[Dongho's POV]

I shivered in the early winter and pulled my blazer closer around me.

I had forgotten how cold the winters in Korea could be. It had been years since I've seen the familiar buildings of Seoul. It was four years since I've decided to study internationally. America was known for having the best medical schools. 

I smiled as I remembered how excited I was to be studying in MIT, one of the best medical research university in the world. I still am excited, but after all of the studying I've done...

All of the different ways a human can die, be injured or get hurt. Basically everything in the world is harmful. It still shocks me to think how much we depend on chance to live. 

I shook my head. Now isn't the time to be all depressed. I'm about to start my new job!

A crime scene investigator. 

A smile took over my face as I entered the building of my new job. I walked over the the receptionist and waited for him to finish his call.

"How may I help you?" he asked. 

"My name is Shin Dongho and I'm here to work under," I looked at my hurried writing on the paper clenched in my fist, "Kim Kibum."

"Oh, right! Well, if you'll follow me..."

We reached in front of a door and I waited behind him as he knocked on the door. 

"Come in." said a prompt voice. 

He opened the door and waved me in. "Thank you," I whispered and walked in. 

I saw another person my age standing in front of an important looking man.

"Hello. About time. " he smiled, "You two will be working under me as investigators. You'll be working with 7 other people. You," he pointed at the other guy, "Ricky, will be working in Team 1 with Kibum and Sunggyu. While you," his pointer moved over to me, "Will be working with Team 2, Baro and Yoseob. Our wonderful autopsy is Myungsoo, who can find most things with his naked eye others will miss. And the Youngmin and Kwangmin, twins, will be the guys running around for us and catching the bad guys for us. 

"Under me, there will be no tolerance for foolish mistakes. You're not in school anymore. Every mistake could potentially cost a life. Just because you guys are newbies, doesn't mean you'll be cut some slack. You'll be working among sharp investigators who are quick on their feet and I expect the same from you both

"I understand from what I've read in your reports that you're both exceptionally bright students and able to work under lots of stress. That's great, just don't get too comfortable."

He looked at us and waited for a response. 

We both nodded. Everything I'd expected him to say. 

"You won't call me Mr. Kim, Kibum or any other name, but for Boss. Is that clear?"

We both nodded again. I guess he liked to rub in his status.

"Here are your new badges," he handed us both badges, "It's good you guys came right now, we're just about to start another case. Come, I'll take you to the guys."

He stood up and picked up a folder on his desk and started to lead us out the door and down the hall. 

Boss opened the door and waited for us to go through. Inside we saw a lounge with a small kitchen in a corner and TVs and sofas scattered around. 

He lead us towards a bunch of people who'd moved the sofas around a table. Some of them were smiling over their cups of coffees in their hands while the rest were laughing with their feet resting comfortably on the table.

"Oh! Hey Boss!" said one of them. The rest turned to us and waved us over.

"Great, we got another case?" asked one of the blondes. 

"Yup, and two new members. Here's Ricky, Team 2, and Dongho, who's in Team 1. And here's your new case." He passed the folder he was holding to the oldest-looking one. "I need to go and take care of something. Make sure they're good, Myungsoo."

He turned on his heel and walked away. 

"Make sure they're good, Myungsoo," imitated the other blonde. "Why would he ever think we'd be bad?"

The person beside him who looked a lot like him, I think they were the twins, bumped his head lightly and turned to Ricky and I. 

"Hi! My name's Kwangmin and this guy is my twin, Youngmin."

One by one they introduced themselves and told us what they worked as. 

As soon as Yoseob finished introducing himself, Myungsoo read out loud what was in the file. 

"Over the course of a week there have been an increasing amount of missing girls from the age of 15-18. All of those girls were healthy, popular and happy. None of them have any reason to run away from their homes. The four missing girls live in different neighborhoods and seem to be picked at random...blahblah...and then there's a profile for each missing girl. Team 1 will study each of their profiles and look for similarities, clues or hints, while Team 2 will split into two and visit each of the girls homes and schools. Take Youngmin and Kwangmin just in case. Am I clear?" asked Myungsoo. 

"Yes," we replied.

"I'm going to put a few labs on hold and get out some equipment, I have a feeling we're going to need them."

Baro, our team leader, decided that I'll be teamed up with him and Youngmin. Yoseob would go with Kwangmin. 

 I knocked on the door of the first victim and stepped back to let Baro take over. I wanted to see how he did things.

The door opened and Baro flashed a badge that looked identical to mine except for his name. 

"Hello, Miss. We're the crime scene investigators and we're here to look around to find any clues about Kim Hyoyeon's disappearance."

Baro shifted and I caught a glimpce of her face. I saw her red, puffy eyes and tear-stained cheeks. She looked like an older version of Kim Hyoeon, one of the missing girls.

She opened the door and let us past

"Please," she sniffed, "Do your best, she-" and she broke down. Baro and I walked around her and Youngmin stayed and patted her back. 

We swept through each room, searching each drawer, cupboard, anything that might give us a hint of what happened to her. Maybe she was being bullied. It could've been peer pressure. She might've been chatting to an online creep who found out where she lived and...

The possibilities were endless, so we made sure not to miss any details. 

We walked into the living room where we saw a middle-aged man sitting on a couch with his feet up and a bag of chips in one hand. His eyes were fixed onto the screen of a LCD TV.

"Excuse me," I said and he finally turned to us. He made sure to pause what he was watching and then looked us.

"Who the hell are you two?" he said. 

This time I flashed my badge, "We're here to investigate for Hyoyeon."

"You won't find anything. That ungrateful bitch probably ran away. Guess we weren't good enough for her."

This is uncalled for. She could be in grave danger, or worse, dead. "Are you her father?"

"Fuck, no. I'm her step-father. Big difference. Do whatever you want, just don't mess-up anything." And he continued watching his precious TV.

Like he said, we found nothing and moved on to her bedroom. 

"Whoa," exclaimed Baro. My reaction was the same. Everything from the carpet to her bed-sheets was pink. 

I heard footsteps behind me and I saw Ms. Kim standing with her arms around her body. Youngmin was behind her. 

I went over to her dresser and found a picture of a younger Hyoyeon surrounded by several other girls, some of them were one of the missing girls. I picked up the frame and went to Ms. Kim. "Do you know who they are?"

"Yeah, of course. When they were in middle school they were the best of friends. They always studied together, they got the best grades. This was during the summer, they went to the same academic camp together."

"Can we take this?"

"Sure, if it'll will help..."

"Thanks Ma'am."

We finally got out and headed to the next victim's house, Seo Joohyun. Both of her parents were mourning and there wasn't anything suspicious in her house. We found an album on her shelf with pictures set in the same camp. We took that too.

Then we headed outside. We got into Baro's car and headed for Hyoyeon's school.

[Baro's POV]

I didn't hear a word from the new kid. Well, he did say stuff to Mr. and Mrs. Kim, but not to me. Or anyone else.

Was he a robot, designed only to focus on the case? What did they teach in university these days? Socializing is bad and will get you into drugs? Your life sucks and you'll never be anything in the world?

True, we don't get paid much, but that doesn't mean you can't have any fun.

Youngmin kept on talking, not noticing a thing. He never shuts up.

"There's something fishy about this case. But there's always something fishy about our cases. I think someone kidnapped them. Yeah, some big drug lord with lots of money. And a taste for smart, popular girls. What do you think?" he asked no one in particular.

"That's what I thought. The step-father was a bit mean. But aren't they all? No, wait. There was this survey...apparently kids are more likely to be murdered by their biological kids more than they do from their step-parents. But that does make sense. If you're were getting a step-kid, wouldn't you be nice to them and try not to make things awkward? But Mr. Kim really doesn't seem like he's trying to make things less awkward. More like he's trying to make Hyoyeon be depressed and commit suicide. But-"

My fists clenched the steering wheel harder.

"If one more but comes out of your mouth, I'm going to..."

Youngmin spluttered, "But-"

I calmly pulled the car over and contemplated what I should do to him first. I smiled and got my hand-cuffs out.

Dongho burst out laughing. I nearly forgot he was sitting behind us. Youngmin and I stared at Dongho, his smiling face was a big change from the poker-face we got used to.

So he is human.

Youngmin stayed quiet so I put my hand-cuffs away and continued driving

"So, what's your story?" I asked Dongho.

"Uh..Well, I grew up here in Seoul. I got excepted to MIT, in the States and studied there for four years. This is my first day back in Seoul since then."

"Four years? So you're 23?"

"No, I'm 21. I graduated from high school early and took the advanced classes in earth and atmospheric sciences and chemistry/chemical engineering."

"Whoa," said Youngmin, "That's better than even Myungsoo! Yay! We finally have someone amongst the underdogs that can show him we can be smart!"

"We can't if we have you," I muttered to the windshield.

Dongho snorted.

That wasn't what I meant by his life story, but it was too late to ask him further. We had reached Hyoyeon's school.

As soon as we stepped out of the car, we saw that everyone walking past us was mourning. Everyone wore dark clothing, they all had sober faces and some students were even hugging each other and crying. 

A teacher lead us to Hyoyeon's classroom and we interviewed everyone who knew her. 

Basically, we spent two hours listening to Hyoyeon's best friend, Amber, sob about how she'll miss her Yeonie. It was sad and heart-breaking, but I can only take so much. She said a couple of weird stuff that didn't make much sense.

I noticed she was one of the girls in the pictures. 

The teachers mentioned how it was a pity. Apparently, Hyoyeon was one of the smartest in science in all of Korea and most of Asia. 

We went to the Joohyun's school next, but not as many people were affected by Joohyun's death as they were by Hyoyeon. she didn't seem to be as popular. Even though she was just as smart, but only in mathematics.

We talked to some of her friends. They mentioned that Joohyun was meeting up with childhood friends about a week ago. Some sort of reunion.

After we quickly finished up with interviewing we piled into my car and I started to drive.

We reached the lab where everyone usually met up and waited for the rest of our team and for Team 1 to finish.

[Kibum's POV]

Team 2 left the room and quickly got on to inteviewing the missing girl's relatives and friends.

We on the other hand looked at each other. I looked at the new guy...I think his name is Ricky...and he looked back at me. Sunggyu was looking at the wall.

The last thing I needed or wanted was another person in this team. It was hard enough working with Sunggyu as partners. His mind always drifted around. Now I have another kid to look after. Sunggyu is not going to help.

At all.

I sighed and took out the files and divided them into three piles. Ricky got Joohyun's file, Sunggyu got TaeYeon's file and I got both Hyoyeon's and Yoona's files.

This is going to take hours and is one of the most draining part of our jobs. Team 2 had to read the files for our last case. Now it's our turn. Sometimes we were lucky and we got a Jane Doe.

Before Ringo opened Yuri's file I said, "Write down anything important about the victim. What we don't need is an agonizingly detailed report of a time when a victim got sick, or whatever there is in these files. Keep to the point and shout if you get anything suspicious."

They both nodded.

Armed with coffee and pens we dived into ink and paper.

I've realized that it'll probably take a month to finish writing one case. I think it'll be more reasonable to write one case in about 5 chapters, more or less so.

This'll also give my readers time for informating to sink.

Anyways, what are my subbies thinking?

Any questions? Go ahead and ask.

I might be able to take in requests for later cases.

Yay! First chapter is complete!