It all started when the phone fell from the boy's hands. Tears eventually formed underneath his eyes and slowly fell on his cheeks like a river. 

"Appa..?" he voiced out. "Wae..?" he asked himself.

When he heard the phone died, he got up and ran back to the office room.

 

- 2 days later -

 

"I heard what happened." Taeyeon walked over to Eunhyuk, a normal employee of the agency.

Everyone lowered their heads in respect. "Yes, ma'am. It's already been two days." he reported. Her eyes traveled to the door his been using, which leads to her office.

 

"Taemin'ssi, you don't have to tire yourself like this." Taeyeon assured him as she placed tea on his table.

"You need a nap." she noticed the bags underneath his eyes.

Taemin remained silent as he searched his way through the net. He's been in his laptop two days straight after his father's incident and no matter how much they convinced him, he wouldn't even leave the building.

She was rather startled when he suddenly stood up and started leading his feet to who knows where.

"Where are you going?" she worriedly asked. She ran out to see where he was going and became flustered when he simply entered the restroom.

"O-Oh.." she looked down.

 

Though Taemin already did his business an hour ago. As soon as he entered a small room, he took out something from his torso that he found previously under his father's desk. He examined the sheet that holds all of BlueWish's Artists' profiles.

"Something's not right." He bit his lip while spotting the amount of suspicious profiles which doesn't consist of any background information.

 

Jo Kwon, one of Taeyeon's assistant, yawned as he checked the wall clock which reads at around 7, two hours more before they can knock off. Yonghwa entered the building and handed him a document. "Bluetory reporting, Elevator Murder case #994... cleared."  Hyunseung entered after him and did the same. "Shock reporting, Double Murder case at Incheon... case #849 closed." Jo Kwon stared at both of them before informing, "Ah.. you can knock off then.."

Both of them bowed before leaving the building. "And I.. will have my here for the next 2 hours...", he groaned. He located Yoochun from afar and asked him, "Yoochun'ssi, Is Mirotic done with Mr. Jay Park's Murder case?"

"Ah.. well, there's been some circumstances but we're working on it." he reported.

Jo Kwon raised his eyebrows. "Seriously? You've been working on that for 3 months already. What would people think about our company? T&T company? Other than that, you guys are one of the senior detectives here. Make a good example for all your juniors here." Yoochun tensed up and bowed in apology.

He spotted another agent and waved at him. "Onew'ssi!"

Onew shuddered as he turned to face him. "Y-Yes..?"

"Miss Taeyeon's orders: Try to help Taemin'ssi." he sighed.

 

Key rolled his eyes. "Yeah, says the one to leave him alone."

"I think that's what Taemin said to him." Minho added. "And he acknowledge it, Minho. Do you know how much I've been worrying about him these days?" Key rested his forehead on his fist.

"They're not even giving us any cases to solve ever since that incident." Onew pouted.

Key got up. "I'll help him because I can't leave him alone." Onew thought for a second. "I guess I'll help him since we don't have anything to do." Minho looked at them both. "I guess I'll just tag along." Key gazed at where Taemin is busying himself before exclaiming, "Lego!"

 

"You don't need to tag along." Taemin assured them with a small smile. Key faced Minho. "Minho, out." And faced Taemin again. Minho's eyes widened. "Hyung!"

"I'll ask Jo Kwon'ssi if they can give you something to do." he faced his laptop. Key faced Onew. " Hyung, out." And faced the boy again. "Key!" exclaimed Onew.

"And I can take care of myself." he drank his tea. Onew and Minho faced the shocked Key. "Key, out!" "Hyung, out!"

"Taemin'ah, wae??" Key whined with a long face.

Taemin stopped typing and faced the three with the face that looked as if a little boy might lose his candy. "I found this case first and I intend to do it alone."

Onew, Minho, and Key looked at each other with a worried face and turned back to Taemin who, again, has his eyes plastered on the screen in front of him.

 

Taeyeon sighed as she crosses her arms. "I have faith in that boy that he can do this as expected... but even I can't complete a case without help from others."

"Maybe he's just too shy to ask for help." Minho said. "Or maybe because-" Onew was about to suggest when Key interrupted him. "He's just too stubborn."

The room was filled with worried sighs aside from silence from the four of them until Jo Kwon entered the room. "I have a suggestion." he said with confidence.

 

- The next day -

 

The three Sherlocks hid by the doorframe to peek on Taemin's work. They stiffened when Taemin suddenly stopped typing. Key signalled them to stay away from the door to prevent him from seeing them.

After a while, they went back to check on Taemin, who resumed his work. They nodded at each other before Key could enter the room.

"Taemin'ah! I brought something for you!" Key happily skipped to him with something in his hands.

"That's okay, Key hyung. You don't need to-" Taemin eyed the banana milk that Key placed beside his laptop. His eyes twinkled at the delicious, nutritious...

"I'm sorry hyung but, I won't take it." his resisted his favorite treat and his eyes went back to the screen.

But then, he heard no response. He searched for him at the back but he was already gone. Noticing that Key intentionally left his banana milk, he smiled as he took it happily.

 

"He seems to be looking for a big secret place." Key told the two. "A haunted house?" Onew suggested. "A villa by the ocean?" Minho muttered. They thought for a while before Minho had an idea. "G-Guys! Remember case #721?"

Onew and Key looked at him as if he knew a lot. "How do you remember our cases? I don't really pay attention to the numbers of our cases. I just remember what kind of case they are." Onew said.

"Actually, I only remembered my favorite ones. The case of the Missing Bride was case #883. You know how much I cried when they kissed at her last breath?" Key pouted.

Onew and Minho looked at each other in confusion. "And the one before that! Case #882 was when we found the culprit at the rollercoaster and none other than that, it was on my birthday and we had so much fun!" he added.

"Lotte World?" Minho wondered. "It was my first time there!" Key grinned.

"You look as if you're the youngest in our team and not Taemin." Minho smirked. Key's face became serious as he turned to the younger detective. "What did you just say?"

Minho shook his head forcibly as he looked down at his shoes in cold sweat.

"So what case is #7bla bla?" Onew tried to change the topic which Minho should thank him for.

"A-Ah..! That case was something we couldn't finish because it seems to be mystical and none of us in this agency can figure out that case." he explained.

"So what case was it about?" Key crossed his arms. "A... child... burned her whole family and.. she kinda disappeared when the police came." he fidgeted.

"You remembered that incident?" Onew muttered but Minho ignored him and continued. "Unfortunately, no clues were found anywhere and little by little, people forgot about the incident. Miss Taeyeon asked us to just leave the case since the police informed that we can forget about since they couldn't find anything as well."

Silence filled the room when Minho ended his explanation. "I-I'm sorry, what were we doing before?" Minho snapped out of his thoughts.

Onew couldn't think of it as well and so was Key. Taeyeon entered the room and she answered their question. "So, did you find anything?"

 

Onew breathe into the fresh air as he said, "Well, if I am correct, I think the house became smaller than before when it looked humongous."

"Well, at least they repaired it so somebody can use it, like us. And it's still a bit big." Key blew his cheeks.

Minho looked around and it was fairly quiet. They did wonder why Taemin was searching for a big secret place. "So what do we do now?"

Key turned to Onew. "Hyung, did you brought the camera?" Onew checked his cardigan and it seems that he may have left it. Key sighed and turned to Minho. "Can you check if it's in the car?" Minho nodded and jogged his way to the car.

Meanwhile, Onew and Key studied the house which is quite different from before. The house before had a certain aura that makes people stay away from it and the house was big enough to fit a giant like from the story: The Giant and The Beanstalk It seems as if the family that once lived there was a big family tree. But now it looked more like a summer villa that belongs from a wealthy family, only abandoned. The picture of a family died in a fire at that very spot could not erase from their minds. There was only one entrance door. Before there were close to 50 rooms but now there are only 15 rooms.

"I got it!" Minho came back with the camera. Onew took the camera and before he could take a shot, Key asked him, "Do you know what's a Prisonhouse Treatment?"

Minho faced Onew as well. "The one that Miss Taeyeon said? I guess she figured out that Taemin was taking his suspects to a secret place until one reveals as the real culprit."

"Then why didn't we do that before?" Minho went wide-eyed. "We don't even have suspects, Minho." Onew said.

"But that treatment is kinda useless because usually, the culrpit never reveals itself." he added.

"Now that we're talking about suspects, I wonder how Taemin got his suspects." Key wondered.

"Well, Taemin must've known his father's enemies." Onew took a snapshot.

Key turned to him with a puzzled face. "Huh? Hyung, did I mention yet who are his suspects?"

The two of them turned to him. "You found out about that?"

Key nodded. "The document of his suspects were simply stacked among his other papers and I was shocked to see that every suspect is his father's Artists."

Minho had his mouth ajar. "You mean, BlueWish Artists??" Key nodded. "And I thought that his father never let him meet his Artists, how did he know that one of them is the murderer?" he wondered.

Onew sighed. "I hope Taemin knows what he's doing or we'll be in trouble."

 

"Taemin'ah!" Onew called out that made Taemin startled and punched in the different letters. "Hyung, you scared me.."

Onew chuckled as he stared at him which made him quite uncomfortable. "Is there something on my face?" Taemin touched his face.

Onew laughed at him and got up to get to the point. "Taemin'ah, do you want to join us?"

Taemin blinked. "What do you mean?"

Onew bit his lip and Taemin noticed it. "Hyung, it's obvious that you're hiding something from me." And he breathe out. "Alright! Alright! We were trying to help you out and we found this abandoned place." he handed him a picture of the house they took before.

Taemin chuckled. "I already knew that." 

"EH??" Minho and Key came out. "You knew??" Taemin nodded with a warm smile.

"You were too noisy watching me over this morning." he explained. Key placed his hands on his hips. "Yeah, I knew you found out somehow."

Taemin looked back at the picture Onew gave. "So where did you find this?"

"Taemin! Remember case #721?" Minho exclaimed. Taemin thought for a moment before he responded. "Ah.. That house? You mean it's already been repaired?"

Onew and Key looked at him as if saying that the younger detective was smarter than them. "Well, you can't judge people by their age." Key pouted.

"Alright" Taemin suddenly said. The three Sherlocks looked at him in confusion. Taemin got up and smiled at them. "You can join me."

 

"That gadget? Taemin, are you really sure that one of them is the person who killed your father?" Taeyeon uncertainly asked.

Taemin shut his eyes before responding. "I'm sure."

His boss smiled. "Then get ready in 2 days." Taemin smiled in gratitude.

 

"She accepted??" Key's eyes widened. "Hey, be careful with the 'She'" Onew scolded him.

"I never thought about that before. But Taemin, that could be dangerous." Minho stated in concern.

Before Taemin could speak, Key began to nag at him. "Of course it's dangerous!" He held the boy's shoulders. "Your life will be at stake and no one even knows you there!"

Taemin removed his hands. "Then I'll find someone who can be my friend." He looked at all of them. "I can do this."

And at that moment, there was a pang in their heart that made them see Taemin as the bravest one among all of them.

 

- 2 days later as planned -

 

Taemin stood behind all the suspects that he informed to Miss Taeyeon.

As he got closer to them, as expected, all of their eyes were set on him. "Who are you?" one of them asked. Taemin studied their names and the one who just asked is the suspect named as the eldest amog them, Leeteuk from A-Cha.

He was glad that Sherlock is a secret team so none of them knew if he was the detective behind the one who did it all, or more importantly, if he was the son of the victim himself. "My name is Lee Taemin. I'm a trainee in BlueWish Entertainment... and I'm also a suspect."