Chapter Text
serendipitous
/ˌserənˈdipədəs/
Adj. in a way that happens or is found by chance or luck:
Shoes slapped hard against the pavement and rainwater splashed up the side of Jin-Chul’s slacks making the fabric cling uncomfortably against his ankles and shins. It was almost completely dark and terribly cold out, and the rain seeping into his clothes and sliding down his collar chilled him to his bone. But he kept up the steady pace and ran as fast as he could, yelling into the receiver of his walkie talkie and informing his subordinates of each street, each bend in the road and each corner he took to apprehend their culprit.
The assailant was up ahead, just a little out of his reach and evaded him by just a hairbreath each time he would reach out to capture and detain him. He had split up with his team a few streets back when they tried to stop him in the getaway car and they moved to block all other points of exit within a few blocks radius. The rainwater started to blur his vision and he cursed under his breath when he skidded on the slippery muddy ground. The threading on his work boots were worn and his shoes had been giving out a lot more as of recently, and while he’d been meaning to fix the problem by getting them replaced, right now that ship has sailed. So he steadied himself with a hand on the wall and a curse under his breath before continuing the pursuit.
Luckily, this alleyway was a dead end. And he was met with the back of the masked fleeing man trying to find a way to escape, but the walls were too high and the smooth stone of the buildings did not allow for any kind of climbing or getting away. The rain had eased up a bit since a few minutes ago, but he knew that at any moment, the sky might open up with another deluge. So it would be preferable to get this over and done with as soon as possible lest he catch a cold from staying out in the harsh weather much longer. And even then, that would be the least of his worries.
He reached to the standard sidearm at his belt, fingers curling around the grip of his taser gun and drawing it in preparation. With the rainwater all over the place, it hardly seemed like a good idea. But he can hope that at the very least the man would think it's a real gun and surrender easily.
“Put your hands up and turn around slowly.” He ordered, he took a tentative step forward, but no more than that. It was best to maintain a safe distance.
The man did just that, shoulders sagging as if he had given up before he raised both arms in the air above his head. With a finger still on the trigger, Jin-Chul took another step forward with his other hand reaching for a pair of handcuffs. “You have the right to remain silent,”
Out of the corner of his eye, there was a glint and a flash of metal against the faint light from the moon bleeding through the dark clouds. A knife. He stopped reading the man his rights and carefully considered his options. Unfortunately, the man interpreted this moment as hesitation and took it as an opportunity and lunged toward him, switchblade in hand and aimed right for his gut. He stepped back and to the side, narrowly dodging the metal aimed right at him. He made a grab for the man’s arm that was holding the knife but missed and the assailant charged at him once more. He was crowded against the wall this time, and the exit was behind the assailant. His heart thumped rapidly in his chest and the blade caught his side and it sliced right through his shirt and right into the skin of his waist. The cut itself was superficial, probably, but the blood still mixed with the rainwater and made a bigger than necessary mess on his side, but in the process he managed to seize the arm holding the knife.
But the man reacted with a rough yank of his arm as he thrashed violently out of his hold, and now Jin-Chul really wished that he had listened to Captain Go when he clapped him on the shoulder after a long day and ordered him to replace his boots. “I’ll do it later.” He had said that time. But later never came, and now he’s slipping on the loose stones and wet mud under his shoes and he’s prepared to go down hard with the assailant and the knife aimed right to his sternum.
The collision with the ground never came, though.
A strong arm wrapped around his shoulder, and in the blink of an eye the knife wielding assailant is pinned to the wall by what could only be described as… spider webs tacking down his both arms and legs. The knife skittered across the ground and remained there uselessly, Jin-Chul’s blood washing away from it with the rainwater.
Most notably, though, he was being held like a scene from those tacky overdramatic romance dramas that his sister enjoyed for whatever reason or another. The man holding him, much like his assailant, is also masked, but it seemed his full body was covered with the same kind of latex or synthetic material that was obscuring. It was much too dark for him to properly make out the color of whatever it was he was wearing, but it seemed to be dark, perhaps even black. His voice was low when he whispered directly into Jin-Chul’s ear. “Careful there,” He chided in a deep husky voice. His eyes were not visible, but from the sound of his voice, Jin-Chul wouldn’t be surprised to find an amused expression under the mask. “It’s dangerous out here.”
This masked… ‘Savior’ helped Jin-Chul back to his feet before reaching down for the knife. But Jin-Chul took no chances and raised his taser gun once more. “Who are you?”
“Whoa, easy there, partner.” He stepped away from the switchblade and raised his arms above his head in mock defense like the assailant had done, with his head tilted to the side in a manner that could almost be described as playful. “Just making sure you don’t hurt yourself on this again.” He tapped his foot against the ground, inches away from where the blade lay. His mannerisms were far too relaxed for Jin-Chul’s liking.
“Who are you?” He reiterated again, this time slowly as if he was speaking to a child, gun warily pointed to the stranger as the downpour started heavily again. The rain decreased his visibility despite the man standing no more than a few feet away from him. Even if he wanted to, it would be far too dangerous to use his taser gun now. The rain was loud.
He dropped his arms and Jin-Chul could hear the muffled sounds of the dispatch coming through on his walkie. “Chief Inspector Woo, status update. Chief Inspector Woo!”
He looked around. It seemed like during all the commotion, he had dropped his walkie talkie somewhere, but the ground was too dark and the rain made it hard for him to locate it by sound alone.
“Just a friendly neighbor trying to help.” The masked individual stated. In his momentary distraction, the masked savior did something with his arm and the same substance that pinned the assailant to the wall was shot toward Jin-Chul, attaching itself to his side where the blade had cut through his shirt and his skin.
“You might wanna apply some pressure to that. You can thank me later.” He spun another web and he was gone as suddenly as he came. Like a dream. Leaving Jin-Chul there with the assailant groaning and moaning up against the wall and the web on his side preventing him from losing any more blood. Reminders that yes, that really just happened.
The sound of approaching footsteps drew him out of his daze as his subordinates neared to help handle the situation. Some crowded him to inspect his wound and the others tried to get their suspect off the wall.
Perhaps it was due to exhaustion, or the high adrenaline of the situation but the next few hours were almost a complete blur. They apprehended the suspect in the case of a brutal murder, brought him in while Jin-Chul was practically strong-armed by his subordinates to the nearest hospital to get looked at despite his complaints that his wounds were only superficial. The nurses, however, decided otherwise and had to cut him out of his shirt and out of those pesky webs so that they could stitch him up while he drowned out the sound of his subordinate giving him an earful about his recklessness with the white noise of his mind and the rain pattering against the window in the background. He was taken back to the station where they took his statement with wide eyes and the confusion of hearing the unknown masked third party that seemed to help Jin-Chul before making his own escape.
After a while, his words started slurring from the pain medication he had been administered and they had someone take him home.
That night he fell asleep to the memory of a sweet honeyed voice in his ear and a dull ache in his side.
Maybe it was due to the pain medication fully relaxing his body, or his completely exhausted mind, that he had slept so well that when he did wake up, it was because the sun had leaked through the blinds of his bedroom and started shining in his face. At that moment he realized that he had slept through both his alarms and he was terribly late for work.
He was halfway out the door, tripping over his own feet as he stuffed them into a pair of oxfords with mismatched socks because he couldn’t for the life of him find the right pairs, jacket in hand with his keys, cellphone and wallet in the other hand when he received a text message from the captain.
don’t bother coming in today. if you do, you will be sent back home. especially if you haven’t gotten new work boots. :)
Who in their right mind had even taught him how to make emojis? He sneered to himself.
He shot off a quick message of rejection before stepping into the elevator. He used the reflection of the walls to smooth out his wrinkled shirt as best as he could and run his hands through his hair, but it stubbornly fell right back into his face. He gave up after trying a few more times.
Even at 10am, the streets were still bustling, and he rushed and weaved through the crowd following his navigation app to the nearest store where he could buy work boots. Mapping his path from there to the station where he would have to pick up his car all while calculating his time and silently wondering if he had enough time to grab something to eat since he was already late and now even apparently banned. He set a fast pace for himself, occasionally looking down to reply to incoming messages or to check his route.
Texting and walking was never a good idea, though.
He was in the middle of replying to one of his coworkers when he collided with someone. His phone and wallet went flying out of his hand, his phone in particular slammed hard against the pavement, clattering once and then twice before it was kicked on accident and then stepped on heeled shoe and practically lost in the crowd of people in their own rush. None of that was his concern though, because for the second time within the last twenty-four hours, he was caught in the arms of a stranger. The hand wrapped around his waist just barely missed the dressed stitches on his side and held onto his hip to steady him.
This time, at least, he could see a face.
Not only that, but the handsome stranger had been holding a cup of coffee which spilled over his forearm over the sleeve of his dark blue dress shirt. He held the near empty to-go cup far away from Jin-Chul as if he didn’t want to risk any of the hot liquid spilling on him.
“Oh my… I am deeply sorry.” He pulled away from the stranger’s embrace and reached to the man’s arm to pull the wet sticky material away from his forearm.
He began apologizing profusely while the handsome stranger casually just tipped the cup over to drain the rest of the coffee onto the side of the street before tossing the cup into the trashcan with a smooth deep chuckle. “It’s no problem, ‘s just a shirt.”
He nonchalantly began rolling up the sleeve of his dress shirt and repeating it with the other sleeve exposing smooth unblemished skin. The arm that had caught the coffee was red and he really hoped his pretty unblemished skin wouldn’t be ruined by the bubbling blisters that would no doubt come from that kind of burn. He flashed a charming smile, “See, good as new.”
Something tickled the back of his mind, but he shook the feeling away before narrowing his eyes slightly. He took a good look at him. “Have we met before?”
He had dark hair falling over his forehead, and deep ultramarine eyes that suited his slightly tanned skin. His features were sharp and dark in a mysterious way. He was broad shouldered and his waist tapered slightly, but from what he could feel from the moments spent against his chest, he was pretty strong. He was about the same height, if not slightly taller than Jin-Chul by an inch or two. His smile was pretty and he looked like your typical college pretty boy to Jin-Chul’s trained eye.
His eyes only crinkled at the corners from smiling wider at Jin-Chul. He bent down and picked up Jin-Chul’s wallet before handing it to him, opening it to where he could see the government issued law enforcement badge. He held it out to Jin-Chul who accepted it. “Not at all. I’m a law abiding citizen after all, officer- er or is it inspector?” He titled his head to the side as if he was openly wondering. “Sorry. I’m not too familiar with the ranks. Oh… I’m sorry about that by the way… not sure if you can get that repaired.”
He vaguely gestured to the phone laying haplessly against the pavement. It buzzed as it received a message but the screen was completely busted beyond repair.
Jin-Chul clicked his tongue against his teeth, ignoring the comment and pulling out a contact card from his wallet. “Right. Here, this is my personal contact information. Please send me your account information along with a receipt for the cost for the dry cleaning for your shirt so that I may reimburse you for the cost. I do not keep money on my person. Again, I deeply apologize."
Jin-Chul politely bowed the way his mother had taught him when he was younger to seek forgiveness from another person.
The younger man grinned and pocketed the card with just a half hearted glance to it before sticking his arm out for a handshake. “Very nice to meet you, Woo Jin-Chul ssi.”
Jin-Chul paused for a moment, studying the appendage like it was some kind of test from the universe.
He reached out and took the warm hand into his, feeling only a slight stickiness from the spilled coffee. “Likewise…”
“Jin-Woo, Sung Jin-Woo.”