Kibum entered the café with his coat over his one forearm, searching the full room of people for his boss. There was always the chance that he was late or delayed for some reason, but Kibum doubted that highly; even if it was snowing, the roads were closed, and the traffic lights weren't working, Jinki would find a way to make it to his destination on time. He was just that persistent about being punctual.

The room buzzed with calm chatter from the filled tables. Most of them had four to five people seated around them, but a few rare ones held two or three. There wasn't one person who was alone at their table tonight, which surprised the detective - it was around 6 or 6:30 PM, so why wasn't everyone out celebrating the end of the work day with some soju or beer? That's what he would've preferred. But, he understood everyone liked winding down in their own ways, and to everyone here, that was apparently through coffee, lattes, sundaes and other sweet delicacies and desserts. Jinki must've felt the same...or he just didn't like alcohol that much. Or maybe, he didn't want to seem too informal with a subordinate.

Kibum spotted the elder one at a table a bit further away from everyone else - away from the chatter and groups of men and women to not be disturbed as he flipped through the case file that was open in front of him.

“I thought you'd be here before me. It's rare for you to be late,” Kibum grinned as he plopped down in the seat in front of his boss, and Jinki looked up curiously. Kibum thought that he'd simply shake his head with a tiny grin and get straight down to business like he usually did when it came to case discussions, but he was surprised when Jinki showed him a wide grin, unlike one he had ever seen at the office before.
He knew everyone had different sides to them at work and at home, but for some reason, he didn't think that applied to Jinki. He thought the elder man was just serious both on and off duty, but he welcomed the change in behavior from his superior nonetheless.

“And it's rare for you to be on time,” Jinki quipped. In any other situation, Kibum would've been flushed in his face at the snide comment, but he could tell the elder man was only joking. And he was right - Kibum was about five minutes late.
“Better to show up late than to never show up, don't you think?” He retorted with a teasing grin, and his superior laughed gently as he nodded, “indeed, you're correct, as usual,”

Jinki ordered a black coffee for himself and a normal latte for Kibum.

“You like lattes, right?” The elder man asked once the waitress had disappeared.
“Yeah, sure,” Kibum shrugged nonchalantly, “Taemin drinks them all the time, so I just get the same for me to save myself the hassle of trying to figure out which drink is mine when I pick them up,”
It wasn't the entire truth; yes, having two of the exact same drinks made it easier to sip and go, but he also loved lattes much more than plain coffee in general.
“Interesting,” Jinki hummed in a deep voice, his dark brown eyes studying Kibum's face before he smiled in such a way, the younger one felt as if his boss knew he was lying.

“Have we gotten anything from Jonghyun yet? Or anything about his missing jacket?” Kibum asked to change the subject, and Jinki shook his head. The case file was open to the collection of photos from the CCTV camera of the convenience store it belonged to.
“No. I told detective Bae and detective Kang to look around the neighborhood of the laundromat to see if anyone might have any surveillance cameras around their stores, homes or apartments, but no one has given us any info yet. It looks like that may be a dead end,” Jinki answered.
“What about the one who was working the till that day at the laundromat? Surely they must remember a face, or have cameras, right?” Kibum hummed out. There was no way they could've struck a big lead like this just for it to flop in the end.
“The man who was working there that day said he can't remember who it was. He looked like any, normal man would. There was nothing that stood out about him, and the worker said he doesn't remember the face well enough to have a sketch artist come in. The camera theory is also a bust. The laundromat doesn't have any except in the back to make sure no employees go around stealing clothes belonging to customers,” Jinki said, as seriously as ever, and Kibum slumped in his chair.
“We're getting nowhere with this case! Every time it seems like we're able to find something worthwhile, it ends up being useless in the end. Not even the victim's own little notes and clues helped us,” He complained, pouting his lips ever so slightly. He folded his arms almost childishly, and Jinki smiled a little bit at the scene.
“It's frustrating, I agree. But I'm sure when we somehow find out who it was at the laundromat, the victim's clues will point us in the right direction for a motive,” He said, and Kibum glanced at his superior before nodding. As always, Jinki was the voice of reason and logic in frustrating times.

“I think everyone is happy to have you working on the case as well. It boosts morale,” Kibum said after some silence as they waited for their coffee, and Jinki laughed wholeheartedly. It was also something his subordinate had never heard during their time at work, but it was a very entrancing and lovely sound, and it made Kibum's heart flutter. He wanted to hear it again.
“Do you really think so? To be honest, I don't think I have anything to do with their confidence about closing cases. They know they can do it, and that's all they need. I doubt having their boss hover over them all the time is enjoyable in the slightest,” Jinki replied. It was the first time he was opening up to someone from work like this, but he was happy it could be someone like Kibum.
“You underestimate yourself way too much. I don't think you realize how much everyone truly values you at the station. You're not just our boss...you're a leader, someone everybody looks up to. When we go up in the ranks, we want to be like you eventually. Devoted to our work, saving lives, but still being humble while doing it,” Kibum said when their eyes met, and he could see a certain happiness in Jinki's orbs. He didn't want to admit it, but he was feeling rather flustered from all the compliments he was receiving at the moment.
“And some of us admire you very much, but we just don't know how to approach you to tell you that...” Kibum continued, his eyes soon lowering to the table as he fiddled with a napkin; all sorts of intense emotions were swirling inside of him, and he didn't know how to deal with them. It was the same feeling he felt when he was talking to Taemin and the threat of confessing to him loomed like a dark cloud over Kibum's head, and even after all this time, he still didn't know how to handle it. Not to mention the confusion in his muddled brain - this wasn't Taemin he was with, it was Jinki.
But why did it feel so natural to want to shower him with compliments and confess what a great man he was, then? To admit that he was rather appealing to the eye not only because of his handsome features but his buff (although often hidden) physique as well? Was this just a projection of what he wanted to say to Taemin, or did he really feel some sort of spark with Jinki? And if so, when did it start?
As he looked at Jinki now, he realized there were many unspoken words he wanted to say to his superior. He always provided some sort of comfort for Kibum, a shoulder to cry on whenever Taemin was too chatty about his time with Minho - even though Kibum never told Jinki he liked Taemin, Jinki never had an issue providing tissues or coffee for Kibum to calm down. He never pried, but it was clear that he was always there to talk to if it was ever needed.

Kibum wanted to ramble about all the feelings he felt right now; not about Taemin, or Minho, or how sick it made Kibum to see them together, but just how he felt about Jinki. That he liked him very much, and that he was the kindest one the detective had met in a very, very long time.

But then, the coffees came.

Their gazes broke at that moment, and they both thanked the waitress who carefully placed both of the hot beverages down on the table. She seemed so frantic to attend to the other full tables, Kibum felt bad for cussing her out in his head for ruining the moment him and Jinki were so obviously having.

Jinki could see there was something the younger man had wanted to say before they were interrupted, and he allowed that tiny voice of hope in the back of his head to say it was that Kibum wanted to confess just as badly as his superior did. That, for some crazy, wild reason, Kibum liked him too. That there was some sort of chance for the two of them to be together, and that all his fantasies of romantic dates and trips around the world and making breakfast together every morning would eventually come true. That his warm and fuzzy daydreams of cuddling up to Kibum during winter and sharing soup and hot packs and coffee were things that would come to fruition.

He sipped his steaming hot black coffee, and with the strong taste that he gulped down, he drowned out that voice, and any other overwhelming feelings that might get in his way tonight. They had a job to do, after all.

He steeled his emotions, and cleared his throat.

“As soon as detective Kang and detective Bae come back to me about if they've managed to find any new leads near the laundromat or not, I'll update everybody. For now, though, I think we should look into the idea that maybe it wasn't Jonghyun whom Taemin had seen at the scene of the murder,” Jinki said as if the moment before had never happened. It disappointed Kibum greatly, but in a way, he was glad too; he would've made a fool of himself if he had confessed and Jinki didn't feel the same. The younger man wouldn't have the guts to look him in the eye after that.
“So you think he was mistaken? He seemed very sure, though...” Kibum said unsurely as he sipped his warm latte, “it makes sense since the jacket was stolen, but are we really going to believe the suspect over one of our own detectives?”
“It would seem odd, but I think we have to be neutral right now. There is a high possibility that it was someone else that Taemin saw. The person who stole Jonghyun's clothing months prior,” Jinki nodded.
“It could also be that Taemin was correct when he said he saw Jonghyun, and that he had someone else pick up some of his stuff at the laundromat back then. The employee I spoke to said the man came in with the receipt that belonged to Jonghyun. Think about it. How else would someone get their hands on that if Jonghyun didn't give it to them himself? And he returned at the end of the day to pick up the rest of his things. If he didn't have his receipt back, how else would he have collected the rest of his clothes?” Kibum said, leaning in so that he didn't have to speak too loudly.
“What?” Jinki frowned; what his subordinate was saying somehow made sense, but it wasn't registering in his brain.
“I'm saying that Jonghyun planned this murder months ago. He dropped off his clothes, then gave the receipt to someone else with the instruction to pick up only a few of the things to seem as if a thief or stalker did it. Once that was done, Jonghyun took the receipt back and picked up the rest of his clothes later on in the day. He did all of this in the event that he'd somehow mess up and leave DNA at the scene, or he got spotted by someone, which was why he wore the jacket which was supposedly stolen. That way, he'd tell us his things were stolen, and he had no idea how that ended up near or at the scene, so we'd have no choice but to double check with the laundromat. They'd tell us the clothes were picked up by someone other than Jonghyun himself, and we'd immediately think theft, so we'd let him go. This is what he wants,” Kibum explained everything so quickly, Jinki had to listen extra carefully to make sure he was following correctly.
 “That's a good way of thinking, but why plan the murder in the first place? The victim had no enemies,” Jinki reminded Kibum, and subordinate drank some more coffee to fuel his next idea.
“She knew something about Jonghyun he didn't want people finding out. My guess is she was going to report something about him to someone, and he found out. She probably didn't talk much with him, which is why no one can tell us if they knew one another or not, and it'd make sense as to why he'd use her own telephone cord as a murder weapon instead of bringing his own. It would also explain why he walked past a camera. If he knew the area well, he would've found a way around all the cameras in the neighborhood while trying to escape. This must've been the first or one of the rare times he went to her house to confront her, they fought, and he killed her,” Kibum said, tapping the table with his fingerprints to further accentuate his points.
“But if he planned this months ago, wouldn't that mean he would've tried blackmailing her or try to keep her quiet somehow which failed? That would tell us why he planned it in the first place,” Jinki hummed out after taking another sip of the boiling hot coffee.
“Probably, yeah. He must've tried, and she refused to keep quiet, so he knew what he had to do. But maybe she didn't have enough evidence against him, or else his secret would've come out long ago. That's why she was murdered only recently,” Kibum mused.
“So how did he find out she was going to expose him? I doubt she would've called him and enlightened him about her plans,” Jinki said dryly.
“He must've heard it through the grapevine somehow and knew he only had a certain amount of time to get rid of her, which was why he couldn't prepare himself well enough before their confrontation,” Kibum shrugged. His latte was halfway done now.
“It makes sense, but...it just seems odd how he'd plan this so long ago by having someone pretend to steal his stuff and then kill her now,” Jinki admitted. He didn't know how much he really believed this theory, even if it was pretty good.
“Like I said, she probably didn't have enough evidence, and he knew it. He also must've known she was persistent, so he kept an eye on her somehow. He knew he'd have to shut her up for good eventually, he just had to wait for the right time. There's a chance he was being investigated by someone back then already, which was why he couldn't make his move then,” Kibum said - he knew this all sounded a bit sketchy, but it was the only thing he could come up with. Something like this was better than nothing at all.
“Hm, you're right. I doubt she would've kept her theories or evidence about him to herself only if she knew how dangerous he was. She must've shared her ideas with someone else. Maybe even a group. And if that's so, Jonghyun would have many people watching his every move nearly all the time, probably documenting it too, so if he hurt the victim somehow back then, he'd be brought in immediately,” Jinki nodded. Things were starting to add up now.

They ordered some more coffee, knowing they'd both be here for a long time, exchanging ideas and thoughts to add to their theory which they'd share at the next meeting with everybody.