The next witness was a nice change of pace. For one, he wasn’t wearing women’s clothing. He also didn’t have a feminine title.

Still, Baekhyun couldn’t bring himself to approve.

This guy was wearing a purple blazer and matching tie over a pair of black dress pants. That could have been ok. So could the fact that he was wearing glasses. What made everything terrible was his hair. His puffy, middle-parted hair.

Middle-partings. They never failed to make Baekhyun shudder.

“Prof. Chen.” the man said, offering a hand as he introduced himself. Baekhyun was just about to take it when Chen pulled back his hand to sweep his hair out of his eyes. Baekhyun would have been insulted, but the gesture brought his attention back to that hair.

Middle-partings. Ugh.

“Professor, I have some questions for you about last night, if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all.” Chen swept back his hair again, “Go ahead.”

Just don’t look at the hair. Concentrate and don’t look at the hair. “During the dinner, did you notice anything unusual?”

“Not really. Kris got something on his face at one point.”

Baekhyun did not need to hear this again. He was just going to skip the dinner for this interview. “What did you do afterwards?”

“After dinner? I came here, to The Study.”

“And what did you do in The Study?”

If Chen hadn’t at that moment swept back his bangs, Baekhyun probably would have noticed how nervous the question made him.

“Nothing much. You know. Studying.”

“Um, ok. And did you see or speak to anyone?”

“Psh. No. No way.”

“Did Xiumin make a delivery to The Study?”

Chen actually paused mid-sweep when he heard this, “Xiumin? You mean that groundskeeper? Who brought him up?”

Uh, me? “I only ask because he made a delivery to every other room last night.”

“Nope. He didn’t make a delivery to The Study. Definitely not. Did not see him.”

“Alright... so what exactly were you studying in The Study?”

“You know. Science.”

Baekhyun glanced up from his notes- which was a mistake. He was just in time to witness another middle-parting sweep. “Science?”

“Yeah. I’m a professor. Science. It’s what we do. I was working on a new experiment, specifically. It has to do with electricity. I’m hoping to be able to-”

Chen went on to explain his experiment in great detail. Baekhyun missed it all because he was too busy being disgusted by Chen’s middle-parting.

Seriously. Middle-partings. Why.

“- so Kris was kind enough to let me use his Study.”

“Yeah, the colonel sure does seem like a kind fella.” Baekhyun flipped to a new page of his notebook, not because he’d filled the other one up, but because he realized he’d been doodling Chen. Chen’s hair, specifically. “So, let me guess, after that you went to bed?”

“I went to my bedroom, certainly. I was still packing away my equipment when Kris informed us all of the murder.”

“And if we need to have a look at your ‘equipment’?”

“I can get it for you; it’s in my room, upstairs.”

“Good. I think that’s all, professor. Unless you can remember anything odd happening prior to the murder?”

“Like what?”

“Like, was anyone acting strangely? Perhaps someone got upset, or there was a conversation you overheard that stuck out in your mind?”

“Now that you mention it, there was something like that. It happened early yesterday.”

“Can you tell me about it?”

“Of course. It was in the afternoon, and I was outside...”



Chen adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat, “Thank you for the... the tour. You really have a lovely garden.”

Xiumin grinned as he pulled his cap back on, tilting it to shade his eyes from the sun, “I’ve been told.”

That’s when they heard someone calling for Xiumin. It was Kyungsoo, standing at The Kitchen’s open back-door.

Xiumin sighed, shutting the door to his supply shed, “I guess it’s time for me to head into town.” He glanced at Chen, “We’ll continue the tour when I get back.”

Chen nodded dumbly, watching as the groundskeeper walked away. After Xiumin was gone, he decided to explore the back garden... on his own, that is. Since Xiumin had already given him a tour of the garden and everything. Yep. He was just going to look around again.

And because Xiumin had already given him a tour, he didn’t get lost. No, he just... took a wrong turn. Yes. Easy mistake to make.

Walking down a path lined with shrubbery and wondering what the fastest way back to the mansion was, Chen stopped when he heard voices. They were coming from up ahead, around the corner.

Someone giggled.

“Stop it!” the same person said, “Stop it! You’re only making it worse!”

“Oh, I’m making things worse, am I?”

More giggling.

“Seriously, Kai, you have to stop. We have to stop. You know I’m with-”

“What, with him? You guys don’t seem like you’re together.”

“We are.” the voice sounded insistent now; forceful. “We are together.”

“Then why are you here with me, right now, when you could be with him?”

“Because...” the voice trailed off, “Because...”

“See?”

“That’s not fair, Kai. Saying something like that when-” The voice was cut off, followed by muffled sounds. Unable to help himself, Chen crept forward and peeked around the corner. When he saw two people entwined on a bench, and Kai’s jacket being yanked off, he immediately fled. Immediately. Definitely right away. He did not stick around. Nope.



“...and that was it.” Chen finished, “I’m not sure if anything else happened, or what that was even all about, because I left. Immediately. I don’t intrude on other peoples privacy... ever.”

“Uh-huh.” Baekhyun tapped his pen against his notebook, “So I realize you only saw, like, a millisecond of what was going on, but did you happen to recognize the person with Kai?”

Luhan. It’s totally Luhan. This is all the evidence I need. Luhan and Kai were having an affair. Sehun (who’s probably involved with Luhan) found out and killed Kai with a unicorn out of jealousy while Lay was too busy being in the zone to notice, then Sehun dragged Kai into The Conservatory and...

Ok. Still haven’t figured out that part.

“Oh, I saw who it was alright.” Chen answered, then hastily added, “No, I mean, I didn’t see who it was. I wasn’t there long enough to see. I recognized the voice.”

“Great.” Luhan. “Who was it?” Luhan.

“Mr. Oh Sehun.” Chen replied.

“Of course.” Baekhyun wrote down ‘Luhan’ in his notebook. Then he paused.

Wait.

WHAT?