Eunhyuk moved nervously on the couch, trying to find a comfortable position.

“Come on don’t make that face!” Leeteuk said coming into the living room.

The young detective was lying on Leeteuk’s house’s couch. A few days later from when he asked his hyung to do hypnosis, Leeteuk had managed to find him a doctor, one of his friends, who would do that as a favor to him. Leeteuk invited Eunhyuk to do that at his house and they were now waiting for Leeteuk’s friend.

“Are you sure we can trust that doctor?”

Leeteuk smiled at the detective’s nervousness.

“That doctor knows what is doing.”

They heard knocks on the door, making Eunhyuk jump in a sitting position. The blond doctor opened the door on a woman in her mid-thirties, her brown short hairs falling on her shoulders. Eunhyuk stayed there, starring surprised at her, he wasn’t expecting a woman. Without invitation the woman came in already taking out her coat and shoes, acting as if she was home.

“Aaaah! I’m washed out!” she said, massaging her shoulders.

Leeteuk coughed to draw her attention. The woman stopped, finally noticing Eunhyuk still sitting on the couch. The blond policeman took the woman by the shoulders and pushed her to the living room.

“Eunhyuk let me introduce you to Dr. Kang Sora… my wife.”

“Your what?!” Eunhyuk almost chocked.

Sora sighed.

“You say that but we aren’t even married yet.”

“Whose fault is that?!”

“And there you go again!” she rolled her eyes.

Eunhyuk stayed silent, observing that most unexpected scene. He never thought his hyung to be in a relationship and even less talk about marriage. He felt a bit vexed not to know that side of his hyung when they were supposed to be close.

“When did you two meet?” Eunhyuk asked, curious.

The two of them stopped bickering and turned to the detective.

“We met back in college.”

So it’s been a few years already… Seeing his disappointed eyes, Leeteuk explained himself.

“I’m sorry, I never told you about her… it’s just that when I met you it was after your sister’s death and…”

Eunhyuk suddenly understood the ridiculous but thoughtful act of his hyung. Because his girlfriend and Eunhyuk’s sister shared the same name he tried to spare his feelings. The woman smiled at him and draw a hand out.

“Nice to finally meet you Hyukjae, I heard a lot about you.”

He shook her hand. “I wish I could say the same.”

“I was going to tell you once the wedding was set. But this woman keeps on pushing the date, as if she doesn’t want to marry me!”

“I want to marry you!” Sora exclaimed. “But you know that I want to finish my project to be totally focused on our wedding.”

Leeteuk looked dubious so Sora leaned to him and pecked his lips.

“Don’t be such a baby! We’ve been together for 10 years, I won’t run away now after so long.”

Leeteuk smiled back at her, and Eunhyuk had to cough to bring the two lovers back to reality. It was funny and cute to see his hyung like that he never thought Leeteuk to be a family kind of guy. And Sora seemed to be a very kind and smart woman. They discussed a bit, all together, until it was time to get to work.

“Did Jung Soo explain you a bit how it works?” Sora asked, suddenly becoming all professional.

Eunhyuk shook his head.

“We are going to do a few relaxation exercises, then you’re going to enter some kind of trance. I want you to keep talking to me, to describe everything you’re seeing in this half dream alright?”

He nodded.

“But you have to relax, this way your conscious walls will be easier to go over and we’ll be able to get to your unconscious, where the traumatic event is hidden.”

“And then I’ll be able to remember?”

“It’s not that simple…”

She threw nervous looks at Leeteuk, as if she was concerned about crumpling his feelings.

“Whatever it is, doc, I can take it.” the young man said.

She smiled sadly. “You’re going to relieve that night. You’re going to see it all over again.”

Eunhyuk nodded. He was already expecting something like that… But it was nothing new. He had spent every single day of these 5 years thinking about that night, and trying to figure out what he missed. The difference was this time he might be able to have some useful memory.

“Let’s get started.” was the only thing he said.

He lied down on the couch, and closed his eyes. The doctor told him to focus on his breathing, throwing away all his thoughts. She kept talking to him, but bit by bit her voice became softer and more distant. Then he felt like a wave washing upon him, a warm and soft wave. Little blurry spots appeared behind his closed eyes, until it finally turned into a neat image.

And there he was, in front of her door step. Eunhyuk should’ve already been on route back to his base, but his sister had sent him a message saying they should meet back home. She had something to tell him. The young man couldn’t possibly imagine what she would have to tell him… she had been pregnant for a few weeks now, and was leaving a happy life with her husband. Eunhyuk smiled. Their little family was about to get bigger and he couldn’t wait for it!

Without knocking, he entered the apartment. The first thing he noticed was the sweet smell, a mixture of rust and lemon… The smell was so strong he could almost taste it on his tongue. He didn’t call for Sora, he doesn’t know why he didn’t, but the apartment had such a dead, almost sacred, silence hanging that he didn’t dare to break it. Eunhyuk went to the living room, where he hoped to find his sister and that’s when he saw them. He quickly noticed a shadow, but what caught his eyes was what was lying behind. A young woman’s body was on the ground casually leaning against the wall. He could’ve almost thought that she was sleeping if it wasn’t for the horrifying details. Her body seemed completely disarticulated, her members forming improbable angles. was opened in a horrifying silent scream. His sister’s loving face was now completely disfigured by a painful grimace. But what shocked the most were her eyes, lost in two black voids, staring at him, lifeless.

Eunhyuk’s brain was having trouble processing all he was seeing right now. The shadow turned out to be the back of a person, by the shapes of it a man, kneeling down. That person had heard him coming in, he was sure of it, but he didn’t turn around, as if Eunhyuk’s presence meant nothing at all. Without seeing, he could hear a disgusting noise while the man took his hand out of the woman’s stomach. She had a slight spasm and the terrible thought that she might still be alive crossed the young boy’s mind. Now Eunhyuk could clearly see the man’s hand, covered in blood almost to his elbow, like if he was wearing bloody gloves.

Plic. Plic. Plic.

The sound of blood dripping on the carpet. The sound grew louder in Eunhyuk’s ears. The world was gone, only that hand stained of blood was real right now.

“Do you want to taste it? The blood… do you want to feel it?” the man asked without turning around.

His voice was like a cold sharp piece of glass in Eunhyuk’s heart. And for the first time since he got in the room he had a logical reaction, as if the broken silence had set him on. His hands started to tremble, his legs were shaking, threatening to give up under him, and a lump former in his throat and stomach. He tried to take deep breaths, but the head spinning sweet smell of lemon was making him sick. He was between fainting and vomiting, but he would do either… Eunhyuk couldn’t move, every fiber in his body screaming he had to turn around and run, but he couldn’t, he wasn’t in control of his legs anymore. But something inside of him whispered that he was safe, that nothing could happen to him, as it wasn’t real.

Then something unexpected happened… He heard some kind of soft warbling. At first he thought the man was laughing, mocking him over his dead sister’s body, but he soon realized that it was not that. It was actually the opposite. The man’s body was shaken by small spasms and the young man understood that he was actually sobbing.

“It was a mistake…” he said in a broken voice.

The killer got up and still without turning around, calmly walked to the open window, grabbed the edge and hoisted out. He stopped, before jumping out, muttering over and over again that he was “sorry” and that it was a “mistake”. Then finally, the man turned to him and Eunhyuk’s heart stopped.

“Still… She turned out to be the most beautiful one.”

Then the killer smiled and disappeared into darkness.

Eunhyuk heard his name being called over and over again, the sound getting stronger, like when you are under water and slowly gets to the surface. With a jerk he got up. He was back in Leeteuk’s living room, his hyung and wife, looking at him with concerned eyes. Yes he was back, he was awake now, and he fully noticed all that was wrong with his body. Like when you wake up too soon from a deep sleep his body was trembling. He was feeling too hot, though, but cold sweats ran through his body, shaking it as if he had been stuck in a refrigerator. Quickly the woman doctor brought back a cover that she put around Eunhyuk’s shoulders.

“Hey buddy, are you ok?” Leeteuk asked worried.

Eunhyuk nodded. His teeth were chattering so hard that he was incapable of speaking.

“I’m sorry.” Sora apologized. “That happens when you violently wake a subject up from the hypnosis. But you were too agitated; it would’ve been dangerous to leave you unconscious.”

“It’s ok.” he managed to say.

His body was slowly warming itself up, his mind and body anchoring itself back into reality. He remembered every bit of what he saw during his trance. It wasn’t hard since it was almost everything identical to his recurrent nightmares. A few details differed though… The killer sobbing over his dead sister’s body, him having remorse, was something totally new. Did it even happen? Wasn’t it just an invention of his mind?

“Do you want something warm to drink?” Sora asked, cutting his thoughts.

Eunhyuk shook his head. He was incapable of drinking or eating anything right now.

“Is it possible for my mind to have invented everything I saw?” he suddenly asked.

“I don’t think so…” Leeteuk looked down. “Everything you described while you were out was consistent with how we found the murder scene.”

“Yeah, but the killer talking to me, couldn’t it be just my mind playing tricks?”

Leeteuk threw questioning looks to his girlfriend, and she answered in his stead.

“It’s possible… but I really don’t think it’s the case here. Ever since you saw that picture of your sister’s crime scene, something must’ve unlocked your memories; you just needed a little help getting there.”

Of course she would know about that, Leeteuk must’ve told her everything about him and how they kept the real truth of his sister’s crime scene a secret.

“Why? Is something bothering you? What did you see? In the end you only muttered “impossible” before waking up.”

Eunhyuk hesitated. There must’ve been a mistake. He wasn’t sure of what he saw. It would be too easy to just remember the killer’s face in one séance right? Yeah, it was probably a mistake. The killer’s voice echoed in his mind… such a familiar voice… such a familiar face…

“So… were you able to see his face?” Leeteuk asked, impatient.

“Yes…”

“Who is it?”

Eunhyuk took a deep breath, almost scared of saying it out loud.

“Donghae. It was Lee Donghae.”

***

Eunhyuk rang the doorbell nervously, his hand slightly shaking. He had come here right after leaving Leeteuk’s apartment. His hyung had tried to reassure him, to find some logical explanation to why Eunhyuk would’ve seen Donghae’s face as the killer.

“I don’t really know what’s going on between you two, but I know that somethings there.” he had said. “You spend most of your time together and he means a lot to you so it’s normal he would be in your mind.”

“You’re telling me that I saw him because I can’t get him out of my mind, but he is not the killer?”

“I’m saying that Donghae had been on this case with you from the beginning and that he is as close as you are to Sora’s killer. So it would be normal for your unconscious to choose a familiar figure to fill the blank of the killer’s face.”

“So you don’t think it’s him?”

His hyung never gave him a definite reply and just shook his head, as if the answer seemed obvious.

And that’s how Eunhyuk ended up on the apartment’s porch. He knocked again and a few seconds later the door was opening on Donghae’s tall figure. With his broad shoulders, and his muscles showing behind his white t-shirt, Donghae was very well built. His brown hairs falling on his face, forming small curls at the tips… And those amazing chocolate eyes… This man was beautiful in every single possible way. Eunhyuk