“I can’t see him.”

“Me either.”

“Is that so-- Stop pulling me!”

It’s humorous to watch Baekhyun, Chanyeol and Jongdae grouping around Kyungsoo and their hands linked around his arms and hands. They even tugged him left and right, making him rolled his eyes. Jongdae was still locked his eyes on his dead brother for past an hour. Jongin did the same, but it gets uncomfortable to stare for too long. Kyungsoo turned to his hand, clutching tightly by Jongdae and it eventually got sweaty. On the other hand, Baekhyun and Chanyeol seemed irritated that only Jongdae was able to see Jongin through Kyungsoo.

More questions raised; Why Jongdae? How is he able to see the angel though Kyungsoo? Kyungsoo did a lot of research about spiritual being and seraph, but none of them mentioned about non chosen human able to see it. He needs to read more about it. But not when he was surrounded by his friends.

“How come only Jongdae can see him? It’s so unfair!” Chanyeol pouted.

“Just leave it, Chanyeol. Jongin is his brother. He hasn’t seen him for years!” Baekhyun reasoned to him.

“Well, Jongin technically not Jongdae’s real brother, but does adopted relationship counts?”

“He’s my brother.” Jongdae cut Chanyeol’s question. “That’s all matters.”

Three of them turned to Jongdae, who is still staring sincerely at Jongin. He tried to touch Jongin with his finger. When Jongin saw the attempt, he did the same. Kyungsoo blinked as if he’s watching a movie right now, the part where a child linked his pointy finger with the outer space creature.

It’s E.T. all over again.

However, all the hope on Jongdae vanished when his finger passed through Jongin. His expression fell and placing his hand back to his side. Jongin followed the suit and the look on Jongdae made him felt slightly guilty.

[“...Sorry.”]

He apologized, and Jongdae shook his head and smiled. He knew he couldn’t touch the angel. He just hoped too much.

Kyungsoo turned to his other friends and whispered. “I think it’s the best you guys leave us. Jongdae... He needs his moment.”

Baekhyun and Chanyeol nodded quietly before they decided to leave. As the door closed, Kyungsoo shifted his hand, trying to let go of the tight grip on Jongdae. But he seemed reluctant to release it.

“Jongdae, do you mind?”

Jongdae snapped from where he was looking and took his moment before he registered that he’s been holding Kyungsoo’s hand for quite a while. His hand was now sweaty. As he released the grip, Kyungsoo reached out to grab a napkin nearby to wipe the sweat off his palm. Meanwhile, Jongdae scanned around the room. He lost his sight of his brother as usual when he didn’t touch Kyungsoo.

“...This is awkward.” Jongdae spoke.

“What is it?” Still wiping his palm.

“Knowing someone is here, but you can’t see him.”

Kyungsoo placed back the napkin to where it was and took a momentary pause. Jongin wanted to say something, but it’s no point to say it when Jongdae didn’t touch Kyungsoo.

“If I was in your place, you should be grateful.” Jongdae frowned at Kyungsoo.

“You’re saying that it’s better you can’t see Jongin?”

“That’s not what I meant.” Kyungsoo rubbed his temple. He could see Jongin saddened with his puppy eyes. Kyungsoo had his reasons, but it’s not about Jongin. “Sometimes I do wish that I want to live a normal life without seeing ‘things’ every day. I did wish for it on my twelfth birthday. It didn’t happen. So my last bet was to face them. It was a hard struggle, but it’s worth to keep moving on.”

Jongdae blinked. “I thought you didn’t see them lately, or they just didn’t bother you.”

Kyungsoo shook his head mildly.

“They are everywhere. Although they are faint during daylight, however at night, they are around clearly. I pretended not to see them. Few of them knew I could, but they respected not to approach me if they don’t have a problem. They spread about my sight ability through cold whispers in the air. Some of them are happy, some of them don’t.”

“Some of them... don’t?” Jongdae repeated.

Kyungsoo drew a sad smile. “My ability is against the human nature. Human like us wasn’t supposed to see them. They hated my ability, so they choose to threaten me.” Jongdae gasped, but Kyungsoo was quick enough to stop him. “I’m okay. Don’t worry. Didn’t I tell you Jongin’s with me? He’s my guardian.”

Noticing that Jongin did a good job protecting Kyungsoo, his shoulders drooped down and calmed himself. Kyungsoo reached to hold Jongdae’s hand and rested there, Jongin was in his line of sight once again.

“Enough about me. You’ve been speechless for an hour, so why don’t you talk to Jongin? Who knows you might not have a chance to speak with him one day.” Jongdae eyed from Kyungsoo, then to Jongin. He was nervous and didn’t know where to start. Then he felt there’s a movement before he turned back to Kyungsoo, who’s taking out earpieces. “I’m not going to listen the sibling conversations. Close enough to pry your privacy. Keep talking. Pretend that I’m not around.”

Then he let the music on his phone boomed into his ears, and rested his head on the bedside before closing his eyes. He heard nothing but the music. Jongdae unconsciously smiled at his faithful friend, before turning back to face Jongin. Jongin, too, looked nervous to say anything. However, he had the courage to speak first.

[“Hey... Hyung.”]

“...Jongin. It’s been months I haven’t heard from you.”

[“Yeah. Still remember our last conversation?”]

“You choose blue frosted cupcake over yellow.”

[“Nah. I bought the red frosted cupcake instead.”]

Jongdae shook his head as he chuckled. “I knew it.” He looked up and gestured his brother. “Come closer. Let me look at you.”

And Jongin did. He walked right next to Jongdae, throwing a bright smile. Jongdae’s eyes traveled from his brother’s eyes to the lips. Somehow, he felt happy, but sad at the same time. The fact that he was happy to see his brother physically, and the fact that his brother was actually no longer alive in this world.

“Man, look at you. You’re so handsome and look a lot like dad.” Jongdae admitted.

[“Am I? You look alike him too.”]

“No, no, I’m not. We aren’t blood related. You see these cheek bones and the jaws? There’s no way I look like him.”

[“But you have his passion. I rarely saw dad as much as you do, but the way he talked to me through the phone, I felt something positive within him. That strong determination had within you reminds me of him.”]

Jongdae didn’t know how to counter that. Perhaps Jongin was true about the passion. His father and Jongdae shared that feeling and put a lot of effort at work.

“Thanks. I appreciate that.”

The detective was discharged the day after tomorrow. Amazingly, Jongdae’s bruises and wounds healed faster than they should be. The doctor gave him a compliment for taking care of his own body. Of course, Jongdae always look after his own health. Kyungsoo saw he took vitamins and ate non-oily food during lunch hour. As long he kept maintained the daily routine, his body will remain strong and healthy. That would explain why he’s a fast runner and didn’t crack his bones when leapt from a two story building. It’s hardly for Kyungsoo saw him being tired, not even once.

They were immediately summoned by Junmyeon the first thing in the morning when they stepped in the department. Both of them share glances before proceeding into the Chief Police Office. The tension increased tremendously when they saw the expression on their chief’s face. When Junmyeon gets really serious, they wouldn’t dare to speak a word. Even Jongin, who was the whole time with Kyungsoo did the same. The duo silently took a seat in front of Junmyeon, while he locked the door and sat across them. He switched his gaze between them and the case folder he was holding before he lightly tossed it on the table. The officers read the folder’s name and Jongdae was first to react.

“Sir! This is..!” Jongdae couldn’t finish his words. His eyes were wide, larger than Kyungsoo.

“It requires all my will power to take out this case. Even Kris strictly told me not to. However, I see no point to keep it any longer. Our time is short. We have less than ten months to prevent the next murder.” Junmyeon said with concern.

Kyungsoo couldn’t form a word as he slowly read the front page of the case;

‘Phantom Crimes’. It seemed the title was changed after Jongin reported an update about the masked men incident.

The case itself was a stranger to him, but after further inspect, it’s a file of serial murder that killed the police officers. Or more accurately, an unknown serial killer, who murdered the detectives. Kyungsoo took a good look at Jongdae’s reaction when he first grabbed the file. He looked... relieved, but in the deep concern at the same time. Jongdae turned into Kyungsoo seconds later when he felt someone was watching him. Jongin was curious about his brother’s reaction as well.

“D.O.,” Jongdae kept his formalities as his eyes locked onto him. “This is the murder case I’ve been dying to get. Now it’s finally in my hands... after for god’s sake four years of effort...” Kyungsoo never saw him on verge of tears when he held that case file. He flipped open the folder and not even read the case summary, he read the list of the victims that had been murdered.

Six different detectives were murdered on December 25th each year. Kyungsoo didn’t surprise when he read the last victim’s name.

[“That’s me...”] Jongin said solemnly when he read his own file, with a large red mark of ‘DECEASED’ on it.

Kyungsoo gulped lightly as he skipped to look other victims. He grieved his dead friend and he’s right beside him. That’s all matters now. He continued to read their names and spotted the connections between them. All of their names started with ‘Kim’, and Kyungsoo seemed to know why.

Except for the second victim, which was not related to Kim’s name. Jongdae had been eyeing this victim for quite some time.

But then, Kyungsoo’s expression turned dark when he saw the profile pictures. They look very familiar. Where did he see these faces before? Kyungsoo closed his eyes, trying to bring back his memories. It was further back before he met Jongdae and before Jongin was murdered, a year ago. When was it? Then he reopened his eyes, gasping loudly. Jongin, Jongdae and Junmyeon turned to him with a blink.

“What’s wrong?” Jon