I just want to say thank you for the lovely feedback I got from the last chapter, I found it really helpful and encouraging :)

Sorry I didn't update last week, and sorry this chapter is quite short and uneventful:/ but it help sets up the next chapter, so please enjoy!!  

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This was nice. This was warm and comfortable. Hyesung hadn’t slept this well in months and felt like he never wanted to leave this bed. It was so warm. He snuggled down more, into the warmth beneath him, into the… wait, what was he sleeping on? He registered human skin. Panic. His eyes shot open and his fears were confirmed. He was lying on Eric’s chest, Eric’s warm firm chest. .

He tried to calm his breathing. He wanted to run at top speed out of the room. No, he shouldn’t do that, that would be a bad thing to do, and embarrassing. Slowly he removed himself from the chest, glancing up at Eric to make sure he was still asleep.

Oh , what had he done? Why was he so stupid? Should he get up? No, what if Eric woke up while he rushed to the bathroom? He decided to stay put, just pretend to be asleep.

It wasn’t too long until Eric did wake up. Sitting up, he looked around the room, his gaze pausing on his partner for a moment before getting up and walking to the bathroom.

Hyesung tried to remain frozen while this happened but as soon as he heard bathroom door close, he jumped out of bed to start looking for his clothes. The reality of the situation dawned on him and he felt a sense of dread. He’d slept with Eric. His partner. His partner of two days. His partner of two days who was currently in the shower, , washing himself… Stop! This could not happen to him again. No, never ever get involved with your partner. Why had he done this?

By the time, Eric was done in the shower Hyesung was fully dressed and sat glumly at the end of the bed. He stood up when he saw Eric.

“Good morning.” Eric said, slightly sheepishly.

“Morning.” Hyesung nodded back. Silence. They avoided each other’s eyes, standing as far apart as possible.

“Look-”

“I-” they started at the same time.

“You first.” Eric said, after another stretch of silence. Hyesung ran his fingers through his hair, unsure of what he wanted to say.

“Look…” he began hesitantly. “um last night was… it wasn’t… we… we had both had a bit too much to drink and… I’m sorry but last night was a mistake.”

Surprisingly, Eric looked calm and nodded.

“I think I agree.” He said.

“That’s good, that’s so good.” Hyesung sighed, incredibly relieved before gathering himself back together. “So, do you think we could… um… forgot about it. I mean if you’re uncomfortable working with me now then I won’t mind if-”

“It’s fine. We’ll put it behind us. A drunken mistake.” Eric assured Hyesung. “We’re working on a very important case; we must remain professional.”

“Yes, I agree.” Hyesung said. Silence again. Hyesung glanced up at Eric then. A mistake. he was attractive, his hair still damp and slightly dishevelled and his shirt not totally buttoned up so you could see his chest…no! He couldn’t think like this, it cannot happen.

“We should probably get ready to go.” Eric said after a minute. Hyesung nodded and walked to the bathroom, both flinching away from each other as they almost touched.

***

The journey back was carried out in careful silence, only the most minimal conversation between the two, and that was only formalities. Hyesung felt uncomfortable, had they ruined their partnership due to one stupid drunken night? No, they agreed to move on, forget about it, it won’t be awkward after couple of days. Hopefully.

When they arrived back at headquarters, the place was very quiet.

“Where is everyone?” Hyesung asked as Dongwan came to greet them.

“That doesn’t matter right now, the Chief Inspector is waiting to give a briefing, more people are being put on the case. The evidence you sent through suggests a potential threat to more lives.” He said.

“Shouldn’t we be giving the briefing?” Hyesung frowned, it was their case after all.

“You arrived too late.” Dongwan stated before leading them through to a meeting room.

The room was full of rather tired irritated looking people.

“DS Shin, DS Mun, so glad you could finally join us. We had managed to book you on an earlier flight but you weren’t picking up you phones last night, so here we are, half the day gone.” The rather grumpy Chief Inspector said. Hyesung could feel his cheeks starting to heat up.

“Sorry sir.” Eric said first, before Hyesung said the same.

“Right then, let’s get started. I’m afraid I already briefed about the actual murder but you two already know about that.” The Chief Inspector turned to the image of the suspect that was being projected onto the screen behind him. “This is our prime suspect. His name, John Lee, 26 years old. We found his finger print on the plastic wrapper that was found on the body.” The picture changed to one of the sweet wrapper. “Briefly at the age of 14 he went to the same secondary school as the victim, which was where he developed an obsession with him. This obsession resulted in the police becoming involved and he was moved away from that school by his parents. Both his parents died two years after this incident in a car accident. After this time, we lose track of Lee’s whereabouts and activities for three years until he is arrested for shop lifting. Then we are aware of the property he owned although he was not there frequently and we are not sure of any job or income. We highly suspect criminal activity.”

Everyone in the room hurriedly took notes while the Chief paused a moment.

“During the inspection of Lee’s property, we discovered a list of names which included the name of the victim.” A picture of the list. “We have researched the names on the list but have found it difficult finding the actually people connected to the suspect, however we have managed to contact one of the names who claims to know Lee. DS Shin and DS Mun, I would like you to interview Mr Lee Sungjin. The rest of you, I have allocated you all jobs including finding out where he’s getting money, where he’s buying these ridiculous sweets and where the hell he is now. Meeting dismissed.”

Hyesung and Eric sat still for a moment, taking in all the new information.

“Well, I guess we should do as we’re told.” Eric said and stood up to. Hyesung didn’t want to follow him but he knew he had to. He didn’t even want to look at him.

“You should have seen him last night.” Dongwan said, standing beside Hyesung as he made coffee. “When neither of you would answer your phones, he looked like he was about to explode, and I’m the one who had to deal with it. Why weren’t you answering anyway?” Hyesung could feel his cheeks burn again as his mind flashed back to exactly why they weren’t answering, or even noticing the phones were ringing.

“Um… we went to bed pretty early, it had been a long day, you know.” He mumbled. “I guess we were both in a deep sleep and our phones were on silent...”

Dongwan watched him stumble through his words, suspicion momentarily arising before he nodded.

“That’s understandable.” He said. At that moment, Eric came up to tell Hyesung that he was just going to go home quickly before they went to interview.

“That’s fine.” Hyesung muttered, not looking Eric in the eyes.

“I better leave this with you. It’s the updated case details, I’ve already read through them.” Eric moved to pass the file to his partner and Hyesung moved to take it but as Hyesung’s fingers tightened around the file, Eric’s hand brushed against his causing him to retract his hand as if he had just touched an exposed wire. The file clattering to the floor, paper everywhere.

“.” He said to himself, crouching down to collect the paper up. Eric started to do the same. “You go home I’ve got this.” Hyesung brushed him off.

“Yeah, it’s okay, I’ll help.” Dongwan said. Eric smiled gratefully and left as Dongwan helped Hyesung.

“In the future,” Dongwan started. “Perhaps don’t leave your phone on silent. Even if it does interrupt your sleep.” He smirked.

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Just wanted to say that all names and characters in this fic, apart from Shinhwa members, are completely fictional and if a character has the same name as a celebrity or real person, it is completely coincidental.