Jongin watched as Zhang Yixing sat himself down on one of the filthy plastic chairs arranged in a row near the entrance to the service station, crossed his arms with the large bottle of milk in his hand positioned awkwardly to one side, and scowled at both Minseok and him. “So Suho’s dead. What the does that have to do with me?”

“We have reasons to believe that you’re one of the last people to see him alive,” Minseok said.

“I hardly knew him.”

“Where were you on Wednesday last week?” Jongin asked.

“None of your ing business.”

Apparently the Fiend wasn’t into being helpful. “Let’s start with an easier question. Are you a member of a local online forum that Suho was also a member of?”

“None of your-”

“Yes or no?” Jongin cut in.

“We can get this over and done with faster if you cooperate,” Minseok added.

Yixing paused, seemingly considering his options. “Yes.”

“What’s your username on that forum?” Minseok asked.

“Triple six the fiend.”

“Six the six fiend six?” Jongin asked.

“You got a problem with that?”

Jongin shook his head. Apparently the Fiend was oversensitive too. “When was the last time you saw Suho?”

“I only met him once and that was sometime last week.”

“On Wednesday?” Jongin prompted.

Yixing shrugged. “Yeah, maybe, how the would I know?”

“Where did you meet him?”

“In the woods.”

“At the waterfall?”

Yixing frowned. “Why ask if you already know?”

“We’re making sure that we have all the facts,” Minseok said.

“This is a ing waste of time,” Yixing muttered, standing up and pushing past the policemen to leave.

Jongin took hold of his upper arm to stop him. “Would you rather talk at the station instead?”

“Get your hands off me,” Yixing snapped, jerking his arm away.

“We just want you to tell us what happened during the outing,” Minseok said.

“I have better things to do.”

“So do we,” Jongin said.

“It won’t take long at all,” Minseok said, frowning at Jongin.

“This has all to do with me,” Yixing said.

“It might not seem important to you, but anything you know about the outing may help us figure out the circumstances of Kim Joonmyun’s death.”

“I couldn’t give two s,” Yixing said and walked off.

“Maybe we should talk to someone else first,” Minseok suggested to Jongin.

“What if we can’t find him later?” Jongin said, before rushing after Yixing. “Talk to us now and have the rest of the day to yourself, or expect us on your doorstep this afternoon. It’s up to you.”

“You have zero authority whatsoever,” Yixing said, but stopped walking.

“You can think of it as a casual chat instead of a questioning,” Minseok said.

“Either way we still have badges,” Jongin added under his breath.

“I think it’s high time you two get the out of this town,” Yixing said. “You obviously don’t understand how things work here.”

“Enlighten us," Jongin said.

“You can ask around as much as you want but you’ll find out absolutely nothing. Nobody gives a if you figure out what happened to Suho or not. There are things we’d rather not know and things that we don’t talk about here.”

“Is the outing one of the things you’re not supposed to talk about?” Jongin asked. “Because the others seemed fine with telling us pretty much everything about it.”

Yixing narrowed his eyes. “What did they tell you?”

“We’d like to hear your version of what happened,” Minseok said.

“What did they tell you?” Yixing repeated, his tone making it obvious that he wasn’t going to impart anything until they told him.

“Your name came up a few times,” Jongin said, looking through his notes. “Apparently you were far from happy with Suho because of things that he said during a game.”

“What ‘things’?”

“You tell us.”

“I’m not telling you ,” Yixing said flatly.

“You were about to until you decided it’s a waste of time,” Jongin reminded him.

“I don’t see any point in telling you things you already know.”

“You might know something that the others don’t,” Minseok said.

“Like what?”

“Did Suho speak to you away from everybody else?”

“Do you think my life is so pathetically boring that I’d remember everything that happened more than a week ago?”

“It’d help if you try.”

“Let me refresh your memory,” Jongin said, flipping to a page in his notepad where he had sketched a tentative timeline of the outing. “Nine of you met up at the waterfall in the woods, had lunch, played a game, swam, hung out and left at sundown. Does that sound right to you?”

“Maybe,” Yixing said curtly.

“During the game, you had a one-on-one match with Suho and lost.”

“It was a ty game.”

“So you did play a game,” Jongin commented.

“Isn’t that obvious?”

“Why didn’t you like the game?” Minseok asked. “Was it because of something that Suho said?”

“The rules of the game pissed me off,” Yixing said. “It doesn’t matter what Suho said, it was part of the game.”

“What about the things he said to you in private?” Jongin asked.

“What are you talking about?”

“After you went swimming-”

“I didn’t swim,” Yixing cut in.

“Okay, so after most of the group went swimming-”

“They didn’t swim either.”

Jongin looked up from his notepad. “They didn't?”

“How the can you swim in the rock pool? The water’s only up to your knees.”

“Did any of you go into the rock pool at all?” Minseok asked.

“Most of us, I guess,” Yixing said.

Jongin returned his gaze to the notepad. He supposed rather than accusing the others of lying, the Fiend was just being pedantic. “So after you went into the rock pool, you sat around and chatted, and then Suho spoke to all of you individually.”

“He didn’t speak to me.”

“Did he speak to the others?” Minseok asked.

“Maybe,” Yixing said with a shrug.

“Who did he speak to?”

“ if I remember.”

“I guess that means a lot of people?” Jongin asked.

“Maybe.”

“But he didn’t speak to you.”

“No.”

“What happened after that?” Minseok asked.

“After what?”

“After Suho spoke to some of you.”

“What did the others say?” Yixing asked.

“Why does it matter?” Jongin said. “You should at least remember that much.”

“I told you, I’m not telling you .”

“You’re not just wasting our time, you’re wasting your own time too,” Jongin pointed out. “You can drag this out for the whole day or you can just tell us what you know and we’ll be done in under five minutes.”

“I only have one thing to say and that’s mind your own ing business.”

“This is our business.”

“If a guy’s dead, then he’s dead,” Yixing said simply. “What does a random outing has to do with it?”

“If it's really just a random outing then I don’t see why you’re so reluctant to talk about it,” Jongin said. “What are you trying to hide?”

“None of your ing business.”

“So you do have something to hide.”

“None of your ing business,” Yixing repeated, putting more stress behind his words.

“Thank you for your time,” Minseok spoke up, making Jongin stare at him in astonishment. “We might be in touch in the near future.”

“Go yourself,” Yixing muttered, turning around and leaving.

“What was that for?” Jongin said to Minseok. “He hasn't told us anything except a bunch of bull and probably some lies for good measure.”

“It’s obvious that he wasn’t going to tell us anything,” Minseok said. “I don’t think we need his story anyway. He doesn’t seem to have anything against Kim Joonmyun, and besides his potty mouth, I think he’s harmless. I have a feeling he’s not all he’s made out to be.”

“What if he’s hiding something?”

“Then we’ll find out what it is from someone else.”

“What if nobody knows about it?”

“Then we’ll go to his house and grill him until he spits something out.”

Jongin nodded reluctantly. “I guess that could work.”

“Who are we seeing next?” Minseok asked. “We have two people left, right? Who lives closer?”

Jongin looked at the list of addresses in his notepad. “Huang Zitao. He lives between here and the woods.”

“Okay,” Minseok said, heading to their car. “Let’s go see if he’s home.”

Jongin followed him. “Hopefully he’s the accommodating type.”