Donghae’s officers were baffled. They simply could not find any more leads on the murder case, not even Kyuhyun, who had almost always been responsible for shedding light on every successful case in the past.

It had already been two weeks, and whatever trails that might have been left behind were already icy-cold. However Donghae had his men keeping a watchful eye on Zhoumi, just because he was their prime suspect. The inspector could have applied for a warrant and have him arrested, but part of him still wanted to trust Hyukjae who insisted that the Chinese man was not guilty. Donghae had scanned through Hyukjae’s brief summary of a report, and he couldn’t see any loopholes save for the part where Jessica might have been with her ex on the night she got and killed.

Sending plainclothesmen after their prime suspect did not provide them much insight either, seeing that the Chinese stylist had put up a sign in his shop saying they were closed ‘indefinitely’. Nothing else fishy had happened and no new leads had turned up, therefore Donghae had no choice but to temporarily mark the case as ‘unsolved’ after an uneventful three months.

Meanwhile, Hyukjae had been busy thinking up stupid tricks to play on the people in the office again. The complaints about the prankster had already piled up as tall as a mountain on Donghae’s desk, and it was giving him a huge headache. Whatever in the world was he thinking when he thought the elder would behave under him. There would be at least five new complaints every other day, and ninety-nine percent of the time it was about Hyukjae, Hyukjae and Hyukjae.

Donghae scanned the thick stack of complaints on his desk, wondering exactly what was going on in the elder’s head. The inspector sighed. It was bad enough that he, Seoul’s greatest and best homicide detective, was totally baffled by a case with a serial and killer on the loose in the streets; and now he still had to deal with that stupid and childish prankster while handling the rest of his staff so they wouldn’t quit just because of that hooligan.

And now, he could already feel a migraine cracking through his skull. Donghae leaned back in his chair and groaned audibly.

Perhaps I could just skim through all these complaints before my headache gets worse.

Donghae picked up the first sheet of paper and started scanning the lines. At first he started reading with an annoyed face, but gradually as he read about the elder’s antics, he couldn’t help breaking into a smile and chuckling every now and then. Some of the jokes were really funny, perhaps not to the person getting pranked, but it was hilarious when observed by a third party. Donghae could feel the old him resurfacing as he tried imagining Kyuhyun’s face when a ‘ghost’ keyboard began typing out nonsense every time he’d open a document; or Hyukjae taking a screenshot of Henry’s desktop and setting it as his wallpaper so Henry couldn’t click on any of the icons, baffling even the computer technician; or imagining Sungmin falling off his office chair when he tried to glide across to Kyuhyun’s table because Hyukjae had taped the wheels together… There was no end to the ridiculous things the elder did and although it could be called disastrous for the poor victim, it was also pretty freaking hilarious after all, once he saw the joke.

Donghae could feel his headache alleviating as he reached the end of the amusing complaints. Maybe a good laugh was all I needed.

For once, Donghae didn’t feel like strangling Hyukjae for all his stupid office pranks. Perhaps he should even thank him instead.

* * *

“Inspector Lee!!!”

Donghae frowned and looked up from his morning coffee. “Yes, what is it, Sungmin?”

“Have you seen the news bulletin?”

“No, not yet. What’s wrong?”

“Another victim was reported to be found in a hotel!! Chief Han suspects that it was the same person as last time. They want us there immediately.”

“Which hotel?”

“The Grand Place.”

Donghae’s eyebrows shot up. The Grand Place was just like its name, grand, and classy and high-end and everything. Security and monitoring were very tight in that hotel because that was where all the visiting big shots stayed, be it celebrities or political leade