BBDW 40 [Black Butterfly] - Nevereverland
The next morning, Jude
was a little surprised by the people who showed up outside the hospital door.
The mother and son stood where they visited him just yesterday. He was a little
nervous wondering if they came to ask for the same favour again, but their faces
were embarrassed and appeared a little bit sorry rather than anger and sorrow.
"I'm so sorry,
Detective. Yesterday, I was like..."
"I've already
said.... what? What are you talking about all of a sudden?"
"I’ve got a call
this morning. You haven't been feeling well anyway, and you've gotten worse
since we made such a fuss. If you don't mind, may I apologize? The thoughts about Linda have indeed intensified lately, but I didn't mean to bother
you."
I’m not feeling too
well? Who would say that? – Holding back the words that were about to run out of
his mouth, Jude carefully took out the latter words.
"You’ve got…… a
call? From who?"
"The doctor here.
When I heard that, I thought I should come and apologize. I'm so sorry. I
didn't mean to. I'm just here because of Linda..."
The woman, covered her
mouth as if she's about to burst into tears, and Jude feels distressed and
confused at the same time -- no, please don't cry because it's making me
uncomfortable. By the way, which doctor called? The doctor in charge was literally
surprised that he was recovering quickly.- Looking at the woman, the door to
the hospital room opened.
And Jude looked at the
open door with a blank face, not even surprised by the suddenness of the
situation. The face, which had only been seen at night in the hospital room,
was revealed under the bright light.
"Oh, you must
have had a visitor first?"
"Ah......."
The mother and son
turned their heads at the same time. Appearing in a hoodie and jeans, unlike
his usual shirt, he smiled shyly. Beyond the thick-rimmed glasses, the eyes,
covered with dark blue lenses, were slightly smaller.
"Aha, I'm sorry,
I'll be back in a bit. I came here because the Chief was very worried, but it
seems that he looks a little better now. The Chief needs him to get back to
work as soon as possible."
Scratching his dark blond
hair, he even blushed slightly, as if he was really embarrassed. He seemed to
be a really immature new police officer. It's the difference between a lively
retriever with hair spread around and a serious shepherd with smooth black hair.
Jude looked at the mother and son pair, with a blank face, wondering what to
call this situation, as they were also momentarily stiffened on the spot.
-Are you stupid? Since
you're finally tired of being on the run, are you trying to turn yourself in,
in a ridiculous way like this? Why don't you do it in front of the FBI agents
who are struggling to catch you instead?- When Jude give him the look with his eyes,
he responded with a meaningful smile that Jude immediately understood. It was a
smile that asked him to take a good look at it, and Jude looked at the two with
a flutter of his head.
But the woman smiled
instead of initiating some hysterical screams. It was an apologetic smile at
that, and Jude doubted his eyes for a moment.
"Oh, no. We're
just about to leave. I'm sorry to disturb you. You must be a detective too?"
"Hee, I'm still a
greenhorn, though. I'm learning a lot from the detective over there. Oh, don't
mind me, in case you were trying to talk to him. I have to go to work soon
anyway. By the way, are you his family?"
The woman's face, clouded
over. With the eyes of a person watching a ridiculous dark comedy, Jude looked
at the face.
"No......we are
the family of the victims of the incident. I just wanted to talk to him about
something."
Expressing regret on
his face, Alvin nodded a little.
"Oh, I see......
you must be very sad."
"Yes......we're
just hoping the culprit gets caught soon."
"I hope so too…... Oh,
I have to go. If I'm late, I'll get beat up by the Chief instead. Well, it was
nice to meet you."
What about Kane? Well,
let's say the mother did so, but what about Kane? Looking at his face in a bit
of a hurry, he, too, was smiling and greets him like his mother.
"Yes, it was nice
to meet you, too."
It felt like he was
falling into the abyss of absurdity. Being careful not to let his thought appear
on his face, he saw the woman greeted Alvin with a slight nod.
"Take care of
yourself. If you're a detective, being careful is the most appreciative thing
for your family."
"Haha, yes, I
will."
Speaking with his harmless
smile, Alvin glanced at Jude. As he gave up a fake smile with that glance, Jude
shook his head with a flutter. When the door was about to close and the woman looked
back as she spoke, Jude couldn't help but laugh inwardly.
"You're so
bright, child... Oh, you look like Linda's cousin."
"Oh,
yeah..."
"Well, we'll be
on our way, Detective. Stay healthy."
"Goodbye."
Looking at the closed
door, Jude couldn't move from where he had sat for a while. The one who looks
like the cousin is actually the one who broke your daughter, and your sister?
You even said you wanted the culprit to get caught quickly. But all you have to
say is, he's a bright person? Really? Didn't you take a closer look at the
wanted photo? No, then, why are you so persistent? You want me to catch him? Or
was his acting just excellent?
Something boiling deep
in his stomach escaped with a sigh resembling a laugh. The small TV in front
of him was just announcing the football team's score with excitement, but
instead of raising their exclamations together, Jude lowered his gaze a little
and tilted his head. The reason why they have persistently pursued the
existence of Alvin Jones for more than half a year is that simple. Is there not
only two blotches of colours, anger and sadness, but also numerous other patches
of colours that mixed and swirled together? And are they just showing the colours
that are deemed acceptable to others?
On a rare morning
where he really idled out, two days before he was discharged, somehow Jude
couldn't get rid of his nervousness and sat on his bed, constantly tilting his
head.
Woooong. Woooong. The vibrating cell phone rang clearly in the
quiet night air. Jude, tossing and muttering an unknown complaint in his bed
several times, finally reached out with an irritating sound as the ringtone
seemed unlikely to stop easily. The voice, of course, did not come out nicely.
“This is Jude. Question,
what time is it now?”
[Jude? Something's up,
come on!]
It was his partner's
voice that rushed out of the cell phone. Feeling the little drowsiness fading away
from that urgency, Jude scratched his head a few times.
"Oh, why? I'll do
it in the morning if I can. It's 3:30. We weren't even on call......."
[This is not the time,
Alvin Jones started killing people again, plus in New York! Get out of there
right now, okay? Oh, I guess there won't be a car right now. I'll pick you up,
so get ready!]
Tutt. The phone was cut off before he could even
answer. Jude, who was briefly recollecting what Tim said with sleepy eyes,
moved his body and sat up with a sigh. It was still a dark night before dawn
outside the window. Feeling satisfied with the warmth left in his bed and
blanket, Jude sat still for a moment and stared blankly at the wall of the room.
The broken clock on the wall indicated that the time was pointing at 5:30.
"...... what kind of guy is playing around........"
Feeling disgruntled,
the blond detective jumped out of the bed with a reluctant move.
* * *
You just exposed me lol ๐
ReplyDeleteIt's a heaven for my fujoshi heart ❤️
Thank you ☺️❤️๐ฏ๐❤️
(*^๏ผต^)ไบบ(≧๏ผถ≦*)/ Well, those sites and many others are no secret to the fujos and fudans. And you're welcome.
DeletePoor Jude, he couldn’t even have a chance to breath ๐
ReplyDeleteWell, that’s the fate of an MC.
(Had to search what CG and ExR Mean)
All MC had it rough (  ̄^ ̄ ) Lol CG is Chrysanthemum Garden and ExR is ExiledRebelsScanlations. Those 2 websites have been around for like 3+ years where CG is mainly a bunch of individual translators that translate Chinese BL Novels while ExR is a group of translators that translate Yaoi manga and Chinese BL Novels too.
DeleteI don't get why Jude is so surprised the two people can't recognise Alvin after his makeover.
ReplyDeleteFirst, they've never actually seen Alvin in person. Not in passing, not for a quick chat. Their only knowledge of his features probably come from a picture.
Humans somehow imagine bad people are ugly (and ugly people are bad - a completely untrue belief). Thus the mother and son must have a very twisted image of the perpetrator in their heads. I'm not talking about him having six heads with massive claws and teeth. But they probably imagine him as having distinctive, ugly features, with an unpleasant personality and aura. They basically imagine once they see him his whole persona (look) would scream at them 'I'm a killer!'
The way Alvin presented himself seemed to be as a younger, sunny, slightly timid man. Nothing about him seemed to speak I'll of his personality. Also, from the description, his glasses seemed to hide a big part of his features. Whilst noone would actually change in a whole new person just by putting glasses on, a completely unknown person can easily switch to a new face by adding glasses and changing their temperament.
Lastly, the two would never expect a murderer to appear in the hospital room of the police officer that caught him. So even by changing his temperament slightly and his hair colour he probably would have still gotten around without being recognised by the family.
We don't pay a lot of attention to people we don't know so it's easy to experience something as change blindness. Once you understand that, Alvin going about the town he committed the crimes in is easy to understand. Especially since New York is such a big, busy and diverse city