Chanyeol and Jongin’s desks were filled with snacks packages, most open and empty, neglected to be thrown out. Minseok had gotten comfortable with Jongin’s space, almost treating it as his own.

Jongin had called Chanyeol and warned him that they’d be eating lunch with Kyungsoo, so the two detectives left behind decided on eating snacks from the precinct kitchen and vending machines to satisfy their hunger. Aside from that quick discussion, the two worked quietly, not even aware of each other during most of the time. Chanyeol typed, his keyboard being the only thing that made noise from his side of the space; while from Minseok’s side, his voice could be heard constantly, as he was on the phone, communicating with all the places that they had listed before.

But there was a sudden break in the monotony, as Chanyeol sat up in his chair, looking more focused than before. He turned his head to the other detective, waiting to be noticed – and for Minseok to put his phone down – before he started talking.

“Hey, I think I might be onto something.”

He started, and moved his chair to the side so Minseok could come over and share the space of his desk, so they could look at the computer screen together.

“What is it?”

The rookie detective asked, dragging his chair over, since he wanted to remain seated, not just standing beside the other man and slouching to see the screen.

“First, I’ve found an article about Kim Taehyun, our most recent victim. It’s about his swimming career, and how he was helping the community by giving free lessons, and so on. The contents of the article weren’t really that important.”

Chanyeol started as he pulled up the tab where the article was open.

“What’s interesting, is that while I was checking Lee Haneul, the runner, I found an article on him too.”

Then Chanyeol pulled up another tab, showing the other article. But the most curious thing, and what really caught Minseok’s interest, was that the layout of the page was the same, completely identical, down to the banner at the top.

“It’s the same site…”

He said, a slight smile peeking out onto his lips, the possibility of another breakthrough in the case making him feel more confident.

“Yes it is. And here’s their ‘about us’ page. It’s the website of a small local newspaper, they are a mostly physical newspaper, but they publish a few articles to the internet, probably on the hopes of bringing on more subscriptions.”

Chanyeol explained the small bit of information he managed to acquire before he called Minseok over.

“What about the other victims?”

The older man asked, hovering his hand over the mouse, silently asking if he could take over the control of the computer. Chanyeol easily granted, proceeding to respond to the question as he moved his hand away and let Minseok navigate the site.

“I haven’t found articles on them so far, but there’s still a chance that they also have articles about them, but they just weren’t published on the website. We should investigate.”

Minseok moved to the homepage, and started strolling down the articles with a watchful eye. He was about to respond, but whatever he was going to say escaped his mind, since something on the computer screen caught his attention.

“This. This is our first victim Kim Soorong; the construction worker. It’s an article about the building that the company he worked for was building, that’s him in the picture.”

Minseok had almost missed it, if only it wasn’t for the photo. Thankfully he recognized the man’s face among a large group of workers.

“That’s three out of our four victims. This newspaper definitely has something to do with it. This must be the connection.”

Chanyeol said, very seriously and convincingly.

“We have to contact them. You should do that, and while you call, I’ll search the site to see if I find anything about our other victim, or maybe even something that could potentially point out the fifth.”

Minseok said, not realizing that he had taken control and decided their actions, like a team leader. And there was no protest from Chanyeol, who agreed and promptly started doing what Minseok had told him to.

If only the rookie detective had realized how professional that exchange had been, he would have gotten a great boost of confidence.

“They all had articles written about them?”

Jongin repeated the statement he had just heard in the form of a question, not because he didn’t understand, but because he wanted the subject to be expanded.

He and Jongdae had just returned, and they only found Minseok waiting for them at the desks, and the man had just started explaining what went on.

“Yes, in some ways. All by the same newspaper too. That’s where Chanyeol is at right now, at their offices, talking to the editor. For the first three victims, we found articles on the internet, and when Chanyeol got there and got to see the full physical copy of the newspaper, he found the missing victim’s article that we needed to confirm that they were all four there.”

Minseok informed them, and quickly continued to add some less important facts.

“It’s a small local newspaper that only covers our town’s affairs and such, so it has a lot of articles on the citizens.”

Minseok expanded. After calling the place and not getting much help other than that statement, they decided that someone should go down there. Chanyeol offered, saying he was good when it came to pressing people for information and dealing with annoying reporters, and Minseok happily agreed, not really wanting to go alone, without his partner. Waiting to catch up the other two seemed like a better job for him.

“That’s a really good lead! We might finally be able to narrow down a list of suspects.”

Jongin said, sounding a bit more excited than Jongdae, who had troubles in his mind, as usual.

“Yeah, it’s a good lead, but what can we really do? Go interrogate the entire city? Ask them what newspaper they have been reading? It’s not only impractical, but it’ll take forever and we’ll end up nowhere again.”

Jongdae complained. He was definitely the pessimist of the group, and he was getting tired of constantly having to showcase the obstacles ahead of them.

“We won’t interrogate the entire city. We check the obvious things first, like the staff, or people that are subscribed to the paper.”

Jongin started, and Minseok added a helpful comment before the other detective continued talking.

“Like I said, they’re a small business, so there’s not that many people.”

“We can run their names through the system, see if they have any previous record. We can start with the ones that do.”

Jongin still could not convince Jongdae though, who looked at the clock, seeing that their time was running out, and that sounded like a lot to do.

“What about the newsstands? That would be ruling out everyone who doesn’t subscribe, and just buys the paper out on the street.”

Jongdae looked at both detectives, trying to see if they understood him. He saw Minseok nodding in agreement, but what came out from his partner’s mouth wasn’t exactly the support that he expected.

“You’re right, we could be missing a lot of people by narrowing down like that, but we have to start somewhere. We can’t just give up and do nothing because it seems like it’s impossible.”

Jongdae could see that Minseok was siding with Jongin on that. If it were anyone else, he would have probably felt betrayed and offended, but he completely trusted Minseok