Hyosung felt her blood freeze in her veins. She asked Zelo to tell her what happened.

“We have decided to split up to cover more field, but after the said time, she still wasn’t there. Something happened to her, I just know it. We need to find her, Hyosung.”

His eyes were blazing from determination, all ready. He had the faculty to transform his despair into anger and will, and the young woman knew she could count on him to think things straight.

They walked up to the second floor, the private floor, where the couple had been separated. Hyosung was about to inspect the first door on her right, when the door opened by itself. She found herself face to face with the young doctor. She instantly put a hand on her weapon, then thought twice. The guy was not armed. No need to fight.

He looked surprised upon seeing her. His cheeks were flushed and his hair was messy.

“Oh,” he began. “It’s you, miss Jeon. My apologies, I didn’t think I would find someone in this part of the house. I intended to isolate myself, but I guess I must I’ve got lost.”

For a doctor, he seemed a bit too sensitive. Hyosung frowned, still suspicious, but decided to give him a chance. No matter what people thought of her, she had empathy. She took a step towards him, not too close, not too far, and titled her head.

“Is everything all right?” she asked.

Daehyun attempted to smooth down his dishevelled hair. He looked like a naughty boy who broke his mother’s favourite vase. “I’m glad I found you. I wanted to ask you something.

Before he could say a word, Himchan appeared at the end of he corridor. 

“Hyosung!” he shouted. He did not wait to get to her to yell. “There never was any!”

He walked as quickly as possible towards them, with his usual slight limp. Minhyuk threw an intrigued glance at Hyosung, who grinned back. She held the truth in her hands.

“I have a theory.” She claimed everyone’s attention. “The dead is not dead, and someone has been helping him in this masquerade.”

Himchan reached out to them, out of breath. Zelo shook his head, looking lost. “What on earth are you talking about?”

Daehyun’s expression was as confused as the others’.

“My little Junhong, this whole story is way more exciting than I hoped for. There never was a dead one, because there simply never was any poison in the glass. Why all this little show for, would you ask me? Because there are two people here who came to steal from Mr Faraday.”

A mocking laugh raised from behind her. A man walked out from the shadows and dragged a silhouette towards him. Zelo gasped and rushed over them. The stranger tightened his grip on Ginger’s neck and pointed his gun on her temple.

Zelo stopped dead on his tracks.

“You are the dead one,” accused Hyosung, though her voice was quite calm.

“You got that right, sweetie,” the stranger mocked her. “I was thinking of you as a bird-brained girlie, but Daehyun was right to be suspicious. I recognise it, I was wrong, I underestimated you. Oi am indeed the dead one. Yoo Youngjae, at your service.,” he spoke with an even voice. “oh, for you have understood it so well, I’m also one of the members of the Herons.”

Hyosung heard a rustling on her left, but Youngjae smirked threateningly.

“Not so fast, old sport. Don’t forget I have the string of fate between my fingers. You wouldn’t risk the life of a civilian, now?” he showed Ginger with a nod – the girl didn’t move a finger.

Minhyuk removed his hand from the weapon he had tried to pull off. Daehyun chose this moment to move and seemed to wake up from a long dream.

“What a shame, h” he sighed and wiped his jacket. “I was getting used to this role of the caring and sensitive doctor. My best performance so far. I may though have exaggerated on the fragile side.”

Hyosung felt both glad she had doubts about him, and both frustrated to have been fooled.

“Anyway,” Daehyun wet on while he walked to Minhyuk. “You figured us out. For that, congratulations. I did not think that someone would be smart enough to look into the glass. Who would refute a doctor’s word, after all?”

He seized the policeman’s weapon and put it on the floor, where it couldn’t be reached. He did the same to Himchan and Zelo, and came closer to Hyosung. He outstretched his hand instead of searching her. “Miss, if you please.”

The young woman glared at him and took her gun in her purse. She handed it to Daehyun, who stared at it in the palm of his hand. He ended up saying:

“I would put my hand into the fire that you are the one, miss Jeon, who figured this out before anyone else. There should be exceptional women in this world, like you are. How did you guess?”

“The accumulation of lack of evidence,” Hyosung muttered. “I did some thinking. If the robbery and the murder were two different things, then why going into so much trouble in order to make proves of the murder disappear, given that it was already done? No one really saw the body, or his stuff. Actually, everyone focused on the murder, and all forgot about the robbery story. But I’m not everyone” – she let out an arrogant laugh and could feel Zelo and Himchan rolling their eyes – “and everything slowly fell into pieces in my mind. And I thought of the crime weapon. I only had suspicions at first, but my companion had confirmed them. There has never been any poison in the glass in the first place.”

She sighed. “Everyone was gathered in the same room, given way to anyone who wanted to walk free in the house. It was merely a diversion. Elementary.”

Daehyun let an admirative smile float on his lips.

“It’s very good, very good, we are all thrilled, but let’s go back to us,” Youngjae muttered. “Yes, we have improved our method. Then you will understand that since you unmasked us, you will not walk safely through this. Daehyun… what is the best way to reduce someone to silence?”

“Off with their tongue!” Daehyun declaimed with a fangy smile. Youngjae snickered and Ginger’s temple with his gun.

“We could start with the lovely fiancée, what do you say?”

Zelo exploded. “Don’t touch her!” he roared.

He leaped forward but Daehyun intervened. He kept Hyosung’s gun trained on Zelo. “If I were you, I wouldn’t dare.,” he said without losing his provocative grin.

Hyosung’s grey cells were swirling at full speed. They need a plan. A plan.

Her knife.

She could feel the cold steel of the blade against her skin. She had her plan.

Without taking her eyes off Daehyun, she moved slightly – imperceptible, really – hid behind her back. She made sign to Minhyuk that he would need to make a diversion. With another movement of the fingers, she knew that Zelo would understand his role. Then she counted backwards with three fingers.

Three, two, one.

Minhyuk rushed forward, as if he wanted to grab the guns on the floor. Daehyun immediately reacted, while Youngjae, who couldn’t move, shouted to him to stop Minhyuk.

Everything happened in a blink. Hyosung took advantage of Daehyun’s momentary lapse of concentration to grab her hidden knife strapped down her ankle. The two burglars understood what just happened a second too late.

Hyosung threw the knife towards Ginger and Youngjae. But the knife reached neither of them. It grazed Youngjae’s cheek and embedded itself in the wall right next to him. It destabilised Youngjae. Hyosung had counted o n that. Zelo as well. He pounced on Youngjae, swirl of black hair and tackled him on the floor, using all his weight and strength.

Minhyuk had won over Daehyun and was holding him still.

It was over. Hyosung rushed on Ginger, holding her gently in her arms.

“Are you okay?” she worried.

Ginger tried a smile which looked more like a grimace, but it was a reassuring smile.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to die from it.”

Hyosung outstretched a hand to help her rise. Zelo, still manhandling the burglar, raised his eyes filled with worry on the pretty blonde, who reassured him immediately.

Himchan took a few steps forward and threw an utterly satisfied grin to Hyosung.

“Another case worked out perfectly!”

 

--

 

Everything went out perfectly, indeed. The police eventually came, and the two burglars got immediately handcuffed. Right when they reached the front door, Hyosung suddenly remembered the main reason behind all of this. She ran towards Daehyun and Youngjae, who turned to her. Youngjae eyed her up and down, but Hyosung talked to Daehyun. She knew there would be chance that he would answer.

“The paintings, did you steal those?”

Daehyun let an amused smirk float on his lips. “It’s up to you to find out,” he simply replied.

Then the police pushed them out of the house and they were taken away into the night.

 

--

 

A few days later.

The Christmas sun was shining high in the sky. Hyosung brought the hem of her hat down on her eyes. She walked with a determined pace to the little café where the agent Lee had given her an appointment. She spotted him quite easily.

He sat, nonchalant, leant against the chair, an everlasting cunning gleam in his eyes.

She stopped in front of him. Which made him raise his gaze.

He stood up quickly. “How delightful to be in your company, miss Jeon. I longed for the time that I could see you again.”

Hyosung could not help herself: she smiled, slightly amused by all the flattery, whether he meant them or not. He walked around the table to draw a chair for her. To make him understand that she needed not his help, she sat down to the very place he had left. Minhyuk didn’t seem to mind at all and took another chair.

Hyosung removed her gloves and joined her fingers. “Would you be kind enough to inform me on the subject of this meeting?” she asked him. It was true that he had asked for an appointment without explaining the reason for it.

“You must know by now,” the young man started, “that the general Faraday made the inventory of his belongings. He then discovered that he was missing two paintings, as well as some jewellery of high value. After our success in the capture of those two Herons, he had preferred to ask for our collaboration once again. You and your mates, and I, to discover the hideout of his lost treasures.”

Hyosung could feel herself boiling on the inside. Another adventure? She needed no more than that. Minhyuk’s lips drew a smirk as he added:

“A new adventure together, what do you say? Here is a perfect occasion to get to know each other a little bit more.”

Hyosung leant towards him.

“When do we start?”