Twenty Four. 

When Hongbin entered the main floor of the police building, it was like the world had decided to stand still, with him as the sole witness. The normal shuffling of paper stopped, everyone was surprised to see him. News had apparently spread quickly, though he wasn't sure where else he should be. After all, Hakyeon was being discharged today so there wasn't any reason for Hongbin to put off coming to work unfortunately. 

No he'd put off coming to work yesterday. After his meeting with Infinite he'd somehow managed to get back to his apartment unscathed. He'd been so tired that he'd hardly locked his front door and kicked off his shoes before he'd collapsed onto his sofa, bag full of video tapes besides him on the floor. 

That was most likely why he had a crick in his neck, from sleeping in an awkward position on the sofa. He sighed and made his way through the main room, as people finally got back to work. He was happy for once. He knew now that he didn't need to fear Infinite. But he could trust them to an extent, as they wanted the same thing the did. 

He found himself walking down a familiar corridor, towards the IT department. It'd been a while since Hongbin had been down here, though he hadn't found the need to until now. 

The IT department wasn't exceptionally big nor small. It was a more medium size. However there were probably only 5 or 6 workers in total. Not many people knew about the job description and therefore didn't even think to pick it. 

A head full of spiked up jet black hair turned towards the door as it opened, eyes lazily trailing over Hongbin before the man tilted his cap over his eyes tiredly, as if to simulate sleeping. The cap had the word 'Joker' scrawled messily over it, though it didn't seem to be the cartoon kind. Hongbin found himself huffing in annoyance as he walked further into the room, not bothering to glance at any of the other technicians. 

"Hmm...Lee HongBin...what are you doing back so soon?" he muttered, seemingly casual though clearly more interested in the others answer then he cared to let on. Hongbin sighed a little and  looked at the other for a moment before answering. 

"Yong Junhyung. I need a favour." he said, eyebrow raised at the older as he stopped spinning in the chair and stilled for a moment before the swinging if his legs started up again. 

"Oh and what might that be?" he asked playfully, swinging his chair in Hongbin's direction as he finally made eye contact with the other. Hongbin didn't look away from him either, doing so was like kneeling between the two. 

"Can you fix these tapes?" he asked, carefully placing the bag down on the others messy desk. The black haired man turned and took out a few of the tapes, examining them with vague interest before his gaze flickered back to Hongbin. 

"Maybe, their pretty banged up. It won't take me long abstract the film, I think. Do I even want to know how you got these?" he asked, arms crossed with an eyebrow raised. It was the ultimate overprotective face as per usual.  Junhyung and Hongbin's 'relationship' so to say was complicated. They weren't really best friends however they'd worked together closely for many cases. They'd learnt to mutually coexist eventually, even if there were a few notable rough patched. 

"Probably not, Thanks anyway." he replied and turned slowly taking a deep breath as he walked away, leaving the bag On the others messy desk as he went. He was somewhat happy to be rid of them. 

When he exited the room in which the IT department was based, a hand reached out and grabbed his collar, dragging him to the left of the hall. Hongbin blinked, about to lash out at whoever it was before he saw blonde hair and realised that it was Hyuk, he gulped. He didn't want to face him just yet...he had some explaining to do. 

"Where were you yesterday? You ran out of the hospital so fast that I couldn't even follow you! Then you wouldn't answer my calls and I got worried something had happened...Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?" the younger asked, whilst he scanned the older's body for any possible injuries. Hongbin was touched at the younger's concern. It was cute. 

"I'm fine~ Still in one piece see?" he teased and then grinned at the slightly taller man in front of him. "Actually I'm better then fine, I'm not looking over my shoulder every ten seconds now." Hongbin continued, a soft smile curling onto his face, showing his dimples once again. BHyuk raised a brow at the elder. 

"What exactly did you get up to..?' he asked tilting his head to the side, though he was smiling, finally glad that Hongbin was smiling again. This was also Hyuk's first time seeing the photographers dimples in full swing. 

"Just took care of some business. " he said grinning at him. 
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The hospital was thriving with life as well as it's counterpart death. If Jaehwan remembered rightly then the last time he was here, it was treating a bite mark he'd gotten off a vicious blonde girl after trying to break up a bar fight last February. Not that he hated hospitals. 

They'd been waiting for a while now, waiting for a paramedic to meet them. Them being Taekwoon and himself. The nurse, Joy had told them that a paramedic was the one that found Hoya in an alleyway, not far from the hospital itself. 

Hoya was incredibly lucky. If not for Yoseob interrupting the Demon, they surely would have been faced with another corpse that Jaehwan would have to look over himself, just like the other victims. 

They hadn't spoken much, not since the bomb had gone off awhile ago. Yet he didn't know what to say or rather if he needed to say something to his partner. 

They were soon approached by a brown haired man, who could possibly pass for a boy, considering how you g he actually looked. He definitely had a baby face still. He was dressed in an ambulance paramedic uniform, easily identifiable in contrast to the doctors and nurses rushing last in scrubs and white coats. 

"Hi, I'm Yang Yoseob, I was told that you had some questions for me..." the man said, looking between Taekwoon and Jaehwan, as if waiting for confirmation which was quickly given by the younger of the two. 

The questions were generic at the start but never the less effective. However the answers that Yoseob provided them with weren't exactly helpful. Not that it was the paramedics fault of course. He could only say what he knew. 

"I was out walking my dog, because I'd just finished my shift. I took my normal route and passed by the alleyway. My dog Gaeng seemed really anxious when we were passing and I notified a man just...just laying there. He wasn't moving and he certainly wasn't breathing. There was someone else there too, standing over him. He must of seen me because as soon as I entered the alley he took off in the opposite direction..." 

Taekwoon nodded at this as his mind wandered. They didn't have a description other then a male that was quite tall in a black hoodie. The information wasn't incredibly amazing for them in terms of the case but it wasn't terrible either. At least they had a little bit of a clue now. 

The Demon seemed to be getting closer and closer. Yet Taekwoon felt as if he was so far away from the truth. He knew that when the end finally came this world would have one less murderer and would be a better place for everyone. For those kids, back in school in the Hongdae district, for the public, the families of those they'd lost to the demon. Heck, he could bet that Jaehwan's life would be better off after this. He looked over at his partner, who was so involved in speaking to Yoseob that he did not catch Taekwoons looks. Taekwoon's lips twitched fondly. He was right. There had been positives to joining the task force. 
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Sungjae gulped a little, sitting on his brothers sofa in the living room quietly. He heard Hakyeon and the man, Jiyong talking from the kitchen. The dinner that he'd intended to cook for his older brother was long forgotten. He wasn't sure how this had happened, he was sure that he'd locked the doors and windows, checking them thoroughly. 

Though apparently not thoroughly enough. He'd been finishing the cooking when he felt the barrel of the gun pressed to his cheek. His reaction may have been deemed hilarious if the situation was not so dire. 

Their voices were too hushed for Sungjae to hear most if the conversation. He'd heard a few bits and pieces and wasn't happy in the slightest when he'd heard his older brother trying to negotiate his release, but only his release. Sungjae certainly wasn't going anywhere without Hakyeon. 

He wished that he could be more help, if he knew how to fight, or if he was more observant maybe he could of stopped this. He could have helped Hakyeon more. But he'd never learnt how to fight properly, he okay knew a few basic moves that Hakyeon had taught him when he was training way back when in the police academy. 

There was a sudden shrill ringing that smashed through the silent veil that had been cast over the apartment. Then something smashed in the kitchen and he heard grunts of pain, clearly a fight had broken out. Sungjae jumped up rushing to the door, seeing Hakyeon and JiYong struggling for the gun between eachother, knocking multiple appliances off the counter as they went. 

"Sungjae! Get the phone!" His brother yelled, still struggling with the elder before he near enough bent over backwards along the counter. Sungjae hesitated for only a moment before he rushed back into the living room, slightly panicked, eyes darting around the room trying to find his hyung's cell phone. 

He found it placed on the coffee table and near enough lunging at it, accepting the call without even looking at the caller ID. 

"Hakyeon-hyung? I'm just calling to see how your doing...is the concussion-" Sungjae cut the male voice off in his panic, blabbering. 

"We need help, I'm Hakyeon's brother, please help us! He-he has a gun and their fighting and-" his words were cut off when a shot sounded. He went quiet becoming scared because of the silence. "H-Hakyeon-Hyung!?" he yelled, dropping the phone and rushing to the kitchen, not hearing the series of rushed questions from the other side of the phone. 

He slid into the kitchen, the sight that met him making him panic once again. He rushed towards his fallen brother, checking for any gun shot wounds. He was relieved to see that there were none, only a cut on his forehead from where he'd hit it off the counter a few moments before. 

He'd got to check his brothers condition thankfully before he was ripped away from the elder, struggling and yelling profanities as he turned to see Jiyong scowling at him. Sungjae glared when they met eyes, he couldn't be afraid all the time. Hakyeon protected him. Now Sungjae was going to protect his older brother. JiYong tutted, as if scolding a child. 

"This is such a mess. You really should have let that call go to voicemail. I hope you remember this, for the next time you think of 'being brave.' " he near enough growled. The gun was back in his hands and Sungjae saw a hint of madness in the mans eyes before another shot was heard and Sungjae froze as numbing pain exploded in his stomach. 

He gasped, collapsing as the pain spread, reaching down as if to stop it only to find his hands dyed with dark crimson blood. His heart stuttered at the shock. He'd actually been shot by this psycho. He cried out and clutched his side as the blood continued to ooze from the wound. Things couldn't get much worse then this....

...was his last thought before the darkness took ahold of his body. 
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A/N: Hey everyone~ Quick note, this chapter hasn't been edited (E.g me reading through it quickly) so if there are multiple mistakes I apologise for it. I will edit it at the weekend, I just wanted to get this up as quick as I could. ALSO this story is coming to an end. Sad right? >-< I think I have about six more chapters planned and then an epilogue. I'd like to thank everyone for reading and subscribing. I love the support~