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"They said he was also drugged and chained before he died. I found him hung in the basement... I thought it was a suicide but then I found the sign... the Justice Killer's sign."

Seungcheol rubbed his temple, a deep sigh escaping his mouth. This was the third victim's family he'd heard from and honestly, they were all pretty much saying the same thing.

So how had the officers not found a pattern in the killings? All the victims had been chained up before being killed and all this pointed to the same thing.

The killer was NOT able-bodied. At all.

Seungcheol had been suspecting the wrong type of people. The killer had to be someone whose only way to kill these men was to tie them up. A weak person.

Another common pattern which the police officers had failed to figure out was the lint. All the victims had lint on various parts of their bodies and the exact same shoe size was seen on every scene.

The problem was a weak person could not have been a size 49. Were they perhaps leaving the footprints on the scene purposely?

Who was this genius asshole? And why was Seungcheol somehow desperate to meet whoever it was and study their twisted mind.

The only problem he had were the victims. That was what had no pattern at all. The victims didn't have certain wealth, statuses or lives. They were all so different.

Too different.

Seungcheol didn't know how to tie them all together apart from the fact that they were all men. Did the Justice Killer have something against men?

Seungcheol got out his phone, dialing Soonyoung's number. "Soonyoung-ah." Seungcheol called, placing the phone on his ear.

"I'm going to give you a list of all the Justice Killer's victims so far and you give one of the researchers to find any sort of information that links them together." Seungcheol instructed hearing Soonyoung stand up.

"I'll do that right now, Inspector Choi." He replied before Seungcheol ended the call, getting into his car. He had his sight on the two prime suspects, Jeonghan and Jinhyung.

As he drove down the street, back to his home, Seungcheol spotted a familiar figure which he recognized to be Jeonghan.

Except Jeonghan shouldn't have been on this street. Not by 11pm in a neighbourhood almost an hour away from his. Especially when he apparently "never left his house".

Seungcheol slowly followed Jeonghan in a non obvious manner, parking at a store and getting out. He wore his cap and glasses, trying to semi-mask his identity.

As he walked in the same direction, his jaw dropped once he saw Jeonghan enter someone's car, that someone being Hwang Jinhyung.

What were the two prime suspects doing together? Especially this late at night?

Seungcheol had to find out and he had to find out fast.

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"They literally confessed to being the reason for her disappearance, what more proof do we need Mingyu?" Wonwoo asked, bewildered by Mingyu's reasoning.

Mingyu shook his head, his fingers on his temple. "There's obviously more to it Wonwoo, they couldn't even tell us anything apart from their confession."

"Listen, I'm not saying they're not to blame but I think there are others too. We need to meet them again." He explained and Wonwoo gulped, letting out an audible sigh.

"We don't have that much time Mingyu. Just remember that." Wonwoo reminded his partner before they left their office, headed to the girls' school again.

They got there right on time as they exited their car, seeing the three girls whispering to each other as they walked out of the gate. Wonwoo walked up to them, crossing his legs as he waited for them to recognize him.

Once they did, they froze on the spot with all their voices dying down and just the cold air surrounding them. "Good afternoon. Nice to see you three again." He waved, sarcasm dripping from his tone.

Dain sighed, crossing her arms. "Look what you've done Boeun, do you know how it looks when cops surround us everyday? We look like criminals!"

Mingyu quickly tried to shush her before correcting her, "Actually, because of Boeun's brave confession, our case may be wrapped up soon and we won't have to bother you guys anymore."

The three went silent again with Boeun looking up at Mingyu sneakily before glancing away when he noticed. "We just need a bit more information from you three, please just help us find your friend, okay?" Mingyu pleaded and the three exchanged glances before nodding ensuing a smile on Mingyu's face.

"And that's how it's done." He whispered to Wonwoo as the trio started to walk towards the café. Wonwoo rolled his eyes as he followed behind.

"We need you three to tell us everything about the day of Hyein's disappearance and anything you think could have led to it." Wonwoo instructed and the three nodded before looking at each other as Wonwoo began to record.

"I'm recording, by the way." He informed them and Haeun nodded in response saying, "Okay." Mingyu got out his laptop while Wonwoo got out his notepad as they waited for the girls to start.

"She was planning to come over to my house for a sleepover. Dain and Boeun were already at my house and we were waiting for Hyein." Haeun started off, taking a deep breath after her second sentence.

"She ended up coming and it was a regular sleepover until we were supposed to go to sleep. That was around... 10pm? I think." She glanced at her friends who confirmed her thoughts with multiple nods.

She took another breath, now looking at the officers. "But we decided to play truth or dare and during the game, Hyein asked... which one of us had kissed her boyfriend at Dain's birthday party which Hyein couldn't attend cause she had travelled."

Wonwoo's eyebrows rose as he stopped writing, shifting his focus to the story. "And we all knew that it was Boeun who had kissed him but we didn't want to say anything..."

Boeun gulped, nibbling on her lower lip while Dain just kept quiet, her arms and legs crossed as she sat down, her gaze on the plastic table.

"Eventually. Boeun confessed it was her and they had an argument, we tried to defend Boeun which was so stupid but we tried to do that and Hyein got so pissed, that she just stormed off, leaving the house so late in the night."

Wonwoo and Mingyu gave each other a quick look as Haeun said the last few words. Hyein had disappeared in the night?

"We tried to stop her but... we were too scared to go after her. It was so late. We thought she would come back but she didn't so we thought she had gone home... but when we called the next day, she hadn't." Haeun held back her tears while Boeun cleaned hers away.

"Initially we lied about it, saying she just decided to leave and that she wanted to go home, but the guilt started to eat us apart which was why we made the missing posters." Dain finished, placing her hands around the two sobbing girls.

Wonwoo nodded, ending the recording while Mingyu closed his laptop, placing it back in its bag. "We're going to need your house address Haeun, tomorrow we'll conduct a search."

"Do you think you can find her?" Boeun asked, taking in breaths between her words. Mingyu glanced at Wonwoo before nodding.

"I think we have a way better chance than we did before. Thanks to you girls, we may find Hyein."

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Seungcheol stepped on the brake, stopping the car as Jinhyung's car also came to a stop, parking near a cemetery.

What was going on? Seungcheol couldn't even think of any reasons why they would be together at a cemetery but good thing he didn't have to because once Jeonghan got out of the car, Jinhyung drove off.

Seungcheol parked his car at a building not far away from the cemetery and put on his coat, adding to his disguise. He walked towards the cemetery and hid as he watched Jeonghan.

The man settled down, placing a few snacks around one of the headstones along with a bouquet of flowers.

Who had Jeonghan come to see?

As Seungcheol attempted to get closer, he stepped on one of the leaves, making a crunching sound that attracted Jeonghan immediately.

Despite it being pretty late, Jeonghan recognized Seungcheol who caught him off guard honestly but he had to remain calm.

"Detective Seungcheol?"

There it was again. That sweet, melodic voice that sounded like the beautiful singing of the morning birds. He didn't even care that he had been caught because it gave him the opportunity to hear Jeonghan's voice again.

"What are you doing here?" Jeonghan asked, confusion prevalent on his face as he faced Seungcheol. Seungcheol coughed, clearing his throat before he looked around cluelessly.

"I was in town, just talking to one of the victims' family and then I saw you and followed you." He admitted and Jeonghan's eyebrows raised, shocked by his honesty.

Jeonghan pursed his lips, placing his hands in his pocket. "So why did you follow me?" He knew why. He knew Seungcheol still thought of him as a suspect.

Seungcheol shrugged. "To protect you, make sure you were safe." It wasn't exactly a lie but it wasn't the truth either.

Jeonghan chuckled, glancing away. "To protect me? Or to protect others from me?" He  turned towards Seungcheol, his pupils glistening under the silver moon.

For a moment, Seungcheol saw an unfamiliar look in Jeonghan's eyes. One that went against his angelic personality.

"What are you doing here anyways? I thought you never left your home." Seungcheol walked closer, swaying his coat behind him and taking off his cap.

Jeonghan sat down on the grass, pointing to the headstone in front of him. "I came to see my mother." He replied and Seungcheol paused, reading the headstone.

In Loving Memory Of Yoon Minja
1974-2004

His face softened and a rush of sadness passed through him. She died so young. Jeonghan must've been heartbroken.

"How did she pass away?" Seungcheol asked, sitting next to Jeonghan. "Or, sorry, that's none of my business." He shook his head.

Jeonghan smiled, fiddling with the flower buds as he stared at the headstone. "It's fine, she... she took her own life." His smile slowly disappeared and Seungcheol could see his eyes getting teary.

"I'm so sorry Jeonghan." Seungcheol placed his arm around the angel's shoulder, pulling him closer. "Do you know why?" He questioned, his voice deep and soothing, calming Jeonghan.

Jeonghan closed his eyes, hanging his head over as he answered. "Because I looked like him."

Seungcheol tilted his head, his forehead creasing as he wondered. "Looked like who?" He asked and Jeonghan sighed, opening his eyes.

He looked up at Seungcheol, a tear falling from his right eye which Seungcheol helped wipe away. Then he said,

"My father."

"She didn't want to raise me any longer because I reminded her of a monster. I looked too much like him." Jeonghan broke down in tears, real, sincere tears and Seungcheol's arms wrapped around him fully giving him the warmth that his father's hands could never.

Seungcheol lightly rubbed Jeonghan's back, trying to comfort him in any way he could. He hadn't known that Jeonghan lived through such a horrible childhood but he knew he didn't deserve to.

Jeonghan didn't deserve that much pain.

He was an angel. Seungcheol pulled him in closer, the feeling of Jeonghan's body being encapsulated in his arms was liberating and maddening at the same time.

And Seungcheol knew from that moment onwards, that Yoon Jeonghan belonged to him and he would cherish him wholly and give him all the love and care that the people around him failed to give.

He felt bad for suspecting Jeonghan, his Jeonghan who was so broken down and so fragile. There was no way he could've killed so many people not when he was a victim of death and it's brutal manipulations.

As Jeonghan cried, the sound of his sniffling filled the atmosphere while everything else remained in silence and the usually cold and scary night became warm and nostalgic, coating them in a sense of comfort and relaxation.

They may not have known it yet, or maybe they just ignored the truth but they had found solace in each other's arms.

Ⓒ︎OHWAYOHWAYOH
𝕾𝖙𝖆𝖗𝖙𝖊𝖉 - 11/11/2024
𝕰𝖓𝖉𝖊𝖉 - N/A

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