Title: SM-5 The Perfect Mystery 

Genre: Romance, Comedy, Mystery, Angst, Action 

Ratings: All ages 

Case #03: L o v e

Part 2

  ~~~

  The shrill scream was singular, definitely singular, accompanied by dead silence afterwards. Yoona and Luna focused their attention towards the direction the scream had came from, very much alarmed and alerted by it. Exchanging shocked gazes, Yoona the cell phone in her pocket, trying to think of what she should do.

  “Luna, that… those are the wards, aren’t they?” Yoona raised a finger towards the source of the scream.

  Luna nodded seriously. “They are.”

  All of a sudden, they heard the pitter-patter of footsteps on the ground. The resounding noise became louder, and louder with each moment, growing heavier as if whatever was making the footsteps was approaching them. Footsteps, footsteps, more footsteps… Yoona felt Luna’s hands encircle on Yoona’s shoulders, and Yoona touched her gun, gripping it in her pocket, ready to raise it the moment she-

  “Don’t move!”

  Two yells came in unison, of the exact same two words. Both raised their guns at each other, a reflex, one pointing at her opponent’s forehead, and the other pointing at his opponent’s eyes. However, they were only to find that Yoona was facing Minho, and Minho was facing Yoona.

  “Minho, geez.” Yoona lowered her gun, shoving it back into her pocket.

  He sighed in relief as he drew back his gun as well. “I didn’t know where you were, Yoona. I heard the scream and I thought you were attacked.”

  “You, you heard the scream too?” Yoona raised her eyebrows.

  “Of course, it was so damned loud!”

  “Excuse me…” A soft voice piped up from behind Yoona. “But… but why do you both have guns?”

  Yoona had just remembered that she had been concealing her identity, and the one person who had accompanied her throughout her night shift was still present. “…I’m sorry, Luna-shi…” Yoona bowed her head in apology. “It’s a long story, and I’ll explain it to you later on...” She turned her head towards the source of the scream. “…Now I think we should go check on what happened.”

  “And this person is…?” Luna took a glance at Minho.

  “…A friend.” Yoona gazed over at him. “…Anyway, we’re going forward, and Minho, please stick to Luna, I’ll take the front.”

  “Sure thing.”

  The three of them went in the direction of the noise, ever so carefully, cautiously, trying to find their way in the dimly lit corridor, for it was night, and at night the corridors barely had any light as so to let the patients rest more peacefully without the blinding fluorescents seeping through the glass panes on the doors.

  They tried to make as little noise as possible, as they crept through the corridor, step by step, step by step… But they halted the moment their eyes all fell on one sight, one sight that had caught their immediate attention.

  The door of one of the wards was ajar.

  “That ward is…” Yoona tried to recall.

  “Park Leeteuk’s ward.” Luna finished the sentence, gripping Minho’s sleeve out of fear. “Do you think something happened there? Do you think the scream had really come from there?” She asked anxiously, getting more and more panicky with each minute.

  Minho stood stock-still, very much startled when he heard that name. “Yoona, go in. I’ll be right behind you to back you up if anything happens. Don’t let go of that gun.” His tone was solemn and serious, and Yoona returned him a sharp nod.

  The atmosphere was tense, and an unnatural silence seemed to overwhelm the three, as if there weren’t any other souls in that wing of the hospital. But as much as the situation was very nerve-wracking, in a sense, Yoona was not ruffled by it. She had been through many such situations over the past few months and this was just another one to add onto her list.

  She went forward without fear, with Minho and Luna followed closely behind. With her gun raised and pointed to the front, she approached the ajar door with much care, making sure there was nothing especially suspicious. Minho, on the other hand, was properly trying to observe his surroundings, taking note of everything that was in place despite the fact that he could barely see anything through the dark corridor.

  Then she stood in front of it, the dark ward.

  The patient lying on the bed.

  A knife glinting through the dark.

  “Ahhhhhh~!”

  It was Luna’s turn to yell this time, as Minho reflexively the lights of the ward. She clutched his arm with much fear, as if clinging on for dear life as she set her eyes on the sight in front of her. Of course, she wasn’t the only one who was shocked by the sight, for it looked like the blood had drained from both Yoona and Minho’s faces when they saw it as well.

  Their patient was lying on the bed, somewhat motionless, or not – they were not sure, it was something they had yet to confirm. His eyes were closed, his face quite pale. And upon his chest, upon his chest…

  A knife had pierced him.

  Park Leeteuk had been stabbed in the chest.

  Yoona was most definitely shocked-still by the sight in front of her, but it wasn’t going to stop her from rushing straight to the person’s aid. She wasn’t afraid, not really, and her main focus was now diverted to saving the one life that was being threatened by that one knife pierced right through his chest.

  She dashed forward, glancing at the man’s facial features. It was the first time she had seen him, the main person of their investigation – Park Leeteuk. He was middle aged yet he seemed to have this handsome face, making him look a lot younger than she knew he was, from those medical records Kyuhyun had showed them. With soft features and a sharp nose, smooth, tanned skin and slight bronze hair, he definitely was good looking for his age. But of course, what drew her attention most at that moment was … the knife.

  To Minho’s immense surprise, Yoona did not back down or scream when she saw the knife. She was not in panic, she was not shaking, but rather, she leaned forward and examined the knife, despite the fact that she knew there was barely any time. She could smell the scent of blood, and she could see the bloodstains appearing on Leeteuk’s clothing. Strangely, she also saw the blood stains on the hilt of the knife, but she kicked herself back to reality, remembering the one thing she had to do.

  Raising her hand, she went closer towards Park Leeteuk, placing her hand on his wrist, trying to feel his pulse-

  “He’s still alive!”

  Yoona’s shrill cry alarmed both Minho and Luna, causing them to look at her sharply.

  “He’s still alive, he’s still alive!” Yoona shrieked loudly. “Luna, there’s a doctor in the emergency room yes? There’s definitely a surgeon or a doctor on standby right?”

  Luna barely knew how to react, just nodding quickly. “Yes, yes, there’s Doctor Lee Jinki-“

  “Get him, get him here immediately and make sure that he performs an operation on Park Leeteuk right now.” Yoona’s command was demanding and firm, making Luna rush out in a hurry.

  “Yoona, we’ve got to get the knife out-“

  “We can’t pull out the knife because it would cause the wound to bleed even more, and also, by gripping the knife we may make the wound deeper.” Yoona said seriously. “The doctor has to do it, the doctor will have to remove it and not us.”

  “We need to alert Victoria, Kyuhyun and Changmin about this.” Minho said quickly, pacing back and forth nervously. “This is attempted murder, no, this is murder!”

  “No!” Yoona made her stand. “The culprit’s still in the hospital, there’s no way of escaping that fast!” She stared right into Minho’s eyes. “Minho… you know what to do.”

  A rush of adrenaline seemed to pass through them both as they looked at each other. No other words needed to be said, that one frantic moment, those several messages that they needed to convey to each other, those things they needed to do right at that point of time… It was all said through those few seconds of eye contact.

  Minho’s free hand gripped her wrist. “I know.”

~~~

  “What happened?”

  Kyuhyun’s words were forceful and demanding, and he stared at both Changmin and Victoria. An unsettling silence had fallen upon the three, but Kyuhyun was determined to end the conflict. He didn’t know, of course he didn’t know, the exact details of what the entire argument had been about, but either way, he knew both would have to come to a compromise in one way or another.

  Changmin cleared his throat awkwardly, moving past Victoria and back to his desk. “Nothing, nothing, just a few…” He was at a loss of words to say.

  “…Discrepancies. We were just talking about discrepancies.” Victoria quickly finished Changmin’s sentence, avoiding Kyuhyun’s gaze. “Just… just get back to the hospital and keep a lookout on Minho and Yoona, they might get themselves into trouble or something…”

  Their quick excuses infuriated Kyuhyun. “... What for, should I go and keep a lookout on the younger duo when the leaders are the ones behaving like children?”

  His cold and ruthless question seemed to slice through the tense atmosphere, driving the wedge even further. But no, as much as he knew his words would push both Changmin and Victoria even more, he knew exactly what he was doing and he was sure that there was no other solution except the one he had chosen. Cho Kyuhyun, he was Cho Kyuhyun, healways knew what he was doing and he was always able to predict the magnitude of the consequences of his actions.

  “What?” Changmin whipped his head around, glaring at Kyuhyun.

  “You both know what I mean…” Kyuhyun shot back. “You’ve both been at your wit’s end for quite a long period, I’m sure, and if I’ve taken everything into consideration properly, none of your arguments have actually been resolved before, and I realize it’s all been about one thing, and one thing only… pride.”

  Victoria rubbed her eyes and forced out a smirk. “Pride? Pride, Kyuhyun? That’s something you have as well, and so we defend what we-“

  “You’ve lost your sense of rebuttal as well, Victoria. You’ve got no direction where your argument is going and you’re merely rebutting me for the sake of rebutting.” Kyuhyun was relentless. “…Knock your heads together and just apologize. You both can’t carry on like this.”

  “Victoria’s being unreasonable.” Changmin did not back down. “And I’m not going to apologize when I know I haven’t done anything wrong at this point of time, it’s our course of work and if she doesn’t want to follow it-“

  “I don’t want to follow it?” Victoria cried. “Don’t you give me that attitude, Shim Changmin! I followed every whim of yours since-“

  “Enough!” Kyuhyun’s loud bellow silenced them both once more. “…That’s enough.”

  The phone rang, interrupting them all.

  Kyuhyun rushed towards it, leaving both Changmin and Victoria still shaky from the heated argument that had just taken place. “Hello…?” His tone was still firm, despite the fact that he had been affected by the whole quarrel.

  He looked up in alarm as he heard the voice of the other person on the line, stating the situation. Victoria and Changmin were then both focused on Kyuhyun, wondering what pandemonium had broken loose this time round. When he lowered the phone, he stared at them, shell-shocked by the news.

  “…There’s been attempted murder in the hospital.”

~~~

  “Should we wait, should we wait for Changmin, Victoria and Kyuhyun before we start the investigation-“

  “No, we start now.”

  Minho’s severe question was answered by a just-as-severe Yoona, as they stood in front of  the crime scene. The forensics were on their way, and so were the rest of their teammates. Leeteuk had already been taken to the operating theater, and the team of emergency doctors, headed by Lee Jinki, were in the midst of trying to save Leeteuk.

  Yoona tapped her foot impatiently, pulling Minho to the front of the ward door. “Why are we down here procrastinating, Minho? We’ve got a case to solve.”

  “Right, right.” Minho was jolted back into reality, following Yoona.

  Standing next to each other in front of Leeteuk’s ward, currently the crime scene, they took deep breaths. They gingerly stepped into the ward, feeling a gust of cold air blast at their faces, of which the air-conditioner was still at full blow. Dull fluorescent lamps lit up the ward, and they could feel chills running down their spines as they stood there. Everything was still intact, except for, of course, the victim had been taken out of the crime scene.

  “Windows were shut, no possible entrance from the toilet.” Minho had gone on his investigation-mode. “Also, the door was open when we found the victim, so we can deduce that the murderer had entered from the main door.”

  “I wonder, is it possible that the murderer was still present in the room when we entered it?” Yoo