“Good morning! What a nice day!” A man cheerfully greeted as he bounced in. He looked around and spotted only one other person in the small office, wondering out loud where the other supposed two were at.

“Donghyun-hyung needed to run some errands and Kwangmin's not always very good with time.” The man replied as he stood, giving a welcoming smile to the new arrival that Donghyun had briefed them about. He then offered his hand and noticed the difference in height as he neared the other. “I'm Hyunseong, nice to meet you.”

“Jeongmin's the name!” The bubbly man announced, slapping the palm of Hyunseong as some sort of high-five. “Nice office here, where's my seat? Is there a pantry? I kinda like to snack.”

Hyunseong stared at his hand for a while, realising what Donghyun meant when he said the police was sending someone over because he wasn't quite the police material. “No pantry, but you can bring your own snacks. We aren't too obsessed with cleanliness, but you should clean up after yourself. And your seat is right here, next to mine.”

Jeongmin nodded and quickly took his seat, then swivelling around while taking in the office. “This place is quite cosy, the colours are so dull though. Can't we paint this place pink? Or blue? Or yellow? How about rainbow?”

“You seem quite a handful, aren't you?” Hyunseong chuckled a little, taking his own seat.

“Yeah, but people can't leave me once they realise my charms.” Jeongmin winked, and Hyunseong could only raise an eyebrow at Jeongmin's confidence. “You'll probably fall into mine too~!”

“I should be careful then.” Hyunseong laughed, turning to the door when he heard the knob turn. “Oh, hey, Kwangmin.”

“Hey.” Kwangmin smiled, attention then given to the smiling stranger who was waving at him. “Hello, I'm Kwangmin, the youngest in this team unless you're younger.”

“And I'm Jeongmin! A proud 25 years old!” Jeongmin grinned, standing up to offer a handshake before backing into his seat. “Uh, wanna do a 21^st century handshake?”

“That means I’m younger.” Kwangmin nodded, then headed for his own seat after seeing everyone in theirs. “What’s a 21^st century handshake?”

“While sitting down.” Hyunseong smirked, glancing at Jeongmin’s puffed cheeks. “Don’t tell me you didn’t notice the top of his head.”

“NO!” Jeongmin gasped in mock horror. “You did not see the top of my head! I’m not that short, okay?”

“Of course not.” Hyunseong agreed, though the sly smile on his face seemed to say otherwise. Kwangmin gave himself a second to be amused at Hyunseong’s playfulness with the newcomer, musing that Jeongmin was more like a traditional maknae than he could ever be.

“People do say I’m tall, so if you’d accept that then…” Kwangmin shrugged, taking his seat while reaching for his phone.

“Exactly!” Jeongmin exclaimed, clapping his hands together. “I’m not short, you’re just tall.”

Hyunseong smirked, while the loud new member purposely looked away.

“Oh, Donghyun-hyung went to check out a scene, and asked us to brief Jeongmin-hyung about our work procedures and if Jeongmin-hyung has any preferences on what he wants to do.” Kwangmin read from the text message he received, relaying the message to Hyunseong who was second-in-command. He paused, then looking at Jeongmin who was a rookie but a year older, and then thought back to his twin brother. “Oh well, to hell with politics.”

“Hm?” Hyunseong turned sharply to the youngest of the three, wondering if he missed out any part of the message.

“Nothing.” Kwangmin shook his head with a smile, then nodding for Hyunseong to take over.

“Well, this might be a little content heavy.” Hyunseong apologised in advance, while Jeongmin smiled brightly in reply. (“Hey, I might not look like it, but I’m pretty good with content! I had to study a bunch of textbooks for the police examinations too.”) Clearing his throat, Hyunseong then continued. “Basically, Donghyun-hyung would be what you call our head, but we decided on leader a few days ago so it doesn’t sound all that stuffy.”

“Right. Donghyun.” Jeongmin pouted slightly as he tried to form an image of their leader. He should be pretty young if the other two members of the team all look around his age.

“That’s Donghyun-hyung for you, and I’m also older by a year.” Hyunseong corrected, then moving to the free space in their office to write on their mobile whiteboard. “The general work flow starts with an announcement of a case, and then Donghyun-hyung will usually check the crime scene. You know how the police are; they don’t like people messing with the scene especially with the number of different groups of detectives going around. So Donghyun-hyung will bring back information and we will work from there with preferably our specialisations. If it’s a series of crimes, I’ll narrow down locations, and otherwise I’m just doing usual deductions. Kwangmin’s pretty good with finding loopholes we miss out and coming up with a logical reasoning for the crime. Donghyun-hyung mostly listens in and tries to find more information.”

“Listens in?” Jeongmin repeated, blinking. “Shouldn’t the leader be leading the discussions or something?”

“We can’t do anything else but useless deductions with limited information.” Kwangmin smiled with a small shrug. “The more information we have, the better, don’t you think?”

“True.” Jeongmin rubbed his chin thoughtfully, watching Hyunseong continue scribbling on the board.

“Now, the question is, where do you come in?” Hyunseong asked, writing Jeongmin’s name on the board and circling it. “Do you have anything you want to do? It’s not like we have any ideas for you, since we don’t get one type of case only. We accept a variety of cases so it’s best if you could generally specialise in something.”

“Sounds like an oxymoron to me.” Jeongmin grinned. “Well, I personally think there’s no rush. If you’d keep me, I’ll be working here for years, so I can go on and think about it. For now, maybe you can give me all the small errands so I can learn the general atmosphere here. I don’t mind doing things like bringing snacks and making tea either! I would love to listen in on your conversations of deductions though.”

“If you wish.” Hyunseong scratched his head a little, giving Kwangmin a glance. “Well then, Kwangmin, you can show Jeongmin the ropes of organising the information we have as the case comes in and then have him do it from now on.”

“Got it.” Kwangmin clicked his tongue, then remembering something with a small grin. “Jeongmin-hyung, crackers for tomorrow?”

“How about chips?” Jeongmin suggested, eyes shining. “Or both! I’ll bring them all, I have an emergency stock at home.”

Kwangmin chuckled, holding a thumbs-up to the man opposite him. For a few months now, Kwangmin had thought that while detective work was fun, it had a bit of a stagnant atmosphere to it.

Maybe Jeongmin was the burst of energy their office needed.

-

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