31_days | [Aug. 21] [Original] Bust!

Title: Bust!
Day/Theme: Aug. 21, 2010 "Wild heart, child heart"
Series: Original - Navigator
Character/Pairing: Ringo Takeuchi, a shop owner
Rating: PG

There it was. The sound of a police car pulling to a stop in front of the shop. Ringo Takeuchi knew that sound. He put down the bootlegged movies in his hand. He glanced around nervously, trying to see if the backdoor was open or not. It was closed and locked. Just his luck. "Yun Hee, who called the cops?" he hissed at the store's owner.

"I called them myself," Yun Hee answered indignantly. Some punks try to steal from my shop and I've got them on the security camera. They've come here three times before and tried that! They're going straight to the slammer! And I'll get that barber too! He's parking in the handicapped space to make more room for his customers! And while they're here, I'll report graffiti on the back of the shop."

Two cops entered the store. Ringo was relatively sure they still wouldn't be able to hear him. "Did it ever occur to you that you're breaking the law too, you idiot?"

"Breaking the law? I am not breaking law, Takeuchi," Yun Hee insisted. "I run my shop clean! Everything above board!"

"Uh-huh." Ringo resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

He stepped away as the officers approached, chatting calmly. "So, this is the bootleg capital of New Washington?" It was exactly as they'd said. This was going to go exactly as Ringo had expected.

"Oh, officers, thank you for coming! Thank you!" Yun Hee enthused. This time Ringo really did roll his eyes.

"So, Mr. Shan," one of the men picked up the movies Ringo had discarded on the counter, "What seems to be the problem here?" He turned the case over in his hand and squinted at the Chinese on the back of the box at odds with the English cover. "...Julio, I think we've got ourselves a bootlegger here."

"Now, that'd just make my day," his fellow officer grinned.