Woohyun raised an eyebrow at the new arrival. He was aware that beside him, Sunggyu was staring at Luhan with an expression caught between arched brows and a half-open mouth. It looked funny, but the inspector didn't feel like turning around to laugh at the stupid face.

"Luhan. What are you doing here?"

The baby-faced male raised his hands up. "Hey, hold up! I asked you that first!" he said jokingly. When his audience gave him no reaction, he sighed and lowered his arms. "Wow. Tough crowd."

Recovering from his surprise, Sunggyu gave the man a slightly suspicious look-over. "Answer the question. What are you doing here, Luhan? It's past midnight."

The man in question chuckled and stuck his hands into his pockets. "I know. That's why I was so surprised to see you here. I'm guessing you just finished with work or something, right?" He nodded at the open door of Woohyun's house, key still stuck in the keyhole.

"Do you live here?"

"... Yes," Woohyun finally spoke up. "I do." Seeing as Luhan had pretty much figured it out, he decided the best thing to do was to just tell the truth. "But stop stalling. What are you doing at this time of night? You're missing your beauty sleep."

Luhan laughed. Either he didn't catch the sarcasm, or he was just good at hiding it. "Many people would tell you that I don't even need any. Not that I'm bragging."

To Woohyun's extreme surprise, Sunggyu chuckled along. Now that he had gotten over his shock of seeing their new companion, the brunet had apparently decided it was okay to laugh at his jokes. And that was what made it so weird. Sunggyu never laughed at jokes, not even the terrible ones Yongguk made. It was like meeting Luhan had opened up a completely different side of the strict agent.

The slender male continued, "And to answer your question, I was on my way home when I saw you guys. My sister actually just moved into this neighbourhood- her house is a few streets away from yours, Woohyun. I spent the entire day helping her unpack her stuff, and just finished a few minutes ago." A grimace crossed his graceful features. "If only she wasn't older than me, I could have snuck away earlier. I'm telling you, that woman has eyes like a military-trained hawk."

Sunggyu gave another chuckle. "Sounds a lot like this friend of ours, Yongguk. He works in the CSI field with us."

"Is that so?" Luhan tilted his head. "By the way, how's the investigation coming along? Did you figure out who killed the young girl yet?"

"Not yet." Sunggyu frowned. He didn't mention the fact that another victim had been discovered. "I have a feeling this is going to be a tough one to crack."

"Why, because you don't have any leads?" Luhan asked curiously. "Or is it because of the cuts on her body? I got a look at those when I first saw the girl, and let me tell you, they were not  a pretty sight."

Before the brunet could answer, Woohyun interjected with a reply of his own. "We know. We were there." He looked at Luhan with the usual bored expression he seemed to have reserved for the guy. "And stop asking so many questions about the case. We're not supposed to talk about it after work hours."

His partner shot him a look, but Luhan seemed to accept his words without any further inquiry. "Oh, right. Sorry, you two," he said apologetically. "I guess that's another bad habit of mine, asking so many unwanted questions."

With a slow shake of his head, Sunggyu answered, "It's fine. Actually, I wasn't even aware of this rule myself." He narrowed his eyes at his dark-haired partner.

Woohyun shrugged, but said nothing.

Perhaps Luhan sensed the more-than-tense atmosphere between the two agents because at that moment, he gave an easy-going laugh, obviously hoping to lessen the awkwardness in the air. "Well, you know what they say. You learn something new every day, right?"

"... Sure," Sunggyu sighed, looking away from the other crime scene agent.

"Hn," was all Woohyun said.

Luhan gave the two men a searching glance. But before either one of them could comment on it, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and checked the time. "Holy crap, it's already 12:45. I really need to go; I'm working all day tomorrow." He groaned. "Not looking forward to a double shift, but the bills aren't gonna pay themselves."

Sunggyu nodded at his car, which was waiting for its owner by the curb. "Do you need a lift? I'm about to head home myself."

"No, it's alright. I have to stop by the convenience store anyways. Besides, walking's good for your health, you know?" Luhan grinned at Sunggyu. For some odd, strange reason that Woohyun did not know, it gave him an uneasy feeling in his gut. Why?  The smile wasn't anything unusual. It was friendly, pleasant, and hardly threatening in any manner. Still... Woohyun didn't want to admit it, but he'd be lying if he said he didn't mind how Luhan was smiling at his partner.

The cheery man raised his hand in farewell. "Guess I'll be leaving now. It was great seeing you two again, Sunggyu and Woohyun. Maybe next time we can go for lunch or something."

"On you?" Sunggyu faintly smiled back, ignoring the unspeaking inspector beside him.

Luhan laughed. "Yeah, right. Maybe if you're lucky, pal." With a final wave goodbye, he turned around and resumed his walk out of Woohyun's quiet neighbourhood.

The two agents didn't speak again until Luhan had fully disappeared from view. Finally, breaking the wall of silence in between them, Sunggyu addressed his companion. "I'll be going now too, so I'll see you at work tomorrow-"

"I don't like him."

"... What?" Startled, Sunggyu stared at the man who'd cut off his speech. "What did you say?"

"I don't like him," Woohyun repeated in a low voice. He kept his eyes trained on the end of the dark street, where Luhan had turned the corner and vanished from sight. "He gives me a bad feeling."

The brunet stared at him in disbelief. "A bad feeling? Luhan? He gives you a bad feeling?  Care to explain what you mean by that?"

Woohyun swung his gaze from the empty street to his partner. "Don't be fooled by that face," he said instead. He ignored Sunggyu's demand for an explanation. "There's a lot more to that guy than we even want to know."

Sunggyu crossed his arms. "Okay, hold on a minute. First of all, what do you mean we?  What suddenly gave you the right to speak for the both of us? And secondly, why are you so suspicious of him? So you don't like the guy. Is that really any reason to claim he's hiding something bad?"

The younger agent gazed evenly at Sunggyu's face. "It's a little something called intuition. Learn it sometime."

A muscle twitched in Sunggyu's jaw. "Don't change the subject. What brought this on all of a sudden?"

Sighing, Woohyun tilted his head to one side. "Can't you see it for yourself? Or do I actually have to spell it out for you?"

The older man narrowed his eyes. "Go ahead. By all means, spell it out for me."

"Well, since you asked so nicely," Woohyun said mockingly. He began counting out numbers on his right hand. "One. We meet Luhan at the scene of the first murder. He's carrying a gun and runs away as soon as we arrive at the alley. Two. We see him again while we're investigating Jung Ara's death. I get that he lives in her neighbourhood, but why was he walking around so freely? It's like he conveniently forgot the fact that there's a murderer roaming around the city. And three. We meet him again tonight. I don't know about you, but I have a feeling that our run-ins are more than a coincidence."

Sunggyu stared at him. "So what are you trying to say?"

Woohyun sighed again and dropped his hands to his sides. "And I thought you  were the smart one here. Isn't it obvious? I'm saying that your new friend Luhan could be the killer."

Stunned silence was the only thing Sunggyu gave in response. It was evident that he was shocked over Woohyun's blunt accusation. Luhan? The murderer?  There was just no way. The cheerful, friendly, baby-faced male just couldn't  be the killer. "That's a serious accusation you're making," the brunet said after a while. "But what you're telling me isn't nearly enough evidence to pin him as a suspect. Where's the physical proof? Do you have anything else to convince me of this?"

Woohyun frowned. "No, but just think about what I'm saying-"

"I know you like to run off and do whatever during chases," Sunggyu continued as if Woohyun hadn't spoken, "But at least try to be serious when we're investigating. I'm pretty sure that even you know we can't go around accusing people because we don't like them. Or have you forgotten everything we learned from the academy?"

"Pretty sure I remember everything," Woohyun replied. He could feel his temper rising, which both startled and incited him. He rarely ever lost his temper- there simply wasn't enough care in him to get mad about things- so it surprised him that he was even becoming angry over the matter in the first place. "But here's a question for you. Did you not hear a word of what I just said about the guy?"

"Oh, I heard," Sunggyu answered, eyes still narrowed. "I just don't agree with you. You're wrong about Luhan. Didn't you hear what Kangta told us? The woman who found Park Donghoon's body also caught a glimpse of the killer. A 'heavyset but muscular' man was who she saw. In case you haven't noticed, Luhan is anything but  heavyset and muscular."

Woohyun stared at Sunggyu. Gone were the bored, blank, and mocking expressions he'd worn before. His face was now showing a mixture of slight irritation and disbelief. "Are you really that stupid, Sunggyu?"

His partner pressed his lips together and gave him a hard look. "Forget about it. Leave Luhan out of this and focus on the case. We don't have time to fool around, okay?"

"Fine." Woohyun tried to keep his voice levelled. "Fine. I'll forget about Luhan. I'll forget about my suspicions of him. But I'll only do that if you do something, too."

Sunggyu arched a brow. "And what's that?"

"Stay away from Luhan."

"Are you serious?"  Sunggyu all but exploded. Anger and pure frustration took over his barely-controlled calm facade. "What is your problem  with him? Why can't you just let it go? Do you really hate him that much?"

Woohyun opened his mouth to answer, but Sunggyu didn't let him- he was on a roll.

"And another thing. Why are you telling me to stay away from him? Maybe I don't want to. Maybe I actually like  Luhan. You can't order me around like that." A foreign emotion flashed in the older agent's eyes, but Woohyun couldn't quite identify it. It was too overshadowed by the storm-like anger Sunggyu was unleashing on him. "We've been partners for two years, Nam Woohyun. All along, I've been trying to tell you to stop being so reckless, or at least be more mindful during chases. But do you ever listen to me? No!  Not once have you taken my words to heart. You always ignore me instead, like you're perfectly fine with the threat of death hanging over you. But now that you're  telling me  to do something for a change, I'm supposed to nod and go along with everything? Why? Why, huh? Answer me, damn it!"

Something inside of Woohyun seemed to snap. Throughout Sunggyu's furious rant, he'd been listening with a stony expression, not allowing anything to show on his face. But after hearing what his partner had to say- after the realization hit him like a fifty-tonne anvil- there was absolutely no way he was going to stand still and take what was thrown at him.

Woohyun took a rough step closer to Sunggyu. He took another one, then another one, and another one, until he was standing face-to-face with the older male. "You want an answer?" he practically snarled, not bothering to lower his voice. He didn't care that it was nearly one in the freakin' morning. He didn't give a damn that he and his colleague were making a scene in the dead of the night. If Sunggyu wanted an answer so badly, then fine, he would get one. "Here's your goddamn explanation. It's because I care about you, okay?  I ing care, Kim Sunggyu! Even if I never show it, even if I never give a damn about myself, I actually care about you! You just make me- argh!"

Readers must understand, this was a new situation for Woohyun. Never before had he encountered such a- painfully emotional- confrontation such as this. What was he supposed to do next?  Well, let us consider the options. He could have continued yelling. He could have punched his partner in the face. He could have even stormed into his house, slamming the door to let the world know just how terribly irate, confused, and raw  he was feeling inside.

Instead, Woohyun grabbed Sunggyu by the collar and kissed him like there was no tomorrow.

He poured all of his suppressed feelings into the kiss: anger, pain, frustration, everything that had built up ever since they'd met the man known as Luhan. A part of him was aware that Sunggyu was not responding. It was as if the touch of Woohyun's lips had caused him to freeze on the spot. But the younger man didn't care. Sunggyu had had his turn to speak. Now it was Woohyun's  turn, only he wasn't using words to express himself. He was making sure Sunggyu got the message loud and clear using another less verbal, more physical method.

Woohyun didn't know how long it went on for. It could have been seconds, minutes, maybe even an eternity as they stood there, lips joined together in a moment of heated passion. But at long last, the kiss came to an end. It was Sunggyu who broke the contact first, pushing his partner away as if the realization of them locking lips had just sunk in.

"What the hell?!" The brunet took several steps back. His cheeks were flushed a dark, angry red, a colour that was visible even in the dim moonlight. "What do you think you're doing?!"

Woohyun simply gazed at him. Lips bruised, chest heaving, mind a complete and utter mess- to be honest, he didn't even know. Thoughts were running wild everywhere in his head, yet not a single one of them was comprehensible to the unknowing man.

Sunggyu continued. "What? Was that another one of your impulsive acts you decided to throw in for the night?" His voice was sharp, bitter, poisonous and, oddly enough, had a strangely pained undertone to it. "But you know what? This is where it stops, Nam Woohyun. I'm sick of dealing with you and all of the you give me. You hate listening to my words of advice? Well, I hate giving you them. I won't concern myself with you anymore. You're on your own from now on."

He then proceeded to storm off towards his car, yanking the door open and slamming it shut with just as much force. A few seconds later, the headlights came to life. The engine soon followed suit and hummed awake, as well. All of this, Sunggyu did without a single glance behind him. Without wasting another minute, he pulled out of the curb and drove away into the awaiting darkness of the night.

Woohyun stood outside of his house. The front door was still wide open, key dangling in the lock, inviting its owner inside. But he didn't pay it any attention. All he focused on was the end of his now-quiet, empty street, where Kim Sunggyu's car had sped off and was certainly not coming back.