“Thank you for accepting my offer.” The man who introduced himself to be four years older, Donghyun, smiled as he shook Hyunseong’s hand firmly.

Hyunseong was about to remind the other that he was the one who dialled the number he had gotten a few months back from an elderly stranger. He had talked to Donghyun over the phone and told the other that he would like to try working with him, and after sending his resume over, Donghyun offered him a contract.

Maybe he was a bit desperate for people? The office only had them two.

“It’s my pleasure.” Hyunseong smiled back with a simple reply, then looking around the office to take in the new surroundings. It was small, cosy, and looked like it had a bit of a European-inspired theme to it amidst the stacks of paperwork.

“I must apologise for the mess. It’s only recently that I moved into this place, but I’m not very good at housekeeping. I tried to clear up a space for you though, and your desk will only come in today afternoon.” Donghyun explained, gesturing to the space before his desk. “Or is there any specific place you want to sit at?”

“It’s fine, if the tables are gathered then there’s more space for moving around.” Hyunseong nodded, while Donghyun continued to stack stuffed boxes haphazardly at the corner of the room to make space. “Though it really does look like housekeeping isn’t your forte.”

“Never was too good with that.” Donghyun chuckled, then pushing a swivel chair similar to his own towards the younger. “I do hope you like this chair. I picked it according to my preferences so if you find it uncomfortable or ugly, I can have it changed for you.”

“It looks good.” Hyunseong shook his head to say there was no need for a change, watching as Donghyun took his own seat. He then pushed himself to before Donghyun, across the only table in the small office. “I do have a request though. All this polite talk is suffocating me, so do you mind speaking less formally?”

“Oh, right, of course. I’m sorry.” Donghyun apologised, and blinked when Hyunseong gave him a look. “Ah, I’m s- Right, it’s a bit of a habit. I’ll try to refrain from apologising. You can call me hyung too, of course, only if you want to.”

“Donghyun-hyung.” Hyunseong tested the sound of the other’s name, smiling satisfiedly. “Yep, so much better. So anyway, if you’ve only recently moved in, I assume you’re trying to break out of solo detective work?”

“That too. But as you can see, I can afford to make a mess in this office. If I did this at home, I wouldn’t have a place to sleep.” Donghyun smiled sheepishly. “I don’t really have anyone I know in the business though, so if you have anyone you want to recommend to be in the team, feel free. Otherwise, I’m asking the police for anyone they might like  to transfer over and slowly build a team from there.”

They talked a little more until Hyunseong’s new table arrived along with a confidential envelope.

-

“I have to say, I was never too good with these sort of cases.” Donghyun said, trailing after Hyunseong who was taking the lead. “These cases usually get solved by someone else because I can’t figure anything out.”

“That’d be me.” Hyunseong’s eyes sparkled as he turned back, then continuing to lead the way as he had planned on his map.

Donghyun smiled back. “Right, of course.”

It was found that a man was continuously stealing jewelleries worn by middle-aged women from different neighbourhoods, and while it was true that the police could probably do a follow-up on it, they have once again threw the work to the detectives. While Donghyun takes up these cases when he’s not busy, he had never once solved them because they were simply too random for him to follow. Most thieves do proper cover-ups and the city’s simply too big to search for a person based on witnesses’ accounts. To catch the thief, he must either be present at the crime scene or have the thief drop a critical clue, of which both are nearly impossible.

“I would appreciate your thought process after this though.” Donghyun whispered as they closed in on the suspect, both acting like passers-by.  Hyunseong brought them both into a residential area, and they watched as the suspect closed in on his supposed target.

It’s probably because Donghyun was previously trained as a police, Hyunseong thought as he found himself reacting slower than the older man did. They managed to apprehend the thief, and while Hyunseong was starting to doubt himself after seeing the man look so wronged, Donghyun shook his head.

“Remember the witnesses’ accounts?”

They then passed the criminal over to the police, and Hyunseong thinks that may be the start of his dislike for the police. He had never really come in close contact with them before because he thought detectives and police don’t really work together, but their attitudes were pretty bad. The least they could do was thank them for their time and effort, no? All they did was handcuff the man and then drive away in their police car.

“Very polite.” Hyunseong commented sarcastically, rolling his eyes. “I’ve never really met them before, are they always like that?”

Donghyun smiled softy, shrugging. “I’m sorry, it’s probably because of me.”

“Again.”

“Huh?” Donghyun turned to the younger man, wondering if he heard wrongly. “Sorry, did you say something?”

“There it is again.” Hyunseong grinned, as if finding fun in teasing the older. 

“I’m s- Right, this is difficult.” Donghyun laughed, then gesturing in the general direction of the car park that he had parked his car at. “Though seriously, I guess they could have some hostile feelings towards me and because you’re with me, it ends up being extended to you.”

“And why would they?” Folding his arms, the younger man gave a small jog to fall in line with Donghyun’s pace. “You don’t look like someone who would do them wrong. And you said you were with them for a while.”

“I was. It was all normal until I took up a case because my superior wanted me to deal with it, thinking it was a group of teenagers causing trouble. Well, he did tell me to be careful of possible mafia connections and whatnots, and after realising that was true, they wanted to drop the case. I insisted on continuing because I had some personal things to settle, and that had me specialising as a detetive. The case was also a far bigger thing than I had expected it to be.” Donghyun sighed. “I guess politics is not my forte either. I didn’t know what to say to them to dispel the negativity, and after a few more cases it became harder to try.”

Hyunseong decided “personal things” meant “don’t ask”, so he quietly nodded, giving the older’s words a bit more thoughts. “Wait. Mafia…oh! So you’re the one who- No wonder your name sounded so familiar!”

“Am I famous?” Donghyun chuckled at Hyunseong’s excited reaction, the younger suddenly fumbling for pen and paper asking for a signature. “You’re…not serious.”

“Come on, it’s just momento.” Hyunseong grinned, watching the other sign cautiously at the corner of the paper in his notebook, unable to say anything against having a keepsake. “No, this won’t do, sign a big one in the middle of the paper. Like celebrities! You’re not signing a contract, you know.”

Donghyun laughed embarrassedly, returning the notebook without making any amendments. Hyunseong pouted a little at the notebook and decided he’ll make Donghyun sign a big one in the future.

“So, how did you figure this place out?” Donghyun smiled softly, reaching for his car keys as they neared the car. “It’s almost like you read his mind.”

“I did.” Hyunseong’s eyes gleamed, pausing a bit to enter the car. “What he did wrong was to have a job.”

Donghyun was taken aback, because Hyunseong never told him he knew the other’s workplace. The younger waved off Donghyun’s surprise and explained himself a little more. He started from his usual thought process, which was to look at the time of crime. 

The times at which the criminal struck was at night, and while that might be to camouflage himself as he did today, wearing black from top to toe, it also meant he was tied to work and cannot attack at odd hours in the afternoon when it’s less possible to predict. To have a job meant to leave his workplace at the same time every day and from there on, the time of crime can be used to estimate how long he takes reach the crime scenes. As such, the general area of the criminal’s workplace could be identified, and because he attacks different neighbourhoods to not leave traces, it meant he was about to attack a new area that is also within the radius of his workplace. 

Since this particular neighbourhood they were at was rumoured to have a pretty low security despite the rich people that roamed, it seemed like it had to be here. After finding the place, Hyunseong had to pinpoint a particular place the thief would strike. Since the thief takes public transport seeing how the areas attacked were all about 5 to 10 minutes away from the subway, it ended up being a breeze to identify a residential area within walking distance.

Donghyun nodded along to Hyunseong’s words, watching the other explain excitedly. “I understood you, but I can’t say I would be able to come up with something like that.”

“That’s okay, you can leave these to me.” Hyunseong chuckled, deciding it was a lot nicer to have someone to listen to your achievements. This wasn’t something he could have done while working alone previously.

The older man nodded while keeping his eyes on the road, turning to Hyunseong with a warm smile as he slowed down at a junction. “Thank you.”

He was about to cool down from his high after babbling it all out, but Hyunseong beamed with pride again. He never thought words could carry so much weight, much less an everyday “thank you”. Maybe this is why respect is such a powerful thing. Even the simplest word holds a deeper meaning when spoken by the right person.

-

Thank you to the 3 commenters and 21 subscribers <3!

I interwined a case in here to show a few things so this ended up a little long :3
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