It was a cold night in early March and a storm front swept over Chicago, Illinois. The loud thunder and rain didn't interfere with the party held inside a nearby club. Three bands were discussing a new project brought together by the leading record companies in South Korea: JYP, YG, and SM. The three companies decided to put together a collaboration CD for America, to promote K-Pop.
The three bands included SHINee from SM, Big Bang from YG and the Wonder Girls from JYP. Three bands with very different sounds and very different styles.
Yubin, of the Wonder Girls, was the first to arrive at the club. She had her long black hair down around her shoulders covering the top of her black t-shirt. She sat down at a rather large booth, and watched the other members of her group walk in. Yenny was next, with her short (now blonde) hair bobbing up and down over her short lace dress. Soohee and Sunye walked in together, both laughing about something that I could not overhear. Hyelim was last, tripping in and landing next to the other girls.
"I can't wait to get started on the new album." Soohee boosted to the other girls. "We already worked with Big Bang, and now we get to work with SHINee too!"
"I thought it was strange when JY sent on us that plane without telling us why. He could have just told us we were working on a collaboration CD in America." Yubin said.
That's when the SHINee boys walked in.
"Hello!" Onew greeted, being the first to walk up to the girls. The other members bowed politely and took their seats.
"Jonghyun, Taemin, Key, Minho, Onew!" Yenny stood up to bow repeatedly to them.
"Hello. Have Big Bang not arrived yet?" Minho questioned.
"No, not yet." Hyelim replied, crossing her arms. "It's like G to be late, hm?" She laughed along with the other girls.
"I haven't met him." Jonghyun said out of the blue. "But I do like his fashion."
Before anyone else could comment, the music stopped at the club. It was in mid-song of Cascada's Evacuate the Dance floor when it cut out. Everyone looked around, as if confused from the sudden silence.
"JY rented this out for us to work- no one else was supposed to be here." Hyelim pointed out. "Who could have turned out the music?"
"Big Bang perhaps?" Taemin offered.
"No, no. G-Dragon texted me they were running late." Yenny explained.
"Than who-" The lights were out in that instant. There was a lot of screaming, which I quite enjoyed. Their screams were loud; Hyelim was the loudest. But she was hushed quite quickly.
It took a matter of five minutes before the lights returned to the club. Yubin and Yenny were huddled in the corner. Soohee was still in the booth, as was Key. Sunye was hiding under the bar. Jonghyun was behind a lamp, like he couldn't be seen. Minho and Taemin were behind the bar and lastly, Onew was laying in plain sight on the floor.
"What is going on in here?" A new voice said. The members of Big Bang walked in, up first was G-Dragon.
"The lights went out." Jonghyun answered, walking from behind the lamp. "There was some screaming."
"My fault." Onew said, lifting his head from the ground.
"So the lights went out and all of you freaked out and hid random places?" Seungri appeared next to G-Dragon. Both had their hair spiked, though G's hair was half hot pink.
"Is everyone okay?" Yubin asked, standing up.
"Where's Hyelim?" Soohee asked, joining the others around Onew.
"Hyelim?" Sunye turned around in a circle, calling out for the missing girl. "Hyelim?"
"Everybody fan out and look for Hyelim." TOP ordered, coming to the front of the group. "I don't know anything that happened before she went missing, so fill me in."
"We had just arrived at the club and were discussing your return when the music stopped. JY was the one that rented out the club for our use. No one was supposed to be here but us and you guys. When the music went out, we figured it was you guys until the lights went out as well. From then, there were screams. The lights came back on, you guys showed up and Hyelim was gone." Yenny gave TOP the whole story.
"You guys, come here." No one had noticed Daesung had wandered off, until he called out. He was facing a stack of wine bottles behind the bar.
"What?" Key walked towards Daesung and touched one of the bottles. "This wasn't here before, I'm sure."
The rest of the members of the bands stacked up behind Daesung and Key. On one of the bottles there was a crack, and white wine dripped from the crack. Inside the bottle, there was a lock of hair. A lock of light colored hair.
"That's not all." Taeyang motioned to the wall. There was a message written in English. It read:
You Stole from me.
Now I shall steal from you.
If you don't give back what's mine,
hyelim won't be the only one to die.
"Is that blood?" Yubin freaked out. "Written in blood? What kind of sicko would do this? Poor Hyelim!"
"What did we steal from someone?" Soohee said, in the same panicked tone as Yubin.
"That's a good question. But look, there's tracks of blood over here!" Onew pointed to a puddle that seemed to lead out the door.
"Should we follow it?" G-Dragon asked.
"This looks like a job for Sherlock!" Onew grinned. The rest of SHINee moaned.
"We have to find Hyelim before it's too late!" Yenny said.
"Come on, then. Let's find ourselves a killer."