Seoul Forest was a huge natural complex following Han’s river bank. It was where people usually came to enjoy nature, with its parks, fountains and picnic areas. Eunhyuk remembered he used to come here on weekends with his sister, they used to rent a bike and go around, before finally stopping to eat some ice-cream looking at the sunset from one of the bridges. It was an old memory, he missed those times… When he used to date Boa he had promised himself that he would find time to bring her here, but he never got the chance, both too busy with their jobs. Now that he was with Donghae he never asked, but he doubted Hae would like coming to such a crowded place.

When they arrived, the officers were putting up the yellow tape. In this peaceful corner of park, next to a pond they could see feet coming out of some bushes. They couldn’t exactly see the state of the body yet, but by the smell they were sure something was dead. Sungmin who was a bit ahead of them wrinkled his nose when he saw the body.

“This one is a weird one…” he commented.

Getting closer, Eunhyuk could only agree. It was a man, impossible to guess his age; his body was intact laying on the side, his face deep into the ground. His face was covered in mud, as if he had put a mask on, and his mouth was wide open mud also inside. Sungmin guessed he had drowned because of the blue color of the rest of the dead body’s skin, and the fact that all his clothes were drenched. It was unclear what the cause of death was exactly, but something seemed definitely strange about this one. With his partner and Changmin they looked around to see if there was any sign of fight, or blood on the grass, but there was nothing.

“He was probably killed elsewhere.” said Changmin.

Eunhyuk smiled, proud of his pupil. Changmin truly had a gift for this line of work; it was such a pity he lost so much time being locked up… But what impressed Eunhyuk the most was how calm the boy always was, but that was maybe understandable since he lived many things kids his age wouldn’t normally go through.

“Why? And how did he bring the body here?”

Again Changmin looked around analyzing the crime scene.

“There’s no sign of struggle, it means he didn’t do it here. And the body is exposed in such a way… it’s as if he wanted to show it.”

At the same time Yesung came running from the M.E. car parked a bit further. With a white jumping suit, pink gloves and his black case he looked, as usual, like a mad scientist. Eunhyuk kind of liked Yesung, with his strange habits, he knew he wasn’t a bad guy deep down. But after the whole scandal it’s been a while since he saw him on a crime scene, especially alone. As if he read his mind Sungmin asked.

“Wookie is not with you?”

“He got called by Satan, so I’m here in his stead.”

Satan was Heechul. Yesung kneeled near the body and started examining it. After a few seconds he was also frowning as if something was strange.

“So?” asked Eunhyuk.

“His skull was crushed.”

“Excuse me?!”

“It’s as if someone pressed his head hard on the mud to the point that his skull would crush. But that’s not the cause of death; I think it was done post mortem. He actually choked on mud, literally.”

“That’s an unusual way to kill someone…” Sungmin commented.

It was especially a violent way to kill someone. It made him think about the last body they found, there was something violent about it too, as if the killer had an important grudge. His brain was working on a theory about what happened to this poor man when Yesung distracted him.

“Hae is not with you guys? I heard he is part of the special team.”

“He is back at the precinct with the future senator.”

“We needed someone to deal with him in a diplomatic way… Hyukjae is not ready to bring him on crime scenes yet.” Sungmin said.

As they were talking about that, Changmin suddenly pointed out something on the corpses arm.

“What’s that?”

Yesung examined and with a special tissue, wiped out the mud that was covering a message. Carved into his skin was a sentence.

“Avaritia has been washed away by righteousness.”

Eunhyuk and Changmin exchanged a glance, remembering what they saw written on the wall back at the construction site. They were all thinking the same thing; it was done by the same murderer, until Changmin said.

“Look at his chest!”

Following his indication Yesung opened the first buttons of the dead man’s shirt and they could all see it. There was a huge S marked in iron, clearly burned into his skin. They all looked at each other surprised, to finally turn around to the youngest.

“How did you know he would have that mark?”

“The last body had it too.”

Eunhyuk turned to Yesung, who nodded, confirming his words. Eunhyuk hadn’t had time to check on the dead body since they found it, but now it was imperative he did.

“What the hell is going on?” Sungmin voiced out.

“That’s what I want to ask…”

***

They stayed a while at Seoul Forest, cleaning the place down. It was now sure thing that it was a serial murder. Before they knew it, it was already time to go home, their work day over. Eunhyuk was impressed by Changmin’s dedication. He already took upon himself to check out the first body, and did a report of what they found back at the construction site.

The next day, Eunhyuk got to the precinct alone; his boyfriend had already left when he woke up. Apparently he was supposed to help the camera crew set up things back at the precinct. A few hours later he joined Donghae that was in a meeting room with the future senator. He was really not looking forward to it; he wished he could first go check out everything he had found so far, especially since they seemed to be faced with something quite peculiar this time. But he also knew that Yesung needed time for the autopsy, and that he couldn’t put on the side this “problem” any longer. When Eunhyuk opened the door he stopped on the spot, what was happening in front of him was very surprising. Donghae was sitting around the huge meeting table, very close to the senator, too close; he was smiling from ear to ear, it’s been a while since Eunhyuk had seen his lover smiling like that, and what was the most annoying was the way Kibum was devouring him with his eyes. Eunhyuk slammed the door shut in a loud noise and the two of them turned to him surprised. Immediately Donghae stepped away from the other man.

“Hey Hyuk, so did everything go well?”

“A man is dead, not sure what exactly is supposed to go well…” Eunhyuk said, bitterly.

Donghae looked at his feet embarrassed, and Eunhyuk felt guilty. He was being unjust. On the other hand Kibum seemed very calm; he turned to him with a calculated smile.

“Detective Eunhyuk, I must say I’m looking forward to work with you.”

“Can’t say the same…” Eunhyuk thought, but he kept quiet. It wasn’t the time to pick a fight. He looked around searching for the tv crew he saw earlier but they were nowhere to be found, there were only two other persons in the room with them, the old and younger man he saw earlier accompanying the politician. Without getting up from his chair Kibum introduced them.

“This is Yunho, my campaign chief and that’s Dowoon my personal secretary. If you ever need anything just ask him.”

The youngest (he seemed to be Changmin’s age) raised his head from his tablet, and with a cold stare welcomed Eunhyuk with a movement of the head. His hair were combed like the politician’s, he was wearing a white shirt thoroughly arranged inside his black pants, he had a backpack that seemed to be an extension of him, a Bluetooth headset was visible in his ear and the table in his hands,