Shoes

“Oh, you lot again,” Baekhyun muttered when he opened the door to the estate the next morning, plastering on an expression of tired, aloof professionalism. The rest of Odd Eye grinned back at him, or, at the very least, Onew, Jonghyun and Minho were smiling, while Key bore a grimace and Taemin a resigned expression to the madness in his life. “I was not informed of any visit this morning, sir. If you should like to wait, I will inform the master.”

“Oh, the master is aware of our visiting; we simply told him to keep everything quiet before we arrived,” Onew told him.

“Sir, that is not done –” Taking matters upon himself, Minho helpfully moved Baekhyun out of the way, allowing Odd Eye to enter, Onew with more than a touch of glee at Baekhyun’s thoroughly miffed expression.

“Actually, Minho, put Baekhyun down,” Onew said thoughtfully, tapping his chin. Minho dropped the protesting little butler with a little too much enthusiasm, and nearly sent him pitching onto the floor. “He can be of help to us today. I do not think all of us could handle so many shoes.”

"I'm afraid that is not in my job description. Sir." 

“Ah, you’ve arrived.” Onew looked up at the voice, Baekhyun falling silent. Junmyeon was walking down the stairs to greet them. “There’s no need to make a fuss Baekhyun, I assure you that I’ve been informed this will be perfectly routine. Whatever it is,” he added meaningfully, looking towards the detectives expectantly.

"Have you gathered all members of the estate?" Minho asked instead. 

"Yes. I followed your phonecall to the letter - you were not very clear about what exactly you are after." 

"No doubt trouble," Baekhyun said under his breath, eyeing the way Jonghyun was tossing his tools about on the priceless carpets with barely concealed horror. 

"You know, I'm not sure if I've cleaned these," Jonghyun commented brightly, holding one up to the light. "There was this case, you should've seen the blood -"

Baekhyun looked considerably ill. Onew patted his shoulder sympathetically. 

"Well? Minho?" Junmyeon continued, still more than a little confused. 

“There were shoe prints left outside the studio,” Minho explained, at Onew’s light push for him to handle Junmyeon, “So we need to check everyone’s shoes against them.”

“All pairs of shoes?” Junmyeon appeared startled. Minho nodded, causing Junmyeon to rub his forehead. Onew watched the movement carefully. “That might be a bit of trouble. Some…people have, a little too many pairs, you see.”

“We had to drag all of Tao’s shoes here for them?” Sehun said acerbically as he passed by, hauling a large suitcase. Tao was trailing after him, whining about scuffing them. The quintet watched them pass, eyebrows disappearing into their hairlines.

“He could give you a run for your money,” Jonghyun said to Key. Key sniffed distastefully, evidently finding Tao’s purchases infinitely inferior to his own.

“Well, we should get started so that there isn’t any trouble,” Onew paused, lips widening into a grin, “Afoot.”

There was a loud, deafening silence. Then, unexpectedly, someone snorted. All eyes sought out the source. Taemin had his hand over his mouth, an expression on his face caught between total embarrassment at his boss’ actions, and mirth. He flushed with everyone’s eyes upon him.

Onew smiled to himself.

Only a few minutes into the search, Odd Eye swiftly ran into problems. Several members of the household, mainly the servants, only owned a single pair of shoes, and were not particularly inclined to take them off for anyone. Others found it displeasing that their shoes were being stacked within the hall’s living room, for Jonghyun to compare to the moulds he had made.

Onew, who was perched comfortably on the couch with a cup of tea, had adopted the role of supervisor. This was correctly interpreted by the rest of Odd Eye as an excuse to sit about and munch on Kyungsoo’s excellently made muffins. Jonghyun, Key and Minho had known him long enough that they would get back at him for it somehow. They would certainly have to wait in line; Eugene had reserved hundreds of spots. Bringing his cup to his lips, Onew surveyed what was occurring, watching Jonghyun work and dictate to Key whose shoes did or did not match.  

“Luhan, really, did you need to bring this many shoes for a business trip?” Junmyeon was saying, gaping as Taemin and Minho struggled under the weight of Luhan’s impressive collection.

The man in question had the grace to look embarrassed. He seemed in a marginally better mood than he had been two days ago. “One can never be too careful. What if there had been an emergency? Careful with those! Policemen. Worst bunch of people I've ever laid eyes upon.”

Well, perhaps marginally was a rather flexible word. 

“Finished!” Jonghyun announced with a deep sigh, tossing a pair over his shoulder.

“With all of them?” Onew asked, surprised, sitting forward in his seat.

“What? Oh, no. That was the last of Tao’s shoes.” Tao was examining the shoes, mumbling about how Jonghyun had scuffed them. “No matches yet,” Jonghyun continued, looking thoroughly disappointed, “First the fingerprints and now the shoeprints, why’s it never easy –”

“We’ve finished Tao, Junmyeon, Jongin, Yixing and Sehun,” Key interrupted, before Jonghyun could work himself up into a temper, “That still leaves six more people.”

“Well, we’ve got to keep working hard,” Onew said placidly.

“You’re not doing anything!” four different voices chorused, in various stages of anger and exha