He pressed his ear against the door and glanced around before he grabbed the doorknob to feel that the door had been left locked. Clearing his throat Heechul ran against the door once and it flew open. Once inside he glanced at the cotton sticking out of the ripped sofa in front of the window before his eyes. Lights were off and the dust flowed down the air with the sunlight into the apartment. Closing the door behind him with camera in hand he turned the light on to find that it didn’t make much of a difference from when the lights were off. Snapping a few pictures here and there he walked on.

“No pictures on the walls,” Heechul said snapping another picture, “no homey decorations.” he snapped another picture.

He stared at the worn out rug in front of him and the missing TV that should have been on the table before the couch. Three closed doors were at the wall to his left. Opening the door in the middle he found that it was the bathroom. A small toilet and a tub full of fungi. The sight made him want to lurch. Snapping quick pictures Heechul shut the door and went for the door to the right of it.

“My God…” he muttered when he looked in.

Art supplies lied in a mess on the table before him sprawled with scribbled out pictures. Switching the light on Heechul frowned when he took another step in. Victoria, Victoria, Victoria. Every one of the pictures that sat on the table were of her. In majority of the pictures were the two friends in Incheon, the professor that was murdered, the man he’d seen drive her home just yesterday, and Donghae and himself. But everyone of their faces were scribbled out.

Stalker.

The word appeared alone in his mind. Chief Kang had asked him to sneak into the stalker’s home.

Snapping pictures here and there he backed out shutting the door behind him and the last door led him into the stalker’s bedroom. On the table next to the made bed was a framed photo of Victoria Song. Above the bed was another framed photo of Victoria Song. Heechul glanced around and found another framed photo of Victoria Song.

"Are you really that dedicated?" Heechul asked to no one.

It was the first time in his life that he'd ever run into a stalker...or if he'd put it specifically it was the first time in his life he'd snuck into a stalker's home. Just seeing so many of Victoria's photos gave him the slight shivers. He never knew there was someone watching her 24/7 but now that he'd found this place he felt afraid for her.

He opened the closet and found it full of other framed photos of Victoria Song. Clothes hung on wooden bar, hangers neatly all next to one another.

"He sure is organized on one hand..."

Boxes lie on the ground full of magazines and photo books. Heechul reached for them pulling them out and skimming each one. Each photo book were photos and photos of Victoria Song. Seeing so many pictures made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. At the end of one of the picture books were a few photos of a purple house of someone and Victoria Song always standing next to each other, their faces full of expressions. Heechul made sure to take pictures of everything he saw and after stealing the last few photos he stepped out.

Before exiting the apartment he peered out through the peek hole to make sure that no one was in the hallway. When he was sure no one was there he quickly walked out and ran down the stairs this time.

/////

Donghae walked down the narrow roads with Lee Wei beside him. Cars passed by like traffic in Seoul, but not as much. Lee Wei looked around and led him across the street and into a neighborhood of close knit houses. They finally stopped at a small grey house with trees on both sides as if hiding the house.

“It’s here,” Lee Wei said.

Donghae nodded and followed after him. After knocking on the door a woman in her late 40’s answered the door. Her fading hair was mixed with a bunch of white strands tied up into a bun. Lee Wei greeted her and asked to go in. Donghae watched as the woman eyed them suspiciously then finally allowed them in.

It wasn’t an impressive sight. There was the kitchen, a few bedrooms, and the living room with a small TV and sofa. The blaring of the old static radio filled the house before the woman turned it off. She invited them to sit down on some home made wooden chairs.

Lee Wei began talking and the woman replied back in an unhappy manner.

“She says Ren Gei left her 3 years ago.” Lee Wei told. “She doesn’t want to talk about him.”

“He left?” Donghae repeated. “Where did he go?”

“He kept talking about finding a girl so he left after taking some money from her,” Lee Wei continued.

“But where did he go?” Donghae pressed on.

“South Korea.”

Donghae ended the visit quickly, raced back to the hotel, and packed whatever he had. As soon as he grabbed a taxi he made the call to Chief Kang.

/////

Heechul walked in to find Chief Kang hanging up the phone. Placing a package of pictures on his desk Heechul stared at him.

“It's the first time I've come across something freaky like this in my investigating career that I've left behind. You don’t want to skip looking at these,” Heechul said and reached for the pictures he’d taken from the apartment. “I found these too.”

Chief Kang took the pictures from him looking through them.

“Is it him?” Heechul asked. “He’s in Korea?”

Chief Kang glanced at Heechul as if he wanted to confirm the fact that Heechul had caught onto what he'd asked him to do.

"You must be really close to both Victoria and Donghae." Chief Kang smirked.

"You thought you could send me to the stalker's home without me realizing it? Play a better game chief." Heechul advised. 

“Donghae just called,” Chief Kang said after taking a breath during a moment of silence, “that guy left China 3 years ago.”

Feeling his mind spin Heechul turned around to head back out.

“Where are you going?” Chief Kang called after him.

“I need to go see Victoria.” Heechul said.

“Heechul, don’t do anything stupid.” Chief Kang warned. “She doesn’t need to be alarmed about this.”

“When the stalker is keeping an eye on her 24/7?! Who knows, he might be the one who’s been murdering everyone around her!” Heechul snapped. “He could want to hurt her next."

/////

Victoria glanced at the kids playing around in the neighborhood and turned her attention to Melodix who was lying down comfortably. Getting up a few minutes later she called Melodix in the house after her and closed the door locking it.

She was preparing to eat dinner when she suddenly received a phone call from Heechul. Wondering what he wanted she answered.

“Victoria,” his voice sounded urgent, “where are you? Home? In your apartment?”

“Well…yes.”

“Lock your door, keep your windows shut.”

“I don’t need you to tell me that.” Victoria said feeling annoyed with him being so worried. “Why are you calling me?”

“He’s crazy, Victoria,” Heechul continued leaving her lost, “you’ve been watched 24/7.”

“What?” Victoria spun around to glance at the window almost confused.

“Your stalker’s real, he’s dangerous.”

“Heechul, I know. I don’t need you to tell me. I’m going to hang up now.”

All she was able to transmit to her brain was that if Heechul kept her on the phone he'd just want to drag some time to be with her. And most of all she didn't want to speak to him right then, what if Donghae called? He hadn't called her the past few days and she was beginning to get paranoid about him turning cold on her again. She knew well of the stalker and she didn't want to be reminded about him by Heechul, especially when she still had Donghae keeping an eye on her.

“Listen to me, Victoria,” Heechul urged, “listen. He knows everyone you’ve been with. Your two friends from Incheon, the professor from your university, me, Donghae, everyone of all your friends. He knows them all. Have you ever thought about it? Everyone around you died.”

Victoria heard silence in the air and her heart pounded in that silence. She’d never thought about that. Through the phone she heard the door close.

“Don’t say that.” she warned feeling even her voice shake.

“I’m serious,” Heechul told. “Open the door for me, I’m going to take you back to the investigation center until this comes to a closure.”

Victoria was about to refuse but heard Heechul gave a small shout before all was quiet and all she heard were miscellaneous sounds. Her heart thumped as she turned toward the door still holding the phone to her ear. Had he been near? Was that why he’d told her to open the door? Did something happen? Why wasn’t he speaking anymore? Feeling her heart thump louder she rushed toward the door and ran out to look around.

The sun had fallen so quickly that it was almost dark now. She walked further and saw two shadows in the dark. No noise came from her but her legs froze on spot as she continued to watch. Her sharp vision transmitted to her brain that someone was holding a sharp object, a knife. Letting out the loudest scream she could force out the shadow turned to see her, froze, and ran. And when he ran Victoria finally moved forward stopping by the body on the ground. Dark liquid flowed out from his stomach and his eyes rolled back showing her the whites of his eyes.

/////

Eunhyuk was just heading into his room to relax when he heard his phone ring. Picking up he could hear Victoria’s muffled voice talking in slurs. Was she crying?

“Victoria?” he said.

When he finally got what she was trying to say he dashed out the door to find Hee Sun just walking into the kitchen.

“Hee Sun!” he literally shouted making her turn in alarm.

“What’s wrong with you? Don’t scream.”

“Hee Sun, your oppa’s airplane is going to land in an hour. I need you to go pick him up for me.” Eunhyuk said feeling out of breath.

“What? Why?”

Eunhyuk clearly knew she couldn’t do it, but there was no one else available at the moment. “I have to go to the hospital. Tell him to come.”

“Who’s in the hospital?”

“Just tell him to come to the hospital.” Eunhyuk told and ran down the stairs out back to his car.

When Eunhyuk finally reached the hospital he found Victoria sitting by the ER. Hurrying over he glanced at the two large doors then back to her.

“What happened?” he asked.

She shook her head, “I don’t know…he tried killing him. I don't want to remember..." Victoria stared at the ground with her eyes moving around so much in panic he had a hard time following her gaze. "I’m so tired of this, I don’t want to see anyone die anymore.” Victoria covered her face flustered.

“Who’s in there?” Eunhyuk asked nodding toward the large doors.

“Kim Heechul.”

/////

After grabbing his suitcase in a rude manner he walked out looking for Hyuk but didn’t sight him anywhere. Crowds and crowds of people were awaiting for whoever they were waiting for and they were all so tall. Why couldn't Eunhyuk be taller?

“Oppa!” a voice called breaking through the strings of the other people's voices.

Turning to his left he recognized Hee Sun hurrying toward him.

“Hee Sun?” he asked surprised to see her. “Where’s Hyuk?”

“He’s in the hospital.”

“What? Why?” he felt alarmed.

“He told you to go there.”

After dropping Hee Sun off Donghae retrieved his car and debated whether he should call Chief Kang or Eunhyuk. In the end he called Chief Kang who gave him the summarized details of what had happened.

“You should come to the office too. I have some urgent things to show you. Actually, Heechul discovered them, so I think I may know why he was attacked,” the chief explained.

“Ok, I’ll come by after going to the hospital.”

Dashing through the doors and down the hallway he spotted Eunhyuk and Victoria talking to the doctor in front of the ER. His heart lurched in excitement when he saw her. When the doctor walked away they looked at each other letting out a sigh of relief. He watched Eunhyuk pat her on the shoulder. Urging his feet to move he began to walk toward them at a slow pace. They finally noticed him when he stopped before them. Giving Victoria a sorry smile he gave her a warming hug before all else would come. The story he’d heard in Hangzhou about the rehab never left his mind.