Is this a joke? Did Hyukjae scheme it all? No, that´s impossible. He met Choi Minho only today and for what I know, they weren´t even alone together. So it´s a coincidence? This is very hard to believe honestly because nothing is a coincidence concerning Hyukjae.

“Uh, a roommate?” Hyukjae repeated also not believing his luck. Another concern for me, Hyukjae used to be unlucky.

“Yeah, I just moved to a place, that´s close to the office but since it´s closer to the city centre, it´s a little expensive for me. But if I could split the bill with somebody, it would be perfect,” Choi Minho explained with affection. “What do you think, Eunhyuk?” He then asked full of expectation.

“Hm,” Eunhyuk hummed. What do you mean ´hm´?! Just refuse right away! You don´t have to put it nicely to him, he was the maknae just a few hours ago! “That´s actually a pretty good offer.” The young detective finished his sentence.

“What?” I asked aloud in my shock.

“Is something the matter?” Hyukjae looked at me with a slight frown.

“Of course!” I retorted not liking his tone. You think you can talk back to me now that you are a detective, you little Fairy?!

“Can you explain then? I already said that I was looking for a place to stay because I wanted to move out of the police dorms and you,” he paused a little but I understood he wanted to remind me that I refused to take him nto my place. But he had enough sense to not say it aloud. “You gave me a free hand in this matter,” Hyukjae avoided the dangerous situation.

“That´s true,” I awkwardly cleared my throat because, indeed, I had no argument against that. Anyway, what was really bothering me? The safety, right. The safety of Hyukjae´s secret! He had his true identity to cover and also those wings to take care of and Choi Minho could find out. On the other hand, the police dorms are a risky place too. Even I, a human, although superior like a shining star, wouldn´t want to spend there too much time. Not only agents from the ASC but regular police trainees and detectives live in the dorms and little Hyukjae among them doesn´t seem like a good idea.

“Alright,” Hyukjae smirked at me. You little scram! “Let´s talk the details out then,” the slim man turned to Minho and gave him a small smile. His business smile as I noted with delight. Hyukjae rarely shows his emotions, especially happiness in front of others. I felt slightly proud that I was still the only one with the privilege to access Hyukjae´s real feelings.

But my happiness didn´t last for too long. The next day when I arrived to work, the two youngest of the team were already present and chatting. After a few minutes of eavesdropping, one of my best detective skills, I found out something horrible. The check out from the police dorms turned out to be easier than expected, thus Hyukjae was moving out already today after finishing the documentation last night. This kid is way too quick in everything!

“We have a lead!” Suddenly the door to the office burst open and revealed Songim with a file in her hand. We were still in the middle of investigating the case of the dead chimera in Seoul. It was expected for the case to be solved soon since from the very start the perpetrator looked careless and the murder wasn´t very elaborate either. A day and half of investigating made perfect sense in this case because the ASC had much better access to the most of the data than any other police department.

“What are you waiting for? Gimme,” I gestured for Songim to hurry and the rest of the members that were present in the room rushed to my side too. Hyukjae seemed eager which was pretty cute. Although Hyukjae was special in many ways, he was still a newbie like any other.

In the file were pictures collected from the CCTVs in the neighbourhood. Zhoumi and Songim got the task from me yesterday, while I went to the morgue with Hyukjae. And finally they managed to pick out the culprit from the picture that was taken in one well lit street.

“Who is it?” I asked and pointed to the small man with short hair.

“We weren´t able to find that out yet,” Songim sighed and everyone grumbled. The fact that they haven´t identified him right away meant that he hadn´t committed any crime before and therefore wasn´t in the database yet. That would only mean prolonging the investigation and maybe an all-nighter too. I was about to give out some orders when I noticed Hyukjae intently looking at one of the pictures.

“What is it?” I asked right away. I knew the boy well enough already to give him some space to think. He was much brighter than half of the police force.

“The shoes,” Hyukjae pointed and everyone curiously looked at the picture.

“Looks like normal boots to me, I have something like that too, see?” Donghee raised his foot and indeed, very similar shoe was to be seen. But also smelled so we forced him to put the leg down quickly.

“No, you don´t,” Hyukjae protested but the tone of his voice sounded very light as he didn´t want to offend his senior. “Please look at the material and also at the sole. I wouldn´t know either, if I haven´t seen these shoes before. Nowadays when you work with chemicals, you don´t need to wear rubber boots anymore. They even make track shoes that look pretty nice but the sole is hardened and the material used can protect the feet from light acids or other chemicals.” Hyukjae patiently explained and everyone´s eyes widened in shock.

“How could you tell?” Minho asked the question that we all wanted to hear the answer for. You don´t usually notice stuff like that, that would make Hyukjae too much of a genius.

“Well, I thought that it would be the best, if the culprit was wearing a part of his work uniform because that would help the identification a lot. So I properly checked his clothes and then I thought that I´ve seen the shoes before. When I remembered where, it made sense. It´s not like I remember all marks of shoes or something, it was just a coincidence,” Hyukjae said and we all nodded. I told you, that Hyukjae always makes a mess of the word ´coincidence´. What luck could it be for him to meet exactly shoes like that?!

“I see, that´s really awesome,” Songim praised, “and where have you seen the shoes anyway?” She asked him another question that would bother most of us.

“Well, that,” Hyukjae slightly panicked. Although nobody surely could tell from his poker face, I noticed how he turned slightly in a learned move. Hyukjae instinctively protected the frail wings on his back, only I could understand the language of Hyukjae´s body and so I put the things together. Hyukjae must have seen the shoes on the people from the lab in the institute. He already told me that he managed to get access to the morgue and crematorium. Chemicals were often used on stuff like fangs or shells of the dead chimeras so all proves of the changed DNA would get erased from this world.

“Didn´t Hyuk say that it was pretty ordinary nowadays? Maybe it was the morgue yesterday, who knows,” I interrupted him to cover the truth. “What are you waiting for? Find me all the factories that use chemicals these exact boots are durable against. Search the neighbourhood and the people that would need to wear them. Don´t come until you find that bastard!” I ordered.

The detectives quickly ran off to their computers and Donghee began distributing various branches to everyone so the work would go faster. Although the range of the location isn´t too big, we are still in Seoul that´s full of small businesses and factories. Hyukjae overheard his sector of search and was about to start the look when I stopped him. I put my hand on his shoulder and squeezed it lightly.

“Good job, Hyukjae,” I whispered the name so nobody could hear accept for the Fairy. And then the slim man smiled at me. That huge and honest smile that only I was allowed to see. And my heart fluttered.

Hello! This side story with the dead chimera might seem to you as a filler but it´s necessarry for showing you the new characters and change in the old ones. The case itself won´t be important for the story line but you will find a few new facts about Hyukjae and also watch out for the sides (muhehe). Thank you for reading and your perfect comments! - PandaHero