“Stop twirling that pass Baekhyun, you’re gonna poke someone in the eye.”

                “Relax. This harmless thing won’t hurt anyone. It doesn’t have the sharp edges like the one back in headquarters. Now those could kill you.”

                “I should know, I helped invent them.”

                “Didn’t you say the new ones come laced with poison that stuns people if it cuts them?”

                “Yes but we’re still testing them. Last trial almost killed one of the guys.”

                “Almost?” Baekhyun raised an eyebrow as they walked up to the front door of The Dame’s mansion.

                “Too bad. It probably should have killed him. Old Kwanghee was getting on my nerves.” Kyungsoo rolled his eyes as he pressed the doorbell.

                “Is no one in?” Baekhyun rang again when no one answered the door.

                “Maybe. Let’s get in through the side windows.” Kyungsoo and Baekhyun made their way around the left side of the compound and found an open window. Baekhyun hoisted himself up and poked his legs through. The sight that laid before him was unlike anything he had ever seen before.

                Maids and butlers, all former staff of The Dame (former only because she passed away) were dancing and drinking in the kitchen with the TV blaring loud pop music (something by Katy Perry, Baekhyun couldn’t figure it out because it was awful). One of the butlers had a beer bottle in his hand and he was shaking his head as if he had a head full of lice and he was trying to get rid of him while the other one was drinking straight out of a whisky bottle, lightly gyrating his hips while one of the maids danced as close as possible to him, almost ing him.

                “What in heaven’s name?” Baekhyun’s eyes widen in shock as Kyungsoo climbed in after him. The staff were screaming and singing at the top of their lungs. The cook was banging away on a stone pot lid with his wooden ladle as he downed shots of vodka. Baekhyun grabbed the wooden ladle from the cook and banged against the stone pot so loud the cook fell backwards in shock.

                “Excuse me!” Baekhyun banged a few more times, getting everyone’s attention. “What the is going on here?”

                “Who are you?” one of the maids ask, walking funny and her arms were like limp spaghetti.

                “We’re from the police force here to investigate your employee’s murder.” Kyungsoo held up the pass, though he really didn’t need to. Neither of the staff seemed sober enough to pay any attention to them.

                “Oh right! I forgot!” the maid with the funny walk cackled. She walked towards them and gave a very weird curtsy. “I’m Luna.”

                “Nice to meet you. Is this normal employee behaviour?” Baekhyun asked, looking around the room.

                “This? Oh no of course not!” Luna hiccupped. “Madam would never let us drink at all. This is a celebration that we are throwing for her.” She fumble over her words.

                “A celebration?”

                “Yeah, that the old died!” the staff roared loudly and clinked their bottles and glasses. “God she was a pain in the . I’m so glad she’s in heaven so that she could boss someone else.”

                “Maybe she’s in hell.” The cook mumbled loudly.

                “If she is, she’ll be telling the guardians of hell what to do all the time!” the staff cracked up at Luna’s joke. One of the butlers, whose pants are undone and his zip was halfway down, said “That cow would order someone to fill her bath and feed her grapes while she’s getting her manicure.”

                “Don’t forget to clean my car!! And peel the skin off my new freshly imported bananas! I want a smoothie when I come back!”

                “This is ridiculous. They are making fun of a dead woman.” Kyungsoo’s face contorted in disgust.

                “I don’t think she’s in the running for Employer of The Year.” Baekhyun nodded, watching the staff crack up at their asinine jokes. “Let’s go. They’re too drunk to notice.”

                No one heard Baekhyun and Kyungsoo run up the stairs and onto the second floor. They found the bathroom in no time at all, with its police tapes still surrounding it.

                “Should we go in?” Kyungsoo asked.

                “The police cleaned this place. If they can’t find anything let’s not waste our time.” Baekhyun dragged Kyungsoo into the next room. Just because The Dame died in her bathroom doesn’t mean the crime took place there.

                “Alright let’s see what we can find.” Baekhyun cracked his knuckles and started opening wardrobes and drawers. Kyungsoo was flipping through bedsheets, careful not to leave too big a mess.

                “I found her presciptions.” Baekhyun opened up her drawers and found pill bottles inside. “Sleeping pills and hypertension medicine.”

                “It doesn’t make sense. Why would she take a sleeping pill before she took a bath? Shouldn’t it be before you sleep?” Kyungsoo shook his head. He flipped one of the pillows and an old leather-bound book was underneath it. “Bingo! Diary found!”

                Diaries are like the treasure maps of a human mind and conscious. From diaries you could gauge a person’s personality and their secrets. If a diary is found usually the battle is half-won. Kyungsoo flipped the book open and read aloud.

                “I see you in my dreams. I think of you all the time. It pains me that we have to hide our relationship.”

                “Was she having an affair?!?”

                “Calm your Baek we don’t know anything yet.” Kyungsoo flipped a little bit more. “She didn’t write very often, her entry dates are weeks apart. Check this out, ‘I worry for you every day. I wonder if you’re happy or if you’re eating well. I wish I could be braver and reveal myself to you, but on certain days watching you from afar is enough.’”

                “She is hiding a lot more than we thought.” Baekhyun flipped through her closet. The Dame’s closet consisted of suits, dresses and high heels. There was nothing suspicious there. Baekhyun moved to the other side of the room. He paused a few steps away from the fireplace and tapped his foot.

                “What are you doing?”

                “I feel something funny.” He tapped his foot again, checking the floors. He kneeled down and pulled at one end of the carpet. The original parquet flooring lay beneath the carpet and Baekhyun ran his hands along it. Kyungsoo felt a little dent in one corner and pressed into it. The panel of flooring shifted, revealing a safe right below it.

                “Forget wall safes behind picture frames, this lady has a floor safe.” Baekhyun chuckled at the ingenuity of it all. “Kyungsoo, you’re the man. Crack this safe for me babe.”

                Kyungsoo grabbed something from his back pocket. It was a pen, but pens from P.I.E are nothing but ordinary. The pen was also an X-ray laser. With a push of a nib the laser shone at the safe, revealing it’s inside mechanism. Kyungsoo had cracked hundreds of safes and he smiled to himself. This safe was just an ordinary one.

                “I think The Dame was in love with someone.” Baekhyun commented, reading the entries from her personal diary. “But there is no mention of his name here. Look! There are some ripped pages at the back!” he felt the edges with his fingers.

                “Maybe those pages contained his name. If someone knew that The Dame was having an affair with someone they could use that against her.”

                “But would it be enough to drive anyone into murder?”

                “You never know. Love is a powerful thing.” Kyungsoo shrugged, his fingers turning the safe knob, slowly as he worked his way around it. “It can make some people do some pretty crazy things.”

                “And how would you know?”

                “Well…Hawaii comes to mind.” Kyungsoo looked back at Baekhyun, his face turning apologetic when he realized the shift in Bakehyun’s expression.

                “That wasn’t love! That was…I thought we agreed not to talk about it.”

                “You’re right. I’m sorry.” Kyungsoo shook his head. He knew better than to press on. “Do you think Chanyeol and Jongin will get anything from Kris?”

                “I hope so. I doubt Kris has anything to hide. What can he possibly have against his ex-wife? They don’t even talk anymore.” Baekhyun shifted his feet impatiently.

                “I just find it funny the way Chanyeol hung around us for a whole morning without realizing he was half-.” Kyungsoo giggled, remembering the morning’s activities.

                “I don’t know about you but I wasn’t complaining.” Baekhyun giggled back.

                “That doesn’t really seem like you though. I thought you would prefer men with a better body. He’s rather skinny and a bit flabby isn’t he?”

                “It’s not too bad. He’s got a body that matches his face, you get what I mean?” Baekhyun bit his lip unconsciously.

                “Are you interested in him?”

                Baekhyun shrugged at that one. “He’s cute, that’s all I can say. And his voice is kinda hot.”

                “I just hope you won’t string him along or just use him to get into your pants. I don’t think he’s that kind of guy.”

                “Why do you always make me into some kind of playboy who uses people as ? I have feelings, I’m capable of falling for someone!” Baekhyun sat up defensively, pointing an accusing finger at his friend.

                “Because that’s what you always do! You flirt shamelessly, tease them to no end and once you’ve had your fill then you drop them like banana peels.”

                “Only during missions! How else do I get them to spill the beans like passwords to safes? Believe me if I knew I would have seduced The Dame and get her to reveal her safe password so that we don’t have to sit here and try to crack the damn thing.”

                “Done.” And just like that Kyungsoo opened the safe doors. There were a bunch of papers and files inside. Kyungsoo grabbed the files while Baekhyun grabbed the papers.

                “These are certificates and IDs. Her driving license, passport, marriage license, birth certificate…” he flipped around the papers before stopping on a few he had never seen before. “Hang on. Why does she have two death certificates?”

                “Death certificates?”

                “Yeah, one is issued to Mr. Kim Jaejoong while the other is to Mr. Kim Seokjin.” He pulled the two documents closer. “Mr. Kim Jaejoong, died on February 2 1992 when he was 30 years old. Died of heart failure.”

                “This other one says Mr. Kim Seokjin, died on April 22 1991 aged only 3 years old. Cause of death was natural accident?” Kyungsoo looked up in confusion. “Look at this. It said that his body was buried in Limon Costa Rica. And his parents are Kim Jaejoong and Li Su-En!”

                “So The Dame was a widow before she married Kris. And she had a son who died young.” Baekhyun continued scanning the certificate. “It said Jaejoong died a year after Seokjin and of heart failure. He was buried here in Korea though.”

                “It must have something to do with these articles I found.” Kyungsoo opened the file in his hands. There were lots of news articles collected inside. “Some of them were about her and her success, her marriage to Kris and look, articles about an earthquake in Costa Rica in 1991.”

                The duo read the newspaper clippings. “It said in this one that the quake was of magnitude 7.8 on the Richter scale in the Caribbean region of Limon. At least 50 lives were claimed including a family of Koreans who were there on vacation. The Koreans involved were Mr. Kim Jaejoong and his young Chinese wife Li Su-En along with their son.”

                “This one says that the family survived, except their son remained missing. They could never find his body in the hotel where the family was discovered. Li Su-En suffered a broken spine while her husband had one of his legs trapped underneath the rubble, several broken ribs that lead to a collapse lung and a cracked skull.”

                “Wow. That’s pretty miraculous. I can’t believe she survived it.” Baekhyun breathed, looking at the pictures of the 1991 disaster. “She lost her son in an earthquake and her husband a year later, probably succumbed to the injuries he suffered during the earthquake.”

                “And no one knew about this?”

                “I don’t know.” Baekhyun shook his head. He dug around the safe a little more and discovered another small panel. “, it’s another safe.”

                “It’s a safe within a safe.” Kyungsoo took a look at the panel.

                “Can you crack this?”

                “It’s digital and this is not just some type-in-random-numbers . Look at this.” He pressed a button and a timer pops up. “We have a limited number of tries to key in the correct password or not only will the alarm be sound off, triggering the house security system but also self-destruct and destroy its contents.”

                “. So we can’t mess around with this .”

                “We need clues for this.” He turned off the panel and grabbed the files. “We’ll come back for it later. Right now let’s make do with what we have.”

                “What if we go down to the room below us and try to drill our way into the safe from below?”

                “No use. Any physical tampering with the safe would trigger its destruction mechanism.” Kyungsoo got on his feet. “Let’s see if we can find anything else.”

                Baekhyun and Kyungsoo were just about to check the next room when a loud shattering sound was heard from down below. A gunshot followed soon after. Baekhyun and Kyungsoo’s bodies sprang to life as they raced down the steps to the source of the sound.

                “What is going on?!” Baekhyun demanded as they rushed back into the kitchen. He dropped his jaw when he saw what unfolded before him.

                “Hey detectives!” Luna swayed in her spot. The staff had found a gun and was shooting blanks at empty wine bottles. “Wanna play? It’s called Drunk Hunter. The guy that gets the least shots loses and drinks all these shots over here.” She pointed to a whole row of alcohol shots on the counter.

                “You people are drunk out of your mind! Stop that! Those could be dangerous!” Kyungsoo ordered. The chef was wobbling as he held the gun in his shaky hands.

                “It feels so good…*hic*…”

                “Give me the gun.” The chef pouted as he handed the gun over. The rest of the staff booed him as they danced in their spots to the loud music. The sun isn’t even down and these people were wobbling like the giant balloon people in front of gas stations.

                “Sorry I’m late.” They heard someone come in through the front door and it was Driver Kim with boxes of pizzas. “I had to stop and pick up Lady Hani on my way over here.”

                “’Bout time you got here. Jiyoung here was gonna throw up if you didn’t fill his stomach.” The chef pointed at one of the butlers.

                “Don’t you dare do that! Then I’ll have to clean it!” Luna threatened and dived straight into the pizza. She turned to the detectives. “Join us!”

                “No thanks. We had better get going.” Baekhyun looked back at Kyungsoo. “Should we tell them not to go anywhere?”

                “It doesn’t look like they can.” Kyungsoo looked back in disgust. The two were about to make their exit when someone put a hand on Kyungsoo’s shoulder.

                “Hi, I’m Driver Kim.” He bowed curtly. “You must be the two other detectives working on the case. Where is Detective Park?”

                “Detective Park is busy following another lead.”

                “Have you discovered anything of use?”

                “What do you know about the floor safe in The Dame’s room?”

                “Floor safe? I’m afraid I have no idea what you are talking about.”

                “Then where were you just now? And how can you guys be celebrating at the death of a woman?” Baekhyun asked, hands on his hips.

                “I was getting the pizzas and serving Lady Hani.” He bowed his head a little. “You don’t understand sir. These people, the staff, they are mourning The Dame.”

                “Mourning?!”

                “Grief can make people do some crazy things. At first it was a bit of alcohol every night to soothe the pain but eventually they just lost control.”

                “And you don’t do anything about it?”

                “One drunk man is easy. A few drunk people are not.”

                “Was she a good employer then?”

                “She had her moments.” The driver explained. “She paid and treated us well, but she was demanding. She yelled at us sometimes but it was not something we couldn’t handle.”

                “Thank you.” Kyungsoo patted him on the shoulder. “Now why don’t you go inside and make sure they don’t do anything stupid.” The driver nodded and headed back in.

                “Kyungie my good friend, we have seen a lot of crazy things, but a drunk and reckless staff mourning their employer is a first.”

                “It almost made their story sound sad. Almost.” Kyungsoo agreed.

*****************

                “So you’re telling me that The Dame had a son before she was married to Kris?” Jongin looked up, scribbling in his notebook again. The gang had met up back at headquarters again, where Suho made sure they were supplied with food and drinks to keep their energy going. There was Jongin’s favourite pie, but he decided to forego that to focus on the case. Chanyeol took the opportunity to eat some for himself.

                “Yes. Lost in an earthquake. It says here that his body was found under the rubble of the hotel the family was staying in.” Kyungsoo read off his computer screen.

                “Would recent memories of her son’s passing interfere with her marriage? According to Kris for months before the divorce she was preoccupied and distant.”

                “I bet she was having an affair of her own.” Baekhyun pulled out The Dame’s diary. “Just read this. She was in love with someone else and wanted to ‘spend our lifetime together’ and ‘the pain of not being able to come forward with you agonizes me like a knife through my heart’.” Baekhyun threw his head back dramatically and wiped fake tears. “What is she, a businesswoman or a dramatic playwright?”

                “If we find proof of this affair, then we’ll know that someone might resent or even kill her for this.” Jongin pointed out.

                “But who?”

                “It could be Kris, or it could be her children who depended on her. It could even be her other lover, but we need to figure out who he or she is.” Baekhyun shrugged, sitting down on the table.

                “I doubt Kris would do that. He was prepared to end their marriage and he didn’t sound like he had any bad blood against his ex. We still need to talk to her children.” Chanyeol shook his head.

                “Wait! Kris mentioned that Kim Jongdae was hosting a dinner party for The Dame. It would be the perfect opportunity to get in and get to talk to her kids.” Jongin suggested.

                “Not to mention check out the other guests who might have close ties with The Dame and find out what crazy experiments she was investing in.” Baekhyun agreed.

                “And how pray tell do we get in?” Chanyeol asked.

                Kyungsoo cracked his knuckles and smiled. “Leave that to me. I’ve got just the solution.”

*******************

                “Hey Jongdae.” A woman named Sunny knocked on the door of Mr. Kim Jongdae’s office. “An email was sent from the ambassador of Turkey’s email this afternoon. It seems he has misplaced his invitations and would like to bring his children with him.”

                “How many would that be?”

                “4 in total?”

                “Just send it off to him. No big deal.”

                Believe me. Those invitations will never reach the ambassador of Turkey.

A/N: For those of you who are wondering, the earthquake in Costa Rica was real and actually happened, however I did take a real life event and used it for fictional purposes. I'm not sure if an actual Korean family was involved so please do take it lightly.

One another note, I'm sure many of us by now have heard (or seen) Tao's new album. I loved all the songs and I'm happy he has the chance to showcase his talents, but I would be lying if I said I don't kinda hate it as well.

Don't get me wrong, I love him and his music. I have always respected Tao for who he is and admired him, but I wish he would cut the cord. I hate the fact that there is no official statement regarding his negotiations with SM. I hate that SM took down his MV for 'copyright' meaning the content belonged to SM but nothing about it seemed like it belonged to SM at all. I hate that he never said about it himself. I hate that he couldn't be honest enough to tell us he wasn't coming back. I hate that there are no clear lines. I hate that in some deep down part of my heart I'm still wishing for his return. It's like dating a guy who still meets up with his crazy stalker ex and when one day you guys go out for lunch and he tries to pay but ends up finding his ex just blocked his credit cards. I have had nightmares of the credit card machine just beeping there saying 'acess denied'.

I feel like I'm hanging on a rope tied to the edge of the cliff. I want someone to cut the rope and let me drop. It would kill me, but finally I would be free. I wish I could find closure and I think I'm beginning to. I just wish it wasn't this way though. Some of you might remember my previous fic The Great Story. It was written for Kris's departure and it provided me an outlet for healing. Perhaps I should go back and read my own work. LOL

I'm not looking for any justification his actions because who am I to judge if he was wrong or right? I will always love Tao but I am not going to pretend to be completely happy about this either. Nevertheless, he has my support no matter what and I wish him the very best from the bottom of my heart. Huang Zitao hwaiting!!

Leave comments down below on what you think of that matter. All opinions are respected but please refrain from bullying anyone who doesn't feel the same way. These are trying times and we should be supporting each other, not hurting one another.

Thank you all!!!