“Ohayo! Mr. Kilimano? Mr. Polar? Rise and shine, fellas!”
Ryo was at the new recruits’ door, calling them to come out for their reporting in to their superior. He heard a muffled yell from Joned about the door being unlocked and he let himself in.
A strong whiff of pancakes filled the air as Ryo entered their humble home. Dee, who came in later after his reasonable dress-up, was the first to exclaim, “Woah! Who’s making breakfast? This smells heavenly!”
“It’s me!” Joned called from inside the kitchen. “We Asians often practice the ‘Breakfast is the most important of the day’ policy. Come on in and join us if you want.”
“Don’t mind if I do,” Dee replied, but Ryo was hesitant.
“Are you sure? I mean, it’s not polite for us to let you make breakfast for us. We were thinking of taking you guys out for coffee or…”
“There’s plenty for everyone,” Jinggo replied, coming down the stairs in his cold, cool appearance, as always. Ryo and Dee unconsciously shrank back at his presence—they still need to get used to this one.
Soon, Ryo and Dee found themselves sitting in the dining room enjoying dinner together with their recruits. Joned has made pancakes and sunny side-up eggs. He chattered merrily between mouthfuls to Ryo and Dee in his good-natured way while Jinggo ate in silence, reading his newspaper. Ryo and Dee couldn’t help looking at each other in awkwardness as how different these two characters can be but still were able to stay together as a team.
“So, uh, boys,” Ryo tried to make conversation with Jinggo, who was buried in his newspaper. “It must be hard for you to leave your loved ones there at Asia and come all the way down here. I mean, did your girlfriends say anything about you guys coming here?”
Jinggo and Joned looked as if they were going to choke in their coffee and pancakes, although Jinggo tried not to show it in an obvious way. Joned managed to swallow his eggs before replying, “Oh no, we’re…we’re single. No strings attached.”
Dee looked at Ryo with an I-told-you-so look, which resulted into an annoyed I-get-the-point glance from Ryo. Dee turned to Jinggo and said, “Well, looks like you guys don’t have to worry about cheating on someone. We have great gals here in New York, and I’m sure you’ll find them very attractive. Or should I say, they’ll find you very attractive.”
Ryo gave a slight kick at Dee’s shin when he noticed that Joned was having a dark look on his face. Dee noticed and, realizing that he was out of ideas and not too good in talking his way out of a situation, glanced at Ryo to try and change the subject. Ryo got the cue.
“Well, I’m quite stuffed now. If you allow me to help you with the dishes, Joned, we might make it to the NYPD in time.”
The breakfast adjourned willingly. Ryo helped Joned wash the dishes while Dee told Jinggo what he and Joned might expect the inspector to say to them. After doing the dishes and double-checking to see if anything was forgotten, Jinggo and Joned were soon in Dee’s car and were on their way to the NYPD.
At the NYPD, Jinggo and Joned reported to the inspector’s office and as expected, they were given a respectably warm welcome. Obviously, the inspector wanted the new recruits to have a good word or two about the police department. He gave them their recruit badges and wished the best of luck and happy cooperation between them and our Dynamic Duo. Their first job was to assist Ryo and Dee in investigating a case of smuggled drugs done by one of the city’s most wanted criminals. The new recruits followed Ryo and Dee into their desks to check out the case.
“Who’s this critter about?” Joned asked, looking at the picture of a man with sallow skin, long unkempt hair and a pair of striking copper-brown eyes, almost like a hawk.
“This man here is Stanley Blue, one of the most wanted criminals in our list,” Ryo replied. “He was wanted—or to put it a little lightly, suspected—of a number of illegal deals and that includes smuggling drugs, weapons, banned food products and merchandise and also smuggling in female immigrants from other poor countries and sell them as slaves or as PRO. A very, very nasty kind of guy.”
“You said that he was suspected of all these offences,” Jinggo said as he rubbed his chin and ran his eyes through the man’s file. “Yet he’s the most wanted criminal. Why do you put in the term ‘suspected’?”
“That’s because although we knew that he was the one behind all these offences,” Dee said grudgingly, “we cannot find proof of any kind and we still couldn’t pinpoint out how was he able to do all these crimes without leaving a single evidence. You know the rules, boys. We cannot arrest them unless we have at least one proof to bring him down. He practically cleans up after doing all the dirty work; we can never catch him in the act.”
“Hmm…” Jinggo had that cold, contemplating face as he stared long and hard at Stanley Blue’s file. Joned was looking at him with the have-you-figured-something-out question written all over his face. Ryo and Dee watched Jinggo and Joned with fascination. They were really such a mismatched pair: one who tries hard to get his attention while the other wasn’t even looking at him (or pretending not to) at all. Dee could see that Joned was a persistent person. He knew that his partner was practically ignoring the lights out of him and yet he still tries without giving up.
While the team tried to discuss and put out an analysis of what to do with this case and where to start, the secretary of the NYPD came towards their desks with a tray of coffee. Jinggo was still staring intently at the file when the secretary handed him his coffee and when he looked up to take it, she was taken aback by his coolness in his eyes so much that she went butterfingers all over. She spilt the hot coffee onto Jinggo’s vest and he let out a startled small cry.
“Oh dear! Oh dear, I am so sorry! I don’t know what got into me!” the secretary apologized profusely. Jinggo waved it away coolly, muttering something about being alright.
“Looks like someone has a little crush on the new Asian recruit!” one of the police called out of the blue. The secretary went into a state of denial. Ryo and Dee stole a glance at their recruits. Ryo saw a jealous, dark yet not so conspicuous look only a gay like him could see. Dee noticed the same look on Jinggo’s face, but it was a leveled one and seemed more like embarrassment and awkwardness than dark.
“Excuse me,” Jinggo said briefly before moving towards the direction of the toilet. Ryo waited a minute before following suite. Dee let out a sigh and patted Joned’s shoulder.
“Don’t you mind those guys, Joned. There are loads of crazy monkeys around here and this is only your first day. Just ignore them.”
“Yeah…” Joned’s voice trailed away, his eyes fixed on the disappearing Jinggo.
Dee walked after Jinggo, wanting to help him out with the coffee stain and to tell him that this happens everyday and that there is nothing for him to worry about. He knows how it feels to get all embarrassed and stuff on the first day of the job. When he reached the toilet, he saw that only one of the cubicles was closed, so that means there’s no one else to bother when he and Jinggo have a get-to-know-each-other talk.
As he rose up his hand to knock the cubicle door, he thought he heard something. He pressed his ear onto the door slowly to listen to the sound. His eyes widened in surprise as he heard that it was sounds of sobbing. There a few muttered words between sobs and Ryo had to strain hard to hear what he was saying.
“I’m so sorry…I didn’t mean for this to happen…The only one I love is you…I’m so sorry…”
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