“Ami, that’s...that’s kinda gross,” Wooyoung cut in before Amihan could say anymore. The senior rolled her eyes and threw a piece of crinkled paper at Wooyoung’s face. “Seriously Ami, that’s not right.”

Around the long wooden table sat what remained of Wooyoung’s former welcoming committee: Jung Byunghee, Kyeon Nara, Park Sanghyun, and of course Amihan Cruz. They would have been a larger group, if not for Ariana and Seungho disappearing on their own; the same went for Nichkhun and June.

“Shut up Woodong, I am never sharing my thoughts with you ever again. Why don’t you keep a tighter hold on Khun? These are the moments I need June.”

Byunghee laughed out loud in his seat. “June? Please, that would be like talking to a rock. Who knows what Khun-”

“Hey! June-noona has her good traits,” Wooyoung spoke up. Defending June was now part of his daily routine, while his hyung’s girlfriend may not be the most social of people, Wooyoung found her endearing in her own right. “She’s just different.”

“True, better June than our professor,” Byunghee teased before turning his attention back to Amihan. “Ami, that’s gross. Mr. Jung’s our professor, how could you have a crush on him?!”

Ami groaned in her seat, crumpling what was left of her blue printing and chucking them at both Wooyoung and Byunghee’s faces. “I hate you two.”

“Where is the Golden Couple?” Nara asked, looking up from her reading. “I thought they’d be here? They’re usually more social than the Silver Pair.”

“I didn’t see Khun last night either, at least, not before lights out,” Sanghyun added, taking a sip of his drink.

Wooyoung’s brows creased in the middle of his forehead. “Where else would hyung be? Noona had a late night last night.”

“That’s just sick, you know. Sick. That’s beyond devotion, that’s obsession,” Nara commented, though her off-handed remark did not fall on deaf ears as said subjects took a seat.

“Nice to know you think very highly of me,” Nichkhun replied, the sarcasm overwhelming his voice. June took the seat next to him, nodding in acknowledgment at Amihan’s presence.

“Where were you?” Amihan asked, intent on clearing the proverbial conversation slate.

“Obviously getting-”

“Hungry, hyung?” Wooyoung chirped, cutting Nara off before she said more.

“Nice save, but it’s not like we’re not aware,” Amihan quipped, meeting Byunghee’s eyes.

Wooyoung looked thoroughly confused. “What?”

“Oh you know, the favorite four-letter word,” Amihan answered.

“June?”

Nara rolled her eyes at Wooyoung’s naivete. Even after two years with them Wooyoung was still the country bumpkin. “Favorite four-letter F word.”

“Food?”

Byunghee slapped his forehead with his palm. “It rhymes with his name, Wooyoung.”

By now Nichkhun and June had walked away from the table, already knowing what was about to happen next. Wooyoung wanted to follow them, but Amihan held on to his sleeve, keeping him still, wanting to make sure he reached the end of the punchline.

“What rhymes with Nichkhun?...Khun...June...that rhymes.”

“His other name Woodong,” Amihan answered patiently.

“Buck?” Wooyoung’s eyes widened to the size of large saucers, a fierce flush of scarlet creeping up his face. Heat burned through his cheeks and he shook his head violently as his other so-called friends laughed hysterically at their new inside joke.

…

It made sense to Wooyoung that Amihan would be in the Weather Station, a branch of the Police headed by Jung Jihoon. It appeared as if Byunghee followed her as well. Typical, he scoffed. It was almost as if nothing had changed, Taecyeon and Seulong were still the same idiots in the Academy, Fuu was still the same girl saving poor souls from the duo’s mercy. Only he and Nichkhun had changed it seemed, and it was all because of her.

Wooyoung’s eyes scanned his notes once more for some kind of lead in his investigations. A connection was sure to reveal itself to him- that one vital piece, the missing link to all the seemingly random pieces of data he had. He returned his gaze to his phone- he was still on hold, and Wooyoung was not a particularly patient man. He tapped his pencil impatiently on his notepad and the graphite made uneven pockmarks on the yellow ruled pad.

He wrote the name again just to pass time, White Tiger Laboratory, and underneath it all the victims Schatten had taken out- even those the other group had as well. Now, more than ever, Wooyoung knew he was on the right track. Nichkhun’s presence reinforced the validity of his finds.

“Wooyoung, I found what you wanted, I’m sending it to you now,” came the voice from the receiver.

He waited for the confirmatory beep on his phone, and when it arrived, he opened the files immediately. “Got it.” His finger moved to end the call, but the person on the other line spoke again.

“Wooyoung,” her voice was tentative, hesitant.

“Yes, Amihan?”

She wavered a bit, her unease evident through the line. “Never mind. Keep in touch, ‘kay?”

Wooyoung’s response came in the sound of the call being cut. There were other matters that demanded his attention. An old, worn-out notebook lay open next to newer printed documents, and he cross-checked each detail he found. Several names were already ticked off or crossed out on his list, familiar names- names that appeared more than twice on documents he had found.

Andy Lee

Hu Fengmin

Park Yoochun

Choi Zara

Yegor Alexeivich Bulatov

His pencil hovered over the last name on his short list. His lips pressed firmly into a tight line as his brows furrowed on his forehead. Where had he heard this name before? It was familiar, but how exactly?

Walking out of Fuu’s office and not finding Junho, Wooyoung was not exactly the first thing Mai wanted to see. She looked back down on the surveillance footage she and her missing partner had to review, but her eyes always willed themselves back to the mercurial inspector slouched on his table. He was busy, again, and the officer could only wonder why. Surely, it had nothing to do with their case, or could it be that Wooyoung was actually pulling his load for once?

She scoffed; she doubted it fully.

Turning to leave, Mai tore her gaze away from Wooyoung and towards the front desk where she found something that peaked her curiosity. A pale golden blonde head was the first thing she saw as soon as she stepped into the main lobby. A young woman no older than herself stood in the middle of the room, her electric blue eyes darted across the area and further into the precinct, looking for something, or maybe even someone.

Mai took a step closer, intent on assisting her, but the blonde’s eyes lit up, and the other girl breezed past her.

“Jason!”

Jason? As far as Mai knew, there was no one who went by the name Jason in their head quarters. She whirled around to follow, but her footsteps abruptly halted seeing the blonde jump right towards Wooyoung and wrap her arms around him.

“Jason!” she said again.

Surely the girl was mistaken, and Mai smirked waiting for Wooyoung’s harsh retorts or whatever act of insensitivity the inspector would throw at this presumptuous girl. Mai waited, but it never came. Instead, Wooyoung looked at her with a glint of recognition in his eyes, and his hardened expression softened the very slightest. Mai was utterly perturbed.

She took a step closer to further investigate, but she was soon distracted by another.

“Excuse me, Officer. Can you tell me where Ok Taecyeon’s office is?” asked a man dressed casually in loose jeans and a jacket. His most striking feature was his head: from his crescent eyes to his impish ears, topped off with his unsual hairstyle- with the sides shaved off, the top in spikes.

“Detective Ok is in the middle of a meeting, you can leave a message at the front desk if you like.”

“Naw, no need for that. Anyway, it’s important, and I gotta talk to him. So, I’m just gonna go inside and look, ‘kay?”

…

Her name was Maksim Yegorovna Bulatova, and her father, was Yegor Alexeivich Bulatov, the last man on Wooyoung’s list. They had met before, in NeoMoscow when he was stationed in the northern borders. She was a volunteer in the Infirmary, and during the down times of the Unistate, when there was hardly anything to do, Wooyoung, together with the others spent many a time just hanging out at the facilities.

The inspector looked down at the head of flaxen hair leaning on his chest and gently pried the young woman off him. Maksim looked troubled, and her voice cracked the slightest when she spoke.

“Jason, I need your help, I think someone’s after my father.”

Typical Maksim to get to the point. Wooyoung knew exactly who it was that was after her father, but he was not about to release that information to her. Not when he still wasn’t sure why. “Calm down Maksimka, why do you think this is?”

“My father’s colleagues have been killed. Remember when we met in NeoMoscow? I told you my father was working here on some international project? I finally gained his approval to follow after him and work under his team. Dr. Choi and Dr. Hu, I know their deaths are related. Jason I can feel it, my father is next!”

Trust Maksim to use both think and feel in the same train of thought and not have those words contradict each other. Wooyoung sat her down on the seat behind her and sat next to her. “What project?”

Hesitation was never a good thing, and Wooyoung noted all her little mannerisms. From the way her eyes shifted and the way she knotted her fingers on her lap, the inspector knew instantly what he was about to deal with.

“I’m not supposed to talk about it, but my father-”

“I can’t help you if you don’t tell me.”

“It’s...it’s a secret military project- Fortuna. A large-scale international research project on genetic manipulations and other forms of stem cell research. My father was one of the main researchers on the Human Biology track, and, and we’ve been losing scientists, even research assistants. Try as much as the military does to suppress and mute everything, news is starting to leak out. At first, when my co-assistant disappeared, it was blamed on a freak accident, but then I found out about another assistant going out under suspicious circumstances, and that was nearly two years ago. I can’t tell you what exactly my father does, but Jason, I am desperate for your help.”

Desperate, yes, there was no doubt there, but Wooyoung’s mind was going an entirely different direction. Fortuna. Another name that shifted the gears in his head. Nichkhun had mentioned this name long ago, all he needed was that missing link. “Where is you father now?”

“At the lab, finishing all his work. He has guards stationed around him, but even with all those people, I don’t think my father is safe. I need to know why this is happening. Who would know about this project, and why would anyone want the Heads dead? All we’re doing is finding better cures to-”

The rest of her speech was filtered out. Wooyoung heard all he needed to hear.

…

Exasperated, Mai followed the stubborn man into the office. Talking was not working at all, and Mai was running out of civilized ways to reason with the visitor. He strutted into the office like he owned the place, and Mai couldn’t help but be annoyed by his swagger. “Sir, you’re not allowed this far into the precinct,” she reminded him, yet again.

If he heard her, he made no move to acknowledge it. Instead, he made a bee line for Fuu’s office, and Mai picked up her steps. “Sir, that’s a restricted area.”

His hand easily found its way to the handle, and with one easy twist, he was already inside the computer labs. “Greetings, your leader has returned.”

Mai wanted to bang her head against the wall. This man was crazy.

“Did none of you get promoted since I left? Why are you all still in the comlabs?”

Before Mai could even do anything, Taecyeon, Seulong, and Fuu had all rushed towards the crazy man. The two much taller men on either side of him, shaking him, and screaming a range of obscenities in his ear, while Fuu was just about to slap him.

“You couldn’t call? You just had to make an entrance, didn’t you?” Fuu said, crossing her arms on her chest.

“Think of it as me saving you guys the trouble of organizing a Welcome Back party. Come on Fuu, show me some love.”

“I love you,” Taecyeon said, grabbing the shorter male and enveloping him in a tight embrace.

“Ew. Taec, lemme go!”

“Nah, you like it,” Taecyeon lilted in reply.

Mai was thoroughly confused. Had she somehow slipped into an alternate reality? She met Fuu’s gaze and the older girl smiled gently. “Mai, this is Jay Park, our so-called leader.”

“Hey,” Jay croaked from under Taecyeon and Seulong’s grasp, “that’s Detective-Inspector Jay Park from Interpol.” he corrected.

Fuu rolled her eyes. “Of course you are Jay, we never doubted that,” she said, her tone of voice overly patronizing as if speaking to a child.

Mai slowly stepped back from what now appeared to be a reunion. It was painfully obvious how much they missed each other, even Fuu delivered more joked than usual. The younger officer smiled to herself wondering if it would be the same for her and her group of friends should a similar incident arise.

“Hey, where’s Woodong?”

Mai stopped in her tracks at the sound of that nickname again. She was about to close the door, but now her interest had been caught all over again. She had managed to track down their Academy records and yearbooks, and confirmed that Taecyeon and Wooyoung did run in the same social circles then, Fuu as well. It was a very surprising discovery for her. A smiling Wooyoung was not something she expected to see, a younger version of himself it may be.

“Wooyoung...it’s a little complicated. Life happened, and, he didn’t take it too well.”

Mai pressed her ear harder against the wooden panels. It was highly inappropriate behavior, and she was sure to get in trouble should she get caught, but she felt that some risks were worth taking.

Fuu continued speaking, “You know when he got back from the Northern Station? He and...well, they were supposed to take the Special Ops mission together, when...when that happened. Wooyoung was never the same since, especially with the rumors about, you know, it hasn’t been the same.”

How much more cryptic could Fuu had explained things? Mai’s brows knit together as she tried to make sense of Inspector Jang Wooyoung. Unconsciously, her head turned to his office, and she frowned deeply. The blonde from earlier was holding his hand tightly as she spoke to him about some matter Mai was sure the blonde thought important.

“So why are you here?” Taecyeon asked, bringing Mai’s attention back to the computer lab.

“I’m here on an assignment, actually. I’m just waiting for my partner to arrive, she should be here in a few. Do you guys know this Schatten? I was told to meet up with them, but the names never came.”

Mai could imagine the toothy grins on both Taecyeon and Seulong’s faces as she heard them reply. “You’re looking at them.”

…

After the mini-reunion, Schatten convened in their office with Jay Park leading the minutes. Next to him stood his partner, Conny Meyer. Jay surveyed the room, to be honest he didn’t expect Taecyeon and Seulong to be a part of Schatteinheit. Fuu he could understand, but not those two. Still, it was a pleasant surprise, it wasn’t as if people expected him getting drafted into Interpol either. At least Changmin was leading the group, Jay could already imagine how their captain dealt with the team. It would have been no different from their days at the Academy.

“Have you ever heard of Fortuna?” he opened up the meeting finding no need for any more introductions.

Wooyoung’s eyes snapped up at Jay; he wasn’t expecting to hear that word again so soon. Around the room, all Jay received were shaking heads, and it came as no surprise.

“Dr. Hu and Dr. Choi, we have reason to believe that they are major players in this Fortuna business. We’ve been tracking down leads for almost two years, but this is the first time we’ve worked through a gap this fast. If I understood correctly, then the people you are targeting, are targeting Fortuna, this puts us both on the same team.”

“Jay, we’re not sure if these people we’re looking for are targeting Fortuna itself, whatever it is,” Changmin answered, speaking slowly, deliberately. “I’m afraid we don’t have as much evidence as you might think. We’ve never come across this Fortuna you talk about, and we’re not even sure it was the same group that killed Zara Choi.”

Jay’s expression turned stern. “You’ve already opened up enough leads without you realizing it, Captain.”

[A/N]: Everyone still with me? We're just getting started. =)