“Who is it?” a female voice from inside questioned.

“Photographer, Kim Heechul!” he replied then waited for what seemed like a minute before the door finally opened.

“Yes? Can I help you?” she asked with the door half opened.

She looked familiar at first sight and it finally struck him a couple of seconds later who she was. Her face had never changed and the bangs that hung down from her forehead was always there since she’d been young.  

“Excuse me. Did you want something?” she asked breaking into his thoughts.

“Right, I wanted to know….know…” Heechul frowned then thought to himself, what did he want to know? He’d had a reason for coming up earlier, but his mind was now blank.

The phone from inside her apartment rang and she excused herself closing the door as she headed back in to answer it. Heechul felt dumbstruck as he stood there for the next few minutes finally turning when he heard a voice.

“I knew you’d steal your way up here,” it was Donghae again.

“I have nothing to say to you,” Heechul told.

Donghae just smiled at him as he walked pass and rung the doorbell to Victoria’s apartment. This time she opened it a lot faster expecting the same person to be standing there, but her face expression immediately changed to that of a polite one when she saw Donghae.

“Is there something the matter?” she questioned.

“Can I step inside for a moment?” Donghae asked showing her his investigation badge. He loved showing it off to his friends and family and was secretly proud of carrying it around with him.

Heechul watched reluctantly as Victoria allowed him inside and closed the door. With half a frown on his face he stood glued to his spot then paced around then leaned against the wall until minutes later when the door opened again.

“Thank you,” was all he heard Donghae say before the door closed again.

“What’d you talk about?” questioned Heechul.

Donghae just smiled and walked pass him. This time Heechul felt really irked.

/////

Donghae wasn’t surprised that he’d seen Heechul up on the second floor. As always Heechul was snooping around and of course Donghae knew that he wouldn’t be able to stop Heechul from doing it.

When he entered Victoria’s apartment he glanced around first. It was a cubed room with her psychology award framed and hung up on the wall above the brown sofa. A small TV sat before the sofa and a long oval glass table sat in between the sofa and the TV. There were three doors ahead which Donghae guessed was her bedroom, bathroom, and a guest room. However, he felt almost shocked when something black came running out from the open door of her bedroom. The toy poodle set her two front paws up and barked up at him continously.

“Whoa…hey there. What’s your name?” Donghae asked getting down on one knee to pat the dog.

“Melodix, how did you get here?” questioned Victoria, but before she could get a hold of the dog Donghae had already picked her up.

“I think I heard her say something,” Donghae said turning to Victoria who stared back at him almost dumbfounded.

Donghae turned back to the dog with a wide smile, “You like me? I thought so. I knew at first sight there was something special between us.”

He could see Victoria trying not to laugh from the corner of his eye then he set the dog down at last.

“I’m going to wed her in the future,” Donghae said pointing to the dog who was running off.

“Up to you then,” Victoria finally spoke.

“Victoria Song, is it? Can I just call you Victoria?” questioned Donghae.

“I guess so,” she told, “do you want anything to drink? You can sit down.”

“I’d rather stand right now. I feel that if I sit I’d fall asleep anytime soon,” Donghae told, “actually, I’m here because there’s a few things I’m curious about.”

Victoria lost her welcoming expression, but still maintained the calm frown on her face. She knew what was coming next.

“I’ve heard the report about how you found the bodies and that you’ve been friends with Il Chung and Sandy since you’ve moved here. But there’s been nothing about where you were yesterday. Can you tell me what you were doing, where you were, and if anyone was with you yesterday?” Donghae questioned not taking his eyes off of her.

He watched as she thought and thought for a long time and could see uneasiness grow within her. The air around them became a bit tense as the silence grew on. Yet, Donghae waited patiently for her reply.

“I…I was at a friends house,” Victoria tried to smile a bit, “we were just hanging out…you know having a girls’ night out sort of thing.”

“You were there all night?” he pressed on.

“Yes.” Maybe her answer was too quick because she noticed him eyeing her suspiciously.

“Can you tell me your friend’s name?”

Victoria paused. She didn’t really have any friends in town that she were close enough to to spend the night with. What should she say? What if this terrible lie ended up bringing her to jail or something? No, that wouldn’t happen. Victoria took a deep breath then finally thought of something.

“Actually, I just got transferred to a different job so I was celebrating with a few of the teachers from the college I work at,” Victoria lied, “but there were too many of them there at the celebration I don’t really know all of their names.”

Donghae nodded thoughtfully then added, “You must at least be close to one or two of them. Can you give me their names?”

Victoria quickly lowered her eyes to the ground wanting to scream at herself for lying. “Im Jee Su and Song Philip.”

Donghae scribbled their names down on a piece of note he’d dug out from his pocket with a pen and looked back up at Victoria who smiled uncertainly at him. He was sure there was something about her that made him suspicious, but he’d finished what he’d come to do so there wasn’t any need to keep questioning her.