The two stepped up to their floor slowly, in silence at first, until Minseok spoke up with a question.

“What should we do now?”

His question had a far deeper meaning than what Jongdae interpreted, and so the younger’s answer wasn’t the one he was looking for.

“We should retrace Kim Taehyun’s steps. If we find out all that he did, where he was going, we might find where he was abducted from, and then find some clues about our criminals.”

Minseok hesitated to respond, not fully sure if he wanted to damper Jongdae’s spirit with what he was truly thinking. But they were always truthful to each other, so he decided not to keep his opinion to himself and share it with his partner.

“That’s a great plan, but that’s not what I mean.”

His voice grew faint at the end of the sentence, and Jongdae could feel his concern.

“Then what did you mean?”

“I meant… Do we tell the chief?”

With that alone Jongdae already understood Minseok’s worry, but the older man still elaborated some more, just in case Jongdae wasn’t on the same page as him yet.

“We’re supposed to be updating him on what is happening, but if we tell him about this murder, I feel like he’ll take the case away from us.”

Minseok turned to his partner with hopeful eyes, wishing that the other knew what to do.

“We don’t tell him.”

Jongdae said with a very serious expression, surprising Minseok.

“What?”

“At least not yet. We investigate a little more, and see if we can get a good lead. That way when we go to update him, he’ll see that we can do the work; we can find who’s doing this. And hopefully he won’t kick us off the case.”

Jongdae looked incredibly confident and determinate, a hint of rebellion masked beneath his strong eyes.

Minseok took a second to think, still not fully sure it was really okay to do that. But the chief had said that they didn’t need to tell him about everything while it was happening – that was after Jongdae and Minseok were oversharing on everything they were doing, and the chief showed them how he wasn’t interested in knowing it all – they could accumulate information to explain all together later. They could use that statement as an excuse not to tell him right away.

“Yeah, okay. Let’s do that.”

He finally responded, trying to share his partner confidence, but still being a little more worried about it all.

Still, they continued to discuss what to do next, and how they were going to track down the victim’s last steps. They were ready to get to work as soon as they reached their desks, but they didn’t even get to sit down before someone addressed them.

“Hey, you two. The chief wants to see you in his office.”

The man on the desk over to theirs warned, making the two freeze on the spot. They look back at each other, the disappointment filling their faces. If the chief asked how the case was going, they’d have to tell him the truth.

“It was good while it lasted.”

Minseok simply said, and they started making their way over to the intimidating glass office. With a light knock to be sure they were allowed to come in, they entered, facing their boss with reluctant spirits.

“There’s no use stalling, so I’ll just go straight to it.”

The chief started, looking incredibly important as he sat behind his large desk. At no moment did he motion for them to sit as well, so they did not dare to, only standing straight and listening attentively.

“As both of you know, I’ve been keeping a close eye on this case. It’s a case that the media is highly invested in, and it is necessary that our work on this is impeccable.”

The two detectives knew where that conversation would lead, and they were trying their best not to show the growing disappointment through their faces, as they wanted to look firm and reliable in front of their boss.

“I’ve been informed of the case’s development, and now that things have turned to murder, my instincts tell me I need to put someone more experienced on this.”

The chief spoke calmly and slowly, but that only prolonged their misery. For a moment, both felt the need to speak up for themselves, say that they were capable, or even beg not to be kicked off the case, but they controlled those feelings, and just seriously waited for the man’s concluding words.

“Therefore, I decided to add an additional team of homicide detectives onto the investigation.”

The use of the word ‘add’, instead of ‘substitute’, made the duo feel intrigued, a subtle spark of hope lightning in their eyes.

“Now, don’t take this the wrong way, you two are still on the case; you both have done well so far. You’ll only have to be working alongside a more experienced team, so we can all be sure that this case will be solved as fast as possible.”

The chief said that last statement with a bit more care. But despite being happy for not getting thrown out, the two rookie detectives knew that they were only being kept around due to pity. They wouldn’t complain, but it was definitely damaging to their pride.

“You two should take this as an opportunity to learn; not everyone gets a chance to work alongside their seniors like this. And the team that will be working this case now is one of the best in our precinct; you two have a lot to learn from them.”

The chief smiled as he spoke, his proud feelings towards the other team being very clear. Minseok and Jongdae already knew who they’d be working with by that simple reaction, as their chief only had one true favorite team.

“Ah, here they are!”

The chief’s smile grew larger as he looked behind the two and motioned for whoever it was to come in.

The duo turned back to look, seeing exactly who they expected to see. Behind the glass doors, making their way in, were Park Chanyeol and Kim Jongin, exuding that same cool vibe they always did, naturally looking far superior to the rookie detectives.

“So they’re changing their M.O. now?”

Jongin phrased his statement in form of a question, but clearly not needing an answer, as he looked like he was about to go into deep thought.

“And we know it’s not because of a lack of dead bodies, since you guys were able to find more than one recent one.”