Word. One word. One word that obstructed JaeJoong’s notes.

Unrelated. Completely unrelated would be more accurate, but that’s two words.

After minor research, JaeJoong found that – of the five victims – two attended Geonkuk University, one attended Daewon High School, and the other two attended regular, public high schools. The academics of the five ranged from something beyond valedictorian to somewhat above average.

They didn’t know each other. The friends of each girl supported that; the slightest connection was one of the university girls seeing the other university girl passing in the hall. Before the incident, none of the girls knew each other.

He considered the idea of them having the same tutor, but after asking the parents for more information, only one of the girls had a tutor; the tutor happened to be her best friend who was also a female on the smaller side. Strength had to play a part in the murders if the victims were being strangled…

There was also the question of violent ex-boyfriends. However, the parents denied the idea of the existence of boyfriends, period.

But with kids these days… who knows…

Sighing, JaeJoong slouched in his chair. The thought of having to foresee the movements of a murderer with such random choices wore him out. At least the victims were just girls. But what if the murderer decided to go after guys next? Or elderly people? Or children? Or… animals?

“Aghh!! Stupid!!”

Crossing his ankles under the table, JaeJoong absentmindedly clicked open a web browser on his computer. For what reason, he had no idea. There was no reason for him to be on the computer during working hours.

His phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and flipped it open, watching as a text message popped up on the screen.

< Hyung! Me and HyukJae are going to Gyeonggi, so I probably won’t be back until late. We left clams in the fridge upstairs. Clams and cheese! Bam baya~~~!! >

“What the heck is that… bam baya…?”

JaeJoong considered that briefly. HyukJae was that fool-looking guy in DBSK. If he was going out, then that probably meant the rest of the group wouldn’t be practicing that night. And that meant it would be quiet in the studio.

His mind side-tracked. What was that about the crazy fanbase? JaeJoong leaned over the keyboard and searched the name. He misspelled the name three times before he resorted to working from DBSK’s homepage.

“ ‘Cassiopeia… In Greek mythology, Cassiopeia was the vain queen who boasted about her unrivaled beauty.’ Sounds like a pain…”

“What nonsense are you researching, Kim JaeJoong?” a voice boomed in his ear.

JaeJoong jumped and turned to see JunJin hovering over him, an ominous expression on his face. JunJin glanced at the computer screen.

“What, you think the suspect is committing these murders because the stars told him to?” JunJin scoffed. “Please.”

JaeJoong looked offended. “Yah! I’m trying to figure out what’s going on here, but there isn’t any kind of evidence that links these girls. As far as I know, he’s just picking girls at random.”

“So you’re no further than what you came up with yesterday? Tch, useless…”

“Then why don’t you go ask your elitist cronies?” JaeJoong demanded, irritated. “Why are you stalking over me, anyway?”

“Because the chief told me to! You think I want to hang around with you? I’d much rather work with my cronies, as you call them!”

“I’m sure they came up with something as easy as I did, huh?”

JunJin’s eyes narrowed. “Yah, Kim JaeJoong, don’t be so full of yourself. Just because everything fits together in your little brain doesn’t mean it is what happened. It’s only a hypothesis.”

“You say that, but I don’t see you coming up with anything different.”

JunJin raised a hand as if he were about to punch JaeJoong in the face. Instead, he wheeled around and shoved the door open.

“Quit slacking off, dunce!” he shouted over his shoulder.

JaeJoong let a smug grin pass over his face before he turned to face the dead end that sat in front of him. He dropped his head in his hands and sighed heavily.

The day continued in the same manner with JaeJoong running circles in the investigation, stopping every now and then to curse at a dead end. By the time his shift was over, it felt as if months had already passed.

Exhausted for no reason, JaeJoong trudged to the door of the building. He lazily punched in the password and pushed through the glass doors. But as he walked past the landing, he was suddenly aware of bass thumping through the walls, coming from the studio. Were they practicing without the fool-looking guy?

JaeJoong pushed the door to the studio open, expecting to see the eight to ten guys – mirrored twenty times over – in the room. However, he only saw one person jumping around. The person spotted the movement and stopped.

“Oh, it’s JaeJoong,” YunHo greeted. “How’s it going?”

“It’s going,” JaeJoong replied. “Where’s everyone else?”

“Oh, it’s our free day of the week, so everyone kinda split to go everywhere. JunSu and HyukJae went to Gyeonggi. I think DongHae went down to Mokpo, maybe. Either that or he’s playing in the city with the rest of the dancers.”

“So… you’re spending your free day practicing here?”

“Yeah. I’m from the countryside, too, but it’s too much hassle to go all the way down there for a day and then come back here. That and I’ve been working on a new routine.”

“Oh…” JaeJoong didn’t know a thing about dancing. “Well, I’ll leave you to that. I’m going upstairs.”

“Okay. Ah, is the music bothersome? I can turn it down if you want me to.”

“No, no. It’s fine. I’m used to JunSu making noise nonstop. Go ahead.”

JaeJoong shut the studio door behind him. So much for quiet. But as he began ascending the stairs, he heard as the thumping music turned down.

He dropped his things by his nightstand and collapsed onto his bed. Briefly, he told himself to get up and get ready for bed, but fatigue overcame him and he fell into a deep sleep.

Except that the sound of his phone ringing seemed to wake him up a few minutes afterwards. But it couldn’t have been a few minutes afterwards because the sun was inching over the ledge of the window above JunSu and JaeJoong’s beds. Confused, JaeJoong fumbled a bit before finding his phone on his nightstand.

“Hello?”

“Yah, dunce!” Of course it would be JunJin. “Wake up and get ready.”

JaeJoong rolled over. “Eh? Why? It’s my day off…”

“What are you, some kind of weakling? I’m telling you meet me at the station so you can be conceited. Five more girls were murdered last night.”

“Eh?!” JaeJoong bolted upright. “Again?!”

“This is why I’m saying to get ready. Hurry up.” And JunJin hung up.

JaeJoong heaved a great sigh and fell back onto his bed. A second passed before he was suddenly aware of a quiet crunching sound. He looked over and saw JunSu sitting on the floor by the table, snacking on something in a bag and carefully watching him.

“Ah,” JaeJoong grunted. “You’re here. How was yesterday?”

“It was fun. I went to meet up with my parents.” JunSu paused. “…are you going to work now?”

“Ugh, yeah… Five girls were murdered in Gangnam.”

JaeJoong rolled to his feet, sighing again. Hearing no reply from JunSu, he looked over and froze at the pout on his face.

“…what?”

“Eh, nothing.” JunSu turned to the muted TV.

“Yah, how are you gonna make that kind of face at me and then say it’s nothing?”

His pout become more pronounced as he brought his knees up to his chest. “I wanted to go play today… since you were supposed to be off…”

“What the– yah– you– ” JaeJoong sputtered. “What the heck? You can go have fun with… what’s-his-name… HyukJae.”

“He’s practicing with the rest of DBSK today.”

“Well, then find JongHyun and keep him from breaking in.”

“Pfft, who’d want to hang out with that kid?”

“Then go find a girlfriend!”

“I already have one, but she’s on vacation with her family.”

“Eh? You have a girlfriend?”

JunSu shot him a sullen glare and went back to watching the muted TV. JaeJoong brushed his bangs out of his eyes and sighed in defeat. He wondered how many more times he’d sigh that day.

“Okay, okay. I’ll see if I can get off early since he is calling me in on my day off,” JaeJoong said. “And I’ll be back, alright?”

The effect was immediate. JunSu’s face broke into a wide grin as he spun back around to face JaeJoong.

“Really, hyung?! You will?!”

“Er… yeah.”

“Okay!”

JaeJoong couldn’t help grinning. “You’re such a kid, seriously…”