When they finished up with Zhoumi they went back to the main bureau. When Eunhyuk noticed someone at his desk he sent Sungmin to the meeting room first. He then silently got closer to the young man that was focused on something on his tablet, his earphones on. Suddenly Eunhyuk put a hand on his shoulder, making him jump in surprise, his earphones flying away.

“Jeez hyung!” Changmin cursed under his breath. “You scared me to death!”

“It’s not like you to be jumpy.” Eunhyuk said with a smile, glad his prank worked. “What were you doing?”

Before the youngest could put his tablet away, Eunhyuk noticed he was watching Virgil’s speech again. His heart clenched. He had every faith in Changmin’s capacities, but he couldn’t help but think that it could be a good thing if he stayed out of this case. It reminded him too much of Henry’s… Eunhyuk understood that because it was already hard for him not to do the parallel between the too, so he could easily imagine how Changmin felt. Not only that, but something seemed off about him, as if he was hiding stuffs. With a serious expression Eunhyuk pulled a chair to sit next to him.

“Are you alright?”

Changmin threw him a questioning look, confused about the question.

“You seem a bit distracted, is there something on your mind?”

“I’m fine hyung. I’ve just been thinking about some stuff about this case.”

“You’re doing a good job, don’t overdo it. You have nothing to prove to us.”

Changmin smiled sadly, as if he didn’t believe his words. Eunhyuk gave him a friendly slap on the shoulder and pressed him to come to the meeting room. When he finally got there, everyone was already working hard. Heechul and Hangeng were lost between a multitudes of papers scattered on the table, Kyuhyun was on his laptop and Leeteuk was showing something to Sungmin. Everyone was there, except for his boyfriend. Eunhyuk hadn’t seen Donghae since this morning, and he couldn’t help but be a bit frustrated about it. Where the hell was he? Suddenly Kyuhyun interrupted his thoughts.

“I have the infos you wanted.” he told Heechul.

“Very good! If you’re all ready then let’s start this meeting.”

They then put all the information they had in common. Eunhyuk shared what Zhoumi told him of what he found on the dead bodies and Heechul exposed the victim’s background. Three victims for now, Geun Chae Hae who represented Pride, Park Woo Young for Greed and Lee Seung Ho the last one being Sloth. They were reviewing what they collected from the families and the entourage of the victims but still Eunhyuk didn’t understand why the killer chose them over others. He threw a glance at Changmin who still seemed a bit off. When suddenly he jumped out of his seat to go to Kyuhyun, silently whispered something in his ear. During the exchange Leeteuk was the one exposing what he found.

“His pattern of speech, his way of exposing things, it shows that he is eloquent and familiar with speaking in public. There’s something very paternalistic in his way of exposing things.”

“That could be anybody really…”

“I think he is very educated.”

“I think you’re right.” Changmin said interrupting them.

He seemed so excited suddenly that it was clear that he had an idea about the case, Eunhyuk encouraged him to speak up.

“You found something?”

“Can you give me a few minutes of your time? I need to explain some things for you guys to understand.”

“I hope it’s worth it…” commented Heechul, crossing his arms in a nonchalant way.

Changmin gave a sign to Kyuhyun that exposed a picture on the screen of what seemed to be an inverted mountain with its layers apparent.

“What’s that?” asked Sungmin.

“That’s the painting representing Dante’s Inferno.”

They all looked at him confused. Eunhyuk didn’t get what that had anything to do with the case but decided to let the maknae express himself.

“Dante Allighieri was a poet and philosopher of the 13th century. His most famous work is called The Divine Comedy, which is composed of three books: Paradise, Purgatory and Inferno – meaning Hell. The story is about Dante who guided by his master called Virgil, visits the underworld and learns about life.”

At the mention of the name everyone became more attentive. Encouraged by their reactions, Changmin continued.

“The Inferno is composed of 9 circles, and in 7 of them they cross path with people who committed a specific sin.”

“You mean that each circle represents a different sin?” Heechul asked.

Changmin pointed out the painting were they could see people being tortured in different ways on each layer of the inverted mountain.

“For each sin a different punishment.” Sungmin said, understanding the mechanics of it.

“Exactly! I studied Dante’s books, I can tell you that our killer Virgil is thoroughly following the punishments described. The sinners of Pride had weights attached to their shoulders and had to walk around bent down; Greed they had their head’s crushed and their faces covered in mud; Lastly, Sloth they were forced to walk so much that their feet were burned down.”

Eunhyuk started writing down everything the youngest said. He was right, every crime looked like the descriptions on the book. But when he thought it was the only connection he made Changmin continued surprising him.

“Those who committed sins were all sent to hell of course, but they could be forgiven if they made amends. To do that they had to pass by Purgatory, cleanse themselves and at the end they were burned with an S on their forehead to complete the transformation and be able to go to Heaven.”

“You mean the S on their chests…”

“The killer said that he was going to cleanse the city of all sins.” Hangeng commented.

“He is marking them like cattle… as if they were animals.” Heechul said, the despise he was feeling very clear in his voice.

Eunhyuk started resuming what they just discovered.

“So you mean that his whole method of killing is based on that book? You think he is going to continue choosing people that represents the sins he was to purge until he finishes the circle?”

Changmin nodded.

“We already defined that each person represented a sin. The MC, someone famous being Pride, the business man being Greed and the kid… Why Sloth?” Sungmin asked.

“Lee Seung Ho apparently became a recluse a few years ago, didn’t got out of the house much, dropped school, and played video games all day. A classic hikikomori.”

“A what?”

“Hikikomori, that’s how we call a recluse kid nowadays.”

Sungmin nodded, as lost as the others. Only Kyuhyun would know a term like this. Since Changmin started his explanation Kyuhyun wouldn’t stop typing on his computer, looking for information and putting up the crime pictures to illustrate their conversation. The kid was good, and he was always the best to find relevant info quickly. Eunhyuk now understood what they had to do to go forward on the investigation.

“We know who the victims are and we know how he chooses them, but what we don’t know is why them in particular. We are going to divide in four groups: Heechul and Hangeng you’re dealing with Park Woo Young, find out everything you can on why he could be Virgil’s target. Sungmin you take the kid, and Changmin and I will take care of the MC. Kyu you got the kid’s computer right?”

“Yup, IT team got it back for me, I’ll swipe his hard drive and computer for infos. I should be done by tonight.”

“Ok I’m counting on you. So, Leeteuk and Kyu, your mission is to find a link between them and try guessing who will be his next victim. If we can find his pattern we can maybe stop him.”

When he finished giving out orders, Eunhyuk was expecting Heechul to say something, or to complain that he should be the one calling the shots, but he was surprisingly cooperative. 

“You’re right,” commented Heechul. “I don’t think he chose those people at random. If we find the link between them then we’ll find the killer. He can’t be very far from them.”

“Let’s get to work then!”

They left the room, and as soon as he stepped outside, he spotted Donghae. His happiness was short, when he noticed Kibum next to him. Both of them seemed to be in deep conversation. He hated when Donghae smiled like that at the senator. He wasn’t usually the jealous type, but there was something about Kibum that he didn’t trust. At this exact moment he wanted to run to his boyfriend and snatch him away from that man, but he also knew that Donghae was only doing his job. And he also had a job to do.

With Changmin they left and went to the last known address of the first victim. Even if he was rich and famous the man lived alone, and didn’t have any close family. At his workplace, people were a bit hesitant to speak about him, as if they feared something. His producer was of course full of compliments, but nothing relevant of who the man was really. That was until they came across a shy assistant that seemed to know more than he wanted to admit. It was Changmin, with his soft charm and calm way, that was able to win the assistants trust.

“There are rumors that Geun Sang Chul stole the work and news from others and passed it as its own. That’s how he was able