The atmosphere quickly changed as they stepped towards the basement of the building. A morgue alone was already a pretty creepy place for those two, and it being based underground, in windowless rooms, simply intensified the obscure atmosphere. As they headed down the final steps, and passed a small hallway through their way to the main examination room, they felt a bit tense. A mixture of smells invaded their noses, mostly a scent of chemicals, but if it was either by their imagination – and notion of the existence of dead bodies in those rooms – or a part of reality, the detective duo also sensed a putrid smell, of something decomposing.

It would be an understatement to say they were simply uncomfortable, but the two men pushed through their feelings and kept their case in mind. If they wanted to be on the murder division someday, they would have to deal with those rooms and those smells constantly, so they didn’t want to show their weakness, not even to each other.

Stopping at the open doorway, they could see into the lab, a bright white light illuminating all the shiny metal equipment and other things in the room. Right in the middle of the room there was a large metal table – big enough to fit a grown man on – with something rather strange on it. Jongdae wasn’t close enough to tell what it was, but his best bet was that it was a limb from one of their stolen bodies. He could feel sure about that because they had been told that that forensic team was only working on their case at that moment. While the man leaned in to look – still restraining himself to the boundaries of the door – and tried to make out if it was either a leg or an arm, his partner just looked away, clearly uncomfortable.

Minseok was unaware of how terrible he’d feel once down there, but now he was certain that that was a part of the job that would take him a lot of getting used to.

The room was empty, but it had many more doorways that led elsewhere, and right as Jongdae was about to call out for someone, in came a man through the left door.

He was rather short, possibly even shorter than the two detectives – who already considered themselves short. He had sharp and handsome features, large eyes and a much defined jaw, but unfortunately his face only showed anger and annoyance. He didn’t look like someone who’d be easily approachable. He had on a doctor’s white coat, which only confirmed he was the man the detectives needed to talk to.

The man went through the middle of the room, not even noticing Jongdae and Minseok standing by his door, and he proceeded to put on white gloves and go to what was on top of the metal table.

Jongdae realized they’d need to announce themselves if they wanted to be noticed at all, so he lightly knocked on the door frame as he stepped inside, making himself clearly visible and quickly gaining the man’s attention. Minseok followed after him with more hesitant steps, and let Jongdae handle the incoming conversation.

“Excuse me, are you Do Kyungsoo?”

Jongdae asked just to make sure they were in the right room, to avoid making fools out of themselves. It would be embarrassing to start talking about the case to someone who wasn’t even working on it.

“Yes I am.”

The man answered in a rapid and annoyed tone that perfectly matched his expression. He eyed the two intruders with caution, and continued to examine them with a judgmental stare even as Jongdae introduced them.

“I’m Kim Jongdae and this is my partner Kim Minseok. We’re the detectives handling the grave robberies case.”

Jongdae’s introduction didn’t seem to have any positive effect on the already at an ill-mood coroner; it only caused him to frown, scowling at the duo.

“Oh great, newbies… That’s just what I needed right now.”

His sarcastic tone was strong, and highly offensive; and Kyungsoo didn’t seem to mind if his words angered the men or not. He just turned away, picking up the limb that was on the table – which Jongdae now could clearly assess was a piece of a leg, from the knee down to the calve – and observing it quickly before putting it back down to go write something on a piece of paper.

That quick set of actions caused some unpleasant sounds, and a funky smell rose up in the air. Jongdae was not bothered by the interaction between the coroner and the severed limb, but the same thing could not be said about his partner. Minseok looked clearly nauseated, and he had to bring his hand to his mouth to control the sudden need to vomit. He stepped back, but somehow stumbled on his path to the doorway, bumping into a file cabinet and making some noise.

Kyungsoo sighed, and then turned directly to Minseok, who could barely face the center of the room anymore.

“Hey, if you can’t handle dead bodies, you’re probably in the wrong profession, pal.”

Kyungsoo aggressively mentioned, clearly annoyed by the sight of Minseok feeling sick.

“N-no… I’m okay…”

Minseok weakly answered, still with his hand near his mouth, and now using the other one to hold onto the file cabinet, to keep himself standing stable. His words were not convincing at all.

Kyungsoo simply clicked his tongue at the man and returned his attention back to the leg, using his fingers to feel around the cut ends, focusing on the exposed bone.

“What do you want?”

He rudely asked, as if he wanted to get it over it and be able to send the two away.

“Listen, we are here because we need your help to confirm a theory of ours.”

Jongdae started, and completely intended to go on, but behind him he head a sudden sound of gagging, which was clearly Minseok, as he had gotten the courage to look at the table again, but the results were just as bad as before.

That only angered Kyungsoo even more, and once again the coroner took his hands away from the severed limb and looked back at the detectives, looking like he had lost whatever little patience he had inside him. But he didn’t complain to Minseok again, this time his commentary was directed at Jongdae.

“Get a hold of your friend, will you?”

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