Save Me (Part 2a)
Title: Save Me
Author: VampireMadonna
Pairing: YunJae
Rating: PG-13
Length: Undetermined
Summary: Kim Jaejoong is on the run from his crazed ex-husband and Lieutenant Jung Yunho is the only one standing between him and an uncertain fate. Will Yunho be his savior...or will his rescue come too late?
It was a beautiful spring day. The weather was warm but not overbearingly hot, with the sun high overhead. There was just the slightest of breezes to cool one down just when it seemed like the heat might become a problem.
Jaejoong led Maya through the shopping center, pausing to look at window displays whenever the little girl pointed something out to him. He used it as an opportunity to teach her the language, telling her the names of whatever she pointed at and making her repeat after him. Visual aids were probably the most helpful in learning a new language where children were concerned. He encouraged her curiosity and as a result, she was progressing a lot faster than she had when he’d tried teaching her from language texts.
“Very good, Maya,” he cheered smiling down at her. “Should daddy reward you?”
“Yes!” She jumped excitedly, her silky black pigtails bouncing.
She’s so darn cute, he thought.
“After we go to the post office, we’ll have ice cream, okay?”
She nodded and tugged the hand she was holding, leading him urgently in the direction she thought the post office was located. Chuckling at her adorable enthusiasm, Jaejoong gently steered her in the right direction, letting her drag him along as if she was still in control.
It was their first visit to Seoul in a month. He hadn’t been back since their visit to the police station. He hadn’t heard from Lieutenant Jung Yunho since that day either but he wasn’t surprised. He honestly hadn’t expected to. He’d warned him that there was nothing the police could do until something happened and nothing had or else he’d have been back there to file a report. Or he’d be dead, or in the hospital at the very least. But he was perfectly fine, Maya as well, so he couldn’t and didn’t hold it against them.
When they breached the entrance of the post office, he turned down a narrow hallway to the bank of P.O. boxes in the back room. He’d rented one, under his assumed name, to have all his mail delivered to instead of the house. It was safer that way. He uncoded it and removed the contents. There were the usual bills, some junk mail. He shook his head. Even using a fake name, he still got junk mail. Those people were relentless. He pulled out a couple more envelopes, one was from his mother, the other had no return address but he didn’t think anything of it. Probably more junk.
Locking the box, he took his pile and sat at the long table in the room, pulling Maya into his lap. He would check to see the due dates on the bills. Since he was already in the city, he might as well pay them off. He’d have to wait until he got home to reply to his mother’s correspondence, though. Maybe he’d just call her. It had been a while since they’d talked. He could do that before he left the city as well. After sorting out the bills and putting them in order from most urgent to least important, he picked up the lone remaining envelope. Carefully slicing it open, he reached in and pulled out the contents.
His heart stopped.
“Daddy. That’s you!”
Maya pointed at what he held in his hand: a picture of himself. A picture of him, with Maya, taken the same day he’d gone to the police station. He recognized the clothes they wore in the picture, which he knew they hadn’t worn since. It wasn’t taken outside the police station, just somewhere or other in Seoul it seemed. He flipped through the rest, more pictures of him and Maya taken that same day. There was no note accompanying it, nothing to give him an idea of Daniel’s frame of mind, nothing indicating what he wanted and no way for Jae to know where he was.
“Oh, God,” he breathed, and held his daughter tighter.
The nightmare was starting all over again.
Yunho was at his desk, writing up his report on the case he had just closed, when a sudden hush fell across the room. He felt the hair on the back of his neck spring up and slowly raised his head.
He was there, framed in the doorway just as he had been the first time he set eyes on him a month ago. But this time, the once defiant eyes were terrified. He was pale, paler than he had been that day. Yunho immediately knew that something was wrong.
He watched as Kim Jaejoong walked towards him, his steps quick and slightly unsteady, the arms around his daughter gripping her tightly. He stood to meet him, already knowing what he was going to say.
“He’s back,” Jaejoong announced, dropping an envelope onto Yunho’s desk, the photographic contents slightly spilling out as he did so.
Yunho picked up the envelope and walked around his desk to grip Jaejoong’s elbow, leading him towards the same room they’d had their first interview in. As he ushered him into a chair, Yunho didn’t bother to suggest that he send the little girl off with one of his officers like he had the last time. Jaejoong’s death-grip on the child told him that he wasn’t going to let her go any time soon.
Sitting across from them, Yunho silently opened the envelope and removed the photos. He recognized the clothes Jaejoong wore and knew immediately that they had been taken the day of their last meeting. The range they’d been shot from told him that either the photographer had been close by or he’d had long range lenses, high quality if the pictures were anything to go by. He examined them closely, looking for any markings, either on the photos or the envelope, that might tell him something but they were all clean. Pristine.
“When did you get these?” he asked calmly.
“Just now,” Jaejoong replied, his airy voice now uncharacteristically uneven. “They were in my P.O. box.”
“Do you know when it was delivered?”
Jaejoong shook his head. “There’s no date stamp and I didn’t stop to ask. I came straight here when I got it.”
Yunho nodded. “I’ll contact the post office and see if we can track it down. They won’t be able to tell us who posted it but we may be able to find out the general area that it came from.” He set the photos down, linked his fingers and looked at Jaejoong. “Has there been anything else? Any calls, presents? Have you felt like you were being watched, anything like that?”
Jaejoong shook his head again. “No, nothing. You can be damn sure if I’d even gotten a whiff of him, I’d have been back here.”
Yunho stifled a smile. He believed it without a doubt.
“Well, nothing’s really changed,” Yunho began. “I’m sure you realize that.”
Jaejoong nodded. He’d admitted it to himself on the way to the police station.
“However, we know for sure now that even if he hasn’t found your permannt location yet, he is looking.”
“It’s only a matter of time,” Jaejoong agreed, his tone defeated and accepting.
Yunho hated hearing the helplessness in his voice. It rubbed him raw.
“Since we know he’s out there somewhere, I can take this to my Captain and push to request the case files from Sweden. It’s still a long shot but at least we have something to use as an incentive. If I play it right, he should give me that much.”
Jaejoong nodded but said nothing. When he’d left the post office, adrenaline had coursed through his veins, taking control of his body in his urgency to get to the police station. Now that he was there and the adrenaline had left his system, he felt incredibly tired but his mind was still moving a mile a minute. Somewhere, probably not so far away, Daniel was looking for him. It wouldn’t be long before he found him, found them. He had to get out of there.
“Jaejoong.”
Yunho’s voice broke into his thoughts and his eyes flew up to meet his.
“I know you’re probably thinking of running again,” Yunho said, his tone gentle, “but how many times can you start over? You can’t keep running away. It’s not fair to your daughter, or to you. I know that you were alone before,” Yunho rushed on when Jaejoong would’ve interrupted, “but you’re not this time. You can trust me. I won’t let anything happen to you. I’ll do whatever I have to to keep you safe.”
Tears pricked the backs of his eyes. Jae wanted so badly to believe him but trust just didn’t come naturally to him anymore. He believed him to a point but knowing that Yunho had the limitations of his job, his orders, to adhere to forced him to be realistic. There was only so much he could do. He may have been a cop but he was still only human.
When Jaejoong said nothing, Yunho asked, “Did you drive here? Should I have an officer follow you home?”
Jae shook his head. “No, I took a bus. I don’t really like to drive in the city. Too much traffic.”
Yunho nodded, standing. “I’ll take you home then.”
Jae’s eyes widened. “You don’t…”
Yunho smiled. “I want to. I can’t do much for you but this is within my power, at least. I can see you safely home, scope out the neighbourhood while I’m at it.”
He could refuse, Jae thought, but he’d come to this man for help. He was getting it, after being ignored and shunned so many times, so why was he afraid to take it?
Drawing in a deep breath, he stood and faced Yunho with somber eyes. “Okay.”
The drive to Jaejoong’s house was quiet. Maya, perhaps sensing the tension, remained silent until she eventually fell asleep in the back seat. It was only on the way home that Jae realized she hadn’t said a word since they’d left the post office. A twinge of sadness tugged at his heart. His poor baby…
“Are you okay?”
At the question, he glanced sideways at Yunho before dropping his eyes to his clasped hands once again.
“I’m fine. Sorry if I seem quiet. I’m just…” Preparing myself.
“I know you’re probably scared,” Yunho began, “and given what you’ve told me, you have every right to be. He does sound extremely dangerous, especially if he’s been off his medication for a while. There’s no telling what he’ll do.”
“Thanks,” Jaejoong muttered sarcastically.
“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to intensify your fears but it’s good that you’re aware of who and what you’re dealing with. You don’t know how many women in domestic abuse situations come to the stiation, file their reports, and expect us to somehow make it go away. Your being a man doesn’t make any difference, by the way. But it’s a two-way street. We can only protect those who protect themselves. Staying with an abuser knowing what he’s capable of isn’t going to help. And so many of them, when we do show up, downplay what happened so it becomes a situation where we can’t do anything even if we wanted to. Our hands are tied because they’re protecting the abuser instead of themselves.” He glanced at Jae and flashed a small smile. “At least that’s one thing I don’t have to worry about with you.”
Jae took a deep breath and expelled it slowly. “Definitely.”
“It must be hard…raising Maya by yourself. But you seem to be doing a good job. She’s a lovely girl.”
Jae smiled for the first time since he’d reappeared in Yunho’s life.
“She makes it easy for me. She’s a really obedient child, very sweet and bright. She’s perfect, maybe even a little too perfect. Sometimes I wonder if she tries to be to keep things easy for me. I don’t want her looking after me, that’s my job. She should be throwing tantrums and disobeying me like most kids her age do but she never does.” He sighed.
Yunho grinned. “You know, most parents wish for perfect children. You have one and you’re complaining?”
Jaejoong’s smile widened. “Maybe I’m the crazy one.”
The rest of the drive passed quickly, with light conversation about the little town Jaejoong lived in as they drove through it. When they pulled up in front of the house, Yunho got out and studied it.
It was big and old, like Jaejoong had said. Completely unremarkable but nice at the same time, comfortable. He looked down the street on one end, then the other. Jaejoong’s closest neighbour was a mile away on each side. If anything happened, they’d be in trouble. No one would hear or see a thing. Yunho was of half a mind to tell him to move somewhere more populated but he watched Maya run happily into the house, the first sign of life he’d seen from her since Jaejoong walked into the station. Clearly he wasn’t the only one who was fond of the place.
As Jaejoong started up the walkway, he stopped and turned around.
“Do you want to come in for a drink? There’s fresh lemonade in the fridge. It’s the least I can do since you drove all the way out here.”
Yunho smiled. “Sure.” He welcomed the cold drink to break the heat and it would give him an opportunity to scope out the inside of the house.
Following Jaejoong into the house, his eyes noted the many windows at the front of the house on both the ground and second floor. Every window, every external door, was a possible entry point.
“Maya,” Jaejoong called, pouring lemonade into a tall, ice-filled glass. Handing it to Yunho, he said with a small smile, “She’s probably reading or playing with her dolls. We’re not used to visitors so she doesn’t know much about entertaining or social etiquette. The family down the road are the only people, apart from me, that she interacts with.”
There was sadness in his eyes and Yunho felt a slight tug at his heart. He knew, and Jaejoong’s own words had confirmed, that more than his own safety, Jaejoong regretted the impact their life on the run had on his daughter. She was socially stunted because she was never in one place long enough to settle in and make friends. Her world literally revolved around her father and his world consisted solely of keeping her and himself safe.
It’s no way for human beings to live, Yunho thought.
Clearing his throat, he asked, ““Have you ever thought about burglar proofing?”
Jaejoong nodded. “I did consider it but decided against it.” He paused before continuing, his voice thickening with emotion. “We already live like criminals running from the law, never staying in one place too long for fear of getting caught. If we burglar-proof the house it would really feel like being in jail.”
“Okay,” Yunho replied, understanding perfectly. Again, he felt a flash of anger at the predicament that this man and his daughter were in.
“Do you mind if I take a look around? I want to have an idea of the layout, double-check to make sure there are no hidden spaces he could use to get in.”
“Of course, please do. When I moved in, I changed all of the locks on the external doors and the latches on the windows.” He smiled wryly. “Trust me, I wasn’t going to take any chances.”
Nodding, Yunho took off to begin his survey. It didn’t take him long. He paid attention only to what bore paying attention to: the doors and the windows. The house was large and consisted of many rooms with a multitude of windows, which could potentially prove disadvantageous. The only door entrances into the house were the front door and a door off the laundry room that opened onto a shaded landing with clothes-lines strung from one end to the other. It surprised him to see someone still using such an archaic way of drying clothes. He just naturally assumed that everyone in the modern age had both a washer and dryer. Jaejoong was a modern man but he lived far enough into the countryside to have adopted some of their ways, he supposed.
Yunho returned to the kitchen to find Jaejoong smiling adoringly at his daughter as she cutely drank from a juice box. When looked up and those unfathomable depths locked with his, Yunho felt his heart drop.
Unaware of Yunho’s train of thought, Jaejoong asked, “So... What’s the verdict?”
Burglar proof everything!, he wanted to say. Windows, doors, your daughter and yourself too if you can. Just keep yourself safe.
But, remembering the sweet scene he’d walked back into, he cleared his throat and his thoughts and replied, “It seems to be secure enough, though I would still suggest some kind of added safety measure, even if it’s just an alarm system.”
Jaejoong nodded. “I will definitely think about it.”
Glancing at the clock on the wall behind Yunho, Jaejoong’s eyes widened as he saw the time. “I didn’t realize it was so late. You probably need to get back to work. I’m sorry I took you away from your duties just because I got spooked.”
Yunho smiled slightly, walking to the kitchen sink to place his glass. “Don’t worry about it.” Turning fully to Jaejoong, he said, “Let me know if anything happens, anything at all.” He paused a moment and retrieved a business card from his pocket, turned it over and wrote his private number. “If you ever need to talk, even if it’s just because you’ve been spooked, don’t hesitate to call.”
Jaejoong accepted the card, his movements slow, almost as if he couldn’t believe it was really happening. There was a faint blush in his pale cheeks that Yunho found very becoming.
“I’ll let myself out. Take care of yourself, Jaejoong.”
Yunho paused as he passed Maya to lay his hand on her downy-soft hair, smiling when she looked up at him with an adorable smile of her own, before making his way out.
His mind was churning, working a mile a minute.
Whether or not something happened, he suspected that he’d be talking to Kim Jaejoong very soon.
Even if he had to call him himself.
Over the course of the next few weeks, Yunho kept his promise to himself.
When Jaejoong hadn’t called by the third day after his visit to his house, he called under the guise of checking to make sure that they were okay. Despite Jaejoong’s assurance that they were and that he would call or come see him if anything happened, Yunho continued to keep in touch, calling every other day just to “touch base” as he put it. Their conversations gradually grew from a direct “Everything okay?” to “How’s your day been?”.
He knew that he was crossing some invisible line. He’d never been that personally invested in a case before. And it was personal. He wouldn’t lie to himself by pretending that he wasn’t interested in Kim Jaejoong. He was: there was no denying it. Every time he thought about him, his chest filled with emotion. Mostly good emotions, except for when he remembered Jaejoong describing how Daniel had hurt him, broken him, and the bloody image that swam in his mind made him want to break something. He focused on work when he was at work but whenever he had personal time, even during his lunch break, his mind would wander and his thoughts would fill with Jaejoong. And Maya. She was an integral part of her father’s life so there was no way she could be left out of the picture.
He often found himself wondering how she would react if he were to act on his growing interest in her father. From what Jaejoong had said, Maya had never been as attached to Daniel as she was to him. He had almost always been her only parent, the troubles in the marriage having begun during her infant years. Yunho had never dated someone with a child before but…there was a first time for everything. And she was a sweet little girl. He didn’t think they’d have any problems getting along.
He told himself that he couldn’t act on his feelings, however. At least not for now. He wasn’t worried about being unable to do the job. Nothing would get in the way of his protecting the people that came to him for help. No, the problem was that until Jaejoong’s situation was settled, any romantic involvement could complicate things. Not just with Daniel, which was a great concern of his because if he was truly as obsessed with Jaejoong as he seemed to be he would not take kindly to Jaejoong’s moving on with another man. The main reason he reined in his interest was to avoid any professional conflict. No one was aware of his involvement in Jaejoong’s case except his uncle and he was the reason that he needed to keep everything above board. His uncle was a clever man, he probably already knew that Yunho was more involved than he should be, but so long as Yunho didn’t openly cross any barriers or break any rules, everything would be fine. He would have to wait until after the case was closed, and Daniel was sent back to where he belonged, to let whatever it was he felt develop into whatever it was going to be.
It occurred to him that he’d never once considered that Jaejoong didn’t feel the same.
Sitting at his desk in the police station, Yunho grinned when his cell phone vibrated in his pocket. Retrieving it, he read:
“All quiet on the western front.”
Smile widening, he tucked his phone back into his pocket.
Jaejoong, it turned out, was a bit of a movie aficionado and sometimes he surprised Yunho by beating him to the punch and texting him before he got a chance to call. He would always use a historic catchphrase from a movie. Yunho had taken to turning to the internet if he didn’t know what movie the quote came from. It was a little game between them. He would still call Jaejoong later when he got home. He liked to grill him to make sure that everything was indeed copacetic. Jaejoong was intelligent and observant but he was still a civilian. Sometimes the most unremarkable things could be significant and he wanted to make sure that when he went to bed at night, Jaejoong and Maya were safe in their own.
Gathering his thoughts, he picked up his pen and concentrated on the report he was in the middle of writing up.
Part 2b
Author: VampireMadonna
Pairing: YunJae
Rating: PG-13
Length: Undetermined
Summary: Kim Jaejoong is on the run from his crazed ex-husband and Lieutenant Jung Yunho is the only one standing between him and an uncertain fate. Will Yunho be his savior...or will his rescue come too late?
It was a beautiful spring day. The weather was warm but not overbearingly hot, with the sun high overhead. There was just the slightest of breezes to cool one down just when it seemed like the heat might become a problem.
Jaejoong led Maya through the shopping center, pausing to look at window displays whenever the little girl pointed something out to him. He used it as an opportunity to teach her the language, telling her the names of whatever she pointed at and making her repeat after him. Visual aids were probably the most helpful in learning a new language where children were concerned. He encouraged her curiosity and as a result, she was progressing a lot faster than she had when he’d tried teaching her from language texts.
“Very good, Maya,” he cheered smiling down at her. “Should daddy reward you?”
“Yes!” She jumped excitedly, her silky black pigtails bouncing.
She’s so darn cute, he thought.
“After we go to the post office, we’ll have ice cream, okay?”
She nodded and tugged the hand she was holding, leading him urgently in the direction she thought the post office was located. Chuckling at her adorable enthusiasm, Jaejoong gently steered her in the right direction, letting her drag him along as if she was still in control.
It was their first visit to Seoul in a month. He hadn’t been back since their visit to the police station. He hadn’t heard from Lieutenant Jung Yunho since that day either but he wasn’t surprised. He honestly hadn’t expected to. He’d warned him that there was nothing the police could do until something happened and nothing had or else he’d have been back there to file a report. Or he’d be dead, or in the hospital at the very least. But he was perfectly fine, Maya as well, so he couldn’t and didn’t hold it against them.
When they breached the entrance of the post office, he turned down a narrow hallway to the bank of P.O. boxes in the back room. He’d rented one, under his assumed name, to have all his mail delivered to instead of the house. It was safer that way. He uncoded it and removed the contents. There were the usual bills, some junk mail. He shook his head. Even using a fake name, he still got junk mail. Those people were relentless. He pulled out a couple more envelopes, one was from his mother, the other had no return address but he didn’t think anything of it. Probably more junk.
Locking the box, he took his pile and sat at the long table in the room, pulling Maya into his lap. He would check to see the due dates on the bills. Since he was already in the city, he might as well pay them off. He’d have to wait until he got home to reply to his mother’s correspondence, though. Maybe he’d just call her. It had been a while since they’d talked. He could do that before he left the city as well. After sorting out the bills and putting them in order from most urgent to least important, he picked up the lone remaining envelope. Carefully slicing it open, he reached in and pulled out the contents.
His heart stopped.
“Daddy. That’s you!”
Maya pointed at what he held in his hand: a picture of himself. A picture of him, with Maya, taken the same day he’d gone to the police station. He recognized the clothes they wore in the picture, which he knew they hadn’t worn since. It wasn’t taken outside the police station, just somewhere or other in Seoul it seemed. He flipped through the rest, more pictures of him and Maya taken that same day. There was no note accompanying it, nothing to give him an idea of Daniel’s frame of mind, nothing indicating what he wanted and no way for Jae to know where he was.
“Oh, God,” he breathed, and held his daughter tighter.
The nightmare was starting all over again.
Yunho was at his desk, writing up his report on the case he had just closed, when a sudden hush fell across the room. He felt the hair on the back of his neck spring up and slowly raised his head.
He was there, framed in the doorway just as he had been the first time he set eyes on him a month ago. But this time, the once defiant eyes were terrified. He was pale, paler than he had been that day. Yunho immediately knew that something was wrong.
He watched as Kim Jaejoong walked towards him, his steps quick and slightly unsteady, the arms around his daughter gripping her tightly. He stood to meet him, already knowing what he was going to say.
“He’s back,” Jaejoong announced, dropping an envelope onto Yunho’s desk, the photographic contents slightly spilling out as he did so.
Yunho picked up the envelope and walked around his desk to grip Jaejoong’s elbow, leading him towards the same room they’d had their first interview in. As he ushered him into a chair, Yunho didn’t bother to suggest that he send the little girl off with one of his officers like he had the last time. Jaejoong’s death-grip on the child told him that he wasn’t going to let her go any time soon.
Sitting across from them, Yunho silently opened the envelope and removed the photos. He recognized the clothes Jaejoong wore and knew immediately that they had been taken the day of their last meeting. The range they’d been shot from told him that either the photographer had been close by or he’d had long range lenses, high quality if the pictures were anything to go by. He examined them closely, looking for any markings, either on the photos or the envelope, that might tell him something but they were all clean. Pristine.
“When did you get these?” he asked calmly.
“Just now,” Jaejoong replied, his airy voice now uncharacteristically uneven. “They were in my P.O. box.”
“Do you know when it was delivered?”
Jaejoong shook his head. “There’s no date stamp and I didn’t stop to ask. I came straight here when I got it.”
Yunho nodded. “I’ll contact the post office and see if we can track it down. They won’t be able to tell us who posted it but we may be able to find out the general area that it came from.” He set the photos down, linked his fingers and looked at Jaejoong. “Has there been anything else? Any calls, presents? Have you felt like you were being watched, anything like that?”
Jaejoong shook his head again. “No, nothing. You can be damn sure if I’d even gotten a whiff of him, I’d have been back here.”
Yunho stifled a smile. He believed it without a doubt.
“Well, nothing’s really changed,” Yunho began. “I’m sure you realize that.”
Jaejoong nodded. He’d admitted it to himself on the way to the police station.
“However, we know for sure now that even if he hasn’t found your permannt location yet, he is looking.”
“It’s only a matter of time,” Jaejoong agreed, his tone defeated and accepting.
Yunho hated hearing the helplessness in his voice. It rubbed him raw.
“Since we know he’s out there somewhere, I can take this to my Captain and push to request the case files from Sweden. It’s still a long shot but at least we have something to use as an incentive. If I play it right, he should give me that much.”
Jaejoong nodded but said nothing. When he’d left the post office, adrenaline had coursed through his veins, taking control of his body in his urgency to get to the police station. Now that he was there and the adrenaline had left his system, he felt incredibly tired but his mind was still moving a mile a minute. Somewhere, probably not so far away, Daniel was looking for him. It wouldn’t be long before he found him, found them. He had to get out of there.
“Jaejoong.”
Yunho’s voice broke into his thoughts and his eyes flew up to meet his.
“I know you’re probably thinking of running again,” Yunho said, his tone gentle, “but how many times can you start over? You can’t keep running away. It’s not fair to your daughter, or to you. I know that you were alone before,” Yunho rushed on when Jaejoong would’ve interrupted, “but you’re not this time. You can trust me. I won’t let anything happen to you. I’ll do whatever I have to to keep you safe.”
Tears pricked the backs of his eyes. Jae wanted so badly to believe him but trust just didn’t come naturally to him anymore. He believed him to a point but knowing that Yunho had the limitations of his job, his orders, to adhere to forced him to be realistic. There was only so much he could do. He may have been a cop but he was still only human.
When Jaejoong said nothing, Yunho asked, “Did you drive here? Should I have an officer follow you home?”
Jae shook his head. “No, I took a bus. I don’t really like to drive in the city. Too much traffic.”
Yunho nodded, standing. “I’ll take you home then.”
Jae’s eyes widened. “You don’t…”
Yunho smiled. “I want to. I can’t do much for you but this is within my power, at least. I can see you safely home, scope out the neighbourhood while I’m at it.”
He could refuse, Jae thought, but he’d come to this man for help. He was getting it, after being ignored and shunned so many times, so why was he afraid to take it?
Drawing in a deep breath, he stood and faced Yunho with somber eyes. “Okay.”
The drive to Jaejoong’s house was quiet. Maya, perhaps sensing the tension, remained silent until she eventually fell asleep in the back seat. It was only on the way home that Jae realized she hadn’t said a word since they’d left the post office. A twinge of sadness tugged at his heart. His poor baby…
“Are you okay?”
At the question, he glanced sideways at Yunho before dropping his eyes to his clasped hands once again.
“I’m fine. Sorry if I seem quiet. I’m just…” Preparing myself.
“I know you’re probably scared,” Yunho began, “and given what you’ve told me, you have every right to be. He does sound extremely dangerous, especially if he’s been off his medication for a while. There’s no telling what he’ll do.”
“Thanks,” Jaejoong muttered sarcastically.
“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to intensify your fears but it’s good that you’re aware of who and what you’re dealing with. You don’t know how many women in domestic abuse situations come to the stiation, file their reports, and expect us to somehow make it go away. Your being a man doesn’t make any difference, by the way. But it’s a two-way street. We can only protect those who protect themselves. Staying with an abuser knowing what he’s capable of isn’t going to help. And so many of them, when we do show up, downplay what happened so it becomes a situation where we can’t do anything even if we wanted to. Our hands are tied because they’re protecting the abuser instead of themselves.” He glanced at Jae and flashed a small smile. “At least that’s one thing I don’t have to worry about with you.”
Jae took a deep breath and expelled it slowly. “Definitely.”
“It must be hard…raising Maya by yourself. But you seem to be doing a good job. She’s a lovely girl.”
Jae smiled for the first time since he’d reappeared in Yunho’s life.
“She makes it easy for me. She’s a really obedient child, very sweet and bright. She’s perfect, maybe even a little too perfect. Sometimes I wonder if she tries to be to keep things easy for me. I don’t want her looking after me, that’s my job. She should be throwing tantrums and disobeying me like most kids her age do but she never does.” He sighed.
Yunho grinned. “You know, most parents wish for perfect children. You have one and you’re complaining?”
Jaejoong’s smile widened. “Maybe I’m the crazy one.”
The rest of the drive passed quickly, with light conversation about the little town Jaejoong lived in as they drove through it. When they pulled up in front of the house, Yunho got out and studied it.
It was big and old, like Jaejoong had said. Completely unremarkable but nice at the same time, comfortable. He looked down the street on one end, then the other. Jaejoong’s closest neighbour was a mile away on each side. If anything happened, they’d be in trouble. No one would hear or see a thing. Yunho was of half a mind to tell him to move somewhere more populated but he watched Maya run happily into the house, the first sign of life he’d seen from her since Jaejoong walked into the station. Clearly he wasn’t the only one who was fond of the place.
As Jaejoong started up the walkway, he stopped and turned around.
“Do you want to come in for a drink? There’s fresh lemonade in the fridge. It’s the least I can do since you drove all the way out here.”
Yunho smiled. “Sure.” He welcomed the cold drink to break the heat and it would give him an opportunity to scope out the inside of the house.
Following Jaejoong into the house, his eyes noted the many windows at the front of the house on both the ground and second floor. Every window, every external door, was a possible entry point.
“Maya,” Jaejoong called, pouring lemonade into a tall, ice-filled glass. Handing it to Yunho, he said with a small smile, “She’s probably reading or playing with her dolls. We’re not used to visitors so she doesn’t know much about entertaining or social etiquette. The family down the road are the only people, apart from me, that she interacts with.”
There was sadness in his eyes and Yunho felt a slight tug at his heart. He knew, and Jaejoong’s own words had confirmed, that more than his own safety, Jaejoong regretted the impact their life on the run had on his daughter. She was socially stunted because she was never in one place long enough to settle in and make friends. Her world literally revolved around her father and his world consisted solely of keeping her and himself safe.
It’s no way for human beings to live, Yunho thought.
Clearing his throat, he asked, ““Have you ever thought about burglar proofing?”
Jaejoong nodded. “I did consider it but decided against it.” He paused before continuing, his voice thickening with emotion. “We already live like criminals running from the law, never staying in one place too long for fear of getting caught. If we burglar-proof the house it would really feel like being in jail.”
“Okay,” Yunho replied, understanding perfectly. Again, he felt a flash of anger at the predicament that this man and his daughter were in.
“Do you mind if I take a look around? I want to have an idea of the layout, double-check to make sure there are no hidden spaces he could use to get in.”
“Of course, please do. When I moved in, I changed all of the locks on the external doors and the latches on the windows.” He smiled wryly. “Trust me, I wasn’t going to take any chances.”
Nodding, Yunho took off to begin his survey. It didn’t take him long. He paid attention only to what bore paying attention to: the doors and the windows. The house was large and consisted of many rooms with a multitude of windows, which could potentially prove disadvantageous. The only door entrances into the house were the front door and a door off the laundry room that opened onto a shaded landing with clothes-lines strung from one end to the other. It surprised him to see someone still using such an archaic way of drying clothes. He just naturally assumed that everyone in the modern age had both a washer and dryer. Jaejoong was a modern man but he lived far enough into the countryside to have adopted some of their ways, he supposed.
Yunho returned to the kitchen to find Jaejoong smiling adoringly at his daughter as she cutely drank from a juice box. When looked up and those unfathomable depths locked with his, Yunho felt his heart drop.
Unaware of Yunho’s train of thought, Jaejoong asked, “So... What’s the verdict?”
Burglar proof everything!, he wanted to say. Windows, doors, your daughter and yourself too if you can. Just keep yourself safe.
But, remembering the sweet scene he’d walked back into, he cleared his throat and his thoughts and replied, “It seems to be secure enough, though I would still suggest some kind of added safety measure, even if it’s just an alarm system.”
Jaejoong nodded. “I will definitely think about it.”
Glancing at the clock on the wall behind Yunho, Jaejoong’s eyes widened as he saw the time. “I didn’t realize it was so late. You probably need to get back to work. I’m sorry I took you away from your duties just because I got spooked.”
Yunho smiled slightly, walking to the kitchen sink to place his glass. “Don’t worry about it.” Turning fully to Jaejoong, he said, “Let me know if anything happens, anything at all.” He paused a moment and retrieved a business card from his pocket, turned it over and wrote his private number. “If you ever need to talk, even if it’s just because you’ve been spooked, don’t hesitate to call.”
Jaejoong accepted the card, his movements slow, almost as if he couldn’t believe it was really happening. There was a faint blush in his pale cheeks that Yunho found very becoming.
“I’ll let myself out. Take care of yourself, Jaejoong.”
Yunho paused as he passed Maya to lay his hand on her downy-soft hair, smiling when she looked up at him with an adorable smile of her own, before making his way out.
His mind was churning, working a mile a minute.
Whether or not something happened, he suspected that he’d be talking to Kim Jaejoong very soon.
Even if he had to call him himself.
Over the course of the next few weeks, Yunho kept his promise to himself.
When Jaejoong hadn’t called by the third day after his visit to his house, he called under the guise of checking to make sure that they were okay. Despite Jaejoong’s assurance that they were and that he would call or come see him if anything happened, Yunho continued to keep in touch, calling every other day just to “touch base” as he put it. Their conversations gradually grew from a direct “Everything okay?” to “How’s your day been?”.
He knew that he was crossing some invisible line. He’d never been that personally invested in a case before. And it was personal. He wouldn’t lie to himself by pretending that he wasn’t interested in Kim Jaejoong. He was: there was no denying it. Every time he thought about him, his chest filled with emotion. Mostly good emotions, except for when he remembered Jaejoong describing how Daniel had hurt him, broken him, and the bloody image that swam in his mind made him want to break something. He focused on work when he was at work but whenever he had personal time, even during his lunch break, his mind would wander and his thoughts would fill with Jaejoong. And Maya. She was an integral part of her father’s life so there was no way she could be left out of the picture.
He often found himself wondering how she would react if he were to act on his growing interest in her father. From what Jaejoong had said, Maya had never been as attached to Daniel as she was to him. He had almost always been her only parent, the troubles in the marriage having begun during her infant years. Yunho had never dated someone with a child before but…there was a first time for everything. And she was a sweet little girl. He didn’t think they’d have any problems getting along.
He told himself that he couldn’t act on his feelings, however. At least not for now. He wasn’t worried about being unable to do the job. Nothing would get in the way of his protecting the people that came to him for help. No, the problem was that until Jaejoong’s situation was settled, any romantic involvement could complicate things. Not just with Daniel, which was a great concern of his because if he was truly as obsessed with Jaejoong as he seemed to be he would not take kindly to Jaejoong’s moving on with another man. The main reason he reined in his interest was to avoid any professional conflict. No one was aware of his involvement in Jaejoong’s case except his uncle and he was the reason that he needed to keep everything above board. His uncle was a clever man, he probably already knew that Yunho was more involved than he should be, but so long as Yunho didn’t openly cross any barriers or break any rules, everything would be fine. He would have to wait until after the case was closed, and Daniel was sent back to where he belonged, to let whatever it was he felt develop into whatever it was going to be.
It occurred to him that he’d never once considered that Jaejoong didn’t feel the same.
Sitting at his desk in the police station, Yunho grinned when his cell phone vibrated in his pocket. Retrieving it, he read:
“All quiet on the western front.”
Smile widening, he tucked his phone back into his pocket.
Jaejoong, it turned out, was a bit of a movie aficionado and sometimes he surprised Yunho by beating him to the punch and texting him before he got a chance to call. He would always use a historic catchphrase from a movie. Yunho had taken to turning to the internet if he didn’t know what movie the quote came from. It was a little game between them. He would still call Jaejoong later when he got home. He liked to grill him to make sure that everything was indeed copacetic. Jaejoong was intelligent and observant but he was still a civilian. Sometimes the most unremarkable things could be significant and he wanted to make sure that when he went to bed at night, Jaejoong and Maya were safe in their own.
Gathering his thoughts, he picked up his pen and concentrated on the report he was in the middle of writing up.
Part 2b