Three

Inseong found it funny, but unbelievable, how his predictions came true when he least wanted them to. By late afternoon, news about the dead body, and the possible return of the organ trafficking gang was plastered all over the leading news channels. While the saying did go as 'any publicity is good publicity', the entire police force of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency was aware of how sensitive this particular case was; it would have been better if the public didn't know about it. A few other senior officers apart from the two they had seen in the morning were seen making frequent trips to the chief's office, each time looking more grim than before.

"How many days do you reckon it will take for them to solve this one?" Hansol mused from his seat, his three colleagues looking over at him with raised eyebrows.

"If they can solve it, the trafficking ring has been pretty elusive for the past ten years," Byungjoo muttered, tilting his body to the side just in time to dodge the pen thrown towards him by his partner.

"Do you have to be so pessimistic every time?"

"Quit it, guys!" Jiho hissed, effectively shushing them up while continuing to stare at his computer screen. His elbows were propped up on the desk, and he held his head in both hands, massaging his temple with the tips of his fingers. For some unknown reason, he had a headache, and his two bickering colleagues were not making it any easier for him.

"You alright there?" Inseong asked, peeking over his monitor to take a look at the other. Jiho didn't usually lose his calm that quickly, and the former frowned upon seeing the way the latter's fingers were pressed against his forehead.

"He's been having it pretty rough since the past few days," Hansol explained as he glanced over at Inseong, a sympathetic look passing his eyes for a couple seconds. "He didn't get any rest for a few nights."

Inseong frowned; granted, they all were quite busy, but even during the days when he had a lot of work pending to be done, he managed to catch at least an hour of sleep. It wasn't much to go on -- practically nothing, frankly -- but it allowed him to function for the rest of the day without feeling like he would pass out any second. If he still felt tired, the bland, tasteless, watered down coffee from the station's coffee machine helped sometimes. But this was the first time he had seen Jiho so utterly worn out.

"So, basically," he began, turning back to his partner, "you've been running on zero hours of sleep." His tone was reprimanding, somewhat bossy even, but it did its job as Jiho averted his gaze, refusing to meet the other guy's eyes. The frown on Inseong's face deepened, this kind of behaviour from Jiho was new. "Is something else bothering you?" He asked, and going by his tone, the other knew that this was one question that would be impossible for him to avoid.

He sighed, shrugging. "I'm just kind of worried about today's case. Taeyang-hyung is going to have his hands full, and that organ trafficking ring from ten years ago has not been easy to try and catch," he admitted, proceeding to bury his head in his hands.

"Aw, he's worried about his boyfriend-" Byungjoo cooed, but immediately shut up when he saw the glare Jiho threw at him.

"He's just a friend," Jiho insisted, rolling his eyes as he turned back to the computer. Inseong cleared his throat, fighting to wipe the smile off his face as he watched the exchange.

"Anyway," he piped up, "I think you need to rest. Go home early today, I'll take care of the rest of your reports."

"But-"

"No buts." There was a surprising air of finality to his words, making Jiho sigh again. He had no choice but to take up on the offer; his eyes had begun to close involuntarily, and the headache wasn't being any less torturous. The other three resumed their work, and Jiho felt slightly better as their casual but playful banter fell on his ears; he knew there were people in this world who cared about him.

Jihun was transfixed as he stared at the television in the café, mouth agape.

Having finished with his dance classes for the day, he had made his way to Seungjun's café to have a chat with the older man. Even before meeting Seungjun and the other three, he had had a strong liking towards cafés, and coffee shops in general, being able to spend hours alone in one. Inseong liked to joke about how he had sat in a coffee shop alone once for more than six hours.

This time, though, he was not alone. After just a few minutes of having started talking to Seungjun, they were joined by Oh Heejun, another one of their housemates, and the youngest of the five. He was training to be a professor, and currently worked as a teaching assistant in a nearby university. Because of their jobs, the two were the least busy out of all five, and would often end up in the café at the end of the day, usually to help the owner close the place up.

Beside him, Seungjun and Heejun were just as silent as they watched the news being broadcast on the channels. Not just them, though. It almost seemed like a spell had been cast on all the people present in the café. Understandable, really.

"You've got to be kidding me," the blond dancer whispered, the oldest letting out a low whistle as the newscaster continued his babble. "All these years, and they still haven't been caught?"

"I can never forget that one year," Heejun said. "My parents never let me go anywhere alone."

"Don't tell me this is going to cause nationwide panic once again..." Seungjun trailed off, a damp rag in hand as he absently wiped at the front counter, although he didn't clean a single stain with his eyes focused only on the screen in front of them.

Youjin did not know what to make of the news. He had a pretty good idea of how news channels managed to exaggerate everything, but this was no exaggeration. The headlines stared back at him from the small-sized television in his clinic in large, clear letters.

'Trafficking gang from a decade ago makes a surprise visit'

'Dead woman found in trashcan, limbs separated'

'Where did her kidneys go?'

He did not understand. Hadn't the perpetrators disappeared ten years ago? After killing seventeen innocent people, they had vanished completely, without a single trace of their whereabouts. So why were they back? And would the police be able to catch them this time?

The scene from his past flashed before his eyes, one that he had been trying to run away from for years. His teacher and role model had been one of the very first victims, brutally killed in his own house, as the police had reported later. One of the very few men he had looked up to had been taken away from him. It had been Youjin's worst luck to be the one to discover the body when he had gone to the park to play basketball with his friends.

"Doctor Kim?" The receptionist called out from the door as she peeked in, and he almost jumped, snapping out of his musings as he looked at her. "It's time to close up, Doc," she supplied with a smile as she pointed to a window, signalling that it was already dark out.

"Oh. Right," he mumbled, straightening up in his chair as he began to pack his things up, getting ready to go home.

Not a lot was said about the biggest news of the day between the five friends. They had tried talking about it, but upon noticing Youjin clamming up every time they mentioned it, and the awkward tension it left in the air, they decided to give up. Inseong could not think about it too much either, having been swamped with work right after. Secretly, he wondered if Chief Han had done it on purpose, to avoid any attention towards the particular case from anyone not directly involved with it.

That didn't stop the junior officers from finding out anything they could about the matter, though. A lot of them were either friends or acquaintances with a few of their seniors, especially those who were assigned to the case, and sometimes, even their seniors couldn't keep it all to themselves. Inseong couldn't blame them, however, it was natural human instinct to try and make others aware about the possible dangers; no one could predict who the next victim would be. Not even a couple days had passed, and it was already starting to feel like it had ten years ago. People all around them had started to refer to the murder as 'the first of a range of serial killings', seemingly finding it thrillingly terrifying to refer to the gang as a serial killer. Even the news channels had begun to use that term, and in a way, they were right. What else had the old murders been, if not for serial killings? Even if the main motive of the trafficking ring had been the kidneys, they had not left a single victim of theirs alive.

Barely a week had passed since the murder, and the atmosphere in the police station was still as tense as ever. The four junior detectives were busy at their respective desks when Inseong's phone buzzed. He kept his eyes on the papers on his table as his hand fumbled around blindly for the device, and he finally peeled his gaze away from the file to look at his phone, eyes widening in shock at the news notification that he had received from an application.

"Guys..." he whispered just as a couple of their seniors strode in purposefully, walking briskly towards the chief's cabin.

The other three watched the pair before turning to their colleague, all of them wearing similar expressions.

"Another one?" Hansol muttered in disbelief, eyebrows furrowing.

"Please, Jiho, please?" Inseong pleaded as he grabbed his partner by both arms, lightly shaking the other guy as he put on a pitiful face. Jiho rolled his eyes, shrugging off Inseong's hold on him as he took a step back.

"Inseong, try to understand. Ours is the Seoul branch, and the body was found in Gangneung. It will take some time to get all the information they need from that branch, and even after that, what makes you so sure that hyung is going to tell me everything so easily?" He retorted, sighing exasperatedly as he saw the pout on his partner's face.

"Alright..." Inseong said reluctantly as he stared at his feet, then looked up again to meet the other's eyes. "But promise me that you'll find everything out from him and then tell me," he insisted, and Jiho knew that no matter how much he tried, he couldn't refuse.

"I can't promise anything, but I'll try my best. I just have to ensure that he doesn't suspect anything, because I'm sure I'm the only one who keeps grilling him about this," he sighed again, shoulders slumping slightly.

He kept his promise as, the next day, he had a faint smile on his face as he met his partner at the café. Inseong perked up instantly at the sight of the other man, but held back from asking him about it for lack of privacy. Right after they were seated at their table, however, he looked at Jiho expectantly. The latter shook his head with a chuckle, resting his elbows on the table as he leaned forward.

"Why you're so interested in this is beyond me, but here goes... the second victim is Kim Minjeong, a forty-year-old doctor at the Medical Centre in Seongju."

Another doctor? Inseong thought, but stayed silent as Jiho continued.

"Her body was discovered in a trash bin behind a small eatery by one of the workers at the same eatery. It had been left in the same condition- six parts, no kidneys. Reported missing two days ago when she left her house, but never arrived for work, they guessed around eleven in the morning as the time she went missing. Estimated time of death is between seven-thirty to ten in the evening, on the same day."

"And when was the body discovered?" The other asked, his hands clasped together in thought with his elbows on the table.

"Yesterday afternoon, sometime after two. Employees at the restaurant claim that the road next to the trash bin is usually busy till late morning, after which, it becomes almost deserted," Jiho explained.

"Which means that the killers dumped the dead body between eleven and two," Inseong mused, glancing up at his partner. "Did anyone report seeing any suspicious people around the area?" He asked, sighing as the other guy shook his head.

During the entire walk to the police station, Inseong did not utter a single word, lost in thought with his hands inside the pockets of his trousers. Once or twice, Jiho tried to make him say something by nudging him, but to no avail.

It was not until they reached their desks that Inseong finally opened his mouth to speak, but was still silent as he in some air, biting the corner of his lower lip as he sat down.

"What's bothering you?" His partner asked, beginning to get slightly worried as he frowned at the other.

Inseong pursed his lips, looking up at the guy in front of him, before leaning over his desk. "Don't you think there's something different between these cases and the old ones?" He mused, to which he received a frown and a shake of the head. Heaving a sigh, he sat back in his chair, looking around his desk as he grabbed the notepad and a pen from his bag, forgetting all about his pending work as he began scribbling in the notepad.

Author's Note:

This one took such a long time to write! I was actually planning on publishing this on Jiho's (Xero's) birthday, which was on the 3rd of this month, which is why there was a bit of focus on him during a part of this chapter. But the writer's block struck me again, and I just couldn't do it. (Did you guys like the JeJe couple moment, though? Hehe)

But no worries! I'm posting this on Youjin's birthday, which is the 10th. Happy birthday, Kim Youjin! ^o^

Hope this chapter didn't disappoint.