e p i s o d e   i i

“Are you ing kidding me?” Yifan glares so hard at the phone in Minseok’s hand, it’s a surprise the phone doesn’t burst into flames on the spot.

Lu Han’s voice sounds exasperated and weary as he explains through the phone a second time. “It’s a group. There’s definitely more than one person committing these crimes. And they’re definitely not amateurs, considering they managed to break into the neighboring hotel room without alerting any security systems.”

Yifan grits his teeth. “We knew they weren’t amateurs the moment they dropped a ing bomb at our door step. They’ve got some nerve…”

Lu Han sighs through the phone. “I know, I know calm down. You won’t be able to think straight if you’re all riled up again. How’d the questioning go?”

“Don’t remind me,” Yifan groans. Just the thought of the past few hours has him rubbing his temple in stress. “Zitao had a last minute project to finish for a class so I went alone. The moment I introduced myself as a detective they all clammed up. It wasn’t too hard to figure out who’s been involved with her just watching them, but with their marriages and reputations at risk, there’s not too much of a chance that we’ll get anything out of them.”

“Get that ‘Employee of the Month’ plaque ready for me,” Jongdae takes quick strides as he walks up to Yifan, a USB in his hand. “After crosschecking her domestic and international bank accounts, I have a nice little list of all of her clients that have deposited money into her account. I crosschecked with the party attendance list and dug up some dirt on each of them. All you got to do is show them some of these pictures and they’ll be squealing in no time.”

At Yifan’s pointed look, Jongdae holds his hands up in defense. “Perfectly legal! Most of it at least. C’mon Duizhang, with this you might be able to figure out who she left with. Whoever their tech guy is isn’t too bad. The hotel security cameras were disabled for most of the night. This is all I can get you for now.”

Yifan takes the USB with a resigned sigh. “If anything on this hard drive gets me in trouble with the chief of police like last year, you’re going to be in hot water when I get back Jongdae.”

Jongdae grins. “Scout’s honor, Duizhang.”

“I told you people that I have nothing to say!” the man across the table from Yifan in the interrogation room crosses his arms and leans back in his chair. “If you don’t let me go, I’ll be calling for my lawyer!”

“You were the one that agreed to come in for questioning,” Yifan scans the man’s face, “We would just like to ask you a couple of questions about the victim, Mr. Lee.”

“I don’t know who it is that you’re talking about, but I was with my wife and our friends the entire night,” the man insists. “And I only went along quietly because my wife would have thrown a fit if she found out you all were coming back again to ask us p- pointless questions!”

Yifan slides a picture of the victim across the table, watching as Lee Byungho’s face pales, his eyes widening. “Yoo Seon Im. We have evidence of you transferring several thousand won into her account last week. Do you have anything to say now?”

“I- I-” Byungho stutters as his eyes look upward. He’s trying to think of a lie. “I’ve heard about her. You know, from other guys. Rich bachelors got nothing to do with the money if they can’t spend it on some company, right? I was just- just trying to help my friend pay one night. He had been locked out of his account earlier that week so I lent him mine for the time being.”

“Hmm, really?” Yifan raises an eyebrow as he slides the second picture over, a screenshot that Jongdae had found, taken from a motel’s security camera of Byungho and the victim entering the building. “Care to explain this?”

Byungho looks close to passing out at this point, bringing his hand up to dab at the sweat beading at this forehead. Yifan makes sure to take note of the band-aid on his fourth finger. “Okay, okay, so I met her once or twice! That doesn’t mean I killed her!”

“You know what I think?” Yifan leans forward, noting the panic that briefly flashes through Byungho’s eyes. “Seeing that you feel the need to so unsubtly hide the marks of your wedding band on your ring finger, I wouldn’t be surprised if Yoo Seon Im wasn’t your only ‘company’ around in this city. I think Yoo Seon Im decided she’d be able to get more money out of you through blackmail than actual service, and you decided that you had to cut your ties. Permanently. ”

“No, no!” Byungho shakes his head furiously, “It’s true, I met with her more than I admitted earlier, but we had already agreed on prices and privacy! The reason she was so popular in our circles was because her promise of client confidentiality-”

He freezes, hand covering his mouth in panic at having spilled so much information. Yifan props his arm up on the table, head tilted as he rests his chin in his hand. “Keep going Lee, we’re not trying to push the blame onto you. We’re just trying to gather information on the victim and figure out who really killed her.”

That seems to help Byungho relax, as he eventually rests his hands in lap, eyes drifting to the right. Memory recall. He’ll tell the truth this time. “I- We promised never to make contact at social gatherings, so I only glanced at her once last night when we passed one another. Other than that… I don’t know who she was with or who she might’ve gone home with. She was always finding someone new.”

“Do you know if anyone else might have seen her leave? Anyone that seemed out of place at the party?”

“Not really… It was a pretty open party and there wasn’t much security so anyone could have come in at any point. There wasn’t anything of value there so it’s not like there were security cameras there either. Maybe if you ask the staff there; they might have seen someone.”

“We already have someone working on that,” Yifan stands up from his seat reaching out a hand to shake. “Thank you for your time, Mr. Lee. If there’s anything else you remember, please give us a call.”

Byungho stands up to shake his hand and makes his way out of the room. Just before he leaves he turns around, expression solemn. “Detective…”

“Yes?”

“Seon Im was a greedy, nasty woman who cared about no one but herself… But she was still so young, and I feel like deep down she was simply waiting for someone to truly sweep her off her feet and show her that the world wasn’t just about the money.” Byungho looks down to the ground. “Please find the bastard that killed her. Please.”

Yifan’s eyes trails after the billionaire as he makes his way out the building. “You have my word Mr. Lee.”

“I got something!” Zitao announces as he bursts into the office building, where Yixing is watching a compilation of cats knocking things onto the floor on his phone from his seat behind his receptionist’s desk. “Yifan!”

The intern hurries down the hall into Yifan’s office. “There was an employee! Someone working at the party that saw Ms. Yoo leave that night!”

Yifan quickly sets down the autopsy report from Minseok he was reading to look up at their intern. “Really? What did they say?”

“He said that he was standing in front of the entrance for most of the night. He doesn’t remember a specific face, but he definitely remembers Ms. Yoo-” Zitao stutters at the look Yifan sends him. For someone as emotionally sensitive as Zitao, it’s best not to become too familiar with their crime victims. “- I mean the victim leaving with a man on her arm. They left in a black Bentley. Estimate puts him around 10 cm taller than the victim, meaning we’re looking for a man around 170-180 cm?”

“A little taller,” Yifan holds up a picture taken at the crime scene, one of the victim’s shoes: high heels. “With her occupation it isn’t surprising that she’d wear heels. But your discovery and estimate are very good. Excellent job Zitao.”

Despite the compliment, Zitao’s eyes widen in panic. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry I almost completely forgot about the heels. I could’ve gotten all the reports wrong and eliminated the actual criminal from the list of suspects with my mistake! I’m so sorry, oh god-”

“Zitao, it’s fine-”

“I’m nowhere ready to be put into field work,” the intern looks close to needing a paper bag to breathe in, “I’m so so sorry Yifan, I can’t believe I-”

“Zitao!” Yifan shouts, effectively putting an end to the college student’s rambling, “It’s alright. I took you on as an intern because I know that you do good work. We’re here together as a team to double check one another, so don’t sweat it okay? You’re learning, and that’s all that matters.”

Zitao takes a deep breath. “You’re right, I’m-”

“Don’t apologize,” Yifan says sharply, “You’re doing fine. Go add your findings to the report and review the footage of the questionings of the people at the party and see if you notice anything new that I missed, yeah?”

“Right,” Zitao throws Yifan a small smile, “Thanks Duizhang.”

“Aw, how touching,” comes a familiar voice from the doorway, “Why do you never encourage me like that?”

"You don’t need encouraging,” Yifan grumbles, “What do you want, Jongdae?”

“How rude,” Jongdae huffs, patting Zitao on the back as the intern leaves, “I’m bored. Did you get permission for me to snoop around a little more? The hotel security cameras were disabled remotely for half the night and I’m waiting for configurations to finish loading before I can get anything more off of that. Making Lu Han a bunch of dating app accounts in my free time is getting old.”

“You !” comes Lu Han’s voice from down the hall, “That’s why I’ve been getting all those emails!”

Yifan rolls his eyes. “You’re in the clear for now. But before you do anything that could get us fired, I need you to check security cameras from the gala location and trace down the black Bentley the victim was seen leaving in. A license plate number, evidence in street surveillance, anything. If we can find the car, then we’ll be that much closer to the group that likes to call themselves ‘K’.”

The clatter of car keys onto his desk draws Lu Han’s attention away from the paperwork he’s filling out on his desktop computer.

He looks up. “We got a lead?”

Yifan nods. “Jongdae was able to get a license plate number despite some external tampering with the footage and sent it to the traffic department. The car was spotted about an hour ago 30 miles out in the next city over.“

Lu Han quickly saves his work progress and logs off the computer. Leaving his desktop open while Jongdae’s around is just asking to be hacked. He stands up and stretches before picking up the tossed car keys. “I guess it’d be rude to keep them waiting. Let’s go see if we can catch ourselves some bad guys.”

“If it were that easy, we would have caught them the first time,” Yifan gripes as they walk out into the parking lot to the car. “Wait- what the hell, Yixing?”

Lu Han peers through the backseat window, where their self-proclaimed receptionist is napping. He taps on the window as he opens the driver’s side door to get in. His friend stirs awake, rubbing at his eyes and looking around as Yifan and Luhan slide into their seats. “Huh? My alarm hasn’t gone off. That means my break isn’t over, why are you waking me up?”

“Why on earth were you napping in the back of a ing car?! If this was still summer, you would’ve gotten heat by now!” Yifan pinches the bridge of his nose. “Listen, we’re headed out to do some field work. We got a hit on the license plate of the car our victim was last seen leaving the party from and we need to leave now. There’s no time to circle back to the front to drop you off and you clearly have nothing to do so you’re coming with us.”

“I was on break!” comes the weak protest. Nevertheless, Yixing buckles himself in as the car peels out onto the street. “And I had plenty to do. Now who’s going to watch the front?”

“Just text Zitao and ask for him to fill in for you until we get back,” Yifan unlocks his phone and texts Jongdae.

We’ve headed out, will probably get there within an hour. Keep me updated on the car’s whereabouts.

The rest of the ride is uneventful, with Yixing dozing off in the back and Lu Han singing along to the radio, while Yifan spends most of the time silently reviewing case files involving K. Normally there would be more mindless conversation, but there’s a sort of unspoken tension in the air. This is their first chance of an encounter with K. After months of chasing after leads that have gone nowhere, Yifan is determined to-

“Don’t.”

Yifan blinks, pulled out of his thoughts as he turns to look at his partner. “Huh?”

Lu Han sighs. “I know you, Fan. I can all but see the gears turning in your head. And I’m telling you, don’t. Don’t go putting your life on the line just because you’re anxious about this lead and you think rashly going into this situation guns blazing is going to get us anywhere. Because it’s not. I’ve been on the field with you long enough to know this.”

“I’m not that reckless,” Yifan grumbles as he crosses his arms and slumps down in his seat. “It- It just pisses me off to know that they think they can play with people’s lives like it’s a game and think they’ve won, that they’ve gotten away with it. The other trails had hope, but in the end, it was nothing but them mocking us. But this time it’s going to be different. Isn’t that why he’s here?”

Lu Han looks in the rear view mirror back to where Yifan is pointing, where his best friend is slumped against the window, asleep with drool threatening to spill over the corner of his mouth. Despite years of friendship, there are times where even Lu Han isn’t sure of what goes on in Yixing’s mind. His ditzy and carefree personality easily masks his thoughts and Lu Han can’t help but wonder of what his friend is hiding. But Yifan is right. If Yixing is here, it isn’t to sit back and act as dead weight in their investigation.

There’s something else about K, something that has even Yixing interested.

His hands tighten their grip on the steering wheel as they pull into a parking lot, where a black Bentley sits several hundred feet away. “We’re here.”

Another week another chapter! Got a few midterms next weeks, hope they go well.

I hope your all's weeks went well too! Have a good upcoming weekend :D

Researching for Yifan's interrogation scene was so much fun and dw the action's all coming next chapter, so brace yourselves O.O

Less than three,

PalmerPie