chapter one;

“Good work today!” Mansoo greeted his colleagues cheerfully as he ushered Minho into his cage. He hankered down and patted Minho’s head. “You did a good job today, our handsome Minnie,” he crooned.

Minho glanced up from the ground and glared at his master. How he despised the nickname Minnie. Not only that it did not suit his looks and reputation, the name also sounded girlish and reminded him Minnie Mouse, which is a female. He groaned at Mansoo, who was also his trainer, but Mansoo took it the wrong way and supposed that he was asking for something else.

“Are you hungry, Minnie?” Mansoo asked. Again, Minho groaned, but once again, Mansoo saw that as Minho’s way of saying yes. He fished something out from his bag. “Here, your reward,” beamed Mansoo as he revealed a Tupperware of chicken s.

Minho frowned. Is this guy planning to make me build up muscles or something?

“What? You don’t like it?” Mansoo asked when he saw Minho giving no reaction. “In that case,” he turned towards the cage next to Minho’s.

Aware of what Mansoo was planning to do with his dinner; Minho realized that he needed to swallow his pride this once and immediately barked at his master, attracting Mansoo’s attention back.

“You’re going to eat this?” asked Mansoo, in which Minho replied with a low grumble, his tongue sticking out. After all, Minho was exhausted and starving. Mansoo grinned. “That’s my good Minnie,” praised him as he rubbed Minho’s back.

After watching his dog wolfing down the chicken s in almost a blink of eyes, he patted Minho’s head once again and rose up to leave the cage. Outside, dawn was approaching. The sky was orange in colour, and it reminded Minho of the basketball that he loved to play with.

“I’ll see you tomorrow!” Mansoo waved.

Minho woofed back in return. Mansoo can be a pain sometimes, but he has a good heart and took care of Minho well since the very beginning of Minho’s arrival to the team. He trained Minho wholeheartedly until he became Seoul’s best tracking dog, and cared for his needs. That was why Minho stuck with Mansoo and chose to stay loyal to him.

“Tough day?” Minho heard a voice addressing him as he turned away. It was Changmin, another tracking dog of the squad who was also a German shepherd. Changmin was older and had been here way before Minho arrived. He was the team’s best dog before Minho took over. He was Minho’s senior in many ways, but a kind one, despite his snarky remarks once in a while.

“Quite,” Minho answered.

“What’s the case today?” Changmin asked, as he advanced towards Minho.

“Nothing much. Just a stabbed body found in the bush. I managed to sniff out the device for murder half an hour later,” replied Minho, resting down on the ground.

“A knife?”

He shook his head. “Nope. An axe,”

“Wow. They sure are getting nastier now,”

Minho chuckled. “Tell me about it,”

“Yo!” Another voice greeted him. Both Minho and Changmin turned in unison to find Jonghyun, a bulldog, joining them.

To be completely honest, Minho has never understood why on earth they would put a bulldog in the same cage together with German shepherds. Not just Jonghyun had any use to the squad and the tracking dogs; he had absolutely no use at all. It has been a mystery to Minho of the motive of Jonghyun’s existence. Was he supposed to keep them company since he was a companion dog?

“What’s up there, Minnie?” Jonghyun grinned, much to Minho’s annoyance.

“Don’t ever call me that name!” Minho protested.

Changmin chuckled at the sight of the two mismatched dogs. He spun around to leave the site. “I’m not going to get involved in you two’s bickerings,” he mused.

Great, now I’m left alone, Minho thought. He turned to face Jonghyun who was still wearing that idiotic looking grin that made him feel like punching the bulldog in the face, if that were possible. “What do you want?” he asked, irritated.

“Why are you always so tensed, Minnie? Relax, will ya?”

“I said, don’t call me that name!”

“Okay, okay. Chill,” Jonghyun smirked. “Anyway, did you hear? Today they―”

There you go, another gossip, Minho sighed. He closed his eyes, half listening to Jonghyun’s endless gossip updates. He wondered if that was what Jonghyun does all day every day ― poking his nose into everyone’s business.

“―And then Sir Youngjin brought in his daughter. I think she’s around seven, but I’m not really sure. You know kids these days sometimes can look so much older than their real age―”

Blah blah blah.

“―and that girl was carrying this little puppy in her―”

Minho faked a snore.

“Yah, were you listening to me?” Jonghyun snapped when he realized that Minho wasn’t paying any attention. “That’s the problem with you. You never listen to me when I talk. Never. Do you know how tiring it is―” he continued to babble for another two minutes before walking away.

Minho peeked through his half opened eyes to confirm that Jonghyun was no longer there. He caught the sight of Changmin who was watching him with an amused expression. “You should stop ignoring the poor bulldog once in a while, Minho,” he giggled.

“He talks too much,” Minho replied brusquely. “I’m gonna call it a day. G’night.”