“Mercy killings. Of course, that makes so much sense!” Jessica exclaimed. Myungsoo shot her a confused look. “That would make perfect sense as the killer’s motive — killing people that are suffering from painful diseases out of the notion of compassion.”

“We need to contact SNU Hospital and figure out the details of this guy’s disease. Hana, you should call Lee Jangjun’s sister and find out which hospital he had been going to,” Jongin directed. Hana nodded, and they split up to go back to searching the apartment since they hadn’t been able to find much so far. Hana left the folder where she found it and continued to wander around the living room, all the while dialing the older sister. She waited for a few rings before someone picked up.

“Hello?”

“Is this Lee Jangri?”

“Yes, who is asking?”

“Hello, Ms. Lee, it’s Detective Park Hana from the Seoul Police Department. I’m in charge of your brother’s case,” Hana explained.

“Ah. Yes. Have you found anything?” Lee Jangri asked in a tired voice. Hana could imagine the pain that she was going through, having to deal with her brother’s death while planning for his funeral before it was ever supposed to happen.

“We have a few theories and leads, but I don’t want to take up too much of your time. I just had one question — which hospital was your brother going to for his treatment?”

“Seoul National University Hospital,” she answered immediately. Hana in a breath; her mind already spinning.

“Okay, thank you. Have a good day, Ms. Lee.” The two hung up after that, and Hana walked over to Yixing (who had managed to find an iPhone charger and was charging his dead phone) and Myungsoo.

“So, I have news.” The two looked over at Hana. “Lee Jangjun was also admitted to Seoul National University Hospital.”

“That’s our connection. There had to be someone who knew that they were both fighting fatal lung diseases, and then figured that killing them would be better than them living with the disease,” Myungsoo smiled, his index finger pointing upwards and his dimple showing.

“Wow don’t get so excited over death, Myungsoo, your inner-Kyungsoo is showing,” deadpanned Hana, and he just poked her in the side to which she squirmed away. She saw Yixing smile at the two before he started speaking.

“Stereotypically, it would probably be a female in her late-twenties to mid-thirties since that’s the age most females become mothers. It’s typically at that stage that these females would have a high level of compassion in them that would cause them to feel motherly towards those in pain. They would want to make the person end the suffering of those people, but clearly, it’s a deranged sense of compassion considering the person is killing others,” Yixing said.

“Okay, so that’ll be a good place to start with suspects. Not that we have any right now,” Hana spoke.

“Tsk, don’t be so negative, Hana. Now come on, let’s finish up searching,” Myungsoo chided as he walked away from her and Yixing. Hana rolled her eyes but started walking around the living again, this time looking for anything that would indicate that he had in eaten anything the night before. However, there were no signs that Hana could see that would show that Kim Matthew had eaten the previous night, unless he had cleaned up after himself before he had died. There wasn’t a proper dining space, so she figured he had to have eaten in the living room. She made her way behind the sofa to see Yixing crouching there, trying to reach for something.

“What are you doing, Yixing?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I see something under the sofa,” he grunted, “I’m trying to pull it out. I’m almost there-”

“Wait!” she pulled him up by his arm. “Don’t touch it! It could be evidence. Here,” she spoke, giving him the gloves that she had been wearing, “wear these.” Yixing put on the gloves and crouched down again to see if he could reach whatever it was that he saw under the sofa.

“What does it look like?” she asked.

“It’s a lump.”

“Of?”

“I have no clue. That’s why I want to take it out. It’s not like I enjoy doing this,” he grunted as he continued stretched. A few seconds later, he stood with a victorious ah-ha!

“...that’s a piece of a chocolate chip cookie,” Hana deadpanned, noticing the brown color of the lump, it’s dough-like nature, and the very noticeable big pieces of chocolate chips. Yixing looked at it closely and turned it around before speaking.

“Well, yes. Yes, it is.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“What? He could have liked chocolate chip cookies,” Yixing replied, shrugging. Hana shook her head.

“Not that. The fact that there was a piece of cookie under the sofa when he’s clearly a very clean person. Look at the room,” she spoke as she gestured to the living room, “everything is neatly placed, and it’s dusted and wiped clean. There aren’t any plates or glasses around, either. So why would he leave a piece of cookie under the sofa? There’s nothing else there, right?” Yixing shook his head.

“Could it be he was eating it when he died?” Yixing asked suddenly. Hana snapped her fingers. Jongin used to be a physics major in college before he had supposedly found his true calling as a cop, but he retained much of the knowledge, and he came in handy with situations like these.

“That’s it! Jongin! Come here!” she called. He came a few seconds later and immediately started speaking.

“Okay, so this dude’s a complete clean freak—”

“We can discuss his habits in a bit, come here,” she bec