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Sunkyu was already kneeling beside Luhan when Taeyeon arrived. The tears flowing down her cheeks couldn’t be stopped, and Taeyeon couldn’t do anything to soothe her down. Soon hot liquid emerged into her sockets and tears were formed in Taeyeon’s eyes. The detective wrapped her hands around Sunkyu’s shoulders, which were shaking, as she knelt down, weeping silently.

Youngwoon disposed the cigarette he was chewing and sighed deeply, watching from afar. The crews from the department were shooed when they tried to take care of the now dead Luhan. Sunkyu was even still in her pink pajamas, only given a beige coat from Youngwoon when he realized she wasn’t wearing any jacket when she arrived.

The movement from Sunkyu made Taeyeon pulled her hands back as she saw Sunkyu standing up while wiping her tears. “You alright?” Taeyeon whispered. Sunkyu nodded, “I need to have an autopsy of him.” Taeyeon stood up and patted her back, “It’s hard for all of us. Are you going to be alright, Sun?” Once again, Sunkyu nodded, “Taeyeon-ah, can you leave us alone for a moment?” She whispered. Even though it wasn’t too obvious, but Taeyeon’s eyes were widen. Soon she understood and told Youngwoon to leave Sunkyu alone with the corpse.

∞

“Luhan-ie,” Sunkyu called, voice ever so fragile. “Why did you leave me?” But there wasn’t any reply. It sure broke her heart seeing Luhan with his skin so pale, eyes closed, body cold, and lips shaded blue, lying soullessly on the carpeted floor. Another tears escaped from Sunkyu’s beautiful eyes, but she quickly wiped them as she took some equipments from her bag. It looked like Luhan was murdered with the same poison, his lip color was the same with the other 3 last victims.

“Luhan you stupid little squirrel,” Sunkyu choked out, “Why would you accept anything from a suspect?”

As long as she identified Luhan’s body, Sunkyu didn’t find any bruises or wounds, except for the Chinese characters markings on his chest.

“Now that you left, who’s gonna translate this?” Sunkyu chuckled, tears couldn’t be held anymore. “Didn’t you say you’re going to treat me lunch? Didn’t you tell me that you had something to say?” The only sound Sunkyu could only hear was her own tear falling—though it barely had any sound. “Answer me, you idiot.”

But there was no response.

After a few more minutes, Sunkyu stood up, and her eyes caught the sight of torn paper on the west of Luhan’s dead body. Curiosity kicked in, and she took the small pieces. It turned out to be a picture, and old photograph, judging from the fading tint. Sunkyu placed the pieces back together and realized that it was a picture of Luhan, standing beside him was a man Sunkyu didn’t know, because there was a burnt hole on his face. Sunkyu’s eyes slanted as she spotted a handwritten word on the bottom left of the picture that says ‘Huang’. Her heart dropped.

“Taeyeon-ah!”

∞

The car was stopped when they reached the department, but no one was willing to get off. Sunkyu was half asleep, probably too tired from the tears, still wrapped with Youngwoon’s coat. Joonmyun, who was driving, turned the engine off and sighed deeply. Taeyeon, who was sitting on the right of Joonmyun, had a paper clutched between her hands, and it says ‘traitor’.

“I had the apartment owner downstairs take a look. He told me that it says ‘traitor’”

Taeyeon heaved a heavy sigh, and the guy beside her turned his head. “What are we gonna do now?”

The woman detective didn’t answer. She couldn’t answer. Instead she just opened her hands and crumpled the paper, along with the chopped photograph of Luhan and ‘Huang’. Taeyeon quickly hopped off from the car and proceeded inside the office. Joonmyun blinked thrice before he turned around to face Sunkyu, who was already awake by the sound of the car door being shut.

“You’re up,” said Joonmyun awkwardly.

Sunkyu nodded, “Thank you for the ride, Joonmyun.”

The younger nodded back, “Taeyeon-ssi is already inside.”

∞

Taeyeon threw her handbag on her work desk after she took her phone. The number she dialed was Jessica’s. The news had been told to her right at the crime scene before, right after Joonmyun arrived.

“Jess, it’s me.”

“Hey, honey. How’s Sunkyu?” The voice across the line echoed.

“Still down.”

“It hurts me to see Sunkyu in pain. She smiles almost all the freakin’ time. Knowing that now she breaks down…”

Taeyeon sighed audibly, “I know. It pains me too.”

“Anyway, what do you need?”

“It’s a pretty urgent request. You see, you found an article about this Huang Zi Tao marrying Cho Joohyun and her husband, Cho Kyuhyun in your archives.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I’m hoping you can strike gold twice. Please look for a connection between Luhan and Judge Huang.”

“They have?”

“Sunkyu found a photograph of Luhan and a person, we didn’t know, there’s a hole on his face, and it writes ‘Huang’. Crazy, huh?”

“Can’t even believe it. I’m searching for it right away.”

∞

It didn’t take much time until Jessica clicked on the ‘Feb. 2009’ folder on her computer and found the article she’s been looking for.

“’Local honor student graduates from police academy’,” Jessica began, “’By Henry Lau, Feb 24^th, 2009’.”

Soon enough Jessica nearly fell from her sofa when she realized that Henry was a good friend of hers, who also works for the Seoul Post. She reached for her phone and punched his number in a split second.

After four beeps, Henry finally answered.

“Hello.”

“Henry! Hello,” Jessica greeted, tone a bit higher.

“Jessica? What’s the matter?”

“I just read about the article you wrote about Judge Huang Zi Tao and a local student from a police academy named Xi Luhan. D’you remember?”

“Of course I do,” Henry answered, his chuckle was heard. “Why?”

“You wrote that, ‘Luhan Xi was sponsored for the academy by the honorable Judge Huang, who has mentored other promising students’.”

“Exactly. He’s been known to sponsor some of the poorer students. All very nice on the surface. No rumors of ia or something,” Jessica heard her friend chuckled. “But that guy is hella’ scary.”

“Scary? What do you mean by scary?”

“You know, one boy he sponsored was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol, and Huang immediately cut him off. He stopped sponsoring this boy, and he needed to drop out from his school.”

Jessica gasped, “What kind of person is he?”

“Definitely not the forgiving type.”

∞

Taeyeon missed both her lunch and her dinner that day, and it was already 11 P.M. She herself didn’t know what she had been doing all day, besides feeling anxious and worried. Her coworker just died. A person from the department just died. Luhan definitely made a wrong step, which Taeyeon didn’t know what he had been doing last night, just after she talked to him. Luhan found out who the killer was, Taeyeon guessed, that explains his murder. Her mind was an incoherent tangling mess. What if the killer aims for another person in the department after Luhan? What if the killer aims for Sunkyu? Without herself knowing, her eyes got watery, and her vision blurred. A tear fell just when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

“You’re spacing out again,” Joonmyun told with his gentlest voice.

Taeyeon didn’t reply immediately, her pupils still needed to focus. “Yeah? Sorry.”

“Look,” Joonmyun held the older by her arms, “What happened today wasn’t in our control.”

Taeyeon stayed silent. And so did Joonmyun.

“Taeyeon.”

“What if—”

Silence.

“What if the killer is now aiming for Sunkyu?”

Joonmyun didn’t answer.

“I can’t lose her.”

Joonmyun sighed, and held Taeyeon closer. “What if the killer aims for you, Taeyeon?”

Taeyeon’s tears fell.

“I can’t lose you.”

Taeyeon looked at Joonymun in the eye, and he looked back.

“I want to protect you,” the words that slurred from the younger’s mouth were filled with sincerity, “And I will protect you.”

“But—”

The next thing Taeyeon knew was Joonmyun placing his lips on hers.

And she kissed back.

But she didn’t know why.

it's been long eh? who missed me? lol no;-; anyways thank you so much for those who are still subscribed to this story! ok, say that again? taeyeon kissed back!? ottokaji!? hahaha please anticipate for the upcoming chapter lovelies! until then, see ya<3 oh! and thank you so so so much for the comments haha i really like to read your comments /especially when you guys are trying to guess something/ **smirks. shoutout to InfinitySapphire for upvoting~^^