e p i s o d e   v i i

Kyungsoo wakes up to the sound of Jongin’s shrill screams.

Having lived almost an entire decade on the run with an international criminal like Junmyeon, waking up to screaming is most definitely not an ideal situation. Although the screaming was more oftentimes Junmyeon’s victims rather than Junmyeon himself. In fact, Kyungsoo can remember the first time he woke up to screaming in their apartment, he was greeted with Junmyeon ripping a MI6 secret agent’s toenails out instead of simply putting the man out of his misery. Junmyeon had gotten blood on Kyungsoo’s favorite Persian rug and they were forced to immediately relocate because the neighbors heard the screams that Junmyeon didn’t have the brain cells to very well think of to gag beforehand. Nevertheless, this screaming is most definitely Jongin’s, meaning something has possibly gone terribly wrong.

Kyungsoo bursts out of his bedroom at almost exactly the same time as some of the others, armed with a pistol and a dagger at his waist as he and Chanyeol immediately rush downstairs and close in on the kitchen, where a trembling Jongin is sitting on the tile floor and staring at the refrigerator in horror.

Chanyeol scans their surroundings, before barking a quick “all clear” to Kyungsoo, who quickly sets his weapon down and goes to help a rather pale-faced Jongin off the ground. “Hey, hey, what’s going on? Are you alright?”

“There’s-” Jongin chokes, “There’s a head in the freezer.”

Kyungsoo pauses, as there was most certainly not a head in the freezer the last time he checked. “Are… are you sure?”

There’s a noncommittal grunt and low pitched yawn from Chanyeol behind him. “ing false alarms, I’m going back to bed.”

Kyungsoo simply flashes the marksman a brief thumbs up over his shoulder, before gently guiding Jongin over to the living room to sit down on the couch before the younger continues, waving his hands around rather frantically. “There is, hyung, I swear! I was going to heat up some waffles because I was hungry and I pulled open the freezer and there was just- a human head!”

As much as Kyungsoo wishes to deny such a statement, he knows very well who he lives with and what they’re all capable of. He rubs small circles into Jongin’s back until the boy calms down, before taking a deep breath to yell. “KIM JUNMYEON, OH SEHUN! GET YOUR ASSES IN THE LIVING ROOM RIGHT THIS MOMENT!”

There’s a brief thud noise from the floor above them and the sound of feet shuffling before the two disoriented, half-awake men stumble down the stairs with heavy footsteps into the living room.

“Jesus Christ, Soo, it’s like six in the morning,” Junmyeon groans while Sehun sways side to side like a drunkard, nearly face planting onto the ground as he struggles to keep his eyes open. “What the are you yelling for us about?”

“Jongin says he saw a head in the fridge,” Kyungsoo presses his lips tight against each other when he notices how that seems to wake the two up a little bit more. “A human head. In my fridge.”

“Goddamnit, Jongin ing ruins everything,” Sehun moans, just barely dodging the kick Jongin aims at him from his spot on the couch. Under Kyungsoo’s piercing stare, the maknae immediately stops whining and coughs up the information the elder wants to hear. “We were going to move it after we woke up, honest. Junmyeon hyung just said we needed a place to temporarily store it because there was a change of plans and this was the only option.”

Kyungsoo turns his sharp gaze on Junmyeon, who flinches just the slightest bit at the sudden attention. The other four have never seen Junmyeon flinch or so much as feel threatened by anything or anyone in the world other than Do Kyungsoo. It’s a feat, really. “Would you care to ing explain why one of your ing victim’s cranium has made its way into the same freezer where you all make homemade popsicles?!”

Junmyeon pinches the bridge of his nose and massages the cartilage for a moment before replying. “Sehun and I had to go clean up the original gift we left for Yixing because I had to get him flowers.”

“I don’t follow,” Kyungsoo comments drily, shifting to glare at the two in front of him more effectively while a done-with-life-at-the-moment-just-wanted-waffles Jongin rests his head in Kyungsoo’s lap, curling into a ball and closing his eyes.

Junmyeon lets out a stressed sigh. “Yixing. He said he wanted- err, implied that he wanted flowers. So I brought Sehun with me around 1 AM and we took out Go Ahnjoo and gave Yixing some flowers.”

Kyungsoo’s eyes bulge. “Go Ahnjoo? Drug cartel leader Go Ahnjoo?! We weren’t supposed to get to him until next month! Junmyeon, we already planned-”

“I know! I know! But-” Junmyeon grits his teeth, as though he doesn’t quite understand his own actions himself. “I- I just had to. I had to get Yixing the flowers.”

“Because you talked to him,” Kyungsoo says quietly, carding a hand through a dozing off Jongin’s hair.

Junmyeon doesn’t reply immediately and for a moment, Kyungsoo thinks that he’s fallen asleep standing up like Sehun behind him. He lets out a heavy sigh, but before he can stand up, Junmyeon finally speaks. “Yeah, something like that. It’s- it’s complicated Soo. Sehun and I will get the head and all the rest of the body out of your way before noon and clean the freezer and everything if you really want, I promise.”

Kyungsoo exhales, not really in the mood to deal with this for much longer at 6 AM. “Fine, fine, just- just let the others know or leave a ing note on the fridge or something next time. You ing scared the out of Jongin and now we’re going to have to deliver a half frozen, chopped up corpse to them and act like this was all planned or something. You know stunts like this are what could get us caught.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry,” Junmyeon wraps an arm around a practically knocked out Sehun’s shoulder and starts to pull the younger back towards the staircase. “We’ll discuss and replan all this tomorrow, okay?”

“Tomorrow,” Kyungsoo mumbles, shifting a pillow under Jongin’s head to replace his thigh and covering the boy with a blanket before heading back to his own room.

He’s getting too old for this .

“What do we have this time?” Yifan sighs as he stretches the all too familiar pair of disposable rubber gloves over his hands, ducking underneath the yellow caution tape as he makes his way towards the latest crime scene. A rather unfitting location, he thinks to himself bitterly, considering K’s typical M.O. The last place he would expect to investigate a murder of theirs is in a flower shop. “There’s got to be more to this place than we think if K’s involved.”

"Drug trafficking,” Yixing murmurs, “Jongdae says a lot of the customers have been linked to drug cartel business or have been arrested on at least one account of possession of illegal substances. He suspects the owner of the shop was doing more than deliver pretty bouquets around town.”

“Just great. The last thing we need is another division of the department trying to stick their nose in this business.” Yifan shoves the front door open with pursed lips, ignoring the irritating and out of place jingle of the bell at the top of the doorway as he steps into the shop, waiting for Yixing to step through as well before letting the door swing shut behind them. Most of the crime scene is still untouched, as a good majority of Lu Han’s crew is still working on collecting and preserving evidence back at the bomb site and probably won’t make it here anytime soon. They’ll have to suffice with Yixing’s trained eye and expertise for now. “Anything stick out to you in particular?”

“Well, there’s a dead body over ther-”

“Yixing,” Yifan warns, already beginning to regret not taking Zitao or Lu Han along as well. “I know there’s a dead body here, otherwise we wouldn’t be here.”

Yixing shrugs. “Just trying to be thorough.”

Yifan is careful as he follows behind Yixing and makes his way over to the latest victim. The last time he so much as nudged a chair out of place at a crime scene, Lu Han was so mad he nearly ripped him a second . The corpse is hunched over at the waist on the counter, the blood spattering on the wall behind him already dried. Yifan wrinkles his nose at the pungent smell of death as they approach more closely.

Yixing hums as he scans the sight before him. “Estimated time of death is probably nine to ten hours ago, based on discoloration of the body from livor mortis. What time was the body discovered?”

“Just an hour or two ago, we’ve brought the person in for questioning and I’ll get on that as soon as we’re done here.” Yifan scans the counter before he finds what he’s looking for. That trademark cream colored business card. “The homicide department transferred everything to us once they saw this lying by the corpse.”

Yixing leans over the dead body, peering down at the victim’s blood stained hair with furrowed brows. Yifan raises an eyebrow. “Something wrong?”

“It’s different,” Yixing prods gently along the skull with cautious fingers, shifting the clumped hair away so as to get a better view of the exit wound of what is most definitely not a rifle’s bullet trajectory. “Execution method was the same as previous victims, but the weapon is different this time around.”

“You think we have a copycat killer trying to use K’s name to get away with murder?” Yifan can already feel his blood pressure starting to rise at just the thought of another complication in their investigation.

Yixing’s eyes briefly glance at the business card lying innocently against the marble counter. “No. This is most likely still the work of K. Perhaps have Minseok send that card to get checked to make sure it matches with the previous ones, but I don’t think they’ll be different.”

“So what, they’re trying to with us?” Yifan make a move to run a hand through his hair in frustration, only to pause when he remembers he has gloves on and would really rather not go home with potential evidence in his hair. “First they try blowing up a guy, now they’re trying out a new gun?”

Yixing chews on his bottom lip in thought, before turning back to Yifan. “Let me test something.”

“Yeah sure, the floor is yours-”

“Hold the victim up for a moment.”

“I- what?”

Yixing looks at Yifan expectantly and the detective finally heaves out a sigh in resignation. “Alright, alright, just- just give me a second.”

Yifan clenches his teeth as he tentatively tries to lift the victim up from his armpits, struggling to hold him upright. He looks over at Yixing who seems to be pretending to be looking at him through a rectangle made with both his thumbs and forefingers. “You , are you pretending to take a video or something?!”

“No, stop distracting me,” Yixing takes a step back and continues to look through his finger made lense. “Try to hold him up to his full height, right in front of the blood spatters. Maybe with a bit of a hunch. He seems to be pretty old and there were a few knots in his shoulder and neck, meaning he probably hunched a little too much.”

Yifan considers complaining for a moment, before deciding that his suffering is probably worth whatever breakthrough their receptionist is about to make and follows directions, albeit with a grunt or two. He should really go back to the gym it’s been a while. “This good?”

Yixing nods and eyes the rather ridiculous looking scene of Yifan holding up a dead body to the bloodstained wall for a few seconds before speaking. “Okay, you can put him back.”

Yifan stumbles forward and drops the victim back onto the counter with another grunt, flinching as the victim’s skull knocks a little too hard back into the marble. He’ll have to make a note of a potential post-mortem bruise in his report. “What’s your crazy mind come up with this time?”

Yixing mulls over his observations and possible scenarios. “This murder is a bit different from the others.”

“You’ve said that already,” Yifan sighs. Could this ridiculous flower shop murder even have Yixing stumped of its connection to K?

“Yes, but I haven’t explained why.” Yixing looks at Yifan with an unwavering gaze, “This kill wasn’t planned beforehand.”

Yifan’s eyes widen. “But- the drug trafficking…”

“We know they tend to target criminals, in one form or the other, so I’m sure this victim was on their list from the beginning,” Yixing meanders back over to the counter. “But the murder itself  this time was most definitely on impulse.”

Realization hits Yifan like a ton of bricks. “The person to pull the trigger this time was different, another member.”

Yixing nods. “From what I was able to calculate with some of Jongdae’s simulations and Lu Han and Minseok’s gathered data from the previous crimes, the bullets used to kill that homeless man and the e were from a rifle, shot by someone at least 180 cm tall based on trajectory. But looking at how tall this victim is and considering the path of the bullet as the victim was most likely standing when he was shot through the head, this assailant was most likely a bit over 170 cm, but definitely not over 180 cm.”

“On impulse, a non-premeditated murder,” Yifan squints in thought, as though halving his vision will help him reach the right conclusion. “Why would they… after all their previous careful preparation for the ones before…”

“You know what that means though,” Yixing’s voice lulls him out of his bubble of thought. “They’re a careful and elusive group to deal with, but only because they’re always one step ahead, but this time…”

“This time…” Yifan echoes, eyes widening, “This time, they didn’t plan ahead, which means there’s more room for potential error. That means there may be evidence that they missed, or even a witness!”

“Bingo,” Yixing sings.

Yifan looks back at their receptionist, who seems perfectly happy admiring the nearby flower arrangement displays after practically blowing open an entirely new lead on K. “I’m, uh, I’m going to step out and go make a quick call and send people out to ask around if there were any people in the area around the time of death.”

“You do that,” Yixing replies breezily, oblivious to the intrigued, but also wary look Yifan sends him before scuttling off out of the shop.

It’s just Yixing left in the building, humming a soft tune he heard on the radio earlier in the car to himself, as he continues to examine the beautifully crafted floral decorations. What Yifan isn’t there to see however, is the quick stiffening of Yixing’s posture as he stares at a more recently assembled floral bouquet, a mesmeric cluster of heliotropes and bouvardias. Eternal love and excitement.

“You’ll come running after me.”

Yixing feels a shiver run down his spine at the memory of Suho’s words from the night before, his eyes locked in at the soft red cursive- most likely the victim’s blood, how dreadful- written on the card peeking out among the flowers: “Nunc scio quid sit amor.”

Now I know what love is.

Suddenly, Yixing doesn’t find the idea of being courted by flowers quite so appealing anymore.

Ahahaha some more Ksoo and his aggressive mothering for K_Myoujin because I simply couldn't stop laughing about it when she pointed it out.

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And stay tuned for more! I know the plot development is rather slow but hopefully things will begin to pick up a little more soon I hope you all are still getting those crime show thrills I love.

Happy Saturday!

Less than three,

PalmerPie