It was now almost 4:30 PM. By this time, Dongwoo and Woohyun had successfully gathered all of the agents involved with the three cases. They had situated themselves in various seats around the conference table. The only exception was Woohyun, however, who chose to stand at the front where the whiteboard was. He'd somehow persuaded another agent to lend him a spare shirt (which he'd hastily changed into), saving himself the embarrassment of looking like he'd had an accident with his morning drink.

"Hey, why is Woohyun taking charge?" Sungjong protested when the former picked up a washable marker.

"Because," Woohyun pointed the writing utensil at himself, "Sunggyu's busy. And I was the one who figured out the connection of the little birds."

"Hey!"

"With Dongwoo's help, of course."

Hoya, ignoring the childish squabbling, ran his fingers through his spiky hair and sighed. "I can't believe we didn't notice it before," he said with frustration. "It's so obvious, yet how did we only realize this now?"

Chen placed a placating hand on his shoulder. "It's nobody's fault. We were so wrapped up with our own investigations, we couldn't afford any time to converse with each other. Besides, the methods used to kill each individual were all so different. We couldn't have known."

"Still..."

As if to stop the chattering, Yoo Youngjae cleared his throat loudly over the noise. "I suggest," the intelligence agent said, pushing his glasses up, "We get started immediately. As Chen has just said, we couldn't afford any time to converse before, so we certainly don't have any now to start wasting. Let's finish with this debriefing as soon as possible, so we can get an idea of this one-killer/three-victims problem and go from there." He gave a brisk, almost mocking nod to Woohyun.

"After you, leader."

"Thank you, Youngjae," Woohyun replied with as much dignity as he could. He uncapped the marker and turned towards the board. Everybody was quiet as the man made a large X  on the top of the board, then connected three arrows from it.

"On the contrary to our previous beliefs," he said, marking the first arrow as Lee Seonwoong, "There's only one  killer behind these three murders. There could be more, but for now, let's just keep it simple and say it's one." He circled Seonwoong's name and moved onto the second arrow. This one, he labelled as Son Taehyun.

"We know that there's only one killer because all three murders are connected. Like Chen just mentioned, each victim was killed by a different method. Usually, killers have their own distinct style, so we wouldn't have really known if it weren't for the bird," Woohyun continued. Myungsoo couldn't help but feel a twinge of admiration for him. It was at times like this when Woohyun's serious detective side came out, worthy of the respect and status he had in the CSI force... Okay, the respect part was a bit questionable, but that wasn't the point. Bottom line was, Woohyun had a cool side to him too, even if he seemed like a greasy, no-good slacker most of the time.

On with the story.

The 'cool detective' reached out and scribbled in the last name: Lee Minhee. "All three were found with a dead bird on themselves, either placed in their hands or clothes pocket. These birds were of the same size and species, and appeared to have been killed in the same way."

"Mimus polyglottos," Youngjae said promptly. "Also known as the Northern Mockingbird. I'll have to confirm it later, but it looked as if they were roughly in pre-adulthood. And judging by the wounds, I'd say they'd been killed with a thin, sharp weapon of some kind."

"Like a scalpel or screwdriver?" Park Kahi, a formidable lady who was working on Chen's case, mused aloud.

Youngjae nodded. "Something of the sort."

Woohyun mimicked his nod. "So it's safe to assume we're only dealing with one baddie here." He tapped the end of the marker on the arrow labelled Lee Seonwoong.

"Okay, to the group who was dealing with this fellow here. List all of the details and facts you got so far in your investigation."

"Well, we know that he was killed in his backyard," Chen consulted his notes, "Five days ago. He had been picking fruit for his next door neighbour, a Ms. Hwang Sohee, sometime around 9:30 PM. He was seventy-five and lived alone, so it was the neighbour who'd found him and gave us the call."

"'The Backyard Strawberry Case', as we call it," another one of Chen's partners, Park Chanyeol, grinned. He added in his deep voice, "No weapons were found at the scene of the crime, but it was obvious what had been used to kill the poor guy. Something like a heavy iron rod or steel bat. It was used to smash his head open, and that's how we found him when we got there."

"Yes, and his brain was completely missing, too." Kahi winced. "It looked like it had been scooped out somehow and taken away in a jar- besides a few traces on his clothes and in the grass, there was no sign of his organ to be seen anywhere."

"Hmm..." Woohyun jotted down head cracked open  and brain matter taken  on the board. "And the bird was found in his clothes, right?"

It was Dongwoo who answered this question. "Yeah, in his overcoat pocket. Whereas Son Taehyun was found with one in his pants pocket, and Lee Minhee's was simply in her hand."

"Pants pocket... Simply... In hand... Got it." The leading male finished writing these points under the victims' names. He examined the ones beneath Seonwoong's arrow for a minute, then turned to a different group of agents.

"Okay, over to you, Hoya. What do you have for me?"

Hoya shuffled through his notes and glanced up at the board. "Well, this murder happened two days after Chen's case was reported. A man named Son Taehyun, aged sixty-one, was found dead in his home. He had been murdered, and when Kris and I found him, it was not  a pretty picture. The guy had been dismembered. The thing is, he'd been put back together in such a neat way, it was only when I accidentally nudged him we discovered that little fact."

"No apparent enemies, nobody who'd gain anything grand from his death," Kris interjected. He leaned back on his chair and frowned at nothing in particular. "He was a simple chemist working in an apothecary shop, where he did his job fairly well. And from what Hoya was telling me, his wife seemed to think that was what he was most passionate about."

Dead in home... Dismembered... Passionate about chemist job... The marker squeaked under Woohyun's quick hand. He paused to look over his shoulder at the summarizing pair. "And he was living with his family at the time?"

Kris jerked his head. "A wife and daughter, yeah. We checked their alibis- something about going to visit the daughter's grandparents for the day- and they're good. So no suspicions of a family murder."

Myungsoo stifled a yawn. Normally, he would be taking a copious amount of notes, not wanting to miss a single detail about the cases. After all, he couldn't quite afford to be careless when there were dangerous criminals on the loose. But he'd just pulled an all-nighter the day before, and the effects of moving outside and back repeatedly were now starting to catch up with him.

Just as Myungsoo was trying to stop another yawn, a crumpled note flew out of nowhere and landed in his lap.

Startled, the ravenet stared at it for a second before carefully unfolding it under the table.

Wake up, the note read in spiky handwriting. I don't want your drool dripping on my shoes.

Myungsoo felt surprised, but instantly knew who it was anyway. Of course, he mentally snorted, raising a brow at the rookie next to him. There wasn't any trace of emotion to be seen on his face, but if it was possible, Myungsoo felt he was smirking at him from the inside.

"I don't drool," he whispered to Sungyeol, then tried to focus his attention back on Woohyun.

"- check that shop and all of its employees," Woohyun was saying. He wrote a final note for Son Taehyun, then turned to where Myungsoo was sitting.

"Right, now it's you guys. I already know some of the details from when I went with you, but just repeat everything anyway. There may be some things I've forgotten or mixed-up."

Sungjong was the one to take the lead. "Our girl's name, as you know, is Lee Minhee. We found out some facts about her identity from Kim Junsoo, who's the current minister of the chapel where she was found. There wasn't enough time to do a full interview, but we got a basic idea from the questions we asked." He gave them a verbal replay of his team's interrogation, ending with the note that he'd like to return to the church and finishing questioning the pastor before the day ended.

"And that's who she was." Myungsoo supposed it was his turn to speak. "On the same day that Son Taehyun had been reported murdered, we also received the call for this girl. Forensics tell us she was killed during the night. So the killer either dumped her body there or killed her right in front of the church, then ran off. The next morning, when Kim Junsoo came in to work, he found Lee Minhee and phoned us immediately."

"Yeah, and that's when we went to find her body. It's something I won't be forgetting for a while," Woohyun grimaced. Writing on the board, he addressed those who hadn't been with him and Myungsoo on that day. "On the sidewalk, we found the girl's body eagle-spread. Her face was messed up pretty good, but the cuts on her abdomen were even worse. Her internal organs were spilling out everywhere."

"Sounds like an awful lot of work for a single guy. Maybe there really is  more than one killer," Chanyeol said thoughtfully. His face was scrunched up like a little kid's, and he reached up to brush his messy hair out of his eyes. Park Chanyeol, despite his impressive height and baritone voice, could give off a rather child-like appearance at times.

Youngjae addressed his suggestion. "Of course, there's a possibility of that," he answered. "But consider the times when Son Taehyun and Lee Minhee were killed. They were both reported on the same day to HQ. Forensics have confirmed that they were killed the day before. Only, Taehyun had died sometime in the morning, while Minhee's time of death was later, in the evening."

Kahi tapped her pen on the table's surface. "So we can assume, if we're sticking with the one-killer theory, that the murderer did his business with Son Taehyun earlier in the day. He later met with Lee Minhee in the evening and killed her then." Staring hard at her notes, Kahi released a deep, slightly tired breath.

"Now we have to figure out if the killings were totally random or linked in some way."

"There's a connection."

A low murmur sounded throughout the room. Many agents looked around in surprise as Sungyeol, the person who'd spoken, continued gazing at the whiteboard.

"A connection," he repeated, ignoring his colleagues' reactions (Woohyun, on the other hand, simply threw a knowing grin in Myungsoo's direction). "We need to find out what it is as soon as possible, or more people will find themselves as victims of the Mockingbird Killer."

"I'm sorry, but who  are you?" Kahi raised a delicate brow.

"Lee Sungyeol," Sungjong piped up on behalf of the newcomer. But from the bored-looking expression on his face, Sungyeol didn't really seem to care. "He's my and Myungsoo's new partner."

"Came with the highest recommendation from the Academy head himself," Woohyun added, "And helped to solve a lot of local police cases, too. So be nice."

"We're getting off track here," Kris interrupted loudly. He waited until the room had hushed down before nodding at Sungyeol. "Go on. What do you mean, there's a connection? Have you seen any proof of it?"

Sungyeol gave the barest hint of a shrug. "There's no evidence to say as of yet. It's just a hunch I have. But regardless, it won't stop. The killings will continue whether the murders are linked together or not."

Chen agreed. "He's right. I say that's what we focus on next: Find a possible connection between the three victims, and try to figure out who the next one will be. We don't know when this- what was it you called him, Sungyeol?- Mockingbird Killer  will strike next. Let's not give him the chance to."

"Couldn't have said it better myself." Woohyun smiled in a grimly pleased manner. Then, as if struck by a sudden thought, he looked over at the once-again silent rookie.

"That's an interesting name, what you chose to label our guy. How'd you come up with it?"

Sungyeol tilted his head. "It seemed appropriate, what with the mockingbirds he's left on his kills."

Woohyun looked satisfied with that answer. "Nice thinking," he complimented. For the last time, he reached up with his marker to write on the whiteboard. Myungsoo watched as he scribbled out the large X  at the top, then added something underneath it.

The Mockingbird Killer.

"Alright, guys." Woohyun faced the other agents in the room. His smile had morphed into a wicked grin, a look that sent shivers of anticipation down the ravenet's spine. "Time to hunt our prey."

[A/N]   -ignores the endless piles of homework to update- ... I HAVE NO REGRETS.

On a sidenote, I think a dominating Woohyun who takes charge of things is totally hot. Just saying.