Chapter 1: Secrets Unveiled.
Summary: Set after Ji-ae goes missing and Luna enters the office to help find her. What if Soon-bum and the others had followed Luna and Min as she tracks down Bad Blood and leads them to an abandoned warehouse where Ji-ae is being held? What happens when Min's secret is revealed for all to see?
How had it come to this? Min Tae-yeon wondered as he writhed on the floor, feeling his blood rush out from his wounds. He had tried his utmost to keep his secret hidden, always, but life seemed to enjoy conspiring against him. First, Soon-bum had learned it, and now the rest of his team could see it as well. It was his worst nightmare come true. Maybe he'd wake up and see that it was all just a dream. Even if it did somehow turn out to be a dream, he wasn't sure he'd ever forget the expressions of shock and fear on the faces of his team as they looked down at him.
It was hard to believe that a matter of hours ago, they had all been on a 'picnic' together.
It had all started with the disappearance of Ji-ae. Luna had showed up at just the right time for them and she'd managed to track down the vampire responsible using dousing. Unfortunately, Min's team, including the good doctor, had followed them from the office and so were also embroiled in the mess in which the vampiric Prosecutor now found himself.
They'd tracked 'Red Eyes' to an abandoned warehouse and found the young Ji-ae shivering against the wall while the vampire had stared at her for hours. L had instantly attacked Min and seconds later, his team had run inside to see it. That was why Min was reluctant to use his abilities. The last thing he wanted was for his team and a young child to see just what he was; but that was apparently L's plan.
"I won't kill them yet," he'd said quietly. "I'll let them see...I'll make them see exactly what you are...and then I'll kill them."
"Why?" Min demanded, hearing his team rushing over to the frightened Ji-ae.
"Why?" he repeated, slowly and loud enough for all to hear his voice echo. "Who knows? Either way you're all dead!" the vampire smirked before he tossed Min into the hard wall with enough force to crack both bone and wall. "There's a bomb wired over there," he said, "It can't be de-armed. It'll go off in 10 minutes whether you stop me or not."
"...You'll die as...well," the Prosecutor breathed, his ribs aching from the impact.
"We'll see," L laughed.
"Hyung!" Min yelled as he was raised up from the ground with a strong hand squeezing his throat. "...Bomb...get out..."
"Put him down!" Soon-bum demanded, pulling his gun from his jacket and aiming it at Red Eyes. Quickly, Jung-In did the same.
"...Don't..."
"I mean it, you bastard! Let him go!" the Detective repeated when L only turned his head around to slowly meet both sets of stern, dark eyes above the barrels of their guns.
After a second, L threw Min aside again with the same amount of force to wind the Prosecutor and keep him down before he advanced on Soon-bum and Jung-In. With the Prosecutor out of the line of fire they both shot L in the chest but he didn't even bat an eyelid as he continued to move forwards, ignoring the blood pouring from the bullet holes.
"What is this guy?!" Jung-In breathed as she fired again.
"Oh, shit," the Detective muttered in realisation.
When both guns were emptied the shooters lowered their weapons in shock, staring at the man before them, who, by all rights, should be dead several times over.
"My turn," L smiled, his eyes staring to shine as he raised his upper lip in a snarl to reveal pointed teeth.
Before he could harm either person, Min had rushed forwards and tackled the other vampire away from them. They both landed hard onto the ground and Min looked down to see L's transformation. "You think they saw that?" L asked smugly and glanced back at the group of stunned people, "I think they did," he laughed, "I guess this means game over, huh?"
"...He...he's a..." Jung-In stammered.
"...Vampire..." Dong-man finished for her.
"But that's..." she breathed.
"Well? What now, Prosecutor?" L asked Min, "They know what I am...now what about you?" he said as he began fighting against Min's hold.
"...Hyung...please..." he begged, "Just go," he said, using all his strength to keep L down, his own fangs and blue eyes now visible as he fought. With his back turned to his team, he knew that for the moment, they wouldn't be able to see, but he wasn't yet free to use his vampiric strength until they left.
"I'm not leaving you here," the Detective shook his head and turned to the coroner. "You go, take Ji-ae home...you three go too," he told Luna, Jung-In and Dong-man.
"What about the bomb?" Dong-man asked, looking over at the overtly obvious set up that L had displayed for them.
"I'll deal with it," Soon-bum said quickly.
"Since when did you know about bomb disposal?" Jung-In asked.
"That's not important. Just go already!" he replied, pushing her forwards.
"What about Prosecutor Min?" she shook her head.
"We can't stop that guy," the Detective replied, "You just saw, didn't you?"
"If we can't stop him, how can he?" Jung-In asked but Soon-bum wasn't sure whether to answer her or not.
Ji-ae screamed as they turned to see L throw off Min and the two began tossing punches and kicks. L's eyes still red as he snarled like an animal at the Prosecutor, baring his fangs ferociously. It looked almost like a dance, a lethal dance where one wrong move or even the slightest miscalculation would mean death.
L, straining his muscles, tore off one of the weakened metal pipes from the wall and he began to swing it like a sword at the Prosecutor who was forced to duck and dive out of the way. He leapt aside onto the ground only to be forced to roll away again when the pipe was swung down at him like an axe on a chopping block. Min managed to get back on his feet and he stopped the pipe by holding it with both hands before it could swipe at him, leaving both of them in a fight with brute strength as they both pushed against each other.
"You think you can stop me like this?" L asked smugly. "We both know I'm stronger and you won't even fight me properly," he added, seeing that the Prosecutor no longer had blue eyes or pointed fangs now that there was a chance his team would see them.
"What is it you want?" Min growled at him through clenched teeth.
"You...and them...dead."
"Why?!"
"Argh!" L growled, releasing a burst of strength to force Min backwards, "Pay attention to what's happening!" he yelled, swinging the pipe again.
The Prosecutor was forced to block the pipe with his arm and he felt it bruise his muscle and damage the bones but it gave him an opportunity to use his remaining arm to wrench the object from L's grasp and land a heavy blow to the vampires' face and another to his torso. L took a few steps back, wiping away the blood now spilling from his mouth, still with a smirk on his face he watched Min clutch at his wounded arm and toss the pipe away.
"Can you smell it yet?" L asked him quietly as they began to circle one another. "Their blood? You must be getting thirsty right about now...and considering that you starve yourself at the best of times..." he broke off when the Prosecutor lunged at him. "How do you do it? How can you live with them every single day and not tear their throats out?" he said.
"What right do I have to kill anyone?"
"Because we need to. We need to eat just like they do!" L shot back loudly this time, as he landed a hit against Min.
"I don't kill," the Prosecutor said.
"You will. One day you won't be able to stop yourself and you know it."
"What are they talking about?" Dong-man muttered.
"And they wouldn't be able to stop you, either," L told Min. "Because they're weak," he added when the Prosecutor managed to force his back against one of the old structural pillars. "They kill to eat just like we do. We're really not so different. Why is it right to kill animals for food but not humans?" he asked as he swiped his hand hard against Min, knocking him backwards and their positions suddenly changed.
L was now able to slam Min's back against the same pillar and snarled at his with his pointed fangs. "Why are you still hiding what you are?" he asked, "They'll die at this rate."
"I won't let you hurt them," the Prosecutor swore quietly.
"We'll see about that," L grinned while Min kept trying to push him back.
L used that moment to forcefully twist the Prosecutor's already injured arm and left him crying out in agony as he once more stalked towards the Special Divisions Team. On his way, he took up the metal pipe that Min had discarded and smiled as he spun it in his hands menacingly.
The Prosecutor, seeing the concerned gazes of his team, struggled to his feet and tore off a second piece of metal pipe which creaked and groaned in protest before he rushed forwards to stand between them and the vampire. The two then swung their makeshift weapons at each other like avid sword fighters and grit their teeth as they fought once more for dominance. With Min trying to force L one way and vice versa, it seemed that once more they were locked in a stale mate.
After a series of rapid movements it became evident that L was the stronger of the two despite the bullet holes in his chest and somehow, L had managed to force his piece of metal pipe through Min's torso. The Prosecutor was too stunned to move as he breathed evenly in shock before L pulled it back out, twisting the piece of metal as he did so and Min fell like a rag doll with his strings cut onto the ground in a rapidly increasing pool of blood.
"Prosecutor Min!" he heard someone yell, not for the first time.
Their voices echoed each time they yelled out in the empty warehouse and each time it made his head pound thanks to his enhanced hearing. Or maybe it was just because everything hurt now, he wasn't quite sure which. He wasn't too sure of anything anymore except that he ached all over.
"Tae-yeon!" Soon-bum cried, trying to run forwards but Luna stopped him.
"His eyes," she said quietly, with a hand on the Detective's shoulder.
"Oh no..." he sighed.
The Prosecutor's eyes were bright blue and his fangs were there for all to see as he tried to control his erratic, laboured breathing. There was nothing he could do to stop his overtly vampiric traits from being visible, especially now that he was so badly wounded.
"There we go," L smiled, "Did you really have to make that so difficult...vampire Min Tae-yeon?"
"...Vampire?" Jung-In repeated incredulously.
During their fight, the lighter that Min always carried had fallen from his pocket and L went to pick it up. He then flicked it open and with a quiet scoff, he tossed it to the ground close to the Prosecutor where it easily lit the fuel that he'd previously doused the ground in.
"Go!" Min yelled at his friend.
"The bomb!" Dr. Jo's eyes widened as his arms tightened around Ji-ae.
"We can't just..." Soon-bum cried back as his eyes met Tae-yeon's who nodded as best he could.
"Argh! You owe me for this, Tae-yeon! You better not die!" the Detective growled asDr. Jo lifted the teary Ji-ae into his arms and they ran out of the building, reluctantly.
Inside the warehouse, L raised Min from the floor by the lapels of his bloodied leather jacket and bared his fangs once more in a triumphant smile.
"Once you're gone there'll be no one to protect them. I'll kill them all and you're powerless to stop me. This is the end for you, Min Tae-yeon," he said.
"Maybe," the Prosecutor replied, "But I'll...make sure it's yours too," he added.
He'd managed to retrieve the piece of metal that L had pulled from his own torso and he stabbed L in the heart with it using his remaining strength, shocking the vampire.
"Even if I...die...you've...still lost..." L said cryptically before Min raised his arms and twisted his neck until he heard it snap. Then, his strength all but gone, he fell to his knees, reeling from the bloody deed he'd just committed. L may have been a cruel man and he'd been threatening everything Min held dear...but it was still murder. How far did a man have to go to murder? Clearly not very far for people like L, in any case.
Min took deep breaths and used his right hand to grip the aching wound on his torso as he struggled to his feet. He watched the flames climb higher and higher up the building and the bomb was becoming dangerously enclosed within the fire as well. Before he moved away, he checked to see that L was actually dead before he dragged the body as close to the bomb as he could manage, for good measure. Then he began to move towards the door, each step causing him more and more pain.
He wasn't sure he'd make it out alive before the bomb was set off but he had to try, for their sake if not his own.
"Where is he?!" Soon-bum exhaled, running his hands through his hair in his frustration. "I can't take it anymore. I shouldn't have left him in there! I'm going to find him!" he yelled, rushing forwards.
"Detective Hwang!" Jung-In rushed after him just as the building exploded.
They were thrown back from the sheer force of the shock wave and six sets of eyes stared in shock and realisation at the burning husk of the building.
"Tae-yeon!" Soon-bum yelled, trying to run into the building as Dr. Jo held him back.
"Prosecutor Min!" Dong-man's eyes widened as he yelled out, staring into the roaring flames.
"Mr Min!" the teary eyed Ji-ae cried out from Jung-In's arms.
"He's...he can't be..." Jung-In muttered to Soon-bum, "Can he?"
"No," the Detective shook his head, breathing heavily, "No. Not him."
Dr. Jo led Ji-ae to the van where he bade her sit on the back seat as they began to see a shadow emerging through the flames and they took cautious steps back, fearing that L had somehow survived and was there to finish what he'd started. They feared that he had lived while Min had died. But when the figure suddenly stopped a dozen metres away from them, they could see that he was breathing heavily and that he was making no moves of aggression towards them.
"...Prosecutor Min?" Jung-In squinted, trying in vain to make out the darkened features against the bright orange backdrop.
She and the others took tentative steps forwards and it wasn't long before they were able to see just who it was that had survived. Before they could do anything further, the figure collapsed onto the ground, blood pouring from his wounds and his breathing heavily laboured.
"Tae-yeon!" Soon-bum cried, throwing off the coroner's hand and leaping forwards to kneel beside his friend.
The young Prosecutor clutched his wounded torso while he used the other hand to weakly prop himself up so that he could look up at his friend. His eyes shone blue and his fangs protruding from his mouth in a snarled grimace.
"Stay...b...back," he managed to say.
"Not on your life," the Detective snorted and gently turned his younger friend over onto his back. "Oi, oi...this is bad..." he muttered, staring down at the wound.
Min let out a garbled chuckle before he began to see the veins pulsating in his friends' neck. His mood quickly became sombre and he swallowed deeply as his eyes focused on the veins. It would be so easy for him to drain them all of their blood and though he knew that his bite would no longer turn them into vampires, it would still cause them a great deal of pain even if he managed to stop before he drained them completely dry.
"Hyung..." he breathed in fear, shaking as he attempted to move away.
"What do you think you're doing?!"
"You...need to get away from me," he explained, "All of you."
"What? Why?" Jung-In asked, leaning in closer before she stopped in understanding. "Then...you really are..." she muttered uselessly. Despite all she'd seen, it did still seem strange to think of him as an actual vampire.
"He really is," Soon-bum answered her.
"You knew?"
"Is this the best time for that?" the Detective replied and she sighed in acknowledgment. "Let me help you, Tae-yeon," he said, looking back down at his friend.
"No," Min shook his head. "Home...Hyung...I need to go home..."
"What? Why! You can't move!"
"N...need...b...blood..."
"So let me help you! It's over an hour drive back to the city. Do you really think you can last that long like this?"
"Have to..." the Prosecutor said, "I won't...I can't..."
"Fine. You don't want to bite me, I get it," Soon-bum said, "I probably taste terrible, but..."
"It...hurts..." Min told him.
"You think I care?! You could die!"
"S...surprised I'm...alive now..." Min confessed.
"What about...him? Is he..."
"Gone...I...checked."
"That's good...I guess, but you'll be joining him if you don't..." the Detective blinked. "Wait...I forgot...I have this," he said, pulling out a switchblade. "Useless against a crazy vampire...helpful for feeding a good one."
"What do you..." Jung-In began to ask before the Detective pulled back the sleeve of his left hand and cut a straight line into his wrist with the knife, grimacing as the blood began to trickle down his fingers.
"...Can't..." the vampire hissed. He knew that things would never be the same if he drank blood directly from a living person. He'd been told before about its addictive properties but it was either that or death. It would also drive the point home that he was indeed a vampire to his colleges; seeing his eyes and fangs was one thing, but watching him drink blood would be entirely different.
"What choice do you have?" the Detective snapped, "Do you want to die?!" he demanded as Min shook his head.
It became increasingly difficult for the dying vampire; he could deny it no longer that he was in fact, very close to death, to resist the call of the blood that was offered before him. It had been hard enough when he'd been stabbed with a small scalpel and this was all but impossible. Even with the repeating string of 'no, no, no,' in his mind, there was a much louder, 'yes, yes, yes,' that was overpowering and all consuming. He gripped his friends' wrist with his shaking right hand and took a deep inhale, staring, enraptured by the blood which had begun to drip down his palm and fingers.
"...I'm sorry...Hyung..." he murmured before his lips lowered around the bleeding wound, its taste hitting him instantly.
There wasn't anything that compared to it, though if he was forced to choose, Tae-yeon would have said blood straight from a living human was like the worlds' finest wine. He wasn't sure whether the blood tasted so good purely because he was so hungry or simply because it was the blood of a living human. He had of course drank the blood of Dr. La, but he was a vampire, and vampire blood had a different taste.
For the Special Divisions team, seeing their 'boss' drink blood so overtly after only just learning that he was a vampire was a sobering, fearful experience. He'd saved their lives and almost died in the process, but he'd only been able to save them because he was a vampire.
After a minute and without a word of warning, Min pushed the still bleeding arm of his friend aside and refused to take anymore of his blood. He knew it would be too dangerous if he took too much.
"What, is that it?" the Detective frowned, "Has that even made a difference?" he asked, seeing that the vampire was hardly healed at all.
"...No...not safe...home..." he said, his eyes closing despite his best efforts.
"Alright, alright," Soon-bum said, wrapping his cut up with a handkerchief which Luna quickly gave to him. He gently lifted Min's right arm over his shoulder and Dong-man ran forwards to take the Prosecutor's left arm. Together they slowly manoeuvred Min onto the back seat of the car.
"You take the van, I'll take Tae-yeon home in the car," Soon-bum said, "At least then he'll only have to deal with one person."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Jung-In asked.
"We're full of blood!" he said quickly, "And he's a hungry vampire! What do you think it means?!"
"Oh...right..." she breathed.
"Get the siren out for me will you?" he said to Dong-man as he glanced back at his wounded friend. He had the intern fit the siren onto the car and he closed the car door on the ailing Prosecutor before he turned to his friends. "You should all just go home. I'll deal with this," he said.
"What? But we..." Dong man-began.
"Argh! We don't have time for this! Do whatever you want. Go home or don't," Soon-bum ruffled his hair and ran to open the driver's side car door before he started the ignition and drove off, the tired screeching in protest at the sudden burst of speed.
"Are we following them?" Jung-In asked quickly.
"Is Mr. Min okay?" Ji-ae asked the coroner.
"He'll be fine," he assured her.
It became quickly unanimous that they were indeed going to follow Min and Soon-bum in the van with their own siren blaring out after them.
"Oi, Tae-yeon...you alright back there?" the Detective asked, looking back for a brief second as they entered the main road.
"Mmm..." the vampire managed to mumble.
"I'll get you back as quickly as possible. I promise," Soon-bum said. "What about Dr. La? Have you heard from him since he..."
"Hmm...n...no..." Min muttered in the negative.
"Damn!" the Detective swore, his knuckles whitening as he gripped the steering wheel.
"You're...still...bleeding...Hyung," Min told his friend. He could smell the enticing aroma of fresh blood which dripped from the Detective's makeshift bandage.
"Want me to stop the car so you can..."
"No...keep going!"
"But you..."
"Drive!" he ordered sharply.
Meanwhile, in the van, Ji-ae had fallen asleep against Dr. Jo, her breathing even and calm despite the turmoil she'd suffered.
"She's more calm than the rest of us," Jung-In remarked from the drivers' seat, glancing in the rear view mirror.
"Children are resilient," the coroner said with a smile, "And, sad to say, she's used to terrible things happening."
"...You don't seem...surprised by any of this..." Jung-In said to Luna who looked down guiltily.
"...That's because I..."
"What?"
"I knew...I already knew that Prosecutor Min was a vampire. I knew almost from the first moment I met him," the psychic explained.
"Eh?" Jung-In blinked, "How?"
"Vampires have a strong aura, stronger than ordinary people...it was how he was able to find me when I'd been...well...I left him a trail of blood to follow," she explained.
"...Vampires...they're real," Dong-man breathed, "Still can't believe it...But...he can go out in sunlight, right?"
"After everything that's happened, how can that be what you're asking about?" Jung-In shook her head.
"I'm just curious," the young intern defended, "It's not like we've ever seen him eat or drink anything either."
"He could hardly drink blood in public," the weary coroner replied dryly.
"How can anyone survive...what just happened? Do...do you really think he'll be alright?" Dong-man asked quietly.
"I don't know," the coroner confessed.
The Prosecutor had ceased to answer Soon-bum's calls and eventual shouts after some time and to the Detective it seemed to take an eternity before he found somewhere he could stop the car to check on the now silent vampire. As he threw open the car door and tore open the second door he saw the van, driven by Jung-In, pull up behind them.
"What's wrong?" the coroner asked, concerned as they made their way slowly out of the van and across to the Detective.
He'd opened the car door and knelt as close as he could to the vampire lying there, motionless.
"Tae-yeon!" Soon-bum cried, lightly tapping his friend's cheek, "Oi, this isn't funny! Wake up!"
"Y...you're...t...too loud...Hyung..." Min murmured a few seconds later and they let out simultaneous sighs of relief.
"Thank god," the Detective muttered, staring down into dim blue eyes which opened very slowly.
"...Where..." Min managed to breathe.
"We're still over half an hour away," Soon-bum sighed, "You won't make it that far...will you?"
"Why...not...moving?" he growled, his fingers digging into the bloodied skin around his wound.
"Because I thought you'd stopped breathing!" the Detective snapped as he began to tear off the makeshift bandage on his wrist.
"No..."
"You don't get a say," the Detective scowled, pinching the clotted cut to draw out more blood while the Prosecutor let out a stifled scoff.
Luckily, it was the dead of night when they reached Prosecutor Min's home and as the coroner carried the sleeping child, Soon-bum and Dong-man aided the barely conscious Prosecutor up to the front door.
"Nice place," Dong-man remarked quietly.
"Not the time to be admiring the scenery," Soon-bum ground out.
"Right," the intern nodded, holding all of Min's dead weight as the Detective moved to unlock the door.
"...In there," the Detective directed Dong-man as they half dragged, half carried Min into the bedroom and laid him gently onto the bed.
Soon-bum began to leak away the torn fabric that had lodged in the through and through wound in his friends' torso which had caked everything in sticky blood. "This hasn't even started to heal yet," he grumbled, "You stupid kid," he said to the sleeping vampire.
"What do we do? Call an ambiance?" Dong-man asked,
"Are you crazy?" the Detective shook his head, "We can't send a vampire to a hospital for treatment."
"Then what?" Jung-In asked as she followed them into the bedroom, ignoring propriety in the dire situation.
"We treat him here," Soon-bum answered quickly, "He doesn't need the kind of treatment we would, he just needs blood...and lots of it. I think he keeps it in the fridge..."
"The fridge?" Jung-In repeated slowly.
"Don't just stand there, go get it," the Detective snapped and both the intern and Prosecutor ran to do so. "Ah, hell...I'm no doctor," he scrubbed a hand through his hair in frustration.
He then returned to removing the ruins of cloth from Min's wound and with difficulty he took off the leather jacket and the ruined shirt as the coroner entered the room with a bowl of water and clean cloth.
"Human or not, I still think it would be best to clean the blood away," he explained gently.
"I guess so," the Detective nodded.
As Dong-man and Jung-In returned with their unusual burden, Min awoke, his eyes glazed and blurry and his teeth pointed below his snarled, upper lip as he appraised the man before him. In the back of his mind, he registered that he was staring at his friend, Soon-bum, but the vast majority of his mind only saw food. Food he needed to survive. He lunged for the jugular on instinct but was met with resistance as the Detective pushed him back.
"Oi! Tae-yeon, you think I drove all the way back here, listening to you tell me why you won't take my blood only for you to bite me now?" he yelled, indignantly.
"...Hyung?" Min breathed.
"Give me those," the Detective said quickly to the stunned intern. He snatched the packets of blood and handed them to his friend who all but devoured them in his haste.
It was like watching a rabid animal eating after a long period of starvation, without reservation or restraint and they felt it wrong to stay and watch such a scene, they knew that, had he been in his right mind, Prosecutor Min would not have allowed them to see him in such a state. But he wasn't in his right mind, he was half mad with hunger and when he was finished, over twenty empty packets later, he flopped down onto the mattress, eyes closed.
"...Are you...alright, now?" the Detective ventured to asked amidst the tense silence.
"I will be," Min answered in a voice much stronger than they'd heard since the whole mess had started. It was though, very strained and tired and his breathing quickly evened out as he began to fall into a deep sleep.
"Good," Soon-bum sighed, "Don't ever pull another stunt like that again, you hear me, Tae-yeon?" he grumbled, prompting a small, weak smile from the Prosecutor.
"He's sleeping," the Detective told the rest of their team about twenty minutes later. He and the coroner had carefully cleaned away all of the blood around the sleeping Prosecutor as best they could. "It's almost gone...the wound..." he added.
"That's impossible," Jung-In furrowed her brow.
"Not for a vampire," Soon-bum replied.
"Vampire," she repeated, "So...you knew...the whole time?"
"Yeah," he sighed, sitting down with them in the main living room, "Well...for the last two years or so...when I first met him."
"How?" the young Prosecutor asked.
"On a case," Soon-bum said simply, "Some things went wrong...there was a fight...he saved my life but I saw...and I told him it didn't matter. I think he thought I'd turn him in or something. Since then we worked on cases together till he tricked me into working for the Special Divisions team."
"The blood samples?" the coroner questioned.
"That...erm..." the Detective frowned, "I guess...I call it a cheat sheet. I tell him not to keep doing it but he..."
"What are you talking about?" Jung-In asked.
"It's psychometry. If a vampire drinks the blood of a dead person they can see how they died."
"And...that's how you and he always knew things about the cases...and you wouldn't tell us why," she nodded.
"Yeah."
"...So...what do we do now?" Dong-man asked, "Go home?"
"What if that crazy vampire's still out there?" Soon-bum asked. "Tae-yeon said he was dead...but if he survived that explosion why couldn't another vampire do the same? We need to make sure he's dead first."
"And how do we do that?" the intern asked.
"We report the explosion anonymously and wait to see if they find a body," the Detective replied, "Until then, we stick together...unless you want to risk it out there."
"Erm...I think we should report it," the young intern murmured, sheepishly.
"Good," Soon-bum smiled sarcastically and went to do just that through his police contacts.
"I could try dousing again," Luna said after a while.
The atmosphere had become tense with Prosecutor Min asleep in his bed and Ji-ae also sleeping, the five others sat awake, eagerly awaiting the confirmation that L had died in the explosion.
"It's better than doing nothing," Soon-bum agreed and so the psychic obliged.
After several minutes, the only vampiric aura she was able to locate time and time again was that of the sleeping Prosecutor. "I can find no other vampire in the area," she said.
"So...he's definitely dead?" Dong-man asked.
"Unless he has somehow managed to master an impossible task, yes, he is dead. It is not possible to conceal a vampires' aura. It's too strong."
"Good," the Detective exhaled, slouching further into the sofa. "I guess you can all go home if you want, then. I'm staying here," he said.
"I should take Ji-ae back," the Coroner said and Soon-bum nodded.
"What about you?" he asked the others.
"I'll stay," Jung-In said, to which Dong-man and Luna agreed.
"Well...at least we don't have to go into the office yet," Soon-bum glanced at his watch, "At least we don't have to try and explain all this to the Chief yet."
"...Wait...don't we have to report that we found Ji-ae?" Jung-In raised an eyebrow after a moment.
"Oh shit," the Detective's eyes widened.
"So...the man who kidnapped the girl is dead?" Chief Prosecutor Joo Hyun-ah said dryly the next morning. "He died in an explosion in an abandoned warehouse over an hour from the city and even further from the actual crime scene. There was no ransom demand whatsoever and Prosecutor Min was injured in a fight with this kidnapper who was previously perceived to be a harmless witness. Correct?"
"Correct, ma'am," Jung-In nodded.
"Do we know why he kidnapped the child?"
"No," she answered.
"Do we know why he set a bomb?"
"No, we don't," Soon-bum answered.
"Well...we can at least explain this as an attack on both the Prosecutors and the Police...a deranged attack on the Special Divisions team who, of course, have such an impressive case closure rate...unless you have any other explanations?" the Chief Prosecutor asked shrewdly.
"None," Jung-In replied.
"Then I suggest you get back to work and uphold that impressive case closure rate," she said in a tone of disinterested finality.
Jung-In and Soon-bum left with a bow of their heads and made their way to their own office, letting out simultaneous sighs of relief.
"That could've gone worse," the Detective said.
"It was almost too easy," she replied.
"Hmmm," Soon-bum grumbled.
They were soon to learn that the Chief Prosecutor had burdened them with three cases to solve, despite that fact that Prosecutor Min was absent. Evidently she had not let them off as easy as the Detective had hoped.
"Hey," the Detective smiled, watching his friend stir awake that evening.
"...Hyung?"
"How're you feeling?"
"...I...wait...they saw...they know..." he asked quickly, sitting up.
"Yeah, they know," Soon-bum answered and the Prosecutor sighed, closing his eyes again.
"Oh," Min breathed.
"It doesn't change anything, Tae-yeon,"
"It changes everything..."
"How?"
"They know what I am, Hyung," Min shook his head, "It's all my fault. If I hadn't let Ji-ae get kidnapped in the first place...it's all my fault..."
"It doesn't change anything," the Detective repeated, "You couldn't have done anything different. I trust you...they trust you."
"...You gave me your blood," he breathed, remembering.
"Of course I did and I'd do it again."
"You saved my life," the Prosecutor said.
"You saved ours," Soon-bum countered and they fell into silence again.
"...Hyung,,." Min murmured after a few minutes, "He told me that there was another vampire," he said, "I don't know...I think...I think he might have meant Yeon-ji..."
"How can you be sure?"
"He said the others were all Prosecutors...me, Park Hoon, Jang-Chul...and Yeon-ji."
"What about Dr. La? He could have meant him not your sister."
"...Maybe...maybe..."
A.N. I'm not quite sure whether Soon-bum knew that Dr. La is a vampire but I'm going to assume for this, that he does. Of course, they don't know yet that Min's bite turned him human again because he's still in hiding.