Jongin placed a loaf of bread on the counter at the service station in front of Park Chanyeol, otherwise known as ‘byuntaeng’. The handwritten nametag on his chest dispelled any doubts Jongin might have about his identity.

“You two are settling in alright?” Chanyeol asked idly, scanning the barcode on the plastic packaging of the bread.

“We are,” Minseok said, handing over the exact change.

“Cool,” Chanyeol said, placing the coins in the cash register. “Have a good one.”

“Can we talk to you for a minute?” Jongin asked, deciding to cut straight to the chase as he picked up the loaf of bread.

Chanyeol pushed the till shut, a puzzled look on his face. “What about?”

“We’re investigating the death of a local man,” Minseok said, voice lowered so that the woman mindlessly filing her nails behind the neighbouring counter couldn’t hear him. “We think you might be able to help us.”

“No one I know’s dead.”

“We believe you knew him online. He went by the name ‘Suho’ on an online local forum.”

Chanyeol hesitated for a moment, before turning to speak to the woman. “Can you cover for me for a bit?”

She rolled her eyes in response, but put her nail file away in her pocket.

“Let’s talk outside,” Chanyeol said, stepping around the counter and ushering the two policemen towards the sliding door. He didn’t stop once they had walked out of the store, choosing instead to lead them to the side of the building, away from the parking area on the opposite side and the petrol pumps out front. He looked around to make sure that they were alone, before turning around to face the policemen. “So what’s going on?”

“We don’t have to hide, this is just routine questioning,” Minseok said.

“I don’t want anyone to know I’m a member of that forum.”

“You don’t like being a member?” Jongin asked, handing the loaf of bread to Minseok so that he could jot down notes.

“No, it’s cool, I just- I have my reasons.”

“Okay,” Minseok said. “Just to clarify, what’s your username on that forum?”

Chanyeol paused. “That’s exactly the reason why I don’t want people to know I’m a member.”

Jongin looked at his notes. “Byun-”

“Ah!” Chanyeol interrupted. “That’s me, yes, you don’t have to say it out loud.”

“What’s wrong with it?”

“I’m what you would call a closet fan,” Chanyeol half-whispered. “What do you want to talk to me about?”

“When was the last time you saw Kim Joonmyun?” Minseok asked. “Or Suho, as you might know him as.”

“When all the forum members went to the waterfall.”

“When was that?”

“Last week on Wednesday, I think?” A pensive look crossed Chanyeol’s face, before he shook his head. “It was definitely on Wednesday because that’s when I took the day off.”

“How many of you went?”

“All of us, so nine.”

“What time did you gather there?”

“I think it was around half past 11.”

Jongin scribbled that down. “What did you do at the waterfall?”

“Suho told me to bring some hot food for lunch, so we had those before they spoiled. After that we….” Chanyeol trailed off, apparently having a hard time recalling the events of that day. “I think we just talked for a bit.”

“What did you talk about?” Minseok asked.

“Things,” Chanyeol said simply. “I think some of them were trying to impress the rest of us with all these elaborate stories about themselves that were obviously fake.”

“For example?”

“I remember Tao bragging about completing his photocard collection, official merchandise collection and fansite merchandise collection. I’m his best friend but come on, that’s not possible.”

“Tao?” Jongin asked.

“sone0530.”

“Huang Zitao?”

Chanyeol hesitated, seemingly taken aback. “I think that’s his full name.”

“So much for best friends,” Jongin muttered under his breath.

“What else did you talk about?” Minseok asked. “Anything related to Suho?”

“I think Suho said something ridiculous too,” Chanyeol said, brows furrowed in thought before snapping his fingers. “That’s right, I think he said something about putting up cameras in the woods.”

“Cameras?”

“He said he had the right to monitor whatever went on in the woods because it was like his backyard.”

“What did the rest of you say to that?”

“Well, it was obviously far-fetched. I think hikikomori 94 spoke for all of us when he called Suho a lying c-word.”

“What happened then?”

“Suho said something back, which rubbed hikikomori 94 the wrong way and he tried to attack Suho so the rest of us had to intervene.”

“What did he say?” Jongin asked.

“I don’t remember,” Chanyeol said. “I think it was something ambiguous that could mean anything.”

“What happened after that?” Minseok asked.

“We-” Chanyeol faltered. “Wait, I think I got the order stuffed up. After we pulled hikikomori 94 away from Suho, Suho complained about how he got his clothes wet, so that must’ve been after we went swimming, which was- ah! The game.”

“What game?”

“A brutal banter of sorts.”

“What were the rules of the game?”

“I think it’s supposed to be like a continuous exchange of insults. You lose if you take too long to come up with a retort.” Chanyeol shook his head. “I lost in the first round.”

“Did everybody enjoy the game?”

“Everything went by so fast, I can’t really remember. I think Aby didn’t play the game because Suho told him to sit it out.”

“Abysmal Abyss?” Jongin asked.

Chanyeol nodded.

“Why?”

“Because apparently he enjoys getting insulted or something so it wouldn’t really be a game.”

“What about the ones who played the game?” Minseok asked. “Did all of you enjoy it?”

“Well…” Chanyeol seemed to think that over for a while. “Thornydada was practically pissing his pants because he was up against the Fiend in the first round. I don’t know why anyone would be scared of the Fiend, to be honest. He’s a nice bloke.”

“Did anybody get angry?” Jongin prompted.

“The Fiend threatens to slit everybody’s throats a few times a day everyday, so if that counts as getting angry then he certainly did. I don’t know if anyone actually got angry though.” Chanyeol paused, a contemplative look in his eyes. “I think Lilu wasn’t very happy when he went against Suho in the first round.”

“What happened?”

“Suho kept picking on his uality, and we all know that’s a very sore topic for him.” Chanyeol gave a slight shrug. “I think the angrier he gets, the more it seems like he’s hiding something, but I know that feeling of having to maintain an image.”

“Maintain an image?”

“Well for me, I’m trying to present myself as a sensible, financially-responsible adult. As for Lilu, I think he has this town stud, macho man thing going on.”

“Was he the only one who wasn’t happy during the game?” Minseok asked.

Chanyeol mulled that over. “Hikikomori 94 went up against Suho in the second round, and he got pretty pissed off too. I think Suho had a weird way of picking out everyone’s sore points.”

“He did that to you too, didn’t he?” Jongin said.

“No, I didn’t have to go against him.”

“On the online forum,” Jongin added. “He sent you some hateful messages and you responded in a similar manner.”

“Kind of,” Chanyeol said hesitantly. “It’s somewhat expected of me to defend myself or the people that I like, and I do it pretty much by rote. I don’t actually let his words affect me all that much.”

“What about the rest?”

“Judging from what happened during the outing, I think most of them are very similar to what they’re like online. The people who lashed out at him online lashed out at him during the outing too, so I guess I’m an exception.”

“Who else other than hikikomori 94, Lilu, and the Fiend got riled up by the game?” Minseok asked.

“I can't really remember, but I think that’s it. We had three rounds of matches. The final match was between Suho and the Fiend, and that ended quickly when the Fiend threatened to skin Suho alive or something and lost because that wasn’t an insult.”

“What did you do after the game?”

“We swam in the rock pool, which was stupid because none of us brought a change of clothes. I remember that because we spent the rest of the day shivering our butts off waiting for our clothes to dry. That was when we chatted about things to distract ourselves, and some people decided to make up stories.”

“Like Suho’s camera in the woods story,” Jongin said.

“Yeah.”

“I don’t understand why anybody would react violently to that.”

“Maybe he did things in the woods that he didn’t want people to know about,” Chanyeol said. “I wouldn’t call Suho a lying c-word, but I would call him a lying something. How many cameras would he need to cover the whole area? What kind of high-tech camera would he have to install anyway? It’s physically impossible.”

“What else did you do during the outing?” Minseok asked.

“I think that’s all we did.”

“So all of you sat around chatting while waiting for your clothes to dry, and then you left?” Jongin asked.

“Yeah.” Chanyeol paused. “No, wait, I think while the rest of us were chatting, Suho pulled someone aside – I think it was Aby – and went off somewhere with him. Then they came back, and Suho pulled someone else aside. He repeated that until he’d spoken to all of us privately.”

“He spoke to you?”

Chanyeol nodded.

“What did he say?”

“He said that he knew what I did.”

“And what was he referring to?”

Chanyeol hesitated. “It’s something that I might get in trouble for.”

“You won’t,” Minseok said.

“Are you sure? It’s kind of a crime.”

“We’re only interested in investigating Kim Joonmyun’s death right now.”

Chanyeol sighed. “I stole money from the till once. It wasn’t much, it was just enough to get my computer fixed.”

“Which was probably a lot,” Jongin said.

“It doesn’t matter to us,” Minseok said quickly.

“You can’t tell my boss. If he finds out I’ll lose my job.”

“We won’t.”

“Did you say that to Suho too?” Jongin asked.

Chanyeol nodded. “If I lose this job, I’m stuffed, and I think he understood that. He just wanted to get a rise out of me or something.”

“What happened after Suho spoke to all of you?” Minseok asked.

“He dismissed us and we left.”

“What time was it?” Jongin asked.

“6 or 7, thereabouts.”

“When did you leave?”

“Around the same time that everyone else did,” Chanyeol said. “Tao wanted to show me something at his house so we left together.”

“Did Suho leave at the same time?”

“I think he was probably the last to leave. I left before he did so I don’t know.”

“And that was the last time you saw him.”

“That’s right.”

“That’s all we need to know,” Minseok said. “Thank you for your time.”

“No problem,” Chanyeol said. “I guess I can go back to work now?”

“Yes, go right ahead.”

Chanyeol acknowledged them with a nod and left, his steps hurried.

“I think we need to have another chat with the people we’ve talked to,” Jongin said to Minseok.

“Let’s meet everybody we haven’t met first just in case we find out more things,” Minseok suggested, walking around the building to head back to their car.

Jongin followed him. “Okay. So who are we seeing next?”

“Who lives the closest to this area?”

Jongin looked through his notes for the addresses he had scribbled down from the photos in Minseok’s phone last night, but dropped the notepad when someone ran smack into him.

“Are you ing blind?”

“It was an accident,” Minseok spoke up.

“Who the asked you?”

“What's your name?” Jongin asked, picking up his notepad from the ground. Maybe they didn’t have to look far for the next person.

“What is it to you, policeman?”

“Zhang Yixing?” Jongin hazarded a guess.

The man frowned. “How the do you know that?”