“Byun Baekhyun? I’ve never heard of him,” Sunggyu murmured. Hana saw Yixing shoot him a look that screamed shut up!, and the detectives caught onto the fact that they were, in fact, out in public, and there were two outsiders that were not supposed to know what was going on.

“Okay, you cannot repeat what you have just heard right now. If you do, I will arrest you two for obstruction of justice,” the chief threatened, glaring down at Yang Yang and Sunggyu. Sunggyu raised his hands sheepishly, and he nudged Yixing to explain the situation to Yang Yang since no matter how long Sunggyu had been learning Mandarin, native speakers were always better.

“Shouldn’t we go?” Myungsoo asked when the chief and Hana sat back down. Hana went back to eating her dinner in silence.

“Yes, but you all still need to eat. The uniforms can canvass the scene in the meantime,” the chief replied.

“What about us? They will need a medical examiner,” Krystal asked.

“It’s fine. The investigative unit will deal with the bagging of the body, and then you can do a complete autopsy at once back at the morgue. Eat quickly then head out. The fact that he might be back does not mean you all overwork yourselves. Just because we haven’t caught him yet, doesn’t mean we will not catch him.” The atmosphere of the group had become grim, and they were all eating silently. Sunggyu and Yang Yang took the chance to leave as they both had early morning schedules the next day, and they bid goodbye to Yixing. He stood up to walk out with them. Hana looked up when they were leaving and sent them a small wave which resulted in an over-exaggerated wink in response from Yang Yang, but Yixing pushed him away towards the door. Sunggyu snickered at Yixing’s reaction, but he ended up dragging Yang Yang out soon after, anyways.

“Your friends are nice,” Jongin commented, trying to change the topic once Yixing sat back down. Hana felt grateful for the attempt, but she couldn’t get the murder out of her mind.

“You know one of the friends,” Myungsoo responded, putting a piece of grilled garlic in his mouth. “And I mentioned that I knew him.”

“Barely!”

“It’s close enough.”

“How did you and Sunggyu meet anyways?” Yixing asked Myungsoo.

“We grew up in Jeonju together with a few other kids. He’s a few years older than me, but we got close really fast. Then when I was 11 or 12, my family moved to Seoul. Sunggyu and I ended up losing contact over the years until he moved to Seoul to become a trainee, and then we started hanging out more. We met up a few times here and there since he was always practicing, but we’re both so busy that it’s kind of hard, what with him being an international solo artist and with me being a detective. Sunggyu met Jongin through me when I was still living in Jeonju. His family came down from Seoul to visit for Chuseok, and the parents decided it was okay to let the kids out and go wild for a bit,” he laughed, but his smile didn’t reach his eyes. “How did you meet Sunggyu and Yang Yang?” Myungsoo asked Yixing.

“I met Sunggyu at auditions. He had auditioned at MS as a trainee too, but he got rejected on the first try. I ran into him that day after practice, and we just started talking. I met Yang Yang when I was in Shanghai doing an event at a university. Yang Yang was filming at that same university,” Yixing smiled. “It was cool meeting him and all the other actors. He’s the same age as me, so we hit it off fast and stayed in contact. It also helped that I was Chinese.” The talk about the celebrities brought Krystal into the conversation, and they talked about the dramas Yang Yang had starred in.

The rest of dinner continued in a relatively pleasant mood as they continued to finish their food off even though there was the fact that Byun Baekhyun might be back after two years of disappearing. Hana had finished eating before the others, and she was utterly silent for the rest of. Hana didn’t know what to feel at this point. She had spent most of her starting years as a cop and detective trying to arrest Byun Baekhyun, and she had lost hope over a year and half ago. The fact that there was a possibility of finding him and bringing him to justice for all the things he did gave Hana hope, but there was also a sense of despair. As happy as she was that he was making moves — which meant he would eventually make a mistake —, it also meant that he was going to kidnap and kill innocent girls. Except, he had also taken a male victim too. And for what? Just a warning? Or was he changing things up?

Hana let out a loud sigh that got lost in the conversations going on around her, but Jessica didn’t miss it. Even though Yixing didn’t bring it up, she knew that Yixing heard her sigh as well. His hand twitched slightly, but then he just kept eating. Jessica set her chopsticks down and stood up, waving off the confused looks. She said something to Krystal who nodded, and then Krystal turned her attention back to the conversation about dramas.

Jessica walked over to Hana and whispered to her, “Do you want to go out for a quick walk? You look like you could use some fresh air.” Hana smiled and nodded, standing up to follow the older female. She was almost to the exit when she remembered she left her phone on the table, and so she turned around to grab it to find Yixing already standing behind her, phone in hand.

“I saw that you left it, so I was going to bring it to you,” he said in a soft voice.

“Thanks, Yixing.”

“Anytime,” he grinned. She smiled back at him and quickly followed Jessica out of the restaurant and into the crisp air of night during spring. Jessica was waiting for Hana; her hands in her jacket pockets. The two began walking in silence, neither of them wanting to ruin the seeming peacefulness of the night. As detectives, they knew more than anyone else how terrifying night could be, but they also knew that the terrors that dominated the nighttime could very well still dominate the daytime. It was how human nature was. Night gave the cover to bring the terrors outside in the open. Day gave the opportunity to keep the terrors within their own homes. Night was anything but peaceful. But then again, neither was day.

The two had walked for a few minutes when Jessica spoke up. “You remember the doctor from this morning?” she asked, turning her head so she was looking at Hana. Hana nodded.

“Yeah. Lee Howon. The ex-boyfriend.”

“You looked like you wanted to ask me more about him,” Jessica replied, turning her head back, so she was looking straight ahead.

“I did.”

“Do you still now?”

“I do.” Jessica stopped walking and looked at Hana. Hana laughed shortly. “Okay, okay, let’s just keep walking at least,” she said as she linked her arm with Jessica’s and forced her to keep walking. “I was wondering why you were still giving him your number since you two broke up.”

“Because it was more of a mutual decision about giving each other time and space to do what we wanted to for ourselves before we made a mistake by committing to a relationship rather than a career. I wanted to go to the police academy, and Howon wanted to be a doctor. Years later, we’re both in our dream careers, and I thought that it was time to go back and try again if he was willing.”

“What if he’s married?” Hana asked. Hana knew that the reason behind Jessica talking to her about boys was so she would be distracted from Baekhyun, and she truly appreciated the effort that Jessica was making.

“That’s why I didn’t say want to anything about me wanting him to contact me,” Jessica grinning, “so I just said that if he had to tell me anything else, he could call me. Plus, he wasn’t wearing a ring.” Hana laughed.

“Brilliant. Did he call yet?” she asked, shaking Jessica’s arm slightly. Jessica pouted slightly.

“No…” she groaned, but she quickly changed her tone after a few seconds. “He texted.”

“Well?”

“He asked if I was free on Saturday.”

“And?”