The ringtone of your phone, soft as is, is jarring on Jungkook’s ears the morning after consecutive late nights. It’s extremely frustrating, but the cool time between their serial killer’s attacks is the only window of opportunity that they have to analyse the cases. Not that it’s doing them much good.

The motive of the murders are still unknown. None of the victims have anything in common other than the fact that they were girls from the same university who decided to spend one night outside. The buddy system is clearly not a deterrent for their killer, as each time he strikes, a pair of poor girls are abducted only to be killed, one after another. His first victim of every pair didn’t stand a chance, losing their lives immediately only to become a tool at his disposal; a map for Jungkook and his team to use in maddening, fruitless attempts to find the other girl.

Yet the first girls are not as pitiful as their partners. The former at least died swift deaths, while the torture their friends had to go through was prolonged and excruciating. Jungkook can’t help thinking that it is his fault that they all died. That his incompetency is the reason that more has to be sacrificed for a mysterious purpose, and the previous girls’ deaths are in vain because he hasn’t managed to get even one step closer to the murderer. While the first girls were impeccably clean save for the numerous amounts of clues left behind for Jungkook, the second girls were found in the most horrible states; dirty, worn, sometimes mutilated, with nothing useful to find off of them beyond their IDs. It is sad – and frankly, sickening – to think about, but their bodies have been damaged, destroyed by the elements, and as far as the autopsies can tell, provide nothing to point to the person that led them to their demise other than having the same Taser marks that clues Jungkook in on the method used to subdue them.

No, if there is anything to be found, Jungkook is certain that it lies with the cleaned, untainted bodies of the girls who were killed first. Their earrings, all different and still unknown if the victims had owned the jewelry or if they came from the killer. There is no doubt that they were clothed by him – the chances of two girls wearing the exact same white shirt and shorts are very small, and they’re now talking about four girls. Four girls. Four cases. Eight victims in all. Jungkook has sighed as he looks over the photos and clues over and over again, only coming to a dead end every time.

Sleep deprived and grumpy, Jungkook groans and lifts his pillow to flip his head underneath it, trying to ignore the jostling of the mattress as you move sluggishly to reach towards the bedside table to grab your phone. Every night he comes home late he finds you still awake, greeting him with a smile. You insist that you’re only staying up because you have a lot of work to do, but he knows you by now. He wishes that you won’t worry about him so much, but that is as impossible as it is for him to stop mulling over his cases until he gets to the bottom of them. From beneath his eyelids, he can tell that the sun hasn’t quite risen, yet it’s already warm, a warning of the scorching day this is about to be.

“Hello?”

“Mm-hmm. Wait, calm down.” Despite craving for a little more sleep, Jungkook can’t help half-heartedly listening to your conversation, even if he can only hear your side of it.

“What?!” The loss of grogginess in your voice is accompanied by an increase in volume, making him jump and sit up, knocking his pillow onto the floor. He looks at you with curiosity and finds that your eyes are already on him, wide and panicked under furrowed brows.

“I’ll tell him to go over right away.”

As soon as you hang up the phone, he pounces on you. “What was that about?”

“It’s Jimin,” you say, already coaxing him to get off the bed and get ready. “He found someone dead in his parents’ backyard.”

~•~•~•~

Jungkook is relieved to see that the neighbourhood is sparse of people when he and his team arrives. Since the first case, this string of murders has received a lot of attention, which mostly impedes their progress and puts that much more pressure on them to solve the cases. However, he knows that this lull in the surroundings won’t last very long. Already some neighbours are gathering around Jimin’s childhood home, no doubt roused by the chaos happening at the back of the house. If this is the work of their killer, the clues need to be collected and analysed immediately, not simply because a bigger crowd will only cause a distraction, but most importantly because it means that there is a girl who will die unless they can get to her first.

Being torn between hope and dread is an awful feeling. If he strikes again, perhaps Jungkook can get one step closer to end this, but the cost of a life is just too high a price. However, it’s not like they have a choice, as Jungkook looks down on the dry earth of the backyard already roped off by one of the officers, there is no doubt that this dead girl is the ninth victim of this cruel murderer.

All the tell-tale signs are there; the miraculously clean body despite being laid upon the ground, the same loose white shirt and blue shorts and bare feet. As Namjoon and Jin, who arrived moments after Jungkook did, crouch down with gloved hands to examine the body better, Jungkook’s eyes are drawn to the earrings that are attached to her earlobes. He has seen those bright blue glass globes before. Heart thudding loudly, he takes several steps away, waving off Namjoon’s call for him to dig in his pocket for his phone. Trying to calm the unease growing inside him, he dials your number and taps his foot on the ground as he impatiently waits for you to pick up.

“Hello, Jungkook? Aren’t you supposed to be at a crime scene?” Your surprised voice greets him without preamble.

“Yeah, I’m here right now, but I had to call you,” he says mysteriously, holding back on his words simply because he doesn’t know how to say it.

“Is there something wrong?” The concern that immediately colours your voice is unmistakable to his ears. He desperately wants to reassure you but how can he, when he’s full of worries and doubts himself?

“I just want to make sure you’re okay.” His relief when you picked up the phone is fast dissipating. “Maybe it’s better if you stay at home today.”

You hum an assent without asking him of his motives. “Ga-In and I are planning to discuss some of our research work today. I suppose I can ask her to come over instead of meeting at the university.”

Your easy agreement with his wish makes Jungkook feel a little better. There is never any doubt in you that he is always looking out for you, and will always clue you in when it’s the appropriate time to do so. “Just make sure that you don’t let anyone you don’t know in. One more thing.”

“Hmm?”

“Do you still have those earrings you got when we went to Venice?”

A momentary silence ensues on your end of the phone as you put two and two together. “They were still there the last time I checked,” you answer carefully. “I’ll look again and let you know, okay?”

Jungkook nods before remembering that you can’t see him. “That would be great, thanks.”

Before he can hang up, you continue, “I don’t know if this is of any help, but if you remember correctly they’re not that expensive.”

“They’re not that common here, either.”

“You’re right,” you agree with a small sigh. “I’ll call you back after I check. Good luck babe.”

By the time Jungkook returns to the heart of the crime scene, Hoseok and Yoongi has already arrived and everyone is waiting for him to inspect the body as well as the clues before everything is bagged and tagged. In the deceased girl’s hair is a white flower, about five centimetres wide, with five round petals above five spikier-looking white petals underneath. Another locket is strung around her neck, holding coarse brown powder that looks suspiciously like dirt.

“We think he stuck something inside again,” Namjoon informs Jungkook before he can ask about the final clue. He nods, a signal for Jin to open , which the zoologist does with a small shudder. As they have suspected, Jin carefully fishes the discovery inside another bag and narrows his eyes at the specimen.

“Is that another larva?” Jungkook asks, memories brought back to the horrible chase near the river that ended in futility.

At Jin’s nod, Yoongi groans as he sets up his field testing kit. “Don’t tell me we’re going to have to search in the damn rivers again.”

Yoongi’s complaint is met with a rueful smile from Jin. “No, no, these don’t live in the water. They –”

“Mind if I run this sample right now?” Satisfied