The mere smell of the coffee Yixing was shoving under his nose was enough to make Jongdae feel a little more awake.  He took the cup with a grateful sigh and sipped at it.

“How was your night?” Yixing asked, running a critical eye over him.

“Kyungsoo’s keyboard does not make a comfortable pillow,” Jongdae mumbled, setting the cup down and dropping his head back onto his arms.  Yixing could see the red imprint of computer keys on his cheek.

“I can see,” he said.  “Did anything happen with thingummy and thingummy?”

“Not much.  He freaked her out again.  He got the hi-fi to work and really likes listening to Muse.  I think I heard every song they’ve ever put out at least twice in the course of one night.  Oh, and Semi forgot to bolt her door.  He snuck in there around midnight and tried to get into her phone and then wrote on her hand before leaving.  You might want to tell her to make sure she has nothing on there he can use against her, particularly in relation to Sehun, and to keep it with her at all times.”

“I’ll try to remember to tell her when I drop off the documents she needs to register with the university,” Yixing promised.  “Kyungsoo will be along in a few moments.  You should probably go get some sleep.”

Jongdae nodded, closing his eyes and shifting so that he was draped over the desk more comfortably.  Yixing wandered over to Jongin’s desk and started rooting through the files the newcomer had been working on.  Most of the notes he’d taken were written in tiny, messy English, and Yixing couldn’t help thinking the man had been smart to do that.  Even though most people in the station could speak English, Jongin’s handwriting looked intentionally illegible and it was quite possibly filled with shorthand, so if anybody who wasn’t supposed to know he was profiling them all came in, they’d probably still have no idea what he was doing.  He was new enough to still plausibly be learning their names from the photos and information he had on them all.

Next to the flowers from the previous day was a new bouquet and a box of chocolates.  Yixing looked at the notes on them, realising they were both from different people.  Considering it had only been a few days, Jongin was already incredibly popular.

A light snore alerted him to the fact that Jongdae had fallen asleep, and Yixing promptly forgot about Jongin’s gifts in favour of drawing his best imitation of Siwon’s moustache on Jongdae’s upper lip.

The rest of the week passed much as it had started out: Sehun rang or dropped by every so often to see how Semi was doing, even though he also phoned her every night to check that she was okay; Kyungsoo did the majority of the camera surveillance and stalking Xiumin around Seoul, watching carefully for any hints that he might be trying to contact Luhan; Jongin got excited about the growing number of gifts left on his desk every time he left the room; Jongdae monitored the case and threw darts at Siwon’s photo in his office when he got frustrated; Yixing blinked vaguely at him and made fun of him as usual during coffee breaks; Semi and Xiumin both spent a fair amount of time out of the apartment – Semi because she was understandably trying to avoid Xiumin (she tried to avoid him when she was in the apartment too) and also got busy with sorting things out with the university before she started there and Xiumin because he genuinely seemed to be basking in the freedom he hadn’t had for two whole years.  The restaurant he’d gone to on the first day had become a favourite, which aggravated Kyungsoo no end because the place didn’t have security cameras to speak of on the inside.

On the Friday, Jongin took his lunch break there with Kyungsoo to see Xiumin in action and scout the place out, and they left frustrated.  They’d been close enough to hear Xiumin’s totally trivial conversation with both the restaurant owner and two or three of the other regular patrons he’d already managed to befriend, and there appeared to be nothing in any of the interactions that hinted at passing messages of any kind.

“I think he just really likes gourmet food,” lamented Kyungsoo as they drove back to the police station.

“You probably would too if you’d been living off institutional stuff for two years,” Jongin pointed out.  “Though it’s weird he’s got the taste back for it so quickly.  Usually it takes a week or two for your taste buds to re-assimilate and it can take your body much longer – that’s what switching between being a vegetarian and an omnivore can leave you really tired and with major mood swings to begin with.”

Kyungsoo shot him a sideways glance as he switched lanes so he’d be able to make a right turn at the next set of lights.

“You know far too many really random facts.”

“Sponge,” said Jongin, knocking himself on the side of the head.  “Though the diet thing is one I’ve done myself.  People thought I was on my period.”

Kyungsoo raised a judging eyebrow.

“I guess it was understandable.  I had long hair back then and I was perfecting my b*tchslap at the time because they were considering sending me undercover into a girls-only dance academy.”

Kyungsoo let out a quiet chuckle at that.  “How did that get called off?”

“They found someone prettier than me.  But I still got an intensive three-month crash course in ballet.  It was fun.”

“You’re really strange,” Kyungsoo muttered, shaking his head.

“Did you know,” Jongin went on as though his companion had never spoken, “that many professional football players do ballet?  It helps with posture and focussing the mind and uses all the same core muscles.  I could go into football now if I wanted.”

Pursing his lips, Kyungoo threw him a critical glance, but otherwise didn’t comment.  Jongin’s thoughts drifted back to the task at hand.

“Do you reckon that restaurant used to be a spy drop place or somewhere where he always used to have contact with Luhan and he’s just hanging around there to try and establish contact with him again?  Or maybe he’s already been in contact with Luhan without us realising and he’s just hanging around there waiting for further instruction of some kind.”

“First is more likely than the second,” Kyungsoo admitted, parking the car.  “I actually don’t think he’s been in contact with Luhan yet.  He’s waiting for the right opportunity – he’s going to have to before Luhan finds out where Semi is and tries to kill her again, but he seems perfectly prepared to play the waiting game until then.  When he does, though, we’ll either notice a change in his behaviour patterns or the places he likes to go to, and so far it’s basically that restaurant, the corner shop and the apartment.  It’s been a week already and it actually bugs me I can’t find anything suspicious.”

He got his lucky break on Sunday evening.  Xiumin stopped going to the restaurant the next day.

Sunday was a bit of a boring day for Xiumin.  He’d woken up with the intention of suggesting eating out together with Semi (he was pretty sure she’d probably refuse) as he wanted more information from her, and since sh