Hyesung had decided, before he went to sleep, that he’ll try to be nicer to Eric the next day. It’s true he found the guy slightly annoying, but Hyesung really hadn’t made any effort to get to know him. They were going to partners after all.

Unfortunately, at 5.30am, being nice is the last thing on Hyesung’s mind.

“Morning DS Shin.” Eric greeted him as he arrived at the airport. He was definitely speaking too loudly so Hyesung shot him a glare instead of saying something back. “Good morning DS Mun.” Eric muttered to himself before following Hyesung into the airport.

Hyesung checked in and went through to the gate all without acknowledging Eric’s existence and it was only when Eric handed Hyesung a coffee did he even realise he hadn’t been besides him.

“I got you coffee.” Eric announced, startling Hyesung as he looked up at Eric blearily before almost snatching the coffee out of Eric’s hand and gulping it down. Eric looked on, amazed and slightly concerned, as his partner downed the scalding hot liquid.

“Thanks.” Hyesung finally muttered when he finished, finally feeling life seep back into him thanks to the caffeine.

“Wow, it speaks.” Eric said in mock astonishment. Sarcy bastard, Hyesung thought.

The flight was only two-hours long but Hyesung was planning to sleep the whole way. Unfortunately, Eric wanted to resume his ‘getting-to-know-you’ questions.

“So are you single?” Eric asked, after various questions about his career had been, by and large, ignored. Hyesung had closed his eyes by this point but now his eyes shot open and he stared at Eric.

“Why would you ask me if I’m single?” he asked.

Eric looked confused. “Because I want to get to know you… since we’re partners…”

“Why not ask if I’m married or in a relationship? Why assume I’m single?” Hyesung pursued, making Eric’s confusion even greater.

“I don’t know.” Eric said after a moment. Hyesung felt annoyed, why had he asked him that? Was it that obvious that he was single?

Eric backed off with his questioning then and decided sleeping was a better idea, much to Hyesung’s delight.

Like usual, Hyesung hadn’t slept well, however the previous night had been even worse than normal.

When he had finally fallen sleep, it was restless. He kept dreaming about Him, usually the same one, over and over. Hyesung was running through a forest and He was running at his side. A darkness was chasing them, a terrifying all-consuming darkness that was getting faster and faster and faster and they were running and running and running forever. Then Hyesung fell and physically could not get up, he felt the darkness claim his legs. He cried out for help but He kept running and no matter how much he screamed for help He wouldn’t turn around as Hyesung felt the darkness eat him away. After that he hadn’t wanted to go back to sleep.

But now on the plane would have been the perfect opportunity for Hyesung to catch a couple more hours sleep. He tried getting comfortable, leaning his chair back ever so slightly and using his scarf as a cushion. Just as he was drifting off, feeling himself entering a blissful, dreamless sleep, he suddenly felt a weight on his shoulder bringing him abruptly back to full consciousness. He turned and saw. Eric had fallen asleep and was currently using his shoulder as a pillow.

“Are you ing kidding me?” Hyesung said under his breath. He tried to push Eric of his shoulder. However, instead of waking up like Hyesung thought he would, Eric decided to link his arm around Hyesung’s arm and cling on to him. For a moment Hyesung froze, shocked at the action. They had only known each for two days.

“This guy is really too much.” he sighed. He then tried to pry the other man off his arm but then stopped, worried how awkward it would be if Eric had woken up at that moment. He watched the sleeping man for a moment wondering what to do. He could leave him be and hope that he’d naturally vacate his shoulder, or he could move him by force and risk waking him up so he becomes aware of how awkward Hyesung found the situation, or worse, he’d continue asking questions. He sighed, it’s probably better to leave him be and try to get some sleep. Hyesung leaned back and closed his eyes. Then he felt something damp on his shoulder. No way. Eric was dribbling, onto his shoulder. That decided it. Hyesung shoved his partner hard. Eric woke up dazed, looking around the cabin, seemingly unaware of why had awoken.

“Are we there yet?” he asked. Hyesung was now too restless to sleep.

***

The suspect’s house was an hour drive from the airport, they were driven up by a sweet young member of the local police force.

“Constable Lee, had-” Eric began.

“Please, call me Andy.” Andy interrupted as he drove them through country roads. “I hate formalities.” The man smiled.

Eric nodded, he liked this guy. “Andy then, what have found out about the suspect?”

“Well it’s been a bit difficult gathering information, he kept to himself you see, so not many people even met him. That’s strange enough, it’s a tiny village so everyone knows everyone, you know? Mostly he seemed to travel a lot, apparently he wouldn’t stay in the house for more than a day or two and usually only once a month. But he hasn’t been back in over a year.” Andy explained.

Eric wrote down this information in his notebook. He read over his notes.

“What really doesn’t make sense is how he got into the house.” Eric said to Hyesung. “I mean the victim’s house. He must’ve somehow had contact with Mr Kim or…” he shook his head. “I think it was stupid for us to come all the way up here, we should have been tracing where the victim could’ve have interacted with the suspect.”

“Well we’re here now.” Hyesung sighed. Eric was right, this trip could’ve probably waited, but who knows, perhaps they’ll find some important evidence here. There must be a reason why he kept this house and through it they could possibly find out where he travelled too.

The village that they arrived at was indeed very small; it seemed to be made up of exactly one street, with one convenience store and then just the same small grey terraced houses. The suspect’s house was one of these.

“Here we are.” Andy stopped the car outside the end most house. “A lot of material has already been bagged, the guys in there will tell you about it, I’ll wait here.”

Hyesung and Eric walked into the house were immediately hit by an intensely foul smell; like a mixture of sweat, spoiled milk, gas and cat piss.

The interior was just as dingy as it seemed on the outside. The carpet was grey and coming lose around the walls, which were covered in old fashioned wallpaper however this was peeling mainly due to the damp coming from the ceiling.

“No wonder he didn’t spend much time here.” Eric commented.

They greeted the officers that were already there who handed them masks.

“Soon the smell will become too overpowering.” One of them commented.

“Where’s it coming from?” Eric asked.

“Seems to come from the floor, we’ll probably have to take it up.” The thought of what might be causing the smell disturbed them all. It was likely one of two things, neither of which they’d want to see.

“You look through the stuff they found, I’m going to look around upstairs.” Hyesung told Eric.

“Why? What’s there going to be upstairs? They already found everything.” Eric questioned. Hyesung ignored him and went upstairs. He wanted to try and understand this man. Why did he come back to this hole? What did it mean to him?

Upstairs there was two rooms, a bedroom and a bathroom, and a storage cupboard. Hyesung went into the bedroom. It smelt disgusting but different from downstairs. Of damp but something more, something that almost made him gag. He couldn’t put his finger on it but the smell seemed to originate from the bed, which had no sheets on it just a single blanket.

Hyesung stepped closer to the bed. The mattress was rotting. Who was this man? Just as Hyesung turned to leave something caught his eye. On the floor there was a small white square; it was a sweet wrapper. Hyesung picked it up and examined it. It was mostly white with a red square in the middle, there was no writing, the same as had been found on the victim. He put it into his pocket before going into the bathroom.

He only opened the door before propelling himself backwards. Now he really was almost sick, no mask could cover that smell.

None of this made sense. He lived in disgusting squalor but had the means to frequently travel back and forth between various places. This place probably had some significance to the suspect but then why hadn’t he been back in over a year? And where was he during that time?

“Discovered his master plan yet?” Hyesung jumped out of his skin.

“Stop doing that!”

“Doing what?” Eric frowned.

“That… nothing. Did you find out anything?” Hyesung asked.

“Yeah, he left quite a few notebooks here. Had some pretty weird stuff in them, we should read through them.” Eric said.

“Okay, but not here.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

***

Andy took them to a café in a nearby town.

“Will you need to be going anywhere else this afternoon?” Andy asked.

“Well our flight is at 7 o’clock.”

“Okay well I’ll pick up here around 4.30 yeah?”

“Thanks Andy, really appreciate it.” Eric said before they went into the café.

They spent hours reading over the notebooks, not really talking to each other, just the occasional comment as they took notes. The biggest worry was that they had found a list of five names, and one of the names was of the man whose murder they were investigating.

“I think we’ll have to go straight to headquarters tonight after we fly in, these names could be a list of possible victims.” Hyesung suggested.

“Yes, we should send the list through to the team down there, see what they can find out.”

Apart from the names, the rest of the notebooks were pretty nonsensical. It seemed like he had started to develop some sort of code for his writing, but only in some of the notebooks, presumably these were the later ones.

***

Andy arrived at 4.30 ready to take them to the airport, as he promised but as he walked into the café, there was a look of concern of his face.

“Is there something the matter?” Hyesung asked.

“It’s just… the weather.” Andy explained. It was awful weather, torrential rain and blowing a gale. “A lot of flights are being delayed.”

Hyesung groaned at the news.

“Well we better get going anyway.” Eric said, similarly dispirited. Neither of them wanted to have to be at the office even later than they intended.

When they arrived at the airport, after checking in and going through to their gate, they realised that the airport was in chaos. Many flights had been delayed so it was especially crowded and people were getting angry. Eric and Hyesung managed to find a place to sit while people around them bustled, swore and argued with airport staff.

Their flight had been delayed too. More info a 9.00pm.

“Really didn’t need this.” Hyesung muttered.

“Well there’s nothing we can do about it.” Eric responded, his relaxed and calm tone irritating Hyesung, didn’t he realise how important it was for them to get back to headquarters that night?

Hours passed, littered with Eric trying to make conversation, and defined by Hyesung’s frustration and stress slowly increasing.

9.03am. Ding dong. An announcement about their flight.

Hyesung put a finger to his lips to make sure Eric didn’t talk whilst he listened.

“This flight has been delayed overnight. Please make your way to the desk for more information and to be provided with overnight accommodation.”

Hyesung blinked in disbelief before putting his head in his hands to stop himself from screaming.

“Well we better go over there.” Eric said, a bit tired now.

“No, we have to get back tonight.” Hyesung said, taking his phone out his pocket.

“How? What are we going to do?” Eric asked but Hyesung wasn’t listening; he was already trying to phone headquarters.

“Hello? Hello this is DS Shin… yep… our flight has been delayed overnight… bad weather… we need to get a train or car or something, we have to be back tonight… okay thank you.”

Eric looked at him questioningly.

“They’re looking for a way to get us back there.” Hyesung explained. “Yes, hello… what, no we have to… look it’s really important… there has to be something… … well thanks a lot.” And he hung up.

“Nothing?” Eric asked, Hyesung glared at him before storming past him to join the now rather long queue.

***

Due to Hyesung’s insistence on phoning headquarters and Eric’s refusal to let Hyesung push his way through to front of the queue, they were among the last group of people to arrive at the hotel by bus. Hyesung was pissed.

“It’s rude to push people. They’ve been waiting just as long as you and are just as annoyed.” Eric said in, what Hyesung determined to be, a ‘know-it-all’ voice.

“Shut up” was the only response he received.

Finally, they got to the hotel desk.

“Hello, can I see your boarding passes please.” The very tired looking receptionist requested.

They handed them over. “Were these tickets booked together?” She asked.

“Yes.” Eric answered. The woman looked at the two of them for a second before glancing at queue behind them, which was now growing again. Obviously another flight had been cancelled.

“Okay, your room is 243. Could you please just sign here.” She gave Eric the key card and he signed. Hyesung waited expectantly.

“Enjoy your stay.” She said, looking a Hyesung directly.

“Wait, are you giving us just one room? To share?” Hyesung asked.

“Due to the bad weather, we must conserve as many rooms as possible, please understand.” The women explained.

“But the room has two beds right?” Hyesung continued, really disliking the way the evening was going.

“Hang on, let me check.” She typed something into her computer. “I’m afraid your room is a double room. I hope you’ll be understanding. Please enjoy your stay.” She said curtly, not letting Hyesung argue before waving them on. Hyesung was ready to fight for at least separate beds but Eric pulled him away from the desk.

“What are you doing?” Hyesung exclaimed, shaking off Eric’s hold on him.

“They’re having a stressful night, what’s the problem anyway?” Eric said. Hyesung looked at him in disbelief, how could that night get any worse.