e p i s o d e  x i

“Before I say anything, I need to know that I will be guaranteed protection,” the man fidgets in his seat nervously but his facial expression speaks one of resolve, of fear and determination.

Yifan crosses his arms. “That depends on what kind of information you can provide us.”

“No, it depends on whether or not I give it to you.” the man looks around, paranoid. “Listen, I knew that I would be a dead man walking the moment I stepped foot near the police and if you want me to talk, I need to know I won’t have to fear for my life the moment I step out of this place.”

“Why would you need to fear for your life?”

The man sits back in his seat. “No one in the underground takes too kindly to a snitch and word will spread fast. If you guys can’t strike me a deal I’m as good as dead once I hit the streets again.”

Yifan raises an eyebrow. “If your life is at risk by coming to us then why are you here?”

“Because he’s our latest victim’s nephew.” A new voice interrupts the interrogation. Yifan and Yixing turn their heads to see Jongdae leaning against the frame of the doorway, a file in his hands. “Thought he looked familiar when I saw him come in through the security cameras. I came across his picture while I was gathering information on Go Ahnjoo earlier today for Lu Han’s victimology plotting.”

“That’s right,” the man’s eyes narrow, “What else you got?”

“Your name’s Go Taejin, 27 years old. Your uncle secretly took you in as a dependent after your parents were murdered in what police reports concluded to be a home burglary gone wrong but considering your uncle’s history they were most likely killed by another drug lord fighting your uncle for dealing territory. You were arrested on several counts for illegal substance possession and abuse. Not surprised really. You also got a speeding ticket two weeks ago and still haven’t paid your accumulating 20-year-old library fine.”

“Okay, now that’s just ing creepy. And my uncle never breathed a word about us being related to anyone, not even to his right-hand man. How did you figure that out?“

Jongdae shrugs. “I might have unsealed a couple of government encrypted files during my lunch break.”

“Jongdae!” Yifan glares at the technical analyst. “I told you no illegal-”

He’s cut off when Jongdae suddenly tosses the file straight at his face and strolls in the room to squeeze half a buttcheek onto Yixing’s chair, continuing to speak as though his unit chief isn’t about to tear him a new one. “Relax Duizhang, if they really didn’t want me to see that information, then they wouldn’t have made it that easy to access those files.”

“Says the genius hacker that almost made it onto the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted for spreading a virus into their system ‘for fun’.” Yixing mutters.

“It was a harmless virus that set the default background pictures of all their monitors to a montage of baby animals! If they don’t like baby animals then they have no right to call themselves human!”

“Do you know how many strings I had to pull to get them to drop your charges? You could’ve been in prison by now!”

“I- wait,” Jongdae’s eyes grow to the size of saucers. “You were the one that got me off the hook? I always assumed it was Yifan.”

Yifan rolls his eyes. “I took a couple of classes in Quantico a couple of years ago, but I was never really that far up the food chain. I didn’t even know about any of this. Whatever happened has been wiped clean from your records.”

“Damn,” Jongdae wipes away a fake tear in his eye, “Always knew that you had my back, Xing. A true friend.”

“And we’ve gotten completely off track!” Yifan refocuses his attention back on Go Taejin, who has paled quite considerably since meeting Jongdae. “You need to tell us what sort of information you can provide us before we can make you any offers. As you can see, we have numerous connections and can have you arranged to be put in a global witness protection program of sorts before word of your testimony even gets out, let alone makes it to the streets.”

“I-” Taejin pauses to recollect his thoughts and weigh his options. “I was there that night, the night of samchon’s (uncle’s) murder.”

“You what?!” Yifan stand up out of his chair in shock.

Taejin holds his hand up in a gesture of innocence. “N- Not initially! I dropped by pretty late in the night after my night shift at work just to check in on him.”

“You went… just to check in on him…” Yifan repeats blandly, not an ounce of trust in his tone.

Taejin sighs. “Okay, okay. I may or may not have been going to get a refill for my, uh, my supply. But I really did have work beforehand.”

“He’s right, I already double checked his alibi with security cameras at his workplace earlier-”

“Jongdae,” Yifan warns.

“Alright, alright, I’m shutting up. Just wanted to help you confirm.”

“Anyway,” Taejin continues tentatively, “Samchon never writes his meetings with me into his planner since no one’s supposed to know we’re related. The murderers probably didn’t even think I would be coming.”

“Murderers? Plural? How many people were there? Did you get a glimpse of any of their faces?”

“Uh, I noticed the back door was open and was immediately suspicious. I think samchon was already dead by the time I got there because I didn’t hear his voice or anything that sounded like a gunshot. I didn’t dare look into the building in case they had a lookout by the doorway like samchon sometimes did during his more important business meetings. There were definitely at least two people in there talking to each other though. Both males from what I was able to hear.”

Yifan leans forward, clasping his hands together and listening intently. “Did you pick up anything from their conversation? Anything you remember that could be of importance?”

“Yes, I-” Taejin closes his eyes and massages his forehead as though the action would help him remember anything more. “They were- They were discussing an… an event of sorts. I… I can’t remember-”

“Yes, you can.” Yifan isn’t giving encouragement, he’s giving a command. Yixing nudges him with knee and Yifan softens his tone. “Keep your eyes closed. Take a deep breath and clear your mind.”

He waits until he sees Taejin begin to physically relax in his spot before continuing. “Good. Now, I don’t want you to think or remember. Instead, I want you to go back to that night and concentrate on what you felt. You’re walking up to the back through the alley like you usually do. What was the weather like?”

“It… It was cooler than I expected,” Taejin’s brows furrow, “I was wearing a hoodie, but the temperature has been dropping overnight recently and it was chillier than I expected. Samchon always told me I needed to look at the weather app more often.”

“Alright, alright, it was chilly. Maybe even a soft breeze every now and then, yeah?”

“Yeah, I was, uh, taking my usual route through the alleyways, making sure no one was tailing me or anything. I got to the back door but it was already opened. Then I heard the voices.”

“How’d they sound? Feminine? Masculine? Loud? Raspy?”

“Um, definitely both masculine, one of them spoke in a lower pitch than the other but they were both definitely male. The guy with the deeper voice spoke a lot less than the other guy, just agreed or asked a quick question every now and then.”

“So the other one is the main perpetrator then. The other one most likely plays a supporting role of some sort.”

“I guess? They, uh, they were talking about some gala at a hotel. Something about scoping out someone from a list?”

Yifan’s eyes widen as they quickly glance up to look at Yixing and Jongdae, who are wearing equally surprised expressions. This is the most they’ve ever gotten from a witness involving K, and probably the luckiest break they’ve had. Yixing was right. This past murder wasn’t planned like the others, and because of it, they made a mistake.

“Jongdae-”

“On it,” Jongdae is already up and heading for the door. “I’ll have a narrowed down list of potential gala events happening this month that they might be attending to you in an hour.”

“Fill in the others while you’re at it. You can get help from Lu Han if you need to narrow down parameters.”

“You got it Duizhang.”

“Is there anything more you can remember them saying?” Yifan presses, returning his attention to Taejin, who has opened his eyes in the meantime.

“I, uh-”

“You go ahead and arrange a deal for him with the protection program Yifan,” Yixing finally speaks up. “I’ll stay with him in case there’s anything else he recalls.”

“Alright,” Yifan nods and stands up from his seat. “You’ve held up your end so we will as well. Consider yourself protected by the law.”

Taejin seems to deflate in relief. “Thank you. I hope you catch whoever it is that killed samchon. He might have been involved in some shady circles, but he took care of me the best he could after my parents’ death.”

“No, thank you.” Yifan’s hand pauses just as it’s about to turn the doorknob. “Are you sure there wasn’t anything else that stood out to you about the murderers?”

“There-” Taejin’s brow furrows in confusion. “There’s one last thing I remember before I decided to leave. Towards the end, I heard… whistling.”

“Whistling?”

“It was some children’s song. Kind of creepy now that I think about it. Probably why I decided to leave too. That and it seemed like they were almost done and it wouldn’t be long before they found me if I had stayed. But yeah, that’s about it.”

“Okay. Yixing, stay here and see if you can figure out which children’s song they were whistling. I’ll be back as soon as I’m done talking to the higher ups.” And with that, Yifan takes his leave.

“Do you remember the tune he was humming?” Yixing asks softly.

“I- I don’t know the name of it but I can hum some of it for you,” Taejin fiddles with his fingers as he struggles to recall how the tune went. He eventually quietly but confidently begins humming the notes to what Yixing faintly recognizes as ‘Come Pick The Moon’. “Does that ring any bells?”

“Yeah,” Yixing murmurs, deep in thought. It doesn’t seem to be much of a hint, if that’s what Suho planned on leaving to taunt him separately, so what does it mean?

Taejin’s testimony is no accident or lucky break. Suho is challenging him and that means one thing is certain: If Yixing wants to put a stop to him and K, he’ll need to get one step ahead.

It’s time he starts his search for his long-lost sniper friend.

“Let me get this straight,” Kyungsoo exhales angrily and pinches the bridge of his nose, trying his best to not bust a vein in all his quiet fury. “You knowingly left a witness the night of Go Ahnjoo’s murder and now they’ve blabbed their way into M’s interrogation room?”

“Well, when you put it that way-”

“Junmyeon is so dead,” Baekhyun whispers excitedly to Chanyeol, who simply clamps a hand over the bomb tech’s mouth at the brief but thunderous glare Kyungsoo sends their way.

“And now they’re halfway to putting the pieces together and arresting us all!”

“Oh please,” Junmyeon crosses his arms and rolls his eyes. “You know I’m not that careless. All Sehun and I did was leave a few breadcrumbs for the detectives. We’ve been doing circles around them for months. I’m just trying to make things interesting.”

“Aw yeah!” Baekhyun crows, pumping a fist in the air, “It’s about ing time!”

“Keep his mouth shut,” Kyungsoo snaps, as Chanyeol struggles to wrestle Baekhyun back down onto the couch.

“Oh, I know quite a few ways you can keep me quie-” Baekhyun’s sentence is cut off as Sehun hurls a throw pillow into his face.

Jongin cackles at the sight but is also cut off when Sehun thwaps him across the head as well. “Ow! What the hell, I didn’t do anything!”

“You were your insufferable self.”

“Well that’s just ing rude!”

“Pipe down, you two.” Junmyeon looks back at Kyungsoo with his ‘I didn’t do anything bad’ face. “Look, Kyungsoo they haven’t had a lead on us in ages and I know exactly what I said that night. All they know is that we’re going to be at a gala event scoping out one of the targets on our list. Nothing more, nothing less. And that’s if the guy wasn’t high out of his mind. I’m just trying to spice things up with a little bit more bait is all.”

Kyungsoo narrows his eyes at him. “You just want to see him again.”

Junmyeon purses his lips at being seen through so easily while Chanyeol barely manages to muffle Baekhyun’s snicker with a hand. “Okay, yes but-”

“But nothing!” Kyungsoo sighs. “I’m happy for you Junmyeon, I really am. But you cannot keep going off schedule like this because of your selfish desires. You’re the one that brought us all together and that means that everything you do or don’t do affects this entire team. It isn’t just the two of us running rampant in Europe anymore.”

“I agree,” Chanyeol’s low voice says following the pause of silence, “The more reckless we become, the easier it’ll be for them to figure us out. Especially in a city like this. Baekhyun’s actions have already begun to bring unwanted attention to our work and if this Yixing guy is as good as Junmyeon claims then it won’t be long before he connects the dots to the bomb we planted on Kim Yooncheol.”

And if he’s really the Yixing I know, it won’t be long before he’s on my tail as well.

“Oh come on, what’s done is done.” Baekhyun crosses his legs and leans back into the couch. “If you two are really that worried, then we just won’t send Junmyeon and Sehun in to get more on our target.”

“No,” Junmyeon’s eyes widen. Yixing will be there for sure. He needs to see Yixing. “No, I have to go-”

“No. You don’t.” Kyungsoo grits his teeth. “If you approach him and so much as give him an inkling as to who you are, then everything we’ve built and worked for goes down the drain. It’s bad enough that Sehun might be recognized by their intern in public. We can’t afford to put ourselves into any more dangerous situations.”

“But-”

“For ’s sake Junmyeon, Yixing knows what you look like too!” Kyungsoo throws his hands in the air. “Don’t argue with me on this anymore. You’re not going to that gala.”

“I was wearing a hoodie that night,” Junmyeon protests.

“Hyung,” Sehun looks at him pleadingly, probably the most emotion the maknae’s shown all day. “Stop it. You know we can’t go. We only need to send in Jongin anyways. He’ll get in and out undetected and then we’ll have the information we need.”

Junmyeon presses his lips together in defeat and displeasure but doesn’t say anything else.

“Okay, now that we’ve got that settled,” Baekhyun unabashedly snuggles himself tight into Chanyeol’s side before asking the important question that’s been haunting him since they started their meeting. “What’s for dinner?”

Lu Han is adding to his criminal profile for K when there’s a knock on his door.

“Come in!” he hollers, not bothering to look up as he finishes typing up a sentence. It’s probably Jongdae asking for help on narrowing down the gala hotel list again. “I told you Dae, I need to finish what I can of this profile before I can keep helping you.”

“Oh… Is this a bad time?”

“Minseok!” Lu Han just about gives himself whiplash from looking up so fast. “What- What are you doing here? You never come visit me.”

“Yeah, it’s usually the other way around,” the elder rubs the back of his head sheepishly and chuckles softly, but it’s almost as if Lu Han is listening to a choir of angels.

Damn, he’s got it so bad.

What started out as a professional man crush has unprecedentedly snowballed into something much more than Lu Han was prepared for. He wasn’t ready for Kim Minseok.

“Well, I could always use some company,” Lu Han flashes what he hopes is an inviting smile and pats his thighs in an offer for somewhere for Minseok to sit.

The elder rolls his eyes but a gentle blush still pinks across the apples of his cheeks nonetheless, a reaction Lu Han doesn’t think he’ll ever get sick of. “I’ll take the empty couch over here, but thanks for the offer Romeo.”

“Anything for my dear Juliet,” Lu Han hums happily when he sees Minseok shake his head in amusement as he makes himself comfortable on the couch in Lu Han’s office. “To what do I owe the pleasure today?”’

“Finally finished up most of my work, now I’m just waiting on a couple of lab results. I heard you’ve got your hands full after the last victim’s nephew gave us a good lead on K and I thought I’d drop by to see if you needed any help.”

“Min, you’ve been working overtime the past two weeks to help catch us up for this moment.” Lu Han tsks as he saves his work and spins around in his chair to face the elder. Minseok’s curled up on one side of the sofa, fingers curled tight around what Lu Han knows is a cup of the elder’s favorite coffee. Too cute. “The only thing I want you to do is get some rest.”

Minseok waves a hand around noncommittally. “I’m used to long hours in a lab from grad school. Besides, it’s nothing a little bit of my favorite thing in the world can’t cure.”

“Time with yours truly?”

“You wish,” Minseok laughs, and for a moment, Lu Han really does wish. “You sure there isn’t anything I can do?”

“Want to help me look over what I have so far on the profile?” Lu Han asks, desperate for just about any reason to encourage the elder to stay for a little longer. “I could use a pair of fresh eyes and ears.”

“I don’t know, Lu,” Minseok’s teeth drag across his bottom lip nervously, “I don’t really know what to look for…”

“Just let me know if anything doesn’t sound right based on what we know about K so far. No pressure, okay?”

“Alright.” Minseok nods and sets his mug down on the nearby table. “Hit me with everything you’ve got so far.”

“Okay,” Lu Han takes a deep breath. “Here goes nothing. I think that we’re looking for a group of possibly four to six men.”

Minseok’s eyes widen. “That many?”

“Based on everything we’ve seen so far, yes,” Lu Han drinks a sip of water from his water bottle before continuing. “We know based off of the ballistics report that every victim except for the last one was shot and killed by a high powered military rifle with custom made bullets. This same exact alloy compound matches the bullet we found in the side of Kim Yooncheol’s car when their sniper tried to take him out prior to the bomb detonating. Although rather uncommon, I think it’d be safe to assume that the sniper has been the one in charge of taking out all of their targets so far.”

“Using a rifle for such short distance kills is… pretty odd. You don’t think it’s different people using the same weapon?”

Lu Han shakes his head. “No way. Sharpshooters with this level of expertise can be very possessive of their equipment. If he- or her I suppose, I mean a woman that tall with this sort of skill has got to have a previous reputation somewhere but I think Jongdae would have sniffed someone that memorable out already… Anyways, if they’re custom forging their own bullets, then they sure as hell wouldn’t let others handle their weapons. Snipers are typically solitary offenders, at least to a certain degree. Joining K wouldn’t allow them to change that.”

“Then why not use a different gun?”

Lu Han shrugs. “Hard to tell. It might be something personal, it might be just plain habit. Anyways, there has to be another guy working with them outside of the sniper, someone with the social skills and charm to lure Yoo Seon Im into the car the night of her murder.”

Minseok nods in agreement. “That person is most likely the one whose partial DNA I have on file.”

“Yeah. They also have a bomb technician and a hacker of sorts working more behind the scenes, not to mention the assailant responsible for Go Ahnjoo’s death that Yixing determined to be shorter than their sniper, as well as the one there to help him that night based on Go Taejin’s testimony. I say four to six people because there may be overlap between all these people and the roles they’ve played so far, but there’s no way a group of only three people could have pulled all of this off. Overall the cleanup and disposal of the murders have been pretty clean, but not necessarily organized so we’re definitely dealing with almost all or all men.”

“That’s- that’s amazing,” Minseok’s voice is full of awe. “You’re amazing. Here I was worrying that we were getting nowhere but you… you’ve been able to dissect their entire group without identifying any one of them!”

Lu Han can feel his face burn at the elder’s compliment but pinches himself in the thigh before he says something unprofessional that he may regret. “I- Of course I couldn’t have done any of this without your help with all the lab testing and evidence proving and whatnot. You’ve even got a partial on one of those bastards”

Minseok beams and takes both of Lu Han’s hands in his own excitedly. “Yifan’s going to be really happy, Lu. We’re getting closer to them, I can feel it! It’s been a while since I’ve really been out. We need to celebrate!”

“C-Celebrate?!” Lu Han can barely breathe. Is this real life? “Like-”

“Dinner!”

Lu Han’s heart just about bursts out of his chest. “A- A dat-”

“It’ll be my treat!” Minseok jumps out of his seat and opens Lu Han’s office door. “Jongdae! Get us a reservation for six at that really good galbi place down the street! Hyung’s buying!”

Lu Han lets out the deep breath that he’s been holding. Of course, Minseok meant their entire team. For just a second, he thought…

“Jesus, you finally get it on with Lu Han and suddenly you’re treating us all to dinner?”

“Tha- That’s not why!” Lu Han squawks in a panic. “That’s not what happened either!”

“Psh, can’t believe my plan failed,” Jongdae’s scoff is loud enough to be heard from down the hall. “You two aren’t getting any younger! Hurry it up already!”

“Jongdae, this is not appropriate work environment conversation!” Yifan’s voice booms from the other side of the hall.

“Don’t pull that card on me! You and Yixing debated ing Beanie Babies for like an hour the other day!”

“He was consulting!”

“Like hell-”

Minseok shuts the door before they can listen to the rest of what they know will only be those two bickering and flashes an apologetic smile at Lu Han. Lu Han only raises an eyebrow. “Did you hear him say something about a plan?”

Minseok rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. “So… Jongdae may have said something about me reminding you of sunflowers?”

Lu Han stands up from his chair in record time. “I’m going to murder that .”

“Yo, Kyungsoo,” Chanyeol peeks his head into the younger’s bedroom. “You in here?”

“Didn’t anyone ever ing teach you how to knock?” Comes the grumble from under the blankets.

Chanyeol flips the light switch on and there’s a disgruntled hiss. “, that’s bright. Get the out of my room.”

“I need a favor.”

“Ugh, can’t this wait?”

“Not really,” Chanyeol taps his foot on the carpeted floor nervously. “Do, uh, Do you have pictures on file of the six people working for M?”

“Yeah?” Kyungsoo finally pops his head out from his comforter cocoon. “I asked if you wanted them emailed to you and you said you didn’t care much for what they looked like. What happened?”

“Nothing,” the older says just a little too quickly. “I- I just want to know… because I’m worried for Baekhyun. And that stunt he pulled.”

Kyungsoo eyes his foot tapping but doesn’t push anymore questions, typing his password into his laptop and pulling up the photos Chanyeol’s looking for. “Just those six. No big faces or anything that might recognize Baekhyun’s work if that’s what you’re nervous about. You can’t protect him from everything, Yeol.”

“I know,” Chanyeol sighs, trying his best to control his facial expressions with the panic rushing through his veins as he scans through the photos of the members in M. “I- He’s just so reckless, you know? Anyways, thanks. Sorry for waking you up.”

“Yeah, any time.” Kyungsoo stares him up and down one more time but seems to decide that he doesn’t really give a and starts to pull the blankets back over his head. “Turn the light off and close the door on your wait out, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Chanyeol’s voice trails off in a tremble as he exits the other’s bedroom. Blood pumping loudly through his veins as he stumbles back into his room and crawls into his own bed.

Sleep barely comes to him in his all-consuming thoughts.

Yixing.

Yixing is alive.

And there’s no doubt that he’s already hot on Chanyeol’s trail.

“Huh? A group dinner? Yeah, I’ll be there soon, just need to run a quick errand. Okay, thanks for letting me know. I know, I’ll try to check my texts more often. Okay, bye.” Yixing hangs up and pockets his cellphone as he steps out of his car.

According to the bomb squad’s division report, the rental car rigged with explosives was traced to have been purchased at this current car rental shop. He enters through the door and a dull, overplayed tune rings throughout the shop to notify its employees of his arrival.

“Hi, how can I help you?” A woman with a company polo greets him with a smile as he approaches the counter.

“Hey, um, I’m with the police. I’m here to ask you about the man that came to rent the car?”

“Oh, well some officers already came by earlier, and I told them as much as I could. I don’t remember much about the guy and our security system was undergoing repairs that week…”

“No, no. You’re fine. I was just, uh, wondering if you’ve seen this guy around at your shop?” Yixing pulls out his cellphone and unlocks it to a photo before showing it to the woman. “That one, the guy in the middle?”

“Wait,” the woman’s eyes widen. “That’s totally him. The hair and the clothes are totally different, but I definitely remember that face in my shop. A little older and clean shaven though. Name was-”

“Park Danbyeol.” Yixing finishes for her.

“Yeah! That’s him for sure. I hope that helps with your investigation!”

Yixing bows in thanks. “It most certainly does. Thank you for your cooperation.”

He tucks his phone back into his pocket before taking his leave, his face blank.

Park Danbyeol.

How long ago has it been since they made up that alias together?

“Your ears are so pointy,” Yixing chuckles quietly, prodding at the body part teasingly. “Like Yoda. Or Dobby.”

“You're mean,” Chanyeol whines, smacking the other’s hands away from his face. “If you keep saying stuff like that, people will start calling me Park Dobby around here.”

“That can be your alias once we’re out of here,” Yixing laughs. “Park Dobi, I’d be able to find you wherever you go.”

“I want to retain more than just my surname! My parents named me Chanyeol with all the love in their heart!”

"Fine, just the first syllables then. Park Danbyeol.”

"Park Danbyeol.” Chanyeol nods approvingly.

Yixing lets out a sad sigh as he starts his car and starts heading for the galbi place by their workplace.

What happened to you, Chanyeol?

L O L this ended up being a much longer chapter than planned but it's fine I haven't updated in a while so I hope this suffices as an apology. There's also a lot more profiling with Lu Han bc I've gotten into Criminal Minds and it's just sO FASCINATING UGH.

And wowow I know you all are excited to get back into the action which is coming soon my dears. Stay tuned to see them all meet at the gala!

Also I made a trailer of sorts for this fic? More of a kinda opening credits that you see in TV shows but I was bored and wanted to play around and this was born: x. It's linked in the foreword as well!

P.S. flirty xiuhan makes me ugli cri protect them

Thank you to everyone reading and if you all enjoyed please subscribe, upvote and comment!

Happy Monday my lovelies!

Less than three,

PalmerPie