The neon lights on the walls were blinking on and off, although the ones on the ceiling were not. Some of the gangsters were sprawling on the floor, tried to get up and leave, and some of them were too drunk or beaten up to move. The angel watched they scattered away from the pub or lay down, given up on the fight.

However, they’re not his concern. His companions were nowhere found. So he assumed they were hiding somewhere safe, according to the plan.

The only area the gangsters didn’t touch or break was the bar itself. He slowly approached, took a seat on the untouched rounded chair and placed his arms on the bar. Whispers were heard nearby seconds later, and Jongin didn’t speak a word, knowing the voice belongs to the older.

“Um... That went well.”

Kyungsoo was sitting on the floor behind the bar counter. He didn’t suffer any injuries unlike the others. Fortunately his partner, Jongdae, was sitting next to him, smiling brightly like an idiot.

“I told you it worked.”

“You changed it by the last minute! Who would think that hiding here would be a great idea?! What if they jumped over and break all the wines on the rack?!”

“But we survived.”

“Unbelievable.” Kyungsoo rolled his eyes before he heard a girl’s voice joined in. Oh yeah, they have almost forgotten about the bartender.

“The pub is ruined. Our tables and chairs are broken. More glasses and high class wines are shattered. Oh god... I’m going to get fired.” The girl sunk her face on her hands.

Seeing the solemn underage looking girl made Kyungsoo pity of her. He knew how it felt when people get jobless on the work they loved to do. Kyungsoo would make his move to console her since it’s pretty much of his job, but Jongdae beat him into it, and somehow he had a soft spot on the opposite gender.

“We did warn you that we don’t want to cause any trouble. Basically, they started the fight, causing the mess. You can ask them for the bills when they come back on the following day.” Kyungsoo facepalmed on Jongdae’s explanation, because that’s not how you console the desperate girl.

The girl stared at him. “Excuse me?! I am the one who warned you! You came at the wrong time and look what you did!”

Jongdae made a weird look, clearly showed that he had no idea. Until the girl rolled her eyes, and grabbed him to stand on his feet. Jongin, who had been listening to their bickering, jumped in his seat from the sudden appearance of his brother and the girl from the counter.

“See this? See this?! This won’t be happening if you listened to me!”

Kyungsoo stood up seconds later, and scanned around the pub. It’s a complete mess. He stopped at Jongin’s gaze, and then to the couple who hadn’t stopped arguing.

[“She’s tough for such a young girl.”]

“Quite obstinate too.” Kyungsoo agreed.

They kept fighting for over five minutes before Jongdae whined at his partner.

“D.O.! Help me out!”

Kyungsoo returned with a shrug. “You said to yourself to stick to the plan. I’m just a guy under your command.”

“D.O.!” Jongdae whined loudly.

“I’ll consider if you say ‘please’.”

“....Please?”

That’s definitely the worst request Kyungsoo ever made, because Jongdae has the sympathy expression when he whines unlike Jongin. Once he began to beg, his eyebrows curved lower than they’re supposed to be. His sharp eyes were now sparkling wide, without a sign of mischievous intent. The signature Cheshire grin was totally gone from his face, replaced by the saddest looking cat in the worl-- Okay, Kyungsoo had to give up.

“Let me deal with this, Mr. No-sense-of-gentleman.” Shoving his partner aside, he cleared his throat. “I apologize on behalf of my partner. He usually puts his own benefit as the main priority than people.” He ignored Jongdae’s loud scowl and Jongin’s snicker.
 

“I can see that.” The girl was still glaring at the unfortunate detective.

“Allow me to explain clearly to avoid confusion. We have indeed come at the wrong time, but the time is not waiting for us. There’s a serial killer out there trying to murder his victims. We’ve been patiently taken our time, let us say...” He turned to his watch. “Nearly ten minutes since we came in. Let me ask you what would the killer do in ten minutes? He certainly overjoyed that he succeeds murdering the victim for less than a minute, and freedom awaits him without no one--“

“Okay! I get it! You win!” The girl scratched her hair and exhaled an annoying huff.

“Then we can proceed to question, shall we?” Kyungsoo turned to his back, drawing a smirk of victory and made a ‘Serve you right. I won this time.’ look at Jongdae.

Jongdae was defeated. His expression was priceless as if his brain was malfunctioning. An ace detective lost to the psychologist, was a big shame to his pride. He mentally hands down to Kyungsoo, because there’s no way he can win against the smart brain in the team. Meanwhile, Jongin was already planted his face fully on the bar, couldn’t compose his laughter on everything he witnessed.

After Jongdae found himself back, he stepped forward, and apologized to her before he continued. “So as my partner was saying, can we get this started?”

“Sure, but I don’t think you can pull the information out of me much. My name is Kang Soohyun by the way. I worked here for almost half a year.”

“You’re an employee, and I assume the owner of the pub isn’t around?” Jongdae asked.

“She’s out for some errand and will be back soon.”

Kyungsoo stepped forward this time, placing down five portrait photos of the unmasked men that caught during Baekhyun’s kidnapping. “Have you seen these men?”

Soohyun glanced for a second before she shook her head. “Haven’t seen them. Not even once.”

“Are you sure? You didn’t even take a minute to look at them.” Jongdae frowned, not convincing with the answer.

“I recognize my customers very well, the regulars and the recent ones. That guy over there.” She pointed and the detectives turned to a drunken man, who’s been sleeping soundly on the floor.”He’s our regular. Been sleeping in our pub for more than ten times, and I keep wondering if he has a life. And that small guy over there was just come in yesterday. He found out our place is fun to hang out and made new friends, ended up getting beaten. Poor guy.”

Kyungsoo turned to Jongdae, then Jongin. “She didn’t stutter.”

[“Obviously she’s not lying.”]

Jongdae inspected the photo once more. He found it odd since the only lead was this place. He could blame the criminals gave them false information, but it’s frustrating to know it’s just a waste of time. After a minute of thinking, Jongdae perked up and widen his eyes at Kyungsoo.

“What is it?” Kyungsoo blinked.

“It’s the other way round. We’re not looking for these guys in the photos!” Kyungsoo gasped of realization before Jongdae continued.”Miss Soohyun, have you seen any masked men hanging around in this very pub?”

She tilted her head. “The masked men? You mean the wolf boys? Now you mentioned it, they didn’t come here lately. They were also our regulars like four of them... No, wait. Maybe five or six?”

Jongdae hit the spot. So those wolf guys wore the masks every time they visited the pub. That explains why Soohyun didn’t recognize any of them in the photos. “They’re wanted criminals and had been in our custody for further investigation. However, they’re not our main target, but related to the serial killer. I hope you can help us tell more about them.”

Soohyun nodded. “Like I said, I don’t know much about them. They hang out here quite often and their usual spot at the most corner of the pub. No one dared to approach.”

Kyungsoo wrote on the notepad. “And what were their daily bases in the pub?”

“Discussions, phone calls, drinks, play cards... Quite sometimes I saw them managing papers and pictures.”

The three detectives shared looks. That didn’t sound good at all. “Did you see what those papers were all about?” The girl shook her head, and Kyungsoo continued taking notes. “Did you find anything odd? Just a slightest odd thing about them that made you wonder? Maybe their behavior or anyone who dared to break a conversation?”

“I don’t think so. Very much I saw they stayed at the same spot for at least two hours before they left.” Kyungsoo just nodded. There’s a silent pause for a moment where Kyungsoo revising his notes and Jongdae joined next to him, the girl spoke again. “Erm... wait.”

The detectives turned to her.

“Perhaps I do curious about one thing.”

Jongdae suddenly anticipated by her answer. “Yes, go on.”

“It’s my boss. She warned me about never serve them any drinks, because if I did, they will eat me alive. So my boss served the drinks until now. Oh! And there’s one time when they were the last costumers in the pub, my boss escorted them to the back door instead of the front. Because I would lock the front exit and use the back door after my job’s done.”

“That’s very helpful.” Jongdae s