/////

Donghae parked his car on the streets by some houses and stepped out looking around the green neighborhood. Up ahead were two large golden gates with a welcoming sign “Min Apartments”. Guessing that that was the area where the homicide had taken place Donghae made his way through the open gates and immediately spotted officers walking back and forth. From where he was standing he could see the second, third, and fourth floor one on top of another. The floor of the hallways were made of concrete and long gold railings stood at the edge to prevent anyone from falling down. It looked like a pretty un-sturdy place to him. Pale yellow doors aligned the walls one after another with one window next to each door and an overgrown ivy plant climbed over the walls.

Continuing to make his way through Donghae passed officers until he came to the apartment where two bodies covered with white sheets were being carried out. Before entering the apartment he heard a female voice and turned to see an investigator interviewing her. Her long hair trailed over her shoulders and her bangs came straight down to her eyes, but what stood out to Donghae the most was her pale face. It looked as if she had just got out of the hospital or something. When the investigator walked away from her Donghae felt their gazes meet before the chief’s voice drew his attention away.

“What took you so long?! Why are you only here now?!” the round oval man questioned heatedly in front of Donghae.

The chief was also a tall man with a balding head and always wore a long tan overcoat. Maybe he wore it for style. Donghae felt like laughing at that thought.

“I was about to leave when you called this morning. You did say to go home early and enjoy myself last night so I did chief,” Donghae reminded, “do you want to know what I did?” Donghae smirked toward the chief.

 “Forget it!” the chief never minded him and Donghae smiled his cheeky smile.

“Chief Kang,” the investigator who had been interviewing the woman from earlier walked over with a notepad in hand.

“Did you get anything?”

“Her name is Victoria Song, 24 years old, and she teaches at the tech college here in Incheon. She wanted to bid Il Chung and Sandy farewell this morning before she decided to leave town, but stumbled upon their bodies. She clearly stated that she’s known them ever since she’s moved into this apartment building, which was a year ago. She informed me that they’d been having arguments over the past week, but the arguments were just regular quarrels between couples. Miss Song refused to say anything else.” the investigator finished as he looked up from his notepad.

Donghae nodded taking in everything he’d said.

“Did you interview anybody else?” questioned Chief Kang.

“A man from next door and the woman who called the cops this morning.” the investigator replied. “They didn’t believe Il Chung could be so violent and insisted that the couple were very much deeply in love. The two of them also agreed that Miss Song is the closest person to them.”

The chief nodded, but before he could suggest anything the investigator went on, “If they insist that Il Chung is not the violent type then should we look to see if he’s bought any armed weapons over the past few years? No one may know if he kept one in the apartment or not.”  

Chief Kang cleared his throat, “Yes, do that.

/////

Victoria shook her head over and over with her hand massaging her forehead. She’d been asked over and over how she had found the bodies and how she’d been related to them. For the past 2 hours she’d been telling the exact truth, but it seemed no one believed her.

They had been friends for the past year and over the past week they’d been having some arguments, but doesn’t every couple argue? The police finally walked away from her after some 5 minutes and Victoria was finally able to take a breath of relief. That was when another neighbor approached her.

“You’re their friend from upstairs, right?” the short woman asked.

Victoria nodded reluctantly. Yes, of course they’d been friends, but she had no idea what had happened earlier.

“I saw a man standing outside your apartment door at dawn and I was just about to ask him to leave because his presence didn’t feel very welcoming. But Il Chung had gotten to him before me, maybe they knew each other. Do you know anyone that is close to him?” the woman questioned.

Victoria found herself feeling ever more than confused, “You say what?”

“Never mind, I’m sure you’re too shocked from discovering their bodies to catch what I’m really saying. I hope you feel better and I’m really sorry,” the woman sympathized then walked away from her.

What in the world just happened? Victoria tried to collect her thoughts and the woman’s words together, but it didn’t come out right. A man standing in front of her apartment…she wasn’t close to any men from around town except for Il Chung and her ex. And she also did not know of anyone that Il Chung was close with. Maybe the woman had mistaken the man for someone else, maybe he’d been standing in front of someone else’s door. Just as her thoughts rambled on she heard a loud voice coming from her left. Victoria turned to see a tall man with short hair cut around his head walking down the hallway toward the apartment. He held a large professional camera that probably cost hundreds of bucks. Victoria watched as he walked up to the chief in charge of the investigation and could hear him say that Il Chung must have killed Sandy then himself because the gun had landed on the ground where he had fallen on the floor. Shaking her head in disbelief Victoria turned away rushing up the stairs to her apartment.

The officers didn’t understand how much Il Chung and Sandy meant to each other.

He would never hurt her just because of an argument they were having, if so then why hadn’t he tried to kill her after their so many arguments before? The cops were bogus and just thinking it made Victoria angry.

When she reached her apartment door the woman’s words reappeared in her mind. Had there really been someone who’d been waiting in front of her door? Victoria laughed foolishly at herself and grabbed her keys unlocking the door then headed in. That was pathetic. Why would she ever believe that someone was stalking her? She knew of no one who would be dedicatedly obsessed with her to do such a thing.

Stepping inside her apartment she could hear her toy poodle barking furiously for her. Rushing into the special room she kept for the dog she found the floor dirty with pee.

“Melodix, how could you!” Victoria scolded and ran to get some towels.

After she’d cleaned up the mess she gave the black toy poodle a bath scrubbing her fur with lots of soap. Once she was done she dried up her fur and let her run around loose then debated whether she should take a shower herself or not. In the end Victoria decided against it. It looked like her plans of getting out of Incheon today didn’t seem so likely. She’d want to stay for Il Chung’s and Sandy’s funeral before she left.  

/////

“Well, isn’t this unfortunate?” Heechul said to himself as he snapped pictures of the blood dried floor before him. “Two young lovers who’d just taken their own lives. This is very tragic.” He paused for a bit then started snapping pictures again. “The cops said their friend from upstairs had discovered their bodies this morning around 8. Maybe I should go see her.”

Just as Heechul was about to walk away from his spot a cheerful voice stopped him in his tracks. Heechul scrunched up his face realizing who it was.

“Where do you think you’re going Mr?” It was him. He was always stopping him from snooping around…well not that he was going to do anything bad.

Heechul turned around to see the handsome man walking toward him. He had to admit that the young newbie investigator was especially striking with his looks. His features were everything a girl would drool over, not forgetting to mention how skinny he was.

Heechul threw his arms into the air tightly holding onto his camera as he boasted, “My! Lee Donghae, my stalker! You’re absolutely everywhere I go now!” Heechul gave his sarcastic loud laugh and Donghae shyly looked away as if he embarrassed, but Heechul knew better. Donghae was making fun of him…well not that he really minded because they had a small rivalry thingy going on, which he partially enjoyed.

“I’d totally be a bull if I’d miss seeing you, don’t you think?” Donghae smirked. “What are you up to? The chief, by any chance, didn’t invite you, did he?” he seemed to be whispering now.

Heechul turned away with a smile on his face, “Well, would you believe me if I told you he did?”

Donghae nodded and walked away suddenly shouting toward some other officers leaving Heechul behind. Making sure that Donghae kept himself busy with the others Heechul quickly crept away from the scene and walked up the poor staircase to the third floor. He had to admit that the building was not really well structured and wasn’t kept up well. Cracks were starting to climb into the concrete floor and the green ivy seemed to be overgrowing as it climbed the walls across the building.

Walking from door to door he finally stopped at the one in the middle after he’d knocked on all the other ones. Unfortunately, he’d intruded on a couple who seemed to be enjoying themselves without being aware that a murder had taken place downstairs. Heechul had told them to go back to what they were doing with a mischievous smile and moved on. When he rung the doorbell that belonged to the other door in the middle of the hallway he could hear the high pitch of a small dog barking from inside. Raising his eyebrow in amusement he waited for the door to open.