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There, once again the ever so familiar beep. The beep Felix got for the first time last year and ever since that day they had never stopped coming. Felix has been an officer for 1 and 1/2 years now, and all the times he was struggling he had gotten this text on this phone. It happened first when the precinct had gotten overblown with calls from people reporting rapes and assaults.
In all the stress Felix took a second to see if he could take his medicine yet or if he needed to wait a bit. He had pills to help him reduce stress, he didn't need to take them but he did it by choice. And unfortunately, he needed to wait 4 hours before he could take another one, just to be sure it didn't cause him any damage.
And then when he was opening his countdown he received a message from a protected number. It was a log of all the numbers that were calling and sorted into which ones were important and which ones that wanted to report the same things.
At first, Felix was very sceptical but then he noticed that the list he had gotten was accurate. When his shift was over he tried to text the number but it didn't answer, it never did. Even though they had helped, Felix had to try to find out who sends them but it never worked, the person who was helping Felix was an excellent hacker and no police officer could ever break down their firewalls. Felix even tried himself but it seemed impossible. Though Felix felt that he needed to at least know who it was, because it was very much illegal what the person did even though it helps Felix and he really needed to know how this person got the information before the police did, before anyone did, Felix wasn't sure if he actually wanted to catch them. He appreciated the help but still, he was a police officer and if it was illegal he had to do something about it. It was so hard to actually get to this person. But then again, Felix didn't need to put it as a priority.
But today it came again, it was a tip about someone vandalizing the college facility. And Felix quickly hurried to send some people there. It might sound naive but ever since that day Felix never doubted them and has always blindly trusted them. He trusted this anonymous person more than the other cops.
And like every time he sent a thank you text, just to show that he listened to their tips. Felix had actually told people that he blocked this phone number but he never did, he just claims that he picks up a lot of anonymous tips from callers. Because no one really needed to know. It was his and the other persons secret.
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It'd been a pretty quiet day for Changbin, one of his monitors had picked up some kids with spray cans near the campus so he just reported them to the police as any other lawful person would.
Unfortunately, the quiet stopped when he got back to his apartment. Changbin shared an apartment with two other people, one younger and one older. They were just as skilled as Changbin was with technology but one of them liked to mess around a bit more than the others.
Han Jisung, he started to take a bit more chances when he fell in love. Ever since Lee freaking Minho waltzed into Jisung’s life he had started to do things more recklessly. Like that one time when Minho’s credit card was acting up after one of their dates, Jisung had excused himself to the bathroom and hacked into the restaurant system and covered it all up completely without an alibi. It was dangerous but Jisung was smarter than what people gave him credit for so neither Changbin nor Chan had to worry too much.
And speaking of Chan, that was his second roommate. Chan was a lot more careful and would spend entire weeks on his hacking projects entirely without sleep. Luckily Chan had Minhyuk, Minhyuk wasn't supposed to know about their group but he was just as smart if not smarter than they were and figured it out pretty quickly, not to say he was one of Chan’s role models as a student. He said that they needed to watch out or the hacker group 3RACHA would become 4RACHA which Chan didn't mind at all because he idolised the man but it was a private thing so the others tried harder.
But the second Changbin closed the door behind him he immediately heard yelling and someone hitting their head on a wall. And just like expected, Minhyuk was lecturing Chan and Jisung was slamming his head against the wall behind his computer setup.
“Guys, what's going on?”
“Chan is going to be brought into the precinct and you and Jisung are going to go with him.”
Minhyuk stared firmly at the dark-haired boy and then turned back to the half-asleep man who was slowly nodding off.
“Chan, what did you do?”
He slammed his head on the table a few times before he turned towards Changbin and looked at him with his bloodshot eyes.
“I've been anonymously helping Jeongin with school and given him personally made worksheets online..”
As he trailed off Minhyuk pulled out his chair from Chan's desk and sat down next to him only so he could elbow him in encouragement to keep him talking.
“Sigh, I accidentally got into the school’s data with my personal account and they reported me soo, the police wants to question me.”
Jisung had now stopped with his skull cracking shenanigans and went over to Changbin to cuddle up under his arm which he for once didn't mind. But really Chan? That was such a rookie mistake. Changbin hoped that at least he would've learned not to hack while running on 20 minutes of sleep the last few days now.
But it was Chan and that man didn't know what sleep was. Changbin wasn't really as worried as the others, he knew that both Jisung and himself are quick thinkers and Chan usually catches on fast so a solid alibi probably wouldn't be a problem and the case wasn’t an important one anyway, who cared if someone illegally looked up test answers?
And maybe he'd be able to meet him. Changbin had for under a long amount of time kept an eye on the shadier corners of Seoul and been able to report loads of suspicious behaviours. But it was that one cop that he always preferred, he'd just accept the help without questioning and he was thankful. Changbin had never met Deputy Lee face to face but he knew what the boy looked like.
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“Hey Felix, you have a questioning in the interrogation room. 3 young males suspected of stealing information via computer.”
The blonde boy with the pretty freckles put a hand on the grey door and pushed it open, after closing it again he went to take his seat opposite from the three boys he would question.
“I am Deputy Lee Felix, and I assume you are Bang Chan... But I am not familiar with the two of you”
The said Chan shifted nervously in his chair and then gestured to his friends one at a time starting with the blonde.
“This is Han Jisung and Seo Changbin, they're here to support me. I've never been brought in before so I'm slightly nervous”
Felix went through the first page of his notebook under the info tab about Chan to check just in case the man was lying but he had no criminal record and he went to high school with both of the other boys back in the day.
“Alright Chan, your account was found playing around a college system yesterday. What were you doing there?”
Chan didn't have time to answer before the shorter dark-haired boy with the sharp V-shaped face and tanned skin. Changbin.
“Look Deputy, we were having a movie night the three of us with Chan's friend and he went to check in on another friend of ours’ schedule and he just ended up there, he disconnected as fast as he realised what happened.”
“The friend, what's his name?”
“Lee Minhyuk”
“Aight, I'll check in with him real quick.”
As Felix closed the door behind him he took a second to internally scream a little. The boy, Changbin. What the hell was he made of? A bucket of handsomeness and a spoon of raspy voice? Jesus Christ, the boy's voice made Felix melt and he was painfully aware of it too.
On the other side of the door, Changbin was clutching his temples with eyes wide open. Deputy Lee. Had. Freckles. The older boy had seen pictures of the younger a few times but the freckles had never been caught on camera. And hooollyyy hell! How didn't he notice the blonde’s voice? It sounded like a demon who had come to personally take Changbin to his grave, because damn it was hard to keep a straight face with those eyes on you.
Okay, Felix was way more attractive than what Changbin thought he would be but as long as no one noticed it’d be alright. Although... Was it legal to ask for an officers number? Wait, Binnie wasn’t exactly using a legal tactic when sending the younger reports sooo... Maybe it’d be okay if he just asked.
Felix came back into the room a short while after, his conversation with Kang Brian was successful and he received some helpful information about Chan’s actions. And it seemed like he was innocent, he didn’t purposely do it. It seemed like just an accident even if it was a little suspicious.
“Aight, it seems all good..”
As Chan and his friends were starting to get up with a shared equally relieved expression on their faces Felix decided to drop a minor bomb.
“Why are you so nervous? If you didn’t do anything, I mean.”
“I believe we’ve answered all your questions already Deputy, and this doesn’t have anything to do with the topic”
Felix’s lips sprouted a knowing grin and the dark-haired boy, Changbin returned one. When the group left the younger leaned back in the chair and let out a low chuckle, he was smart and experienced. Most people would panic at the question but they kept their cool and were even able to render Felix speechless. That boy had done his research and this would not be the last time they met.
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It was about two weeks after Felix had interrogated the three boys and nothing had happened yet but now he didn’t have time to think much about it. His secret helper had sent him a tip about some teenagers around 16 acting suspicious in the overgrown train station and Felix was going there to check it out.
When he arrived he didn’t see anything, just the plant-covered metal. It was completely silent and he could probably have heard a needle drop from miles away. You’d think that there were many animals there since it was practically a darkened tunnel completely abandoned by humans but no, there was no living being there. Or so he thought. Soon enough he could hear quiet whispering on the other side of a thick tree before acting Felix decided to listen in for a second just to be sure something was going on.
The second he heard one of them talking about drugs he came out of hiding with his gun drawn, he wasn’t going to shoot them but he still needed to be safe. He was faced with two younger people and a man around his thirties. The man was taking money from one of the younger in exchange for a white powder substance. Drugs.
“Hands behind your back!”
The younger people immediately dropped to the ground with their hands on the back of their heads but the man didn’t. No, he had drawn a gun of his own and was pointing it straight at Felix.
With determination burning in his head Felix was putting weight on the trigger and was about to set it off when he heard another gun being loaded. The other gun had found one of the teenager’s skulls and the owner of the weapon was a familiar woman. He recognised her as a woman he helped get into rehab. Shit.
Felix put his hands above his head and dropped the gun. He started breathing slightly heavier and sweat was running down his back. Do not shoot the child, do not shoot the child. Felix liked being a cop, especially if he could work alone. Working with other people made him nervous, the chance of others getting hurt was bigger and he’d care more. And he absolutely hated when criminals had hostages.
But Felix could have sworn that he had a guardian angel watching over him because soon enough a loud noise sizzled through the air and then a loud clank. Before they even realised what had happened the woman with intentions of killing a child was lying unconscious on the ground beside the teenagers and the man hurried over to her, just slow enough for Felix to reach for his gun. Now the man was unarmed and the blonde could call for backup without endangering anyone.
When the other cops arrived they arrested the man and brought the kids into the precinct. But Felix had stayed behind.
He was inspecting the place further. The projectile that saved their lives seems to be a homemade camera backfiring, don't ask him how but it had shot out different parts in the direction of the dealers just the second Felix needed it too. The camera was still whole and he knew he needed to bring it in, but he didn’t.
He simply looked into the slightly worn-out lense and made a call.
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Changbin was sitting in the very far corner of the 3Racha “office” by his setup while staring into the deep brown eyes of a certain deputy. He had accidentally sent the cop into a dangerous situation but he managed to help him even though he wasn’t at the scene himself. The younger person on the other side of the monitor mouthed a silent “Thank you” as he started going through his clothing and then it started buzzing in Changbin’s pocket.
The vibrations on his upper thigh startled him and without thinking further he picked up.
It was all quiet but Lee Felix’s eyes turned into crescents and the corners of his lips moved upwards with his cheeks until he had a fond smile on his face.
“Thank you, the kid would probably have died today if you didn’t help…”
“At first when she aimed at the kids I thought that maybe I trusted you a bit too much, I thought I should've bought backup… But you proved that you’re a solid ally, I owe you, like a lot.”
The line went quiet for a second and the cop’s smile faded into a solemn salute. A certain sadness appeared in his eyes.
“You don’t owe me anything…”
And then it disappeared. His mouth turned into a big O while his eyebrows shot all the way up to his hairline. What’d you call it? Shock, definitely shock.
“You-you responded? Y-you’ve never done that before…”
“I wanted to ask you something.”
“Of course, anything!”
A specific sparkle flew around Changbin’s stomach and his heart convinced the dark-haired boy to give the screen a slight smile. And as he mouthed the last words he thought that he’d throw up a glittery mass of butterflies, but he didn’t.
“Deputy Lee Felix, would you want to go out with me?”
As the words came from the speaker on his phone, Felix recognized the voice. He recognized the way his raspy voice dragged each word and how all his insecurities just melted away in the confident persona.
His guardian angel, Seo Changbin.