It is almost two weeks since they had found the body of the girl encased in a glass box in the river, and Jungkook is nowhere closer to finding the killer. He feels the pressure from all sides; the victims' families, the press, the higher-ups, just about everyone wanting him to make a breakthrough on the case, but he has nothing. Hours spent on staring at the photos of the crime scenes and the clues left for them had amounted to nothing, he faces a dead end everywhere he turns. The only respite he gets is when he returns home, where the only thing he can expect from you is how you would treat him like any other day, no mention of work that makes him feel more and more useless.

Today is set to be another disappointing day of more or less the same routine for the past weeks, or so he thought. Just as he is about to head home, thinking of the escape it will provide from the nightmare that is his every day life nowadays, temporary as it is, he is summoned to a park not too far away. He looks out the window of his office. Night has already settled, and considering that the first victims of the other two pairs before were found in the morning... it can't be.

But it is. One look at the deceased - her white throat open and clean, clad in an oversized white shirt, blue shorts down to her bare feet tells him this is the work of the same killer, and it gets his blood running through his veins faster. A part of him is relieved; just a few hours earlier would have meant that the scene would be surrounded by onlookers, but now most people are safely ensconced in their homes, sitting down to have dinner and the park is for the most part, deserted.

In the meantime he, Jin and Namjoon are bent over the body laid upon the moist grass. Only when Jungkook reaches into the pocket for his phone to ask you to call Yoongi that Namjoon remembers that he should summon Hoseok as well, and soon they are all puzzling over the clues - or the lack of it.

"Are you sure there are only two?" Jin asks, even though he arrived with Jungkook and is one of the first people to arrive on the scene. "There were three clues each time before this, right?"

"You don't think it's a copycat, do you?" Hoseok asks with his back facing the corpse. Dead bodies don't agree with him, he has declared. "The bodies from before were found in the morning, weren't they?"

Namjoon confirms that the possibility of the killer of this newest victim to be the same as the ones before is very high from the little details of the way the girl was killed. However, those are the exact same questions floating around Jungkook's mind. It also doesn't escape his notice that the previous victims wore simpler, casual earrings, but this one is sporting a pair of delicate dangling silver earrings. He gently lifts one under his gloved finger. "They are still pretty plain as far as earrings go, but fancier than the ones before. Doesn't seem like casual wear to me, probably something for a special occasion."

"Since when are you an expert on jewellery, agent?" Jin teases.

Yoongi answers the question for Jungkook, one corner of his mouth cocking upwards in a smirk. "Y/n loves earrings, doesn't she?"

Jungkook nods, unashamed of his shallow knowledge that he has accumulated from your love for jewellery. Mentally, he compares them to the gold studs on the first victim and the hoop earrings on the second. The earrings may have a significant meaning, or perhaps the killer just doesn't bother with removing them.

"Timing and the earrings. These are not the only differences between this girl and the ones before," Jungkook points out. "There are only two clues this time, whereas there are three the last two times."

He nods to one of the crime scene investigators, calling him over. The agent hands a piece of paper and a bag to Yoongi, and your friend squats down to carefully lift the deceased's right hand. He empties the contents that she has been holding in her stiffening fist into the piece of paper, looks at it with narrowed eyes and cautiously rolls a minuscule stone among the black and grey grains before tipping the whole sample into the bag.

"This is asphalt," Yoongi says, frowning.

"Asphalt? Like the stuff they use to make roads?" Jin asks incredulously.

Yoongi nods, missing the 'are-you-kidding-me' look on Jin's face. "A mixture of stone, sand and gravel. Like the stuff used to pave roads, airfields, you name it."

"Well, that doesn't tell us much," Jungkook shakes his head in disappointment and turns to Hoseok, who has taken the liberty to bag the leaf they have found in between the victim's strands of hair. The botanist is now examining the clue closely, but seems to have made up his mind.

He stands up, clutching the bag containing the leaf in his hand, his lips pursed and his head cocked in wonder. "Well, the good news is, I know what tree this leaf comes from," he holds up the bag, showing them the thick, oval leaf attached to a short stem. The light from one of the torches illuminates the leaf, and as Hoseok turns it over Jungkook can see the underside covered in fine, white hair. "It's whitebeam. There's no mistake about it."

"What's the bad news?" Jungkook prompts.

"It's rarely found in the wild, but a common tree to be planted in parks and gardens. Unfortunately, unless I'm mistaken, whitebeam is grown in practically every park and garden in the city," Hoseok's shoulders drop dejectedly. "It looks like we have a long night of searching ahead of us."

"And the dark isn't going to help us any," Jin points out unhelpfully.

Jungkook can't help sighing this time. "Something isn't right. Unless the killer decides to change tactics or it is actually someone else impersonating our guy, something about this doesn't add up. The area of search is too broad and too many things are out of place." The rest nod in agreement, but there is nothing to be done about it. Then he notices Yoongi, who has been quiet and unresponsive since his last statement, still scowling at the bag of sample he is holding. "Something wrong, Yoongi?"