CASE 3 - The Girl Next Door

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The sounds of chatting and typing on the laptops...

The sounds of the espresso machine pouring out every shot while the milk was steaming in its pitcher next to it.

These were the usual sounds that Hakyeon have been accustomed to ever since he started at this part-time job.

Hakyeon works as a barista twice a week in order to help with paying his school tuition and on his day offs, he would also go around to volunteer either at a local hospital or an orphanage. He kept himself busy and despite that, he still had time for himself.

"One mocha with an extra shot of espresso," the customer ordered.

"Sure, anything else for you?" Hakyeon punched in the order.

"No, that's all. Thanks," she said and went off to the side after paying to receive her drink.

One order after another, Hakyeon was busy at work like always and the café was a bit short on hands especially during exam weeks. There were a lot more students sitting inside the café, studying and doing their assignments before the deadline. Hakyeon understood how they felt completely but luckily for him, he had finished most of his major assignments as soon as they were assigned and now, he only has to focus on what was left and keep up with his studies.

If only Jaehwan would do the same...

Hakyeon sighed just thinking about his younger friend who always seems to be thinking of something else or playing around somewhere. Hakyeon have known Jaehwan for a long time and although they have a lot in common, they also have things that were completely different from one another. Jaehwan was always the bright kid who cheered him up and followed him wherever he went. No matter what Hakyeon decides to do, Jaehwan would never argue with the older and simply followed behind, even if it means going into an university that he wasn't interested in.

He's such an idiot, Hakyeon knew exactly why Jaehwan went to the same university as him. Jaehwan is like an open-book after all. But Hakyeon didn't dislike it.

And the fact that Jaehwan always told Hakyeon that the older is his 'hero' brought Hakyeon a smile to his face.

"You're in a good mood," his co-worker, Minhyuk, noticed.

"Kind of," Hakyeon said.

"Well, you've worked hard for today. Will you be in tomorrow?"

"No, it's my day off, so I need to do some studying," Hakyeon responded.

"I see. Well, good luck with that and see you when I see you!" Minhyuk patted Hakyeon on the back and left to start his shift.

Hakyeon went into the back to the staff locker room and got changed out of his uniform. He grabbed his backpack and said goodbye his co-workers before he left the café. On his way back home, he decided to pass by the bookstore to check out a few new books that were published recently. One of them was Profess Park's 'The Perfect Crime'.

Hakyeon flipped through the book to see what this new release was about and immediately became intrigued by the content. Everything about the book was written through the eyes of several criminals who believed their crimes were perfect. Hakyeon couldn't help but continue to read on and since this was written by his role model, he decided to buy the book right away. Hakyeon have always been interested in criminal studies since he was in high school and he knew he wanted to pursue a career in it. But whenever he thought about Jaehwan following him behind, he couldn't help but feel a bit bad for it. After all, Jaehwan has no interest in criminology.

The younger doesn't even bother to watch the news or read the papers, he knew nothing about the law and nothing about crime. Jaehwan have always been more on the artistic side of things and even if he wasn't, his parents would definitely have wanted Jaehwan to continue their family business. Hakyeon understood well why Jaehwan's parents wanted their younger son to continue their business, because despite how Jaehwan looks or behaves, the younger was good at whatever he sets his mind on doing. His grades have always been very good whenever he wanted and even when he decided to enroll in the same university as Hakyeon, his entrance exam marks were too high to refuse.

Hakyeon sighed a little just thinking about what he could do for Jaehwan and bring the younger's motivation up a little so that the younger would act more responsibly.

As Hakyeon was about to pay for his book. He passed by the comic book section and saw the latest edition of 'One Piece' out. Immediately when he saw it, he thought of Jaehwan again.

"I don't think he has this one yet," Hakyeon knew.

So, he decided to grab a copy for the younger as well.

He's going to be ecstatic when sees this, Hakyeon thought. Even though Hakyeon could be a little strict on Jaehwan at times, he cares for Jaehwan a lot. Hakyeon looked through the comic book section and scanned around the other books to see if he could get something else for Jaehwan and as he did, he bumped into someone.

"Badam?" Hakyeon noticed the little boy tiptoeing and scanning the bookshelves for something.

"Hakyeon-hyung!" the boy looked so happy when he saw a familiar face.

"You're off from school?" he noticed Badam's backpack.

"Mhmm!"

"Do you need help?" Hakyeon asked Badam, who seems to have taken interest in some of the books that he couldn't reach.

"N-no. It's okay. I don't have any money to buy them anyways," he sighed.

"I see," Hakyeon couldn't help but give the child a pat on the head. "Are you going to go home soon?"

Badam nodded shyly.

"I'll walk you back," Hakyeon offered.

As Hakyeon accompanied the boy back home, he decided to let Badam read a few of the books he bought for Jaehwan first. Badam looked so happy when he was flipping through the pages and he kept thanking Hakyeon for letting him read the comics.

Since then, Hakyeon became really close with Badam and even invited the child to his part-time job at the café if Badam didn't have anything to do. It didn't seem like Badam wanted to go home after school much nor did his parents called to ask about his whereabouts. Hakyeon didn't mind looking after Badam though since the boy was a very good child. There were times where Hakyeon would also end up helping Badam with his homework. Badam started to look up to Hakyeon unconditionally since he was the only child like Hakyeon. The two of them often hung out together along with Jaehwan, who acted just like Badam's age, if not younger.





"Higher!" Jaehwan pushed Badam on the swing at the playground.

Badam laughed and giggled happily as the three of them played together.

Hakyeon was content just looking at the two play together on the weekend. Jaehwan and Badam ran around the playground without a care in the world and they even invited the other kids to join in.

Jaehwan and the kids started to play Cops n' Robbers', so they divided into two teams and obviously, Jaehwan was the 'cop' where as everyone else were the 'robbers'. Hakyeon watched on the side and saw how happy Badam was just running around and hiding himself from Jaehwan.

"Ready or not, here I come!" Jaehwan shouted after counting down to catch the kids.

Hakyeon and Jaehwan have always only had one another, so playing with the other children was a nice change of pace for once especially since Badam was there.

"Hyung, you're it!" Jaehwan came up to Hakyeon suddenly and said.

"Huh?" Hakyeon was confused and was caught off guard in the midst of his reading.

"Com'on, you can't just sit here and not do anything! You have to play too," Jaehwan insisted.

"But I'm re-, nevermind. Alright then~" Hakyeon got up and put his book down on the bench. "You're it, again!"

Hakyeon ran away after tagging Jaehwan back and the younger ran around to start catching everyone else. After a few hours of playing, it was finally time for some rest and the children had to go home for dinner.

"I'm beat!" Jaehwan said as he laid on the slide to rest. "Did you have fun, Badam-ah?"

"Mhmm!" Badam said and Jaehwan pulled the child in to hug him happily.

"You two have way too much energy," Hakyeon said.

"You just don't have enough, right?" Jaehwan asked Badam and the two chuckled at Hakyeon.

"Badam-ah, come here," Hakyeon said. "You're sweating a lot. Let me wipe your sweat away, so that you don't catch a cold."

Badam went to Hakyeon obediently and lifted his shirt for Hakyeon to dry him but as the older did, both Hakyeon and Jaehwan noticed something...

Bruises and scares covered the child's body.

Hakyeon and Jaehwan looked at each other in concern but decided not to question Badam about it just in case. However, by the looks of the bruises, they could both tell that they weren't created from falling or just playing around. They were intentional, and it looked very painful.

"You saw those, right?" Jaehwan asked Hakyeon as soon as Badam left to go home.

"Yeah..." Hakyeon began to worry.

Neither of them could imagine that something so horrid would happen to such a bright child like Badam. So, they decided to keep an eye on the child. To their horror, they found out that Badam lives alone with his father, who was well-known to be both an irresponsible man and an alcoholic. When the two of them asked the neighbors about what they know of Badam's family, they told the two of them that Badam often got hit by his father. The neighbors tried to stop Badam's father many times and often invited the child over for dinner, since they knew that Badam would starve alone most of the time.

"Badam's mother ran away from home with another man," one of the neighbors told them. "It was an affair so, Badam's father couldn't take it anymore and took it out on poor Badamie instead."

Both Hakyeon and Jaehwan was shocked. They never expected Badam to have such a past and upbringing because every single time they were wit Badam, the child looked so happy and cheerful. But then, it also explained why Badam was unusually attached to both Jaehwan and Hakyeon because the two older were the only people who cared for him and Hakyeon was the child's role model.

"Hyung, I feel bad for Badam," Jaehwan said.

"Yeah, same," Hakyeon worried for the child.

"Shouldn't we report this to the police or something?" Jaehwan suggested.

"..."

Hakyeon wasn't so sure. It's true that they should report something like this to the police, but if they did, what would happen to Badam who had no one else in the world aside from his father at the moment?





"Wonshik-ah, do you want me to put an egg in the ramyun?" Hongbin shouted from the kitchen.

"Sure," Wonshik said while busily looking at his files in the living room.

Hongbin and Wonshik have been sharing the same apartment since they became police officers. The two of them had no problem with staying together since neither of them got in the way of the other. Hongbin, despite his playful outer appearance, was more of a neat-freak compared to Wonshik who could care less about the condition of his own home. Hongbin was more than happy to do the housework as long as Wonshik didn't deliberately throw things on the floor or make a mess. In fact, neither of them are at home most of the time to even make a mess in the first place. They were always busy on some sort of investigation or stake-out somewhere in Seoul.

Wonshik on the other hand, was mainly in charge of the groceries or order delivery since neither could really cook in the first place. The most Hongbin could make was instant noodles and put an egg inside as a bonus.

"Here," Hongbin placed a bowl of noodles in front of Wonshik. "Still looking over the files?"

"Yeah," Wonshik said.

Wonshik never stops paying attention to work especially when it came to the cases of the White Rose Killer. He looked over the files even at home, always trying to understand the motives behind the killer's actions and why he did the things he did in the first place.

"Why do you think he puts a white rose in his victims' mouths?" Hongbin asked. "That's kind of sick, isn't it?"

"That's what I'd like to know too. If he wanted to be secretive about his killings, he would not be leaving evidence behind like he did by cleaning the crime scene and the victims' bodies. But since he's leaving behind a sign, it's like he's testing us or challenging us to catch him," Wonshik said. "He knew he's not going to get caught and that just pisses me off even more when I think about it."

"It's been over two years..." Hongbin sighed just looking at the files of the serial killer. "All those people he killed, if they were really for justice, I'd understand why, but it's more like he's killing randomly and some of them just happened to be ex-convicts."

"Convicts or not, he's still a criminal and I can't forgive him," Wonshik said in determination.

"Are you still thinking about your sister?" Hongbin asked.

"..."

Ring. Ring.

The phone rung just in time to interrupt them.

"Hello?" Hongbin picked it. "Yes, we're together. A case? Got it. We'll be there right away."

"What is it?" Wonshik asked.

"It's InGuk-hyung. A body was found."





Both Hongbin and Wonshik stopped what they were doing and immediately headed to the crime scene. The place was in a nearby park where they weren't a lot of people who passed by. But coincidently, a local resident was walking his dog one day and found the corpse hidden within the bushes.

"What do we have?" Wonshik asked as soon as he arrived at the scene.

"Female body was found just over there," Sanghyuk pointed to the bushes as he inspected the body. "Here, take a look at this."

Sanghyuk found the victim's ID card and showed it to the two.

"Choi Suji, 20 years old and goes to Hongdae University, but what's interesting isn't her identity, but how she was killed," the younger confirmed.

Wonshik and Hongbin got closer to take a look and when they did, Wonshik felt the aggravation rise. The victim's body was completely pale and blue, blood was drained from the body until not a drop was left. Her wrists were bruised, possibly from being tied up as well and the worst was the white rose that was stuffed in her mouth.

"The White Rose Killer?" Hongbin asked nervously.

"Maybe," Sanghyuk said. "But we'll see after I perform an autopsy of her body. I'll let you guys know right away after I head back to the lab."

"Got it, thanks for the help," Wonshik said.

Both Wonshik and Hongbin scattered out the area to check for other evidence that could have been left behind. When Wonshik went to the bushes where the victim was originally found, he couldn't shake off the feeling of uncertainty.

Why would the White Rose put her here? It's different from what he usually does...

The place was not well-known and not frequent by people, however it's still a public park were some of the locals would possibly pass by. So, it would be obvious that the victim would eventually be found.

"Did you find anything?" Hongbin asked Wonshik.

"No," Wonshik shook his head.

"Do you think it's really him?"

"No. I don't think so," Wonshik said.

"Really? But the method and everything is exactly the same."

"I can't pinpoint it but my instincts are telling me that whoever it was that killed her, they're a copycat at most."

Wonshik and Hongbin eventually returned to the police station after finding nothing around the crime scene. They found Sanghyuk to check up on the report of what was found from the victim's body.

"Well?" Wonshik asked.

"It's doubtful but I don't think it's the White Rose Killer," Sanghyuk told them.

"Really?" Hongbin was confused.

"Yeah. Take a look at this," Sanghyuk showed them a scan of the victim's face after an ultralight scan. "There are bruises on her cheeks, which seems to be a week or so ago. According to her school, she hasn't been to class for a week, which could mean that she's been missing since then. Also, we found traces of blood still leftover in her body. If it really was the White Rose Killer, he'd leave no traces of blood whatsoever when he disposes the body."

"Then your hunch was right. It's not the White Rose after all," Hongbin said to Wonshik. "But why did the killer imitate the White Rose?"

"A novice killer. One who's never killed and doesn't know how to kill thoroughly. That's why he needed to copy someone," Wonshik assumed.

After following the White Rose's case for the past two years, Wonshik knew well that the real killer would not let the police find any evidence so easily especially when it comes to the blood extraction method the killer has been using. The killer have already mastered the method and they were definitely confident about it, which is why the real killer would never leave even a drop behind. Also, the White Rose killer would never resort to violence when it comes to killing or kidnapping his victims. Everything that the killer did was 'clean' and organized, a true perfectionist.

"So, where's the witness?" Hongbin asked.

"Still getting his report done," InGuk told them.

Wonshik decided to pay a small visit to the witness who found the body in the first place. The witness turned out to be an old man in his late 60's, who happened to be walking with his dog one morning. He hasn't been around the park since he was hospitalized for awhile and when he returned, he found the victim. He was almost too shock to even give his report, but he tried his best to tell the police everything he could remember.

After the witness report, InGuk got Wonshik and Hongbin investigating the victim's background while the rest of the investigation team went to find more evidence elsewhere. From the victim's belongings and the things they found along with her body, they found her cellphone and it seems like she had a boyfriend. So, Wonshik and Hongbin went to find him to ask if he knew anything about the victim or why she went missing before.

Wonshik and Hongbin drove over to Cheongdamdong area and went to where the victim's boyfriend worked – Monkey Museum Club. The place was getting ready to be opened for the night, so luckily there was no body except the employees there at the moment.

"We're looking for a man name Yoon Baekhyun, is he here?" Hongbin asked the manager.

"Yeah, one sec," the manager said. "Baekhyun-ah! There are people here to see you."

"What is it?" a young man came as soon as the manger called his name.

He was tall, had short black hair and was neatly in his bartender uniform.

"We're the police. You're Choi Suji's boyfriend, is that right?" Wonshik starts his interrogation.

"Y-yeah. Is something the matter?" Baekhyun seemed rather nervous at the unexpected questioning.

"Choi Suji's body was found this morning. We'd like to ask a few questions if you don't mind," Hongbin told him.

"Y-you've got to be kidding me..."

Baekhyun felt faint just hearing the horrid news and was in disbelief to know that his girlfriend has been killed. Wonshik and Hongbin sat down with Baekhyun in private in order to talk about where he went during Suji's disappearance.

"Can you tell me what you were doing and where you've been on September 12th?" Wonshik begins the interrogation while Hongbin took down some notes.

"I was working that night like usual. It was

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