1300. 11/13/2012. Underground Club, Guryeong-Dong, Seoul.

Jonghyun paces outside the underground club anxiously as he waits for the rest of his team to show up. Taemin had a gun on him; he would be alright, right? If not… No. Jonghyun couldn’t afford to think like that.

Focus. Jonghyun. Deep breath. This isn’t like what happened in the Yongsan District.

He raises his head at the sounds of approaching sirens and watches as Onew hops out of a large black SUV. Onew waves quickly to Minho who nods his head in response, a firm scowl set into his face.

“What do we have here?” Onew asks Jonghyun who stands outside the empty club where the fan president had taken Taemin inside.

“There are snipers on those two ledges; they’re just waiting for a clear shot.” Jonghyun says pointing to two adjacent buildings. Onew nods and lays a hand on Jonghyun’s shoulder.

“Then all we can do now is wait.” Onew says and Jonghyun sits on the steps, burying his head into his hands.

Yunho collapses to the ground in a pool of sweat, Changmin there close beside him. Taemin looks at them from the place in which he is chained against a column.

“Good, now again.” The fan club president says, clapping her hands delightedly. What kind of a sick person was she? Yunho thinks to himself as his legs wobbles, threatening to give out on him. Changmin stands up beside him and tries to lean on him for support.

“Can’t you give them a break? They can’t take it anymore.” Taemin speaks up from his corner and the fan club president turns to glare at him.

“You want to take their place?” The president asks, narrowing her eyes at him and Taemin shrugs.

“I’ll try.” He says and then gestures to his cuffed hands. The sasaeng president walks over and uncuffs him reluctantly. Taemin rubs his sore wrists, only to be roughly shoved onto the stage by the of the president’s gun.

Taemin gestures over to TVXQ to move near the window and to open the blinds. They nod inconspicuously and move aside to let Taemin onto the stage.

“Let’s see how well you can do. If you can’t take it, they die.” The sasaeng president says to him and Taemin gulps. He hoped this would work. The president turns on the music and Taemin taps his foot to the beat, calling on his photographic memory to help him remember the dance he’d seen Changmin and Yunho dance about twenty times.

“Right there, the blinds have just been opened.” Jonghyun calls, looking toward the south side of the building.

“I don’t have the shot, they’re out of range.” The sniper’s voice says through his in-ear and Jonghyun sighs dejectedly. He knew the sasaeng president wouldn’t hurt TVXQ! but he couldn’t say the same for Taemin.

“Excuse me sir.” A soft voice says to Minho who was pacing nervously outside the building.

“Sorry ma’am, but I’m going to need you to clear this area.” A man says ushering the woman out but she holds her ground. Minho looks up and gestures to the guard to back off.

“How may I help you?” Minho asks her, as she walks over.

“Actually, it’s more along the lines of how may I help you.” She replies and Minho raises an eyebrow in interest. “I’m actually a big fan of TVXQ and know it or not, many of us Cassies aren’t too fond of our idols being kidnapped. We’re willing to help in whatever way we can.”

“Go on.” Minho says, as she takes out a set of keys.

“I work here. We’ve been having some work done on the water systems in this building; they’ve been trying to connect our club to the sewage system.” The woman explains, leading Minho over to an entrance. “The workers were just finishing up and they haven’t closed the opening yet.” She finishes, unlocking the door with her spare key.

“Where will this take me exactly?” Minho asks her and she pulls out a blueprint of the building. Minho wonders where she obtained all these documents but doesn’t let his face betray his curiosity.

“This door will take you to the basement. She’s holding them up on the fourth floor.” The woman replies with a frown on her face.

“Just a question, would you happen to know the woman holding the idol group in question?” Minho asks and the woman stiffens.

“That crazy lunatic is my sister.” She replies darkly. Minho feels a chill run down his spine at her tone of voice but dismisses it quickly. He knew what it was like when a sibling drove you up a wall.

“Get the team together; this’ll be a four man operation.” Minho says into his in-ear and gestures for a security guard to take the woman into protective custody.

“I volunteer.” Jonghyun says and Minho shakes his head in his direction. Jonghyun frowns towards Minho.

“I need you to cover the front. I’ll take Onew, Kris and Chanyeol in.” Minho says and Jonghyun growls in frustration.

“You’re going to take two newbies?” Jonghyun protests.

“I need them with me, Chanyeol and Kris are my best shooters and they’re ready.” Minho says.

“Just bring him back safely.” Jonghyun says and Minho nods. He wouldn’t leave until Taemin was with him. They enter the dark building and travel soundlessly towards the sound of the music, feeling the bass line pounding in their ears. They arrive just outside the door and wait for Minho’s signal.

“We storm on the count of three.” Minho says quietly and the three others nod. He holds up his fingers and counts quietly.3… 2…

“Hold on, I have a shot.” Jongin says and Minho stands up from his crouched position.

“Holding.” Minho says, relaxing slightly and Onew frowns at him. Kris and Chanyeol fidget with their guns silently, as the anxiety grows.

Taemin counts the seconds silently in his head, wondering why it was taking his team so long. Just retrieve us already! Taemin screams in his head. TVXQ! sits in a corner, dead tired with their eyes half closed as Taemin dances on.

The unsub takes a step towards him and Taemin’s eyes flash to the window. She was in the open now, if a shot was coming, it had to come now. The unsub follows his eyes to the open window and her eyes widen in panic as she takes another step forwards.

Taemin hears the whizz of a bullet and then sees a red blossoming through the unsub’s chest. She falls to the ground and Taemin shuts his eyes, trying to block out the sight of the growing pool of blood before him. He feels his lunch come up his stomach with a vengeance and he vomits all over the grey carpet.

“Clear.” He sees someone yell and he watches as Onew goes over to check on TVXQ!

Someone hoists Taemin up and he feels Minho wrap his arms around his shoulders, pulling him into a tight embrace. Jonghyun pushes him aside and takes Taemin into a hug.

“Hey Jonghyun, good to see you too. Careful, I just threw up.” Taemin says, chuckling weakly.

“Don’t ever scare us like that again!” Onew yells from the other side of the room. Minho supports Taemin to the SUV and Jonghyun and Onew follow closely behind.

Kim Jongin sits on top of the rooftop, hands shaking violently. He wipes his palms on the seat of his pants, averting his eyes from the window he’d just shot. He didn’t mean to do it; it was just supposed to hit her arm, if only she hadn’t taken that step.

“Hey Jongin, I’ve been calling you for the past ten minutes, what are you doing up here?” Luhan asks, coming up to meet him on the parapet.

“I just killed someone.” Jongin says, voice shaking and Luhan frowns.

“It wasn’t your fault, you know that. She moved last minute.” Luhan says, consoling the hyperventilating Jongin.

“I killed her.” Jongin says paling and Luhan winces as Jongin turns to empty the contents of his stomach over the edge of the building. He felt sorry for the unlucky passerby that was about to receive a not so pleasant surprise.

“Come on, let’s go.” Luhan says, pulling Jongin to his feet and forcing him down the stairs. Jongin grips his gun tightly as he made his way down the steps. Now he understood what Minho meant. He’d be trained to deal with this, to live with himself when the worst came. Yet no training could prepare him for what real death felt like.

“Let’s get you home.” Minho says to the woman standing, her face ashen. She’d seen her sister wheeled out of the club. The woman nods and follows Minho who lets her into a car, asking quickly for her address and entering it into the GPS on his dashboard.

“I’m sorry for your loss.” Minho says and the woman remains silent. She doesn’t shed a single tear and Minho concludes that she’s under too much shock from the day’s events.

“Thank you officer for driving me home.” She says, getting out of the car.

“Let me know if you need anything.” Minho says, walking her into her home. Minho watches as she passes by a portrait of her deceased sister without flinching and he frowns.

“Would you like anything? Coffee? Tea?” She asks walking into the kitchen.

“Coffee would be great, thanks.” Minho replies, thinking of the beverage that would take the longest, “Hold on a moment, I’m stepping out to make a call.” He calls to her.

“Hey Jonghyun.” He says when the other agent picks up.

“What’s up?” Jonghyun asks.

“There’s something strange about the unsub’s sister.” Minho says.

“What do you mean?” Jonghyun asks and Minho can hear the frown in his voice.

“I mean when people lose their relatives, they can barely walk into the house, let alone function enough to carry a regular conversation. This girl just walked right past a picture of her sister without even flinching.” Minho says and he hears Jonghyun pause.

“Hold on, give us your address and we’ll be there soon. Keep her distracted and don’t let her know that we’ve had this conversation.” Jonghyun says urgently and Minho hears car tires squealing in the background as Jonghyun turns his car around.

“Alright.” Minho says, giving Jonghyun the address before hanging up. He enters the house again and sees the woman sitting at the coffee table stirring a cup of tea.

“You know, I loved my sister very much.” The woman says quietly as she picks up a pen and starts filling in a crossword puzzle.

“I can see that.” Minho says neutrally, “You have very neat writing.”

“Thank you.” She replies shortly, tensing up slightly.

“So, you’re a TVXQ fan as well?” Minho asks and she nods.

“Not really, I mean, I only got into them because my sister was.” She says and Minho resists the urge to frown. That’s funny; she had told him the exact opposite when they first met.

“I see.” Minho says quietly as he takes a sip of his coffee, inching his hand towards his gun. The woman realizes her own contradiction and smirks.

“You know, I thought I had this act all figured out. I would blame this all on my sister but I guess it wasn’t convincing without tears. Even to the end, I couldn’t bring myself to cry for that . The president position was supposed to be mine.” She spits and Minho draws his gun only to find hers already pointed at him.

“I recommend you put your gun down.” Minho warns in a low voice and she throws her head back in laughter.

“I’m so sorry, I… I… I just felt so scared since my sister just died. I didn’t mean to do it.” She says, her expression flipping 180 degrees. Minho widens his eyes at her implication as she rests her finger on the trigger.

“Freeze!” Jonghyun yells bursting into the room with the now cleaned up Taemin in tow. Taemin looks at the woman in shock; it was the same person he’d bumped into earlier.

“I’m sorry, he just had a gun and I was so scared.” She says, voice trembling with emotion. Minho would’ve believed it too, if he hadn’t seen her act earlier.

“That’s okay, we’re just here to protect you. Now put down the gun and we’ll bring you somewhere safe.” Jonghyun coaxes softly and she puts down her gun. Minho quickly grabs the gun and Jonghyun puts the woman into handcuffs. Her fearful expression quickly changes into a scowl.

“Sorry hun, we didn’t fall for your act one bit.” Taemin says, leading her out of the room.

“It was supposed to be me.” She hisses at him, “I was supposed to be the fan president.”

“How did you know?” Minho asks Jonghyun as they walk out of the room.

“At the last crime scene, Key and I suspected that the unsub was working with another person. I was surprised that we hadn’t found the partner earlier at the underground club. When I got your call about the unsub’s sister, I just knew.” Jonghyun says shrugging.

“And thank goodness at that. If it weren’t for you, I’d probably have my brains blown out just about now.” Minho remarks in response, shuddering at his brief encounter with death.

“Let’s just go.” Jonghyun says, suddenly tired and they pile themselves into the SUV and Minho turns back to look on the plain house that had been the home of two very clever killers. The house seemed so picturesque; it didn’t seem like a place where a killer could be raised. Minho freezes when he thinks how many killers there were out there beneath the perfect surface. No matter how many he brought in, there were still more out there.

“I have little left in myself -- I must have you. The world may laugh -- may call me absurd, selfish -- but it does not signify. My very soul demands you: it will be satisfied, or it will take deadly vengeance on its frame.” ― Charlotte Brontë

 

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There you have it folks, the wrap up of case 3, the extreme sasaeng. The next case (which I am currently working on BTW) will be highly focused on Taemin and SHINee's inner demons. For Case 4, I'd like you guys to send in your predictions on what the unsub is like and what his intentions are. Anyways, stay tuned for Case 4: SHINe (Medusa I). There'll be some interesting things to happen... OH and one more thing, for Case 5, which character would you like to be main? Luhan, Jongin (Kai), Yixing (Lay), Kris or Tao? Let me know! :D