The stench had proved itself to be more unbearable as time went by. Haechan felt the contents of his stomach empty with the sight of the dead body. He was never weak when it came to blood and gore, but to see a corpse right in front of him right there…. In front of him.

Haechan shuddered at the fact that they were standing above the corpse the first day they were there. Mark’s knees were weak, but before he could wrap his head around the situation in front of him, the door flew open and Jeno strode in.

“Hey, Bunny said that dinner is—” Jeno’s legs were brought to the stop, feeling the tension in the air, his face churning into a grimace. “What is that smell?”

He didn’t have to ask because the silence made him go closer to his friends just for his eyes to settle on the very dead, very blue dress turning green dead body on the ground.

“Holy moly, what the ?” Jeno was shocked, the male’s hand reaching to balance himself right beside Mark Lee. “Holy moly! What the f—”

“I know. We know. We don’t… Blurghh,” Haechan began, his face white and lips pale before turning around once more for another round of puking. “It’s her. It’s The Woman in The Blue Dress.”

A pause, Haechan turning around and wiping his lips with the back of his hand.

“We need to leave,” Haechan said. “This is… This is dangerous. We need to evacuate and leave.”

“No,” Jeno and Mark chorused, Haechan looking at Jeno with a frown.

“Did you just say no?” Haechan asked. At first, Jeno wanted to leave. What had changed? “Jeno, if you want to stay for the money, I can lend you some.”

“No,” Jeno emphasized. Even if it was about the money, Jeno couldn’t admit to it due to his pride. “It’s not about the money, it’s about Mark.”

“What if the answer is right in front of us? What if this brings us closer to the answer?”

“This is different!” Haechan insisted. “This is a dead body.”

“Haechan,” Jeno started, taking big strides towards the flag compartment. The woman’s eyes were open and Jeno felt as if she was staring straight at him, the sour smell of acid reaching his nostrils. It was putrid. “She’s already dead.”

“You can’t be kidding me… Jeno. This seems like something to tell the police!” Haechan exclaimed.

“If we tell the police, they close this place out. The police did nothing twenty-three years ago when the Golden Murders happened, what makes you think they’ll do anything now?” Mark was beginning to panic that they would never be able to use his brother’s video in the clock tower.  

“Mark,” Haechan tried to reason with him. “this is not something to take lightly. What do we tell Bunny? That there is a dead woman in the flag compartment in the town hall?”

“We don’t,” Jeno said, shaking his head. “We don’t tell Bunny.”

Mark was glad Jeno was on his side… Except that it meant something was giving Jeno incentive to stay. The two men made sure Haechan promised not to tell Bunny, and after closing the flag compartment and covering it up with the rug once more.

In fact, they pinky-swore.

“Honey, don’t go into the main hall, okay? There’s this smell,” Jeno said, entering the dinner.

“Oh? What’s going on in there?” Bunny asked, letting out a small gasp. “Is it a dead rat?”

“You can say that.” Haechan fidgeted uncomfortably. “Something dead.”

“Nothing scary, right? Is it black mold? Oooh, I know! I saw one documentary about how wood gets rotten sometimes. Maggot-like stuff starts growing on it, too. You know what maggots are, right? It grows on dead bodies—”

“SPAM!” Mark exclaimed from the corner of the room, Bunny jumping at how he interrupted her.

“Yay, spam!” Elliot cheered, loving it that his uncle liked his favorite food. “SPAM!”

The conversation was quickly diverted to food, Jeno feeling a sinking feeling in his stomach.

For the following nights, he would find himself dreaming about the woman in the blue dress with foam coming out of and her hands around his neck.

Choking him. Telling him to look harder. Look deeper. It was not fun if he didn’t.

“Evil is in everyone,” she whispered, her sour breath on his face. “Heroes can be villains, too.”

The next morning – Fifth day mark 

The next day, there was something wrong with the plumbing in Haechan’s room. Every time he tried to move the faucet handle, a rumbling would occur, and only small amounts of water would come out. Same with the bath.

“You can always shower in our room,” Bunny told him, Haechan telling him that it would be overstepping boundaries. “Or the kids room.”

Haechan’s fever was subsiding, but he could still feel the after effects of the cold every time he breathed. He knocked on Mark’s door, the male opening it without waiting for a response just to see Mark look up from a box he had brought to his room.

“What’s up?” Mark asked, immediate worry showing.

That was how it was now… They were always on guard. Every time Mark would call for Haechan or Jeno or vice versa, all of them would feel their heart race in trepidation.

“Bathroom not working. Is yours working?”

“No, I showered in Jeno’s room.” Mark’s eyes went back down to the box of papers. “If you’re going to use Bunny’s soap, use the green one, by the way. I used the lavender colored one and now I smell like,” Mark sniffed himself, “lavender.”

“Jeno’s showering right now.”

“Good luck with that. Shower time for Jeno is like spa day,” Mark said, Haechan nodding. “Want to try out the boy’s locker room?”

Haechan nodded. That was exactly what he had in mind, the male grabbing his clothes and his towel. Mark knew that was queue for him to come along, the male going on his feet and following Haechan out.

The boy’s locker room was right at the South Wing, the building furthest away from them. It was near the big gym that Park Chanyeol’s body was found. They had to cross the courtyard, the two of them feeling the breeze pick up.

“Do you think we’re doing the right thing?” Mark asked, turning his head towards his best friend who picked up pace so he was right beside Mark.

“What do you think?” Haechan asked, a hand going up to casually place on Mark’s shoulder. “Do you think we’re doing the right thing?”

They passed the clock tower, Mark seeing the table below the clock tower looking way different from his time.

“Can I ask you something?” Mark began, directing his gaze forward. “Why are you and Jeno so nice to me?”

Haechan pressed his lips together, letting out a hum. It was something that had bothered Mark. He saw the shared glances between Haechan and Jeno sometimes. He saw how they would whisper to each other behind his back. Like a little secret they didn’t want Mark to know about.

“Because we care,” Haechan replied simply. “and because we know that you care more deeply about things than we do.”

Their personalities were vastly different – Jeno being the logical compass, Haechan being the support, and Mark being the driving force.

“Did you find your coat?” Haechan asked suddenly, Mark shaking his head. “Where do you think you put it?”

“I remember I took it off at the clock tower when we entered Baekhyun’s tape memory. I went back and checked it, but it wasn’t there.”

“Did I tell you that when we went out of the clock tower, I felt as if your brother was staring straight at me?” Haechan asked. “But he just looked at me and looked at the clock tower with Bora.”

“My brother confessed his love for Bora in the clock tower,” Mark said, chuckling. “I wonder where my cloak went. I got it tailored. The sleeves are from my brother’s old coat, so the color of the sleeves and the coat are different shades of brown. There is no cloak like mine in the whole world.”

As Mark pondered that thought, he noticed that the door next to the locked gym was ajar, the male squinting at it. However, right at that moment, it looked like the knob had turned and the door was pulled shut.

Mark blinked, a hand nudging Haechan who let out a “huh?”.

“What?”

“Did you see that?”

“See what?”

“The door was open and then it closed.”

“Did you notice the wind, Mark?” Haechan asked.

“No, the doorknob turned, Haechan. I’m sure of it.”

Mark’s insistence just made Haechan go with it, the male reminding him that other than the other things going on, the main happenings on the Marcier School Grounds were, in fact, supernatural.

“It doesn’t scare you?” Mark asked, Haechan frowning.

“It does,” Haechan admitted. “But I was always taught that spirits are energy. It’s not the monsters under your bed that are scary – it’s the people around you. The ones with greed in their hearts. Those who can wield knives.”

Entering the boy’s locker room, Mark stopped. The air smelled…. Moist.

The floor was weirdly clean like someone had swept the floor just recently.

“Expected it to be dirty,” Haechan said, Mark reminding him that there was a body underneath the flag compartment that wasn’t fully decomposed. “Probably was the Woman in the Blue Dress who cleaned all this before she passed, don’t you think? What do you think made her kill herself?”

Mark blinked. “Why do you think she killed herself?”

“Because the smell, while foul, also smelled of acid. Did you notice how there was yellow stuff around —"

A slam of the door from a distance, Haechan screaming while Mark jumped at the sound, his hand going to grip Haechan’s arm.

“! Hello?” Haechan called, his eyes skating over the boy’s locker room to see that there wasn’t a single door that was closed. It would have been the other exit that led to the inside halls of the South Wing.

As Haechan urged Mark to walk closer, he did feel something in the air. It was thick and dense, the male stopping when his feet slid slightly.

“Mark,” Haechan said, Mark fearfully pressing himself to Haechan’s side. “Look.”

Mark turned to where Haechan pointed, the male jerking his head to one of the shower cubicles.

It was wet. Water had sprayed on the floor; the door was wet and water droplets slid down on the walls.

“Is it me or does it look like someone has taken a shower?”

Jeno was back at the main hall, finishing up his shower. When he came out, he noticed that Liz was waiting by the bed.

“Hey, honey,” Jeno called out, rubbing the towel on his head. “What’s going on? Why aren’t you in bed?”

“We have plans to play pretend princess tomorrow. Elliot’s the dragon,” Liz said, Jeno frowning at his daughter.

“You’re playing pretend?” he asked, unable to stop the disbelief that tinted his voice. Liz nodded.

“We promised Elliot,” she said. “I can’t zip my dress up.”

Jeno tilted his head to the side, telling her to wait and he’ll zip it up for her. He placed the towel on the chair before Liz moved forward and turned around. Jeno dragged the zipper up, but it stopped halfway her back.

“Mummy tried to zip it up, but she said the zipper is stuck,” Liz said, Jeno blinking.

“It’s not stuck, honey,” Jeno said, noticing that the zipper was fine. “That’s weird. You could fit in the dress just fine last week. It’s your new favorite dress.”

Liz turned around, a pout forming.

“Huh,” Jeno said, whirring. “Well, I guess we’ll have to buy you a new favorite dress, huh?”

“I guess so,” she whispered, her eyes casting down. Jeno noticed that she looked incredibly sad.

“Come on now,” Jeno consoled. “We’ll buy you the best dress out there, how about that?”

“Yeah,” Liz mumbled, looking up and giving him a meek smile. Jeno’s eyes did not leave her face, the man reaching out to rub her cheek for a second before he spoke.

“I miss your toothy smile,” he said, Liz suddenly widening her smile.

“Do you miss Sally, too?” she asked, Jeno nodding and sitting down to beckon her towards him. “I miss Sally.”

“Of course I do,” he said, a hand dragging through her fairly moist hair.

“How much do you miss Sally, Daddio?” Liz asked, Jeno clicking his tongue.

Jeno took a moment, not understanding where the conversation was heading.

“Very much,” Jeno said when something clicked. He brought his eyes down to his daughter. “I love how you are very smart. I also love how Sally is incredibly caring to you and your brother. I love how… Sally snores in her sleep.”

“I… She does?” Liz asked, looking confused. “I don’t think she does.”

“Mhm…” Jeno smiled, leaning down to kiss her head. “Go play with your brother. I need to talk to your mother.”

Liz smiled, kissing his cheek and that was Jeno’s confirmation. He found Bunny in one of the rooms, laying out the kids clothes for their pretend session the next day.

“Hey honey,” Bunny began when Jeno blurted it out.

“Liz and Sally switched themselves. It’s Sally who is with us. Liz is at your grandparent’s house.”

Bunny spun around, her eyes wide open. “What?”

“Look, I… She’s been reading animal books—” Jeno began, listing all the things that the apparent Liz was doing that was out of character. “She doesn’t know much about Niehls Bohr other than where he was born? Honey… Liz idolizes Bohr. She gossips with Patricia? Remember what Patricia said to us in the car when we were on the way to the Locksdale Psychiatric Ward?”

“She hugged her brother when he cried… That’s not a Liz thing,” Bunny whispered.

“She’s quiet. More reserved. Liz is never reserved. You know how opinionated Liz is compared to Sally.”

Bunny staggered backwards and falling to sit down on the bed.

“She can’t fit in Liz’s dress…” Jeno added.

Bunny gasped, a hand pulling on her hair. “I’m a horrible mother!”

Jeno watched a tear rolled down Bunny’s cheek. He couldn’t imagine what the thoughts running through her mind was – how could she have not known?

“Honey… Please don’t blame yourself. Even I did not know.”

“But you figured it out. I’m their mother!”

“Honey,” Jeno placed a hand on Bunny’s cheek. “The twins are really, really, identical. I mean, yay to our DNA, but even Mark could not tell the difference when he saw Sally the first day here. He had to ask, “You’re Liz, right?””

Bunny sobbed. There goes the self confidence in being a mother, Jeno thought.

“That’s why Mrs. Tously asked us to put them in color coded dresses, remember? Even she couldn’t tell the difference and she helped us raise them,” Jeno reasoned, trying to help calm her down.

It took at least thirty minutes for Bunny to calm down, both parents standing in front of their daughter right after.

“Elizabeth!” Jeno began, Sally’s eyes looking confused for a split second.

“Lizard,” Bunny said, changing to her “bad cop” voice. 

They both stared at Sally, their daughter realizing that they had caught on. “Or should we say…”

“Sally?”

“Salamander?”

Sally blinked before she sighed. “Aw, man. How’d you find out?”

Both of them let out a sigh. For a second there, they had doubted their theory and thought that maybe it was Liz. Maybe Liz just gained weight. Maybe Liz did want to read books on animals and magically forgot about Niehls Bohr.

“I am very disappointed,” Jeno said before he stopped himself, knowing Sally could also pull the ‘I am also very disappointed in you that you can’t tell us apart!’.

He knew Liz would say that, but Sally shrugged.

“We found out because Daddio’s a lawyer. He can read people,” Jeno stated.

“Why… Why are you speaking in third person?” Bunny whispered. She turned back to Sally, crossing her arms. “Mummy knows Daddio’s really smart. Mummy believes what he says. Mummy still can’t tell the difference.”

“Shut up,” Jeno whispered, the male quickly adding. “We still love you very much.”

Sally stared at them. “Sure.”

Bunny continued, “Mummy went to Saint June’s. Mummy believes that identity fraud is a sin.”

Sally frowned. “So am I going to hell?”

“No, I think you’re going to time out,” Jeno parented, the male pointing to the bedroom corner. “Stand, face against the wall.”

“Well, how about Liz?” Sally asked, Jeno narrowing his eyes at her. “I don’t care. I’m calling Liz and doing it with her.”

“One question,” Bunny said, turning to focused on her daughter before giving her the phone. “Why?”

Sally’s answer was simple, the child clicking on facetime. “For fun.”

Right when Jeno was leaving, he heard Sally whine towards the phone screen.

“Liz! They found out.”

“Ugh, well. About time!” Liz yelled out, Jeno realizing that it sounded so much like Liz. “You did well, Sal. It took them days!”

“I think I wasn’t….” Sally paused.

“I bet you were assertive enough! I told you. No hugging Elliot, no being nice, no gossiping and reading about snakes. No…”

“No trying on clothes that don’t fit me,” Sally added, Liz humming. “It’s fine. They caught up.”

“You did well, sis,” Liz said, going back to complimenting her. “I miss you.”

“You should come, Lizzie. The gardens are pretty. It’s guarded by the gardener, but he gave me a rose.”

Jeno stopped, freezing. Before he could turn and ask Sally who she met, Haechan and Mark ran up the stairs just in time.

“We found it!” Haechan said, raising a tape in the air.

“What’s that?”

“Minseok’s tape.”

“You’re telling me that you did not know that it was Sally all along?” Mark asked in disbelief. “You guys are parents!”

“I want to be judgemental, but I also could not tell between my own father and uncle and they aren’t even twins,” Haechan snipped, chuckling.

“Where’d you find the tape?” Jeno asked, settling on the couch.

“Hey, do you think it’s weird that the floor was wet when we entered the boy’s locker room?” Haechan asked Jeno, briefing him on what he and Mark saw.

“Could it be a plumbing issue?” Jeno asked. “I mean, you did tell me the bathroom in your room wasn’t working.”

It was only one cubicle that was wet, Haechan thought, but he let it go. Maybe it was a loose shower spray. There were weirder things that happened on school grounds.

“While Haechan was taking a shower, I waited and I heard rustling from the door.”

“Which door?” Jeno asked, knowing the boy’s locker room had two exits. One leading to the courtyard and field, another to the hallways of the South Wing.

“The one leading outside. We both checked it out and the tape was in one of the lockers. The locker door was swinging.”

“Huh, just like that?”

“Just like that,” Haechan said, nodding. “But you know how people scribble things in lockers and stuff? Look, I don’t know if it’s a lead… but that locker room door had a phone number on it. Look.”

Jeno squinted at photo. It seemed quite old. The number was faded with a ‘J.S’ written underneath it. It seemed to be written with permanent ink. It was scratched out along with a bunch of other writings that could be anything.

“Do we know if there’s any significance?” Jeno asked, Haechan shaking his head.

“Not at all. It might just be a coincidence. It might be a hint. All we can do is to call it,” Haechan told Jeno. “It’s a home number… Who uses home numbers these days?”

Putting the anonymous number down, Jeno saw that it was ringing.

The person who answered the phone was a woman, her voice sounding slightly irritable.

“Hello?”

“H-Hi…” Jeno began. “May we talk to the owner of this phone number, please?”

The female paused for a good three seconds before she bellowed, Jeno moving his ear away from the phone. “JOHNNY! SOMEONE IS CALLING FOR YOU!”

“He’s coming,” the woman said.

“Dana, I’m in the kitchen… Wait. IS IT MY DAD?”

“NO! THEY SOUND YOUNG!”

“Probs insurance. Don’t yell, you’re going to wake the kids. Yep. Hello, Johnny Suh speaking. I am not buying anymore insurance. My two kids are well covered for—”

“Hello, Mr. Suh, we’re not insurance people….” Jeno began. “Uh… We’d like to ask a few questions. Did you go to Marcier Boarding School?”

A pause. “No. I went to Saint John’s.”

“Oh?”

“May I ask what this is about?”

“We are investigating the Golden Murders that took place in 2000’s. We saw your number written in one of the locker rooms. We thought it was a clue or so…”

“Ah… Ah!” Johnny exclaimed, giving out a hearty laugh. “Hahaha, no. I didn’t study in Marcier, but, uh…. I did play a few games with Marcier. I was the MVP in rugby from Saint John’s you see.”

“Is there a reason wh