Warning: I know the first part was light hearted and funny, but this is supposed to be a crime/detective story. Funny moments will appear sometimes, yet the main story would be serious and even a bit gruesome. I hope you can bear with that

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They all sat quietly to listen to Bae Ju Hyun’s presentation, eager to start working and very curious of what their first case would be.

“The pictures in this presentation would be a bit hard to digest, so I hope all of you have a strong stomach. Then again, if you can’t even stand seeing this picture, then we’ve chosen the wrong agents” Miss Bae said seriously.

“Earlier this month, at Seoul Sungyeol High School, three girls committed suicide by jumping together, hand in hand, from the rooftop of the school. I will be showing the pictures from the scene now, please bear with it”

Pictures of the scene, in which three high school girls who seemed to have long hair, crushed together on the cemented surface, blood splattered everywhere, were a brutal start for them. More than the shocking pictures, it was the fact that three young girls committed suicide together that horrified them.

“Oh my God…….” they all exclaimed in horror.

“How could three girls jumped together???”

“What’s the reason???”

“Were they bullied?”

“What did the school say?”

“Their family must be heartbroken!!!”

Bae Ju Hyun had dealt with many agents of NIS. They were all mostly so well-trained in managing their emotions that they barely even flinched when they saw blood or a crime scene of murder anymore. To see these young men from Operation Five still had their feelings, emotions and sympathies intact made her felt a bit relieved.

“You’re right. It is indeed horrifying. The police are also suspicious of this. If one girl committed suicide, it’s devastating, but not as confusing as three girls committing suicide together, everyone in the police force that handled the case agreed that there must be something more”

“But one month after the police start investigating, they meet dead ends everywhere. The reason is because Seoul Sungyeol is the most elite school in the country. Most students are the daughters or sons of the richest people in the country. They don’t even allow their children to be interviewed properly, saying they are underaged”

“The country has power to insist doing the interviews!” Sung Jin said, uncomprehending.

“We did interview the students at school, since the rich parents created a ruckus and refused to let any of their children to be brought to the police station for interview, especially the classmates of the three deceased students. But we face a serious dead end here. None of the students were willing to say anything. They all said they know nothing of the reasons their friends jumped from the rooftop”

“There were twenty students in their class. By the time the police brought the 17 remaining students for interrogation, seventeen lawyers have arrived to accompany the students during the interrogation. They all responded with the police questions with mostly “I don’t know” or “I forgot””

“We confiscate the CCTV records at the rooftop before and during the three students jumping off, but it has been deleted”

“That’s hiding evidence!” Do Woon said, completely shocked with what he heard.

“What makes it more difficult, none of the parents of the deceased three students gave permission for the police to do autopsy. Although their bodies are badly damaged because of the fall, but autopsy can still be done, for example to decide whether there is any unnatural chemical substance in their bodies”

“I don’t see any news of this in the media” Young K commented, confused. “This is a big case, it should be all over the printed and online media”

“Did the parents delete everything?” Jae asked.

“No. Many parents from that school, including, we suspect, the school’s board of directors, bribed and threatened all media to not report about this in their platform. If there were any leaks in social media caused by the students, the parents or the school’s management would immediately delete it and threaten the student severe punishment”

“This case is special because not only three lives have been lost, but because NIS is suspicious there is a bigger scenario behind this, and the school and parents are also related”

“What could be behind this?” Sung Jin wondered out loud. “Bullying?”

“Not only that, but perhaps – an undercover business of narcotics. We have no proofs about that yet, but there are rumors about that. However, this case’s status is already unsolved. The bodies have been buried due to the parents’ request, before the police could do any autopsy at all. It’s complete dead ends because no one are willing to be questioned thoroughly, and even when finally managed it, they answered nothing”

“Therefore NIS orders your team to investigate and solve this. This is a chip that makes you able to hack any computers and websites worldwide” Bae Ju Hyun said, giving a very small box to Jae.

“These are five cards for all of you to be used when you are faced with any problems with a government official. The higher ranked officers will recognize these cards and will give you anything you need”

“And this is a credit card for you to buy anything you need, related to the case. You are required to give daily reports to me, of which I will forward to NIS Director immediately”

“How do we proceed?” Sung Jin asked.

“I should be the one asking you that question” Bae Ju Hyun retorted.

“But –“

“Your first salary, as I am sure all of you remember, is ten times higher than regular fresh graduates who are accepted as a civil servant, will be delivered by the end of this month. Do anything you deem necessary. Use your skills. The director will watch upon your work very closely. You are his experiment. If you bring any shame to the institution, he will have to step down from his position. But I have faith in his choice, so I hope you won’t bring him trouble. Most of all, if these three students were really murdered, please find the culprits, in the name of justice. We don’t want this to happen again for any students in Korea, ever. With that, I bade you goodbye, and good luck!”

Bae Ju Hyun then put two name cards on the table. “This is a secret number where you can call me if necessary. The other one is the director’s number. Don’t call him unless it’s really a matter of life and death”.

Sung Jin received it and gave her a formal military salute, before he accompanied her to the front door.

Once he returned back to the sitting room, Won Pil and the others were already seeing the printed pictures of the crime scene that Bae Ju Hyun left for them. It was gruesome and made their stomachs churned.

“This……this is really unforgivable!” Do Woon mumbled, his mind scattered thinking how these students could have been people with good future if they didn’t commit suicide.

“It’s really too bad, the parents didn’t give permission to do formal autopsies…….” Won Pil added.

“If these students really committed suicide because they were forced to do so……let’s find the people who did this to them” Jae said in his strange Korean.

“How are we supposed to do that?” Young K asked.

“For now……let’s just read these files first” Sung Jin suggested.

A few minutes passed as they silently read all the files Bae Ju Hyun left for them.

“Oh? The three deceased students were not rich, they were scholarship students” Won Pil said out loud.

They all quickly looked at the documents Won Pil was holding and yes, it was true. Somehow, it made everything worse. How heartbreaking. Three smart girls had to die so soon……..

“This can’t be a coincidence” Young K exclaimed. “Three female students killed themselves, and they all happened to be scholarship awardees for the school? That’s too much! There must be a reason behind it!”

“What should we do? Where should we start?” Won Pil wondered.

“I can……..hack the students social medias…….from the same classes as the students. Maybe they said something in their SNS……” Jae voiced out.

“That’s a good start”

They exchanged glances then went together to the computer room. Where there were five laptops and three big LCDs on a separate table.

The five men barely knew each other.

At first, they signed in either because they had no other choice, or because they were interested with the job.

But after hearing the briefing for the case, without saying anything, they all had the same resolve. To find the murderer of the three girls.

Jae three LCDs and plug the chip Bae Ju Hyun gave her. His fingers danced on the keyboard.

“The three of them are all from the first grade of high school, studying in Class 1-A. There are other seventeen classmates. Once I know their full names……..”

The four men stood behind Jae’s chair, as the three LCD got full with codes and window tabs.

They watched as Jae found out the name of the homeroom teacher, then got through the dat in her laptop. Once he found the name list of the students’ full names, he raced to find their email addresses, then hacked into their Instagrams, twitters and online blogs.

“If we want this to be fast, I need all of you to use the laptops and read through the students’ SNS together. Turn on those laptops, I’ll link everything”

They all the different laptops and sat down behind them.

“We’re lucky because the three deceased students were from one class. What we need to find out are actually students who are very active in SNS, who updates often and regularly. Find out if there are any weird gaps in their updates. Once you found it, it must be the updates deleted by the school and parents. Hopefully we’ll get a clue from that”

For the next hour, only the sound of keyboard tapping could be heard.

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Author's Note: 

So this is their first case. Three girls jumping from the rooftop of a school was actually inspired by the opening scene of The Woman in Black movie, where three little girls, due to the influence of a ghost, jumped together from a window. There's no ghost in this story, but that scene gave me the idea for this case. I hope I can write this smoothly.

PS: Dance Dance MV by Day6 is so much love, I can't even! Five dorks look awesome and adorable there!