Leaning against the gray chair, Minhyuk adjusts his badge and cap, staring up at the front of the room expectantly. He and his other officers were called in for an impromptu meeting to discuss a very slowly developing case that Minhyuk and several other officers were assigned to. This meeting signified that something big had happened, and as a man who loves his job, Minhyuk is positively thrilled that something is finally developing in this case. The door at the front of the room swings open, and in walks the chief of police, Kim Hyungsoo, with a hardened, serious expression.

“Good afternoon, officers. I have some new information to go over today, so I’ll begin now,” Chief Kim said, setting down a small stack of papers onto the nearby desk. “We’ve gotten an anonymous tip that Gray frequents Forever Mine, a strip club in southern Seoul,” he says, and Minhyuk perks up visibly, his eyes twinkling in interest. “As you all are aware, this is the only lead we have at the moment, so we’re sending an investigative team down today to interview their employees and try to find some more intel,” he concluded. At that, some of the other officers start murmuring to themselves, one even nudging Minhyuk slightly.

“We should send Minhyuk, I’m sure he’s already slept around with all of those strippers and knows them well,” one says, chuckling. A few others laugh at that comment, including even the chief of police. Leaning back against his chair, Minhyuk tilts his hat back, a small, wry smirk forming on his lips. 

“You say that like I’d have to pay to get any… I just get it,” Minhyuk replies, shrugging his shoulders when another round of laughter fills the air. Sure, he had a bit of a reputation, but he’d never been to a strip club in his life- never needed to pay to watch a y babe strip for him. Chief Kim picks up the stack of papers and claps them against the table, successfully ending all side conversations.

“I’ve already decided the investigative team, and Minhyuk- you’re actually on it,” he says, and Minhyuk nods his head, getting serious again. Chief Kim lists the two other men accompanying him, and then dismisses all the other officers congregated aside from the investigative team. With just those three, he gives them detailed instructions for what to ask and how to conduct their interviews, and then sends them on their way. In just around an hour, Minhyuk and his two fellow officers knock on the door outside the club, and within moments, they’re lead to the main room of Forever Mine.

Humming lowly, Minhyuk observes his surroundings, noting that a strip-club in the middle of the day is a pretty odd experience. The stripper poles, well-stocked bars, and luxurious seating all seemed so out-of-place with the daylight seeping in through the windows and no patrons populating the floor. Arriving at the far end of the club as per the instruction of the club owner, they see the little arrangement of club employees, already present to start preparing for the night. Amongst them were bouncers, bartenders, and, of course, the strippers themselves decked in daywear. There were probably only about 20 or so employees total, but to conduct interviews on all of them individually was still going to take a while.

“Hello everyone, no need to panic, we’re simply here to ask you all some questions about a man who has a warrant out for his arrest and also happens to frequent your establishment,” Minhyuk said, watching all of the employees visibly relax. As evenly as they could, the officers split up the employees so that each officer was to interview only a few. Minhyuk had six, and the three officers were all shown to private rooms to conduct the interviews. With the first person, Minhyuk had high hopes. He asked all the questions, even adding a few in hopes that his interviewee might at least reveal something of interest, but the apathetic female bartender wasn’t budging; she clearly had never seen this man before. Although, it probably didn’t help that the officers didn’t have a physical description of Gray to go off of, let alone any other information. They were grasping at straws here, and when the interviewee didn’t know- they just didn’t know. 

Minhyuk began to truly understand this concept when the second, third, fourth, and fifth people he interviewed similarly knew absolutely nothing. Honestly, he was starting to think it was a lost cause- how were they supposed to know if they’d seen an infamous drug trafficker just by passing by him at their place of employment? Feeling a bit dejected, Minhyuk calls in the last person he was supposed to interview, taking the man’s photo ID and jotting down the information on it as the man sat down across from him.

“Shin Hoseok, correct?” Minhyuk asks, his eyes flickering up to the man’s face as he finished writing down his information. Hoseok nods his head, his body shaking slightly. From that alone, Minhyuk could tell that he was different than the other employees- he seemed unreasonably nervous, as if he had something to hide. 

“Yes sir,” he replied, and Minhyuk mentally noted the lisp in his voice, surprisingly enamored by it.

“Alright Mr. Shin, we’ve been informed by an anonymous tip that a high-profile drug trafficker, known by the name Gray, has been coming to this club. Have you ever interacted with this person?” Minhyuk asks, eyes staring over at Hoseok, watching the wave of tension pass through him. He looked utterly terrified, and after several seconds of silence, Minhyuk scrunches his eyebrows together.

“It’s okay, sweetheart,” Minhyuk says, trying to console him. The look in this man’s eyes… Minhyuk wasn’t positive that he even knew anything, but he couldn’t just do nothing with such a beautiful person so terrified right in front of him.

“I’ve… I’ve interacted with him several times,” Hoseok eventually manages out, his eyes trained down at the table. Perking up, Minhyuk blinks a few times in eagerness, his hand quickly jotting down notes.

“And you’re positive that this was Gray?” he asks. Hoseok his lips, his eyes finally looking up into Minhyuk’s again.

“Yes sir. He introduced himself as Gray to me when we first, um, interacted, and has bragged about his job before. Back then, I didn’t know if he was serious, but I know better now,” Hoseok explains. He had a look in his eye as if he were worried he was going to get arrested for not coming to the police sooner, but that was the least of Minhyuk’s concerns. 

“Thank you for your honesty, Mr. Shin. Can you give me a description of Gray’s physical appearance?” Minhyuk asks. He was curious about how Hoseok became so close to Gray when his coworkers never even heard of him, but Minhyuk was starting out with lighter questions.

“Yes sir. He has short brown hair, brown eyes, and he has a large scar across his chest,” Hoseok said, and Minhyuk wrote down everything he heard diligently. “O-Oh, but um, you can’t see his scar when he’s wearing a shirt-” Hoseok says, but when Minhyuk looks up, he can’t help but note the embarrassed flush overcoming Hoseok’s pale face. Quirking a brow, Minhyuk watches as Hoseok quickly tries backtracking, clearly flustered. “B-But I haven’t slept with him-!” Hoseok defends, to which Minhyuk merely shrugs his shoulders as he resumes writing his notes.

“… Have you had ual relations with Gray?” Minhyuk asks, convincing himself that it’s all part of the investigation and that he wasn’t secretly curious about what kind of person Hoseok was. He seems so sweet, and even though his body was at peak condition, a fact easily known just by looking at his defined pecs peeking out of his V-neck sweater, he was clearly easily flustered and downright cute. Minhyuk couldn’t deny that Hoseok was completely his type.

“N-No sir, I’m actually a ,” Hoseok replies, his voice trailing off at the end. “I promise I’m telling the truth, I haven’t even kissed him,” he explains, and Minhyuk nods his head, jotting it down on his notepad. He had no reason not to believe Hoseok- not when he was this shy, fidgety, and flustered. Definitely a ~

“I believe you, cutie. No worries~” Minhyuk replies, glancing up at Hoseok in a mixture of flirtation and assurance. Hoseok swallows, nodding his head, his heart damn near racing out of his chest. Moving along with the interview, Minhyuk goes into the next question he was planning on asking, his eyes flickering up into Hoseok’s face.

“Can you describe your interactions with Gray to me?” he asks, curious to finally start piecing everything together. Luckily, Hoseok seemed like the talkative type, so he was able to get good information out of him so far- he hoped this would only continue. Hoseok nodded his head, immediately replying.

“At Forever Mine, we do private s in the back rooms, away from the public. Only employees have access to them, as we always keep them locked,” Hoseok begins explaining, his nervousness coming back up again. “And um. Well, Gray buys private s from j-just me. Every single Saturday,” he continues, and Minhyuk jots that down, getting excited about the information he was gathering.

“And why just you?” he prompts, not looking up into Hoseok’s face as he was still writing notes.

“Well sir, like I said earlier… Gray found out I was u-um, inexperienced, and I think he liked that,” Hoseok said his face heating up. Minhyuk hums, his lips quirking up in a small smirk.

“I see~” he says, half to himself as he wrote it down. Hoseok’s eyes darted to the floor, wondering if he was just imagining it or if this officer was actually flirting with him. Picking back up with his interview, Minhyuk asks his next question. 

“So, run me through a typical Saturday night,” Minhyuk prompts, his pen ready. Nodding his head, Hoseok does so, not sparing any detail.

“Well, my main-stage routine on Saturdays starts around 12:30 AM. In the audience afterwards, Gray always gives me a ridiculously huge tip, payment for a private , and then after my stage, I get Gray from the crowd and take him to the back room. This is our policy and we are strongly discouraged from denying payments. There, I give him my private and he talks to me,” Hoseok says, watching tentatively as Minhyuk rapidly writes everything down.

“What are some of the things he’s told you?” Minhyuk asks, eyes darting up to meet Hoseok’s, surprised to see the man’s expression darken. 

“Mostly, he brags. He tells me about how much money he has, about how he traffics meth. Never any specific details, not locations or times or anything. Just that he makes a lot of money and could buy me anything I wanted. He thinks I’m playing hard to get, but I’m not interested in pursuing anything with him, money doesn’t matter to me,” Hoseok explains, and he truly sounded like he meant it. His voice was honest, raw with some type of emotion that Minhyuk couldn’t quite place.

“Did you consider it?” Minhyuk asks. “Just for a little bit?” Hoseok shakes his head.

“No sir. Gray is terrifying. His money is worthless to me,” Hoseok’s voice is deadly serious, and Minhyuk jots that down too. So, apparently Gray has a frightening presence and demeanor… that would be helpful for their case.

“I see. Would you mind telling me how you saw his scar?” Minhyuk asks, not quite sure if it was a topic that Hoseok would be willing to talk about freely given his last statement, but Minhyuk’s interview was winding down and he had to at least try. When Hoseok nods his head, Minhyuk picks up his pen again. 

“It was last week… he was getting impatient waiting for me. He started taking his clothes off, but I… I left the room,” Hoseok explains, his voice getting a bit blocked by emotion, as if it hurt him to explain it. Minhyuk briefly wondered if Hoseok had told anyone about his experience with Gray before, and a pang of sympathy shot out of him. Minhyuk reaches across the table between them, almost grasping onto Hoseok’s hand before thinking better of it and retracting it.

“Got it. Is there anything else that you think we should know about him?” Minhyuk asks, already planning on having a follow-up talk with Hoseok sometime in the future. There were probably things that Hoseok couldn’t think of right now that would help their investigation, and clearly Hoseok knew a lot.

“Hm, I don’t know how much this will help, but the key he always carried with him has a Maserati symbol on it,” Hoseok provides, and Minhyuk nods his head, adding that to his notes as well before shutting his notebook completely.

“Alright, thank you Mr. Shin. We appreciate your cooperation, that’s all we needed for now,” Minhyuk says, smiling over at Hoseok. Getting up from his chair, Hoseok bows his head slightly, his eyes deeply honest as he looks over at the officer.

“Thank you,” Hoseok says, before exiting the room. Getting his stuff together, Minhyuk does the same, already knowing that he had a lot of information to share with his fellow officers. Leaving the room, Minhyuk spots the two officers on the case with him and flags them over to him. He takes them into the room he was in and shares the knowledge Hoseok gave him- to which they were both utterly shocked about. Apparently, Hoseok was truly the only person here who knew anything about Gray, and with this newfound info, they could make a game plan. 

“Since Gray frequents here on Saturdays, which is today, how about we come back here tonight undercover? We would have backups nearby, and then try and corner Gray when he’s about to get a little private show with Mr. Shin,” Minhyuk proposed, to which the other officers wholeheartedly agreed. It would be too risky waiting another week for the next Saturday to roll around, so they vowed to contact their Chief and try to get a plan underway ASAP.

Leaving the small private room in the back, the officers return to the main space of the club, spotting all of the employees and club owner back where they first met up. Approaching them, the officers get their attention, thanking them all for their time and cooperation. They also share a brief word with the club owner, who encouraged them to return that night to, hopefully, arrest Gray.

As they were turning to leave, Minhyuk locks gazes with Hoseok, and he nods resolutely, trying to promise with his eyes that everything would be alright and that Minhyuk was going to take care of it for him. Nodding in return, Hoseok feels his cheeks redden, a tension rising up that he’d never really felt before. There was something about Minhyuk… he was confident, attractive, and so charming… biting his lip, Hoseok diverts his gaze, wondering what was going on with him. 

Leaving the club, Minhyuk straightens his cap and badge, his eyes deadest on capturing their perp and making Hoseok’s life easier. He had a lot to do before tonight, but he would make it work- he had to. For that shy stripper, he had to capture this criminal.