Two

"Well, that didn't go too bad," Inseong commented as he walked, glancing at the guy next to him. "She was a sweet old lady, easily persuaded; I don't know why you created such a fuss about it when you called me."

Jiho rolled his eyes with a loud sigh, shaking his head firmly. "That's because this is the second time she called us about the matter," he explained as the other looked at him in bafflement, eyes slightly wide. "The first time, Kim Hansol and Kim Byungjoo were assigned to talk to her."

He had Inseong's full attention now, because knowing their two weird colleagues, things would have definitely ended up in an extremely hilarious or a terribly embarrassing way. With the two of them, there was literally no in-between. With an interested frown, the guy stared at Jiho, silently prompting his partner to continue.

Jiho let out a small chuckle as he recalled the events of that day; although he hadn't been witness to everything that had transpired, hearing the account of it from Hansol later during the day had been anything but unfunny.

"The woman was hell-bent on proving to everyone that Byungjoo was her son," he said, face breaking into a wide grin as he shook his head. "It took Hansol almost two hours to carefully go through all her belongings, without disturbing anything too much, just to be able to lay his hands on every photograph he could find of the lady with her son. All the while, she held on to Byungjoo tightly, like a prized possession, only for him to find out that he looked nothing like her son."

Inseong let out a hearty laugh at that, opening the door of a very familiar café, holding it open as he let Jiho go inside. "So when was she finally convinced about her dead husband?" He asked, the two of them walking over to the front counter.

"It took them almost an entire day. Honestly, after they told me about it later, I didn't think she would be this dramatic again. Which means..." Jiho trailed off, wincing at his partner.

The other's face paled slightly, and he groaned softly.

"Which means that she might call us again."

The two junior detectives looked up as a tall, dark-haired man approached them from behind the counter, smiling brightly at them.

"Good morning boys," Park Seungjun said in his deep but calm voice, greeting the detectives with a pat each on their shoulders. Inseong grinned back widely at the older man, the latter being another one of his housemates, while Jiho responded with his usual polite smile.

"Good morning," they replied in unison.

"I'll have your breakfast sent to your table in a few minutes," Seungjun nodded, the smile never leaving his face as he gestured towards a table near one of the windows, and the other two bobbed their heads in a silent 'yes', before walking over to the table. This particular table might as well be called the 'Inseong and Jiho table', since that's where the two of them always sat, more out of habit than anything else. It was also a little off to the side of the café, where they had the privilege of some much-needed privacy, especially if they had to discuss a sensitive police case. Not that they were assigned to extremely important cases, though. Be it any police matter, their biggest contribution would be typing up the case files, and rarely any field work.

Ever since Inseong had started living together with the other four males, he had found out about the café Seungjun owned. It was a mere five-minute walk from the building of the police station where he worked, and he, along with his work partner, had begun to frequent the place for their breakfast every day. The café served a variety of simple, healthy, but delicious food, and over time, they had come to love it, so much so that they couldn't go even a day without eating anything there.

After their usual, hearty breakfast of toast, eggs and ramyeon, the two males exited the café, making their way to the police station as they exchanged light-hearted banter. They climbed up the stairs to the second floor, walking over to their respective desks that were positioned in front of each other. Jiho sat down with a soft sigh, whereas Inseong fished around in his bag for the case file he had been working on. After having -- or being forcefully fed -- dinner the previous night, he had spent another two to three hours working on the reports, and as he made his way over to the chief's cabin, he hoped it was sufficient.

Jiho looked up from the screen of his computer to see Inseong walking back to his desk, a faint smile on his face. "You look happy," he commented, to which the other shrugged.

"Chief Han said my reports were satisfactory," he replied, the smile growing wider as he sat down, filled with new vigour from the praise; it wasn't too much, but it helped boost his confidence nevertheless.

Despite the relatively good mood they were in, however, the two of them couldn't help but notice a certain tension in the overall atmosphere within just a few minutes of having arrived at their desks. Quite a few phones rang, more than a few times. While their colleagues or subordinates seemed pretty relaxed as they worked, some of their seniors were beginning to look nervous and on edge, maybe even worried. Their heads swivelled in the direction of the police chief's office as the door swung open noisily, and Chief Han walked out swiftly over to the elevator. The detectives exchanged a puzzled but slightly alarmed look; the chief rarely appeared this frazzled.

"I wonder what's going on," Inseong said, voicing his thoughts out loud just as he caught sight of Byungjoo and Hansol. The other two walked over and sat down at their desks, both sighing at the same time. Jiho frowned, blinking a couple times as his gaze rested on them.

"What's up with you two?" He asked, his frown deepening slightly as the two turned to them with equally exasperated expressions on their faces.

"Well," Hansol began, clearing his throat, "we're just going to get handed a lot more paperwork than we have ever seen in all our years of being police officers." He only received a light, backhanded smack to his arm from his partner, and Byungjoo shook his head as he took over.

"Don't be so dramatic, Hansol. Guys, remember the case of the organ trafficking ring?" He asked, his voice coming out lower than the usual hyperactive tone. Inseong nodded in reply, shrugging.

"Of course, I think very few Koreans are unaware of it. The traffickers killed more than a dozen people with perfectly healthy kidneys, removed the kidneys from the bodies, and chopped up the rest, dumping the pieces into trashcans all over the country."

The other three blinked, staring at the guy in wonder and bewilderment. Byungjoo let out a low whistle, while Hansol was starting to look a little green in the face.

"Should I be awed or scared of the fact that you said all of it so calmly?" Jiho said, directing the question towards no one in particular. Inseong could say nothing, he just shrugged again. He had always been more comfortable with anything related to blood and gore, having watched way too many horror movies and television shows than were recommended for someone his age. It took more than a considerable amount of gore to make his stomach churn.

He remembered, ten years ago, when his father had switched on the news channel that had relayed everything about the organ trafficking case. It had begun around a couple months ago, and in those two months, the police had already come across five dead bodies- three in the first month, and two in the second. What had followed thereafter had badly shaken up the whole of Korea, the trafficking ring claiming a total of seventeen bodies in an extremely short span of seven months.

Inseong was jolted out of his thoughts when Jiho spoke up once again, this time turning to the other two.

"But why did you two bring that up right now?"

Hansol and Byungjoo exchanged a quick glance, the former leaning over his desk towards their colleagues.

"Because it seems that the organ trafficking ring is back in action."

"Seriously?!"

The three held a finger each to their lips, immediately trying to shush Inseong even as the others began to stare at them. No wonder Inseong was dubbed the loudest person on the force. It was a good thing the Chief hadn't returned to his cabin.

"Keep it down, you overexcited bunny," Jiho hissed, using the nickname he had made for his partner due to the other's front teeth. "What's with your reaction?"

The 'bunny' leaned closer, his voice barely above a whisper as he looked at the others urgently. "That's the same park I walk by every night while going home," he explained, placing both hands on the table, "and I remember catching a glance of a fleeing shadow yesterday night." His eyes were wide from the thought of almost having run into one of the traffickers, but his voice held a hint of thrill.

"You don't have to sound so happy, you fool," Byungjoo was quick to chide him. "They could have killed you as well if they had seen you."

Inseong gave a sheepish smile at that, leaning back on his chair as he scratched his chin in thought. "Anyway. Any idea about who the victim was, or who has been assigned to this case?"

Not a second after he said that than they heard the elevator ding, the door opening and Chief Han walking out, striding urgently towards his office with Jeon Hojoon and Kim Taeyang, two of their senior officers, in tow.

Byungjoo turned to Inseong. "Does that answer part of your question?" The other could only nod, knowing that he wouldn't get to know a lot of the details of the case until he got a hold of the paperwork. Which would take a considerable amount of time to reach him and his fellow detectives, since he was positive that this case would be an extremely sensitive one, and most of the times, the reports for such cases were usually handled only by the officers in charge. He wished it wouldn't be the case during this time. He looked at his partner, only to see the latter staring after the trio.

"Taeyang-hyung got a huge one this time," he muttered, and Inseong's ears immediately picked it up.

"Wait, do you know Kim Taeyang on a more personal level?" He asked, brightening up slightly from the possibility of being able to get information about the case. Jiho, unaware of his partner's intentions, nodded innocently.

"Well, yes, we were both in the same police academy, you could say we're close," he admitted. The other two watched their colleagues carefully, wondering what exactly was going through the guy's mind. Quick as a flash, Inseong leaped out of his chair, clamping both hands down tightly on Jiho's shoulders. The three were frozen, stunned, as Inseong grinned.

"Could you ask him for the details of the case, pretty please with a cherry on top?" He asked, mustering the most pitiful expression he could manage.

"Are you silly? Of course not," the other retorted.

"Song Youngji, aged thirty-one, worked as a doctor at the Yeongyang County Hospital," Jiho relayed with a sigh as he sat at his desk, taking a breath before continuing, "she went missing sometime during eight to ten at night two days ago. She had left work a little after eight, but never reached home, which means she was most likely kidnapped on her way home from the hospital. Forensics haven't been able to arrive at a definite time of death yet, but they estimate that it was between five to eight in the morning yesterday."

He was rewarded with a wide grin from Inseong. "Thanks a lot partner, you are the best," he said, then turned serious again. "Doesn't it make you wonder, though? If she was killed yesterday morning, why did they wait for so long to dispose of her body?"

"Maybe they were intending to do something else with the dead body, but ended up making a change at the last moment?" Jiho said with a shrug.

"Jiho, the traffickers have been inactive for ten years, it's obvious they had a lot of time to plan things," Inseong said, shaking his head as he stared at the computer monitor in front of him. His attention, however, was not on his work. "Okay, so suppose you're right, suppose they had to make a change of plans. But then why would they wait for more than twenty-four hours to dump the body? Wouldn't they try to get rid of it as soon as possible?"

"What if the shadow you saw wasn't the culprit's in the first place?" His partner countered, and Inseong did not have any response to that.

"True," he muttered after a few seconds, "which is why I haven't told anyone about it. It could have been anyone, maybe even an animal," he said, dejected at having lost a possible lead. "Is everything else the same as the older cases?" He asked, to which Jiho nodded.

"The kidneys were the only thing missing from her body, which was chopped up into six parts- head, torso and four limbs. The cuts were made cleanly, and the kidneys have been extracted perfectly, like a professional doctor would do."

"Of course, we couldn't have expected anything else," Inseong said, "organ trafficking rings almost always include expert doctors."

"Anyway," the other interrupted, "it's not much use focusing too much on this case unless we have been assigned to it. Let's just concentrate on our reports." Inseong sighed, nodding reluctantly as he turned his attention back towards the screen, continuing what he was typing.

"The media is going to get wind of this very soon, though," he said. "Everything has become quite advanced than it was ten years ago."

Author's Note:

Whoa, this took me a LOT of time to type. I just couldn't get out of the writer's block (I still have a bit of it, which is why I can't focus on too many stories at a time).

As I was typing this, I realised that this story is going to be very amateurish. I mean, I tried my best to do my research and stuff, but at the end of the day, I jsut decided to twist it all to my benefit. I don't really blame myself for it, though, because like I said, I haven't watched a single crime show in my life (except for one season of Castle but that was years ago). So guys, please please please don't lose interest in my story. I promise it will get more complicated and intriguing later.

I appreciate the subscriptions I've got for this story, but I would appreciate them more if my readers commented as well. It gives me a confidence boost, and I can write much better in the future (I also reply to ALL story comments I receive).

Hope you enjoyed! (This chapter felt like it was more of Topp Dogg than KNK lol)