1300. 12/17/2012. Kim Corporation HQ. Seoul.

"Kim In Ho, 42, was found this afternoon by a woman who had showed up late to work today. She apparently walks by this alleyway every single day and felt like something was "off" today." Minho said as he walked around the caution tape carefully as to not disrupt the crime scene. "He was stabbed twice, here and here." He said, pointing to puncture wound at the base of the man's neck and again slightly left of his Teres minor.

"Another Santa." Key noted dryly as Jongin scratched notes dutifully into the small notepad he'd kept in his pocket.

"And as always, weather is not on our side when it comes to preserving crime scenes." Onew scowled as he looked up to the midafternoon sun that was melting the crime scene as they spoke. They had yet to obtain any solid physical evidence from their crime scenes and he thought it was unlikely that they would find the rumored dagger he'd heard from Key when he rehashed his analysis.

Jonghyun stepped over the yellow tape and knealt down near the body, removing his sunglasses despite the glare from the sun's rays that reflected off of the melted puddle water. "Jonghyun! What are you doing?" Minho cried out in shock as he watched one of his best detectives ruin a crime scene. Jonghyun looked from the victim's glassy eyes to direction in which his eyes were pointed. His mind flashed back to the previous crime scene as he tried to remember to what scene the victim was looking at.

"Are you out of your mind?" Key yelled as he yanked Jonghyun backwards causing the profiler to step out of the crime scene. He stumbled backwards into a snowbank about two meters away. Jonghyun stood up in dissent and brushed the snow off of his rear end before explaining himself.

"Okay, so I stepped into a crime scene. We all know we're not going to find anything at this crime scene. This killer is sophisticated enough not to leave his murder weapon behind. What we really need to know is if these victims are connected in any way and to do that we need to build the profile." Jonghyun started and Minho snorted.

"Profile, profile, it's always your profile. Well guess what? Your profile isn't going to land this killer in jail, sure, we might be able to find the unsub, but we can't incarcerate him unless we have solid proof, which, by the way you just tampered with." Minho chastised angrily. "We can't prove anything with your insubstantial deductions." Jonghyun was taken aback at his sudden outburst and for the first time it occurred to him that perhaps some part of Minho's trust for the team had changed when Taemin was taken in.

"Okay, let's calm down here." Onew said as he mollified the rising tensions within the group, "While I agree that Jonghyun may have overstepped his boundaries by walking onto a crime scene, Minho you and I both know that he is extremely talented in what he does. Every member on this team is here for a reason and each member is invaluable." Key felt the gravity of his words as he couldn't help but let his mind wander to their one teammate still in jail for a crime he did not commit.

"You're right Onew, I shouldn't have stepped onto the crime scene." Jonghyun said as he jumped on the chance to set things right. He observed Minho carefully as Minho grumbled out an apology. The last thing the team needed right now was a full blown argument when they were a man down.

"So, would you mind telling us what you felt was so urgent that you needed to step onto the crime scene?" Onew asked as he raised an eyebrow in Jonghyun's direction.

"There." Jonghyun replied as he pointed at the open garbage bin with gusto. The expression of the team changed from one of sobriety to one of concern and shocked disbelief. There was nothing in the bin but black garbage bags that billowed in the wind as the open bags revealed colourful used wrapping paper mixed with the food scraps from last night.

"Are you sure you're feeling alright?" Key asked Jonghyun kicking himself for his earlier statement regarding Jonghyun's competency. Maybe he was right in saying that Jonghyun was out of his mind. Perhaps the profiler had not yet fully recovered from his ordeal and had yet to regain his mental capacity. Jonghyun read the concerned and puzzled look on Key's face and rolled his eyes in response.

"You're not looking." Jonghyun replied simply as he crossed his arms and stepped back. Three, two, one. He counted silently in his head.

"The tree." Onew stated simply as small smile lit Jonghyun's face. "The other victim was facing the large Christmas tree outside COEX mall and while I can't be entirely sure about the placement of the first victim, two things I know for sure: number one, there is a tree in the courtyard of the hospital; number two, the victim was found outside." Realization lighted the faces of the other two members.

"Actually, I think there's something else we might have to consider." Jongin said, "Why would a volunteer Santa be in the back alley of a large corporate company? After all, if he's being paid to work this party, don't you think it's slighly strange for him to suddenly walk out into a creepy dark alley?" Jongin asked and the others thought quietly on his keen observation.

"The crime scene lab team can take it from here." Minho said, "I think we need to head back to headquarters and find a computer to do some research."

The ride back to the office was silent as Minho tried to find a way to apologize to Jonghyun. He couldn't explain why but he had this feeling that they were being watched for quite some time and it had put him on edge lately. The frequent outbursts and uncontrolled anger weren't a part of Minho anymore, at least they weren't supposed to be.

"I know you're sorry, Choi Minho, I don't hold it against you." Jonghyun spoke, voicing Minho's thoughts before he had a chance to say them himself. "Don't feel as if you can't trust us now because of what happened to Taemin." Jonghyun said seriously as he peered into Minho's eyes, "We're your friends Minho, remember that." Minho didn't reply but nodded and turned his head to look the opposite way.

15:00. 12/17/2012. Seoul NIS Headquarters. Seoul.

"Onew!" Minho called excitedly from the workroom. He'd lugged the remnants of whatever Taemin's technology had been left behind when they arrived and took him away so unceremoniously. While he didn't like the idea of using Taemin's stuff while he was gone, regardless of Minho's opinion on his innocence, Minho felt abashed. Since he was the only one out of the team with a strong background in computers, he was more or less "voluntold" to learn his way around Taemin's programs.

"I got it! I finally figured it out!" Minho cheered as the others wheeled the glass board from the other room into the small meeting room and got to work.

"Okay, so we need to find a connection between the hospital, the mall and the Kim Corporation." Jonghyun said, "Can you run that through the computer?" Minho typed a few buttons only to hit a wrong button and find a page for "Clown School" instead. Minho groaned in frustration.

"You know, it might be helpful if I got Luhan to come around. He's kind of a computer geek anyways, he'd love this stuff." Jongin suggested. 

"No, I can handle it." Minho said mendaciously. Onew cocked an eyebrow in his direction. While he wasn't keen on having yet another outsider come in as a replacement for an irreplacable member, he didn't like the idea of being bogged down by having members work in areas outside their specialty.

"Perhaps he's right." Onew said, "Send for Luhan." While Onew did not like having a constant reminder of their loss around, they already had Jongin so what damage could another reminder do that Jongin hadn't already done? They were lucky though, as Luhan had checked into the NIS building earlier that day to finish some office work, he was on the top floor within the hour.

"This place is a lot better than you made it out to be Jongin." Luhan said as he whistled at the state of the art office. "How did you manage to land a spot here again? Maybe I should have a breakdown too." Luhan needled, earning him a clock to the side of the head courtesy of his companion.

"Quit it would you? These guys are super serious in what they do and they aren't in the mood to joke around, especially not after what happened to their team member." Jongin warned quietly. Luhan immediately sobered at the mention of Taemin. The entire department had heard what happened to him, he couldn't even begin to imagine what the team was going through, especially if one of his team members had betrayed him like that.

"Do they... think he's innocent?" Luhan asked quietly and Jongin thought about the possibility. He'd encountered Taemin in the past, before he'd been transfered to the division and Jongin didn't think Taemin was the nefarious heinous type. Of course, he wasn't one to make judgments on someone he barely knew and the evidence seemed to speak for itself, but... he had to wonder. Their conversation died down as Jongin pushed the door to the meeting room open. 

"Let me introduce you to Agent Lu." Jongin said as Luhan bowed respectfully to his seniors. Jongin wasn't kidding about the austere attitude the older detectives carried about them. He had to wonder if these agents ever joked around with each other at all. Luhan supposed though that under normal circumstances, their greeting would be more pleasant.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Luhan." Luhan said, as the other agents nodded to address his presence.

"These are Agents Choi Minho, Kim Jonghyun and Kim Kibum." Onew said, "I'm Lee Jinki. Thank you for coming out."

"My pleasure." Luhan said and then winced at his words, "Of course, I'm not pleased at the situation only that I'm happy to help and in no way am I trying to replace your team member." The others looked at him wearily and silently showed him Taemin's system. Luhan's reaction to Taemin's impeccable programs was identical to Minho's reaction. He couldn't argue that Taemin was akin to a genius. Jonghyun asked of Luhan the same request he'd made to Minho earlier and while Minho was completely boggled, it only took Luhan a few keystrokes to pull up the information.

"There are actually a few results here, but the most recent one would have to be that the three are related to an orphanage that is shutting down. The hospital, mall and Kim Corporation as well as two other companies had been funding the orphanage but recently decided to pull out for some reason or another." Luhan read from the screen and the members of SHINee couldn't help but be impressed by his speed.

"Do you have the date?" Minho asked him and Luhan nodded.

"December 10th, 2012." Luhan replied.

"A few days before the murders began." Jonghyun noted, "So we found our trigger."

"Trigger." Key echoed subconsciously, "I remember reading about this, I think that the shutting down of the orphanage also triggered something else right?"

"Uh, yes, to make up for the closing of the orphanage, the children were basically put on sale for people to give to each other as gifts." Luhan replied and the faces of the veteran detectives darkened. They knew what depths corporations could drop down to in the face of profit.

"Gee, I almost feel tempted to let the unsub run a rampage now." Onew muttered. "Minho and Jonghyun, you two take a list of the remaining companies that were connected to the orphanage. Luhan and I will stay to work here on the laptops. Key and Jongin, see how far you can get on some more deductions." The members split up according to their tasks and pairings.

"The unsub needs to be someone connected to both the orphanage and Santa Claus. Perhaps by targeting both organizations and the Santa Claus mascots, he's killing two birds with one stone." Key said.

"Literally." Jongin uttered sarcastically.

"Hey Onew, our unsub is someone connected to the orphanage. Look for someone who has had any ties with the orphanage, past directors, volunteers, past kids." Key said into the intercom.

"Got it, thanks." Onew replied and the room returned to silence.

"Hey, can I ask something?" Jongin asked Key who turned to look at him with interest.

"Yeah, shoot." Key replied.

"What exactly happened to Taemin? I mean, if anything were to happen to you guys, it would be good to have someone outside know what's going on." Jongin reasoned and Key looked at him skeptically.

"I appreciate your concern but I don't think it'll be necessary." Key replied standoffishly and Jongin bristled at his tone.

"Well forgive me for asking." Jongin replied with a bit of sass.

"Don't get too comfortable here Jongin, because at the end of the day when we look at you, you're nothing but a stand in for the real deal. You're a rookie, you're not Taemin, you will never be Taemin, you will never sit in his chair or take his place and when he comes back, you're going to be gone." Key spat out at Jongin. Jongin was reminded that he did not belong here in this team, he realized what the team actually saw him as.

"You said when he comes back. How can you be so sure?" Jongin asked quizzically.

"Because I just know." Key replied and proceeded to ignore him.

"You just can't give up on a team mate, can you?" Jongin mused to himself. He'd seen the kind of bond forged between teammates but from the looks of it, SHINee's bond was crumbling at the seams.