there were two enigmas in life that jongin sought answers to: women and his tendency to attract danger, or just dangerous people. perhaps his misfortune was associated with his profession; after all, he busted criminals for a living, but his boss had always pointed out that his frequent encounters with trouble were beyond coincidences. maybe his boss was right.
there was no other explanation to dismiss why and how an armed robbery had happened the minute jongin headed into the narrow neighborhood. it was eleven in the evening. most of the indoor lights were off when the perpetrator approached his victim, a middle-aged woman, and demanded she fork up her designer purse and jewelry. jongin heard her scream and saw two shadowy figures tussling in the dark before one was hunched over the hood of a car the next second.
when he reached the woman, the robber had already fled with her purse, the entrails of her possessions scattered on the bloody sidewalk. he had two options: he could chase the armed perpetrator down or stay to resuscitate the woman who now lay limp and groaning against the hood of a parked vehicle. his heart raced as he flipped her over and into his arms, her blood gushing out of an open wound and showing no mercy as it sapped the life from her cheeks and dimming eyes. he knew an ambulance or a patrol car would arrive too late and moving her by force would only agitate her injury.
“stay with me, miss, i’ll get you some help,” he assured her, his own blood pumping as hot and heavily as hers. she barely responded, unable to do more than gape for air like a fish out of water and pull desperately at jongin’s blood-stained collar.
jongin reached for his phone, muttering a loud “shit” when the screen blinked twice before shutting down. if he hadn’t spent the last ten percent of his battery watching female idols flaunt their asses, he could have saved this woman! searching around frantically, he practically lit up when he saw another figure strolling through the dark. “hey!” he screamed. “over here! i need your help, i need to borrow your phone-- please, someone’s dying!”
