Gunshots
Gunshots
He could hear the footsteps of someone roaming around the closet, looking for more people. His mind could imagine the men out there who were hunting down anyone they could find.
Everything was going so well. That night, his parents had cooked a wonderful dinner and all of them enjoyed a peaceful time together before going to bed. All of a sudden, his mother woke him up and told him to hide. Someone broke into their house and was going to kill them!
"Mom, I won't hide!" the boy protested but his mother hugged him.
"Don't worry," she consoled him with tears in her eyes. "We won't let him harm you. But promise me that you won't come out of hiding. No matter what happens!"
Without another word, she pushed her ten year old son into the closet and closed it. The boy hid there, too scared to come out. Mom...dad…
He heard another pair of gunshots and jumped in fright. Shaking in fear, he slowly opened the closet door.
In front of him stood a man in his fifties. He wore a black coat with a matching hat to hide his greying hair. The boy glanced at his hand. On his wrist was a watch with a golden dragon and he held a pistol. The man was unfeeling as he towered over a pair of bodies which lay in a pool of blood.
"Mom...dad…" Haejong whispered. The man heard the boy's whisper and slowly turned to face him. His dark eyes met the boy's, unemotional and cold. That was when Haejong realized one thing.
His parents were dead.
"Murderer…" he whispered before passing out from the shock.
….
Haejong woke up with a start. He panted heavily as he sat up on his bed, unable to get the images of his parents' lifeless bodies out of his head.
It was that nightmare again, he thought in disgust. Ever since his parents were killed twenty eight years ago, he had been getting these recurring nightmares about their murders in the hands of his grandfather.
Lin Cheng never revealed to Haejong why he killed his own son and daughter-in-law but over the years, Haejong learnt that his father had fallen in love with his mother, who was a cabaret dancer. Cheng was against the union because he wanted his son to marry someone from another mafia family, so Haejong's parents ran away.
They lived in bliss for ten years before Cheng found them and murdered the couple for their betrayal. For him, their act had brought upon shame to him and his name which is why they had to be killed otherwise the Lin family would have remained a joke. The only reason Haejong was spared was due to the fact that he was the heir to the Lin family. Someone had to carry on the family business after Cheng died.
He's dead now, he told himself. And yet, he haunts me from the grave.
Haejong got off the bed and stared at himself in the mirror. His face was sweaty and he was shaking as if he was ten years old again. The man might have died but the things he did still haunted Haejong. There was not a single moment when Lin Cheng showed any amount of affection to his grandson. Haejong doubted that the man had any heart left.
"Then again, do I have a heart?" He questioned himself.
His phone rang, interrupting his thoughts. Haejong picked it up.
"Boss!" Yosef exclaimed. "After you told us to report Youngdo's actions to you, I sent my men to keep a watch on him."
"What did you find out?" Haejong asked warily.
"Boss, apparently Youngdo had made himself a specialized gun," Yosef revealed. "Exactly a replica of the ones the Jang's use. From the material to the design, everything had been copied."
Haejong drew a sharp breath. "When was this made?" he demanded.
"A week before your grandfather's death," Yosef revealed. "And right now, my men are tailing him. He went to a house at N-Street. But that's not all. An hour after my men saw him enter that house, another car pulled up in front of it. A pretty girl came out of the car and went inside. One of my men recognized her as the doctor who treated you for your injury!"
Haejong froze. Mina? Mina was with Youngdo?
"Tell your men to go and save her!" he demanded. "I'm coming!"
"Roger!"
Yosef hung up the phone. Haejong cursed under his breath. He strode over to a drawer and took out a gun. If anything happened to Mina, he would never be able to forgive himself for it.
"Oh Youngdo…" he muttered and rushed out of the house.
A pale figure watched him leave his room. He stood there, quiet and mute, watching his grandson prepared to kill others for the person he loved.
A slow smile formed on the old man's face. It turned out, Haejong really did possess a heart.
….
"How the bloody hell did five ambulances crash all at once?" Junwan bellowed. Gayoon was in his office, shamefaced. He was red with fury at the incompetence of his cops and especially angry at Gayoon.
"I know you're personally connected to the culprit," he went on. "You didn't even tell me that you knew the heir to the Jang family."
"I didn't know his real identity!" Gayoon protested.
"You really think the higher ups will care?" Junwan sneered. "They're after my neck for handing over this case to you! I was under the impression that you were my best detective but now I'm having second thoughts! The so-called ace of the department did not even know her lover's best friend was a mafia leader. Bullshit!"
Gayoon did not protest anymore but stood there, listening. No matter what she said, everything would be seen as an excuse.
"You're off the case," he declared.
"What? But-"
"No more excuses, Gayoon!" he threatened. "I can't cover up for you anymore. You're off this case. I'll hand it over to Taejoon."
Gayoon wanted to slap some sense into him but it was pointless. What was she going to say? That she was also inadvertently hiding the ghost of the Lin family head in her house? Or that the two mafiosos were fighting over her best friend?
What the hell is up with this? She scowled. Am I in a mafia movie now?
Now that the bodies have been burnt, there really was not much of a case against Kanji. Even with Taejoon as the new lead of the case, he could do very little. There was no evidence to link Kanji to the murder because Mina refused to testify. And now that there was no corpse left to perform an autopsy on, the case was going cold. The only thing left was to smack Kanji's head with his own magazine once he gets a bail.
Gayoon bowed and left Junwan's room, stifling the urge to show him the middle finger. As soon as she passed Kanji's cell, he called for her.
"Gayoon!" he exclaimed. "Where's Mina?"
"Why do you care?" she asked sharply. "After what you did to her, don't you think you should leave her alone?"
"No, you don't understand!" he explained. "I think she's in trouble! She received a call and hurried off!"
"Huh?"
Gayoon took out her phone and dialed her number. To her surprise, Mina's phone was ringing from her desk. She picked it up.
"This is weird," she muttered. "Mina would never leave her phone behind! What if the hospital called?"
She unlocked the phone since she knew the password was Kanji's credit card PIN. Going through Mina's call history, she saw that the last call was recorded. Pressing the play button, she heard the conversation.
Kanji watched as Gayoon's expression turned from confusion to shock.
"FUCK!" she cursed. "The real killer called her to his den! She's in danger!"