Somewhere in a house a few blocks away, a man was cautiously making his way through a living room. It was quite a chaotic and disordered sight- there were cushions scattered on the ground, as well as some books that'd fallen from a nearby bookcase, and he took great pains as to not step on these items. Nobody liked to have their belongings stepped on. But one would have thought that he needn't have been so careful. For you see, the owner of the house was dead.

Lee Howon, or Hoya, as everybody liked to call him, took a few more steps until finally stopping in the middle of the room. He surveyed the disaster before him, taking in every grim detail with sharp, hawk-like eyes.

The empty mirror frame on the wall and the broken shards glittering beneath it. Check.

Furniture upturned and lying helplessly on its back. Double check.

The dead body on the floor, surrounded by a pool of dry and peeling blood. Oh yeah, major check on that.

Sighing, Hoya reached up to rub his temples and briefly closed his eyes. He'd only been there for a couple of minutes, ten minutes at the most, but already his head was aching at the thought of the work he'd have to do for the next long bit.

"Damn, this'll be a pain to deal with..."

"What's wrong? See anything bad?"

The CSI agent turned to see a tall, sandy-haired male walking towards him. There was a flash camera hanging around his neck. He held it in his hands to keep it swinging from side to side, absentmindedly fiddling with the buttons. Sparing a single, distasteful look at the corpse, he looked back at Hoya in an inquiring manner. "So?"

Hoya gave a dry laugh. "That depends on your definition of bad, Kris. At one time, I would have said, "Yeah, how about this dead body over here? What do you make of that?" But that's not what's bad for us. It's what we consider normal, to see a corpse in the middle of a crime scene. So going by CSI standards, I'd have to say no. I don't see anything bad right now."

Kris chuckled. "Point taken. Though I have to admit, the first thing I did when I came in was look for a dead body." He raised his camera to eye-level and snapped a few shots of the messy living room. Without stopping for a break, he asked conversationally, "So, when's back-up getting here?"

"Should be soon." Hoya watched as Kris began walking away, moving to photograph the positions of the disturbed furniture. "Sunggyu said they'd be here in twenty minutes at the most, so we just have to wait until then-"

Suddenly, a loud ringing noise sounded in the room. Hoya stopped short, scanning the room for the source of disruption with a critical eye. Then he realized that the noise was coming from the inside of his jacket pocket. "Oh. It's my phone."

His companion snorted. "Idiot."

Pointedly ignoring the snub, Hoya took his mobile out and brought it to his ear. "Hello? Hoya speaking."

Only half-listening to the phone conversation behind him, Kris went on with taking his pictures. Snap. The piano bench shoved violently aside. Snap. The mess of books and pillows on the floor. Snap. A full body shot of the dead guy on the carpet. He paused for a moment to readjust the lens, then moved a little closer to the corpse. Another step, and he would be able to see everything there was to see about the murdered victim...

"What? Are you kidding me?"

Kris looked over his shoulder to see his friend frowning into his phone. "But I was told they already had enough people there... Seriously? All three of them? Of all the days to get hungover..." Hoya muttered something inaudible to Kris' ears, then spoke back to his caller. "Okay, fine. Do what you have to do. I'll see you later." He snapped his mobile shut with more force than necessary, and turned to Kris with a look of aggravation on his face.

"That was back-up," he answered to Kris' unspoken question. "Apparently, there are agents out on another case right now- something about an old man found dead in his backyard- and they need the group that's supposed to be helping us. It'll take an hour, maybe two or three, until they can leave and come here." Sighing in frustration, he ran a hand through his mahogany locks.

"Sorry, but looks like you'll be here for awhile. At least, just until they start coming in. This isn't something I can do alone."

The tall man shrugged and continued with his photography session. "It's fine. I didn't have much to do today, anyway." Snap. Taking another full picture of the body, he knelt down to get detail shots. The head, the arms, the legs, and the torso...

Kris frowned. Something was wrong. He hadn't noticed it before, but now that he was squatting right next to the corpse, he could sense something not quite right about the picture... Lowering his camera, Kris stared intently at the body. He tried to figure out what it was about the dead man that was giving him this weird feeling. His arms and legs were resting by his sides, and his head was bent and tucked into his chest...

There was a soft thud of footsteps on the carpet as Hoya joined him in front of the corpse. "Hey, what's the matter? Did you find anything- Oh, !" He cursed when his foot got caught on the edge of the rug. Trying to keep his balance, Hoya took a few stumbling steps forward. The agent swore again when his shoe accidentally made contact with the head of the dead man. "God dammit, we're not supposed to touch anything on the scene. I didn't move it too much, did I? At least tell me you got pictures of the... What the hell?"

Hoya jerked back as the corpse's head wobbled and rolled slightly away from the body.

"!" Kris quickly stepped away as well. "I knew there was something wrong with this guy- he's been dismembered!  Look at how the limbs are positioned compared to the torso and neck. Everything looks too neat. He can't have died at such an unnatural angle. The killer must have cut him up and put him back together when he was done." Grimacing, he pointed out the various body parts as he explained. "See, when you look at him, it seems like he's lying defenceless on his back, right? But the way his head was, it appears as if he'd been trying to look at something when he died. To do that, you'd need control over your neck muscles, which you lose as soon as you-"

"Hey, Kris?" Hoya interrupted suddenly. He frowned and leaned towards the body, as if trying to get a better view but not wanting to disturb the corpse any further. "Look... Look at his hand. Tell me what's up with that."

"What?"

Kris followed Hoya's gaze and saw that he was staring at the left hand... Or more specifically, what was in the left hand. At first glance, it seemed like a rumpled piece of cloth, perhaps a balled-up handkerchief. He could see its original colour of tawny brown underneath, the chestnut feathers splashed with a crimson of blood... But then Kris realized: Handkerchiefs didn't have feathers.

The intelligence agent furrowed his brows.

"A bird...?"

-----------

Myungsoo closed a file and stuffed it into a drawer with a feeling of satisfaction.

"Well, this cabinet is done." Closing the drawer, he turned to the person who was sitting next to him. "What about you, Sungjong? Are you almost finished yet?"

Lee Sungjong, a pale, slender, almost delicate-looking human being, sighed and blew the hair out of his eyes. "No. I'm only halfway done with this one, and after that, I still have the rest of the cabinets to sort through."

Sitting back in his chair, Myungsoo watched his friend pull out a new armful of papers with an almost depressing kind of air. "You know, when I heard that you needed my help with something, I didn't think it would be to reorganize and clean everything in this filing room. Why are you even doing this in the first place?"

Sungjong pouted. "Kris."

"Kris?"

Huffing, Sungjong shoved away the file he was holding and picked up a new one. "Yeah, Kris. That freakishly tall jerk who walks around like he owns the place. About a month or two ago, I had to come in here to get some files for a case. I was in a really big hurry though, because you told me to get the data to you ASAP, so I didn't get to clean things up after I was done. But then Kris came by and saw how messy this room was." He pouted again and threw the file into the drawer. "He's such a bully! He told me to reorganize all the files in here, even better than how I found it. Only I've been so busy with other things, today was the first time I got around to doing it."

Myungsoo laughed. "I can't believe you're actually listening to Kris, though. You know he's not in today?"

"Really?" Sungjong visibly brightened up.

"Yeah, Sunggyu told me he sent him and Hoya on a case."

"Hmm..." Sungjong looked at the messy drawers in front of him, as if debating whether it was worth cleaning it without the fearsome Kris around. Then he sighed and carried on with his tiresome work. "I might as well finish what I started. Besides, Kris'll probably come back just to check up on me." Neatly stacking a few papers together, he glanced back at the still amused Myungsoo. "What were you doing in Sunggyu's office, anyway?"

"I told you, remember? He needs you, me, and Sungyeol to be here as back-up tomorrow. Don't forget, report to his office first thing in the morning."

"Sungyeol? Who's Sungyeol?"

Myungsoo gave a little shrug at the mention of the newcomer. He'd forgotten that Sungjong hadn't met the rookie yet. " Lee Sungyeol. The newbie. He just started, and Woohyun gave me the honour of showing him around. I think he's still in Sunggyu's office. The boss said they had some things to go over."

With a thoughtful look, Sungjong closed the drawer he'd been sorting out. "Really? I heard we were getting a new agent, but I didn't think he'd be here already. What's he like?"

The dark-haired male grimaced a bit. "He's... difficult to describe. Quiet, reserved, but sarcastic when he talks. It's pretty hard to tell what he's thinking, that's what I know for sure. I only met him less than an hour ago. Sunggyu asked me as a favour to guide him around."

"I see." Sungjong slowly opened a new drawer, the speculative expression never leaving his face. "Lee Sungyeol... I think I'd like to meet him."

"You should." Myungsoo reached over to help his friend with the new cabinet. Sungjong wordlessly handed him a bunch of misplaced files, and he began sorting them through without a thought. A comfortable silence settled around them. It was only disturbed by the rustle of paper, and the occasional murmurs of the two agents in the room: "What about this... I already did that one... Here, put this file in with that bunch..."

A few minutes of organizing later, Sungjong hesitatingly spoke up. "Hey, Myungsoo?"

"Hmm?"

The slim male tucked a few files away, keeping his eyes trained on the papers in his hands. "You know what day is coming up soon, right?"

A long moment passed before Myungsoo responded to his friend. "Yeah. Yeah, I know. You..." He paused, like there was something he was about to say, but abruptly changed his mind. "Don't worry, Sungjong, I remember. It'll be just like the other years. We'll ask for the day off, pay our respects, and visit the old house..." He stood up from his chair and stretched out his arm muscles. "It's almost become a tradition now. Of course I remember."

Sungjong still wasn't looking at Myungsoo, but there was an obvious note of relief in his voice. "Oh, good. I just thought that, because you've been so busy lately, you might have forgotten..."

Myungsoo looked at him with a rueful, slightly sad expression in his eyes. "Idiot. Just because it's been nearly twenty years doesn't mean I've forgotten." Clearing his throat, he started making his way towards the door. "Anyways, I'd better get going. I still have to finish my report for Sunggyu." He glanced over his shoulder for a second, watching the young man sitting amongst the drawers of files, then reached forwards to turn the door handle.

"... Alright," Sungjong said, finally looking up. "I'll see you later..."

But the door had already closen behind his friend.