“What do you mean you can’t find them?!”

Donghae was in complete hysterics. He couldn’t get through Hyukjae’s phone even after calling a million times, and neither would Ryeowook pick up his phone. (“Of course he wouldn’t,” Sungmin had mumbled earlier, but Donghae just wouldn’t stop calling anyway.) Kyuhyun had been summoned at once, but even the tech genius could not find any traces of the two missing officers.

“Ramen… ramen… Kyu, does ramen mean something else more sinister to you?” Sungmin asked, looking up all the ramen shops he could think of in town. “Are you sure Henry said ‘ramen’? There are hundreds of ramen shops in this town alone. I could narrow them down to the shadier ones of course, but if they went for something else other than ramen then we’re only going on a wild-goose chase.”

“I don’t care if we’re chasing geese or monkeys or elephants, we need to find them right away!” Donghae yelled, patience long gone. He slumped against the couch and sighed loudly. “Why didn’t we realise it was him earlier? We could have just arrested him right here in the office! Sungminnie yah, you’re not listening to me!”

“Shut up, Donghae. We’re trying to work here,” Sungmin grunted, eyes never leaving the screen. “There are patrol cars all over town now looking for your boyfriend. I’m just running them through the list of possible shops and areas in case they find them.”

“They don’t seem to be reporting back with good news, however,” Kyuhyun added as he scrolled through the reports. “At this point, is no news good news or bad news?”

“Do you want more coffee, Inspector?” Henry suddenly chimed in, bringing in a fresh tray of coffees and setting them down on the table. “I have a feeling it’s gonna be a long night.”

Donghae stood up and groaned, holding his head in his hand. “Maybe I should just go out patrolling with the others.” he said, with a somewhat determined look in his weary eyes. “I hate staying here and feeling useless while everyone else is busy looking for him… I’m going crazy. I’m out.”

“You’re going nowhere. Stay and watch the telephone like I told you to,” Sungmin said sternly to the inspector. “You’re losing your cool. I know you’re frantic because Hyukjae is your partner but you need to stay calm and answer the phone if it rings.”

“What for? It’s not like it’s going to ring in the dead of the night and Hyukjae is gonna miraculously be at the other end of the line anyway!”

RRRRRRINGGG!! RRRRRRINGGG!!

Donghae glanced at the ringing phone for a split second and immediately snatched it up. “Hello?”

All eyes were on the inspector as he spoke into the receiver. Even Kyuhyun, who was recording the entire call and listening to it on his headphones. His eyes widened in surprise when he recognised the breathy voice on the other end of the line.

“H-Hello? Donghae…”

“Hyukjae!!” Donghae screamed into the receiver. “Where are you? What happened to you? Is everything alright? Are you hurt? Kidnapped? Dying? Where are you?”

“Yah, stop panicking, idiot. Send s-someone to pick me up p-please… and bring a warm blanket or two with you. I’m f-freezing…”

“Where are you? Did you get caught in the rain? Hyuk, stay safe, alright? Don’t go near Ryeowook… he’s a dangerous man. Kyu is sending someone over now. Please be okay, please… I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”

“Idiot. I’m fine, just freezing to d-death. I’ll explain everything later. L-love you.”

“Love you too… Hurry back.”

Donghae felt like an enormous boulder had just been lifted off his shoulders. He felt so relieved just to know that his fiancé was alright. “Y-you guys heard me. Hyuk’s alive and kicking… but it seems like Ryeowook the bastard is nowhere in sight.”

Sungmin nodded and hugged the inspector, who suddenly looked like he was about to cry from relief. “I’m glad he’s fine. We’ll just have to look even harder for Ryeowook then.”

“Where was he calling from?” the inspector asked, wiping a stray tear rolling down his cheek. “Kyu, did you get to trace the call?”

“I did,” Kyuhyun answered, showing Donghae a little red spot on the monitor screen. “It’s in the next town. Hyuk was calling from a public phone by the river. I’ve sent his location to the nearest patrol car out there so he should be back safe and sound in about half an hour.”

“The river?” Donghae asked, puzzled. “What is he doing at the riverside?”

“We never actually thought of looking in the next town yet,” Sungmin admitted, sighing softly. “There already were eighty six ramen places in our town alone. Adding the next town into the figure would make it reach nearly two hundred.”

Sighing, Donghae slumped back onto the couch and stared up at the ceiling, feeling all his energy zapped out of him all of a sudden. It was too much for him, interrogating Heechul to find out the truth, learning about Ryeowook’s true identity and then his partner’s disappearance, only to learn that their prime suspect was still missing but at least Hyukjae was found and is currently being transported back to the station, all in one day. Donghae rubbed at his temples and groaned at the migraine taking over his head. If he keep on like this then he had no doubt that he would have to retire very soon. Especially since with every case they handled, Hyukjae always managed to play into dangerous waters and put his life at risk.

All that was left to do was wait, and pray that Hyukjae wouldn’t run into any more sinister characters on his rendezvous that night.

Donghae’s eyes flitted nervously to the station clock and he started pacing harder. It was already past midnight. Henry had left with Amber a while ago, and Sungmin’s head was resting against the back of the couch, its owner probably deep in dreamland judging by the tiny snoring sounds emitted from his pink bow-shaped lips. Only Kyuhyun was the one left awake, staring at his computer screen and entering commands into the system to try to learn more about Ryeowook and his family and close friends. He was particularly interested in the junior shooting competition held at least a couple years back, with a photo of Ryeowook, who was probably still training in police academy, all decked in his shooting gear and uniform and proudly biting down on his gold medal, waving at the camera. The tech genius also discovered that the now disgraced police officer was also a sports car enthusiast, who loved and often went for long drives back when he was still in high school. One of Ryeowook’s friends was also shown in a photo of them posing next to a Lamborghini, and Kyuhyun’s sharp eyes suddenly caught sight of the similar features between that friend and the silver medallist in the previous photo. Both the photos had to have been taken at least 10 years apart, and although Ryeowook looked like he’d just lost most of his baby fat after growing up, his friend looked like a completely different person altogether, save for the heart-shaped lips and huge doe eyes that were the only distinguishable features in both the first and second photo. Kyuhyun leaned forward to get a closer look at the photos.

“Is that Ryeowook?” Donghae asked suddenly, popping up right behind Kyuhyun and startling the tech officer that he jumped in his chair. “You found his old pictures online! How did you do it?”

Kyuhyun quickly regained his composure and peeked at Sungmin who was still sleeping peacefully with his head slowly falling to the side. “I hacked into his social media account and retrieved the photos from his deleted files. That’s him winning the