The lights of the city were lightening up the sky, the colorful billboard on the buildings and blinking commercials on the big screens around the neighborhood of Seoul's shopping district were keeping Myeongdong awake until late at night. The malls around the shopping street kept their stores open for the thousands of people inside. Everywhere, the stores, restaurants, and bars had decorated their buildings, windows, shelves and desks with Christmas decorations.

The people were ambling from shop to shop around the streets, stopping here and there, checking out the show windows. Some were walking around alone, others were on their way with their friends, fellow students, and colleagues and here and there a couple could be seen, walking around hand in hand; sometimes, the man was holding his arm around his girlfriends shoulders. The restaurants and bars were filled with laughers and amused people. Soon there were Christmas holidays and the people were in the mood to party.

But all the people around were just busy with themselves and didn't notice what was going on just some alleys away. The police had blocked a blind alley with a portable wall to screen the crime scene from people’s views. An old man found a dead body of a woman when he wanted to bring out his trash. He immediately called the police who closed off the blind alley.

It didn't take long until some of the MID agents arrived at the scene, they were called immediately by the police because of the state of the dead body. The corpse was cut in pieces, all extremities were removed from the torso, and on its torso, was some symbol cut into the flesh. Kyuhyun and Chanyeol crouched down around the dead body, their hands covered with gloves, ready to check everything about the body. Siwon and Jonghyun discovered the crime scene and the cut off extremities, which lay in a waste container, which was near by the found torso.

"The extreme violence against the victim shows how aggressive the offender must be, it’s a paradigm of overkill" Chanyeol said and Kyuhyun agreed directly.

"That sign" Kyuhyun started and pressed his finger on the torso near the sign to let the skin stretch slightly, "It’s so deep, it didn't only cut the flesh but also some nerve cords. Besides that, she seems to be dead for a longer while already, the rigor mortis had already insert and it's being regressive again."

"I feel like I saw this sign before; maybe from an earlier case?" Chanyeol mentioned and stood up again.

"You are right, but..." Kyuhyun frowned and looked at the sign from different perspectives. Then he suddenly got an idea and took out his phone, he took a photo of the sign and used editing program to mirror the picture. "We do indeed know this sign" Kyuhyun said and showed his friend the mirrored image.

"Guys" Jonghyun caught their attention as he was stepping close to them, "We checked the extremities, but there is a problem."

"A problem?" Chanyeol asked confused.

"Yes, the head is missing" Siwon spoke and took off his gloves.

"I think we have another problem" Kyuhyun said and showed the other agents the photo he took, Siwon immediately recognized it. But Jonghyun didn't understand and asked what the younger one wanted to say with the picture. "This sign is mirrored on the torso, like this on the photo, a serial killer named 'desecrater' used it as his characteristical mark."

"The desecrater? But he was imprisoned some years ago" Jonghyun talked astonished.

"That's right, the team caught him three years ago in a small restaurant near Jeonju on highway twenty-five" Chanyeol told his colleague, "Back then, Siwon was on his book tour and helped us as an adviser, but we had the senior special agent Lee Jinki with us."

"Lee Jinki?"

"He was part of the MID founders, like Siwon, he was a team member for years, until that incident" Kyuhyun stopped and looked down. To him, Lee Jinki was a mentor, sometimes he even was something like a father. They used to play chess when they were on the plane, heading to a new case or back home, but three years ago, their senior agent left the team.

When the agents returned to their office and waited for Yunho to return from his appointment, they used the time to explain Jonghyun what happened some years ago. They were called for a case to Jeonju, where a serial killer kidnapped young women and killed them after he had kept them with him for weeks. The way he had killed them was brutal and devilish. He had cut off their legs, arms and their heads and on their torsos a sign was carved deeply into their flesh.  The local police was after him for months and even with the MID team's help, he wasn't easily caught. One of his victims had survived and gave them hints on the hideout; there they found a hint which was given by the offender himself. It was a small envelope, which contained a paper with the lines 'meet me at the highway diner, midday, 12 o'clock, or he will die' and behind the paper was a photo, which showed Lee Jinki's longtime companion and lover. Thereupon the team, several police cars and men surrounded the highway diner but just Lee Jinki and Chanyeol entered it while everyone else was waiting outside. They started a conversation but didn't get much information from the man, who used to talk in riddles to them and the agents felt that time was against them. He had Jinki's lover and they had to save him.

"And what happened then?" Jonghyun asked and none of them noticed how Yunho entered their briefing room.

"We came too late" Yunho said as soon as he came in and his agents gave him a glance, which was kind of sad, just Jonghyun still did not fully understand, "In the course of the time while Jinki and Chanyeol were inside the diner, Park Yoochun just tried to get some time because while we tried to get any information from him, Taemin was already acherontic. The whole time he just played with us."

"When we finally got the hint on where he was keeping Taemin, the rest of us immediately rushed there, but it was too late" Chanyeol continued.

"Jinki got so mad, he couldn't hold it back, he turned against Park Yoochun, who was already arrested" Donghae added with a sad voice.

"Everything ended with Park Yoochun being imprisoned and Lee Jinki soon left the team, at first just, to get over his lover's death, but at the end, I think, he was never able to  heal his heart again" Kyuhyun talked quietly.

"It must be irony of fate, that one of the founders of the Mannerism Investigation Division, who was built and founded to catch killers like Park Yoochun and to bring people justice and safety, got broken by one of those people" Siwon spoke more to himself than to the others.

"And now he is back? But he was imprisoned already" Jonghyun asked and he knew that it was a question everyone was asking themselves.

"He was able to escape from the prison yesterday" Baekhyun said when he came in. He the screen in the room and showed them the report which the jail's director just had send him. "He escaped yesterday while everyone else was on their egress, yet it’s not sure if he had any help from a guard or from the outside. But we know that he returned to murder women."

"How could he escape from one of the best controlled jails in South Korea?" Donghae was speechless. Nobody could believe what was going on, never before something like this happened.

"That's not all" Baekhyun broke the silence and the team members gave him expectant looks, "They found a note in Park Yoochun's cell." Baekhyun pressed some buttons on his infrared remote control to show the scan of the note on the screen for the others. It showed Lee Jinki's name written with a check mark behind and a line under it, there was another name. 'Jung Yunho - ? - do it slow - let him suffer'.

The agents exchanged looks and an uncomfortable atmosphere was filling the room. "I don't really understand his goal. What is he up to?" Chanyeol was tearing his hair and leaned his face into his hands.

"Year after year he killed women and never changed his approach, then when we were after him, he kidnapped our senior special agent's lover and killed him, so that one of the most famous MID agents packed in his job and left from one day to another" Kyuhyun talked, "And now he is after Yunho? Does he want to break him now?"

"Whatever his goal is now, we have to find him, before he turns into the infamous and dreaded desecrater" Yunho ended the conversation and left the room to return into his private office. It didn't take long until the section chief entered Yunho's room.

"Mr. Jung, I've got introduced about the Park Yoochun incident" Ahn Chilhyun started and talked while walking up and down in the office, "Everyone knows you and your team are the best solution for catching him again, but this note about you is alarming and we should take it seriously. I would like to order you, to bring your husband and son to a safe place, where they are unknown and can't be easily found; safely first."

Yunho nodded and returned to the meeting room together with the section chief, they took place to go through the briefing like always, before Chilhyun introduced the other members to his orders. Kyuhyun and Chanyeol were ordered to investigate Park Yoochun's prison cell, Yunho should prepare his family, and the others had to stay tuned on the dead body they found earlier. So the team's leader quickly left the office and rushed to his apartment. Since it was late, Jisung was already sleeping and Changmin was sitting in the living room, reading a script, which he had to prepare for a new filming. He was quiet confused when Yunho suddenly stood in the apartment because he assumed that his husband would work all night long again like so often.

"What are you doing here?" Changmin asked confused and put his script aside. Yunho explained him clearly what happened and that he had to bring them to a safe place. At first, Changmin had trouble to follow everything but at the end, a cold shiver rushed over the actor's back when he was thinking about the fact that a ruthless serial killer was after them to break Yunho. Changmin was packing a suitcase for him while Yunho packed Jisung's case and back, then the actor brought everything to the car and the agent woke up his son. The little boy was so tired and deeply in sleep that he fell asleep in Yunho's arms immediately again. In the car was another agent waiting for them, he would be their personal security undercover guard until the offender’s caught.

"Alright Minnie, this is agent Yoon, he will take care of your safety for the time you guys stay there. You can't take a registered car, just take this NACS car and give me your phone and get a new one with agent Yoon. Take a prepaid phone, it’s harder to track, when you want to communicate with me, follow the agent's orders, he knows how it will be the safest way" Yunho explained and Changmin nodded. The actor was scared but he tried not to show it, but Yunho knew him since high school, it was the easiest for him to see how Changmin was doing and what he tried to hide from him.

"When will we see each other again?" Changmin asked sadly, but Yunho couldn't answer this question yet. At first, he had to catch Park Yoochun again, but until then, it was the best when they had less contact and Yunho won't see them. Just the thought about not being able to see his little family for some unknown time was hurtful, but they both knew it was the only way.

As Yunho returned to the office, Kyuhyun and Chanyeol were already back in the headquarters from investigating the cell. Unfortunately, they didn't find any other hints which were helpful for them. "The only thing we found were several newspaper articles, which he had hidden under his mattress and every single article was about our team and Yunho" Chanyeol told his colleagues, "Seems like he's really after Yunho and his family because they’re also were some about Changmin."

"It is a kind of problem that Changmin is a famous actor, there are lot of articles and shows about him" Donghae said and the others agreed.

"He and Jisung have an agent with them and they already moved" Yunho spoke when he entered the conference room, "No one of us, not even me is allowed to know where they will stay until we catch him."

"Are you alright?" Siwon asked and patted his chief's shoulder.

"Yes, just let’s hurry to find him again."

They worked all night long, but it felt like they’re stuck. No hints. No clues. Nothing to help them to find out where Park Yoohun could be or where he could have hidden himself, neither what he could plan next. Their only possibility and connection to him was the victim who survived his latest murderous frenzy.

"Did anyone of you ever thought about why Lee Eunhye survived his bloodlust?" Kyuhyun suddenly came up and quickly caught his team member's attention, "Every victim got killed after he kept them for weeks or months. But she, she stayed with him for so long but she survived. Did she escaped or did he let her go?"

"That's a good question. The fact that she survived, isn't matching his profile" Jonghyun said.

"But when we questioned her, she said he fled as soon as it was possible for her to escape. She didn't seem to remember much, so she couldn't tell us many helpful details, neither about him nor about the hideout" Chanyeol explained.

"It’s not uncommon that a tortured person can't remember much of what happened, some of them immediately eliminate the memories about the torture and sometimes it works and they never remember anything" Kyuhyun informed his colleagues.

"We should talk to her again" Siwon said and as soon as Yunho agreed to him, the agent walked over to Baekhyun's private office. As always, the room was lightened up by several blinking screens and usually their always hyper technical analyst was sitting in front of his work place, but this time, Siwon found Baekhyun sitting on his chair, his face laid on his keyboard, the glasses he was wearing today were about to fall down. "Baekhyun... Yah Byun Baekhyun, wake up" Siwon spoke and tapped the analyst's shoulder until Baekhyun suddenly got up. At first, he was confused and looked around; it took some seconds until he understood where he was. Then he wiped his mouth, which was drooling a bit, put his glasses back on his nose and tousled his hair, which caused a fuzzy-head. "Baekhyun, we need to know where Lee Eunhye lives now."

"The victim who survived?" Baekhyun asked tiredly.

"Yes and we needed it yesterday already."

"I understand Sir" Baekhyun took a sip of his coffee which was, thanks to his beloved thermos flask, still warm enough to wake the analyst again. Quickly, he found the information the agent was looking for. "She lives in Seoul now; I had sent the address on your phone Sir."

"Thanks, Baekhyun" Siwon left the office again and took Donghae with him. They wanted to question Lee Eunhye once more. Therefore, they drove to the address and wanted to bring her to the NACS headquarters, but since it was in the middle of the night, it took a while until the woman opened the door for the agents.

Back in the offices, Lee Eunhye was waiting in a questioning room until Donghae came in. He served her a cup of coffee before he sat down on the opposite side of the table. They've decided that it would be the best if Donghae would question her alone first because, back then, Donghae was the first agent she was talking to. "I am sorry that we had to wake you up and bring you here at such an hour, but it is urgent and I hope you can help us again."

"If this is about what happened in Jeonju, I still can't help you. I don't remember anything" the woman said and took a sip of the hot coffee. On her wrists, were the scars from the torture, still visible and she always tried to hide by pulling her sleeves over it as soon as it slightly moved up.

"There is something we don't understand and we hoped you could help us with it" Donghae started and waited for a while until the woman gave him a sign to continue, "Do you know why you survived?"

"Why? Because I could escape."

"Everyone else got killed when they tried to escape. You were the only one he let go and there must be a reason" Donghae talked and observed her. It wasn't hard to see that she tried to hide something else from the agent. She might be able to hide her physical and mental scars from most of the people but she couldn't hide it from the focused and trained eyes of the agent. "Don't worry Eunhye, nothing can happen here. You are safe, you can tell me and with your information, we might be able to save other women's lives."

She gulped, her hands were cramped around the cup and her voice started shaking. "One night, he suddenly freed me, he told me to leave. At first, I didn't want to because I thought he would kill me when I would go, but after he yelled at me that I should finally go, I did like he ordered me to. I ran outside. I was running and running. I thought he was following me but he didn't, so I stopped and I looked back..."

"Eunhye what happened then?"

"I... I wanted to go back" she babbled and Donghae frowned, he wasn't sure if he was understanding it correctly, so he asked her again, "Yes I wanted to go back to him... but then police officers saw me walking on the street. For one second, I saw him, he was hiding behind a tree. The officers dragged me to the car and when I looked back to the tree, he was gone."

"Why did you want to go back to him?"

"Isn't it obvious?" she asked and a weak smile formed her lips while Donghae was raising an eyebrow, "I wanted to go back because I love him." Her voice cracked and her smile looked a bit insane. The agent asked her some more questions, but she didn't really reply anymore, she was just smiling and said she wanted to see him again. So Donghae left the questioning room and entered the small, dark side room, from where Yunho and Siwon had observed the investigation.

Another agent brought something to eat and drink to the woman, while the MID team was discussing the investigation about her. "Do you really think she loves him?" Jonghyun asked and took a look on her, through the hidden window.

"It’s hard to believe actually, but it’s still possible. The more confusing question is, if he is even able to love someone" Siwon talked.

"Park Yoochun is a ual sadist. It is important to distinguish between Sadism, which is the term used in conjunction with Sadistic Personality Disorder, and ual Sadism which may be associated with SPD yet is classified as one of the paraphilias because of the specific ual component. The two are most certainly related and an understanding of sadism is paramount to the understanding of ual sadism but this particular section deals only with the paraphilia of ual sadism. ual sadism refers to the derivation of ual pleasure from the infliction of pain, suffering and/or humiliation upon another person. The pain and suffering of the victim, which may be both physical and psychological, is pivotal to the ual arousal and pleasure" Kyuhyun explained.

"Hey kid, come to the point" Chanyeol interrupted his younger colleague.

"What I want to say is, even if he's a ual sadist, he can still love a person. But his kind of love is different from what we think is love. It’s quite possible that she loves him and that he loves her back."

"Maybe she's a reason why he even got out of prison. Maybe he wants to see her again" Donghae mentioned.

"But when they love each other, why did she never visit him in prison?" Jonghyun asked.

"When he got imprisoned, the court handed out some special conditions" Yunho spoke up, "He got a single cell, isolated from others and another condition was that he was not allowed to get visitors."

For them, Lee Eunhye was the only connection they still had to Park Yoochun. Yet they weren’t sure if what she’s saying is right, neither had they known the real reason why he escaped from prison, but they knew time was against them because the longer as he was on the loose, the more dangerous he would became. Yunho had just ordered Baekhyun to check if Park Yoochun was still registered for any property where he could stay. But there was nothing registered to his name, not even a car, so even for their personally hacker and his masterly computer knowledge, it was impossible to track the perpetrator. Baekhyun apologized for being unable to help at the moment, but Yunho patted his shoulder to show him that everything was alright. The chief was about to leave the analyst's office as Jonghyun entered the room, telling them that they got a message from Park Yoochun himself. The message said that he wanted to meet with Yunho, he should bring Eunhye with him, then there was a place and a clock time mentioned.

"So it’s really about Lee Eunhye?" Donghae talked.

"But something stinks, there is something else. We are missing something. I have a really bad feeling about it" Chanyeol said and crossed his arms, "How can he think we bring her to him just like this?"

"I bet he has some ace up his sleeve, some kind of pawn, which he will use to get her and then to get away" Siwon added to their discussion, "I mean that man is really intelligent, he must have something in his hands against us. He won't escape from prison without any plan to stay outside."

"Whatever his plan is, we will go there prepared" Yunho said and ordered his agents to get prepared while he was discussing everything with his section chief Ahn Chilhyun. He would support them with two teams of agents and the responsible police department was ready for delivery on demand.

Once again, Park Yoochun had chosen a public place for the meeting like he did once before in Jeonju. Yunho entered the small kiosk shop together with Chanyeol, while the other members of the team waited outside. The extra agents were surrounding the store from all sites, unseen and hidden and four agents were surrounding a car, where Lee Eunhye had to wait inside. The kiosk was in a marginal area of Seoul, some little houses were around but soon, the city ended and the landscape was taking over the main point of the environment.

Park Yoochun was standing on the high table, drinking some coffee. The kiosk itself was empty, just the shop assistant was sitting behind the counter, reading a newspaper. When the agents entered the shop, Chanyeol went to the shop assistant and sent him outside the store before he joined Yunho, who stood near the high table, glaring at Park Yoochun.

"It’s been a while agent Jung" Yoochun said with a cold voice, looking out of the window. Yunho didn't move an inch; his glare was focused on the man, while Chanyeol stood a bit behind his chief, his hands in his pockets, observing the area.

"What do you want?" Yunho asked after some minutes and Yoochun finally turned to the agents.

"Oh agent Park came too, welcome. Isn't it nice here? So quiet and such a friendly neighborhood, everyone is greeting each other on the street, the kids are playing together in the playground. So familiar, so nice."

"I know a place, which is better for you and there it’s quiet too. Your cell" Chanyeol replied to him with some sarcasm in his voice, causing the other man to smirk.

"The all so popular agent Park, still the same" Yoochun countered before he turned to Yunho, "Agent Jung, where is my Eunhye? This can't work when she's not here with me."

"Do you really think we would bring her here and let you two walk out of the store just like this? You are mistaken Mr. Park, this time, it won't work like you want it to" Yunho said, his voice was still cold and distanced.

"I see that agent Jung didn't change either. Still like solid as a rock, who is cold and showing absolutely no affection, emotion or sympathy. How can your husband live with you? I would have gone crazy already" the man talked and turned back to his coffee, taking a sip and stared out of the window again, "By the way I've heard your husband and son were taken to an unknown place and they even have their personal agent as bodyguard. Tsk tsk tsk, trying to make it hard for me, huh?"

"What do you want?" Yunho said, ignoring what he just said about his family. He couldn't show that he was worried about his family, in his situation; it would be the worse if his opponent would notice that his words affected him.

"As I told you in the message, I want my Eunhye back."

"Why did you even let her go, if you want her so badly?" Chanyeol asked.

"It was a test of course" Yoochun explained, holding his cup of coffee in his hand, "If she would have returned to me, I knew she would love me and I know she wanted to return to me but those damn police men and then you NACS agents didn't let her go."

"We know as much as you do, that she would have died if she would have returned to you" Yunho said and Yoochun chuckled.

"Does that mean you know me better than I do, agent Jung? You think just because I'm a ual sadist, who killed 38 women and one man, who accidentally was the lover of Lee Jinki, I am unable to love? Oh of course someone like me isn't able to love someone, like you, the great Jung Yunho, chief of the famous MID team of South Korea's National Anti-Crime Service" Yoochun spoke, his voice was full of sarcasm and irony. It was impossible for the agents to take him seriously.

"We are not here to discuss this with you" Chanyeol said and gave the man a look, the agent slowly got annoyed of the cocky behavior Park Yoochun was showing towards them. He leaned forward to Yunho, whispering to him, to end the thing quickly.

"Oh oh oh..." Yoochun took the last sip of his coffee and turned to the agents, "Agent Park Chanyeol, why are you so impatient? Aren't you curious about what I've planned for you and the others?" A smirk formed his lips and it increased with every second Chanyeol got closer to be on his edge. It was obvious that he just tried to make the agent mad, so Yunho stopped Chanyeol from getting closer to Park Yoochun. There was no time to escalate the situation. "Maybe I could come to the point, if you can't wait any longer. I mean I don't want to make the young agent get angry with me, especially not now when we are so close to become friends."

Chanyeol stepped to Yunho, turning his back to Park Yoochun. "Seriously Yunho, if we don't do anything soon, I will just punch him right in his face" Chanyeol whispered, making sure that their opponent won't hear him.

"Stay calm Chanyeol, your time will come" Yunho told his agent who took a deep breath and nodded in agreement before he stepped behind his chief again. Then Yunho concentrated on Park Yoochun again. "So, what are your conditions?"

"Conditions? Oh no agent Jung, you are misunderstanding something. I didn't call you over to negotiate any conditions with you. You know this will end like I want it to... At first you will give me Eunhye, then I will give you something which is missing and in the time you will find out about it, Eunhye and I will leave this place. It here, too quiet. I need some actions" he explained.

"Something which is missing?" Yunho asked.

Park Yoochun nodded and crouched down, under the table he had a sports bag, which he picked up and placed on the high table. He slowly pushed it over to the agents. The smirk was still decorating his face.

"What is this?" Chanyeol wanted to know and stepped closer.

"It will help you, I swear" Yoochun said and put on his coat. Yunho, who kept staring at the man, nodded to Chanyeol to check the bag. The agent stepped between Yunho and Yoochun and slowly opened the zipper. A moldy smell rose from the bag into their noses. Every one of them knew this smell; it was the smell of something which was putrefying. Inside the bag was the separated head of the corpses they found. Chanyeol quickly closed the bag again and gave Yoochun an angry glance, he hated that this man could play along with them like he wanted to, while they couldn't do anything at all.

"Well, now I think it’s time for me to leave" Yoochun said and closed his coat, "I guess Eunhye is sitting in this NACS car, which is observed by those four extremely dedicated agents."

"Do you really think we will let you go just like this?" Chanyeol asked and crossed his arms, blocking the way out of the store.

Yoochun laughed and leaned against the high table. "Why so stubborn, agent Park? Those poor agents out there, so young and inept, without much field experiences and someone like this should keep her away from me? At the end, they might get hurt, can you really take the responsibility for it?" The agents frowned, still blocking the way out of the store. "Oh come on, do I really have to go so far?" Chanyeol and Yunho exchanged looks; they knew each other for years already, so just one glance could tell each other what they were thinking. Chanyeol's hand wandered down to his holster, ready to get his gun as they suddenly got a message over their ear radio plugin. The agents exchanged another glance, but this time their eyes grew round in shock and Yoochun grinned while observing them. "So they finally found out. Great, then we can end things quicker now."

Park Yoochun finally showed the ace, which Siwon had mentioned. His ace, which secured him his way out. "Where are the children?" Yunho asked directly but Yoochun just shrugged with his shoulders.

"Give me Eunhye and I will show you" he said, "It’s the only way or 15 children will die." The smirk on Yoochun's lips became darker and the mood became strained. For several minutes, there was only the deep breaths filling the room, the staring glances were piercing the men. It felt like they tried to look into each others’ souls, while Yunho tried hard not to let him look too deep inside. Just one wrong word, one wrong move or one wrong breath and the situation could have changed immediately and assumed alarming proportions. "Your choice agent Jung... arrest me and the children will die or let me go and you can save them... now tell me, what do you want to do?"