Khao's POV:

I rushed out of my car towards the lab. Jack had told me to arrive at the lab instead of the office. Something was not right.

Jack had never called me at night. In fact, I had even told him to not investigate outside of home at night. Then why did he call me there at that hour? He seemed breathless.

It's not like I had known him for a long time. He'd joined to be my assistant just a few months before the case when my last assistant quit unexpectedly due to her husband's death during my last case. I had almost solved the case by myself last time because it wasn't that hard but it was rather difficult to believe that the girl was murdered brutally by her own father which she claimed to love dearly just because of a conflict with her inheritance.

Jack had been there to help me after though he didn't really understand the previous case the first time. He lacked a handful of experience which wouldn't take long for him to get if he worked with me but there was something about him that told me that he was hiding something. That he was more than he seemed to be.

I went inside the lab to find Jack with a file in hand standing next to the nine bodies of the victims. When I saw him face to face, somehow he looked way less breathless and more chill than he seemed on the phone. Maybe I was overthinking...

He walked up to me and showed me the file. The names of the victims were written on each page of the file along with some information about the victims. "Have you found any similarities between the victims?" I asked Jack and he nodded slowly.

"There were drug packets found in some of the victims clothes and after asking the relatives, I found out that all of the victims were drug addicts and unemployed," He expressed.

My eyes got smaller on their own as I tried to think it through. What might unemployment have to do with them being murdered? I mean it wasn't uncommon. Unemployed or students were usually the ones who had time to go to bars. But drug addiction... Could they be killed by drug overdose?

"Did you find anything related to the bodies? Do they have any signs of murder?" I asked Jack once again as I looked at doctor Non.

I walked my way to the bodies, slowly putting the mask over my face that had been hanging on my neck for a while. Dr. Non stared at me and explained, "There're no signs of murder at all. No blood on the bodies, no pressure on their neck or any other body parts."

"Is there a possibility of drug overdose?" I asked Dr. Non. He took out another file, showing me the result of each test run on their bodies. Their bodies seemed perfectly fine. In fact, they were said to be perfectly fine even an hour before their death.

That did not make sense at all. Those couldn't be a suicides, could they? 9 suicides in a row in the span of two months? That's too strange! Absurd!

Before I could think further, I noticed a string of concern on Dr. Non's face. "Is there anything wrong?" I asked. He glanced at each of the test results and looked back at me.

"There is a possibility that they were suffocated to death," Dr. Non muttered. Suffocated to death? Could they be drowned in that river?

Pain... suffering... how could a person be that brutal to kill people so easily? I knew that this was my dream job but sometimes I really hated having to know how brutal and merciless human beings could be.

I picked my wrist up to check the time. It was almost midnight. I hadn't understood why Jack had to inform me about that so late at night but I was glad he did. Maybe he knew that I wanted that case to be over as soon as possible. Because I was getting suffocated by such brutality.

"Jack, you can go home now. Thanks for finding the information. I am proud of you," I uttered slowly to Jack's face. He simply nodded and walked out but I could see how his face lit up when he heard the last sentence.

I didn't know much about Jack's personal life. But I knew he was in his early 20s. It's not like I was much older than him. I was in my late 20s. I was 27, to be exact. But he reminded me of myself. Not because he was working in the same field as me but because he had lost his family at a young age just like me. As a result, I had seen him feeling lost multiple times. Just like me, he had no one to say that they were proud of him so I wanted to be the one to say that.

After Jack walked out, I waved to Dr. Non and walked out of there myself. In a span of time, I was once again lying on my bed, trying my best to just close my mind and sleep but it was nearly impossible.

The next day was more usual than I thought it'd be and the only expected but shocking news was that there were First's fingerprints found on the bodies.

The more time went, the more my suspicion over First rose. And the more my suspicion rose, the more I tried to get closer to First. Anyone else would've probably done the opposite but I wanted to know what First was up to.

So instead of creating a distance between him and I, I was closing that distance as much as I could. Because in my perspective, that relationship was in my favor, it'd help me get closer to him and the more I got closer to him, the more I got closer to the truth. Maybe I was playing with danger, but at that point, I knew exactly how to get him in control.

Because even if he turned out to be the one behind all of that, I knew how much he lied to me about everything else, the feelings he had for me weren't a lie. And the feelings I reciprocated for him wasn't either.

I just wanted to get him comfortable enough around me for him to tell me the truth himself.

A few days passed like seconds. And we had gotten way closer. We had had sleepovers many times and had gone way beyond just kissing. But that wasn't nearly enough. I still didn't know him well enough personally.

But unfortunately, that day I had told First that I couldn't come to the bar. Because I was tired, I couldn't sleep anyways but I just didn't want to spend nights at bars everyday. It drained all my energy. So much that I couldn't work properly the next day.

So I decided to stay home. I was at the office, chilling at the time of the evening. I was tired after having to run from the lab to the office three times already.

But suddenly, I heard the doorbell ring. Because of how many times Jack had already called me, I thought it was him. "You could just call me again..," I mumbled slowly as I walked towards the door.

I tried to look through the door hole, but I saw no one. But I did hear faded footsteps running through the hallway.

When I opened the door, I found nothing but a small yellow piece of paper, laying on my doormat. I looked around and saw no one but a few shoe marks on the floor of the hallway. Someone was there for sure... But they ran away.

I slowly picked up the note, it was written in Thai but it wasn't a handwriting I recognized. In fact, the writing was small, at times, too small to even understand what was written. Black ink flowed through half a page of paper.

'I know you're trying to find me. And I also know that you think you're close to finding me. But remember, If I was that easy to find, I wouldn't have been able to commit 9 murders. If you really want to see me, come meet me at your favorite place, alone, without any weapons.'

At the end of the note, there was written 'yours' in all capital letter and after it was a symbol that almost looked like a fingerprint. But after I looked up close, I understood it was hand drawn to fool me into thinking it was a fingerprint of someone.

I smirked at the cleverness and immediately understood what he meant by 'my favorite place'. First's bar. The only place that was eligible to be my favorite place.

I once again put on just a blazer and went down to my basement to hide a gun under my shirt despite being told not to bring any weapons. I'd never learnt to surrender to the wrong. If I knew that I was right, I'd fight. I'd fight no matter what. I'd fight even if it resulted in the loss of my life. And I never liked being told what not to do. So a simple murderer who thought he was very smart couldn't control if I could or couldn't bring my weapons.

Once I arrived at the bar, everything seemed normal. Too normal.

Finding nothing, I was almost about to go back to where I was when I heard First's voice call me from inside. "Ai'Tung! Why are you here? I thought you said you won't come today..," He murmured from behind me and I was stuck once again.

"I changed my mind," I murmured as I turned to look at First and felt myself immediately get lured away by that smile. I had forgotten what I had come for. I had forgotten what my mission was. I had forgotten about everything else but First. For a moment, I felt like I had even forgotten my name.

To Be Continued.....