Chapter 1: New Case

          Sitting like a sloth on the Sherlock headquarters couch, Key, a member of the five-man Sherlock Investigation Team, sighed in utter boredom. It was summer vacation. School was out. They have the freedom to do whatever they want, but Key just sat there wallowing in his idleness. Eleven O’ clock a.m. just passed. He was itching to go do something more productive than just sit around watching Onew and Taemin race each other on the Wii Mario Kart.

          “I’m bored,” Key groaned as he ran his fingers through his messy bleached hair. He took off his eye glasses and wiped it with his shirt. “Don’t we have a job to do today?”

          “It’s the weekend. You should be happy you get a day off from all the crazies,” Jonghyun replied as he hopped onto the soft leather couch with Key. “Solving mysteries and dealing with weirdoes can be really thrilling, but it’s just nice to relax every once in a while.”

They aren’t professional detectives. The five of them are just a bunch of inexperienced teenagers, but with their teamwork, they were able to unravel the truth behind some mysteries that the real detectives wouldn’t even bother looking into. They made this their unique little hobby every summer. They do it for free, but some actually pay them for their successful services. They eventually called their three-story dorm building the Sherlock Headquarters, named after their favorite fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes.

          “Anyway,” Key got up from the couch. “I’m going out to entertain myself. You all do whatever you want. I’m just going for a walk. Ciao, losers.”

          Key left the Sherlock Headquarters started wandering through the city. After a while, his stomach began to grumble, so he decided to enter this Xiah Dragon Noodles Restaurant that he happened to pass by. The menu seems doable. Hot soup noodles, dry noodles, cold noodles—all looked pretty good. He then ordered some dumplings to go with his warm soup. So far so good.

          “You know last night, as I was about to take my midnight junk-food snack—which apparently was not in the fridge anymore for some weird reason—I saw a figure of a woman by the window curtains. I thought it was you—I mean, long dark hair and all—but when I passed by your room, I heard you snoring in deep sleep, so that means, it wasn’t you after all,” said this girl, eating with a full mouth, who was sitting at the table next to Key’s at the restaurant. Intrigued by mysterious horror stories, he eavesdropped without making it too obvious as he slurped his noodles.

         “You mean, you think you saw a ghost?” asked the other girl with the long black hair who was eating with her.

          “Tch…,” Key sneered. Then he mumbled, “Another one of those ridiculous stories…”

          “Ehh, Soo-Young, you’re probably just hallucinating. It’s a new apartment in a new building. There can’t be any ghosts. You probably ate too much last night before going to bed. That gives you nightmares, you know,” said another girl with light-brown hair tied up to a ponytail.

          “No, guys I’m serious,” said the first girl, apparently named Soo-Young, almost choking on some noodles. People say that ladies shouldn’t talk when their mouth is full, but she just goes against it. “This is actually the second time that I’ve seen it, and last time, my snack was gone too.”

          “We’ve only been living in the apartment for two days. Are you suggesting that it’s haunted? If it is, how come I’ve never seen it?” asked the second girl. “I get up in the middle of the night too and I’ve never seen any weird ghosts.”

          “Ghosts my ,” said the light-brown haired girl coldly. “I wouldn’t recommend that apartment if it had ghosts or left-over-food-stealing weirdoes. You’re just hallucinating.”

          Key was intrigued. This calls for a new case. However, before he was able to ask the girls about the mystery, they already stood up to leave the restaurant. The ghost story seemed to stick to him though—mostly because it sounded absolutely ridiculous. Who has ever heard of a food-stealing ghost anyway?

***

          After that weekend, Key and the rest of the Sherlock Investigation Team got up early for their usual summer activities. They played basketball, played videogames, and watched anime until they ran out of things to do. So there was Key again on the Sherlock headquarters lounge that afternoon, bored out of his mind. This summer just gets more and more boring without an actual mystery case.

          “Juliette, oh!” Jonghyun sang and hummed. He does that often. In fact, he’s actually a pretty good singer. Key wasn’t amused though.

          “My gosh, Hyung, sing a new song, will you,” Key complained.

          “Whyyy soooo seer-iiious?” Jonghyun sang again.

          “Ugh, I’m going out for a walk.” Key stood from the couch and put on his black bonnet. “Just call me if anything comes up.”

          “I want to come with you!” Jonghyun suddenly jumped up to grab his black fedora hat.

          “Aish, whatever,” Key groaned.

***

          Soo-Young slammed her coffee cup on the wooden table outside the donuts shop. She had been trying so hard to tell her friend Yuri that a silhouette of a woman keeps appearing to her during the night. Of course, since they both just moved in the same apartment and Yuri has not seen anything, Yuri doesn’t believe any of it.

          “I don’t want to believe that it’s a ghost either,” said Soo-Young. “In fact, I think that you have been pranking me all this time! Anyway, the silhouette looks like you, long dark hair and slender body and all…”

          “What? Why would I play a ghost prank on you and steal your ‘precious’ food? How childish…,” Yuri snapped.

          “Don’t talk to me about childish when you play with a stuffed toy pretending that it’s Yoona,” Soo-Young retorted. Yoona was a close friend of theirs. Since they entered university, Yuri missed her so much because she just moved to somewhere far away. The SooYoung-Yuri battle seems to be getting fierce.

          “Oh what? I’m not allowed to miss Yoona?” Yuri retaliated. And the battle raged on.

          Meanwhile, Key and Jonghyun were walking downtown for some fresh air. As they passed by the donut shop, Key recognized the two ladies arguing about the case of the missing food. It seems that the problem was still unresolved. He looked at them with thoughtfulness, thinking maybe there’s more to the story than just missing food and ghosts. Detectives have to be coming up with theories often. His mind just immediately drifts like that. It’s like a detective’s sense. Meanwhile, Jonghyun had other thoughts.

          “Oh, you know them don’t you?” Jonghyun spoke up, teasing Key who was staring off into space in the girls’ direction. “Introduce me to one of them. You can’t have all the ladies!”

          Key snapped out of his thoughts. “Huh? No way, I don’t know them!”

          “Oh yes, you do,” Jonghyun insisted with a chuckle. Then he started pushing Key toward the girls’ table. “Come on let’s talk to them.”

          Before the two Sherlock detectives reached the girls’ table, another girl came and sat with Soo-Young and Yuri. It was the light-brown-haired girl, except this time she was wearing a black office blouse, a white formal skirt, and a pair of white high-heels. Her designer hand bag and flashy earrings made her even more sophisticated than she already was. With a quick pull of the extra chair, she seated herself nicely and immediately started talking. Key suddenly became intimidated by her cold aura.

          “Look, it’s my lunch time so I ditched my work just to see you. Now what do you want?” the light-brown haired girl asked.

          “I want to move to a new apartment,” Soo-Young demanded. “I don’t like that apartment you recommended.”

          “I already told you, that apartment is perfect, brand new, newly-built, topnotch, and all the other adjectives fitting to describe it…”

          “And haunted!” exclaimed Soo-Young.

          “Well whatever, you already signed the one-year contract, so just deal with the stupid ghost that doesn’t even exist!” the third girl said coldly. “Anyway, I’m your close friend. I honestly recommended you the best apartment there is in this entire city!”

          “Yeah, Jessica is right,” added tan-skinned Yuri, sipping on orange juice. “There is absolutely nothing wrong with the apartment. Maybe there is something wrong with your brain. I mean, the view is nice, the interior is also nice…”

          “Then you can stay in that apartment for all I care. As for me, I’m moving!” Soo-Young yelled.

          Since the girls were beginning to raise their voices at each other, Jonghyun and Key took a step back. They heard everything the girls were screaming about.

          “Are they arguing over a haunted house?” Jonghyun whispered to Key.

          “A food-stealing ghost to be more exact,” Key replied. “Ridiculous, I know.”

          Jonghyun looked at Key and raised his left eyebrow with a smile. “You thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’?”

          Key rolled his eyes in annoyance. “No, I don’t.”

          Jonghyun snickered for a second and then walked up to the bickering ladies at the donuts shop. With a quick charismatic bow, he waved at them and touched the tip of his fedora.

          “Hi ladies,” he greeted.

They all stopped arguing and stared at him like he was a dirty little cockroach. They’re obviously not in the mood to be nice friendly ladies right now.

          “Who’s this dude?” the light-brown-haired girl—named Jessica—coldly sneered. Jonghyun flinched. She was really intimidating.

          To save Jonghyun from totally embarrassing himself, Key approached them and smiled in a really adorable and friendly way.

          “I’m sorry, about my Hyung,” Key said with a respectful bow.

Jonghyun still stood frozen on the spot. Jessica’s cold stare did not leave them at all. Soo-Young and Yuri looked at each other in confusion. Then Key stomped on Jonghyun’s foot, signaling for him to apologize. Jonghyun immediately obeyed. He stiffly bowed and said sorry. The girls still gave them strange looks, as if they came from an entirely different planet.

“Anyway…,” Key continued. “We’re not two crazy, erted kids. We just want to…”

Jessica raised an eyebrow at Key. He started trembling. Cold sweat started forming on his forehead.

“Oh wait,” Yuri spoke up. “I think I’ve seen both of you before. Aren’t you that bunch of kids called Sherlock Team or something? You guys were on the newspapers a few days ago for solving crimes and mysteries!”

          Jonghyun suddenly thawed out of his frozen state. “You recognize us?”

          “Solving mysteries?” Soo-Young suddenly thought of something. “Are you guys really detectives?”

          Jonghyun and Key simultaneously nodded.

          “Then can you help us with something?” Soo-Young asked.

          “You want help with the food-stealing ghost case?” Jonghyun and Key said in unison.

          “Hey, how’d you know about that?” Soo-Young gave them a sharp look.

          “We kind of overheard the three of you screaming,” Key explained in a low voice, trying not to make eye contact.

          Jessica rolled her eyes. “You were eavesdropping at our conversation?”

          Key tried to ignore Jessica’s sudden accusation and just took out Sherlock Investigation Team calling cards to hand out to the three of them. “We’re the real deal. Best free investigation team in the city. We won’t disappoint you. We can find out who is stealing your late-night snacks in no time.”

***

          After lunch, Soo-Young and Yuri went with Key and Jonghyun to the Sherlock headquarters, almost out by the suburbs. Their old-fashioned, English-style, brick house is very distinguished from the rest of the buildings. It’s only about three stories high unlike the taller structures in the surrounding area. This is the building where the Sherlock Team usually spends most of their time when they are not out investigating a case. The living room was kind of a mess, so when Key and the rest entered, Taemin and Minho was surprised to see the two guys with two ladies.

          “Oh, hyungs,” young Taemin stood up from his bean-bag chair and bowed to the Key, Jonghyun, and the guests. Tall Minho stood up too.

          “We have a new case, guys,” Jonghyun said with a clap. After a few seconds, Onew showed up at the Sherlock reception too. Jonghyun then started introducing the two girls to the team.

          “First off, that awkward looking dude over there,” Jonghyun pointed to Onew who just came into the living room with a big yawn. Onew shyly smiled and bowed to the guests. “…is Onew Hyung, our team leader. He doesn’t look much, but he is the main brain of the operation. He is also called the team encyclopedia. He knows too many things about a variety of subjects. When it comes to analyzing facts he is the man for the job.

          “Next guy, that tall boy with big eyes,” Jonghyun pointed to Minho behind the reception desk. Minho greeted with a charming smile. “He gathers all the clues and keeps records of them. He also operates the CCTV cameras and takes photographs. He’s in charge of tech stuff with his laptop and stuff like that.

          “Now that kid beside him,” Jonghyun continued, “Taemin, is the youngest in our team. He doesn’t judge based on outside appearances and offers a lot of insight on people’s possible motives. He looks into people’s profiles.”

          “Nice to meet you!” Taemin greeted sweetly.

          “As for me, my name is Key,” Key spoke up. “I come up with theories and look for possible clues. I also do a lot of observing and I make sure not a single detail is missed.”

          “Last but definitely not least,” Jonghyun took over again. “I’m Jonghyun, the most amazing, most handsome, most talented, most epic…”

          “What the heck, man,” Key grumbled.

          “Not to mention the shortest in height,” Minho teased.

          “Hey, shut up,” Jonghyun yelled. Everyone just laughed at him. “Anyway, I gather information from the witnesses and other people in the surrounding area of the crime—with my amazing social skills and charm of course.”

          “Our investigation team relies mainly in finding clues and putting pieces of information together. We do our job with basic forensic science, observation, and critical thinking. No need to pay us for our services. We just need something to do while on summer vacation.”

“Wow, I’ve never seen such a good-looking team of young detectives,” Yuri complimented as she eyed each one of the guys. Jonghyun started giggling to himself.

          “Hey, we’re not here to flirt,” Soo-Young rebuked Yuri. “Anyway, I’m Soo-Young and this is my friend Yuri.”

          “So, what seems to be the problem?” asked Taemin. Minho and Key grabbed each of their pocket notebooks and readied their pens for taking notes. Everyone else listened closely.

          “So here’s the story,” Soo-Young began. “We just moved into our brand new apartment a few days ago—four days to be exact—so we can go to the university that’s just a fifteen-minute walk away. Our friend, Jessica—the other girl you met at the donuts shop—recommended the apartment to us. She’s recently become a realtor. We’ve been friends since forever, so I trusted her. Now, I’ve never had any problem with any of the other places I stayed at in my entire life, but this time, ever since we moved there, strange things started happening. Now, I tend to stay up until really late into the night because of studies, preparations before entering college, and stuff like that. During those late hours past midnight—when Yuri was already sleeping— I check the fridge for my junk-food, but then I find that my food is gone. Then a strange shadow of a woman with long straight hair starts appearing to me right after I look into the fridge. It just stands there—not moving, not talking. At first I thought it was just Yuri sleepwalking, but whenever I check on her, she’s still sleeping in her bed with her tongue out—which was completely normal. When I come back to see if the woman is still there, she just disappears. This happens every night.”

          “So, you said that the silhouette appears after you check the refrigerator?” Key asked.

          “Yes,” Soo-Young replied with a nod.

          “Do you check the refrigerator in the dark, or are the lights on?” Key asked some more.

          “The lights are on in the kitchen area, but everywhere else, it’s dark.”

          Key suddenly burst into uncontrollable laughter. Everyone just stared at him as if he totally lost his mind. He even started to bend down and hold his aching abdomen from all the laughter.

          “What’s so funny?” Soo-Young growled.

          “Oh…oh…,” Key tried to calm down from his laughter. “Maybe you should turn on all the lights, and then the ‘ghost’ will disappear. It could just be your own shadow from the light of the refrigerator for all we know.”

          Yuri laughed along with Key. “He could be right. I mean, I never see the ghost whenever I get up in the middle of the night.”

          “But the shadow isn’t moving, and that doesn’t explain the missing food!” Soo-Young yelled. Her voice is really loud.

          “Don’t you think maybe your friend here ate your food?” Minho asked, pointing at Yuri.

          “Hey, I’m not that low to be eating her leftovers like that! Besides, I’m not a glutton like her,” Yuri defended herself. “I don’t even understand how she stays so unbelievably skinny after all the food she just gulps down.

          “Okay, okay…we’ll look into it,” Key said, trying to calm Soo-Young and Yuri down. “I guess we have a new case then. We’ll start investigation right away. Lead us to the place.”