- This will be from normal perspective again -

"Yes, Jonghyun? Get Key and tell him to come immidiately. Ace is going to strike again." Minho called Jonghyun, holding on to a small paper. He gritted his teeth.

Choi Minho,

Let's meet again tonight.

Deajong, Empire building, street 13

What do you treasure the most? What's your precious treasure?

Ace.

Ace was going to strike again. This time, he did give an address, but Minho was not sure what Ace meant with the last setence. Was that question for Minho? Or for the victim? Was the treasure the item Ace is going to steal? It didn't look like it was meant for the victim though. What was Minho's precious treasure?

"Hyung?"

Minho turned around to face Taemin. Ah, right, he was still here. 

"Is something wrong?" Taemin asked worried.

"Ah, no, it's Ace." Minho answered.

"Ace!? As in, the thief Ace?" Taemin asked with big eyes, he came closer and took a look at the small paper. "Whoa.. It's the real thing." 

"Well, I'm sorry, but it seems like I have to go." Minho apologized to Taemin. "But you can stay here if you want..?"

"Oh.. It's okay, it's urgent work! I understand. I'll stay here then.." Taemin said, retreating to the couch.

"I'm really sorry.." Minho apologized again, feeling sorry for canceling their plans. 

Suddenly Taemin stood up.

"..What if I go with you?" Taemin asked, eyes sparkling.

"Say what?" Minho couldn't believe his ears. 

"Hyung, I'll go with you!" 

"No."

"Ehh, why not?" Taemin asked disappointed.

"It's dangerous, I don't want to bring you in danger."

"B-but... Ace has never hurt someone has he? Hyung.. Pretty please!" Taemin clasped Minho's hand together, using his puppy eyes to win him over. Geez, if it was like this....

"So tell me again why Taemin is with us?!" Key scolded while driving.

"He used the puppy eyes, didn't he?" Jonghyun snickered. 

"Yep.." Minho sighed deeply. 

"Don't worry," Jonghyun gave Minho a thumbs up. "We will protect Taemin!"

"Says the one that passed out last time." Key rolled his eyes. "Minho, you better take responsability if something happens with Taemin! He's our precious treasure!" he scolded. "Aww~" Taemin cooed, happy at Key's strange affections.

That reminded Minho of Ace's note.

"What do you treasure the most? What's your precious treasure?"

Was it Taemin? 

Did that mean Ace was after Taemin? No.. That cant be. How much he liked the boy, Taemin played not an important role in the government or such. He was just a normal student. But Minho should keep an eye on him, just to be sure. He wouldn't forgive himself if something were to happen to Taemin.

"We're here." Key's voice shook Minho out of his thoughts. They had stopped for a large mansion, it looked fancy.

"Wow, I can understand that Ace would want to steal something from here, looks so neat." Taemin said, mouth agape. 

The four walked through the gate and rang the door. After a minute or so, a woman opened the door. 

"Oh, hello there. How can I help you?" asked the female. She was wearing a black dress with a white apron, she was probably a maid. 

"Good evening, I'm detective Choi Minho," Minho started to introduce himself. "we have received the word that a top thief will steal something here this night." 

The maid's eyes widened. "Oh, my, really? Come in, I will call the owners." she gestured the four to enter.

The four followed another maid through a long hallway to a big room, Minho guessed it was the living room. They sat down on the couches and got served tea by the maid. Minho observed the room for a bit. It was kind of old fashioned, with golden decorations. The owners must be rich, like really rich. To own a big house like this and even have maids and butlers working for you, you must be really rich. He wondered what Ace was after this time. Maybe their money? 

"Hello, detective." A soft female voice greeted. Minho turned to look at the voice, and met the gaze of a young woman, maybe in her 30s. She had long, silky brown hair and was wearing a dress with a flowery pattern. The woman had a kind smile on her face, she also looked very kind. Next to her was standing a rather scary looking man. Probably her husband, judging from the matching rings they wore.

"Good evening." He greeted back.

"So what's this thing about a tief?" the man asked, sitting down too. 

"Right now I'm on the case of Ace, a top criminal. Have you heard of him before?" Minho asked. The woman and man both answered with a nod. "Well, he sent this notice," he showed the small paper to them. "meaning that he will steal something here tonight. Do you have anything of high value? ...Something that you treasure?" Minho asked carefully, keeping Ace's lasts questions in his mind. 

"Hmm.." the woman tapped her chin. "Maybe money? We have a lot of that, aren't thiefs usually intrested in that?" she asked bluntly. The man laughed at his wife bluntness. Maybe he wasn't that scary. 

"I don't think we have anything like that. Maybe there's something in the house that he wants, like some painting. Honestly though, we don't know much about this mansion. We inherited it from her decreased grandpa." the man said.

"Oh, I'm sorry, my condolences. For how long have you been living here?" Minho asked. They probably didn't even realize that there was something of high value in their house. Minho was kind of curious about the grandpa too, maybe he was involved into something that Ace was intrested in. And this couple just unknowingly inherited it. 

"For a year now." The man asked. 

"Are you maybe the granddaughter of duke Heojung?" Jonghyun then spoke up, looking the woman in the eye.

"Why, yes I am. How did you know that?" The woman asked, her eyes wide. 

"I see.. Just an assumption." Jonghyun grinned. That wasn't really shocking to Minho, Jonghyun had connections everywhere. 

"Do you mind if we look around a bit?" Minho asked the couple. 

"We don't mind." the woman smiled at him. "I hope you find the thing that Ace is looking for."

"Okay, since the house is big, let's divide in pairs." Minho said. The 3 others nodded in agreement. Taemin and Key formed a pair while Jonghyun went with Minho. Key and Taemin already took off to the second floor.

"By the way, what do you know about that grandpa? You seemed to know more of them." asked Minho to Jonghyun before they left.

"Ah," Jonghyun smirked. "glad you asked. That grandpa was super rich because of his company, but it was't fair earned."

"Oh?"

"Not really sure how excactly, but I heared he liked to blackmail people. He was a sneaky old man." 

"Hmm, thanks. Let's go." 

Minho and Jonghyun searched at the first floor. It was a long hallway, some paintings decorating the wall.

"Should we look in every room?" Jonghyun asked. 

"That would cost too much time, though.." Minho said, thinking about what to do. They didn't knew when Ace would arrive, it was already late in the evening too. He could appear any moment.

"True, the house is way too big too to check every corner." Jonghyun said, leaning back against the wall. Suddenly there was a click. "What was that?" Jonghyun blinked. Minho stared at him for a moment.

Then the painting next to them suddenly opened, like a small door. "What the.." 

Taking a closer look, the two went to the painting. Behind the painting was a small passage.

"I think we found something." Jonghyun said dryly.

"Let's go in!" Minho declared, kneeling to fit into the secret passage. Jonghyun followed.

The passage eventually became bigger so they could walk normally. Minho used his phone as flashlight. At the end of the passage were stairs going down. 

"Does this go to the basement?" Jonghyun wondered. 

"I think so, let's just follow it." Minho answered, going down first.

The stairs led to a short corridor, at the end a door. Surprisingly, there were lit candles at the sides of the door. Someone must have been here, or still is here. Minho and Jonghyun looked at each other, nodding. They both knew they had to be careful. If there was still someone there, it could be whoever. Minho somehow got a strange feeling. Like he was attracted to it. 

They stopped before the door. They listened if they could hear any signs of a person, but it was silent. 

"1, 2, 3.." Minho whispered, and then opened the door. 

Behind the door was a chamber. There was a wooden desk with papers lying messily on it. On the desk was a lamp, lighting up the chamber. On the other side of the chamber was a cabinet, but it seemed like it was broken. But the thing that caught Minho's eye was a paper that was on the desk. He picked it up. It was like a page was torn out of a diary.

In my garden, under the cherry blossom tree, is my secret buried. My precious secret item.. the key to succes. 

There were more words, but the page was torn at the end so Minho couldn't read more. Then Minho realized something. The lit candles, the messy room..

"Someone has been here already.. And found this." Minho whispered.

Jonghyun inspected the paper. 

"Ace?" he wondered. "Was he already in the mansion without us noticing? ..Well, he also did that before, though. But I expected something more flashy."

Minho grabbed his phone and called Key. 

"Yes? Key speaking."

"Key? Is Taemin still with you? Bring him back to that living room, Ace is going to strike into the garden any moment now."

"Garden? Weird place. But got it, I will be going to the garden too."

After that they hung up.

"Let's hurry!"

Jonghyun and Minho practially run into the garden, meeting up with Key. After catching his breath, Minho looked at the garden. There were at least 10 cherry blossom trees. He groaned. 

"Any sight of Ace yet?" Jonghyun asked.

"Nope." Key shook his head. "You're sure he's going to come here? What is he going to do, steal a flower?" he joked. 

Minho showed him the paper. "Apperently, there is a treasure buried underneath a cherry blossom tree. But which one..?" 

"Ah, there was this one tree that was marked. I guess it's that's one." Key said, remembering what he saw earlier.

They arrived by the cherry blossom tree... only to find a hole in the ground already.

"W-what? Was he before us?" Jonghyun asked. "..That's kind of unlike Ace, doing his things that quietly."

Minho and Key agreed.

"There's no way he would do things that quietly, he always makes a flashy appearance like last time. That's where he's famous for." Key said.

"Who said Ace was the only one going to steal tonight~?" a voice cooed. 

The three turned around. 

The maid from before stood there, hands dirty and a shovel in her hand. In her other hand a golden key. 

"I've been working here ever since duke Heojung. He always promised to marry me and share his fortune, but in the end he only looked at his money."

"A mistress?" Key asked, raising one eyebrow. He was obviously judging her.

"Well, maybe. Since you came here and said that crazy stuff about a thief, I realized I had to protect Heojung's treasure before some other steals it. And what about a top thief? Even I, a maid, can 'steal' this." she laughed.

"Even if you can steal it, you should watch it carefully before you lose it." 

The maid laughed louder. "Watch carefully? Of cou-" she stopped midsentence when she realized her hand was now empty. "What!?"

"You should watch your things better." the voice whispered into her ear. 

The maid then screamed and went to stand behind the other 3, scared of the new presence that had stolen her key.

"Ace." Minho acknowlegded.

"Ah, we meet again mr. detective. Last time we didn't talk much, even though is not really the right time either. That crazy woman almost stole my belonging!" Ace sighed dramatically.

"W-what? Your belonging!? It's mine!" The maid protested. Ace and the others ignored her.

"What's so important about that key?" Key spoke up.

"Hmm, the key plays an important role. Without a key, you can't open doors. You should know that with that name of yours." Ace chuckeled. "Well, enough chit chat, let's get the second part of this treasure, shall we?" even though they could barely see him, they knew Ace was smiling. And with that, Ace turned around and disappeared into the night.

"Second part of the treasure..?" Minho repeated.

"The living room!" the maid shouted. "It's in the living room!"

"..Taemin." Minho said. "Taemin is there, isn't he?" he asked Key. Key's eyes widened.

"He could be in danger." Jonghyun said in a low voice.

Something snapped inside of Minho. That note of duke Heojung himself never said one of a second treasure. A second treasure.. He remebered Key's words before. ..Was Taemin the precious treasure after all..?

I should have never brought him 

The three quickly left the garden, heading for the living room