A/N: Hey, everyone! I have an announcement, and that is: I only have one exam left! It's on the Tuesday 21st June, 9:00AM GMT+1. So, be thinking about me at that time! I'm only joking, the real is announcement is that, because I'll be finished with my exams, and school, I'm posting a celebratory extra chapter on Tuesday, so you'll have double me throughout the week!

As you know, I'm seeing Coldplay tomorrow, and I'm super excited! Once exams are over, I've been invited to a couple parties, too, so I am Little Miss Popular right now. I say this because it might make my posting time dodgy next weekend, as I won't be able to guarantee a Friday chapter (as if I post chapters on Friday anyway).

But yes, extra Tuesday chapter, and a massive thank you for all the support so far! I'm really enjoying writing this, and it seems like you guys like reading it, too, which is always a good sign! Thank you for your patience, and without further ado, here's the next chapter!

Chapter 3

The last he had ever seen of her, Mei had been an awkward fifteen year old when he, dashing and eighteen, was whisked away to university for a great education. She had attended the same school as he and Kiku, and had even lived on the same street as him. However, by the time he was twenty-one and had returned to the neighbourhood, one of the last things his parents said to him before kicking him out was that Mei had left for America, to go to an Ivy League university and make a new life for herself in the States. He'd been mildly surprised at first, because when they were little children playing in the streets, she would always tell him that she wanted to become a humble chef. He had never thought Mei to be Ivy League material, but a lot could change in three years. Although they'd started coming to blows by the time they were old enough to be selective about people they liked, Yao had been disappointed at the time that the last thing he would've said to her was around the lines of: "The only cooking you'll ever get into will be frying the chips in McDonald's."

After leaving on a tragic note like that, he half expected to see her a few years later and see his dream come true.

Awkward fifteen year old Mei suddenly looked very different. He had to guess she was around twenty-two by now. She'd grown her hair long, and she definitely looked… older. In other words, she suddenly had the attention of both Lei and Yong Soo. They didn't realise there was a full-fledged harpy underneath. That was one thing that had remained consistent after all these years. The critical expression in her hostile eyes and tight lipped frown.

"So, tell me, Yao," she scowled. "How come Detective Wang hasn't become the worldwide international investigator he always dreamt of being? I didn't hear anything about you whilst I was in America."

"Success takes time, aru," he snapped. "For example, you seem to have moved on beyond your short lived career at Mc-"

"I never worked in McDonald's," she grumbled. "I know it's not my own chef studio, but this job has earned me enough to get a half decent house and live rather comfortably."

"You have your own house?" Yao blurted out. "You're not living with your parents… or anything?"

"No- are you?" she sniggered.

"Nope," he said genuinely. "I thought you were staying in America, aru?"

"The American Dream was a lot more temporary than I thought it'd be," she shrugged, gazing around the coffee shop. "It's nice being back. But you are a detective, aren't you?"

"Huh, well, yeah," he frowned.

"Hmm, that's what your mum said," Mei nodded. "I passed her on the street when I was visiting my parents. They still live in the same house. Your parents, that is. Mine moved several doors down."

Yao hadn't been back to that cursed street ever since his parents had banned him coming home, so he barely knew what it was like anymore.

"She said you'd gotten your own career as a Private Investigator," Mae continued. "And it just got me thinking back to when we were like… young and how we'd pretend we had our own business."

Yao paused to think. "I actually remember that…"

"Anyway, there's nothing wrong with McDonald's," she turned, carrying a tray in her hand. "People work there and have perfectly acceptable living standards."

She walked briskly away to serve more customers. Lei and Yong Soo followed her with their heads before the older of the two of them shot Yao with an almost glare.

"Where did you meet her?" he demanded.

"My neighbourhood," Yao sipped his coffee. "Why?"

"I didn't think you would ever know someone like that," Lei glanced over his shoulder once more, not noticing the flash of anger in Lien's eyes. "Is she single?"

"I haven't seen her in seven years, aru," Yao glowered. "How am I supposed to know that? Why does the likes of you want to know anyway?"

"Really?" Lei sent him a look. "Are you really asking that?"

"If you want to run into the spider's nest, go ahead, aru," Yao shrugged. "But I can tell you it won't be a fun ride."

"Would I have better luck?" Yong Soo finally drew his eyes away from Mei. "Didn't she say you used to play detective together? You should let her join; I think with all the practice, she could be of great help."

"I think you're missing out the fact that I don't actually want Mei on my team, aru," Yao finished his coffee. "As you might not have noticed, aru, we didn't actually get along just now, did we?"

"It didn't seem that bad," Lei swirled his Americano around, downed the rest of it and ate the last bit of his cake.

"You two are just pathetic," Yao glanced at Mei from across the room as she placed coffee and food before another group of customers. "Mei… she's… happy doing… whatever it is she's doing, aru."

"I wonder why she left America, though," Lei pondered, drumming his fingers listlessly on the table. "I've heard it's the best thing ever."

"You heard what she said," Yao shrugged. "It didn't work out for her, aru. Anyway, I think we can call it a day for this case. We'll all do our respective things and regroup when the time's appropriate. Do you guys want a lift anywhere?"

"Nah, I'll just get my roommate to grab me," Lei glanced over his shoulder at Mei. "I'll stay a little longer."

"A lift home would be nice," Lien said, her flat white finished.

"Oh, yeah, Aniki, you wouldn't mind giving me a lift home either, would you?" Yong Soo scraped the last crumbs of his cake into his mouth.

"Of course not, aru," Yao rolled his eyes. "Your mum already hates me enough for distracting you from your schoolwork."

"I do my work at school," Yong Soo replied. "She just doesn't realise that because I tell her have work to do to avoid doing chores."

Yao squinted at the innocent face of his young colleague, but couldn't determine whether he was lying or not. As a child, for Yao, he worked and did his chores. How was it that Yong Soo managed to avoid both?

"Right, well, let's go," he glanced awkwardly at Lei, who was on his phone. "Have fun… I guess?"

"I'll be in tomorrow to download and analyse these photos," Lei replied. "That way we can see if there were any details we missed before."

"No problem," he rose to his feet and left the cafe with Lien and Yong Soo.

Six o'clock had suddenly arrived and, alongside it, a bitter breeze similar to that of Friday night. Yao raised his eyes as they walked along the pavement, staring at the skyline of the buildings as they stood side by side. There was no masked man leering down at him from the Heavens. Friday night was suddenly a distant memory. For once, the man he'd chased for months had an alibi, just as Lei had said. He lowered his head just as the traffic lights turned green, alerting him to cross. The police cars were still at the theatre, but it seemed their Chief had gotten cold enough to flee indoors. Yong Soo reclaimed his front seat, and Lien wasn't one to complain. Yao started the car and set off onto the rapidly darkening streets.

Lien closed the door of her house, which left just Yao and Yong Soo the drive to the Im household. Lien lived in a pleasant area with a small little apartment. If Yao earned more from his career, he would be much more inclined to move out of Kiku's house and get one of his own. As it happened, though, he didn't, so the rows of pretty apartment houses remained forever out of reach. He set off in a direction that would bring him out of the city centre and to a more secluded, more private area of the city.

"You and Mei went to school together?" Yong Soo suddenly asked, and Yao wondered why this was playing on his mind so much.

"She went to the same school, but I knew her mainly from living a couple doors apart, aru," he said. "Our mums were friends. We didn't really talk in school."

"And were you…?" he didn't finish his sentence, but the implied question left in his tone must've supposed to have meant something.

"Were we what?" he asked.

"Dating?" Yong Soo shrugged.

"Absolutely not," Yao glared at him, then swiftly turned his eyes back to the road. "No, I… we definitely weren't dating, aru."

"Did she introduce you to the detective stuff, or did you teach her about it?" he asked.

"A bit of both," Yao admitted. "I used to love crime cases, so introduced her to it, but she was really creative, and made some really interesting things for me to solve…"

"Was it fun?" he asked.

"Yeah, very fun," Yao shrugged. "Otherwise I wouldn't be a PI, would I? It wasn't really like the real deal at all, but what would a couple of kids understand about the detective world? They wouldn't. We didn't."

"So… were the two of you friends?" Yong pressed.

Yao sighed. "Yes? Until we grew apart, aru."

He saw his colleague nod out of the corner of his eye.

"Why?" he asked. "What's with the interrogation?"

"I don't know much about your private life," Yong Soo murmured before quickly adding: "Not that I go out of my way to look into it. It's just… you're a secretive person, and I don't know much about your past."

"Kiku knows the entire story," Yao said. "And I didn't think I was that secretive."

"You can be," he said mysteriously, just as Yao rolled the car into the young man's neighbourhood. "That's a good thing. You don't want everybody to know everything about you."

"Maybe you should take your own advice, Yong Soo," he replied absently. "You have a tendency to share a lot, aru."

"You think I should close up a little more?" he appeared thoughtful. "I guess so. I find it difficult though. I'm quite open in character. See? I'm even telling you what I think of myself."

Yao stopped the car and looked at the teenager in earnest. He always seemed that much older than a boy when he was investigating crimes and hanging around with Yao in the middle of the night. The reality was that Yong Soo was younger than he'd ever been when the detective work began. It was a dangerous world and he'd long brought Yong Soo into it. He couldn't even recall how that had quite happened. All he remembered was that the pair of them went to school with one another, except that Yong Soo was so much younger that Yao barely remembered him when he returned after his university studies.

"Well, just don't say too much," Yao said, looking towards the fancy city house Yong Soo lived in.

He was a wealthy kid, so didn't have to worry about the financial terror being a Private Detective could bring upon you. That was why Yao only gave him five per cent of the profit. The teen didn't live in the centre of the city, but more along the outskirts in a rich area. His house was big enough to accommodate the Investigasians comfortably, and yet, his parents were so against Yao and his business. They didn't realise what kind of hassle Yao went through to keep Yong Soo in line. They perceived him as their "precious baby" who could "do no harm".

"Alright, kid," he said. "Out you get, aru. You have school tomorrow."

"I guess," Yong Soo huffed. "I can't wait until I'm finished with it."

"Treasure your school years," Yao instructed. "And your childhood. They're easy."

"You say that, but the pressure for us students is constantly rising," Yong Soo sighed. "It just keeps getting more and more competitive. That's why I want to get out there and start my life as an adult. I think I would like to become a detective, like Aniki, but… I'm not sure that's what I'll actually do."

Yao didn't want any competition. "Do what you want. Now, inside. I'll be the one getting the blame if your mother doesn't see you home safe and sound."

"Alright," Yong Soo leapt out of the car, then turned shyly towards Yao. "Say… are we going to interrogate Edelstein together?"

"Of course," Yao rolled his eyes. "I need to pay and work for my rent tomorrow morning anyway. I'll probably be reviewing the photos Lei took as well. How about I come find you at five, wherever you are? We can hear what Lien has to say then about the crime scene, and then we can take a trip to Edelstein's house."

His whole face lit up. "That's great, Aniki. I'll see you tomorrow."

"At five," Yao called after him, then shook his head with a sigh. Yong Soo was so full of energy. Yao wondered how he did it.

He rolled the car away from Yong Soo's house and set off on his journey back to the ramen shop.

Working overtime wasn't something Mei did often. However, she'd bought a few shirts the other day, and her finances had been a little set back… In truth, she needed the extra money, so had opted to work all the way until eight. For ages, now, she had seen the police cars heading backwards and forwards between the station and the theatre, but had no idea what was truly going on. She wondered, for a moment, if Yao was involved with it, but then decided it was better if she didn't get involved. Mei continued her late night shift, oblivious to the murder scene that lay just a couple roads away from her.

It was an early start for Yao, who wasn't used to rising at six just to get ready for the work day at seven. Under Mr Honda's close instruction, he ended up boiling breakfast ramen to start his day, from seven, all the way to eleven, when he was finally released from duty. It was then that he finally paid his monthly rent, and was glad that he'd gotten himself out of debt to the Honda family again. For once, he actually had some spare cash. He knew it wouldn't last as he had next month's rent to pay in about three weeks.

Once he was finished with that chore, he hid himself away upstairs to where Lei had made himself comfortable in their room of operations.

"Anything caught your interest so far?" Yao wandered in to see the computer screens aglow in a dark room, all of them showing different images of the corpse and the crime scene. He always wondered why Lei had to make his job so... dark. Was it for atmosphere, or something?

"A little," Lei beckoned him over and tapped one of the screens. "You see that?"

Yao peered over his shoulder to see an image on Niklas Edelstein strung against the piano. It wasn't a scene he particularly wanted to remember, but he did nevertheless. The photo was focused on his torso mainly, something Lei had zoomed in on.

"What am I looking at?" Yao asked.

"There's a mark there," he tapped the screen once more in the same spot, and Yao leant closer.

There was a darkened mark on the side of Niklas Edelstein's shirt, hidden by the smart suit jacket he wore. Yao's brows furrowed as he stared at the mark, trying to make sense of it.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I'm not sure," Lei said uncertainly. "But I reckon Niklas wasn't wearing his jacket when he was bashed over the head. I think we need to get Lien to take another look at the corpse."

"She's working today, aru," he said. "And she said there was a chance she'd be finished with the evidence we already have to show us today."

"She won't be," Lei said. "Give her more time; she'll need it. I say present this to her tomorrow when she's showing us what she found. My guess is that it's either dirt or blood. One way or another, it could be a valuable clue as to who the murderer could be."

"Once again, why would they bother putting the jacket on?" Yao wondered aloud.

"To hide whatever they left on his shirt?" Lei said. "It makes me think they were in a hurry."

"Murder should be committed quickly, in theory… But yes, I agree with you," Yao nodded. "The whole process is extremely rushed. Did you get anything else?"

"Um…" he scrolled through the pictures and stopped on one. "Here. Look at the piano leg."

Yao peered closer and saw what looked like a violin bow leant against it. The two were tied together with what looked like string – perhaps the bow's? - in what looked like another messy cover up.

"What happened to it?" he asked.

"I guess it broke when they smashed the lid open," Lei said.

"But why bother patching it together?" Yao felt his brow furrow. "I honestly don't see the point? Weren't they in a hurry?"

"I'm not sure either, but it could be worth going back to the crime scene."

Yao thought of the horror of having to encounter the Chief Arsehole once again, but nodded his consent, deeming the money more important than the matters.

"That's all that really jumped out at me, though," Lei admitted. "Remember, I'll be going to the police station to review the security footage this afternoon? That might take all night, so I doubt I'll get back to you about it today and, if progress is slow, maybe not even the day after that…"

"Alright," Yao said. "I think I'll chat to Kiku about this… He always seems to have some good ideas."

Lei nodded and turned back to his computer, flicking through more of the photos. If he found anything else, Yao trusted that Lei would report to him immediately. For now, though, the photos had provided some intriguing details that made potential leads.

He headed downstairs for a brief chat with Kiku, relaying the smallest of details to him on the crime case.

His ramen making friend looked thoughtful for a moment. "Maybe it would be best to thoroughly check the crime scene again before moving on to anything else? Also, when you speak to Mr Edelstein and Miss Hédeváry, perhaps it would be worth talking about the janitor? If you can get a list of employee details, then you'll have a better idea of who you're looking for."

"That's true," Yao pondered.

"Some other advice is to also search for a motive," Kiku added. "There needs to be a reason, remember that."

"Got it."

Although short lived, his conversation with Kiku had been helpful indeed. He offered more help in the ramen store until it became the time to meet up with Yong Soo once again. After bidding his childhood friend goodbye, Yao rushed out to the Old Civic and cruised away, his mind set on Kiku's advice. He knew Yong Soo would be disappointed at the stall in speaking with the mourning couple, but it was important that the crime scene was thoroughly investigated.

He parked at the theatre, since he intended to come back there, and hurried across the road back to the coffee shop. He had called Yong Soo, who had breezily answered with: "I really liked that coffee shop from yesterday, so I'm there again." Although agitated that the student hadn't come to meet him at the theatre, Yao wasn't in the mood to argue, so instead went over to that dreaded place. He had hoped to limit contact with Mei, but if it had become an all-time favourite for his sidekick, what else could he say about it?

He saw Yong Soo standing outside the shop from across the road, but then noticed somebody standing beside him. Yao's brows furrowed to see Mei hanging idly beside the student.

What is she doing here? he thought worriedly, as he crossed the road.

"Hey, Aniki!" Yong Soo waved.

If he hadn't been meeting him, he would've walked on.

"Hello, aru," he said. "And Mei."

"Hey," the answer was short, but not aggressive.

"Hey, Aniki, are we speaking to the people today?" Yong Soo asked vaguely.

"Um, we're actually going elsewhere that's related," he pursed his lips.

"Mei, you should join us," Yong Soo suddenly said. "You like the detective stuff, right? And Aniki shouldn't mind."

Yao's gaze flitted to Mei and they locked eyes. He suddenly recalled the many adventures he'd had with the same Mei, only much younger, when she'd use her inventive mind to send him on a trail that could last days. There were times when she'd even forget the clues herself, only to have to reinvent them on the spot with her quick witted thinking. This was the same person who had kindled his love for the life of a Private Investigator.

"If she wants, she can come," he finally said, short and clipped. "But she'll have to keep quiet about it."

He was looking at Mei, but saw, out of the corner of his eyes, Yong Soo glancing rapidly between them. He had a feeling a conversation had already gone down between Yong Soo and Mei... A slight smile reached her lips and she shrugged.

"I don't see why not," she finally replied. "Do I get paid?"

"Five per cent," he offered.

She raised her eyebrows and laughed. "Really? OK."

He wondered if that was smart; would she really have done it for free? He quietly cursed himself.

"Where are we going, then, Detective?" she asked, putting her hands in her pockets, the wind ruffling her hair.

After all these years, and the clocks still seemed to go back.

"The music theatre," he replied. "A.k.a.: the crime scene."

A/N: Asiangers Assemble! I feel this was a character chapter, so sorry for the brief pause on the crime, guys. There's plenty of time for Edelstein's case, which should come to light on Tuesday! Thank you for all your support and until next time!

Yao Wang: China
Yong Soo Im: Korea
Mei Xiao: Taiwan
Lei Siu Chun: Hong Kong
Lien Chung: Vietnam
Kiku Honda: Japan
"Chief Arsehole": England
Roderich Edelstein: Austria
Elizabeta Hédeváry: Hungary

P.S. Concerning names, I probably won't keep repeating them after the next chapter (the 5th chapter). I think most people know the nations' human names (it was just me who didn't for a very long time), and I'll only put names down for new characters following the next chapter.