Woohyun was having a rather nice day. He was currently lounging in the staff room, enjoying his quiet little break time. Lately, there had been a lot of investigations going on (Myungsoo's, Hoya's, and hadn't he heard something about that Chen guy having a case?), but as Woohyun himself hadn't been assigned to anything in particular, he was allowing himself to have a moment of rest.

The lazy male picked up his mug of coffee. Freshly brewed decaf, with low-fat cream and one spoonful of sugar. He sniffed it eagerly, then brought it up to his lips with a feeling of self-satisfaction.

'If only Sungjong were here,'  he thought smugly. 'That twerp's always complaining about how much I at brewing. Maybe this sweet stuff would make him happy for once.'

Just as he was about to take a large gulp, the door unexpectedly flew open with a bang.

"Woohyun!" Dongwoo ignored the younger man's surprised yell. Between heaving breaths, he quickly looked around the room, as if he could spot people hiding behind the furniture. "Have you seen Myungsoo today? Where is he? Or Hoya, or even Chen? I need to talk to them!"

"They're not here, as you can see." With a grimace, Woohyun set his half-empty cup on the table and grabbed a few napkins. Dongwoo's sudden entrance had caused him to spill his (painfully hot) drink. Thankfully, none of it had gotten on his face, but a beautiful beige-coloured stain now adorned the front of his shirt. 'Great. The one time I choose to wear a white shirt, this happens... I hope this guy knows how much dry cleaning costs these days.'

"Do you have any idea where they might be? I tried calling them all, but none of them are answering their phones," the forensics agent continued urgently, oblivious to Woohyun's disgruntlement.

The peeved agent threw away the soaked tissues and grabbed a handful more. "Well, if none of them are answering, then they're probably on a case right now. But I'm not. Because I haven't been assigned to any. Which means I get to rest. So, if you don't mind..." His sarcastic tone trailed away when he glanced up, finally getting a proper look at the man panicking by the doorway.

"Dongwoo? Why are you wearing your examination suit?"

The pathologist impatiently waved the question away. "We don't have any time to waste!" Dongwoo began pacing around, frustration, excitement, and agitation evident in every step. "It's good that they're out doing their jobs, but they need to know this! Right now! We can't have agents branching off cluelessly in different directions!"

"Woah, woah, woah! Hold on for a second!" With furrowed brows, Woohyun strode over to the doorway. He grabbed hold of his friend's elbow, forcing the agitated man to calm down. "What's going on? Why are you like this all of a sudden?"

Dongwoo turned to look at Woohyun. His complexion had a pale, almost ghost-like pallor, but there a was strangely fervent light in his eyes that contrasted greatly with it. "The bird," he breathed out. "That little bird found with all three victims."

"What?" Upon these words, Woohyun felt a small jolt of shock run throughout his body. "What... What do you mean? Are you talking about that girl we found by the chapel? Because sure, there was a bird with her... But that was just her, right? Not with any of the other victims..."

And that was when Dongwoo told his companion all about his discovery.

"..." Woohyun's mouth had dropped wide open. Completely forgetting about the mess on his clothes, he stared in bewilderment at Dongwoo, who gave a grim nod in response. "So there was only one  sick-minded bastard behind it? ..."

Then Woohyun snapped out of his daze.

"Try calling Kris," he ordered Dongwoo, reaching for his own phone. Luckily, he'd had the foresight to place it in his pants pocket earlier- not a single drop of coffee had landed on the expensive device. "He said something about handing out case photos before; he might know where everyone is. When you manage to get a hold of them, say we'll be holding an emergency meeting in Floor Seven's conference room. We need to regroup, now. Tell them to get their asses here as soon as they can."

With this new goal in mind, Dongwoo rushed out of the room as quickly as he'd appeared. Switching his phone on, Woohyun hastily punched a number in. He crossed his fingers as he brought it up to his ear.

"Come on, come on, Myungsoo... Answer your phone, dammit..."

--------

Myungsoo and Sungyeol, having finished their mini bonding session together, had rejoined their third partner outside. The trio stood on the front steps of the church, where they could still see the faint blood stain on the sidewalk.

Surveying the scene, Myungsoo began thinking out loud. "We have two possible situations here. One, the killer brought the girl to this place after he was finished with his business. Two, he was either brave or stupid enough to have done it right here, where everybody could see him."

"But it was dark, wasn't it?" Sungjong shielded his eyes from the sun as he, too, peered at the sidewalk. It was nearing mid-November, yet the sunlight was still as bright as if it were summer. Huh... Global warming, perhaps? "Forensics on scene said she died sometime in late evening, the day before we got the call. And rarely anyone passes by here during night. Maybe the killer thought it'd be okay to do it here."

"Maybe..." Myungsoo pursed his lips. He glanced over at Sungyeol, who was standing next to him in typical silent and still fashion. "What say you, Sungyeol? Any thoughts?"

Sungyeol's own lips hardly moved as he answered back.

"There's a reason why she was killed here," he said quietly. His guarded eyes were trained on the stained sidewalk, which had been blocked off with police tape. Myungsoo hated that yellow stuff. Somehow, it made everything seem more loud and obnoxious than it really was. "I could be overthinking things, but I have a feeling this was more than just a random killing."

"Hmm." Myungsoo snuck one last look at the rookie before crossing his arms. "If what you're saying is correct, then we should find out who this girl was as soon as possible. Has anyone called to identify the body yet? Her parents, maybe?"

"You won't be hearing from them."

The sound of a new voice behind them startled the three agents- well, it startled Myungsoo and Sungjong, anyway. They both jumped a little, having been so caught up with their serious discussion. Sungyeol, on the other hand, merely inclined his head as if he'd been expecting it.

Myungsoo blinked at the person who'd appeared out of the blue. "Oh. Hello. You must be the minister of this church." He reached out and offered his hand to the man, who was in black robes and looked to be in his late sixties.

"Yes, my name is Kim Junsoo," the pastor smiled. It was friendly enough, but Myungsoo sensed something else underneath. Sadness, perhaps? If he looked closely enough, he could see what seemed to be sorrow lining the old man's face.

Sungjong stepped up and pulled out his badge.

"We're here on official CSI business." Smiling, he showed his ID to the minister. "Are you the one who called us about the murdered girl? Was it you who found her, as well?"

Kim Junsoo sighed. "Yes, I'm afraid so," he said sadly. "I saw her when I arrived in the morning, before I even stepped inside the building. I can only think about what a tragedy it was. She was a kind girl, that Minhee."

Myungsoo straightened out his spine. "You knew her?" Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Sungyeol turn his head sharply towards the minister.

"I did. God bless her gentle soul." The pastor made a cross over his heart and sighed again. "She often came by here on the weekends. There were some occasions when she visited during weekdays, too. I can't remember exactly when was her first visit, but it must have been a good few years ago."

The dark-haired agent nodded at Sungjong, who took out his handy notebook and pen. "Do you mind if we ask you some questions about her?" When Junsoo shook his head, Myungsoo plowed ahead with his informal interview.

"Do you know what her full name was?"

"Lee Minhee. She was twenty-six, I believe, and was getting ready to graduate from university. I think she was pursuing a degree in designing, to become an interior designer."

"Before, you'd said we wouldn't be hearing from her parents. Why is that?"

"She was an orphan, you see." At this, Myungsoo's expression softened a bit. He felt a sense of pity for the poor girl, but if the minister noticed any change in his demeanour, he didn't let on. "That's why she came here so often. She wanted to pray for them. And I recall one time when she mentioned something about 'atoning for their sins.' I wasn't quite sure what she meant by that, and to be honest, I still don't know today.

"Minhee lived alone," he continued, "In one of the apartments by the elementary school neighbourhood. She used to tell me about her walks from there, and how she loved taking the sakura tree path to come here."

"I see..." Sungjong jotted down one more line before looking up from his notebook. "Can you give us a description of her, please? As a temporary way for us to confirm that the victim is the same Minhee you're talking about."

"Certainly," the pastor nodded. "She was small and looked very young, so she often got mistaken for a high school student. Minhee had short brown hair and green eyes, which I thought was a pleasantly surprising combination. Hmm... That's all I can really remember right now. It's been a month and a half since I last saw her... Excluding when I found her a few days ago." He finished speaking with a somber air.

Bzzz, bzzz. At that moment, Myungsoo's mobile decided to go off, sending out little vibrations against his leg.

"Sorry," he shrugged apologetically at the others. "Go on without me. I'll just take this over there." He pointed down the steps and motioned for them to carry on.

"Hello?" Myungsoo spoke into the receiving end as he walked down the stairs. Sungjong's voice carried out behind him, picking up the interview from where Myungsoo had left it.

"Can you think of anyone who'd want to do this to her? Like an ex-boyfriend or scheming relative..."

"Myungsoo?" a familiar voice urgently answered through the line.

"Woohyun?" Myungsoo was surprised. As annoying as he was, Woohyun almost never called during investigations. Even he, the lazy and demanding prankster, knew how important it was that an agent never be disturbed from his work. "What do you want? You know that I'm out today, right? I'm in the middle of questioning a minister here."

"Listen, confess your sins later and return to HQ as soon as you can," Woohyun snapped back. Then he seemed to reconsider his statement. "Actually, it sounds dumb to leave in the middle of an interview. Finish that ASAP, and then come back here."

"Why? Do you need my help finishing a report or something?" Maybe he had left his work to the last minute and was scrambling to type it up. It wouldn't be the first time for it to happen.

But Woohyun wasn't thinking about his unfinished work. "No,"  was his terse reply. Myungsoo frowned. Something was wrong. Woohyun didn't have his usual joking manner- instead, he was talking more frantically and frantically by the second, as if he was afraid he would lose his connection with Myungsoo at any minute.

The ravenet soon realized why when he heard his friend's next words.

"The bird. It wasn't just with yours. There was one found with both Hoya's and Chen's victims, too."

Myungsoo stiffened with shock. "You mean..."

"Yeah." Woohyun's voice took on a grim tone. "It's not three different guys from your three different cases. You're all after the same killer."