~ ☖ ~

The morning was as lovely as it could get with the sun just above the horizon, casting a soft yellow light across the streets of NeoSeoul. A warm breeze told the coming of summer but it was still weeks until the westerlies arrived with the warm air. Devoid of the sound of nature in the morning, Jinwoon tried his best to make up for the sound of car engines with his own “organic” demeanor. Sliding cautiously down the ramp from his room on the extension room and into the flower shop, Fourth Avenue, he was greeted by a usual morning sight. Nichkhun was busy spraying the white camellias facing the eastern side of the shop, his blonde hair catching the sun quite right and giving him an ethereal aura as he worked the water droplets around the leaves and roots of the potted plants. Junsu was lying around the counter, still half-asleep, his finger moving to some beat only he could hear; the eldest took a while to 'warm up his engines' unless it involved women. Chansung was opening up the shop as he usually did every morning, unlocking the doors, pulling up the metal panels and sliding the metal gates open.

“Good morning,” Jinwoon beamed, pushing himself towards the middle of the room, the wheels of his wheelchairs making that odd electric sound as he rolled towards his companions, “did you guys sleep well?”

Jinwoon thought it an odd idiosyncrasy to ask Hell if they have had a good night's sleep the night they went out for the kill. Sometimes he thought these men, especially Rai- not that Rai was a man, slept better after a good night's hunt.

“I'm late for class,” Chansung muttered in irritation as he picked up his bag and tried to tie his shoelaces at the same time. The messenger bag slipped from his shoulders fell to the floor, of course, and his laces came undone, sending Chansung into a fouler mood that morning. “And it's math class, I hate math class. I swear our professor's evil,” he grumbled, and Jinwoon shook his head at the string of expletives that followed Chansung's heavy breath as the second youngest retried tying up his shoes. Once he was done, Chansung stood full height, slinging his bag across his back, and his eyes swept across the shop. “Are you going to be okay without me?” This time a touch of worry was evident in his voice

“Of course! I can take care of myself, don't worry about it,” Jinwoon beamed, pumping his fist in the air, reassuring Chansung that he was going to be perfectly fine managing the shop without him. “Have fun at school today?”

Chansung however, was not convinced at all knowing full well that Jinwoon's needs were not going to be met by the people he was leaving him with. Rai was missing as she always was in the mornings, and Kass had her own cover to keep. Nichkhun and Junsu were not exactly the best people to leave an invalid with, and worry crossed Chansung's otherwise complacent face. “Are you sure? Give me a call and I'll be back here in no time, okay?”

Jinwoon laughed, now used to Chansung's worrying. “I'll be fine, hyung,” he replied, emphasizing the traditional term of respect to an older male. “You'll be late again, I'll be alright, I'll just ask Victoria for help if I need any,” he said, prodding Chansung with the wheels of his chair.

Chansung kneed away the wheels attacking him and finally nodded in assent. As if on cue, the door chimes rang, announcing the arrival of a guest- their first customer of the day. Chansung didn't need to turn around to know who it was. Already he could tell by the way the room now smelled and how Junsu was suddenly attentive and how Nichkhun was looking more stoic than the usual. “Good morning Victoria,” he turned and greeted her as she walked in with a large paper bag in her hands.

Victoria smiled in return. “Good morning, off to class?” she asked Chansung, and he nodded. “Sulli and Krystal are ready, they're waiting for you by the bus stop.”

Still hesitant to leave, Chansung waved goodbye to the shop and made his leave for class. Jinwoon gave him one last reassuring smile before watching the glass doors close behind him. Turning to Victoria, he watched as Junsu suavely took the paper bag she brought for them every morning.

“Good morning,” Junsu said, peering into the dark depths of the bag. “Thank you for the morning coffee and muffins. You're such a doll.”

Victoria flushed at the compliment, and Jinwoon's smile twitched a little bit at the resident cassanova's effortless attempts at romancing their neighbor. The coffee and pastries were a product of the cafe, Aff(x)tion across the flower shop where Victoria and four other girls worked. Every morning since a time Jinwoon couldn't even remember anymore, Victoria would come along to hand them breakfast exactly when it was time for Chansung to leave for class. It was as routine as the rising of the sun.

Of course, both Jinwoon and Junsu knew that Victoria had her motives, and both men did away with the subtlety- huge grins on their faces as Junsu pushed Jinwoon out of the way. Victoria came every morning, not just to bring breakfast but also to collect their daily supply of roses and peonies for their shop. The bouquets of which, were a responsibility handed to Nichkhun.

Something Nichkhun did not appreciate at all. Work was work, but with Victoria getting too personally attached to him, the blonde couldn't help but feel the slightest bit irritated at her actions. He ignored her for the most part, opting to remain silent in his area of responsibility inside Fourth Avenue, but Victoria was relentless. With an inward sigh Nichkhun set the spray bottle on the table, wiped his hands on his apron, and made his way to the back of the shop where the peonies and roses were cooling inside the refrigerator. His steps echoed slightly on the cool tiled floor bouncing on the walls and back, and the suction sound made by the refrigerator door was loud as he pulled it open to retrieve several inflorescence stems. A cool mist of cold air, a contrast to his warm face, greeted him as he poked his head inside the large fixture, meant to keep the flowers moist and prevent them from spoiling prematurely.

Roses were especially hard to maintain as they required a significantly higher amount of water as compared to other more common flowers they had in the shop, and Nichkhun honestly did not look forward to getting his hands wet by the cold water. The low buzz of the humidity condenser tuned out the voices of his other companions in the receiving area, but Nichkhun could still hear them as if he were in the conversation himself. Mostly it involved Junsu and Victoria, and that was something he could very easily ignore.

The pink roses were kept in a large glass vase maintained with a fresh supply of water and nutrients with a hydroponics system Junsu and Jinwoon both had designed. At a set time interval, a spray of water with dissolved nutrients would turn on, showering the room in a cool mist that sustained the flowers. Nichkhun admired the technology, and to Jinwoon he would ambiguously acknowledge that, but never to Junsu.

Nichkhun's brow furrowed seeing the flowers out of their regular order, the peonies and roses now stored with orange lilies and primroses, and he pushed the similar flowers to opposite sides of the rack. After pulling out a few stems of the pink flowers, not bothering to separate the roses from the peonies anymore, Nichkhun made his way out of the back room and back into the shop.

Victoria was already waiting for him when Nichkhun arrived at his work station and found no reason to even look at her or address her presence. “I'm sorry if I'm a little early, I know the flowers only get ready at around nine today, but the bakery sent in early pastries, and I-”

Nichkhun shot her a look that momentarily silenced the woman next to him, he didn't speak out loud- he felt as if he didn't need to, and returned to his work. Taking a stem and the short knife he usually kept with him, he worked his way around the rose thorns, t the stems according to the usual arrangement Aff(x)tion ordered from them. Nichkhun didn't even have to put much thought into the arrangement, and once he had all the stems done, he took some floral tape and secured the flowers into a tight bundle of different shades of pink. He handed the floral dome to Victoria, and she graciously accepted it, giving Nichkhun her sweetest smile that she only reserved for him, however, Nichkhun remained expressionless.

Sensing the awkward air, Victoria's smile faltered a little bit. “Thank you, I'll be going now.” She gave a curt nod to the florists of Fourth Avenue, and slowly made her way out of the shop, looking back at Nichkhun one last time before disappearing through the door.

“You should be nicer to her,” Junsu said, taking a seat on a high stool and resting his temple on the heel of his hand. “Women should be treated with respect.”

Nichkhun did not want to hear this lecture from Junsu of all people, and he filtered out the sound of his voice, focusing instead on the list of orders they had received the day before. “Did Chansung say what time he's coming back?” he asked, the question obviously meant to disregard Junsu.

Jinwoon checked the calendar and timecard on the wall, posted on one of the corkboards was Chansung's university schedule. “He didn't day he'd be late, so I guess he'll be back around 2PM today.”

Nichkhun nodded and checked the addresses on the order cards. “We have a few deliveries to district IX, he knows the area best.”

Jinwoon nodded and pulled out his phone from his pocket, but then hesitated for a moment. If he told Chansung he was needed at the shop, he was sure to come running back even before his classes were over, and Jinwoon didn't want that. Instead, he put his phone back into his pocket and prepared for another day manning the cash register. It was almost that time of the morning, and it was sure to be a busy day.

Using his foot, Junsu pulled another high stool closer to him to use as a footrest, calculating that he had enough time behind the counter to dally a little more before the customer's came in. He yawned; last night bored him and for a change he actually complained about not doing anything. Targeting Tony Ahn was too easy, the man did nothing whatsoever to cover his tracks, or even deviate from his normal routine. Junsu had somehow expected that as a hitman himself, Tony Ahn would at least try to not do what his victims usually did- but Junsu tended to overestimate his targets. In the end, he didn't even need to move one finger from where he was positioned to kill their target, Rai and her bloodthirst were more than enough. Honestly, Junsu was quite offended with the mission, they didn't even take more than an hour, and he was itching for something exciting.

Although, if he were to truly consider the word, the new girl, Kass, was presenting him with an opportunity he was not about to pass up. He admitted, and out loud, that he approved of the new member, nights were boring when you went out with two men, one he was certain was aual, and the other too concerned about their intel and extra baggage. Don't even get him started on their extra baggage, he did not want to think about Rai at a time like this.

With the chimes going off again, Junsu's ears perked up at the sound of high-pitched squeals and he immediately made his way towards the red spider lilies stand where many a female species gathered.

Business was blooming.

~ ☗ ~

The office was small, with only six cherry desks pushed together in a straight line across the room, three each to a row. Book cases lined the walls, each section filled with police reports and intelligence files in alphabetical order. To Lee Changmin, it was his sanctuary, but the tension in the air quickly turned it into his hell.

With a forceful thwack of papers on his desk, Taecyeon winced back in his seat as their unit leader Changmin slammed last night's operation report on the table. The unit leader slipped his glasses off his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “What is this?!” Changmin roared across the small office. “Tony Ahn is dead?! On the night of our raid, he turns up dead, killed in his office?!”

Taecyeon grimaced and opened his mouth to speak, a finger already raised to call the leader’s attention, but the words died in his mouth as the remaining members of Schatteinheit entered the room. Their unit, more formally known as Einheit: Schatten, was composed of six field agents and one auxiliary support member. A unit very recently assembled to take on special cases- or rather, one special case in particular. The members took their seats behind their desks and pulled out their files, each going over the events of last night for the nth time this morning.

When the police surveillance and intelligence unit uncovered that the series of killings in the last year were all correlated one way or another, a unit was formed to investigate. At first, it was a series of proven corrupt officials being murdered one after the other, but more recently a series of unproven syndicate leaders were being taken down under the same shady circumstances. There was a vigilante group on the loose, and while their motives may have been good, their methods were just as dirty as the men they were taking down.

Captain Lee Changmin replaced his glasses and nodded briefly at each member who had arrived for their morning briefing. Last night the team had prepared for a raid to apprehend Tony Ahn in the act of conducting his human trafficking business and more importantly, foil a plot to kill him. However, when the supposed time came, Changmin and his team were more than surprised to find the ring leader repeatedly slashed on the chest and face in a bloody mess on the floor of his office. Tony Ahn had died of exsanguination in the most painful way possible, and the murder had occurred right under their noses.

This was not what Changmin had expected when the team was handed to him the day he was discharged from the army. He had expected an elite team of well trained officers, but instead several rookies were given for him to lead and shape up into a formidable force. Some of them he had recognized from the Police Academy, while others had enrolled after he had graduated. Taecyeon, his second-in-command, was one of his underclassmen, and he trusted him more than a member from his own graduating batch, Im Seulong.

Many had questioned his judgement, but Changmin had been certain Taecyeon was more than capable in leading the team should the need arise. Only now, he was questioning his judgement as well. “Can anyone please tell me how Tony Ahn died last night under police surveillance?” he said again, an exasperated touch to his voice as he started pacing again.

It was 1st officer Lee Junho who answered him, brown hair ruffled, and glasses pushed up his nose. Changmin found him with the most potential though Junho himself did not realize that yet. “We've exhausted the perimeter, there was nothing there. The Weather Station sent us the surveillance videos, but they haven’t found anything yet.” He shifted in his chair and continued reading from his report, “There were no witnesses either, and there was nothing that implicated Ahn's enemies. Everything about the homicide points towards the same group.”

“The lack of evidence is evidence,” Mai added, moving from the back of the room to the front next to Taecyeon. Mai Tran was the only female in the field team, and Changmin had been impressed by her tough attitude so far. He found it necessary as he needed her not to take any nonsense from the men on his team. “Sunye from the medical examiner's office confirmed that the lacerations on Tony Ahn's body matched those of a previous case, that's the only thing we have against him, or them.”

Changmin did not fail to notice the disgruntlement in Mai's voice. She had been after this particular assassin ever since she connected each case together as a desk officer in one of their senior's offices. Her eyes pierced through the sheets in her hands, and Changmin was convinced she was trying to picture the killer in her mind. “We have four killers, what did the profiler say?” he asked.

It was Mai who answered again. “Dr. Lim Jeonghee restated and confirmed the previous reports she collected from the last profiler, all except for one thing.” Mai turned the page and frowned. “The last few profilers couldn't confirm nor could they invalidate claims to the killer's handedness, and Dr. Lim believes that our killer may be ambidextrous with a preference for the right hand. Whoever our killer is, we need to be careful.”

Changmin nodded gravely, he had seen the bodies this particular vigilante left behind, and even he in his experience was almost afraid to think of what kind of person could be capable of such a thing. He waited for someone else to add to Mai's report, but as he counted off heads, he realized one of them was missing. “Where's Fuu?” Their computer specialist was not there.

“In the computer lab with Yoobin checking the logs, she said she found something wonky with the surveillance tapes collected from the scene,” Seulong answered, laying his forearms on the desk in front of him, his leg very conspicuously jiggling under the table. Changmin recognized this behavior. Seulong was a loud man with many mannerisms, but this specific one always meant one thing, and that was that he was feeling highly anxious about this case. “We have four killers, and only this one leaves some form of signature, maybe this is the sloppy one?”

“There were brief instances of a possible fifth member, but the evidence was never concrete enough to pin one down, the weapon of choice always changed, maybe it was one of them trying something new?” Mai asked.

“That's not really the issue at the moment,” Wooyoung cut in, cocking his head to the side a bit, slightly uncovering his right eye hidden under his bangs. Jang Wooyoung was a mystery to the leader. Wooyoung had come into the academy when Changmin had left and thus leaving him nothing to go by him. Wooyoung hardly ever moved too, and this left Changmin uncomfortable as it left no clues and no way to read him. “If Fuu finds something from the tapes, then we could finally pin someone down for these murders. The psychological profile only matters if we have witnesses to aid a search, but we have nothing.”

Mai tossed her long hair behind her shoulders, and Changmin sensed that she was annoyed that Wooyoung would contradict her openly and without regard to the rest of her report. “Inspector-”

“E-ehem.”

Everyone turned towards Taecyeon who still had one hand up, and the other hand adjusting his glasses on his face. “So what are we going to do about the Tony Ahn report? File it, trash it, add it to the growing unsolved pile?”

Changmin sighed and waved a hand. “We need more evidence to support this claim. All we know is that there is a group out there killing off our suspects, and that makes them our suspects. We're not concerned with the people they kill, we're only concerned with the vigilantes themselves. The Tony Ahn file should be handed over to Sohee so she can hand it over to the detective in charge.” His eyes took another sweep across the room and he shook his head slightly at his uncoordinated team. “Fuu better find something,” he muttered to himself.