She promised herself that next time, she would not listen to the ramblings of an old woman. Ever again. She threw a glance to her partner in crime; the boy looked just as sceptical as her. They were in front of a mansion, at the end of the street. There was supposed to be a medium living in here.

There had been several cases of break-in in this part of the city— the very rich neighbourhood. Several houses were robbed, with a great number of precious jewels and money stolen, and no clues at all. No signs of broken locks or broken windows, no signs of fingerprints or hair. Of course, the unlucky proprietors had immediately called the police. The police did their usual job, but it appeared that led to nothing conclusive. The police did not found the culprit, or at least did not say anything to the victims. So the victims felt very frustrated and began to think the police would do nothing to help them. So they turned to a more private wing, private detectives as it was.

That was why she was standing there, with her associate.

Well, just before landing there, they had been in an old woman’s house. She saw them asking a few questions to the neighbours and insisted they would come to her house, for she could surely help them. It resulting in her making tea and talking mostly about suspicions she had. And her marvelling over the boy, how he was charming and looked just like her son. And four or five cups of tea.

Until she mentioned a medium.

“Excuse me, a what?” had asked the girl in disbelief. She already thought they were wasting their time, but that was the last straw. The old woman put down her cup onto the table very seriously and looked at her. “A medium,” she said. “It’s not the usual kind of medium. She once helped me find my cat. And my keys. She is very talented. I’m pretty sure she will help you finding that awful thief.”

The girl looked at her partner, then sighed. “Ma’am, are you aware that mediums aren’t exactly reliable?”

“Oh, but this one is truly gifted! I can assure you. You should visit her. Her house is at the end of the street, you can’t miss it.”

 

--

 

The girl turned to his associate who was staring at the front door as if he had never seen one before.

“Do you want to knock first?” she said.

The other blinked his brown eyes and shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m scared a weird woman dressed like a scarecrow would jump on us the moment we knock.”

“A medium is not a scarecrow.”

“That’s not what I said.”

“Yes, you did, you coward.”

“Excuse me if I don’t want to knock at the door of a super creepy mansion, all for questioning a medium of no use. Wait- do mediums practice voodoo spells or—”

The girl snapped furiously: “Oh, for the love of—” and knocked at the door.

The very next second, the door opened slowly, in a creaking.

The girl unconsciously got closer to her partner.

There was a boy standing on the threshold. A boy with grey hair, so grey it almost looked silvery. And he seemed barely older than her. He looked at her then at her associate with gentle brown eyes, then his mouth quirked up at the corner in a smile, revealing a dimple.

“Kwon Yuri and Kim Soohyun, welcome to my humble house. I’ve been expecting you.”

 

--

 

There were three explanations:

- The medium had seen them coming and had told this boy their names (unlikely since mediums didn’t have real powers)

- The old woman had called the medium right after they left her house (swift wasn’t a synonym of old)

- The medium had seen them hanging around lately and asked their names to the neighbours (more likely)

Although it was confusing. The silvery-haired boy led them to the hall, which was large and high-roofed and covered with red velvet on the walls. It had that feeling of reassurance, warmth and comfort. He turned to them a bit and said:

“I assumed you wouldn’t want any cup of tea.”

“Hell no,” exclaimed Soohyun.

“Great, because a glass of apple juice is waiting you.”

Yuri frowned. “I’m sorry, but… how did you know we would come?”

The boy didn’t answer; instead, he led them in the dining room. He was right about the apple juice. When all of them sat down, there was a filled glass waiting for them. He would do great as a butler.

She crossed her arms and didn’t touch her glass. “So, where is Madame Irma?” she asked, voice heavy with sarcasm. She looked around her to search for that so-famous medium.

A sparkle of amusement lighted up in the boy’s eyes. “I am Madame Irma.”

Soohyun’s jaw dropped. Yuri could already felt the headache forming between her eyes. “I thought Madame Irma was a she.”

“It’s usually my sister who does all the job. And her name isn’t Madame Irma.” He took in a deep breath. “No, I decided to step on the stage, this time. I feel that this situation requires my ability.”

“So you’re the medium?” Soohyun asked.

“I prefer the term psychic. Reference to my favourite series, which is Psych by the way,” he winked.

“You know why we are here, then,” Yuri smirked. Incredulity and impatience began to rise at the surface of her mixed feelings, like in a pool. That boy-man-whatever was a con, and an idiot.

“You are both private detectives and you have come to ask me questions.”

She raised an eyebrow in disdain. “We’ve been doing this since morning. Sure it’s not a hard thing to discuss with your neighbours to inform yourself.”

“I can feel you are not very open-minded about psychic powers,” the boy retorted, insisting on the word feel.

Yuri turned her head to Soohyun and mouthed: “This guy is a genius.”

The silvery-haired boy hid a smile and entwined his fingers under his chin. “You have come to seek help in your case,” he said with a more serious tone. “My name is Namjoon, and I can help you.”

For the first time since she had entered the house, Yuri felt the seriousness in his tone. She nodded and leaned forward. “Have you got any useful information?”

“Yes. I do not know who is behind all of this, but I may know his next target.”

The girl let the information sink in. There were two things revealed: the location of the next house, and the fact that the thief was a man. She raised her head and eyed Namjoon warily.

“How do you even know the location?”

“I told you, I’m a psychic,” he smirked.

Yuri scoffed. Of course. She leaned closer to her partner and whispered to him: “For now, it doesn’t matter how he found out. We only focus on the veracity on his information.” Then she took a pen out of her pocket and asked Namjoon. “The house, where is it?”

“On the parallel street, number 102. Mrs and Mr Chae. Very rich family, and very inaccessible house. It would be hard to get in.”

“We will take care of that, thank you.”

While Soohyun kept on eating biscuits, Yuri wrote down any particular information about the house, its surroundings and its proprietors.

“They also have a dog,” added Namjoon at one point. “A nasty one. The kind that attacks and bites.”

“If the thief comes from the garden, this will be an obstacle. And except for the garden, where else could he come from? We will catch him.”

“Mmph-“ Soohyun nodded furiously, a biscuit in his mouth. “For sffure!”

Yuri rolled her eyes and rose up, catching Namjoon’s eye. He stared at her, watching all her slightest movements with intense hazel eyes. If she had noticed the stare, she ignored him resolutely and called out to her partner:

“Soohyun, take that damned biscuit with you and stand up. We have a thief to catch up!”

“Aye, aye, capftain!” Soohyun answered with his mouth stuffed.

Namjoon stayed still in the hall while the two detectives hurried out the house. Before they could leave, Soohyun turned around with a Cheshire cat smile.

“I’m sorry, but can I have more—”

The silver-haired boy cut him off guard when he presented the tray full of biscuits in front of his face.

“I thought so,” he said mischievously and then smiled, showing his dimples. It was rather cute.

Soohyun’s face beamed, illuminated with gluttony. He picked two biscuits, then considered the plate with a hungry expression, and put one biscuit in his mouth so he could take one more biscuit. Yuri looked at Namjoon in an exasperated fashion, but he just shrugged. “If the man is hungry, feed him,” he said matter-of-factly.

Then the girl wondered: did the psychic really foreshadow Soohyun’s question? By a vision of the future or did he guess by the look on the boy’s face? Probably the second.

Either way, if he had been right about the next house targeted – vision or deduction – it would be easy to set a trap to the thief.

As she and Soohyun walked down the alley, Namjoon staring after them on the threshold, Yuri felt a wave of excitement through her body and clenched one fist.

“It will be a piece of cake,” she declared.

Soohyun held out a biscuit, stared at it and nodded. “Indeed, it is!”

 

--

 

A wealthy house was nothing like she ever knew, Yuri noticed absentmindedly as she took in her surroundings. Soohyun and she were waiting hidden behind a couch for three hours now, in the living-room. Above the fireplace, a painting was hanging on the wall, the kind of abstract and modern painting Yuri never understood why so much people liked it so much. The whole room was smelling of disinfectant. She guessed that was how rich people’s houses smelled like, when a housemaid was coming every day to clean it up. Not that she would know, she who loathed the vacuum cleaner.

“My legs hurt,” Soohyun whispered.

“Me too,” she whispered back. “But hang on a bit, it’s already past midnight. Our friend shouldn’t be long.”

“Well, he better hurry, or I will die out of boredom,” Soohyun grumbled. Then he squinted at Yuri, a flick of suspicion sparkled in his eyes. ‘You seem sure the psychic was right. For a sceptical like you, it seems illogical. What happened?”

Yuri opened for a quick witty answer, but she couldn’t find one. Nothing came to her mind. Soohyun was right: she headed in this lead way too quickly. She totally assumed that the silver-haired psychic boy was right, forgetting everything else. It could be a trap for them, it could be a piece of information out of the blue, it could have been totally wrong.

Nonetheless, she believed Namjoon. She couldn’t explain it, but she had trusted him. She still trusted him now, as she was waiting behind a couch in someone else’s living room, for a thief who might or might not come. Soohyun caught her hesitation and smirked. But he remained silent. Yuri crossed her arms, fuming. No one liked to be teased, especially not her. Before she could justify herself, a metallic ting resounded in the next room.

Both of them tensed. There was someone. How could that be possible? The dog didn’t even bark.

Two possibilities: either the intruder knew the dog, like a member of the family, either the intruder didn’t walk past the dog. The proprietors said specifically no one would enter the house during the entire night. The only possible way was to get through the dog obstacle. Unless they were invisible… she gathered her spirits quickly though. Like in Scooby-Doo, the trap was ready to catch the thief. All other doors were locked, so when he would come in, Yuri and Soohyun would jump on him, taking the thief by surprise, and he could not escape past the dog. Plus, they were ready to take a picture of the scene; nothing could fail.

“Stand still,” she whispered as quietly as she could to Soohyun. The boy glared at her – he did not really like to be ordered around. But he kept quiet. Wood cracked as a door opened and Yuri held her breath. Soft taps on the ground betrayed the person inside the room.

She rose up slowly, very slowly, and risked a glance above the couch. She blinked.

There was nothing inside the room.

Nothing… but smoke.

Her brains tried to work at an impressive speed, trying to search for a rational explanation. But no, that was impossible.

“Soohyun!” she hissed. “Get up!”

Her partner sprang like a Jack in a box and confusion could be seen written on his face.

“The hell?” he mouthed to Yuri, who shrugged. She had heard footsteps though, so that meant… that meant someone else was standing with them. Standing in the smoke. She grabbed her phone in a swift motion. The trap had failed – like in every Scooby-Doo episodes – but she still could catch the thief. She turned the phone on and all of a sudden, a hand snatched it. Out of the smoke, a single hand, as if it was disconnected from its body. Yuri leaped backwards. There was someone. She jumped behind the couch as if it was going to protect her and screamed to Soohyun:

“Can you see him?!”

She just heard Soohyun curse. As she looked towards him – or at least, the place she last saw him – she saw the smoke moving and morphing and encircling the boy. In a second, he vanished.

“Soohyun!” she shouted out of panic.

“I’m still here,” he answered back, and to Yuri’s relief, his voice was close.

She turned to the thick smoke.

“Who are you? What do you want?”

 

The thief laughed; a brief laugh. “Seriously?” a voice – male – said. “Why would I tell you? It’s not like you will give it to me.”

The voice had become mocking. Yuri grimaced – he had a point. Suddenly, there was a loud noise, followed by a muffled curse.

“Soohyun?” Yuri called out. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m alright,” he said. “I tried to get to our friend here, but I fell.”

The thief snickered. “What a cute pairing,” he said. “Well, I wouldn’t want to waste your time so… I will take these jewels and I’ll be gone.”

“You will not touch those stones,” hissed Yuri.

“Is that so? I may already have them in my hand, and you don’t even see me.”

Yuri wasn’t furious. She was infuriated. The whole plan was ruined, everything was going wrong, Soohyun was down (literally), and her phone was lost somewhere in the smoke. There was too much smoke. She knew who was going to be the object of her anger. That psychic had seen the entire scene for sure and he never mentioned the disastrous outcome of this night. She was going to kill him.

“See you later, idiots!” the thief said, and Yuri saw the smoke going down significantly.

By the time her eyes got used to the new atmosphere, the smoke had vanished. And there was a silhouette laying on the floor. The silhouette groaned as Yuri walked towards it. There was no trace of another person in the room whatsoever.

“Can you rise up?” she asked to Soohyun who was groaning on the floor.

He nodded and she looked away around the room. She frowned at a dark point on the table and stalked closer. There, laid on the table, was her phone. And not only: a single jewel had been put on the screen. As if it had been put to mock her. She did not touch her phone, in case of fingerprints; instead she walked to Soohyun to help him. She held out a hand. Once Soohyun was on his feet, he began to sweep dust on his clothes.

“Is it just me or was this operation a total success?” He winced in pain and his eyes stared at the phone on the table. “No way!” he whistled. “That guy was no joke. He literally slipped between our fingers, stole the jewels, insulted us and vanished in a couple of minutes. Although I’m not sure of what happened.”

He turned to Yuri, and it was just as if question marks were written all over his face. “What happened?”

“I think he had some kind of smoke machine, you know, like during concerts,” Yuri thought all loud. But if it was the case, how on earth the smoke did vanish so quickly? Another mystery. “I’m going to see that damn psychic tomorrow. I want explanations.”

 

--

 

At 8 o’clock the next morning, Yuri and Soohyun knocked at Sunny & Psychics – Natural Gift’s door. The next second, it opened on a Namjoon fully clothed, but not entirely awaken. He stifled a yawn.

“What brings me the honour…?”

Yuri didn’t even wait for him to finish his sentence and rudely pushed past him, entering the house. She then stopped and whirled around. Namjoon and Soohyun had followed her.

“Don’t you have something to tell me?” she asked Namjoon accusingly. “About last night?”

She saw his lips idly drawing a light smile.

“Are you angry at me, Velma?”

She gasped. How could he possibly know about Yuri and Soohyun ever-references to Scooby-Doo? Then she shook her head. No, no, no, it was a coincidence. All from guessing. She wouldn’t fall for it.

“Tell me how the hell this man did that? Where did he get that smoke from? How did he escape the dog, enter the house, without anyone noticing?”

What she didn’t notice, however, was the way Namjoon was staring at her, his eyes focused on her, deep brown. He sighed, did not look away.

“He is a mutant. Just like me.”

Yuri froze – she frowned, burst out laughing. Soohyun jumped a little at the unexpected sound. Namjoon stayed focused on her.

But she didn’t say anything. For everything seemed to fall into pieces. Somehow.

Sure, there were many rational explanations, but the more she would look at this strange and fascinating boy, with that odd silver colour, the more she was convinced.

Mutants.

Soohyun caught sight of her resigned expression and he widened his eyes.

“Don’t- don’t tell me you believe him?!”

Namjoon stifled a laugh. “Actually, she does believe me.”

Soohyun facepalmed.

Yuri stared back at the psychic boy. A mutant? Why not. If it wasn’t true, the guy was talented either way. A couple of seconds passed until Namjoon yawned again and made a gesture. He pointed to the living-room.

“What about you staying for breakfast?”

 

--

 

“We need your help,” Yuri finally let out, ogling a very delicious-looking pie.

“I know,” said Namjoon.

The girl barely paid him attention as she took a slice of pie. He handed out a handkerchief to her; she frowned at it.

“Thank you. I’m not four anymore.”

He hid a smile. "As you wish.”

Still frowning, Yuri took a bite of her pie… it slipped out of her fingers and made a huge stain on her shirt. She gasped. Soohyun laughed out loud. Namjoon no longer hid his smile.

“Wow,” whispered Soohyun and he looked at Namjoon in pure awe. “Mutant…”

Yuri glared at Soohyun – oh, how he was swift to change sides – and cleaned the stain as much as she could. Then she moved her glare towards Namjoon.

“As I was saying,” she snapped. “You have to tell us the next locations this bloody thief will go in. We have been surprised, we weren’t ready. But this time, Namjoon is going to tell us exactly the situation, with all possible details.”

The boy had leaned forward; his hair glistened under a sunbeam. “And what do I get in exchange?” he asked. “I may not agree.”

Yuri had to admit she hadn’t thought of that. "We can give you money,” Soohyun suggested. “After all, you kind of work for us if you were to agree.”

“Alright,” Namjoon said. “But I have one more condition.”

“Go ahead,” Yuri said dismissively.

“That you come here every day. For the investigation, of course,” he added with fake seriousness, demented by a delightful smile, the cute dimples showing.

Yuri was taken aback and felt something twist quite agreeably in her stomach. For once, she understood him. He seemed not indifferent to her, and she was feeling the same. He was fascinating, and… charming.

She opened in an answer, but Namjoon cut her out: “Thank you,” he said with a glint of amusement in his eyes, as he already knew the answer.

But right now, Yuri thought, he was infuriating.

“Stop doing that!”