“So? What do you have?”

JaeJoong shook his head. “It’s easy just looking at it. The suspect was in SoHee’s room, and then he shoved her off the balcony. She fell over backwards, landed on her head, and died. He could’ve left through the front door or jumped off the balcony himself.”

“Indeed,” JunJin agreed, crossing his arms.

“Of course, there’s the question of why she fell backwards. If she were running away from the person, she would be facing outwards instead of facing the house.”

“Well, what if she turned around when she reached the balcony?”

“That’s true… But then the railing…” JaeJoong rested a hand on the smooth wood. “This is probably… what, ninety centimeters tall? It would be kind of hard to just shove someone over without having to actually pick them up.”

“So what was she doing? Standing on it? Sitting on it?”

“I don’t know if she would stand on it, but she might sit on it. And then he could easily just reach out and… splat.”

JunJin wandered back into the victim’s room. “And again, you’re working off your hypothesis that these girls know the person that’s killing them, right?”

“Yeah.” JaeJoong followed him inside. “Given that SoHee was sitting on the balcony, do you really think she’d do that so easily for a stranger? …Unless… she was that type…”

“Hey. Don’t start judging your victims.”

“Sorry, I’m stopping there.”

JaeJoong looked around the large room for any other clues. It was kept in order fairly well; so well that it almost seemed as if it wasn’t used frequently. JaeJoong walked over to the desk against the wall.

“Does this girl study at all?” he wondered aloud. “There aren’t any books here.”

“Maybe she’s one of those prodigies. Why does that matter?”

“I don’t know…”

He was about to turn away from the desk when something caught his eye. Leaning over, he saw a costly-looking cell phone on the floor behind the desk.

“JunJin-sshi, did SoHee have her cell phone on her?” JaeJoong asked.

“Eh? No, why?” JunJin leaned over as well. “Is it down there?”

“I think so.” JaeJoong got on the floor but then froze. “Wait… Am I supposed to be wearing gloves…?”

“If it bothers you that much, just use your sleeve to get it.”

He crawled under the desk and grabbed the phone. Standing again, he flipped the phone open and saw it light up. JunJin looked over JaeJoong’s shoulder as JaeJoong started clicking around.

“She called ‘Binnie’ last,” JaeJoong reported. “Probably Kim YooBin… But no one called SoHee until YooBin did a few hours before she found the body.”

“Excuse me, JunJin-sshi?”

Both JunJin and JaeJoong looked to the door and saw one of the elitist cronies leaning in.

“YooBin-sshi wants to know if she can leave,” he said.

“Give her our contact information before she goes,” JunJin directed, “so she can call us when she can give us a statement.”

“Yes sir.”

The crony disappeared from sight. At that moment, JaeJoong clicked again and stopped.

“Ah!”

JunJin was back on him. “What? What did you find?”

“Well… nothing by itself. But I should probably ask YooBin about this if she comes in later.”

JunJin nodded, looking over what JaeJoong had found. JaeJoong flipped the phone closed and held it out to his senior.

“Well, since we’re pretty much done here, can I leave?”

JunJin stared, astonished. “Did I just hear you right?”

“Well, you did call me in on my day off. And I have a child to take care of.”

“…a child? You’re having kids without getting married?”

“Yah, don’t start judging your underlings.”

Luckily, JunJin let JaeJoong off since he did, in fact, call him in on a day off. Trotting down the sidewalk, JaeJoong pulled out his own phone and started typing out a quick message.

< Home in around five minutes. >

He hit the send button and continued along his route. Not even a minute had passed when his phone went off. Confused, he looked at the display.

< Assa~!! ^^~~~ >

…was JunSu stalking his phone or something? JaeJoong took that as a hint and hastened his pace. He returned to his regular pace as he turned a corner and the studio was in view.

When he was a few steps away, the glass door suddenly opened and a figure stepped out. JaeJoong stopped as the person looked up and caught his gaze.

“Oh, you’re… DongHae? …sshi? Right?” JaeJoong vaguely recognized his face.

DongHae “Oh. Yeah.”

Without another word, he plugged his ears with headphones and slowly walked away in the opposite direction, head tilted downwards. Confused, JaeJoong caught the glass door before it closed and stepped inside.

The thumping music was at full blast even through the closed, studio door. Behind the desk, Mina busied herself with what seemed like a letter. JaeJoong walked up to the desk and leaned against it.

“Yo. What’s that?”

“Letter to my boyfriend,” Mina replied.

“Eh? Is he overseas or something?”

“No, he’s still here.”

“…then why are you writing him a letter? Just call him or something.”

Mina sighed and rolled her eyes. “You wouldn’t get it.”

“Anyway, what was that with, um… DongHae? Isn’t DBSK practicing in there?”

“Mmm yeah… But he just kinda left without saying anything. He seemed depressed to me.”

JaeJoong crossed behind the desk and started to head for the studio. Loud thumping upstairs stopped him as he reached for the doorknob. The thumping headed for the stairs.

“Ah, hyung!” JunSu called from the landing. “You’re here!”

He stumbled down the stairs in a rush. JaeJoong met him at the bottom.

“What’s the hurry? Where – ”

“Okay!! Let’s go!”

JunSu yanked him by the arm and dragged him back towards the door. Mina’s eyes followed the two with a bewildered expression.

Outside again on the sidewalk, JaeJoong bent over to get his feet into his shoes properly. “And so? Where are we going?”

“Umm…” JunSu pressed his lips together and pondered, looking up and down the street.

“Oh yeah, that DBSK guy went down that way,” JaeJoong said suddenly, pointing down the street. “DongHae.”

“Eh?” Startled, JunSu looked in the direction.

“He seemed kind of off. Even Mina said so. Do you think we should go find him?”

JunSu quickly spoke. “Ah, no. Probably not.” But he stopped and seemed to ponder more. “Or maybe we should… Umm…”

“…should we or shouldn’t we?”

As JunSu froze to debate it over in his head, JaeJoong heard someone jogging towards them from behind. He turned to see who it was and wondered why JunSu had to be so indecisive.

JongHyun waved enthusiastically. “Ohhh, JaeJoong-hyung! JunSu-hyung!”

“We’re hyungs now…?”

He slowed to a halt by them. “What’s up? Are you guys going somewhere?”

“I thought we were,” JaeJoong replied. “But it seems like JunSu can’t figure out what he wanted me to ditch work for.”

“Ohh…? Maybe it was a movie?”

“Oh! That was it!” JunSu said confidently.

“Or maybe food? I’m feeling kinda hungry.”

“Ah, we should go eat then.”

“Ohh, but this new store opened just down that way! We should check it out!”

“Yeah, we can do that first!”

“But I am feeling kind of hungry.”

“Well then, we should eat before we do anything.”

“Yah, yah, yah!” JaeJoong interrupted. “Kim JunSu! Stop being such a pushover and decide on something!”