Khao's POV:

I woke up with an obvious pounding in my head. I didn't know I had drank so much! I was so occupied with First and his friends that I forgot my limit. And I didn't even go to investigate! This would be going nowhere if I kept bailing like this. And why was I even spending my night with my supposed enemy?

I slowly stood up from the bed, making my way to the kitchen to make some coffee, the only thing that could actually get me out of a hangover.

The minute I took out a cup, the sound of my phone ringing echoed through the room to my ear, "Who's calling this early?" I murmured to myself and expressed with annoyance while walking to my bedside table to pick up the phone.

Checking the caller's name, I realized it was Jack. Must be something important... Holding my phone with one hand attached to my ear, I walked my way back to the kitchen, continuing to prepare the coffee. "Hello? Jack?" I asked the other side while pouring hot water from the jug to the cup where I had put the coffee powder.

"Sir, can you come? We've found something..," Jack muttered from the other side. Of course, he was calling for me to go there. It's not like there was much he could handle alone anyways. For a case as big as that, the government could have at least assigned me one more assistant, but no, they always cared about their money more than the people in the country.

"Fine... I'll be there in 10 minutes," I replied. Though I tried my best to hide my annoyance and the fact that I was still a bit hungover, I bet he still suspected but who cared anyways.

I couldn't even finish my coffee in peace. I had slowly gulped the coffee down as I walked to my closet and put on the blazer I always wore, then I went down the basement to hide a gun under my shirt. A detective like me was always at risk of getting attacked so there was absolutely no way I was going out without any weapon.

As promised, I reached the place he mentioned exactly in 9 minutes. One great quality everyone admired about me was punctuality. Even First admired that quality of mine.

I was a little shocked to see where Jack wanted me to come, it was that same park First and I had walked past the other day. I saw Jack sitting on one of the benches. I went up to him and found him sitting there with the lab scientist. They had a few stuff in their hands and were staring at the ground.

"What are you doing here, Jack?" I asked quietly. Jack slowly nodded and looked up at me.

"I confronted the victim's parents to ask them about the victim's condition as you asked me to do and found out by one of the victim's friends that he was last seen here, in this park and look what I found–" Jack pointed at a few things that were lying on the ground abruptly.

I picked each thing up, examining them thoroughly. The first one was a bottle. It had no label on it but it looked like a bottle of some type of medicine. I carefully opened the bottle and smelled it but a shock immediately made me drop the bottle on the ground when I noticed some unknown insects swirling around on the little bit of medicine there was left.

"What is this, doc?" I asked the lab scientist, slightly freaking out from the scene.

"It's... a medicine often used to paralyze people's bodies so they won't have to suffer any longer."

My jaw slightly dropped in horror. What was such a dangerous medicine doing there? This case was initially getting more deep and dangerous than I thought it to be.

I picked up another object from the ground. It was a simple piece of paper and nothing else. But after seeing it closely, I noticed a little bit of blood on one corner of the paper.

After putting it down, I picked up the last object, a shining needle, which had blood on its corner. Those were obviously big clues.

I put the needle down on top of the paper once again, down on the bench so it wouldn't get lost. I looked up at the sky and frustrated, I took out the small notepad which I had shoved in the pocket of my blazer.

"Jack, how many murders have already been done in this case?" I asked, my gaze fixed at the pad as I took out a pen and attempted to write.

"9, sir." My jaw dropped into a full circle as I realized that the case had probably been around for a while now.

"How much time has passed since this first started?" I asked once again.

Jack hesitated a bit before stating, "Almost 3 months, sir."

I nodded slowly as I started writing on the notepad, "Case no. 17", I had written as the headline. In the body, I had written little clues and information, "9 murders, 3 months, a bottle of paralyzing medicine, a needle with blood, a piece of paper with blood, First's hair."

After writing down the information I found, my eyes roamed at the whole park when I noticed something like a feather in the ground not too far away. I picked the feather up. Cleaning the dirt over it, I realized it was a fake feather that I had seen last on First's jacket.

"Doc, can you check the fingerprints on the things we found?" I asked the scientist. I didn't turn around to see if he agreed or not. I was too busy with my own thoughts. That was getting way more serious and out of control than I intended. And now I had to find out what First had to do with all those.

The first time could be a coincidence but it pointed to him again, and now it couldn't be just a mistake anymore. There had to be more that he was hiding under the blanket of friendship and love.

"Jack, can you investigate the victim's bodies thoroughly as well? They're in the lab, right?" I questioned Jack though it seemed more like an order coming from me. He immediately obliged and left for the lab with the lab scientist, doctor Non. At least, doctor Non and his lab was assigned personally to help me investigate.

I usually got cases assigned to me directly from the government and it totally made sense for the government itself to assign me more people to help because I did save lives, didn't I?

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The result of the fingerprints had come back and the only fingerprint on those things which weren't one of the victim's was First's. I had expected this yet I couldn't help but disbelieve.

Now what should I do? Should I confront him like the law tells me to? Or should I follow my heart, let go and believe him? As if it's that easy...