Archive of Our Own

it is a grotesque sight.

three bodies, two sprawled on the floor, one hanging upside down. blood is splattered as far as the eye could see, staining walls and ceiling alike, presenting them with a macabre bloodfield scenery. the scent in the air is nauseating.

“my god,” sehun hears baekhyun whisper next to him, unsettled by the view. sehun does not blame him; it is nothing like he himself has seen before, and he can easily say he has been in some morbid crime scenes in his career so far.

but his concerned side still reigns and before going ahead and allowing a start to his own investigation, a gentle hand grabs onto his boyfriend’s shoulder and he leans in. “wait outside,” he instructs, giving his shoulder a fair squeeze of reassurance. he watches as baekhyun nods, giving one last horrified glance around his surroundings, before he’s turning around and leaving to where the police awaited them by the closed doors of the warehouse.

only when baekhyun was close enough to the door did sehun return his attention to the crime scene, taking his first steps ahead and closer to the corpses. he crouches down near the first, serious gaze watching over the terrified, wide-eyed expression of the dead body, fear from his last seconds on earth immortalised in his soulless eyes.

there are only a couple of details he can make out from observing alone; the corpses are bathed in their own blood, hiding away possible wounds and marks. sehun always waits to meet the bodies in their morgue before touching them at all. he defends people should see with their eyes, never with their hands, for hands are clumsy and messy and there are so many details people ruin by dragging their fingers across a perfect crime scene.

there are many things sehun can deduce from sparing a single glance to a person, object or scenario without even twitching a muscle at all.

he takes his time studying the corpses as well as their disfigured features, capturing it all in his mind and storing it safely for future use. it takes him twenty minutes in that stinky warehouse for him to be satisfied with his mental notes, turning to return outside, own feet leaving faint bloody prints behind from how dirty the floor was.

once outside he nods at the fellow officers, a short indication that he’s done his studying and that the bodies may be taken away for further examination before making his way towards baekhyun who seemed distracted in a quiet chat with two policemen and a witness.

both officers leave upon noticing sehun’s arrival, figuring it was time to get back to work. “what’s your name?” sehun asks quite straight-forwardly to the witness, a young boy quite as tall as himself.

“minho. choi minho.” the boy replies, calmly although he, too, was clearly shaken by the situation. sehun noted every expression from him. “i was just telling the officers that i have no idea what happened here,” he says, a wary glance stolen towards the warehouse before his gaze is back on sehun. “i was going for a morning jog when i saw all the blood, so naturally i called the police.”

“you did well,” sehun replies, hands resting inside the pockets of his long coat. he glances towards baekhyun, who looks back at him with a pleading gaze to leave that place as soon as possible. “do you usually jog around here?”

“yes,” minho nods. “it’s peaceful in here and there’s a lot of space.. i was here yesterday morning too and there was no blood.”

sehun’s brow raises slightly in his forehead, allowing in the witness’ words. “interesting,” he says, words rolling off his tongue slowly so, thoughtfully so before he’s nodding. there is nothing more to hear, thus no more time to lose. “i’m sure the police has pestered you enough. thank you for your time.” he dips his head politely, a subtle hand finding baekhyun’s back to press against before he’s walking off and pulling the shorter along.

the mortuary shall be their next stop.

“wu yifan, lu han and zhang yixing.” junmyeon says, arms crossed over his chest as he eyes the bodies with an apprehensive expression, as if corpses still unsettled him despite years of working at a morgue. “yixing and yifan are cousins. not sure where lu han comes in the picture, though.”

sehun does not reply despite listening to junmyeon’s words, currently leaning over lu han’s corpse, observing. all blood had been cleaned off the bodies and their cause was evident; they had all been shot, though no bullets were found either in them or at the warehouse.

“yifan and lu han have been dead for a while.” junmyeon speaks up again, watching as sehun moved on to yifan’s corpse next. “two days, i’d say. maybe three.”

“but minho said there was nothing in the warehouse yesterday.” baekhyun says from where he stood against the wall, brows a little furrowed, watching, waiting, having never been too fond of being in morgues.

“indeed,” sehun straightens himself up. “only yixing was killed there. whoever did it painted us a whole show to make it seem like all three murders happened at the same time, in the same place.”

baekhyun frowns. “but why?”

“why not?” sehun retorts. “maybe it was a warning for yixing, showing him yifan’s corpse as a threat of sorts. he wasn’t given a choice, though. the killer clearly wanted him dead as well. it was most likely a little game for their own amusement, as well as an excuse to leave a majestic crime scene behind with all that splattered blood.”

“i really wouldn’t use the term majestic to describe a bloody scene like that..” junmyeon mutters, though sighs and shakes his head a little. “anyway, there’s more. check their chests.”

sehun doesn’t need to be told twice, pulling at the white sheet covering the rest of the bodies. his brows pinch together and he leans in, intrigued.

“what is it?” baekhyun asks, moving closer.

“all three bodies have the letter J carved on the left side of their chest.” junmyeon says as he uncovers the two other bodies, revealing identical wounds that sehun observed with a tiny magnifying glass.

“beautiful,” sehun whispers to himself, walking over to observe the scar on yixing’s body as well. “the killer left a mark.. he wants people to know he did it. it’s another threat of sorts, a warning- this might very well be a case for a serial killer.”

junmyeon frowns. “you really ought to stop sounding so excited over murd-”

“gather me their files. all three of them.” sehun orders, straightening himself back again and walking towards baekhyun, an arm wrapping around the shorter’s shoulders to guide him along. “i have some research to do.”

things were finally getting interesting around there.

“he hasn’t moved for like, forty minutes.”

“yeah, he does that sometimes.”

sehun overheard baekhyun and jongdae chat, but hardly paid any attention to them, not bothering with processing their words through as his mind concentrated on solving the pieces of this crime puzzle instead. it wasn’t difficult; it shouldn’t be a difficult one, but some pieces weren’t quite fitting in, and if sehun pressed them any harder, they would break and ruin the entire puzzle itself.

“—do you guys even do anything?”

“sometimes i take him out for walks, like when he’s been sitting on the same spot for three days.. or sometimes i pet his hair. he likes that.”

“oh, c’mon.” the cheshire cat-like grin on jongdae’s voice is so audible it even pierces right through sehun’s concentration, and that’s saying something. “you know what i’m talking about.”

“ohh. you mean if we ever fuck-”

sehun’s head turns immediately. “-what?”

“woah,” jongdae laughs. “he lives.”

“sex is a topic our dear sehun is rather shy about,” baekhyun hums, teasing smile on his lips as he crosses his legs, sitting on sehun’s working desk. “he tends to get quite alarmed when it’s brought up.”

“i do not-” sehun says in one breath, brows furrowing slightly.

“-but to answer your question,” baekhyun continues, disregarding his boyfriend’s words. he glances towards jongdae, mischievous smile remaining on his lips. “i especially like having him right here,” he pats the desk twice. “until he’s begging for mercy.”

sehun’s jaw drops and so does jongdae’s, a loud whistle heard from the latter right afterwards. “oh boy.”

baekhyun nods in a content way. “and you don’t even wanna know about the one time i got him handcuffed to the-”

“yixing and yifan were cousins,” sehun reminds quickly then, loud enough to silence baekhyun, standing up from his sofa. it’s enough to get the best friends quiet, but they still share a knowing amused gaze from the noticeable shade of pink spread on sehun’s cheeks. “the whole thing could have been a family problem, a misunderstanding of sorts- but then you have lu han, who seemingly has no relation to them whatsoever. however,” sehun raises his finger. “quick research says yifan and lu han were in a relationship. that could make this about a love problem instead, but it’s still odd due to the cousins fact.”

“unless there’s some old-fashioned european cousin fricking going on.” jongdae suggests with a smile of his own, making baekhyun snort next to him.

“the J carved on their bodies is most likely a hint towards who did this to them,” sehun continues, ignoring jongdae’s excellent input. “however there is no one whose name starts with J in either of their families, and it doesn’t make sense that the killer would give himself away just like that- unless he’s out of his mind, which judging by the bloodbath he left us with, wouldn’t be too impossible either.”

“so..?” baekhyun asks, waiting for the drawn conclusion.

“so we wait.” sehun says, simply. “this J person is leaving hints, which means they intend on coming back. if they don’t, then we can go with jongdae’s brilliant cousin fricking theory.”

“then we are supposed to wait for someone else to die before working on catching this person?” baekhyun’s brows raise, incredulous.

“exactly.” sehun flashes a quick, innocent smile. “now who wants some tea?” the question is asked out of sheer politeness if nothing else for sehun is already turning and making his way towards the kitchen, leaving behind a pretty dumbfounded baekhyun.

the water is just starting to boil when he hears jongdae from the sitting room, “-so what was that about the handcuffing?”

sehun kneeled down, tiny magnifying glass in his hands as he observed the dark, purple-ish marks on the victim's neck. death by choking, clearly. the man was young, mid-twenties for sure, rich by the brand clothes and choice of hotel that had turned into his own crime scene. a pillow rested near his head, from which sehun deduced had been used to suffocate the victim, as if the choking hadn't been enough.

tragic, but clever. hardly left any clues behind, except for the J carved onto his chest just the same.

"kim minseok," he hears baekhyun say, who was watching from the door of the hotel suite. "he's going to be all over the newspaper soon enough."

"is he?" sehun hums in reply, brows furrowing slightly as a lone strand of hair on minseok's clothes caught his attention. he made sure to save it in a tiny tube for further examination later on.

"i mean, apart from being another victim to this serial killer, he's the son of the kim hotels owner."

"huh," sehun raises his brows a little, leaning backwards. a yellow sticky note was poking out of minseok's jacket. he took it. "that explains the fancy clock."

"he's someone important," baekhyun continues, frown audible in disapproval of his boyfriend's humour. "but why would the serial killer go after him now?"

"that's what we're here to find out," sehun says as he stands back up, removing his plastic gloves and motioning over at the officers to go ahead and handle the crime scene from then on. "now get your jacket, because we're going to busan."

"so why busan?" baekhyun eyed his surroundings as he sat down in front of sehun after the two embarked in the train. he was used to sehun's spontaneous actions, as well as his tendency to not explain important details to baekhyun, but it didn't mean he would give up on the questions.

"this was in his jacket," sehun reaches for his pants pocket and hands the sticky note to baekhyun, who takes it in both hands with furrowed brows. there was nothing to fool there, for the only thing written there was precisely the word 'busan'.

"shouldn't this have stayed with the police..?" baekhyun asks then in a more hushed though questioning tone, to which sehun merely shrugs in reply.

"busan is minseok's hometown. it's also where his father is currently living." sehun explains then, looking out of the window as the train was falling on its way. "i'd say his father is the next victim, so he will be our priority now."

"why?" baekhyun hands the sticky note back to sehun, confusion in his gaze. "it would make sense if minseok was the only case so far, but he's quite random compared to the other victims."

"not at all," sehun smiles that small, knowing smile of his. "i found a hair on minseok, turns out it belonged to yixing." his amusement grows at the surprised look on baekhyun's face. "the victims are all connected somehow. i'd say it was a game to approach mr. kim. quite simple, really."

"it's strange, though," baekhyun mutters, brows still slightly furrowed. "we were given a bloody scenery with the first case, but minseok's was pretty clean. it's like it wasn't done by the same person."

"serial killers get bored easily, baekhyun." sehun shrugs, looking back at his boyfriend. "i wouldn't expect him to always use the same technique."

baekhyun still didn't seem convinced, it being his turn to look out of the window, body clearly tense. sehun eyed him for a second or two before nudging at his leg with his foot, smiling a gentler smile.

"don't be unsettled," he reassures once he had baekhyun's attention back. "it's going to be alright."

"i grew up around this area, actually." sehun recalls with a fond smile, having taken baekhyun to his old neighbourhood on purpose for old time's sake. the police had already been informed and security reinforced on mr. kim after sehun personally instructed him to not go anywhere without bodyguards.

"really?" baekhyun's brows raise in pleasant surprise, suddenly taking a lot more interest in his surroundings, drinking in the details. he was aware sehun was from busan as well, but never had the taller taken him there before.

"yes," sehun hums, finding baekhyun's hand to hold. he intertwined their fingers, bringing them to his mouth for a quick kiss to the back of baekhyun's hand before continuing his walking. "i remember racing jongin home from school in these very streets."

"so you were once a child too." baekhyun comments with a teasing smile, it being an inner joke of their circle of friends that sehun was much more machine-like than anything else.

sehun smiles, amused. "indeed." he hums. "a very smart one, too."

baekhyun laughs. "of course."

"i used to hate it when our mum took us to the beach," sehun continues his trip to memory land then, sharing bits and pieces of his childhood as a way to pass time. "jongin always tanned so prettily, but i'd just burn. no matter how much sunscreen mother threw on me, by dinner i already looked like a child-sized lobster."

"not so different from nowadays, then." baekhyun adds with another little laugh, which increases when he sees sehun dramatically roll his eyes. he couldn't deny, though.

"i'd also frustrate jongin by telling him how all of his videogames would end without even playing them." sehun recalls. "he would get so upset, it was awfully amusing. especially since i was always right."

which certainly came as another surprise.

he was just about to talk about that one time he and jongin brought home a puppy from the streets when his phone started ringing, halting his walking and making him dig in his pants pocket for the device. he frowned at the number while baekhyun eyed him curiously, before using his thumb to slide to the green button. "—hello?"

sehun stared down at the body, and the body stared up at him.

"she was found an hour ago just like this." the local police man explained. "apparently she drowned and washed ashore, but the reason we called you is because she has the letter J carved on her. i believe this is familiar to you."

sehun closed his eyes, exhaling slowly. he had felt awfully confident, absolutely certain that he had put the pieces together, that he had connected all the murders together and found the real victim the murderer was trying to get to.

and now, this - an elderly woman who ruins the men-only pattern, who has no relations whatsoever to any of the past cases, who destroys sehun's assumptions and deductions in a blink of eye.

and sehun is never, ever wrong about his guesses.

he feels baekhyun's hand on his arm, a gentle tug of reassurance, of comfort, but sehun shrugs him off and walks to kneel next to the body.

"she used to work at a local, tiny grocery store." sehun says, head tilting as he eyed the body with furrowed brows in search of any wound other than the J carved through her clothes. there was nothing, which was hardly surprising; drowning her shouldn't require much force.

"you got that just from looking at her?" he hears baekhyun ask in disbelief, to which sehun sighs.

"i used to go to her store buy candy with jongin when i was younger." he explains, perhaps in a rather snappy way, though it was prone to happen with the frustration creeping up on his chest, attaching to his ribcage. "she has no connections to the other victims. she's certainly retired by now. it doesn't make sense."

no one says a thing. the wind from the ocean is fresh, but the air is heavy. if sehun doesn't understand, certainly the others don't either.

perhaps the connections between the victims weren't as simple as sehun thought they would be.

"i don't get it." sehun repeats for the nth time, pacing around his living room, fingertips pressing together as he leaned his face against his hands, as if that would help him think better.

"i was right," baekhyun lightly comments from where he was sitting, making sehun stop in his tracks with furrowed brows.

"what?"

"the victim was quite random again," baekhyun says, almost carefully so. "maybe minseok was aleatory too. maybe all of these cases are."

"no. there are connections, baekhyun," sehun says, putting emphasis into his words as he felt frustration building up again. "there were connections between all the victims. there must be a connection with her too, but i've researched all i could. she wasn't more than a simple old woman."

"sehun," baekhyun sighs then, standing up from the couch and making his way towards the taller. "you're starting to get stressed out. that's not going to help."

"but it made so much sense," sehun mumbles, feeling his body relax almost immediately so as baekhyun's hands started gently rubbing up and down his arms, as if the smaller's touch was all he needed to feel at ease again. he feels himself being lead towards the sofa and he doesn't fight it, his subconscious allowing baekhyun to take care of him. "it made so much sense and now it doesn't anymore."

"it's okay," baekhyun says, and when he speaks to sehun with that soft voice of his, it almost feels as if the detective is being enchanted. he gets sehun to sit down on the couch and he's climbing onto his lap afterwards, hands now cupping the taller's face. "it's okay to be wrong sometimes, sehun."

sehun frowns and glances elsewhere, something akin to a pout forming in his lips as baekhyun squeezes his cheeks just a little. "well i dislike being wrong."

the childish way he replied had baekhyun laughing and were it anyone else sehun would have gotten mad, but baekhyun's laugh is music to his ears and it eases him again. "i know you do," he hears baekhyun whisper as his lips found their way to sehun's neck, pressing slow, open-mouthed kisses to the skin. "that's why i know you'll figure it out again, but first i need to make sure you don't burn your brain stressing out like this."

sehun sighs in reply, feeling as if he should not be losing time like this when he should be working on the case, but his hands find baekhyun's waist to hold and he's slowly but surely giving in under the shorter's touches.

baekhyun was awfully good to him, and in between soft kisses and gentle caresses, sehun wonders if his boyfriend feels lonely around him.

the smell of tobacco fills the room while sehun watches, bored, the smoke as it leaves his lips and dances in front of him before vanishing. he thought smoking was like killing; it could be rough with coughed out fume, it could be elegant with smooth twirls, it could be artistic even. but no matter how careful you might be, how fast you might finish a cigarette, the scent is always the most difficult to get rid of.

his gaze wanders to his left where baekhyun lies on his stomach, still asleep, arms tucked under his pillow. his eyes follow the curve of baekhyun’s bare back until where his body disappears into the wrinkled, white bedsheets and sehun sighs another wave of unspoken grey words.

he watches as his free hand moves to run his fingers through baekhyun’s black hair, gently pushing it back and away from his face, noting how he was already in need of a haircut. it’s in moments like these that he realises how fast he learns things about everyone around him, yet how easily he overlooks changes in his own boyfriend, how he doesn’t seem to notice small details anymore.

his mind is too clouded with murder and guilt sinks in sehun’s stomach as he realises he’s becoming too indulged in his job to pay him proper attention.

the sun is setting, pouring a beautiful blend of pink and orange over the city of seoul. the floor is marked with multiple shadows like stains on a canvas, cast from buildings and cars and people, but not one as peculiar and unique as the one cast by the corpse before sehun’s eyes.

stuck above, hanging upside down from a telephone pole, out in daylight for the naked public eye to see. fresh blood still drips from the corpse’s clothes, one tiny drop at a time, falling onto the pavement in a silent rhythm.

jongdae whistles quietly behind him and sehun can feel a headache forming.

“huang zitao,” baekhyun reads from the file, raising his eyebrows a little with a hum. “well, this kicks us right back into the chinese men pattern.” he comments, looking through the photos of the young man, as well as the crime scene ones.

“i knew him,” sehun comments, pacing back and forth in his sitting room as he always did, brows furrowed in concentration.

confusion is audible in baekhyun’s voice. “you did?”

“i mean, barely.” sehun corrects with a shrug, waving his hands a little as he continues his incessant walking. “i met him when i spent a year in china, but that’s it.”

“wait, you spent a year in-”

“it’s true he fits the earlier pattern, but that was already broken by minseok, not to mention mrs. choi from busan.” sehun cuts off, voicing his thoughts and disregarding - or rather, hardly hearing - baekhyun’s inputs. “which makes yet another aleatory case that simply does not make sense.”

baekhyun crosses his legs on the couch, chin on his hand, eyeing sehun with furrowed brows and a thoughtful, confused expression. “...why didn’t i know you spent a year in china?”

“that was before we met.” sehun explains quickly, own brows furrowing a little in annoyance. “concentrate, baekhyun- why was zitao killed?”

“you tell me,” baekhyun leans back, dropping the subject. “you’re mr. detective here.”

sehun sighs, finally stopping in his tracks. he read through zitao’s filed a hundred times and there was, for sure, no relation nor connection to the earlier murders whatsoever. it was as if the killer was murdering for fun, for his very own amusement, carving J’s and leaving clues just to form tight headache knots in detectives’ heads.

it seemed to take a mastermind to untie them again.

he heard baekhyun’s breath hitch behind him, following by the sounds of him turning around and leaving the room. he glanced over his shoulder as his boyfriend left, wondering for a brief second if the morgue had finally become just a little too much for him to handle, before looking back down at the corpse.

“mercury poisoning.” junmyeon confirmed his thoughts, apprehensive frown audible in his voice as he held the victim’s files against his chest, watching sehun. “a high dose was injected in her body. quite a clean death this time, i guess, considering the others..”

sehun silently agreed, eyes set of the J carved just below the body’s collarbone. “name?”

“kim taeyeon.” junmyeon replies, glancing back down at the files. “a kindergarten teacher. she would sing at bars sometimes, too.”

there it was. the headache, coming slowly, slowly, wrapping its crooked fingers around his mind, squeezing.

“do you think there’s any connection to the other victims?” he asks, bringing a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose, frowning at the forming frustration.

“not that i can think of.”

“figured.”

sehun straightens himself, ignoring the rather offended look junmyeon threw his way. seconds tick away slowly, static silence filling the air as sehun stared harder and harder at the corpse, as if the puzzle pieces would come together on their own if only he did it enough.

“where did baekhyun go?” junmyeon is the one who breaks through the silence, hands moving to pull the sheet over the corpse, putting an end to sehun’s examination.

the detective’s gaze moves slowly from the covered body back up to the pathologist, acknowledging the question, before looking towards the exit once more. “i don’t know.”

“so,” jongdae starts, disbelief and perhaps a tiny bit of amusement to his tone. “you can’t figure it out?”

“i haven’t figured it out yet.” sehun corrects, annoyed by jongdae’s choice of words. he has copies of all the victims’ files scattered across his desk, yet the more he looks at them, the harder it is to think. part of him blames it on jongdae; the shorter’s presence decreases his IQ by the second, honestly.

“right.” he nods slowly, kitten-ish smile curling on his lips though he didn’t dare to push his teasing any further.

“she was twenty-six years old. that makes her the second oldest from the victims so far, but there’s still quite a huge age gap from her to mrs. choi.” sehun thinks outloud, leaning over the papers, hands on gripping at the table. “anyway, that’s hardly relevant. she was born and raised in seoul and she has no records of ever being involved with any of the chinese men whatsoever.” he sighs, turning away from the files and leaning back against the table, leaning his hands against his face. “i feel like there’s something obvious here that i’m overlooking.”

there is a moment of silence that followed - and then baekhyun stood up. “excuse me,” he mutters, hardly audible at all, before turning and making his way towards the bedroom instead.

sehun watched after him, the unfamiliarity of the situation along with the out-of-character behaviour from his boyfriend’s part awakening a feeling of worry in him. he shares a look with jongdae, who stares back at him, and suddenly feels as if there’s something more he’s overlooking that is not related to the murders.

“is he-”

“okay? you should go and ask him yourself.” jongdae says with a shrug, keeping the gentle, casual smile of his, yet his eyes were clearly urging sehun; trying to get through his thick skull filled with mysteries and detective stories. “did you forget taeyeon was baekhyun’s ex?”

sehun’s mouth opens in sudden realisation, then closes again.

“thought so.” jongdae breathes out a laugh, head shaking a little. “go talk to him.”

three knocks to the door before sehun was twisting the handle, stepping in. “baekhyun?”

the shorter sat on the bed, apparently doing nothing more than being lost in his own thoughts, but a smile spreads on his lips as per usual as his gaze meets sehun’s, albeit a tad tiredly so. “hey, you.”

sehun’s lips purse together, closing the door behind him; he figured jongdae would entertain himself in either the sitting room or the kitchen (he always did, anyway), and thus walked further in the room. he had known about baekhyun and taeyeon, yet the whole serial killer situation managed to take the complete space of his mind, claiming its place in there and leaving no room for other details.

even those regarding his own boyfriend.

“are you alright?” sehun asks carefully, the mattress sinking slightly as he sat next to the shorter, bony fingers finding baekhyun’s to hold. he feels the shorter relaxing for the touch alone, and baekhyun shrugs.

“yeah.. it had been a while. years since i last spoke to her.” baekhyun says, taking the opportunity to finally speak his mind now that he had the chance. “it’s just.. strange, you know? that someone i once knew so well is..” he trails off, words turning to ash in his mouth before he can say anything, but there is no need for it does not take a detective this time to figure the end to this sentence.

sehun’s hand squeezes baekhyun in his and the shorter’s head leans against his shoulder. “suddenly it all feels a lot more threatening when it’s about someone you know, doesn’t it?” sehun hums, own head resting against his boyfriend’s, lips pressing a kiss to the top of his hair. “are you scared?”

“kinda.” baekhyun breathes out a chuckle of defeat. “but i know once you find out who this is it will be alright again. right?”

sehun’s stomach sinks and he feels pressured, but determined. he squeezes baekhyun’s hand once more. “right.”

"—and i thought we could invite jongdae too, you know, so he won't do that thing where he calls me and whines for about thirteen minutes before he even lets me explain why we didn't invite him along." baekhyun hummed in between his task of trailing kisses along sehun's jaw, nosing at him. "it's really annoying, i don't know who he's trying to impress with his loudness."

sehun hums a little in reply, very aware he has disconnected for a while there and heard not a single word of what baekhyun had been telling him. he squirms a little when baekhyun's hot breath tingles that one specific, sensitive spot under his ear, and his hands find baekhyun's waist to hold onto.

baekhyun suddenly plops down on his lap then, earning an 'oomph' from sehun from the sudden, purposely heavy weight. it does succeed in earning his attention though, the taller looking down at the mop of black hair that stared back at him with a raised brow. "are you even listening?"

"yeah," sehun lies, a hand moving instead to rub at his own face. "you were talking about.. jongdae's whines."

"right." baekhyun rolls his eyes, playfully so, but there may or may not be a hint of disappointment - or perhaps frustration - to the act. "i was talking about our dinner tomorrow."

sehun isn't quite following yet. "we're going out for dinner..?"

"oh my god," baekhyun huffs, brows furrowing a little as his hands move to the taller's shoulders now, giving them a slight squeeze almost as a wake up call. "we decided that like last week. i know you can go two days sitting in the same place without eating, but i enjoy treating myself every now and then. and as a good boyfriend, i figure i should make sure you try to have a normal meal once in a while, too."

sehun nods slowly, eyeing baekhyun as if still attempting to remember just when that was decided. "huh."

baekhyun gives up on his posture and slouches, gaze fixed on sehun's. "alright, what's up?"

guilt hits sehun's chest like a snapping elastic and he looks elsewhere. "nothing.. i mean- i don't know."

baekhyun drums his fingers against sehun's shoulders, impatient. "well?"

"it's been too long," sehun says then, finding baekhyun's gaze again. he watched as baekhyun sighs dramatically, but this is important and he must put emphasis into it. "baekhyun, it's been too long- he's gone. just like that, without a trace."

a month and two weeks had passed since taeyeon's murder and no mysterious corpses bearing a bloody J came in the news again. it was as if the serial killer had gotten bored, moved on to something else, leaving sehun clueless and with a major case still waiting to be solved.

"maybe he stopped, sehun." baekhyun tries with another little sigh, fingers now beginning to massage the taller's shoulders, an attempt at being patient. "i don't know, maybe something happened. maybe he got bored, i mean, can you understand these people? just forget about it."

"i can't forget about it, baek." it's sehun's turn to sigh, leaning against the bed's headboard. "what if he comes back out of nowhere? what if he's planning something? and if he really did disappear- why?"

"well i don't know, do i?" baekhyun adds a tad too much pressure to the little massage and sehun winces, but he stops afterwards. "geez, sehun.. aren't you getting a bit too obsessed with this case?"

sehun's brows furrow, unaware of the subcontext to baekhyun's words, of the subtle warning and wish for change. "i have to solve this, baekhyun."

the shorter gives up with a sigh, momentarily looking down in apparent thought. "right," he mumbles then, leaning in to press a kiss to sehun's forehead before he's standing up, grabbing his phone from the nightstand. "don't forget about dinner tomorrow."

and he leaves the room.

this was not how he expected him to return.

sehun walked into the morgue, organised papers of all victims so far tightly held in his hand, rereading the recent data on taeyeon's case as he pushed open the doors for a conversation attempt with someone who will, hopefully, aid him in his thinking. "hey, junmyeon—"

the sound of papers scattering across the floor echoed as sehun stared at junmyeon's limp, hanging body. grotesquely nailed to the back of his hand was a post-it note.

" did you miss me?
— jugeum "

junmyeon was not the only victim this time, sehun was quick to find out after a frantic call from his brother, jongin, barely able to speak from the shock of coming home to his boyfriend murdered in their very own living room.

the environment was tense as sehun stared at the two lying bodies, the nasty, J-shaped wounds still rather fresh-looking on their chests. baekhyun was outside the morgue, comforting jongin, and jongdae was by his side. this was perhaps the first time, ever since sehun's met jongdae, that the latter was aware the situation was far too serious to throw in a mood-lifting joke.

in fact, he had never looked so serious himself.

"things are going to get complicated now, aren't they?"

sehun nodded faintly.

"we know the J stands for jugeum now, but whether or not it's his real name is unknown." sehun breathes out, almost shakily so, pinning papers to his wall with tape and pushpins, almost frantically so. baekhyun watched, quietly, in the background. "we can only assume for now, though- i already have the police researching on every person that goes by this name. they should come back with results within twenty-four hours, hopefully so, or so god help me-"

"sehun." baekhyun calls, frown audible in his voice, worry rough around the corner.

but the taller is far too focused to listen, stepping backwards to admire his work, palms flattened together pressing against his lips. it looked like a mess, with scribbled arrows and gibberish-looking notes attached everywhere amidst all the case files, but it must have made sense to sehun for he stared at it with wide eyes, reading the map like it was morning paper.

"how could i be so blind?" he breathes out then, realisation sinking in, paranoia knocking on the back door. "how come i- it's right in front of me-"

"what is?" baekhyun tries again, wary.

that seemed to be the right question to ask for sehun turns suddenly, arms raised a little as if to put emphase to the situation. "trying to find connections between the victims was dumb- there are none. it's not about them. it's about me." he says, signalling to himself. "it was always about me, all of these are about me- i don't know why, but he's trying to get to me-"

"wow, wow- hold on." baekhyun raises his own hands a little, looking almost frightened over the sudden rush of adrenaline on sehun's part. "why would you even draw that conclusion?"

"the first three murders were purposely done so they would confuse me, leading me to think the matter was about them- but it wasn't. it never was. all jugeum wanted was to get to minseok, because he is from my hometown. that's the first major clue, baek, and i completely overlooked it." he says, barely breathing in between. "the old lady? she doesn't relate to the previous cases, but she relates to me, because i visited her shop as a kid. zitao is another obvious one- and taeyeon, she was killed because she's your ex-girlfriend, and you are related to me."

"sehun-" baekhyun interrupts, looking uneasy over the situation, hoping sehun would not faint from forgetting how to breathe. "sehun, aren't you- aren't you being a little paranoid now?"

"junmyeon was close to me, and kyungsoo- he was my brother's boyfriend." sehun continues, disregarding baekhyun's worry, turning towards the papers once more. he walks forwards, hands pressing to the wall, eyes scanning them quickly. "but how could he- how could he know?"

there were details to this that made sense to sehun, that did not, however, make sense when put in a supposed stranger's perspective. how could jugeum possibly know so much about sehun's relations and past, why would he seek after him for so long?

"jugeum.. jugeum is someone close to me. he has to be." sehun mumbles then, breathing erratically from all the quick thinking, all the suddenly drawn conclusions. "but who? junmyeon was murdered too- hardly anyone knew about kyungsoo, he and jongin kept their relation extremely private. jongdae knew, but he did not know about busan, much less mrs. choi-"

and then it hits him. slowly, he turns to look towards baekhyun.

that action alone seemed to be enough for baekhyun to realise too.

"oh my god," he breathes out, horror and disbelief washing over his features. "you don't think- sehun, are you out of your mind..?!"

"you knew about mrs. choi." sehun says, speaking much slower now, breathing still rather heavy. his wide eyes are fixed on baekhyun now and he can't move. "you knew about kyungsoo, too- no one else did, baekhyun, no one else but you-"

"are you even listening to yourself right now?" baekhyun looked scandalised by the realisation, and he would be offended if not only he wasn't so shocked. "sehun, holy shit- i've been with you all this time! i've hardly ever left your side, i've been helping you with these cases- and do you really think i'd have taeyeon murdered?" he accuses, something akin to anger mixing in his voice as well.

taeyeon. sehun almost forgot.

his words take the detective slightly aback, making him reconsider, throat dry. his thoughts are running at high speed, loud and shaky in his mind, making fear settle in place of surprise. "but you- you're-"

"have you even slept these days, sehun? are you even in your right mind?" baekhyun sighs, and sehun barely even realised the shorter walked towards him until baekhyun's hands were grabbing sehun's arms, forcing him to meet his gaze. "i don't match the clues, sehun. you're letting it get too much to your head." he shakes his head. "and honestly, it's getting a bit frightening for me too."

sehun stares down at baekhyun, chest heaving up and down, slowly calming down from the adrenaline rush - and with it comes the fear, the helpless feeling and the loss of hope. his shoulders sink and his chest aches, yelling at him for his actions. "i'm sorry," he breathes out, feeling as if he could crumble onto baekhyun at any moment now. "i'm sorry- i just- i don't know how he could know these things.. i don't know, i don't get it-"

"i don't, either.." baekhyun sighs again, hands rubbing up and down sehun's arms, calming him, reassuring him. he eyed sehun with a tired, almost sad gaze, as if he, too, was starting to lose hope. his hands find sehun's cheeks to hold and he eyes him closely. "but it's going to be okay, alright? it's going to be okay."

sehun swallows dryly and nods slowly.

it's going to be okay.

this was, by far, the most grotesque murder scene of all. they call it the blood eagle.

a medieval torture method featured in norse saga legends, it consisted on exposing the victim's spine followed by breaking and pulling open the ribs in such way to resemble wings. the lungs were then exposed to finalise the torture and lead to the prisoner's death.

there are debates on whether these were real, used practices or a literacy invention, but to see it with his own eyes truly was a whole new experience that surely not everyone could stomach.

sehun was far too shocked himself to stop baekhyun from walking into the room, asking who the victim was this time.

his boyfriend's scream echoes in the silence of the room as he sees jongdae with his exposed bloody ribs and a broken neck.

baekhyun was inconsolable after jongdae's death. sobbed for hours after the incident, wept throughout the whole week. nothing sehun said or did to him seemed to lift his spirits and eventually sehun decided to let baekhyun cope with the loss on his own accord, at his own pace, watching with an aching heart as baekhyun - who was always restless, always on the move - sat for hours to no end on their sitting room window, staring outside.

sehun often complained about his need for quiet, often told the duo to shut up while he was trying to think - and now he found himself missing jongdae's loudness more than anything.

it had been even more difficult to continue working on the cases; baekhyun didn't help him anymore, didn't even want to hear about them, and sehun understood. he, too, didn't want to rub the deaths of his ex-girlfriend and best friend in his face, for even if so many people would swear otherwise, sehun does, in fact, comprehend emotional pain.

to a certain extent, he does.

visiting the morgue had never felt so gloomy as it did now, without junmyeon's presence too, and the deaths of so many known people were definitely starting to weight him down, slouching his back and digging bags under his eyes.

a week went by but it felt like a month and it was with dragged feet that sehun made his way towards bed, where baekhyun was already lying. the shorter's back was turned to him and the lights were out, but sehun knew baekhyun was wide awake. he, too, had been unable to sleep lately.

the bed creaks softly when sehun crawls under the covers and his arms move around baekhyun's middle, pulling their bodies closer. he feels baekhyun momentarily stiffen in his arms, the affection surely taking him aback (they had been far too broken on their own to share any sort of physical care lately), but relaxes shortly after. the silence between them feels suffocating until baekhyun breaks it, voice tiny but hoarse.

"i miss him," he confesses in a shaky breath. "i miss jongdae."

sehun's lips press to the back of baekhyun's hair, eyes falling shut. "i know," he confesses in return. "i miss him too."

he tucks baekhyun closer in his embrace, pieces of his broken heart pooling at his feet each time he heard baekhyun sniffle in his arms.

another half a week and baekhyun was volunteering to help sehun out again. he was in no conditions of doing so, which was clear to the naked eye, but sehun didn't have the heart to tell him no when baekhyun insisted he had to do something or he'd go mad.

"what are we looking for?" baekhyun asks, struggling to keep his voice from cracking, arms tightly wrapped around himself as he looked around what not along ago was jongdae's living room.

"clues." sehun replies, guilt heavy on him for bringing baekhyun to jongdae's house, but the shorter had insisted and sehun figured the logical thing was only to proceed as professionally as one possibly could. "anything, really."

he sees baekhyun nod by the corner of his eye and thus continues on looking, trusty magnifying glass in his hands, sharp eyes careful with every tiny detail. baekhyun walks around the room as well, in a much more wary way, but it's clear he's attempting to help and sehun feels proud of his strength.

he felt like he never gave baekhyun enough credit to how emotionally strong he truly was.

"sehun," baekhyun called after a moment, his gaze set behind the couch. "come here."

and sehun does, making his way next to baekhyun, peeking behind the couch just the same. his brows furrow slightly and he crouches down, picking up a spray can. he turns it in his hand. "glow in the dark paint.." he reads outloud, before turning towards baekhyun quickly. "shut the windows."

baekhyun obeys without a word and sehun aids him in the task, blocking out all light until the room was in complete darkness - apart from the glow of numbers above the couch, sprayed onto the wall.

37.527927
127.05069

baekhyun stared at it, confused, but it took sehun a fraction of a second to understand. "what does it mean?" he hears baekhyun ask, just as sehun is taking out his mobile phone.

"they're coordinates." sehun says, thumbs quickly working to find out the location. it takes a moment to type, two moments to load, and none for horror to settle in his sternum.

baekhyun senses it, even if the dark, eyeing sehun with unease. "what is it?"

gulping, sehun breathes out, "jongin."

sehun ran all the way back to jongin's house which his brother had hardly left ever since kyungsoo's death, the adrenaline mixed with fear causing his heart to race against his chest. there were no possible words for how much relief he felt upon seeing jongin open the door, looking as well as he possibly could in his situation of grief, confused as to his younger brother's sudden, panicked visit.

"he's gonna come here," sehun breathes out to baekhyun after they had successfully convinced jongin to leave the house, insisting on him to wait at sehun's apartment for the time being. sehun held his handgun tightly, making sure baekhyun wouldn't let go of his own, either. "he's gonna come at any time."

"sehun, it's been one week and a half since," jongdae's death, was what baekhyun would have said had he not trailed off, but sehun understood either way. "what makes you sure he'll come today?"

"because he was waiting for us to find the clues." sehun replies, simple as that, and it's enough for baekhyun to go quiet.

they stand on watch, listening to any noise. baekhyun moved up the stairs to the front door, watching the house closer, while sehun stayed surrounding the backyard. seconds turned to minutes and minutes turned to over one hour; baekhyun was starting to grow impatient, relaxing his posture and looking bored, but sehun remained on watch without fault, waiting, anticipating, expecting.

and then — the sound of a snapping branch from behind the door.

sehun shot baekhyun an alert gaze before he ran towards the noise, mile-long legs taking him fast, ensuring the murderer would not get away once more. it was with surprise that would almost be comical if only it weren't frustrating in every single way that sehun found not a serial kiiller but a cat that very easily ran off again, jumping off the fence upon seeing sehun. a heavy sigh fell past the detective's lips, shoulders sinking, and he, too, starting feeling the chills of losing hope.

that was, until fright hit him strongly all over again.

"—sehun!"

sehun could swear he never ran faster, pretty much flying up the stairs towards the open front door, gun held tightly in his hand. quicker than not he was already in jongin's living room, breathlessly staring at baekhyun tightly held in place by a taller man, the mouth of a gun pressing against his temple. baekhyun was incredibly collected though the urgency in his gaze was undeniable, and sehun felt anger burn his chest when he saw baekhyun's lip was bleeding.

still, he knew better than to jump onto sudden attacks. he straightened himself, gaze drifting from baekhyun's tiny wound to the man. he was tall, perhaps taller than sehun himself, overgrown brown fringe falling onto his large, wide eyes. "jugeum." sehun assumed, greeting him as if greeting an old friend.

the greeting seems to please the man whose sick grin grows wider, rather breathless himself (presumably from a fight with baekhyun beforehand), tugging the shorter closer to him. "hello, sehun. at last we meet."

sehun's gaze drifts towards baekhyun again, before focusing back on the taller. "i was beginning to wonder if you'd never grant me the honour."

"oh, you must forgive me." jugeum chuckles, low voice rather raspy itself. "i am quite shy."

"so i've figured." sehun hums, hiding quite well how uneasy he felt from the way the taller's finger was wrapped so strategically around the gun's trigger. there was an undeniable sense of the pride in the way that he was finally able to catch the man who's occupied his thoughts for the past months, but that was definitely not the time for early victories.

"don't mind me." baekhyun sarcastically comments, almost struggling to breathe with the tight grip jugeum had around him. "i'm quite comfortable here."

"jugeum," sehun's head tilts, arm extending to point the handgun right towards the criminal. "if you could please hand my boyfriend over, i'd be extremely thankful."

"put that down, sehun." judgeum says as if scolding a child, head shaking in fake disappointment. "we don't need weapons to kill each other."

"you're right," sehun hums, arm lowering. "let go of baekhyun, then."

jugeum eyes him for a second, as if pondering whether he trusts him or not, and he glances at baekhyun who raises his brows back at him, challenging. it earns a grin on the tallest's lips and it's with a laugh that he gives baekhyun a harsh push, throwing him out of the picture before returning his gaze to sehun. "there," he hums, dropping his own handgun by his side. "shall we solve this in a civilized manner, now?"

"it'd love to," sehun replies, own little grin of victory growing on his lips before he's extending his arm straight ahead again, weapon pointed at the taller. baekhyun mimics his actions by picking up the handgun jugeum just dropped. "but i think the police would be delighted to do that in my place instead."

jugeum looks incredibly calm at this, expression not faltering despite now having the mouths of two guns pointed right towards his head, and sehun wonders, for that one moment, if getting caught was jugeum's plan.

a tired mastermind, giving up on his own little game at last.

a decadent fall for a decadent murderer.

"park chanyeol," sehun reads from the file just outside the police station, snort escaping past his lips. "jugeum wasn't even his real name."

baekhyun's gaze is intently fixed on the building, expression unreadable. sehun watches him, wonders what is going on in baekhyun's mind, but he refrains from asking questions; the man who killed people dear to them has finally been put to jail, thus sehun assumed it is only natural for there to be a lot going on in baekhyun's mind at the moment.

but at last, they could find rest now.

"it's over," baekhyun mutters, eyes finally finding sehun's gaze to hold, small smile curling on his lips. "you did it."

and a rush of pride washes over sehun, grants him peace at last. "i did."

the silence is heavy and deafening, echoing within the sickening white walls. no one dares to say a word, no one dares to move a finger.

sehun leans over his brother's corpse, hands gripping each side of the steel surface where he lied, pale and lifeless after being found with a hole on his nape, spineless. a macabre way to murder someone, slow and certain to be painful.

sehun's gaze remained fixed on the J carved just under jongin's collarbone.

the first thing sehun does upon being allowed in chanyeol's cell is to connect his fist to the prisoner's jaw.

"shit," baekhyun hisses behind him, but certainly does not stop sehun from landing another punch on the man. sehun was livid beyond belief, having left the morgue without a single word and heading straight towards prison to confront chanyeol - jugeum - himself.

"why?" sehun asks, voice shaky, breathing erratic. "why was jongin killed? how?"

chanyeol just gives him a sick grin in reply and it makes sehun shove him against the wall, grabbing a fistful of the taller's collar. "are you not the only jugeum? are there more? do you have people working for you?"

"sehun," baekhyun calls from behind them. "i'm all for you beating the crap out of him, but let's not get into trouble here, alright?"

sehun heard him, acknowledging his words though his gaze didn't falter away from chanyeol, keeping the tight grip on him. chanyeol however had his own gaze fixed on baekhyun instead, the sick grin remaining on his lips, and sehun shook his angrily. "look at me when i'm talking to you!" he demands, but chanyeol's gaze remained on baekhyun.

"london bridge is falling down," chanyeol sing-songs slowly, dragging the syllables, grin growing wider. "my fair lady."

sehun losens his grip, looking at baekhyun who just looks back at him, confusion clear in his gaze just the same, and sehun makes a noise of annoyance before shoving chanyeol to the floor.

he leaves the cell with fast, furious steps, chanyeol's distant laughter ringing in his eardrums.

he doesn't bother catching a cab despite the fact that it began to rain meanwhile, feeling that walking his path back home would be calming to his nerves at least slightly so. he walks fast, hands stuck in his jacket's pockets, hair starting to stick to his forehead from the small but persistent raindrops. he bumps into one or two persons on his way, all of them attempting to escape the rain or fighting against the wind that attempted to take their umbrellas, but there's not a single worry on his mind despite the fact that this case was, after all, unsolved still.

he's already more than halfway near his apartment when his mobile phone buzzes in his pocket and sehun clicks his tongue, figuring it was baekhyun as he realised just now that he left the station and baekhyun failed to follow behind.

certainly nothing could have lead him to expect the text

[from: unknown (05:32pm) ]
let's meet up? ♥
— jugeum

never did sehun reply to a text so fast.

the chosen location didn't seem like the most strategic on jugeum's part, it being one of the few open fields in the outskirts of the city where buildings had not been built yet, but certainly not a dumb choice either. although there were houses around, there was no one on the streets anymore; the soft rain turned heavy and the sand and dirt turned into mud beneath sehun's shoes as he walked more towards the centre, cautious gaze eyeing his surroundings.

there wasn't a single person, a single noise besides the static noise of the pouring rain — until, at last, someone turned around the corner of a house, feet leading to the open field where sehun stood.

the detective squinted, wondering if the bad weather was affecting his vision, but the person approaching fooled no one and confusion became clear in sehun's face. "baekhyun?" he calls, unsure how the shorter would have followed him there, wary of the reason baekhyun would find his way there.

"hello, sehun." baekhyun greets calmly as ever though, stopping within a few meters of the taller, smile curling on his lips as his head tilts. "did you miss me?"

sehun is sure he forgets how to breathe.

"baekhyun," he sighs as if the sudden realisation had taken all energy from his body, stripping him of his confidence and leaving the exhausted, confused boy that sehun has been inside since the beginning of this case. he doesn't want to believe it; he refuses to do so. "why?"

"oh, why not?" baekhyun hums in return, raising his arms a little as if to add emphasis to his question, taking shorts steps closer. "i thought it would be fun. such a young man, influenced by detective books and movies, deceived by his own mind. you are awfully cute, you know?"

sehun shakes his head in disbelief, feeling his throat close up on him. "chanyeol—"

"an idiot, really. as fucked up as we both are for sure." baekhyun hums. "did all i told him to do like a pup eager to impress. awfully efficient, though. i just had to give him a name and a desired killing method and he'd get the job within twenty-four hours."

sehun's mouth open, then closes. he's shaking and it's not from the rain. "so all this time-"

"yes, baby." baekhyun coos. "it's been me all along. it's been me way before jugeum." he adds, and his smile widens upon the look on sehun's face. "ever since we met i wanted to play a game with you. i mean, young detective oh sehun who thinks he can figure out a person's background on a glance at their clothes- you were awfully naïve to the real world. you thought you were so mature, but it was all a façade, wasn't it?" he hums. "all those murder cases you've solved, sehun- who do you think left the clues? who do you think lead you to succeed, to solve it so effortlessly?"

sehun shakes his head, lowering it, bringing a hand to his forehead.

"it was me. i killed them and then i left clues for you. i watched as you were so proud of yourself, of your amazing skills when you were, in fact, just a child putting together puzzle pieces." baekhyun laughs. "i must admit i did grow affectionate of you at some point, which was why i figured it was about time i'd set up one last big game for you. feelings fuck you up, sehun-ah. i won't be the one to fall."

"you killed your friends," sehun breathes out, shaky, thoughts running far too fast and far too loud for someone who just got stuck in time. "you cried over jongdae for days."

"of course i did." baekhyun replies as if it's the most casual thing, brows raising high in his forehead. "you wouldn't have believed me otherwise, would you? you figured me out once back there, sehun. i had to make sure you wouldn't believe it was me anymore until now."

sehun is rendered speechless, staring now at the muddy ground, dazed. a moment goes by and sehun's body gives in; he falls to his knees.

"it's going to be okay, baby." baekhyun coos once more, and although sehun isn't looking at him anymore, he hears the cocking of a gun. baekhyun kneels in front of him, free hand cupping his cheek, and sehun feels baekhyun's lips press to his wet forehead. "i'll do it so you won't feel a thing."

baekhyun stands back up and sehun doesn't move, doesn't twitch a muscle.

reality sinks onto him and he is empty of reactions, of choices; he accepts it instead.

he lost.

the cold metal of the gun's mouth presses to the top of his head and he hears a smile on baekhyun's lips. "any last words, sehun-ah?"

the slightest shiver runs down sehun's spine and his eyes close.

he smiles.

"may we meet again."