A/N: Only Miari, Seoul and the anti-ion act are real here; everything else,

esp the establishments are all in my head.

MONDAY

Chaerin is out of her usual paper work as she concentrated on this new matter at hand. She stared at the morbid photographs on her desk. She had seen a lot of gory and messy murders but so far this ranks the highest on her list, and that’s already saying something. She wanted to puke at the images that’s now sprawled all over her workplace.

Six different women.

Six dead bodies sprawled on the gutter of the dark allies in Miari, Seoul. Not a surprise there though, Miari is one of the largest red light districts in the capital and anything could happen within its parameters. It’s a long strip, just like Vegas, but within city limits. The brothels, party pubs and dark streets spell trouble already.

Police has been trying to put down operations since 2004, when the anti-ion act was enacted. trade has dwindled down significantly, but there are still thriving establishments if you just look up close enough. Guiltily, police would simply pass by and leave, a thing Chaerin deemed as blatantly wrong. But ion in Korea has seeped through society already, and it would take years to finally track it down for good. 

The raids didn’t stop accidents though, crimes such as this. Women trading their flesh have dangers on their own already but further perusal of this peculiar method of the killing left Chaerin in the dark.

The women had their legs spread wide open in a once seductive but now mocking manner, and eyes devoid of any emotion. Their mouth remained open to an eerie angle, probably from their last struggle with death.

This may have been a normal crime scene to any forensic expert but these disturbing photos feature one thing in common, the dead women had their flesh cut open.

Cutting was merely an understatement, in fact their bodies were actually holed, perforated, burned, disintegrated. Their once intact body now had a hollow canal running from their supposed-to-be-but-now-missing esophagus right down to their dissolved stomach.

Their organs ruptured to the edges by some substance that has run thoroughly between all of them. Their heart was nothing but a small lump of dirt, lungs liquefied, and everything in-between got disintegrated to nothingness, even their body fluids. Their ribcage weren’t able to stay intact at all, as the picture morbidly captured the dislocation of some of its bones.

No blood remained from the spoiled organs just perhaps the smell of burnt flesh, a pool of fresh blood seeping out from their lower limbs mixed with their urine. Their limbs were full of violet blotches, and were concluded that they were battered to death before the substance was gagged through their throats. It was demoralizing as a woman but Chaerin just had to stare for inspection.

It was indeed a curious case because she felt something was missing. They were ‘bruised’ all over but the findings could not identify what probably hit them. Every inched of their body was almost ruptured, saved for the hollow canal of their upper body.

 This latest murder case had the agency scrambling for any help that they could get. Chaerin was surprised that they had managed to keep this particular case classified because of Jiyong’s haste decision of media black-out for the agency work peacefully and not to cause public panic. But it did nothing to the agency and the case continued to be a sitting duck for two months already, and the stress level of everybody handling the case has been mounting, plus Jiyong needed to work this out for his upcoming promotion as a successor of Inspector Choi’s father.

She leaned on her chair and close her eyes, arms folded at the back of her head as she hummed a random tune.  She always does this when she wanted to think, and this case needed a heavy dose of it.

What’s the reason behind these murders? Did he kill randomly? What substance does he use? If I was in his shoes, where would I strike next? Would I include men after?

She gave a deep sigh when a loud grunt startled her reverie. She nearly threw her paper weight at the person had it been within her reach. She didn’t need to immediately see who came. Her other colleagues who happen to respect her have the decency to knock.

“Did I disturb your beauty sleep?” his deep voice ran through the air and disturbingly sent goose bumps to Chaerin’s skin. She convinced herself that this shiver came from deep resentment of the man. She detested people like him in the agency and nothing more.

Peering through her lashes, she immediately sent her glare at his best friend’s friend, stood up and walked in front of her desk, mustering the demanding aura she was known for.

 “What are you doing here inspector?”

“Well somebody told me to drag my tight into this office, so here I am.” Seunghyun mused and stifled a laugh at Chaerin’s immediate blush.

But she recovered it with a scoff though “It’s not even 10 am Inspector, no need to be too excited when I’m involved.”

“I can’t believe you need to use Jiyong just to see me. You know you could’ve always call or drop by my floor anytime.” He smirked arrogantly and marveled at the immediate change on Chaerin’s face. Oh how he loved irritating her.

“How dare you imply that I’m desperate? I can get a man of my own if I want to.”

“Apparently your efforts are dwindling.”

“Cause I don’t need one!”