“You’ve gotta be kidding me.” Joohyun mutters to herself when her boyfriend shows up in front of her house hugging a stray cat. “You can never trust anyone.” She grunts when Yonghwa hands her the cat.

She passes him a towel as she shoves him into the toilet, telling him that she will take care of the sneezing feline in the middle of her living room. Joohyun grits her teeth when she sees the cat scratching her sofa, her newly purchased sofa. Why does Yonghwa have to bring this creature here instead of a vet clinic?

“Why?” Joohyun asks after Yonghwa was dressed up in her older brother’s clothes which he left in her spare room in case he has to spend the night there due to unseen circumstances. She has absolutely no idea what he meant by that, but she always allows her brother to stay the night as long as he does not go near her room; much less enter it under any situations.

“You like pets.” He says as he makes himself comfortable on the sofa, the cat as Joohyun gives him a disdain look. “I like dogs, not cats.” She reminds him, throwing the ruined shirt it scratched in less than five minutes to his face. “You owe me a new shirt.”

“Yes, Doctor Joohyun.” He salutes to her when she gets up to go into her room. “Don’t make a mess and don’t enter my room, Jung Yonghwa.”

Yonghwa hummed a song as he thinks of a name for the new cat he plans on leaving it under Joohyun’s custody until its owner comes forward, just like all the other animals he had formerly left with Joohyun. They have been together for a little more than five years, despite their busy schedules with Joohyun working as a forensic pathologist and Yonghwa’s unpredictable working hours as a crime scene investigator, they still make time for each other even if it was as little as five minutes. “Should I call you cupcake?” He giggles, cuddling it closer as he walks past Joohyun’s room to the room he usually sleeps in whenever he sleeps over. He stops, wondering if he should knock, but he shakes his head, knowing that Joohyun would get angry with him if he did.

X

A lone silhouette makes its way to the dark alley in the dark hours of the night waiting patiently for her next victim. She wonders if it would be another e just like the previous week. She drove the investigation team insane trying to track the killer down, but just as expected of her, she does not leave any marks behind – it would be a shame if she were to get caught when things were just about to get interesting. She fixes her white wrap skirt as she notices the familiar sound of clicking heels and she makes her move.

She strides out, studying the woman closely. Tall, and curves in the right places with her long hair covering her as she struggles to get into her car. Sliding her pocketknife out, she presses it firmly as the woman gives out a gasp of shock. As a result, she drops her bag as she tells the scared woman to get into the passenger’s seat as picks the bag up and getting to the driver’s seat. Opening the wallet, she checks the woman’s ID, making sure she would be easily be identified when the police finds her dead body. “Song Qian?”

Song Qian nods quickly. “It’s my Ch- Chinese name.”

She whistles, placing the wallet back inside before tossing it to the backseat. Song Qian fidgets non-stop in her seat making the other annoyed almost immediately. She turns to Song Qian, leaning as closely as she could when the older woman slid backwards in her seat. “Remember my face because it’ll be the last thing you’ll see. Ever.” She laughs as the engine roars and disappears in the darkness.

X

“Yonghwa-ssi, it’s another murder.” His junior, Jungshin informed him after spamming his phone with thousands of text messages and calls because Yonghwa could probably sleep through an earthquake. Yonghwa jumps up instantly, being as quiet as he could before rushing downstairs where Joohyun was making breakfast. She looks up, and nods, understanding that he has to go. It is something they learnt to be understanding about; they both have odd jobs which require hours of sacrifice. Joohyun remembers one case where she spent a whole day studying a woman’s body; her entire body was twisted in all the wrong places from a car accident. It turned out to be first degree murder done by her husband with the intention to use the insurance money of said woman.

Humans would do so much for so little, Joohyun thinks to herself, stabbing the tomato precisely in the center as she goes upstairs to get ready for work.

Yonghwa lifts the police line, nodding to the rest of his subordinates. He puts on rubber gloves, beckoning for Jungshin closer for more information. “Her name is Song Qian, her employer said she left work early last night at,” Jungshin pauses, cautiously looking over to Yonghwa, “two a.m. and she didn’t pick up when her employer called her to make sure she got home safely.”

He shrugs his shoulders, crouching down next to the lifeless Song Qian, eyes staring blankly up to the blinding sunrays as if it does not hurt. Well, nothing can hurt a dead person. Yonghwa lifts up the cover, looking at the horrific stab wounds impended upon the poor woman. He touches her arm; her body is still warm, indicating that she was killed just recently, probably just an hour ago.

“Who found the body?” Yonghwa asks. Jungshin points behind him, “Minhyuk is taking down her sentence as we are talking. She’s the owner of that knife collection store.”

X

Miyoung sighs as she faces her partner, “Twenty-two stabs across the front, five at the back and one across the left thigh.” Joohyun nods, typing them all down. Miyoung Song Qian’s brunette locks, down to the very tips and squints at a probably new discovery. A blonde strand of hair entangled to it.

“Joohyun, get this tested.” She passes the envelope with the strand. It could belong to her killer, or maybe someone linked to it. “You know, for all we know, it might be an inside job.” Joohyun freezes, looking up from her laptop. “What do you mean?”

“Look at the stabs.” She moves towards the board of photographs of Song Qian’s body. “It is done by either surgical instruments or a very sharp knife, especially with that precision. It could even be me.” Miyoung stares at Joohyun, sending shivers down Joohyun’s spine. Miyoung then bursts into laughter.

“You should have seen your face! I was just joking.” Miyoung removes her rubber gloves, stopping for a break.

Joohyun scoffs at that, grabbing the casing with the strand of blonde hair as she jumps off her seat to go to Jonghyun’s side to track down the owner of it.

Miyoung does not turn around when she hears the door opens from behind her again, assuming it is just Joohyun. Unlike the others with fancy offices, they have a tiny space to work on their victims which is at the other side of the building. “Back so soon?” And suddenly she feels a pain down her spine as she falls to the ground. Her entire body is numb as the person who attacked her moments again shows herself in front of Miyoung, winking at her as she stabs Miyoung’s face.

X

“Joohyun, go home.” Yonghwa whispers to her, pushing her away from the bloodied room. Miyoung uninjured eye looking in her way. “How?” Joohyun manages to ask, hands trembling at her sides wondering if her eyes are playing tricks on her. Is it really an inside job? Who else but them would know the passcode for their room?

“Joohyun.” Yonghwa says with a little more force when Joohyun stayed rooted, not showing any signs of moving out of the room. “I’ll take care of her, alright? Don’t worry.” He turns to Minhyuk, “Get Yoona down here. We need her help.”

With that, Joohyun leaves the room, not after she takes one more look at Miyoung, apologising for leaving her alone in the room. If she did not left, Miyoung would probably still be alive instead of bleeding from her right eye.

X

She smiles, looking at the photographs plastered on her walls. She frowns when she realizes she still has not got rid of that pesky animal outside her bedroom. It is probably scratching her sofa yet again. She opens her door, letting it slam as she saunters out, eyes looking for it. “He calls you cupcake, eh?” She does not bat an eyelid as she rams it into the food shredder machine.

“Joohyun?” She hears Yonghwa outside her door, knocking at least a dozen times because she did not answer any of his calls. She wipes her hands on the towel lying on the kitchen counter, moving as slowly as a snail towards the front door. Joohyun remains expressionless as Yonghwa enters her apartment, telling her that they had watched the CCTV footage over hundreds of times, but they could not find anything.

“Want some tea?” Joohyun offers, passing the cup to Yonghwa as she sips on her own cup. Yonghwa gulps down the entire cup and continues yapping away as he makes way to the room he usually uses until he realizes Joohyun’s bedroom door is open wide. He takes a step forward, not believing his eyes. Tens of knives lay neatly on her desk under a pile of photographs that Yonghwa thought they forgotten to print for their report. Joohyun takes a look at her wristwatch after watching his reaction.

“No, no, it can’t be you.”

Joohyun shrugs her shoulder, moving forward. “Remember what I always tell you? You can never trust anyone.” She takes another look at her wristwatch. “Enjoy your last thirty seconds of your life. Was the tea good? I sprinkled some of my secret ingredient: rat poison.” Winking as Yonghwa’s mouth starts foaming at a rapid pace.