Chapter Text
Childhood friends come and go all the time, but the one person that had never left was Taehyung. Taehyung was beside him every second of the day, they were inseparable until that day.
It was said to have been an accident caused by faulty wiring until the case turned cold due to no substantial evidence found at the scene and the whole house blew into those amber flames flickering in the night sky. The fire took out the whole family who were fast asleep inside.
Jungkook was fourteen when he lost him but not only that, he lost someone he held close to his heart even if the older boy never felt the same.
Taehyung had been sixteen when his life was brutally taken away from him. Jungkook still remembers the nights he spent crying in his parents’ bed unable to sleep. Heartbreak hurt but losing his first love forever had been far worse.
There was a time where he felt afraid of feeling this way about him and then he realised that he shouldn’t feel afraid to talk about things like this with Taehyung. Why would Taehyung make fun of him?
And he didn’t. In fact, Taehyung had sat next to him and listened to his speech about how much he liked him and then proceeded to break his heart. So, at least it wasn’t all bad.
They continued being the best of friends for another four months and it made Jungkook regret the two weeks where he spent crying over the fact that Taehyung had rejected him. If he had known what was going to happen, he would have spent every second with him. Even though it was a short time apart, he doesn’t think he’ll ever get over not spending as much time as humanly possible next to him.
He misses him and it just doesn’t feel the same anymore.
It’s been eleven years, yet his heart still soars when he thinks back to his childhood memories with Taehyung. They say grief goes away as time goes by so why does he still feel this pain? Well, it’s because grief never goes away, there’s no stopping it. You just have to find a way to cope.
Which is obviously easier said than done.
Sometimes he sits at his desk looking at the case files and feels that same sadness he felt all those years ago. Now, at twenty-five, Jungkook is working as a detective alongside criminal investigators.
Ever since that day he had decided to work in the crime area. It took a while for him to get to where he is today, but the hard work has finally paid off.
There are times where he looks up to the sky and thanks Taehyung for watching over him though he still feels a small amount of anger towards his best friend for leaving him all alone. He knows it’s not Taehyung’s fault, but the day he was taken away from him was the worst day of his life.
Now, he’s in his boss’s office waiting for the older man to tell him what’s going on. All he knows is that he’ll be assigned to a case, one that has been unsolved for roughly five years or more. He’s a little nervous about this, but he hasn’t been unable to solve a case so far and he tells himself not to worry too much.
Thankfully, he doesn’t have to wait for his boss for too long as the man walks in with a flash of a smile before he turns his attention to Jungkook. “I don’t know how much you already know about this case. The files are in front of you so you can take them back to your office to look through. This case isn’t going to be easy, Jungkook, but I have faith in you.” His boss tells him, a sincere look on his face.
Jungkook smiles, albeit a little forced and thanks his boss before waiting for what he has to say next.
“We only have one suspect so far, though the evidence against him is pretty convincing. We just need something, an eyewitness maybe, to prove his guilt or put him at the scene of the crimes. This is getting out of control now; I don’t care how you do it. I just want him off the streets and put away where he belongs.”
At the end of the meeting Jungkook walks out with the files under his arm and enters his office.
He heaves a sigh as he slams the stack of files onto his desk. Picking up the top file, Jungkook opens it and glances down at the information laid out. Where to start? He doesn’t think he’s ever been assigned to a case that has this much information. It shocks him that there’s so much here and yet no one has been able to catch the killer.
It’s a little daunting.
“This is going to be so much work,” he whispers, rubbing at his temple.
Seeing the picture in the top right-hand corner of the suspect details is the first thing that catches his attention. He gasps as he brings the file closer to his face. He can’t believe what he’s looking at.
But it can’t be. It’s impossible.
Yet when he turns his attention to the name of the suspect, he lets the file fall from his hands. He’s frozen in bewilderment; all he can think about is the fire all those years ago. This has to be a mistake. There’s no way that The Midnight Killer can be Kim Taehyung.
He just can’t be!
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Back in the safety of his own home, Jungkook sits on the couch with a cup of tea in his hands – the files left abandoned on the coffee table. He hasn’t picked them up after rushing to his boss to enquire about the suspect, but the answers he received were not the ones he wanted nor expected.
All he can see is that suspect’s picture lingering in his mind. It doesn’t make any sense. His superiors must know what happened to the very man they’re trying to blame for multiple murders, so how do they have a picture of Kim Taehyung looking healthy and very much alive?
It completely baffles him. There should be no way for them to get that picture, unless Taehyung has a doppelganger who somehow knew about the incident years ago and decided it would be the perfect way to hide their true identity.
This can’t be Taehyung. Even if he could, Taehyung wouldn’t do anything like these things they’re trying to blame him for; it’s absurd.
Placing his tea on the coffee table, Jungkook picks up the files once again to go through every bit of information. He’ll have to find some evidence against Taehyung being the killer and he knows exactly where he’ll have to start his investigation. Going back there is going to be tough, but he has to do this because he may be the only one that doesn’t believe that this suspect is the real Midnight Killer.
It’ll be hard for him to go back to the place his best friend used to live and he’s not sure whether he’ll be able to stay there long without remembering the awful event that happened.
He decides it’s best to go now, while it’s still light and with barely any people around.
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Upon arrival, Jungkook looks out at the now empty lot, Taehyung’s old house having been demolished due to the fire damage. Jungkook’s fist clenches by his side as he stands frozen on the pavement.
He tries to tell himself it’ll be fine, that he's doing this for Taehyung, but even that isn’t able to wash away the memories. He’s nervous about what his superiors will think when they realise what he’s doing. Still, Jungkook is doing his job. It’s just that he’s a little skeptical about the suspect.
But it’s so strange that Taehyung seems to be the only suspect they have right now. The case has been going on for so long that it doesn’t feel right to only have one suspect. Heck, even suspects that have been ruled out would be nice to see in the files, it would have helped him to investigate and question everyone to have a better look at everything that has happened in the case so far.
Yet he’s stuck with only one suspect. His own childhood friend, who just so happens to be dead…
To say he’s confused is an understatement. These things just don’t happen.
As he’s staring at the patch of land, Jungkook wonders then if anyone has tried to connect what happened eleven years ago to this case. It’s not entirely impossible and it may explain how the suspect chose the name Kim Taehyung.
Perhaps he should call his superior and ask him to let him look through the file of the fire. Honestly, he’s always wanted to. Especially to figure out why the case had turned cold.
If in the unlikely event this is Taehyung’s doing then it’s best to start at the beginning. In this case, this begins here, at his childhood home. Still, he’s not entirely too sure if he’ll find anything around the area that will be of any use to this investigation. Though, he could knock on the neighbours’ doors and ask if they lived here when the fire started and if they saw or heard anything suspicious. He doesn’t think he’s going to get much out of anyone, especially when it happened over ten years ago – even he can’t remember what he did a year ago or less.
“Where do I start?” Jungkook asks himself, looking over at the houses he once saw so much of.
It feels so bizarre being here again after so long, heaving withdrawn himself from all the pained memories he had here and now he’s back.
Turning in the direction of the house next door to where Taehyung used to live, he walks up the driveway and knocks on the door – his badge ready to present in his hand. It doesn’t take long for someone to open the door, a man roughly around his mid early fifties, who stands with a cigarette hanging loosely from his lips.
“Sorry to bother you, I’m Detective Jeon and I’m here to ask whether you remember anything from the incident that happened next door eleven years ago.”
The man hums in acknowledgement and opens the door to let Jungkook in thanking the man as he’s led to the living room.
“I can’t say I’ll remember much; eleven years is a long time,” They sit down on the chairs, the man shaking his head while Jungkook takes out his notebook and pen. “I know I was asleep, my shift ended quite late that day but I was woken up by the smell of gas. My wife woke up a little bit before me, I think she was the one to call the fire brigade out when she looked out the window.”
Jungkook writes the points down, “Do you have any idea what time that might have been? I understand that it’s difficult to remember but it could really help,” he pauses then, and glances around the room. “Is your wife here? It would be great to ask what she saw.”
“Ah, it must have been around midnight, maybe one, I can’t be too sure though,” The corners of the man’s lips turn down, a saddened expression taking over. “She doesn’t live here; she lives in the care home down the road. I don’t know if she’ll know much anymore, you’ll have to ask for Mrs. Choi at the counter. She’ll want to help; she liked that family – we all did.”
“I’ll be sure to inform the home when I can make it. Did you happen to see anything suspicious during the week following the fire? Or odd behaviour from any neighbours leading up to that day?”
Mr. Choi huffs a breath, shaking his head unsurely. “I don’t think so, but I can’t be too sure. It’s all a bit foggy up there now,” he laughs, albeit a little strained.
Jungkook smiles politely, remembering the times that he and Taehyung had thought the elderly man had looked old through their youthful eye, when in reality he looked like every other middle-aged man.
“Well, I appreciate your help, especially with no notice. I’d like to tell you in advance that you may get called in to a more formal questioning in station,”
He thanks Mr. Choi with a handshake then and goes on his way after he leaves his card and reminds Mr. Choi to call if anything from that day springs to mind.
As soon as the door shuts behind him, he lets out a breath and shakes his head. With this being so long ago, he fears that no-one in the area will be able to tell him anything. When he goes back to the office, he’ll have to ask for the case files and maybe then he’ll be able to compare what each person said in the original interview. If anything doesn’t align, Jungkook will be sure to bring them into a more official questioning.
It may be hard to get his hands on the files though, if his superior doesn’t think the incident is connected and Jungkook doesn’t want to risk getting fired for not having permission to be working on this case.
What if that’s what they need to do? If Taehyung is behind the murders then going back to the first crime involving him could connect that crime and these together. It’s a long shot, he knows that, but it’s worth a try.
If he can save just one person’s life, then he’ll be happy. This isn’t going to be easy, there’ll be bumps along the way. He won’t let that faze him. It’s his duty to make people feel safe – safer – by putting the midnight killer where he belongs.
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Arriving back at the station, Jungkook drops into his seat with a huff. He knows he’ll be called into the office soon enough, so he has to make the most of the short time he has to look through the notes he’s written from questioning the majority of the street.
Scratching at the side of his head, Jungkook flips through the pages and underlines anything that he can compare to the first witness accounts. It’d be a shame if he doesn’t get them and it would feel like a big push back in the case – even though there’s already not that much to go from.
Looking at the files and post it notes around his office, Jungkook pulls the file over in front of him and opens it to look through the list of victims. He searches for anything that could be a pattern of some sort. Of course, there could be no connection between them at all, just random people the murderer comes across when they have that one desire.
It makes him feel queasy thinking about it. Knowing that there’s people out there that can do such atrocious things to living, breathing people and animals is such a hair-raising thing.
He can’t imagine ever being able to harm someone else, unless he’s in a potentially life-threatening situation – that is a whole other story – and after years of witnessing some of the most disturbing crime scenes and accounts he hasn’t become too numb to it. How can anyone? No matter how many times he hears or sees something horrendous, he will never be able to shake that feeling of the overwhelming need to be sick.
Some people think that as the years go by working in these environments that you’ll overcome those feelings, but it doesn’t work like that. You can get used to seeing such things, can get better at holding back the bile that creeps up but you can never get rid of the images that show up every time you close your eyes.
It never leaves.
His finger traces the edge of the paper, carefully rereading each line of the information over and over in his head until something strikes him.
There’s no pattern in the murders, nothing that could have some sort of sign that they are connected other than one thing.
One small detail that stands out far more than the rest of the injuries – the only thing that ties all murders together. A mark etched into the wrists of the victims. It’s a symbol of some sort, a circle with what seems to be letters just overlapping. Why it hadn’t already been noted in the records, he doesn’t know. It’s not like the marks aren’t visible to the naked eye, still looking rather fresh in two of the pictures of the victims whereas the third is almost unnoticeable and could easily be seen as a faint bruise due to the body decomposing.
Jungkook makes an affronted noise, quickly making a note of it, just as the telephone at the end of his disk rings.
Instantly, the detective knows it’s his boss and picks up the phone, still writing little bullet point notes of the descriptions of the symbol.
The conversation only lasts a few seconds, his boss instructing him to head over to his office to discuss his findings. Jungkook’s nervous, a little more than he usually is when he has to see his superior about any cases he’s been put on to but he rolls his shoulders with a light huff and picks up his folders and starts to make his way to his boss.
Working in the major crime unit, Jungkook has had his fair share of both disappointment and successes and he hopes that he can do this case justice as well. There’s always ups and downs to a case and he knows that this one may just be the hardest one he’ll have to overcome.
Knocking on the door before entering, Jungkook nods to the man sitting behind the desk, “Good afternoon, sir.”
His boss looks up and regards him with a wide smile. “Have a seat, Jeon. I have some excellent news for you,” he turns the computer screen around so that it’s facing the young detective, the screen paused on CCTV footage from just two nights previous. “One of our neighboring forces has our suspect in custody for a crime unrelated to this one and they noticed who he was and sent us the footage of him in the area.”
“That’s great,” Jungkook returns a wobbly grin and forces himself to watch the footage playing in front of him. His heart is thumping rapidly in his chest, built up emotions from over the years all exploding inside of him in some sort of relief and strain. Relief that his friend truly is alive and the strain of not knowing why he suddenly disappeared after his family’s death.
It all seems… convenient.
In a way, he doesn’t want to think of the one who used to be such a good friend of his as someone capable of committing such a horrendous crime but he knows he needs to keep an open mind in this investigation.
Whatever past they have needs to stay exactly where it is; in the past.
It feels eerie watching the footage of Taehyung walking around the streets not so far from where he used to live, like he’s watching a ghost haunting the area. All Taehyung seems to be doing in the footage is walking around and looking over his shoulder every once in a while. Now, Jungkook isn’t a body language expert, but simply from the way Taehyung seems to be acting in the unclear quality CCTV Jungkook would like to send it off to see what they find.
“Tomorrow I want you to go over there and get a statement from him, I’ll be sending an officer to go with you and he’ll just be there to take notes on what’s happening. Aside from that, I want to know if you’ve found any information from today.”
With a nod of understanding, Jungkook slides the folder over to his boss and begins to explain about the marks when something else strikes him suddenly. “The timings the murders all took place are all around the same time, around midnight to one am, which also fits with what happened in a separate case that happened a few years before the first murder,” he pauses, eyes searching the older man’s expression. “I actually wanted to ask whether I could have access to the files, in case the two could be connected. The suspect we have is the son of the family killed in a house fire, who the officers presumed was also dead on arrival to the scene. However, the case turned cold and I suggest it would be better if we reopened it to gather more insight into the two cases.”
His boss purses his lips, his head tilted upwards in thought. “Very well then. I’ll have the files sent to your office now, you can send me a report of any similarities other than just the timings as soon as possible. We need more information than that to put two and two together. If there’s nothing else you need to say, I’ll see tomorrow evening to discuss the suspect questioning.”
With a bow and a relieved expression, Jungkook exits the office feeling accomplished.
He doesn’t think about how tomorrow may go or how it will feel to see Taehyung alive and, hopefully, well after all this time and instead focuses on gathering as much information as he can to prove that the cases are connected. Besides, he doubts that Taehyung would recognise him with how much he’s changed.
It may take a while to find or convince but considering that Taehyung is involved in both cases then it’s better to look into it than ignore it all together.
A thought flickers through his mind briefly, a wonder of whether or not the officer who will be joining him will be able to tell the tension Jungkook may feel as soon as he enters the room. He hopes they won’t. That could change everything for the case – for his role on the case – and, well, the investigation he’s done so far will have to be done all over again.
He loves his job and even though he knows he’s taking a risk; he won’t give up until he has it solved. Giving up is simply not an option.
Of course, there may be some bias towards Taehyung because of their history however it may feel like they don’t know each other at all after being apart for over a decade. Jungkook will just have to wait. Wait for tomorrow to arrive.
Easier said than done, that’s for sure.
Returning to his office, instead of seeing the files on his desk a bright orange coloured envelope sits with his name printed in cursive black ink.
He lets out an affronted noise, feet whisking him towards his desk and takes the envelope into his hands delicately. It’s rare for him to receive any post at all other than bills and other nonsense he has no care about, so for something to be sent to his workplace is even stranger. It’s intriguing, really.
Sitting down and resting into the cushioned back of his chair, Jungkook opens the envelope to find what seems to be a handwritten letter inside, although the writing isn’t cursive and instead more jumbled up and messy. Almost as though someone is trying to cover up their handwriting.
He hums softly to himself as he lays the letter out onto his desk and carefully begins to read through it, albeit with some difficulty in reading what it says.
It starts off as any other letter would, however, addressed as ‘Jeon Jungkook’ rather than just the usual ‘Mr Jeon’. It may seem a little odd, but hardly as peculiar as what the letter reads.
For the most part, it appears that the sender has spewed nonsense onto the page, telling Jungkook about their day and how they’re feeling. Yet it then goes on to mention something completely unrelated and perhaps sinister.
‘You haven’t found them yet.”
It’s a sentence that makes the detective regret not wearing gloves when handling the letter, but his mind is solely focused on understanding what the sender could mean.
Found who? The killer? Or is it possible that there’s another victim out there waiting to be found?
Someone must know that he’s working on this case somehow and it’s frightening. He’s been assigned to the case so soon and yet someone may know already, unless they’re talking about another crime.
Still, it seems he’s going to be doing a lot more investigating than he had anticipated so early on.
Another thing he notes is the drawings of bells around the margins of the paper, a signal to him, perhaps, that the clock is ticking.
Clearly, his journey in this case is far from just getting started…