Jaebum’s blood ran cold when Moonhee’s screams bounced off the trees around them.

Everyone looked up on high alert, JB was the first to sprint off. Jinyoung and Yael shared a look before running after him.

Moonhee let out continuous screams as she crawled backwards, eyes pinned on the corpse in front of her.

“Noh Moonhee!”

She heard someone calling out to her.

“Down here!” She cried while waving her arm. “I’m here!”

The crunching of leaves and twigs could be heard until JB slid down the slope to get to the girl.

“What happened? Are you hurt?” His eyes darted around her.

She avoided his gaze and pointed behind him.

“T-There’s another one.”

He turned, “Another one wh-”

He paused mid-sentence. He got to his feet, reaching for his talkie.

“Get forensics to my position. We have another body here!”

He then crouched down to the girl, holding her firmly around the waist. She flinched but convinced herself JB was there to help her.

“You good?” He asked.

She nodded. They took a step forward and she hissed because she had landed on the bad foot wrongly.

“Did you hurt yourself?”

Moonhee gave him a what-do-you-think look and rolled her eyes. JB huffed.

“It won’t kill you to say you’re hurt or ask when you need help, you know.”

“Hee!” Yael came running towards them.

Moonhee shoved Jaebum away from her and hobbled her way to her best friend.

“What happened?” the former asked, trying to peek over her friend’s shoulder.

“You won’t want to see that, I sprained my ankle.”

That took Yael’s mind off her curiosity. She then held Moonhee’s waist, helping the girl back to the cars so that she could get help.

Jinyoung stayed behind as JB cleared the leaves off their second body. Johnny brought his team and the photographers over.

“Two victims in a day? That’s just like the previous pair of deaths.” Jinyoung muttered under his breath. “Is there anything on him, John?”

“Stabbing on the face explains overkill.” Johnny then slowly lifted the shirt, revealing numerous bruises and the bloody carving on his chest.

He glanced up at his colleagues, “Envy.”

“Damn it. What is this trying to do?” JB grunted.

“Hyung,” Johnny called out. “He’s missing his fingers too.”

“All of them?”

“Nope. Just the ring fingers.” He confirmed.

“Get me the autopsy report as soon as possible,” JB told Johnny. Turning to Joonhyung, he said, “Find out if they are related or not. I want it on my desk by the next couple of hours.”

“Yes Sir,” both officers acknowledged.

***

JB and Jinyoung sent the girls to Moonhee’s home, with the latter officer volunteering to stay behind just in case they needed anything.

Moonhee was shaken up so she decided to go take a long bath to calm herself while Yael whipped up some food.

“, I’m out of meat,” Yael whispered to herself.

She grabbed her keys and yelled to the toilet, that she was going out to get something. Moonhee told her to be careful and she left the house.

Jinyoung was outside, Yael caught his eyes as she walked down the street.

“Yael!” He called.

Jogging towards her, he noticed how her eyes widened. He thought she was just surprised to see him but when she darted behind his back, he knew something was up.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, confused.

She peered over his shoulder, to check on whoever was behind him. Jinyoung followed suit, only to catch a glimpse of a man dashing into some building.

He turned back to the girl, who had detached herself from him, but the wild look still visible in her eyes.

“What was that?”

“What was what?”

“That?” He pointed in the direction of the male and her eyes. “You looked like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“It’s not your problem,” she fired back. “What are you doing here?”

“Where are you going? I’m coming with you.”

“What for?” She trudged forward. “Leave me alone.”

Jinyoung ran after her, ignoring the fact that she kept asking him to go away. He glanced over his shoulder once and saw the same shadow walking on the pavement behind them.

***

The next morning, JB came to pick them up. Moonhee wanted to go to class but the former told her the precinct needed help.

The Quartet then went back to the precinct, Yael went over to help Jinyoung and Joonhyung with finding the links between the few victims.

Moonhee was sitting in JB’s office, typing on her laptop, finishing her notes. She was more suited for physical work but for now, she had to stay put in the office.

There was a thump on the door, making her look up to see an officer was staring at her.

“Yes?” She cocked her head, weirded out that this guy was just standing at the door.

Who knew how long he had been there?

“Detective Im is looking for you.” He muttered.

The way he was staring at her was creeping her out so she got up and went to the office after thanking the officer hastily.

Moonhee knocked on the door, Jaebum was pouring over the photos of the victims of the current case. He looked up.

“What is it?”

He gave her a look and lowered his head. “What’s what?”

“You were looking for me, weren’t you?”

He shook his head, “I wasn’t.”

“But your colleague-”

She then rushed back to the office, JB on her heels.

She kept mum when he asked her what happened and stopped at the door. There was no one in the office, everything was intact but she felt something off.

Going through her laptop, she didn’t find anything missing. She nagged at herself for overthinking. Jaebum reached his office.

“Why did you run off?”

“Nothing.” She waved her hand, sighing. “I was just worried about my essay.”

He huffed, “What’s your topic?