As soon as he had the information, Donghae notified Eunhyuk, who jumped on his feet to run to the precinct. He expected Donghae to be as excited as he was, but for some reason the brunet had a gloomy expression and wouldn’t say a word during the whole way to the precinct. When they arrived at the office everyone was already in the meeting room and the effervescence was tangible. Kyuhyun was focused on his computer, typing hard, Sungmin was talking with Kangin and Leeteuk in front of a map of the city, Heechul and Hangeng were leaning over lists and files on the table and finally Yesung and Ryeowook were pinning pictures of the past victims of the Classic killer on a board. Eunhyuk stopped a second on the door step to embrace the scene, and he felt his heart fill with pride and excitement. This is what he had been working on for years. That was finally it: the Classic killer’s case was reopened. Eunhyuk turned to Donghae, smiling from ear to ear, but the analyst didn’t smile back and just kept staring in the void in front of him. The thin man would’ve liked to ask him what was wrong but he couldn’t because Sungmin came to him as soon as they set foot in the room.

“We were waiting for you, guys! Leeteuk-hyung just got here too! Have you heard? We thought we would find him by looking into the bases records but we had the wrong one.”

“Of course I know.” Eunhyuk said proudly. “It was my Hae who found out what the numbers meant.”

“My Hae?” Sungmin raised an eyebrow.

Eunhyuk smiled, and turned to Donghae to seek support but the man was lost in his thoughts and didn’t seem to have heard. Sungmin threw the detective a confused glance, and he just shrugged.

“Anyway… Thanks to Siwon we know where to look now.”

“I don’t get it!” Heechul exclaimed, hitting the table with his fist.

Everyone in the room stopped doing whatever they were doing and turned to him, surprised. Eunhyuk walked over to him.

“What is it?”

“Even if we have the lists of Nonsan base, how are we supposed to find that guy? Our only lead was that he was someone close to Henry and that he has special sniper training, but now… Do you know how many have sniper special training in Nonsan? A lot!”

Heechul pushed the files on the table, in frustration. Eunhyuk wanted to reassure his sumbae but unfortunately he was right. It would be hard to narrow their suspects, but Eunhyuk believed in Siwon, he knew that if his brother in law left this, it was to help them.

“Has anyone considered that maybe Siwon-shii is the CK and that he is making us go on a false lead?”

Half the room turned to Ryeowook and threw him dark glances. Surprisingly it was Yesung who calmed them.

“Maybe not that Siwon is the CK but we know that he is working for him, forced or not.”

“I saw the footage…” Leeteuk intervened. “, when he dropped the paper in the bin, and that was not the attitude of a serial killer plotting to distract us.”

“That’s very subjective to tell only by looking at the footage.”

They started arguing, everyone giving their personal opinion and theories. That attitude would’ve pissed Eunhyuk up, before, since they were losing a precious time. But he didn’t know what to think and everyone was giving convincing arguments. Finally it was Kangin who made everyone quiet down.

“We don’t have time to argue! Heechul and Hangeng have managed to narrow a list of guys that correspond to our profile, from Henry’s military base. But now we have this new evidence that could change the direction of our investigation completely. Unfortunately we don’t have time to pursue both leads. The Classic killer already knows that we are onto him and even started cleaning behind him, it’s just a matter of time before he disappears again.”

Everyone stayed in silence. After exploding earlier, they were now faced with an important decision that could define the success of years of investigation. The pressure filled the air as everyone waited for some of them to say something, but none of them did. That’s when Kangin turned to Eunhyuk.

“So? What do you say?”

Eunhyuk’s eyes widened. Was he asking for his opinion? He never did, so why now?

“Why me?”

“It’s your case. So it’s your call.”

The thin detective couldn’t’ve been more surprised. Sure it was the case of his life, but he would’ve thought that because of his emotional connection with it no one would take his opinion seriously. But what Kangin was suggesting went even beyond that. He was giving him the power of decision. Eunhyuk looked around the room, at his colleagues and no one seemed against it, they were simply waiting for him to say something. Sungmin smiled at him and he could see an unconditional support in his eyes. Then he turned to the person who he would value the opinion above all others. Donghae still seemed lost in his thoughts but still looked up at him. It was strange, because the brunet seemed to be leading the same kind of debate inside of him, as if he had to take a big decision. Then, almost imperceptibly, Donghae nodded, giving him approval, and Eunhyuk knew that whatever he chose, the brunet would stand beside him. He slowly turned to his boss.

“I trust Siwon-hyung. Let’s go with Nonsan.”

Relieved sighs could be heard around the room, and Eunhyuk realized that even if everyone seemed to have different opinions, they somehow agreed with his decision. Feeling this support, Eunhyuk smiled, all fired up.

“Now let’s get this son of a !”

***

Donghae was still a bit stunned. Since they figured out that new lead he found himself incapable of sharing his excitement with his boyfriend. His brain was too busy recollecting everything about this chess game they were playing, from the beginning. After Eunhyuk’s decision, everyone started reviewing the case and focusing on Nonsan’s list. Yesung, Ryeowook and Kyuhyun went back to the NP, focused on their new task, which was looking at this case with new and fresh eyes. Donghae’s should’ve followed but for some reason he found himself in front of the board where Yesung had pinned all the pictures from the murder cases and the victims. Of course Donghae didn’t need to look at those, he knew the pictures by heart, even if he had only seen it once. All those women, with their dislocated bodies, their mouth open in a silent and horrifying cry and those eyes that expressed everything but peace. Then Donghae land eyes on the most important of all pictures. Sora must’ve been a beautiful woman when alive. She had light brown hairs, falling on her chest curls forming on the tip. And of course she had the same grey eyes as her brother, that must’ve shined with brightness. Now they were just dead… The knot that was in Donghae’s stomach went up to his throat and he felt as if he was going to throw up. His nausea was so strong that he was starting to see blurry, when suddenly someone put a hand on his shoulder.

“Not a pretty sight, right?”

 He jumped, surprised by Sungmin’s sudden presence newt to him, but his cold hand on his skin was actually a blessing. It helped him focus on the present and not on the horrors going on in his head. Sungmin seemed suddenly worried by the analyst’s face, because he started frowning.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m not feeling very well…”

“Yeah… You’re pale as death, dude!”

Donghae threw a glance at Eunhyuk, worried he would notice his discomfort, but fortunately the detective was focused on some things with Kangin and Heechul. That’s when something came to the brunet’s mind.

“Sungmin, who took care of Henry’s apartment?”

“What?”

“I mean, he had an apartment right? And things? Since his brother is in prison and that he doesn’t have any other family, someone must’ve taken care of it, right? Was it Kangin-hyung?”

“It was me.”

Donghae’s heart jumped on his chest. That’s more that he could’ve wished for.

“And it was a pain in the , seriously. The bureau wanted it settled as fast as possible but at the same time they wanted to review everything of his apartment to understand how a serial killer could infiltrate the police… Honestly, it was weird and painful to go through his stuffs.”

Donghae nodded. He could understand that feeling. It was the same when he was on a case, on the murder scene, pieces of a person’s life still lingered around and it felt as an intrusion, before you were reminded that this person was now gone, and didn’t exist in this world no more. It was probably worse when it was someone you knew. And Sungmin had known Henry for years…

“So were did all his personal belongings go?”

“The bureau has it…”

The brunet’s hope shattered. He thought that maybe he could find something in Henry’s stuffs that would put his crazy theories at ease. But if everything was at the bureau then until he was able to get the right papers to have access to it, it would already too late.

“Except some letters.” Sungmin finished.

“Letters?”

“Yeah, we found out that Henry… no I mean Changsoo, had been writing letters to his brother for years, but never sent them.”

“Where is it now?”

“I went through it with some guys of the bureau, but we didn’t find anything suspicious or helpful, it’s just a little brother telling his daily life to his hyung. So we decided to send it to Changmin.”

Donghae’s heart started beating fast for the second time. That’s exactly what he needed. But it meant that he had to go back to that prison and face Changmin, thing that he hasn’t done, unlike Eunhy