Chapter Five: Playing House

Youngbae ended up picking out a place for them to eat. It was a bar and grill that he and some friends would often frequent on the weekends; known for its amazing food and for having a lot of different beers on tap. Seunghyun wasted no time in ordering a steak, with a baked potato and steamed vegetables; he also decided to be difficult and asked for wine instead of beer. Seungri was easier to please, deciding on a burger and fries. Youngbae went to retrieve a pitcher of beer for him, Jiyong and Seungri to share while his partner ordered his food for him.

“You know his order?” Seunghyun asked, eyeing Jiyong with a mischievous glint in his eye.

“We come here a lot,” Jiyong replied, “What of it?”

“Nothing, nothing at all,” the eldest replied, then after sipping his wine he added, “You two would make a lovely couple.”

Jiyong refused to rise to the man’s bait and simply shrugged, his and Youngbae’s relationship was not a topic that was up for discussion. However, if the man insisted on it Jiyong could play that game too. Thankfully Seunghyun wasn’t in the mood for such gossip and was more interested in when their food was going to arrive.

“You’d think they starved you at the facility,” Youngbae mused, after returning and pouring mugs of beer for himself and the others.

“Fast metabolism,” the eldest replied, “One of my gifts.”

“How the hell is that a gift?” Jiyong questioned.

“I can’t ever be sedated, which means I can’t be leashed, and I get to eat as much as I want without having to work for this figure,” Seunghyun replied, referring to his lean physique, “On the downside getting drunk is extremely difficult and I have to eat every few hours. Dr. Moon thinks it’s because of my pyrokinesis that my systems just need more fuel to keep working.”

Their food arrived then which silenced the conversation for the time being. Seungri noticed that Jiyong was looking rather impatient, he wanted to get into what Seunghyun had seen at the church, but the older man was far too busy with his meal to even notice.

“Was the church worse than the warehouse?” he asked, thoughtfully chewing on his fries.

“No,” Seunghyun replied, “It was less messy, but more cruel. Your killers like to get creative don’t serial killers kill their victims in the same way?”

That was true, which had nearly made Jiyong and Youngbae think that those two murders weren’t done by the same person who did the first three. But certain similarities had be found; such as the victims being handled roughly and the location. The killers had an affinity for leaving the bodies in old and rundown buildings.

“Are you telling us these were done by someone else?” Jiyong asked. Seunghyun shook his head, “No, no, it was them. I just don’t get why they chose a different method. One guy they tied up to that cross in there and drilled a hole through the bottom of his foot.”

“What would that do?” Seungri asked.

“They hit an artery,” Youngbae replied, “And guy bled out, gravity did the work.”

Seungri paled at the thought, knowing it must have taken that man some time to die.

“Oh, I also managed to pick up a few more details on our killers,” Seunghyun spoke up after finishing his current mouthful. Youngbae quickly reached for his note book, “Let’s hear it then.”

“The woman is Korean, but the man is definitely not.”

“How do you know?” Jiyong asked.

“Accents; hers is perfect but his is choppy at best.”

“They spoke?”

“Yep.”

“What did they say?”

“It’s not so much what they said as how they said it,” Seunghyun replied, “Her voice is very raspy, like she has a really bad cold or something. But she wasn’t sick. His had a weird accent, but I couldn’t place it. They mostly spoke about finishing this quickly so they could leave and go home. But nothing else gave a clue as to where that would be. However, from the familiar way they dealt with one another I would say that the two of them are lovers.”

“Really?” Seungri asked.

“Yes, there was a connection between them, I’m certain.”

“Well,” Youngbae mused, “It’s way more than we had this morning.”

Jiyong nodded in agreement, “Jyu-ni might be able to do something with this, let’s get this stuff to her, she’ll want to see us anyway.”

***

Jyu-ni was thrilled to see them when they entered the precinct. She was sitting at her desk working on, what she called a boring case and was all too thrilled to have more information about the murders. She made a copy of Youngbae’s notes and pulled up the files that she had been working on in her own spare time. She let out a low whistle and then looked up at Seunghyun, “You sir, are rather impressive.”

“That’s what they tell me,” he replied.

“Hmm, I should take another look at the security footages,” she mused, “See if anyone matching these descriptions were around. The more info you can bring me the more I can dig. Anything might help. This might mean you guys revisiting some of the victim’s families however.”

She had a good point. It was going to be difficult to get anything else however, especially after two years. But if it meant finding these two and stopping them, they were willing to do just about anything.

Jyu-ni then looked at Jiyong and handed him a set of keys, explaining about the house that the chief had set up for the four of them. It was in a quiet neighborhood and would have constant surveillance, just in case Seungri or Seunghyun tried to take off. If the two of them were insulted by the complete lack of trust, they didn’t show it. If anything the younger of the two looked rather pleased.

“We’re not going back to the facilities?” he asked; his voice had risen slightly which told Seunghyun that the young man was thrilled with this new development.

“Chief thinks this will be easier,” she replied, “As long as you don’t mind sharing some space with these two losers.”

She gestured to Jiyong and Youngbae; the latter laughed and argued that he was a great roommate. The former, wasn’t paying much attention to his friend’s teasing as he checked his watch and cursed under his breath, “, I’m late.”

Youngbae glanced at the clock, “You go ahead boss, I left my car here, I can take them to the house.”

“Thanks,” Jiyong said, passing the keys to him and then looking at the other two he added, “I trust you’ll behave then?”

“Have I done anything to suggest otherwise?” Seunghyun asked. Jiyong arched an eyebrow as if to remind him of his reaction at the church.

“Oh right,” the pyro mused with a chuckle, “Don’t worry, Seungri will keep me in line, right?”

As if to prove his point he threw an arm around the young man’s shoulders. Seungri flushed and couldn’t help but once again notice the warmth that radiated from the other, it was nice.

***

“You know, I suddenly feel rather domesticated,” Seunghyun announced after they arrived at the safe house. It was actually a nice place. It had a white fence that encircled the property and a front porch with a couple of comfortable looking lounge chairs. It was painted a light blue, which Seungri found to be very inviting and he could almost see a young family living here.

The inside was decorated simply, since it was supposed to be used for undercover police officers on special assignments, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t comfortable. The first floor consisted of the living room, dining room and kitchen; all of which was open concept and perfect for entertaining guests. The fridge and cupboards were all fully stocked, a fact that made S