“There are so many things in this world my son, are real only if you believe it is, and are scary only if you are afraid of it. Monsters don’t exist. Do not believe your ears alone, nor your eyes, your nose, your touch, your taste buds. Use all your senses, most important of all, use logic.”

Four year old Luhan speeded his way to his bedroom, bare feet making thumping sounds on the hard wooden floor, frightening Luming who was sipping a cup of freshly boiled tea – made by his lovable wife Weiyao, of course – at the kitchen counter.

After taking his sweet time finishing his tea, Luming took his equally sweet time walking towards Luhan’s room. Hey, give this man a break; he had just solved one big diamond robbery case today and was finally able to get home early, giving him the perfect opportunity to finish reading to his son his bed time story.

Luhan was waiting for him in bed, body covered entirely by a baby blue blanket with little deer patterns on it. The lights were still on, and the thick story book remained lying on the nightstand. His baby son’s big eyes were opened and starring at him unmoving, Luming couldn’t help but let a chuckle escape him. His son is the cutest thing alive. Luming thought to himself proudly as he made his way to Luhan’s bed.

He patted Luhan’s curly hair lovingly and thought to himself that Luhan should get a haircut soon. “Well you’re in a hurry today,” the digital clock on the nightstand read 8:00p.m., “it’s only eight son, true detectives don’t sleep that early.”

“But the bed monster will come out if I am not in bed by eight o’clock!” little Luhan exclaimed, eyes swiftly darting to the bedside as if double checking whether or not the monster came out of its hiding spot.

“I am sorry?” Luming blinked his eyes at Luhan in confusion, “bed monster?” What’s that?

“Yea, mommy said if I am not in bed by eight sharp, the big scary bed monster will crawl out from under my bed and eat me alive.” Luhan shuddered and moved the blanket higher to cover half of his face. “Daddy, you might want to get in bed now or the monster might come and eat you too.”

Luming would be lying if he told you he didn’t feel like rolling over the floor and laugh like a crazy hobo, but this adorable creature is his son. No matter how manly and masculine Luming is, he couldn’t help but want to squish Luhan badly. So he did.

“Daddy!” Luhan whined and protested as Luming ruffled Luhan’s already fluffy hair, turning it completely into a bird’s nest. “Stop!” he cried as he tried to wiggle out of Luming’s strong grasp, “Daddy.”

Tightly holding his son with a back hug, Luming toppled onto the bed, father and son both laughing from the earlier act. Luming breathed in the fresh lemon scent probably from Luhan’s shower earlier; Luming loved how Weiyao used the same bath lotion she used on Luhan. Luming smiled in content because he had the most wonderful wife, most adorable son, most happy family and the most perfect life in the whole wide world. He wanted nothing more than this.

“Daddy, could you stop smiling like an idiot and let me go? The bed monster will come out if we make too much noise.” Luhan protested.

“Now now Luhan, the bed monster doesn’t exist.”

Luhan blinked at him. “What?”

“There’s no such thing as a bed monster baby.” Luming laughed loudly. Little Luhan continued to stare at as father in disbelief.

“Daddy you’re being silly.” Luhan retorted childishly.

“Baby, there are so many things in this world are real only if you believe it is, and are scary only if you are afraid of it. Monsters don’t exist. Do not believe your ears alone, nor your eyes, your nose, your touch, your taste buds. Use all your senses, most important of all, use logic,” Luming’s tone was serious this time around, although still filled with affection, but serious.

“So, don’t believe what mommy says?” Luhan concluded simply.

Luming smiled, “well, not exactly, you just got to use that genius brain of yours a little bit more.”

Luhan nodded, sitting up from his bed. “So I don’t have to sleep at eight o’clock anymore?”

“Not anymore son,” Luming chuckled.

“Yippee!” Luhan exclaimed, jumping up and down in his bed.

“Now let’s finish that story of ours.” Luming reached for the children version of Sherlock Holmes on the nightstand. Leaning against the walls with his son’s head against his chest, Luming started reading his all time favorite in a more child friendly version.

Little Luhan was asleep before Luming could finish the story, already drooling onto Luming’s T-shirt. Without a word, Luming gently moved Luhan’s head from him to the pillow. Pulling the blankets up and after checking if the windows were closed, Luming retreated from Luhan’s room as silently as possible.

“Is he asleep yet?” Weiyao was sitting on their bed reading a book under the lamp stand by the time Luming came into the room.

“Like an angel,” Luming pressed one chaste kiss on Weiyao’s cheek. “Now why did you make up a bed monster?”

Weiyao gave Luming an it’s-all-your-fault look. “I blame you for giving him those detective lessons and how detectives don’t sleep until they find the answer they are seeking for, Luhan would never sleep in time until I made up some monster to scare him.” Weiyao sighed at the thought of their troublesome son before suddenly coming to a realization. “You didn’t tell him that the bed monster was a lie did you?” She shouted but still managing to control her voice to a certain volume so she wouldn’t wake Luhan up.

“Calm Weiyao,” Luming laughed, “he will find out eventually when he grows older anyways.”

Weiyao just groaned. “You’re not the one who has to put him to sleep when his daddy isn’t home,” she whined plaintively, “now it’s going to take me forever to put him asleep again.”

“Sorry sweetheart,” Luming smiled, not sounding sorry at all.

Weiyao pouted. “Whatever, you’re making breakfast tomorrow.”

♔♜♔♜♔♜♔♜♔

What if someone tells you that mythical creatures such as unicorns, werewolves and vampires exist? Then congratulation, that someone just earned a snort and a slap in the face from the one and only Detective LN.

Sehun watched as Luhan skimmed through Hanbyul’s suitcase. He wanted to tell him that this was an invasion of personal privacy, but all Sehun did was watched. He was still too dumbfounded due to Luhan’s previous request, well more like a demand, of Sehun being Luhan’s Watson.

Luhan had a certain charm when he was working and investigating, Sehun had taken notice of it.

The way Luhan’s eyebrows would furrow together when he was thinking about something; the way his eyes would squint together when he find something amusing or interesting; the way his eyes would twinkle when he finds something challenging; the way the corner of his lips would twitch up when he finds something like a clue. And when Luhan laughs out loud…

Luhan let out a laugh and Sehun thought bingo, he got a lead.

“What did you find?” Sehun asked immediately.

“It’s not what I found; it’s what I didn’t find,” came Luhan’s reply.

“What didn’t you find?”

“Flashlight.”

♔♜♔♜♔♜♔♜♔

“Jongin?” Kyungsoo tugged Jongin’s sleeve carefully, “you’ve been awfully quiet ever since we got here. What’s wrong?”

Jongin turned around to meet Kyungsoo’s concerned look and smiled, “it’s nothing hyung, I am just tired lately I guess.”

“Huh, if you are tired then you should not have come here.” Kyungsoo humped.

“I know but this event felt really important somehow and you know that I always trust my instincts.”

“And how much trouble have your so called instincts gotten us into?” Kyungsoo replied pointedly.

Jongin poked his tongue out, “sorry hyung.”

Kyungsoo sighed. “Well at least one of us is happy.”

“Who?”  Jongin asked, suddenly very curious.

“Sehun, did you not see how happy he is to be around Luhan-sshi? Boy, Sehun must really like him.”

“Luhan?” Jongin bit his lower lip, debating over the fact that Sehun had gotten over his dislike for Luhan just a few weeks ago. “I thought Sehun hated that kid?”

Kyungsoo just shrugged. “Have you not seen Sehun lately? He acts like a little puppy around Luhan-sshi.”

“Huh…”

“Anyways, you still own me a date.” Kyungsoo jabbed Jongin’s side accusingly.

“What?” spluttered a very confused Jongin.

“Remember? We were about to go out together this weekend until the letter came, now we are stuck here.” Kyungsoo pouted, “we were supposed to be watching a movie today.”

Jongin chuckled, “sorry hyung, I’ll make it up to you next time okay?”

“Fine, but it better be good.”

“It will, I promise.”

♔♜♔♜♔♜♔♜♔

Sehun looked around, carefully observing the small wooden cabin while still keeping an eye on Luhan who was in front of the tiny window.

“This was when you last saw Hanbyul?” Sehun asked, wanting to make conversation with Luhan again somehow.

Luhan nodded plainly. He couldn’t make out anything suspicious about the window. It was old, the white paint coming apart and revealed the brown color of wood. It was small, Luhan could barely take the entire scenery outside just by looking out of the window, and it reminded Luhan of this old Chinese proverb, the frog under the well; the frog could only see so little of the sky under the well and believed that the little piece of sky is all there is to the outside world. It was dusty as well, way too much dust for such a small window…

Small window.

Small…

The frog under the well…

“Sehun…” Luhan inhaled deeply, “do me a favor, go outside and stand in front of the window please.”

“Sure.” Sehun stepped out of the cabin and did what he was told.

Luhan took three steps back, standing on the exact position Hanbyul was yesterday he waited. The moment Sehun appeared the corner of Luhan’s lips lifted the slightest.

“What a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Clue.”

Outside the cabin, Sehun heard his name being called and shifted his attention to Kyungsoo, who was running up to him.

“We found Hanbyul’s body,” he heard Kyungsoo said.

♔♜♔♜♔♜♔♜♔

“I can barely make out anything from here,” said Victoria as she lowered the binoculars. “Is there any way we could get closer?” She turned to the butler and asked.

The butler, Jinho, shook his head.

“But I don’t understand,” Sehun spoke after finally understanding what had happened, “why would the culprit go through the trouble of getting Hanbyul’s body over there.” There were so many things that didn’t make sense in Sehun’s head right now. “If the culprit destroyed the bridge, he or she obviously didn’t want us to get away, and it would probably be easier for him to carry out his plan too.”

“Meaning that the culprit is one of us, since the only way to continue his or her plan with the bridge cut is if the culprit is in here too.” said Jongin simply.

“But then… how did Hanbyul get over there?”

Luhan looked up from where they were at right now to the lifeless figure lying under the shadow of the trees at the other side of the bridge. His eyebrows furrowed disapprovingly at the gruesome way the culprit choose to deposit a human body.

Luhan already knew how the culprit had managed to get Hanbyul over