“Hey babe, wake up,” Kris sang, “You’re going to be late if you don’t get up now.”

You sat up and rubbed your eyes, “Where am I?”

“You’re in our apartment,” Kris grinned as he sat down beside you.

Your eyebrows knitted together and you rested your head on his shoulder, “Since when were you up so early?”

“I figured that since your stay was so sudden, you wouldn’t have a toothbrush and change of clothes so I went out and bought them for you.”

Raising an eyebrow, you stared at Kris, “You… you bought me clothes? As in you chose my outfit?”

Kris pushed your head off his shoulder with his index finger and frowned, “What is that supposed to mean? I have good fashion sense.”

“I’ve seen those airport ‘fashion’ photos of you during Wolf promotions. A few years down the track and I am still traumatised.”

“I thought I would stand out.”

You nodded and laughed, “You stood out for all the wrong reasons.”

With a laugh of disbelief, Kris nudged you lightly, “Just go get ready for work.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I told you we should have just had cereal. You didn’t have to make a grand breakfast. I’m late!” you panicked.

“You took a shower so I thought I had time.” He fidgeted with the knot on his apron, which he regretted tying so tightly, “I can’t even drive you to work because my car is at the police station.”

“I’ll take the bus to work, no problem.”

“Are you sure?” Kris pursed his lips together.

“I’m going to be late. All I can do now is try and not be any later than I already am.”

You tugged on one of the apron’s string and the apron unwrapped itself from Kris, “I love you. Bye.”

Kris gave you a peck on the cheek, “I love you, too. Bye.”

~~~~~Your POV~~~~~

I walked in the office and the muted atmosphere, which contrasted our usually lively group, gave me goosebumps. Is everyone in a meeting?

I glanced down at my watch: 9:13AM. I’m 13 minutes late! Crap! I weaved through the desks and opened the door to the conference room.

“Sorry, I’m late. It won’t happen again,” I bowed.

Raising my head, I saw a lot more people in the conference than the usual five.

“WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?!” Kim Soo Ro bellowed.

Shocked at his appearance in the conference room, my brain was incapable of making a reply.

“DETECTIVE! Do you respect our rules enough to turn up on time?!”

The usual fast, witty replies that came out of my mouth were replaced by excessive blinking.

“Another child might be contemplating death so every minute counts!”

The room was so quiet that I could hear ringing in my ears. I really hated the situation that I was in. I disliked Kim Soo Ro but right now, right now I was placed in a situation where he was right and I was wrong.

Composing myself before bowing 90 degrees, I apologised for being late.

“Sit down and don’t waste anymore of other people’s lives.”

I found a seat next to Jong Hyun and sat down beside him. On the projector screen, school pictures of three girls were displayed. One of them I recognised immediately, Shin Shi Eun.

I shot a look at Kim Soo Ro as he stood in front of the conference room, “Like I said, all three girls attended the same school. They are all in different grades which leads us to believe that the person or people behind this are in the older grades where they know everyone.”

The next slide popped up to show the school’s ‘bully’ records.

“As you can see, there are not many reported cases of bullying in the school, by both students and staff. The school has ordered for us to do this case very discretely to not further tarnish their anti-bullying reputation.”

He’s joking, right?

The rest of the conference was wasted on Kim Soo Ro talking about keeping the reputation of the school and how this case has to be solved as soon as possible. When the conference finally ended, I quickly packed up my folder and planned to get straight to the field, where I was far away from Kim Soo Ro as possible.

Speaking of the devil…

“Detective Nguyen, do not think that because you solved a high profile case, you can do as you please. You still have a lot to go through before you can be even remotely considered to be… good.”

“I was wrong to come late to work but I DO NOT think that I am better than everyone because I solved one case. Maybe if your team could think the same way, we can solve this case faster.”

Turning my head quickly, flicking Kim Soo Ro’s face with my hair, I exited the conference room.

Seung Heon walked up to me and handed me a piece of paper, “I could tell that you weren’t fully listening to the conference so I wrote these notes for you.”

I gave out a small laugh and patted Seung Heon on the shoulder, “I honestly don’t know what I would do without you sometimes, oppa.”

I sat down at my desk and read the notes.

- Three girls dead, all different grades à most likely a third year student b/c they’ve got dirt on everyone

- First victim: Nam Jang Ri, first year student. Dived off building rooftop on Monday approx. 8:45am

- Second victim: Shin Shi Eun, third year student. Jumped out of classroom building approx. 1:52pm on Saturday.

- Latest victim is Jang Hyun Eun, second year student. Jumped out of classroom building at 8:34am today.

- All victims’ emails had deleted messages from a user named; FF-BLM

- Emails were recovered but there was no message. No words or files attached.

- Principal Oh denies all accusations that the bully is a student from the school. >.<

This whole “anti-bullying” policy is really fishy…

~~~~~End of your POV~~~~~

“Hello,” a modified voice answered the phone.

“The police are now involved,” the person on the other end answered expectantly.

“Good. Just continue what you are doing. The world needs its balance restored. Termites don’t belong in the home, those students don’t belong in the school.”

“You are most certainly right, Maestro. If you give me the all clear, I shall restart the game.”

“Excellent. I will send over the game plan to you this Friday.”

“I will call you when I need to.”

Using one gloved hand to end the phone call, the person used the other hand to photo-shop an image of you arriving late into headquarters.

He clicked his tongue as he changed the hue of your blazer in the photograph, “Jenny… you shouldn’t let your boyfriend pick out your clothes for you.”