my mind going into overload as I continued processing the information I was reading and hearing. "Not a single person entered or exited the building."

"What about the cam footage? Any signs of Seokjin when the agent hadn't reached his post yet?" My eyes landed on an interesting file I had come across during my search. This might be it. A lead.

"He reviewed the footage in the car. No sign of him there either..." Despite my best efforts, Namjoon's voice grew more and more distant as my attention fixated on the screen before me. A court case? My brain spiraled with each passing word until becoming a full-blown tornado as I reached the end. I stared up at Namjoon with wide eyes. "...Isn't that strange?" I managed to catch Namjoon's last words.

"Oh my god."

"What? Did you figure something out?" Namjoon asked curiously.

"Yes. Well, no, not about Seokjin. About Jimin's brother, Kim Siwoo. Their mother, Jimin's biological mother. She was murdered years ago." I paused, trying to collect my thoughts and the details of the court case. "And Prosecutor Park was a witness at the court hearing."

"What? I would think I'd remember something like this."

"Well, it seems like they tried burying the story at the time. But isn't it strange? The case happened the same year all records of Kim Siwoo vanished."

"Okay, then he likely died alongside his mother, right? Some sort of mass murder case? But it is weird that there's a recorded case of the mother's murder but no record of her son's," Namjoon muttered, having trouble processing this information.

"Well, there's something else. You know, all throughout the Park investigation, we looked into the hundreds of cases where their dad participated as a prosecutor. But maybe we were looking in all the wrong places."

"What are you suggesting, Yoongi?" Namjoon questioned. By the look on his face, he didn't seem to like where I was going. "That we missed something? The case is already closed. All the evidence points towards the culprit."

"Yeah, but don't you think it was too easy?" I argued. "We struggled for so long to find any trace of a suspect, and suddenly one appears from thin air? All I'm saying is, not once did we think to look into any cases where Prosecutor Park was a witness or... a suspect." Or at least unofficially.

I could tell that Namjoon still had so many more questions, but instead of asking them, he simply sighed.

"If you're gonna keep looking into the Park case despite already finding the culprit, be my guest. I just ask that you at least crack into those case files for me. You can do that right?"

I picked up the first folder off the pile and shot Namjoon a smile.

"Priority number one, right?" I slipped the folder into my bag, and Namjoon seemed satisfied enough by the initiative. But as I left the room, all I could think about was my true main priority.

Meeting the suspect convicted for the murder of Jimin's mother.

——
{a/n}
Ah I didn't realize how hard it would be to get back into writing the story after taking a break for so long 😅 I definitely forgot a few things, but I'll hopefully get back into the swing of things soon!

Thanks for reading! Keep an eye out on my bio for future updates!