A/N: Major changes here and in the next chapter. Sorry for the delay, guys, but my other writer friend encouraged me to finish writing this update so here you go. Hope y'all enjoy :D

My next goal is to post that new chapter for the hybrid AU fic, so... watch out for that(?)

**edits/revisions made as of 6/13/2021.

5:32:27 AM

May 4, Tuesday

The jarring silence that followed was like a heart being ripped from someone’s chest. Beating one second, then quiet and still in the next. Like the shock of a bucket of ice water being poured over your head as it freezes you all the way down.

Minnie couldn’t believe it.

“I sorta happen to stumble with this guy. He’s a lot stronger than he looks and even took out a knife on me, so I had to shck!”

Yuqi draws an invisible line across her neck with a thumb. Gone was the mischievous girl with deplorable tendencies, and in her place sat a capricious maniac with the tendency to kill.

All you have to do is pull the wrong trigger.

“Hey, don’t give me that look.” She waves a dismissive hand at the cop’s horrified expression. “You should be thankful that I’m actually putting a stop to the infestation in your district. Otherwise, we’d be overrun by their infected numbers.”

Her next actions serve to only heighten Minnie’s fears as she reaches forward to grasp her cheeks, engulfing her pale-stricken face between large hands that almost seem to be crushing it, while the photos are haphazardly dropped in the process. Frightened bronze meets darkened silvers over equally dark and heavy eyebags.

Minnie wonders if Yuqi got a wink of sleep last night. Or the nights prior, for that matter.

“Don’t you see, Minnie?”

This is the first time Yuqi has ever called Minnie by her actual name, and it creeps the Hell out of her.

“They will murder you just like everyone else.” Yuqi’s voice drops a pitch lower than normal, rough and heavy. “Plunge a knife deep into your throat until your last dying breath is spent choking on your own blood, then break every limb off your body so they can scatter them around the forest…”

Her spindly fingers dig into Minnie’s skin—which is a delightful mix of honey and light caramel—but not enough to bruise it. She feels delicate in Yuqi’s hands. Like the finest glass that can be shattered to pieces by a single, careless touch.

“No one can ever find you again,” The statement hung in the air with chilling finality. “And there wouldn’t be a proper burial for you either. Not when there isn’t even a body to—”

“Stop!”

Minnie shoves Yuqi back as she wrenches her head away with her eyes screwed shut. She’s visibly shaken up by Yuqi’s words, as if the Devil himself was whispering into her ears. Tormenting her.

“Just shut up! I’ve heard enough!” She yelled, clenching her jaw so hard that it hurts.

Her reaction gets the message across to Yuqi, who merely sits back down without a word. Just a flat sort of half-smile on her face as she waits for Minnie to collect herself, not even looking the tiniest bit guilty for terrorizing the distressed cop.

“Sorry for making you upset, officer. I find it hard to control myself sometimes.” Yuqi doesn’t sound very apologetic about it either, but at least she seems to have toned down a little.

“ you,” Minnie spat while glaring at the placid giant, her expression set in the firm grimace as she regards Yuqi with disgusted loathing. “You’re out of your goddamn mind!”

“Oh, yes. I’m aware, which is why I also need you to restrain me.”

Minnie huffed in exasperation. She didn’t get drugged and kidnapped just to be some menace’s nanny!

“You seriously need help, Yuqi. You’re freaking me out!”

The girl merely laughs, nonchalant as ever. It was a gentle, breathy sound, yet it riled her even more. “You’re not the first person to say that.” Yuqi looks thoroughly amused.

“Gee, I wonder why.” Minnie spat. She doesn’t care that her irritation is obvious now. “What exactly did these people take for you to start acting like a total screwball?”

The answer was simple. “My family.”

It struck through Minnie like lightning, and her expression turns aghast. Yuqi, however, doesn’t waver in poise. Seemingly unaffected that something so important to her is now gone. She’s indifferent, smiling… But there was a flicker in her eyes that betrayed her face, one that Minnie barely catches on to before it disappeared. Was it regret? Grief, perhaps?

“I-I’m sorry to hear that…” Minnie whispered.

Yuqi’s gaze softens. “Don’t be. You couldn’t have stopped them either.”

The resulting silence felt too uncomfortable for Minnie, so she purposely changes the topic by asking: “Where’s Officer Lee now?”

Regret washes over her when Yuqi’s smile widened as she points to the huge, antique wardrobe tucked away in a dusty corner of the room, and it filled Minnie with a mounting sense of unease and dread.

“Right over there!” Yuqi chirped, gleefully. “For a scrawny-looking guy, he was surprisingly too big to fit inside. So, I had to chop him up into smaller pieces!”

A wave of nausea hits Minnie in the stomach. She wants to throw up.

“Chop, chop, chop, chop…” The murderous giant said in a sinister way of a sing-song expression.

Minnie jerks her head around to shoot daggers at Yuqi. “Quit it, you ing nutcase! You murdered him in cold blood, and now you’re just going to treat him like this?!”

“It’s what he deserved.” Yuqi asserts, eerily calm and resolute. “You’d understand once you find out what he had been up to. But before I get to the meat on the bone, I have a favor to ask you.”

Minnie isn’t pleased at all. “Are you kidding me?” She loured.

Yuqi ignored her hostility. “I need a place to stay and hide. This cabin isn’t as well-hidden as I thought since hikers have passed by recently.”

Before Minnie could so much as protest to the idea of housing an obvious criminal, Yuqi then gets up and walks to a wooden chest by the foot of the bed where a duffel bag has been placed as she rummages through its contents.

Cautiously, Minnie climbs off the bed to position herself in case Yuqi pulls a weapon on her. She isn’t entirely convinced that the other girl wouldn’t try to do something sneaky when she least expects it, though confusion crosses her mind when she catches a glimpse of what appears to be white envelope in Yuqi’s hand. A thick one too.

“Sweetheart,” God, it took every ounce of Minnie’s willpower not to launch the nearest pillow at Yuqi’s head for that. “I have a little something in exchange for all my favors.”

“This better not be a finger…” Against her better judgement, Minnie takes the suspiciously hefty envelope that was handed to her and examines it warily before tearing the seal open. “It’s heavy, what is—”

The words died on her tongue as her eyeballs nearly rolled out of their sockets.

What the !

“Where did you get this?!” She demanded, taking out the bundle of 50K won bills and shoving them at Yuqi’s face. She’s absolutely losing her right now.

“Why, from Officer Lee, of course! The dirty rat who kidnaps and sells people!”

Yuqi grinned at the speechless Minnie. Who would’ve thought that her respected senior was a human collector?

“My plan was to simply take his bag when he wasn’t looking, but then he tried to kill me as soon as I got close. Emphasis on tried.” Her crescent-shaped eyes don’t seem very friendly anymore. “Too bad for him. He did put up a fight, though, I’ll give him that.”

Digging through the duffle bag once more, she gathered an array of other items to show Minnie.

“I found photos of previous victims, money, some photos, sedatives, needles… and a request letter with an address written on it. Of course, I had to find the place if I wanted to learn more about his secret side-hustle.”

She dumps them all onto the bed and faced Minnie, who didn’t like the look she was giving her.

“Turns out, they’re a lot more coo-coo than I am.”

The Thai swallows anxiously. She can see where this is going.

“Officer Lee had business with a neurologist there. He collected test subjects for him in exchange for cash, and the doctor would perform experiments on their bodies while injecting a strange type of fluid in them. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve seen all hooked up to monitors and other medical junk just to barely keep them alive.”

Yuqi jerks a thumb at the wardrobe behind her where she had conveniently hidden Hyukjae’s butchered remains.

“Obviously, Mr. Lee did the disposing of the defects too. Cutting them up in the same way that I’ve done to him. to be on the receiving end, huh?” She sneered maliciously.

“T-That can’t be him!” Minnie cried out in disbelief. Her mind is distraught, spiraling from all the information that she struggles to take in. To fully comprehend and accept the morbid reality because it was just so unbelievable.

And yet, the proof is all here. In every grisly polaroid, in every banknote in her hands, the needles, the letter, everything!

“Officer Lee would never do that! He’s—!”

“A nice man!” Yuqi interrupts. “Loved by many! Wouldn’t hurt a fly! A kind, loving person who was everyone’s favorite! The funny one! The softest! I can keep going, sweetheart!”

Her voice, hardened by sarcasm, could not hide her resentment. Her smoldering grey eyes burned like molting silver, and their intensity has Minnie shrinking back under the pretense of having that suppressed rage misdirected on her.

“But these are the things they want you to think of them. They act all nice and harmless to reel you in, and once you fall for it…”

A step forward urged another step backward, and Minnie flinched when she hit the edge of the bedside table behind her as Yuqi drew near. Intimidated by their vast height difference with Yuqi looming threateningly over her.

“Gotcha.”

She tapped Minnie’s nose with a finger and swiftly pulled away before Minnie could swat her. The audacity. Don’t ing touch me.

“I’m willing to tutor you on self-defense, teach you how to fight better so you’d actually stand a chance against those sickos.”

Okay, now that hurt her pride a bit.

“I’m not made of glass, Yuqi.” Minnie scoffed, somewhat offended. “I can fend for myself just fine.”

“It sure didn’t look like that last night.” Yuqi countered with a gloating smile, which Minnie really wants to punch off her face.

“Don’t.” She warned. “I don’t need a refresher.”

A laugh. “Noted.”

Sighing in frustration, Minnie folded her arms across her chest and looked at the giant sharply. “Also, I didn’t say that I’ll be working with you. We’re not leaving until you convince me that you’re not one of them and that everything else you said is true.”

Yuqi rolled her eyes while clicking her tongue at Minnie’s stubbornness.

“Ah. You’re a little annoying, you know that?”

“I’m dead serious, Yuqi. I can’t trust you if you don’t give me a valid reason to.”

Minnie remained firm, and Yuqi can respect her tenacity. She’s a persistent one, this feisty little mouse. Maybe Yuqi can have her fun with the short-tempered cop.

“Perhaps you want my family to tell it to you, Officer Kim.” She mockingly says before going through the duffel bag again to procure a beaten-up camcorder and shoving it into Minnie’s hands. The envelope full of cash dropped to the floor as the latter fumbled with the device. “Hurry, take a look!”

Minnie flitted her gaze between Yuqi and the camcorder, feeling apprehensive of what they’re about to show her.

“Listen… You’re posing an unstable mentality and a threat in your behavior. You can’t expect me to trust a stranger like that into the public. More so, my friends and family.”

Yuqi just waved off her concern. “I know, I know. I may seem like a crazy twisted in the noggin’. But one of those videos will show you the kind of people we’re up against, and maybe you’ll see me as the lesser of two evils.”

Glancing at Yuqi one last time, Minnie takes a deep breath before turning her attention to the device. It was already switched and opened to a folder containing two MP4 files. Both of them were at least a couple hours apart from each other, although the second one appears to be significantly shorter in run-time compared to the first. She started chronologically.

“This is my bright energy ball, Yuqi! Sweetie, say hi to the camera!”

A beautiful woman, possibly in her late-thirties, greeted Minnie as she held the camcorder far enough to show her standing beside Yuqi herself in what seems to be a nature park of sorts. Except this Yuqi who is waving ecstatically at the camera with both hands and a charming smile on her lips looks far different from the Yuqi in front of her now.

It was like Minnie is staring at a happier, much healthier version of the girl in her youth. Her long hair was dyed a deep scarlet that seemed to glow like simmering embers in the radiance of the sun, and her cute, bare face had rounder cheeks and was full of color. For once, her toothy smile was genuine.

“This is you?!” Minnie gasped in incredulity. “I can recognize your voice, but holy !”

“I was cute before and still cute now.” Yuqi grinned while poking her own cheek.

Minnie makes a face at that, though she can’t help but wonder. What happened to her back then?

She returns to the video.

“Ayo, whassup! I’m mom’s favorite energy ball!” Came Yuqi’s overly zealous voice blasting through the speakers in a wave of confidence, and Minnie’s lips involuntarily curl into a half-smile. She could just tell from the lively aura that this Yuqi was a huge dork. Maybe even a troublemaker at heart.

“Yo! Where’s the birthday girl at?!” A baritone voice is heard soon after, and the camera pans to a trio of two guys and a girl rushing over to join them.

“Happy birthday, baby sis!” Shouted the boy with cat eyes as he trapped Yuqi in an affectionate head-lock, which caused her to whine. “You’re growing up so fast. Literally too.”

“Ugh, Yifan! You’re messing up my hair!”

“Yeah. She’s not a little kid anymore.” The doe-eyed girl chuckled, ruffling Yuqi’s hair even more once Yifan released her. And the pout on Yuqi’s face intensifies.

“What are you talking about, Vivi?” The guy who had spoken earlier asked. “She’s twenty-one now and still goes to sleep with a giraffe plush—ow!”

“Shut it, Yukhei. Or I’m throwing all of your rings.”

The three siblings laugh over his outcry, just when another man slides into the scene and wraps an arm around their mother. Strikingly handsome and equal parts happy.

“Best dad Yixing coming through! Let me show you my amazing family!”

Shuffling can be heard as the camcorder was being passed to him, and he disappears from the frame in order to fully capture the moment.

“This is my lovely wife, Victoria.” He points at the woman smiling at him adoringly. “Happy wife, happy life. So, so lucky to have married her!”

He then focused on the rowdy bunch of siblings as they smothered Yuqi—who was whining once again—in a group hug and eagerly posed for the camera. “And these are my babies! Yifan, Yukhei, Vivi, and our birthday girl Yuqi! My wonderful bundles of joy!”

The more Minnie watches them and their silly, yet heart-warming antics together, the more she couldn’t resist smiling and chuckling at how wholesome the video is. Yuqi observes her silently while taking in the tenderness of Minnie’s expression with an intensive gaze. It’s her first time seeing this gentler side to the cop, and she’s not sure what to make of it. Especially with the motives she has in mind.

But Minnie, she’s… something else. Something special, and Yuqi knows that. Maybe she can really use it to her advantage.

“Actually, I wouldn’t have been able to recognize myself or my family if I didn’t find that camcorder.”

Yuqi began once the video ended with her family gathering around for a picnic, taking the device from Minnie and fiddling with the controls before handing it back to her.

“You see, I lost a fair chunk of my memory from an ‘accident’, so to speak. I woke up looking like this, thinking like this, and all I did was cower over everything.” She vaguely described while motioning here and there with her hands. “It felt like I was reborn into someone else… but I also felt rage and hatred once I knew what I’ve lost.”

Minnie frowns, conflicted. “Yuqi, we can’t solve this case if you can’t remember a single thing. It won’t support your innocence if you’re caught murdering these masked people, even if it’s for a justifiable cause! This video isn’t enough!”

“Oh, it is.” Yuqi gestures at the camcorder. “Watch the second video.”

Pursing her lips, Minnie does what she’s told and plays the next file with a tentative press of the button.

She shouldn’t have listen to Yuqi.

“Don’t you dare come near my family!”

“Victoria! Grab the kids!”

“Let go of me!”

“No, no! Stop! Leave her alone!”

“Run! Get out of here!”

Everything was so dark, but Minnie can still see what was going on in the havoc that ensued. It was all happening so fast, so suddenly, that she can barely begin to process the nightmarish events unfolding before her.

“Yukhei! Help!”

The older girl, Vivi, cries out as she was forcefully grabbed by the hair—yanking her back while she shrieked—then silenced by a scalpel being plunged into the side of her neck, making her choke as blood trickled out and splattered onto her shirt.

“You bastards! I’m gonna kill you!” Yukhei wrestled against the grip of two masked men in uniforms holding him back, distraught and furious as he bared his teeth. Snarling at his captors while he thrashed and kicked against them, before a grunt left his busted lips when one of the guys punched him straight in the jaw to subdue him.

“I’ll take the other girl. You get rid of that piece of .” A gruff voice commanded from the side, just as a gloved hand came into view and roughly grabbed Yuqi by the wrist.

“Yifan!” She vehemently called for her brother, who was fighting to reach her as a burly man restrained him. No matter how hard she tried to tug herself free, it was no use.

“Don’t touch her! Please!” Yifan desperately begged through his tears. Minnie’s hand flew to in horror when a straight razor slits his throat, tearing through skin like paper, and the blood…

God, there was so much blood everywhere.

This can’t be! They’re cops! Her spiraling mind tries to reason. But why are they doing this? Who can we trust now?!

“Keep watching, sweetheart.” Yuqi interjects from the side.

Yukhei’s shouts and groans of pain are muffled by the screams of their parents and Yuqi’s sobbing. It was all too much, too painful and traumatizing to witness, but Minnie couldn’t stop. She couldn’t tear away from the screen.

“Mā! Bà! Help me!”

Her frantic cries tore at Minnie’s heart. Yuqi sounded so absolutely terrified, and yet no one was around to hear them. Nobody could save them anymore.

“Yixing! Save her!” Victoria yelled. The person who had been filming them pans to her being brusquely shoved to the ground by another one of the masked men, causing her to yelp as she stumbled onto her bruised knees. Her yellow sundress was ruined, dirt-spotted and caked with her own blood from the open gash on her left shoulder.

Victoria barely even got to look up when another man stepped forward with a baseball bat in hand and struck her right against the head. A sickening crack was heard as the force of the blow fractured her skull, and her body lurched to the side. Crashing to the forest floor as blood poured down her face. She wasn’t moving.

Yuqi burst into tears at the sight of her dead mother. “Mā!”

“Vic! No!” The camera shifts over to a battered Yixing, heartbroken and enraged. His eyes widened when he saw the man approaching Yuqi, who was still trapped in the vice-like grip of her captor. Her face was blotched and red from all the crying. “Stay away from my daughter, you ing—!”

A knife was stabbed into his chest almost instantly, the serrated blade twisting deeper inside as he sputtered and coughed out blood. Crimson threads spilled from his mouth as his legs buckled under him, and he promptly collapsed to the ground in front of Yuqi. Deathly still.

“Bàba!”

Minnie shuts the device right after, unable to finish the rest of the video anymore. She felt like she had just relived a nightmare. The very people who’d sworn to protect their citizens under oath and badge were the same murderers who killed Yuqi’s family in cold blood.

“I’ve seen enough!” Sweat broke out on her forehead as her hands trembled along with her voice. “So, t-that means the thirty missing victims are all dead this entire time! We need to put a stop to this!”

A pair of larger, colder hands wrapped around Minnie’s, and she snaps her head up to see Yuqi’s cruel smile.

“Good.” The giant trilled.

Without warning, Yuqi loops an arm around Minnie’s neck and pulled her close while taking the camcorder from her hands. Too close for comfort, actually.

“First things first, I need you to get a copy of every single application in your department. I don’t care if they’re working as janitors or receptionists. You never know who else is involved in the grand scheme of things, yeah?”

Scowling, Minnie tries to push Yuqi’s arm off her shoulders.

“Hey, watch it—” She said. But Yuqi, to the cop’s chagrin, disregards her attempts at putting a speck of distance between them.

“We’ll then sort them out so we don’t harm the innocent mice while catching the filthy rats. Together, we can finally put an end to these killing shenanigans.” She coolly explained, not at all distracted by Minnie’s squirming. “I only need your full cooperation, sweetheart. You don’t even have to worry about the rest because that’s mine to finish. Just listen to everything I say, so you won’t get killed!”

All of a sudden, Yuqi presses a quick kiss on Minnie’s temple before expertly dodging the fist that was thrown her way. For a giant, she sure has fast reflexes.

“Gross!” Minnie rubs the spot where those disgusting lips have touched her. “What the Hell was that?!”

“A kiss.” Yuqi states the ing obvious. “It’s how I say thank you. Do you want more?”

She proceeds to kiss her again, but Minnie retaliates by blocking the offending lips with a hand.

“Keep your damn disease to yourself.” She hissed angrily and pushed Yuqi’s face away. “And quit fooling around! You literally just watched your whole family get killed! How are you still smiling and acting like nothing happened?!”

Yuqi tilts her head at Minnie’s clear frustration, but nonchalantly shrugged as if it didn’t concern her.

“I’m just holding it all back, you know? I am aware of many emotions, but I don’t know how they exactly feel.” She shrugged, grinning lopsidedly. “Do you want me down in the dumps rather than being happy? To bring out the rage I’ve been suppressing inside with a smile?”

A cold hand touches Minnie’s neck in a loose grip, eliciting a shiver from her as calloused fingers grazed her skin. But she stands brave in the face of danger staring her down and plucks Yuqi’s hand off.

“Can’t you at least show them a little respect?”

“Oh, my dear officer.” Yuqi pats Minnie’s head to assure her. “Everything I’m asking you is for them.”

Minnie ponders on it longer with a pensive frown. She still has one last question: “If we sort out the, uh, rats from the mice… What will you do about the rats?”

“The same thing they did to my family.” Yuqi answers without hesitation. Then she strides over to the wardrobe, grasps one of the handles of the larger compartment, and cracks it open an inch. Not so much for Minnie to see what’s inside, but enough for a putrid stench to start wafting into the room.

“The satisfaction in getting rid of them will soon make you realize that it’s much more fun to just chop them into bits.”

Minnie pinched her nose shut at the unbearable smell. It reeked like death.

“I won’t let you kill anyone.” She adamantly opposed. “I’m still a cop whose job is to protect lives. I’ll help you find these people, but that doesn’t mean I trust you completely. I don’t want you justifying murder with murder! Using one evil against another doesn’t make it good!”

Laughing under her breath, Yuqi approaches her without a word and pecks her forehead.

Minnie reels back with a screech. “Will you please stop doing that?!”

She goes to smack Yuqi, but ultimately misses when the girl side-steps out of harm and grabs her by the wrist.

“Alright, fine. Since you asked so nicely.” With an impudent smirk, Yuqi tugs Minnie forward so she’d stumble right into her arms. She tenses up immediately. “With your stubbornness issue and flaming aggression—”

“I’m not stubborn!” Minnie protests while struggling against Yuqi’s hold around her waist. Okay then, aggressive.

“—I doubt that someone can squeeze these infos outta you. However,” She seized Minnie by the chin and tilted her head back so they could look at each other face-to-face. Minnie stilled in that moment. “If I find out that you betrayed me, I will personally skin you alive and clean every sliver of meat from your bones. Do you understand, my little mouse?”

Her voice reverts to an ominous timbre that deeply unsettles Minnie. Along with the malignant gleam in her dilated grey eyes.

“Y-Yeah. Understood.” Minnie nods skeptically. Hoping it’d be enough for Yuqi to let her go, which—to her relief—she easily does.

“You can try hiding from me all you want, but I’ll always find you.” Yuqi winked, taking Minnie’s hand in her own and bringing it up to her chapped lips. “After all, I’ve been watching you everywhere and every day. You can’t escape me, sweetheart.”

She kisses her knuckles before allowing Minnie to jerk her hand back in disgust.

“Even if you don’t let me stay in your apartment, I’ll still go anyway because I know exactly where you live.”

Minnie balls her fists. The urge to just punch Yuqi is more tempting by the second.

“You’re a twisted , you know that?” She fumed, giving her a dirty look.

Yuqi just sniggered. “Yeah, yeah. Tell me something I don’t know. Now back to business.” She then unhooks a keyring from the belt hoop of her pants and twirls it around her finger. “We should get going. The sooner, the better.”

“Wait! What about Officer Lee?” The Thai hastily asked. “I mean… Even if he did terrible things behind our backs, we can’t just leave him here.”

Yuqi raised a brow at this, but she doesn’t object. “What do you suggest then?”

Minnie gives an unsure shrug.

“Alright. We’ll just bury him somewhere else.” Yuqi approaches the wardrobe again and swings it wide open. The dismembered corpse of Lee Hyukjae scattered onto the floor like pieces of a broken toy, and the stench of decay was overpowering enough to sting Minnie’s eyes with tears. Her face pales when Yuqi, in an all-too casual manner that is downright disturbing, gathers some of Hyukjae’s body parts in one arm like she was just collecting trash.

“I’ll carry his limbs and torso while you carry his head.” Yuqi tosses something in Minnie’s direction. “Heads up, officer!”

Hyukjae’s decapitated head lands by Minnie’s feet with a thump, rolling over to display his rotting face, sunken cheeks, and glassy eyes that have clouded over. Every fiber of her being froze up completely. Petrified beyond belief.

“The smell!” Minnie covers her nose with both of her palms and feels the bile rising in . “What the happened to all his blood?! He’s dry as a prune!”

“Err, hold on. My brain hurts when remembering stuff.” Yuqi scratches her head using the discolored fingers of Hyukjae’s chopped arm, which causes Minnie to gag. “Ah, yes! I tied him upside down for a whole week, and I guess he got like a brain hemorrhage. Then I cut him open to take all his guts out and shoved them into a bucket for the wild animals to eat!”

Holy . Minnie’s stomach couldn’t handle this anymore.

“Stop… I-I can’t—” The cop feels like doubling over so she could retch all over the carpet.

“Nonsense. You can handle it, right?” Yuqi encouraged, only to drop Hyukjae’s limbs in the next few seconds when Minnie faints on the spot. And she lunges forward to catch her before Minnie could hit the floor. “Whoops! I guess not.”

If it weren’t the godawful stink or the carcass that knocked her out, it was hearing what Yuqi had done that did the job.

“Funny as this is, I’m quite disappointed. I thought you could handle corpses.” Yuqi giggled as she lifted the unconscious Minnie in her arms and carried her back to the bed. It was just like last night all over again. Her poor, weak-hearted mouse.

“What do you think, Officer Lee? What are we gonna do?” Yuqi asked the dead man as she goes to pick up his head and use it like a dummy.

“Let’s take her home, get rid of me, kill my other buddies, eat burritos, and continue killing more of my buddies.” Yuqi moved Hyukjae’s bottom lip with her finger to mimic him talking, just for the sinews of decomposed flesh around his jaw to tear off. His mandible fell to the floor with a dull thud, and his tongue is left hanging out of what remains of his mouth. “Aw, you’re so excited that you can’t hold yourself together!”

Dropping his head carelessly, Yuqi returns to Minnie’s side and sits on the edge of the bed. Brushing the red hair away from her face, gently, so she doesn’t wake her. Even while passed out, still in her dirty uniform, Minnie looks untainted and sublime in Yuqi’s eyes.

No wonder you’re so desirable. She thought with a conspiratorial smile. Just the perfect bait for a certain nasty pest.