Since this originates from a movie script in the story I wrote eons ago, it turned out much longer than I thought (lol) It has been years since I wrote any crime/detective fic, which I never quite grasped back then (lol) I am truly sorry for anything nonsense. Sorry, guys, I'm not Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or Agatha Christie or people of their league OTL

The prompt came one day after OkNuneo13 said she wanted to see Taec as total jerk or such, I was thinking "What if Taec was the criminal in 'Strings'?" (the aforementioned script's title) and somehow I developed a totally different resolve to the case (it was supposed to be dark, too, but not this... destructive, especially for Nichkhun).

I decided to post this in parts. The next part will reveal everything. Sorry, this is supposed to be TaecKhun, but really, Taec hasn't made any appearances in the first part (lol)

Title: Entwined, Part: The Blind Chase

Pairing: None (in this part)

Rating: (contains bad words as usual, duh, adults; and a few graphic gory display--the gory scenes have yet to make appearance, though)

Summary: Nichkhun is summoned back to crack a chain of murders happened to young male students. Then, suddenly, the students are not the only victims.

Two years ago, an agent went rampage and killed three men suspected as members of a group of bank robbers that only a few months back he encountered. He was a very brilliant agent, top of his league, and after the incident in the bank, he got impossibly even more productive. He became the legendary agent who solved crimes better and more efficient than those whom claimed themselves detectives. It was, perhaps, a tad suspicious since the higher-ups knew the one who did all the work before he was alone: his partner and lifelong friend, Choi Seongdae. She, if possible, was the greatest agent, but she was too laidback she did not make it as best graduate when she finished her study at the academy. She, unfortunately, died during the bank robbery incident. The robbers got away. She died. He lost his mind. He tracked down the robbers and killed them all.

“Is it true that he can always dodge the bullet?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You watch over him 24/7 and you ask me?”

The woman shook her head and rolled her eyes at the notorious guard that seemingly wanted to stall her time at the monitor room instead of hurriedly doing his job as intended. She waited as the door was opening. She wished she did not have to do this, but if she didn’t, she would lose her job forever.

She stepped into a dark alley in basement floor, lamp hanging loosely on the ceiling, eerie screams and laughter and hisses coming from all directions. She walked towards the furthest room on the alley in fear; jumped at every disruption made by cell occupants she passed. She pressed the earphone on her right ear.

“Although he is mentally instable, his memories are still impeccable. He will remember you and he might hold grudge against you. Remember, don’t try to provoke him, but don’t sugar-coat your persuasion. You need him to comply.”

“I know. I’m ready for it.”

“We will watch over you.”

“I know,” the woman replied softly and calmly. She finally stopped before a clean cell with thick fibre glass cover in place of bars.

There, a young man sat on a chair with his back facing her, staring the bird-eye city scenery mural. He was tall, about 180 cm, well-built, but quite skinny. He wore the institution uniform. His hair had reached his shoulders, unlike what she remembered of him.

“Nichkhun-ssi, good afternoon,” she greeted professionally. The man, however, stayed still.

*****

Stepping out of the asylum was a beautiful progress. Nichkhun smiled briefly as he was led out of the facility. He had finally agreed to the institution’s offer. Bae Suzy was in charge of him now, but it was nothing. She was still as gullible as she ever had been. Nichkhun walked into the office building that was once also his. There were new faces that he didn’t recognize. Every single person they ran into was always showing a somewhat shocked and afraid face. Everyone, except one young man.

The man approached them confidently—or more appropriately said, bravely—and casually he greeted Bae with bravado of a higher-up. Nichkhun studied him quietly. In his mind, there was no recollection of meeting the man before. Such attractive look he obviously was born with should not pass his memory if so he had at least once met.

“Agent Bae, I have been expecting your return,” he said. Bae was clearly looking down on the man. She turned away arrogantly, evading the chance of her standing face to face with the young agent.

“What do you want, Agent Jang? I’m sure you’ve been snooping around to steal my job. Am I wrong?” she acerbically responded. The other agent was equally conceited. He scoffed and, completely unfazed by the attack, replied:

“That’s true to the letter, Senior. I don’t even think of hiding it at all. Well, given the fact that everyone is aware of how incompetent you can be when it comes to the one you really have ties with.”

“You never learn your lessons!” Bae angrily said, flustered. Agent Jang, as mentioned earlier, ignored her angry fumes and focused his eyes on Nichkhun. His eyes widened, expressively exhibiting his surprise. He offered a hand to Nichkhun, which the latter accepted and shook out of courtesy.

“Could this be… no, it can’t be wrong. You must be the famous Nichkhun, our former top agent.”

“I am, although I am not entirely aware that I was that famous as a top agent,” Nichkhun replied disinterestedly, but politely.

“Oh, famous is an understatement, Sunbaenim,” Agent Jang said, smiling widely and ostensibly friendly, “You and your partner’s works are now classic case-study topics. Everyone here is familiar with your accomplishments.”

“I didn’t do anything spectacular,” Nichkhun said humbly as he grimly smiled. “All you read was done by my partner.” Agent Jang’s eyes darkly glinted.

“Yes, I know,” he changed his tone, outwardly parading his repugnant true feeling towards Nichkhun. “Although, Sunbaenim, I can’t help but wonder why your aura feels strong and uncharacteristically intimidating—somehow reminding me of Choi Seongdae-nim.” His eyes moved towards empty air behind Nichkhun.

“You knew her?” Nichkhun asked, eyebrow raised.

“I am her fan. My father told me a lot about her.”

“Ah, you must be Chief Park’s eldest son, Jang Wooyoung. No wonder you look familiar to me.”

No, he did not look familiar at all to Nichkhun. Although it was quite a common knowledge around the bureau that the chief had a son whose interest was the same as his, who then had just entered the academy. The chief had been a widower for ten years by now and his children were all in custody of his ex-wife. The son’s name, however, had gained its own fame for being the most ruthless, but brilliant student. Seongdae told Nichkhun perhaps twice about him several years ago.

“You know me? What an honour,” said Jang, somewhat sarcastically.

“Seongdae mentioned your name. She was told by the chief,” Nichkhun confessed. This, however, darkened the young agent’s face.

“Of course, he told her.”

“We don’t have time for this,” Bae interjected. Despite being uncomfortable with her junior, she felt that she would be in trouble if this continued. “You can talk to him all you want any other day, Agent Jang. He is required to report to the Chief immediately.”

“Sure, excuse me,” the young agent agreed, saluting them, then strutting away.

“Let’s go,” Bae commanded. Nichkhun followed her while eyed the junior for a few more seconds before turning his head straight.

“What an odd kid.”

“He opposes the very idea of me and my partner handling the case,” Bae explained begrudgingly. “He wanted to be in, but Chief said no. He sees me as an unfit choice, especially to supervise you. You should be grateful that he spoke politely earlier. He doesn’t bother with courtesy with others.”

“He did it just because he sees Seongdae as his archrival, I suppose,” Nichkhun scoffed, shrugging.

“Even after death, she is still hogging all the attention,” mumbled Bae. Even so, Nichkhun had heard her clearly. He played the innocent act to annoy the agent.

“Oh, I’m sorry, did you say something, Miss Bae?”

“No, no. Nothing. Let’s go now.”

*****

Nichkhun left the office after half an hour of briefing. Now he was scheduled to go to the latest crime scene. Just as they were leaving the hall, they could hear two men argue hotly in the room. One of them was Agent Jang and the other was a man Nichkhun had known since his days in the academy: Kim Minjun.

“Wooyoung! Wooyoung, stop!” a tall man cried in panic. He kept jumping on his feet, completely bewildered, but it seemed that he could not interfere since he was slapped across the face by Agent Jang. He now could only watch from the side, completely dejected. Jang had launched the first punch to Kim Minjun’s face. They were now wrestling about the office, exchanging punches and headbutts.

“Minjun-ssi, Minjun-ssi!” Bae stepped into the fistfight. Kim Minjun was her partner.

“What did happen?” Nichkhun asked the tall man.

“Oh—oh… it’s…” the tall man lost his voice as soon as he saw Nichkhun. He paled even more so than a minute ago.

“Are you all right?” Nichkhun asked, concerned.

“Yes, I am, Sunbaenim,” the man finally replied.

“Then, would you tell me what is happening right now?”

“Uh… that’s…” the man hesitated. While waiting for the explanation, Nichkhun was suddenly aware that Jang and Minjun now were merely an inch away from them. It was quite distressing and, most importantly, irritating.

“Stop it, you two!” Nichkhun shouted. He was pushed by Minjun’s back and now angered perfectly. He stepped in between them, but Jang didn’t back down. He, instead of calling it off, pulled out his gun and shot it at Nichkhun.

“What the hell did you do, Agent?!” screamed Bae on the top of her lungs.

A direct aim at Nichkhun’s forehead, clean one too, from a distance less than two meters—but the bullet fell with a chiming sound on the cold floor. All the audience was astounded, even the almost-victim himself. The tall man behind Nichkhun was paler than ever and was ready to sprint out of the room. Jang hardened his jaw.

“So it is true what they said,” he calmly concluded.

“The are you spouting about? You dip don’t know your place! I’ll report this one to the chief!” Minjun yelled, wiping blood from his bleeding lips.

“What? I only fired the gun because it seemed like fun,” Jang said innocently. With a face like that, anyone could easily let him off the hook—if that anyone knew absolutely nothing about him.

“What’s this all about?” Chief Park himself had arrived at the scene, hands on his hip. He pointed a finger at Jang and Minjun. “You bastards! No , I know it was a real gun, Agent. You are coming with me to my office. You and you, now. Everyone else, get back to your goddamn own work!” He shook his head in disbelief and left the scene as the two agents began to walk towards his direction.

“What was it all about?” Nichkhun, calmed down, wondered loudly.

“They have always been at it since Jang is here. Both hot-headed,” Bae said. “Now shall we go?”

In a cheap, shabby apartment room, top floor of the building, where police line was still on, Nichkhun and Suzy walked about, assessing. Nichkhun had in his hands the dossier, open wide was the files on most recent victim, the fourth. They stopped before the bed, now minus the body. Nichkhun lifted the photograph and compared it with the real setting.

The victim was found sitting on the bed, wearing red and black frilly dress with matching bonnet, wristbands, knee-length socks and strap shoes. His face was well painted with good make-up, but the redness on his lips had spread around. His eyes closed and his head tilted to right as if he had just nodded off to sleep. A deep, round wound was seen on his left chest, blood-tainted. There was a brief illusion that the victim was a doll.

Nichkhun observed the room next, eyes sweeping everything exist in there. The room was painted pink and decorated with cute, feminine decorations despite being a narrow and shabby apartment. He read the list of items and saw that nothing had been stolen or added since the owner’s leave. He walked out of the bedroom for other rooms. The kitchenette was well kept, completely normal for a young woman, and the bathroom was spotless. There was not much mess in there except a pile of textbooks and assignment papers at one corner. He was told that this psychopath was very neat and he could see that it was true.

“Leave me now,” said Nichkhun. “I need time alone.”

“I don’t approve,” rejected Bae.

“Do you want to solve this or not?” snapped Nichkhun impatiently. “If you want me to help, leave me for now. I won’t escape if that’s what you are worried about. I am not crazy enough to jump off of fourteenth floor.” Bae looked conflicted, but she eventually agreed. As she was leaving, Nichkhun sat on the floor with legs crossed.

“Kang Yongwoon, sixteen years old, attended high school in Busan. Reported missing five days prior to the discovery. Approximated death time: twenty hours before found. Cause of death: asphyxiation. Apart from the stab to the chest, there are bruises on wrists, neck, and back of knees. All bruises are remarkably similar to rope-binding marks. His lips are somewhat bruised, too.”

“I hate to admit this, Khun-ah,” a feminine voice spoke, “but bruised lips like those can only indicate passionate—or rather, aggressive—make-out.” A translucent hand pointed at the picture of Kang Yongwoon’s face.

“Let’s take a look at other victims,” Nichkhun said, pulling out the photographs and putting them together in a line. He scrunched his nose. “Well, this is arguably similar to the previous three victims.”

“What about the apartment owner?” the feminine voice asked. Nichkhun read the files for her.

“Uh, it belongs to Park Sunmi, a college student who was visiting her parents for a week. She was the one who found the body when she arrived yesterday morning. One of her neighbours from first floor said that he saw three young men go upstairs three nights prior her arrival, but he never saw them leave. Two of those men were unmistakably students and one of them was the victim. The other one looked slightly older by two or three years, but the witness cannot remember how they looked precisely except that they were neat and clean.”

“What a modern world—no one noticed even though it happened just next door,” the voice said, chuckling ironically.

“I don’t know, Seongdae-yah, but this is frustrating.”

“These freaks are so neat. They really didn’t leave anything—not even a stain. It’s obvious that the stab was post-mortem, very minimal bloodshed. Clever. What else did they say about the stab?”

“The stabbing weapon was not found anywhere, but it was confirmed that whatever it was, it did not belong in here. It was assumed to be some sort of spear, five centi