[EXO] File 32: Murder at the Sunset Mansion (1/1)
Title: File 32: Murder at the Sunset Mansion
Fandom: EXO
Author: chiharu
Characters/pairing: Kris/Yixing
Rating: PG
Wordcount: ~7k
Summary: College detective Kris Wu goes on vacation with his childhood friend Zhang Yixing, but murders just seem to follow him everywhere he goes. Detective Conan!Au.
kkk warning for minor character death, plot twist abuse, and the excess use of Conan tropes! Detective Conan follows the story of high school detective Kudo Shinichi as he solves crimes. The criminal proceedings here are modeled after DC, that is to say not very accurate lol. The links in the break points take you to songs from the DC soundtrack. Click on them if you like DC. Otherwise, they probably won’t enhance your reading experience very much! I've given everyone enough clues, so see if you can solve the mystery before Kris does!
♠
Kris is fixing Yixing’s scarf when a boy climbs into the van. If the newcomer notices the speed at which Kris’s hands drop from Yixing’s neck, he makes no mention of it. Kris’s eyes immediately fly to the badge around the newcomer’s neck and the camera bag slung over one shoulder. Yixing, too, is looking at him with an amused smile.
The curious silence ends when the driver of the shuttle announces their ascent to the top of the estate. It’s then that Kris remembers he’s here with Yixing on vacation.
The mansion, like the rest of the property, is covered in snow. The smell of burning leaves linger in the air when they climb out to examine the artfully crafted front door. Kris watches Yixing make a cloud in the cold with his breath and is immensely thankful that his parents accepted that last minute invitation to the writers’ convention in L.A. instead of coming here as planned.
The girl who greets them at the door is all smiles. “I’m so glad you could join us,” she says pleasantly.
Kris nods as they follow her into the grand foyer. “My parents extend their apologies. They were really looking forward to dining with your family.” He’s temporarily distracted by the boy from the car, who is busy snapping photos of the interior. “Miss Choi,” he adds when Yixing tugs at his sleeves. “This is my friend, Zhang Yixing.”
“Any guest of yours is also welcomed, of course,” a new voice says. Kris turns around to find another girl standing beside Choi Jinri. She grins at Jinri, who laughs a little and leans into her with a giggle of unnie!.
This is a new development, Kris thinks. He had known that Choi Hyunwoo-owner of the estate, president of the luxury hotel chain, and an avid fan of his father’s writing- had a daughter. Kris’s sources never revealed that Choi Jinri had a sister. Especially not a sister who looks so much like her.
“We’re fraternal twins,” Jinri explains good-naturedly.
“I, too, am a fan of your father’s novels. So much that I booked a flight back to the country when I heard that our parents were having him over for the holidays,” The other girl says. “I hope you’ll prove to be equally entertaining.”
“Soojung’s just kidding,” Jinri insists. “She’s here to celebrate my engagement, that’s all.”
That, Kris had known. The engagement between the second son of Kim Jeweler’s and the daughter of the Choi hotel chain was enough to make national news, which Kris kept a close eye on. Sadly politics, internationally wanted jewel thieves, and stocks meant very little to Kris. Then again, he does take some satisfaction in the way Yixing snatches the newspaper out of his hands every morning as they walk from the breakfast cart on campus to their morning classes.
“You’re a bit famous yourself,” their companion from the car speaks up for the first time. His voice is soft with a whimsical quality to it. “Kris Wu, son of the famous mystery novelist and the youngest consultant to have solved back to back cases with the metropolitan police. In fact, The Post calls you the College Detective of the East.”
Kris doesn’t know how to respond to that, so he just nods while Yixing chuckles from his side.
“This is the reporter who’s writing a piece on the new hotel opening this month,” Jinri explains, tugging unconsciously at the diamond on her necklace. Kris read somewhere that it’s an engagement gift. “He’s also father’s guest.”
“My name is Lu Han,” the reporter says, extending a hand out. Kris shakes it and is surprised to find that Lu Han has a rather strong grip.
“We have some other guests coming to dinner and staying over.” Jinri is looking around now, gesturing for the butler to grab their bags. “But I hope you’ll enjoy dinner nonetheless.”
Dinner is pleasant enough. President Choi is fascinated by Kris’s stories. Mystery buffs usually are.
Also present is Jinri’s fiancé Kim Jongin, who is oddly quiet. Sitting next to him is his friend Oh Sehun, who Kris vaguely recognizes as the heir of another disgustingly rich enterprise. Then again, Yixing would probably remark that Kris’s own family is pretty well off too. Yixing, having been present at most of Kris’s cases, is unimpressed by Kris’s tales as he happily eats through the six course meal. By the time Kris finishes reciting the bridge case, Yixing is already deep in conversation with Lu Han. Meanwhile, the twins’ mother attempts to make conversation with Jongin.
Kris gets distracted when he’s asked about the subject of fishing. “I know a thing or two,” Kris admits, turning back to his host.
“It’s unfortunate that the weather has gotten too cold for a fishing trip, otherwise I would’ve been delighted to take you down to the river. None of my children or future children seem to enjoy it.” President Choi trails off when the desserts are brought out.
Fishing is actually the last thing Kris wants to do right now, but he’s careful not to say so. If anything, Kris has always been good at saying the right things. That was a skill he inherited from his father.
“Why does someone need to live in such a large mansion?” Yixing asks after the butler shows them to their rooms on the third floor. Yixing’s bags are already set by the bed as he takes a seat in the armchair, feet digging into the expensive looking rug. “Haven’t you done enough investigating?” Yixing asks as Kris walks around the room, surveying the décor.
On the dresser and shelves are various family photos ranging from President Choi’s younger days to childhood photos of the twins and Jongin. Kris’s eyes linger on a particular photo of Soojung smiling knowingly into the camera as she pulls Jinri and Jongin towards her.
“You’re always so curious about other people but not in what’s in front of you,” Yixing says, standing up and walking towards Kris. He touches Kris’s forearm, smiling when Kris looks at him. “Take a break.”
Kris puts one hand on Yixing’s elbow and pulls him closer, the heat of Yixing’s body warm against his as he kisses Yixing, who leans closer with the press of Kris’s hand against the small of his back. They move a little until Kris’s hip is digging into the dresser, the back of his dress shirt scrunched under Yixing’s hands. Kris doesn’t remember the last time they touched like this, but the possibility had always been there, ever since Yixing kissed him in exasperation after the shopping mall case. Ever since then, the desire to hold Yixing’s hand in public had grown stronger and stronger every day.
There had always been clues, Kris knows. Jongdae used to call him oblivious, back when the only cases Kris solved were trivial high school drama involving stolen wallets as they ate lunch on the roof of the school, Jongdae rolling his eyes while Yixing fed them his extra food.
They stop when Yixing pulls away, cheeks flushed and lips swollen. “I think your phone is ringing,” Yixing says. When Kris doesn’t let go of his waist, Yixing adds, “eh, in the other room.”
“Oh,” Kris says, letting go. Yixing laughs when Kris scuffles out the door.
In the hallway, Kris brings both hands to his incredibly warm face. He’s about to enter the next room when he spots Jinri at the end of the hall. He calls her name, causing her to spin around.
“Kris!” She says, eyes wide as she quickly folds the pastel blue paper in her hands. Jinri gives him a strained smile, hand instinctively reaching for her necklace in nervousness. “Oh, yes. Sorry. Is everything okay?”
Kris examines her. When he replies that everything is fine, Jinri quickly hurries away. Kris takes a step to the right and quickly peeks into Jinri’s room. Everything looks normal in there. Interesting, he thinks.
By the time Kris finally gets to his own room, he has already missed his mother’s international call.
Yixing is sitting on the foot of Kris’s bed when Kris wakes up the next morning. Kris rolls over, squinting to get the sun out of his eyes. “Get up,” Yixing says and pulls on Kris’s left arm, huffing when Kris just flops around.
“Don’t you want breakfast?” Yixing asks, scooting closer until he’s leaning directly over Kris, who covers the sun with an arm over his eyes. “Up,” he says again, tugging on Kris’s arms until they both go tumbling onto the bed. When Kris successfully traps Yixing under one arm, Yixing complains about Kris’s morning breath and laughs when Kris breaths at him.
Kris gets up when Yixing threatens to use up all of his skincare products. By the time Kris leaves the adjacent bathroom, Yixing has already made the bed.
“Hungry now?” Yixing asks, fixing the collar of Kris’s shirt before they head into the hallway. They’re about to leave when Kris hears something. Yixing stops turning the doorknob when noises from the hall travel through the door. They hear the muffled sound of arguing, followed by a familiar voice saying “-you can’t.” Yixing looks at Kris, who leans closer towards the door.
“You can’t carry on with the wedding,” a quiet but insistent voice says. “She doesn’t want it to happen.”
“We’re getting married, Sehun,” Jongin replies.
“But I just don’t think it’ a good idea,” Sehun replies.
“I’m sorry. You just don’t understand that-”Jongin halts when Yixing grips the door handle too hard, causing both he and Kris to tumble into the hall. Jongin stares at them, an incredulous expression on his face, before quickly collecting his wits and walking away.
Sehun blinks several times and follows Jongin.
This is even more interesting, Kris thinks.
Yixing gives Kris an extremely uncomfortable look, mouthing awkward. However, it’s not awkward enough to deter them from the kitchen, where they find an assortment of bread and fruit laid out on the kitchen island. Lu Han is already sitting by the kitchen counter, munching aimlessly on a piece of toast.
Soojung is there too, staring out at the backyard with a mug of tea in her hands. The mug matches the color of the belt around her high-waisted skirt. She spins around when Yixing greets her good morning, long brown hair flying behind her shoulder.
“Make yourselves at home,” Soojung says before excusing herself.
“Everyone is in a hurry today,” Lu Han mumbles, taking a sip of his orange juice. He scoots over when Yixing joins him at the counter, offering Yixing a croissant. “Are you going on the estate tour with President Choi later?” When Kris nods at him, Lu Han grins. “Good, me too.”
They go back to the room after breakfast, noting the music coming out of Jinri’s room when they pass by. In Kris’s room, Yixing skims through a book while Kris flips open his laptop to checks emails. They look up when the music travels through the hallway, filling the room with the faint sounds of orchestral music.
Lu Han drops by a little later, camera strap around his neck as he pokes his head through the open doorway. “Who knew that Choi Jinri would be a fan of English composers?”
Kris blinks. “Is that what she’s playing?”
Yixing, who has always been more musically inclined than Kris, is suddenly interested. “Are you a fan of Gustav Holst?”
“I’m a fan of this orchestral suite,” Lu Han explains, coming inside and taking a seat on the armchair opposite the bed. “What I really love about this piece is his orchestration and use of musical technique. Although,” he pauses to listen. “I must say that Mercury is not my favorite movement.”
“What is your favorite movement?” Yixing asks.
Lu Han beams at them. “It’s Uranus.”
“Ah,” Yixing says, returning Lu Han’s grin.
Kris tunes out for a bit, glancing out of the window overlooking the courtyard. He sees President Choi’s driver pull in near the fountain, probably preparing for the estate tour. Kris listens as Lu Han and Yixing discuss composers, pausing when Lu Han asks about his opinion on the piece.
“I’m not fond of 20th century composers,” Kris replies. As a child, he had been more inclined to read books and discuss mysteries with his father than to listen to his mother’s growing record collection.
Regardless, he had grown up with a music buff. Some days, Yixing still locks himself in the piano modules under the music department until Kris retrieves him after his evening classes.
Lu Han looks amused before engaging Yixing in another conversation about music. There’s a flash of mischievousness in Lu Han’s eyes every time he looks between Yixing and Kris, but Kris ignores this as he refreshes his browser for more news. He bookmarks a few pages and forwards an article to his father. He’s halfway through the articles on Sina when the butler comes to inform them that President Choi is waiting for them.
The president is standing in the foyer when Kris and Yixing descend the grand staircases. Lu Han follows them, towing his photography equipment with him as they meet up with Jongin and Sehun. Jongin quickly looks away and Sehun is intent on staring at the floor.
“Where’s Soojung and Jinri?” President Choi asks. “Soojung said they were interested in tagging along too.”
“Miss Jinri is not answering her door,” the butler explains. “It’s locked. Perhaps she can’t hear me through the music.”
“Nonsense,” President Choi huffs, looking up the staircase. “I’ll go get her. You go get the key to her room.”
“I’ll come with you,” Jongin offers, which causes Sehun to tag along. When Yixing remembers leaving his wallet in his room, Kris agrees to go with him to the third floor. Their rooms are, after all, only down the hall from Jinri’s. Lu Han, looking bored by himself, sets his equipment down and follows.
Jongin is knocking on Jinri’s door when Yixing appears in the hallway with his wallet. He wanders over to where Kris and Lu Han are currently examining a painting on the wall, turning around when Jongin makes a comment of “I wish she would stop playing music so loudly by herself.”
They find Soojung walking up the stairs behind the butler. She tilts her head while asking why everything is taking so long. The tip of her ponytail sways behind her with every step she takes.
“Are there separate keys to every room?” Kris asks.
Soojung nods, looking distracted as the butler begins opening Jinri’s door. “Yes. The key room is in the basement.”
“That seems rather inconvenient,” Lu Han comments, giving them a small grin.
Their attention, however, is diverted when Jongin calls Jinri’s name. Kris turns to see everyone rushing into the room. By the time Kris gets to the doorway, Jongin and Sehun are already lowering Jinri’s body down to a reclining position. Kris’s eyes fly from the rope looped around the ceiling beam to the furniture scattered around the room.
Jongin is trying hard to resuscitate Jinri while Sehun takes her pulse. President Choi looks completely ashen, leaning against the doorway for support.
“Call the police,” Soojung says, her voice trembling as Yixing punches numbers into his phone.
Kris glances from the door they had just opened to the closed balcony door, the only other exit or entry point to the room. The doors are firmly shut with the handles turned to the lock position.
“Fuck,” Jongin hisses. “She’s not breathing-I can’t-”
“Nobody move or touch anything else,” Kris says, halting Lu Han from kneeling to Jinri’s side. His voice comes out louder than expected. Even Soojung, who previously had her face buried in her hands, looks up as everyone stares at him. Kris knows he is taking a leap of faith, but there is a voice whispering in his head and directing the course of his thoughts.
“This is not a suicide,” Kris decides. “This is a locked room murder.”
♠
Kris is pacing around the hall when the police finish inspecting the scene.
“You again,” Inspector Byun says, expression caught between concern and exasperation. “Our favorite bad luck charm. Do murders just follow you everywhere you go?”
“It’s nice to see you too, Baekhyun. Where’s your partner?” When Inspector Byun gives him a pointed look, Kris gets to the point. “What do you have?”
Inspector Byun sighs, flipping over a pocket-sized notebook with his gloved hands. “The victim, Choi Jinri, died of strangulation.”
Kris nods. The marks around her neck had been consistent with rope marks.
“The estimated time of death is 11:00 AM, approximately 30 minutes before her body was discovered by several witnesses including yourself. The main door to the room and the balcony door were both locked.” Inspector Byun frowns. “All signs point to a suicide, but-”
“There’s something strange,” Kris cuts in, resuming his pacing. He can see the police interrogating the other witnesses in the corner of his eye, so he closes them and recalls the scene.
Jinri’s seat and armchair had been shoved aside, but had they been moved in their attempt to resuscitate her? If so, why were there books on the floor when the dust marks on her table clearly indicated their original positions? Also, why was the armchair moved more than a foot away from where the rope was looped over the ceiling beam?
Kris tries to remember the two seconds he spent peering into Jinri’s room last night. Was the furniture always arranged in this way?
Then there was the thin wire-like mark underneath the large rope marks, as if Jinri had been choked with the chain of her-
“Necklace,” Kris says, spinning around. “Did you process the necklace?”
Inspector Byun stares at him. “What necklace??”
The necklace, made of rose diamond, had been an engagement gift from Kim Jongin. “She’s been wearing that thing night and day,” Jongin says when asked, face buried into his arms on the table. He looks up when Inspector Byun tells him to speak more clearly. “I don’t know why it’s not on her, okay?! Why would I know? Why did she…” He trails off, looking into the distance. “Why would she- If something was wrong, why wouldn’t she tell someone?”
“You don’t ask the questions here,” Inspector Byun says, busy scribbling something into his notes. He pauses when his partner walks in, looking curiously at Jongin.
“Kim Jongin-sshi,” Inspector Kim begins. “I have a witness testify that they saw an argument between you and Oh Sehun regarding the engagement.”
“Witnesses- I saw it too,” Kris corrects. He recalls that conversation in addition to the strange way Jinri behaved the previous night. “Why did Oh Sehun say that Choi Jinri did not want the marriage to happen?”
Jongin looks at him, eyes confused. He doesn’t answer or elaborate, glancing down at his wrenched hands instead.
Oh Sehun isn’t much of a help either, perpetually quiet despite Inspector Kim’s allegedly hard hitting interrogation. Then again, Kris hadn’t expected him to be helpful. The two of them are clearly hiding something.
♠
These are the facts that Kris knows:
At the victim’s time of death, Kris had been in his room with Yixing and Lu Han. This rules Lu Han out as the perpetrator.
President Choi claims to have been working in his office on the second floor with no alibi. His wife could not be held for questioning, having fainted after seeing Jinri’s body. She’s now lying down in one of the guest rooms.
Kim Jongin was allegedly eating in the kitchen with Oh Sehun. They are each other’s alibi, but that doesn’t account for much.
Choi Soojung says she was taking a nap in her room. She, too, has no alibi.
Perhaps the perpetrator locked the front door to Jinri’s room before exiting it, but Kris knows that’s impossible. To reach the staircase, the perpetrator would have walked past Kris’s open door. No one had been moving about in the hallway around the time of death.
“What do you think?” Yixing asks quietly, touching Kris’s arm.
Kris frowns at the scene in front of him. Inspector Kim is talking to the butler while Soojung sits on the nearby sofa, face white. Lu Han is watching Soojung fix her belt in nervousness, a faraway look in his eyes. Kris regrets not having seen the room until after the victim’s body had been moved from her hanging position.
“I don’t know,” Kris replies at last. There were too many questions. Why did Jinri not want the marriage to happen? Where is her necklace now? What was she hiding from Kris last night? If she did commit suicide, why? Why would she play music while-
“Holst,” Kris says, turning to Yixing. The stereo was still playing the CD when they discovered the body, but Inspector Byun had turned it off after arriving at the scene. “Tell me more about Gustav Holst. What was the piece Jinri was blasting?”
Yixing scrunches his face in concentration. “It’s a seven piece orchestra suite titled The Planets. Each movement is named after a different planet. There’s Mars, the Bringer of War; Venus: the Bringer of Peace, Mercury: the Winged Messenger; Jupiter: the Bringer of Jollity; Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age; Uranus: The Magician, and… Um. Neptune: the Mystic, I think.”
Kris is no longer listening, having pulled on a pair of gloves as he heads for the crime scene on the third floor. He walks around the room, carefully avoiding any of the furniture while making his way to the balcony door. He opens the casement styled door, noting that the lock turns quite easily.
The December weather greets Kris, the temperature having dropped as it nears sundown. Kris walks around the balcony, examining it. Someone had cleaned the snow from earlier this week off, leaving little to no evidence of human movement.
Kris glances over the balcony and is surprised to find an identical one below him on the second floor.
Lu Han catches Kris off guard when Kris is examining the CD collection in the study. The room is directly situated a floor below Jinri’s room, with a matching balcony about ten feet below Jinri’s. The walls are covered with shelves full of ballet and opera scores. “It seems like she was also a great fan of Tchaikovsky,” Lu Han says, looking at Kris. “Don’t tell me you dislike him too.”
“No one dislikes Tchaikovsky,” Kris replies quickly while scanning through the shelves for a clue, any clue. Instead, he finds another photo album filled with childhood photos of the twins and Jongin. In this particular picture, Soojung is hugging Jongin while Jinri looks at them with admiration.
Lu Han hums. “No one disliked him but himself, you mean.”
Kris knows what Lu Han is referring to. It was common knowledge that Tchaikovsky struggled with his personal neurosis. Troubled by his homosexuality, Tchaikovsky was rumored to have taken his own life by consuming water with cholera. Kris wonders what Lu Han is trying to say. He turns to face Lu Han. “There is nothing romantic about death. Especially not murder. Choi Jinri was definitely murdered.”
Lu Han doesn’t argue with him.
♠
“There’s something strange going on,” Inspector Kim says, looking concerned. “The father has no idea why Choi Jinri would be opposed to the marriage. He says she was quite happy when she announced it and had even begun planning her wedding. Her sister flew back from studying abroad just to celebrate the news.” He pauses for a second, looking torn. “Are you sure about what you heard?”
Kris gives him an annoyed look. “Joonmyun.”
Inspector Kim looks sorry to have asked, which makes Kris feel slightly guilty. Inspector Kim has always been more supportive of Kris’s involvement in cases than his partner. Even so, there is a line between the actual police and Kris. Despite being heralded as a famous detective by the popular media, Kris was still just a student-an incredibly intelligent student, maybe, but a civilian nevertheless.
“We’ve searched around but have not located the necklace,” Inspector Kim continues. “You’re right that there’s another set of strangulation marks around the victim’s neck, underneath the rope burn. Are you thinking that she was strangled first with her necklace?”
“Maybe,” Kris replies absently.
“Well, we’ve taken the witnesses’ personal possessions into custody. There was nothing strange on everyone’s cell phones. No strange messages or weird calls, not even on the reporter’s disposable phone. We’re still confirming his identity with his paper, but-”
“I already told you that he’s not the killer,” Kris replies, recollecting the events of the day. “Don’t waste your time on Lu Han.” He doesn’t look up when Inspector Kim is called away by an officer.
The foyer is still filled with people, witnesses and officers alike. Kris is startled when Soojung appears in front of him, the girl frowning as she continues shifting her belt nervously. “I want to get out of here.”
“You’re a key witness, none of you can leave yet,” Kris replies. Then he remembers that this is the Choi Residence. Where would Soojung go, even if she wanted to leave? “Do you know why your sister would possibly want to cancel the wedding?”
Sooyoung looks at him strangely. “Jinri would never cancel the wedding, so I don’t know. I guess there are a lot of things I don’t know about her.” She runs a hand through her ponytail.
Right, Kris thinks. Of course everyone is being equally cryptic. He watches as she walks away. Soojung trips on her way up the staircase, almost falling if not for Lu Han steading her with one hand around her waist. Kris looks away when Soojung thanks Lu Han, Kris having lost interest in Choi Soojung for the time being.
Kris is starting to unfold minor parts of the case, but it’s the large questions he still needs to answer. What is the motive? Who wants Choi Jinri dead? He’s mulling these questions over when Yixing pulls him aside into an empty room.
“Stop thinking,” Yixing says. “You look like you’re about to have an aneurysm from frowning.”
“I-” Kris begins to say, shutting up when Yixing slips his hands into Kris’s.
“I love it when you look so focused,” Yixing continues. “But stop getting stuck on the details. Sometimes what you’re looking for is right in front of you. You just have to ask the right questions.”
Ask the right questions. It’s something his father always said while brainstorming for his novels. It’s also what his mother suggested when Kris expressed frustration over Yixing’s absentmindedness to her over breakfast last week. Sometimes what bothers Kris isn’t Yixing’s silence, but the complete air of indecision that shrouds over their relationship.
Later that day, when Yixing came by to drop off something, Kris’s mother had made a insinuating comment about Yixing and Kris’s holiday plans. When Kris neither confirmed nor denied her suggestions, Yixing had looked silently at Kris.
Kris thinks about what it means to intentionally omit the truth. What were Kim Jongin, Oh Sehun, and Choi Soojung omitting from their testimonies?
He needs to go back to the crime scene.
Despite having committed the arrangement of the furniture to memory, Kris almost trips over the ottoman next to the stack of books. He glances from Jinri’s bookshelves to the table, then at the knocked over chairs and folders on the ground. Kris walks around the ottoman, picking up a few sheets of paper. They were florist and bakery recommendations-tentative wedding plans that Jinri can no longer commit to.
Kris freezes upon spotting something blue sticking out of a plastic case. He picks it up from the ground and flips over the CD case. Tucked inside is a familiar letter written on pastel blue paper. It’s addressed to Kim Jongin.
Something clicks when Kris scans through the letter, glancing down at the bottom to find Soojung’s name signed at the end.
Well that explains a lot, Kris thinks, his heart beating in excitement. This means two of the witnesses had motive, but Kris still can’t pin down exactly who committed the crime.
He looks at the CD. Gustav Holst, The Planets, it reads. This is the CD Jinri was listen to. Kris casually reads through the tracklist. The entire CD is only around fifty minutes long, yet it had kept looping in the stereo even after Jinri died.
Kris freezes, rereading the tracklist again. “Fuck,” he says, rushing out of the room. He nearly runs over Inspector Kim in the hallway. “Joonmyun, gather everyone in this room. I know who killed Choi Jinri.”
♠
“What’s the purpose of this?” President Choi demands when almost everyone is gathered at the crime scene. “I’m trying to mourn the death of my daughter and you’re telling me that she was murdered by someone?”
“Not just someone,” Kris says, eyeing the occupants of the room and catching Inspector Byun’s eye. “She was murdered by someone here.”
“Didn’t she commit suicide?” Sehun asks, his voice soft. “Both of the doors to her room were locked.”
Kris smirks. “It’s true that the perpetrator didn’t exit through the front door. They exited through the balcony door.”
“But the balcony door was locked,” Soojung whispers. “And she hung herself.”
Kris raises an eyebrow. “Yes, but anyone could have strangled her in here. At her time of death, the music was playing extremely loudly, so no one heard the struggle. Even I didn’t suspect anything, even though we were only a few rooms down the hall. After Jinri was strangled, the perpetrator tied the rope around the ceiling beam and hoisted her up.”
“Kris,” Inspector Byun cuts in. “We examined their hands. No one has marks consistent with rope burn.”
“The perpetrator didn’t hoist Jinri up by themself.” Kris nods around the room. “They used the weight of the ottoman, the chairs, and the books to pull Jinri’s body up and make it look like she hung herself. That explains the random arrangement of the furniture when we discovered the body.”
“Fine,” Soojun says. “But the room was locked.”
“That can easily be accomplished using a strong piece of string.” Kris pulls out the floss he swiped from the bathroom and demonstrates by tying a small loop around the lock handle. Kris walks out on the balcony and gently closes the balcony door from the outside, slipping the floss through the edge of the door and tugging until he successfully pulls the floss outside. The door locks in the process.
“That’s a neat trick,” Inspector Byun comments after he opens the balcony door for Kris. “But where would the murderer have gone? They couldn’t have jumped from the third floor.”
“They didn’t,” Kris smiles slowly. “They simply jumped onto the balcony below and entered the study directly below us, thus appearing on the second floor. This way, they created the illusion of a locked room and avoided exiting through the hallways on the third floor.”
“That doesn’t tell you anything,” Jongin speaks up. “Anyone could have done that.”
“Not anyone, though,” Kris corrects. “The butler couldn’t have done so because he was speaking with the driver at the victim’s time of death. President Choi is not exactly in his prime physical shape, so he couldn’t have jumped onto the balcony below. Plus, he has no motive to kill his daughter.” Kris looks at Jongin. “That leaves you, Sehun, and Soojung as the possible perpetrators.”
“Are you saying that one of us has motive to kill Jinri?” Sehun asks.
“Well,” Kris replies, walking around. “It’s true that I suspected that either you or Jongin were covering for one another, but now I realize that you don’t have a motive.”
President Choi is silent for a moment. “Are you saying that either Soojung or Jongin killed her? How can you accuse them of doing such a thing?!”
Kris pulls out the pastel blue letter, watching Soojung flinch. “This should explain everything.”
When neither Soojung nor Jongin speak up, Yixing asks cautiously, “what is that?”
Kris looks at Jongin. “It’s a love letter Soojun wrote to you, asking you not to proceed with the wedding. She asks you to cancel the wedding if you still feel anything for her.”
Jongin just stares between Soojung and Kris. “I’ve… Never seen that letter before in my life.”
“I know,” Kris says, handing the letter to Inspector Byun. “That’s because your fiancée hid it, albeit not very cleverly.” He stops speaking when everyone turns to look at Soojung, whose face is flushed with a mixture of embarrassment and disbelief.
“Even if Soojung is in love with Jongin,” Sehun speaks up. “That’s not enough to prove that she killed Jinri.”
Kris is prepared for this. “There are other clues. For example, the first thing Soojung said when we discovered the body was for someone to call the police, not the ambulance. That means she must have thought Jinri was already dead. I didn’t think much of this at first, but then I noticed something else.”
Kris walks towards her. “Your hair was down this morning. It’s also down in almost all the photographs in the house. So why did you pull your hair up into a ponytail between this morning and the time we discovered Jinri’s body? I’m guessing that you had nowhere to hide the murder weapon and therefore concealed it on your body in the most inauspicious location.”
“You have no legitimate proof,” Jongin says.
“You’ll see the proof upon inspecting her hair,” Kris replies, unfazed. “The evidence may seem circumstantial, but it doesn’t matter what the circumstances were. There is only one truth, and the truth is that Choi Soojung killed her sister.”
Silence falls as everyone stares at Soojung. She holds a hand up when one of the officers approach her. “It’s okay,” she says quietly, loosening the hair tie around her ponytail until her hair falls in cascades around her face. Hidden underneath the hair tie is a considerable length of fishing wire originally wrapped around her hair. The width is consistent with the second set of strangulation marks around Jinri’s neck. Kris thinks it’s probably also what she used to lock the balcony door.
“Why, Soojung, why?” President Choi hisses, walking around the room with his face in his hands.
“Of course it’s my fault,” Soojung whispers, glaring at everyone with watery eyes. “Of course no one is shocked. I’ve always been the mean spirited and untalented sister, right?” She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. “Do you know what it’s like to always be compared to Jinri in everything? But you guys are the cruel ones.” She looks at Jongin, frustration and defeat flashing across her face. “Everyone knew I was in love with you. You, Jinri, and even Sehun. No one cares about what I think. Even after I told Jinri the truth, what did she do? She hid that letter and told me that they can’t call off the wedding.”
“But why?” Jongin asks. “You two were always together.”
Soojung smiles wryly. “It’s possible for someone to be extremely lonely, even if they’re surrounded by other people.” She looks away when Inspector Byun handcuffs her.
“Is that why you took Jinri’s necklace?” Jongin asks faintly.
Soojung glares at him. “Yes, I took it in jealousy.”
“You never had to be jealous of her,” Jongin whispers, setting a hand on Soojung arm. “The reason we couldn’t call off the wedding is because my family needs the money from the marriage. The only reason I asked Jinri to marry me is because-I-Jinri told me that you would never return my feelings.” Jongin, too, looks like he’s about to cry. “If we had both been honest, that necklace would have been yours.”
Soojung just stares at him. An uncomfortable silence fills the room as something monumental shifts. Soojung is crying too, hands traveling to her belt as she adjusts it around her waist, trying to pull something out to no avail.
“Is that where you hid the necklace? ” Kris asks, recalling the way Lu Han’s hand had lingered on Soojung’s waist previously. He glances around the room. “Where’s… Lu Han?”
“I thought Inspector Kim went to fetch him,” one of the officers replies.
But why would Lu Han take the necklace? Kris remembers what Inspector Kim had said about Lu Han and suddenly recalls something. Lu Han’s favorite movement in The Planets is Uranus, the Magician.
“Aw, fuck,” Kris says, sprinting out of the crime scene and down the hall to Lu Han’s room, ignoring the confused calls behind him. He vaguely remembers everyone shouting his name before bursting into Lu Han’s room. “Joonmyunl! Be careful, he’s-” His eyes land on Inspector Kim, handcuffed to the back of the door as his body curls forward in unconsciousness. “Joonmyun!”
“Inspector Kim is fine, don’t worry your pretty head off,” a smooth voice says. “He’s asleep.”
Kris stands up, turning around slowly to face the window behind him.
A familiar smile greets him from behind tousled brown hair an infamous monocle. It’s a face that Kris had seen countless times in the newspaper. With the open window as his backdrop, internationally wanted phantom thief Kaitou 0420 is a vision in white under the moonlight.
♠
Kris can’t believe he’d stared at Lu Han’s face for so long without recognizing him. But then again, Kaitou 0420 is a master of disguise. No wonder Inspector Kim couldn’t confirm Lu Han’s identity with the newspaper; he was never here to write an article.
Kris pauses when yells are heard in the hallway, followed by the sound of fumbling and the scent of smoke.
“Don’t worry,” Kaitou 0420 says silkily, pulling out what appears to be Inspector Kim’s gun as he unloads it gracefully. “I simply set off the gas bombs so our friends in the hallway can’t interrupt our conversation. I’ve always wanted to talk to you, Detective Wu. It’s a shame your boyfriend can’t join us.”
Kris glares at him.
“Do you want to see a magic trick, detective?” Kaitou 0420 lifts one hand into the air. With a flick of his wrist, Jinri’s necklace appears in his gloved hand.
“You knew it was Soojung all along, didn’t you?” Kris asks, continuing the conversation in an attempt to buy time. “That’s why you kept staring at her.”
Kaitou 0420 doesn’t move from his spot on the windowsill. He holds the necklace over him, letting the moonlight filter into the jewel. At last, he offers Kris a faint smile. “You picked up on it eventually. The movement Choi Jinri played after Saturn was Mercury, but that’s not the order in which The Planets was arranged. If the victim truly loved classical music, she would’ve known so. Therefore, she must’ve changed the order of the movement for a reason-perhaps to suit her mood.” He looks at Kris meaningfully, one eye carefully concealed behind his monocle. “In astrology, Mercury is the winged messenger and the planet in charge of Gemini, the twins. Choi Jinri changed the music because her twin came into the room.”
The thief had noticed this before Kris did-the acknowledgement of subtle details that came with age and practice. “You could make a good detective,” Kris says.
Kaitou 0420 grins. “I’m not like you. I am an artist and detectives are simply critics. Then again, I am also a thief. It is my job to steal things, even if those things are hearts.”
Kris stares. “Are you hitting on me?”
Kaitou 0420 laughs and nods at the commotion outside. “You’re more interesting than I imagined, Detective. I’m glad we were able to meet, but alas, our time together has come to an end.” He salutes Kris, and the room is filled with pink smoke just in time for Inspector Byun to burst in.
By the time the smoke clears, Kaitou 0420 has already escaped from the window into the safety of the darkness.
“What the fuck,” Inspector Byun says. “Was that- Shit, that wasn’t…. Was it?”
“It was,” Kris says gloomily.
“Wait,” Inspector Byun adds. “Why are you wearing the necklace?”
Kris blinks and looks down. Jinri’s necklace had appeared around his neck in the midst of the commotion. Huh, Kris thinks. That was an interesting magic trick indeed.
♠
“Wow,” Yixing says later as they watch Inspector Kim fumble into the car to the amusement of his partner. “I can’t believe the most wanted phantom thief in the world spent two days with us and we didn’t even notice.”
Kris watches the police cars pull out of the driveway of the estate. There’s always an eerie sense calm following every case, as if he can’t believe it’s really over. “He is a master of disguise. Besides, everyone was too wrapped up in the case to notice something was off about him.”
“Inspector Kim noticed,” Yixing points out, leaning into Kris’s side. They don’t mention that Inspector Kim also got knocked out by a jewel thief and will not be living that down any time soon. “I still can’t believe Kaitou 0420 was here and flirted with us.”
“He flirted with you,” Kris corrects, spotting their taxi as it pulls into the driveway. Needless to say, their vacation had ended prematurely.
Yixing grins sheepishly at him. “Heh. Do you think Lu Han was his real name?”
“I doubt it,” Kris mumbles as the taxi stops in front of them. He spends a minute loading their luggage into the trunk, looking up when Yixing loops an arm through his.
“Don’t be grumpy because you only caught one culprit tonight,” Yixing says with a smile. “At least he returned the necklace.”
Kris doesn’t point out that stealing and returning jewels is 0420’s normal mode of operation. Although, up to this point, most of his appearances had been at scheduled heists televised by the police, much to the frustration of the Kaitou 0420 task force. He was much more high profile than anyone Kris has worked with.
“I’ve been thinking,” Yixing says when they’re in the taxi. “Why do people hurt each other?”
Kris leans into his side of the door. “Money, jealousy, love-those are all common reasons to drive crimes of passion.”
“I don’t think anything drove Choi Soojung to kill her sister,” Yixing replies, looking at Kris. “She made a deliberate choice. It’s terrible to think that Jinri didn’t have to die if only everyone had been more honest.” He swallows. “Maybe the secrets we keep from our families really are the worst.”
Kris stops watching the landscape, setting one hand on Yixing’s knee. He sighs when Yixing blinks at him. “About that- I’m not- You know I’m not trying to keep us a secret from my parents, right? It’s just- I-”
Yixing smiles, his hand curling into Kris’s. “I know. You don’t have to explain yourself to me.”
Sometimes Kris thinks that life is simply a series of puzzles for him to solve. With every case, Kris learns a bit more about human nature and more about himself. Kris knows there’s no glory in uncovering the depth of human greed and hatred. It’s his job to solve murders, not to prevent them. People are capable of doing terrible things to each other, but Kris would like to believe there’s good in everyone.
For now, Yixing is what keeps Kris good.
File 33 Preview:
- “Hey,” Jongdae says, coming to a halt outside of the amusement park. He uses the arm that’s not looped through Yixing’s to point somewhere in the distance. “There’s someone climbing on the Ferris wheel!”
Kris squints up at the sky, towards the direction of the Ferris wheel. Under the glare of the sun, he can make out the figure of someone dangling over the infrastructure. Whoever Jondgae is pointing at isn’t climbing but rather- “Fuck!” Kris says, throwing his backpack on the ground as he rushes towards the ride. Why does shit like this always happen when he's on vacation?!
He only gets halfway there when the body comes crashing towards the ground, causing a ripple of screams from everyone at the base of the ride. -
- “Are you saying that the victim was pushed?” The officer asks.
“I saw it too,” Jongdae says, stepping forward when Yixing doesn’t reply. “I saw the figure of someone else up there!”
“Of course he didn’t fall by himself, that’s what I’ve been telling ya!” A new voice says, and they turn around to find someone making his way across the police tapes. The police officers don't seem surprised to see him. The newcomer grins at Kris, a childish quality painted all over his face. “This was murder.”
“Who the heck is that?” Jongdae whispers from next to Yixing.
“My name is Park Chanyeol,” the boy says, twisting his baseball cap backwards. The introduction is unnecessary, because Kris has already heard about him. Park Chanyeol is famous around these parts. Chanyeol’s grin grows wider at the sight of Kris. “They call me the College Detective of West.” -
- “You see it too, don’tcha?” Chanyeol asks from behind Kris. “The answer has been right in front of us.”
Kris smirks, standing up from his crouched position. The powder on the ground had confirmed everything. “I know who killed the victim,” he says as they share matching smirks. “There is only one truth.” -
FILE 33: Falling Skies and Upturning Ferris Wheels. East Meets West!
a/n: This was an experiment in trying to incorporate as many Conan tropes as possible, including
1. Locked room murders!
2. Family secrets
3. Kaitou KID trolling Shinichi/Kris. In DC, Kaitou KID is always comically crashing the party in his search for a jewel that shines red under the moon. The reason Kaitou 0420 showed up here is because he was interested in the diamond on Jinri's necklace, which was highly publicized thanks to the engagement. Upon realizing that the object of the heist is not what he wanted, KID always returns the jewel.
4. The clumsy inspector with his whittier (female) partner who are always on duty
5. Kris solving crime through some obscure knowledge. In this case, it’s musical knowledge about The Planets by Gustav Holst
This must be a testament of how many DC episodes I’ve watched (fan since 96 :’) desu ), but according to TV tropes, I can also check even more off. Brownie points for anyone who can find another handful of Conan tropes this fic satisfies! LOL WHEN WILL I STOP WRITING ANIME AUS?? NEVER.
♥♥ to parametre for betaing!
♥ Want to talk EXO? Meta? EXO Meta?? Talk to me on twitter!
Love it? Hate it? Please leave some feedback, even if it may be a little late. You can also join the community, since I'll be locking up NC17 fics.
Fandom: EXO
Author: chiharu
Characters/pairing: Kris/Yixing
Rating: PG
Wordcount: ~7k
Summary: College detective Kris Wu goes on vacation with his childhood friend Zhang Yixing, but murders just seem to follow him everywhere he goes. Detective Conan!Au.
kkk warning for minor character death, plot twist abuse, and the excess use of Conan tropes! Detective Conan follows the story of high school detective Kudo Shinichi as he solves crimes. The criminal proceedings here are modeled after DC, that is to say not very accurate lol. The links in the break points take you to songs from the DC soundtrack. Click on them if you like DC. Otherwise, they probably won’t enhance your reading experience very much! I've given everyone enough clues, so see if you can solve the mystery before Kris does!
♠
Kris is fixing Yixing’s scarf when a boy climbs into the van. If the newcomer notices the speed at which Kris’s hands drop from Yixing’s neck, he makes no mention of it. Kris’s eyes immediately fly to the badge around the newcomer’s neck and the camera bag slung over one shoulder. Yixing, too, is looking at him with an amused smile.
The curious silence ends when the driver of the shuttle announces their ascent to the top of the estate. It’s then that Kris remembers he’s here with Yixing on vacation.
The mansion, like the rest of the property, is covered in snow. The smell of burning leaves linger in the air when they climb out to examine the artfully crafted front door. Kris watches Yixing make a cloud in the cold with his breath and is immensely thankful that his parents accepted that last minute invitation to the writers’ convention in L.A. instead of coming here as planned.
The girl who greets them at the door is all smiles. “I’m so glad you could join us,” she says pleasantly.
Kris nods as they follow her into the grand foyer. “My parents extend their apologies. They were really looking forward to dining with your family.” He’s temporarily distracted by the boy from the car, who is busy snapping photos of the interior. “Miss Choi,” he adds when Yixing tugs at his sleeves. “This is my friend, Zhang Yixing.”
“Any guest of yours is also welcomed, of course,” a new voice says. Kris turns around to find another girl standing beside Choi Jinri. She grins at Jinri, who laughs a little and leans into her with a giggle of unnie!.
This is a new development, Kris thinks. He had known that Choi Hyunwoo-owner of the estate, president of the luxury hotel chain, and an avid fan of his father’s writing- had a daughter. Kris’s sources never revealed that Choi Jinri had a sister. Especially not a sister who looks so much like her.
“We’re fraternal twins,” Jinri explains good-naturedly.
“I, too, am a fan of your father’s novels. So much that I booked a flight back to the country when I heard that our parents were having him over for the holidays,” The other girl says. “I hope you’ll prove to be equally entertaining.”
“Soojung’s just kidding,” Jinri insists. “She’s here to celebrate my engagement, that’s all.”
That, Kris had known. The engagement between the second son of Kim Jeweler’s and the daughter of the Choi hotel chain was enough to make national news, which Kris kept a close eye on. Sadly politics, internationally wanted jewel thieves, and stocks meant very little to Kris. Then again, he does take some satisfaction in the way Yixing snatches the newspaper out of his hands every morning as they walk from the breakfast cart on campus to their morning classes.
“You’re a bit famous yourself,” their companion from the car speaks up for the first time. His voice is soft with a whimsical quality to it. “Kris Wu, son of the famous mystery novelist and the youngest consultant to have solved back to back cases with the metropolitan police. In fact, The Post calls you the College Detective of the East.”
Kris doesn’t know how to respond to that, so he just nods while Yixing chuckles from his side.
“This is the reporter who’s writing a piece on the new hotel opening this month,” Jinri explains, tugging unconsciously at the diamond on her necklace. Kris read somewhere that it’s an engagement gift. “He’s also father’s guest.”
“My name is Lu Han,” the reporter says, extending a hand out. Kris shakes it and is surprised to find that Lu Han has a rather strong grip.
“We have some other guests coming to dinner and staying over.” Jinri is looking around now, gesturing for the butler to grab their bags. “But I hope you’ll enjoy dinner nonetheless.”
Dinner is pleasant enough. President Choi is fascinated by Kris’s stories. Mystery buffs usually are.
Also present is Jinri’s fiancé Kim Jongin, who is oddly quiet. Sitting next to him is his friend Oh Sehun, who Kris vaguely recognizes as the heir of another disgustingly rich enterprise. Then again, Yixing would probably remark that Kris’s own family is pretty well off too. Yixing, having been present at most of Kris’s cases, is unimpressed by Kris’s tales as he happily eats through the six course meal. By the time Kris finishes reciting the bridge case, Yixing is already deep in conversation with Lu Han. Meanwhile, the twins’ mother attempts to make conversation with Jongin.
Kris gets distracted when he’s asked about the subject of fishing. “I know a thing or two,” Kris admits, turning back to his host.
“It’s unfortunate that the weather has gotten too cold for a fishing trip, otherwise I would’ve been delighted to take you down to the river. None of my children or future children seem to enjoy it.” President Choi trails off when the desserts are brought out.
Fishing is actually the last thing Kris wants to do right now, but he’s careful not to say so. If anything, Kris has always been good at saying the right things. That was a skill he inherited from his father.
“Why does someone need to live in such a large mansion?” Yixing asks after the butler shows them to their rooms on the third floor. Yixing’s bags are already set by the bed as he takes a seat in the armchair, feet digging into the expensive looking rug. “Haven’t you done enough investigating?” Yixing asks as Kris walks around the room, surveying the décor.
On the dresser and shelves are various family photos ranging from President Choi’s younger days to childhood photos of the twins and Jongin. Kris’s eyes linger on a particular photo of Soojung smiling knowingly into the camera as she pulls Jinri and Jongin towards her.
“You’re always so curious about other people but not in what’s in front of you,” Yixing says, standing up and walking towards Kris. He touches Kris’s forearm, smiling when Kris looks at him. “Take a break.”
Kris puts one hand on Yixing’s elbow and pulls him closer, the heat of Yixing’s body warm against his as he kisses Yixing, who leans closer with the press of Kris’s hand against the small of his back. They move a little until Kris’s hip is digging into the dresser, the back of his dress shirt scrunched under Yixing’s hands. Kris doesn’t remember the last time they touched like this, but the possibility had always been there, ever since Yixing kissed him in exasperation after the shopping mall case. Ever since then, the desire to hold Yixing’s hand in public had grown stronger and stronger every day.
There had always been clues, Kris knows. Jongdae used to call him oblivious, back when the only cases Kris solved were trivial high school drama involving stolen wallets as they ate lunch on the roof of the school, Jongdae rolling his eyes while Yixing fed them his extra food.
They stop when Yixing pulls away, cheeks flushed and lips swollen. “I think your phone is ringing,” Yixing says. When Kris doesn’t let go of his waist, Yixing adds, “eh, in the other room.”
“Oh,” Kris says, letting go. Yixing laughs when Kris scuffles out the door.
In the hallway, Kris brings both hands to his incredibly warm face. He’s about to enter the next room when he spots Jinri at the end of the hall. He calls her name, causing her to spin around.
“Kris!” She says, eyes wide as she quickly folds the pastel blue paper in her hands. Jinri gives him a strained smile, hand instinctively reaching for her necklace in nervousness. “Oh, yes. Sorry. Is everything okay?”
Kris examines her. When he replies that everything is fine, Jinri quickly hurries away. Kris takes a step to the right and quickly peeks into Jinri’s room. Everything looks normal in there. Interesting, he thinks.
By the time Kris finally gets to his own room, he has already missed his mother’s international call.
Yixing is sitting on the foot of Kris’s bed when Kris wakes up the next morning. Kris rolls over, squinting to get the sun out of his eyes. “Get up,” Yixing says and pulls on Kris’s left arm, huffing when Kris just flops around.
“Don’t you want breakfast?” Yixing asks, scooting closer until he’s leaning directly over Kris, who covers the sun with an arm over his eyes. “Up,” he says again, tugging on Kris’s arms until they both go tumbling onto the bed. When Kris successfully traps Yixing under one arm, Yixing complains about Kris’s morning breath and laughs when Kris breaths at him.
Kris gets up when Yixing threatens to use up all of his skincare products. By the time Kris leaves the adjacent bathroom, Yixing has already made the bed.
“Hungry now?” Yixing asks, fixing the collar of Kris’s shirt before they head into the hallway. They’re about to leave when Kris hears something. Yixing stops turning the doorknob when noises from the hall travel through the door. They hear the muffled sound of arguing, followed by a familiar voice saying “-you can’t.” Yixing looks at Kris, who leans closer towards the door.
“You can’t carry on with the wedding,” a quiet but insistent voice says. “She doesn’t want it to happen.”
“We’re getting married, Sehun,” Jongin replies.
“But I just don’t think it’ a good idea,” Sehun replies.
“I’m sorry. You just don’t understand that-”Jongin halts when Yixing grips the door handle too hard, causing both he and Kris to tumble into the hall. Jongin stares at them, an incredulous expression on his face, before quickly collecting his wits and walking away.
Sehun blinks several times and follows Jongin.
This is even more interesting, Kris thinks.
Yixing gives Kris an extremely uncomfortable look, mouthing awkward. However, it’s not awkward enough to deter them from the kitchen, where they find an assortment of bread and fruit laid out on the kitchen island. Lu Han is already sitting by the kitchen counter, munching aimlessly on a piece of toast.
Soojung is there too, staring out at the backyard with a mug of tea in her hands. The mug matches the color of the belt around her high-waisted skirt. She spins around when Yixing greets her good morning, long brown hair flying behind her shoulder.
“Make yourselves at home,” Soojung says before excusing herself.
“Everyone is in a hurry today,” Lu Han mumbles, taking a sip of his orange juice. He scoots over when Yixing joins him at the counter, offering Yixing a croissant. “Are you going on the estate tour with President Choi later?” When Kris nods at him, Lu Han grins. “Good, me too.”
They go back to the room after breakfast, noting the music coming out of Jinri’s room when they pass by. In Kris’s room, Yixing skims through a book while Kris flips open his laptop to checks emails. They look up when the music travels through the hallway, filling the room with the faint sounds of orchestral music.
Lu Han drops by a little later, camera strap around his neck as he pokes his head through the open doorway. “Who knew that Choi Jinri would be a fan of English composers?”
Kris blinks. “Is that what she’s playing?”
Yixing, who has always been more musically inclined than Kris, is suddenly interested. “Are you a fan of Gustav Holst?”
“I’m a fan of this orchestral suite,” Lu Han explains, coming inside and taking a seat on the armchair opposite the bed. “What I really love about this piece is his orchestration and use of musical technique. Although,” he pauses to listen. “I must say that Mercury is not my favorite movement.”
“What is your favorite movement?” Yixing asks.
Lu Han beams at them. “It’s Uranus.”
“Ah,” Yixing says, returning Lu Han’s grin.
Kris tunes out for a bit, glancing out of the window overlooking the courtyard. He sees President Choi’s driver pull in near the fountain, probably preparing for the estate tour. Kris listens as Lu Han and Yixing discuss composers, pausing when Lu Han asks about his opinion on the piece.
“I’m not fond of 20th century composers,” Kris replies. As a child, he had been more inclined to read books and discuss mysteries with his father than to listen to his mother’s growing record collection.
Regardless, he had grown up with a music buff. Some days, Yixing still locks himself in the piano modules under the music department until Kris retrieves him after his evening classes.
Lu Han looks amused before engaging Yixing in another conversation about music. There’s a flash of mischievousness in Lu Han’s eyes every time he looks between Yixing and Kris, but Kris ignores this as he refreshes his browser for more news. He bookmarks a few pages and forwards an article to his father. He’s halfway through the articles on Sina when the butler comes to inform them that President Choi is waiting for them.
The president is standing in the foyer when Kris and Yixing descend the grand staircases. Lu Han follows them, towing his photography equipment with him as they meet up with Jongin and Sehun. Jongin quickly looks away and Sehun is intent on staring at the floor.
“Where’s Soojung and Jinri?” President Choi asks. “Soojung said they were interested in tagging along too.”
“Miss Jinri is not answering her door,” the butler explains. “It’s locked. Perhaps she can’t hear me through the music.”
“Nonsense,” President Choi huffs, looking up the staircase. “I’ll go get her. You go get the key to her room.”
“I’ll come with you,” Jongin offers, which causes Sehun to tag along. When Yixing remembers leaving his wallet in his room, Kris agrees to go with him to the third floor. Their rooms are, after all, only down the hall from Jinri’s. Lu Han, looking bored by himself, sets his equipment down and follows.
Jongin is knocking on Jinri’s door when Yixing appears in the hallway with his wallet. He wanders over to where Kris and Lu Han are currently examining a painting on the wall, turning around when Jongin makes a comment of “I wish she would stop playing music so loudly by herself.”
They find Soojung walking up the stairs behind the butler. She tilts her head while asking why everything is taking so long. The tip of her ponytail sways behind her with every step she takes.
“Are there separate keys to every room?” Kris asks.
Soojung nods, looking distracted as the butler begins opening Jinri’s door. “Yes. The key room is in the basement.”
“That seems rather inconvenient,” Lu Han comments, giving them a small grin.
Their attention, however, is diverted when Jongin calls Jinri’s name. Kris turns to see everyone rushing into the room. By the time Kris gets to the doorway, Jongin and Sehun are already lowering Jinri’s body down to a reclining position. Kris’s eyes fly from the rope looped around the ceiling beam to the furniture scattered around the room.
Jongin is trying hard to resuscitate Jinri while Sehun takes her pulse. President Choi looks completely ashen, leaning against the doorway for support.
“Call the police,” Soojung says, her voice trembling as Yixing punches numbers into his phone.
Kris glances from the door they had just opened to the closed balcony door, the only other exit or entry point to the room. The doors are firmly shut with the handles turned to the lock position.
“Fuck,” Jongin hisses. “She’s not breathing-I can’t-”
“Nobody move or touch anything else,” Kris says, halting Lu Han from kneeling to Jinri’s side. His voice comes out louder than expected. Even Soojung, who previously had her face buried in her hands, looks up as everyone stares at him. Kris knows he is taking a leap of faith, but there is a voice whispering in his head and directing the course of his thoughts.
“This is not a suicide,” Kris decides. “This is a locked room murder.”
♠
Kris is pacing around the hall when the police finish inspecting the scene.
“You again,” Inspector Byun says, expression caught between concern and exasperation. “Our favorite bad luck charm. Do murders just follow you everywhere you go?”
“It’s nice to see you too, Baekhyun. Where’s your partner?” When Inspector Byun gives him a pointed look, Kris gets to the point. “What do you have?”
Inspector Byun sighs, flipping over a pocket-sized notebook with his gloved hands. “The victim, Choi Jinri, died of strangulation.”
Kris nods. The marks around her neck had been consistent with rope marks.
“The estimated time of death is 11:00 AM, approximately 30 minutes before her body was discovered by several witnesses including yourself. The main door to the room and the balcony door were both locked.” Inspector Byun frowns. “All signs point to a suicide, but-”
“There’s something strange,” Kris cuts in, resuming his pacing. He can see the police interrogating the other witnesses in the corner of his eye, so he closes them and recalls the scene.
Jinri’s seat and armchair had been shoved aside, but had they been moved in their attempt to resuscitate her? If so, why were there books on the floor when the dust marks on her table clearly indicated their original positions? Also, why was the armchair moved more than a foot away from where the rope was looped over the ceiling beam?
Kris tries to remember the two seconds he spent peering into Jinri’s room last night. Was the furniture always arranged in this way?
Then there was the thin wire-like mark underneath the large rope marks, as if Jinri had been choked with the chain of her-
“Necklace,” Kris says, spinning around. “Did you process the necklace?”
Inspector Byun stares at him. “What necklace??”
The necklace, made of rose diamond, had been an engagement gift from Kim Jongin. “She’s been wearing that thing night and day,” Jongin says when asked, face buried into his arms on the table. He looks up when Inspector Byun tells him to speak more clearly. “I don’t know why it’s not on her, okay?! Why would I know? Why did she…” He trails off, looking into the distance. “Why would she- If something was wrong, why wouldn’t she tell someone?”
“You don’t ask the questions here,” Inspector Byun says, busy scribbling something into his notes. He pauses when his partner walks in, looking curiously at Jongin.
“Kim Jongin-sshi,” Inspector Kim begins. “I have a witness testify that they saw an argument between you and Oh Sehun regarding the engagement.”
“Witnesses- I saw it too,” Kris corrects. He recalls that conversation in addition to the strange way Jinri behaved the previous night. “Why did Oh Sehun say that Choi Jinri did not want the marriage to happen?”
Jongin looks at him, eyes confused. He doesn’t answer or elaborate, glancing down at his wrenched hands instead.
Oh Sehun isn’t much of a help either, perpetually quiet despite Inspector Kim’s allegedly hard hitting interrogation. Then again, Kris hadn’t expected him to be helpful. The two of them are clearly hiding something.
♠
These are the facts that Kris knows:
At the victim’s time of death, Kris had been in his room with Yixing and Lu Han. This rules Lu Han out as the perpetrator.
President Choi claims to have been working in his office on the second floor with no alibi. His wife could not be held for questioning, having fainted after seeing Jinri’s body. She’s now lying down in one of the guest rooms.
Kim Jongin was allegedly eating in the kitchen with Oh Sehun. They are each other’s alibi, but that doesn’t account for much.
Choi Soojung says she was taking a nap in her room. She, too, has no alibi.
Perhaps the perpetrator locked the front door to Jinri’s room before exiting it, but Kris knows that’s impossible. To reach the staircase, the perpetrator would have walked past Kris’s open door. No one had been moving about in the hallway around the time of death.
“What do you think?” Yixing asks quietly, touching Kris’s arm.
Kris frowns at the scene in front of him. Inspector Kim is talking to the butler while Soojung sits on the nearby sofa, face white. Lu Han is watching Soojung fix her belt in nervousness, a faraway look in his eyes. Kris regrets not having seen the room until after the victim’s body had been moved from her hanging position.
“I don’t know,” Kris replies at last. There were too many questions. Why did Jinri not want the marriage to happen? Where is her necklace now? What was she hiding from Kris last night? If she did commit suicide, why? Why would she play music while-
“Holst,” Kris says, turning to Yixing. The stereo was still playing the CD when they discovered the body, but Inspector Byun had turned it off after arriving at the scene. “Tell me more about Gustav Holst. What was the piece Jinri was blasting?”
Yixing scrunches his face in concentration. “It’s a seven piece orchestra suite titled The Planets. Each movement is named after a different planet. There’s Mars, the Bringer of War; Venus: the Bringer of Peace, Mercury: the Winged Messenger; Jupiter: the Bringer of Jollity; Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age; Uranus: The Magician, and… Um. Neptune: the Mystic, I think.”
Kris is no longer listening, having pulled on a pair of gloves as he heads for the crime scene on the third floor. He walks around the room, carefully avoiding any of the furniture while making his way to the balcony door. He opens the casement styled door, noting that the lock turns quite easily.
The December weather greets Kris, the temperature having dropped as it nears sundown. Kris walks around the balcony, examining it. Someone had cleaned the snow from earlier this week off, leaving little to no evidence of human movement.
Kris glances over the balcony and is surprised to find an identical one below him on the second floor.
Lu Han catches Kris off guard when Kris is examining the CD collection in the study. The room is directly situated a floor below Jinri’s room, with a matching balcony about ten feet below Jinri’s. The walls are covered with shelves full of ballet and opera scores. “It seems like she was also a great fan of Tchaikovsky,” Lu Han says, looking at Kris. “Don’t tell me you dislike him too.”
“No one dislikes Tchaikovsky,” Kris replies quickly while scanning through the shelves for a clue, any clue. Instead, he finds another photo album filled with childhood photos of the twins and Jongin. In this particular picture, Soojung is hugging Jongin while Jinri looks at them with admiration.
Lu Han hums. “No one disliked him but himself, you mean.”
Kris knows what Lu Han is referring to. It was common knowledge that Tchaikovsky struggled with his personal neurosis. Troubled by his homosexuality, Tchaikovsky was rumored to have taken his own life by consuming water with cholera. Kris wonders what Lu Han is trying to say. He turns to face Lu Han. “There is nothing romantic about death. Especially not murder. Choi Jinri was definitely murdered.”
Lu Han doesn’t argue with him.
♠
“There’s something strange going on,” Inspector Kim says, looking concerned. “The father has no idea why Choi Jinri would be opposed to the marriage. He says she was quite happy when she announced it and had even begun planning her wedding. Her sister flew back from studying abroad just to celebrate the news.” He pauses for a second, looking torn. “Are you sure about what you heard?”
Kris gives him an annoyed look. “Joonmyun.”
Inspector Kim looks sorry to have asked, which makes Kris feel slightly guilty. Inspector Kim has always been more supportive of Kris’s involvement in cases than his partner. Even so, there is a line between the actual police and Kris. Despite being heralded as a famous detective by the popular media, Kris was still just a student-an incredibly intelligent student, maybe, but a civilian nevertheless.
“We’ve searched around but have not located the necklace,” Inspector Kim continues. “You’re right that there’s another set of strangulation marks around the victim’s neck, underneath the rope burn. Are you thinking that she was strangled first with her necklace?”
“Maybe,” Kris replies absently.
“Well, we’ve taken the witnesses’ personal possessions into custody. There was nothing strange on everyone’s cell phones. No strange messages or weird calls, not even on the reporter’s disposable phone. We’re still confirming his identity with his paper, but-”
“I already told you that he’s not the killer,” Kris replies, recollecting the events of the day. “Don’t waste your time on Lu Han.” He doesn’t look up when Inspector Kim is called away by an officer.
The foyer is still filled with people, witnesses and officers alike. Kris is startled when Soojung appears in front of him, the girl frowning as she continues shifting her belt nervously. “I want to get out of here.”
“You’re a key witness, none of you can leave yet,” Kris replies. Then he remembers that this is the Choi Residence. Where would Soojung go, even if she wanted to leave? “Do you know why your sister would possibly want to cancel the wedding?”
Sooyoung looks at him strangely. “Jinri would never cancel the wedding, so I don’t know. I guess there are a lot of things I don’t know about her.” She runs a hand through her ponytail.
Right, Kris thinks. Of course everyone is being equally cryptic. He watches as she walks away. Soojung trips on her way up the staircase, almost falling if not for Lu Han steading her with one hand around her waist. Kris looks away when Soojung thanks Lu Han, Kris having lost interest in Choi Soojung for the time being.
Kris is starting to unfold minor parts of the case, but it’s the large questions he still needs to answer. What is the motive? Who wants Choi Jinri dead? He’s mulling these questions over when Yixing pulls him aside into an empty room.
“Stop thinking,” Yixing says. “You look like you’re about to have an aneurysm from frowning.”
“I-” Kris begins to say, shutting up when Yixing slips his hands into Kris’s.
“I love it when you look so focused,” Yixing continues. “But stop getting stuck on the details. Sometimes what you’re looking for is right in front of you. You just have to ask the right questions.”
Ask the right questions. It’s something his father always said while brainstorming for his novels. It’s also what his mother suggested when Kris expressed frustration over Yixing’s absentmindedness to her over breakfast last week. Sometimes what bothers Kris isn’t Yixing’s silence, but the complete air of indecision that shrouds over their relationship.
Later that day, when Yixing came by to drop off something, Kris’s mother had made a insinuating comment about Yixing and Kris’s holiday plans. When Kris neither confirmed nor denied her suggestions, Yixing had looked silently at Kris.
Kris thinks about what it means to intentionally omit the truth. What were Kim Jongin, Oh Sehun, and Choi Soojung omitting from their testimonies?
He needs to go back to the crime scene.
Despite having committed the arrangement of the furniture to memory, Kris almost trips over the ottoman next to the stack of books. He glances from Jinri’s bookshelves to the table, then at the knocked over chairs and folders on the ground. Kris walks around the ottoman, picking up a few sheets of paper. They were florist and bakery recommendations-tentative wedding plans that Jinri can no longer commit to.
Kris freezes upon spotting something blue sticking out of a plastic case. He picks it up from the ground and flips over the CD case. Tucked inside is a familiar letter written on pastel blue paper. It’s addressed to Kim Jongin.
Something clicks when Kris scans through the letter, glancing down at the bottom to find Soojung’s name signed at the end.
Well that explains a lot, Kris thinks, his heart beating in excitement. This means two of the witnesses had motive, but Kris still can’t pin down exactly who committed the crime.
He looks at the CD. Gustav Holst, The Planets, it reads. This is the CD Jinri was listen to. Kris casually reads through the tracklist. The entire CD is only around fifty minutes long, yet it had kept looping in the stereo even after Jinri died.
Kris freezes, rereading the tracklist again. “Fuck,” he says, rushing out of the room. He nearly runs over Inspector Kim in the hallway. “Joonmyun, gather everyone in this room. I know who killed Choi Jinri.”
♠
“What’s the purpose of this?” President Choi demands when almost everyone is gathered at the crime scene. “I’m trying to mourn the death of my daughter and you’re telling me that she was murdered by someone?”
“Not just someone,” Kris says, eyeing the occupants of the room and catching Inspector Byun’s eye. “She was murdered by someone here.”
“Didn’t she commit suicide?” Sehun asks, his voice soft. “Both of the doors to her room were locked.”
Kris smirks. “It’s true that the perpetrator didn’t exit through the front door. They exited through the balcony door.”
“But the balcony door was locked,” Soojung whispers. “And she hung herself.”
Kris raises an eyebrow. “Yes, but anyone could have strangled her in here. At her time of death, the music was playing extremely loudly, so no one heard the struggle. Even I didn’t suspect anything, even though we were only a few rooms down the hall. After Jinri was strangled, the perpetrator tied the rope around the ceiling beam and hoisted her up.”
“Kris,” Inspector Byun cuts in. “We examined their hands. No one has marks consistent with rope burn.”
“The perpetrator didn’t hoist Jinri up by themself.” Kris nods around the room. “They used the weight of the ottoman, the chairs, and the books to pull Jinri’s body up and make it look like she hung herself. That explains the random arrangement of the furniture when we discovered the body.”
“Fine,” Soojun says. “But the room was locked.”
“That can easily be accomplished using a strong piece of string.” Kris pulls out the floss he swiped from the bathroom and demonstrates by tying a small loop around the lock handle. Kris walks out on the balcony and gently closes the balcony door from the outside, slipping the floss through the edge of the door and tugging until he successfully pulls the floss outside. The door locks in the process.
“That’s a neat trick,” Inspector Byun comments after he opens the balcony door for Kris. “But where would the murderer have gone? They couldn’t have jumped from the third floor.”
“They didn’t,” Kris smiles slowly. “They simply jumped onto the balcony below and entered the study directly below us, thus appearing on the second floor. This way, they created the illusion of a locked room and avoided exiting through the hallways on the third floor.”
“That doesn’t tell you anything,” Jongin speaks up. “Anyone could have done that.”
“Not anyone, though,” Kris corrects. “The butler couldn’t have done so because he was speaking with the driver at the victim’s time of death. President Choi is not exactly in his prime physical shape, so he couldn’t have jumped onto the balcony below. Plus, he has no motive to kill his daughter.” Kris looks at Jongin. “That leaves you, Sehun, and Soojung as the possible perpetrators.”
“Are you saying that one of us has motive to kill Jinri?” Sehun asks.
“Well,” Kris replies, walking around. “It’s true that I suspected that either you or Jongin were covering for one another, but now I realize that you don’t have a motive.”
President Choi is silent for a moment. “Are you saying that either Soojung or Jongin killed her? How can you accuse them of doing such a thing?!”
Kris pulls out the pastel blue letter, watching Soojung flinch. “This should explain everything.”
When neither Soojung nor Jongin speak up, Yixing asks cautiously, “what is that?”
Kris looks at Jongin. “It’s a love letter Soojun wrote to you, asking you not to proceed with the wedding. She asks you to cancel the wedding if you still feel anything for her.”
Jongin just stares between Soojung and Kris. “I’ve… Never seen that letter before in my life.”
“I know,” Kris says, handing the letter to Inspector Byun. “That’s because your fiancée hid it, albeit not very cleverly.” He stops speaking when everyone turns to look at Soojung, whose face is flushed with a mixture of embarrassment and disbelief.
“Even if Soojung is in love with Jongin,” Sehun speaks up. “That’s not enough to prove that she killed Jinri.”
Kris is prepared for this. “There are other clues. For example, the first thing Soojung said when we discovered the body was for someone to call the police, not the ambulance. That means she must have thought Jinri was already dead. I didn’t think much of this at first, but then I noticed something else.”
Kris walks towards her. “Your hair was down this morning. It’s also down in almost all the photographs in the house. So why did you pull your hair up into a ponytail between this morning and the time we discovered Jinri’s body? I’m guessing that you had nowhere to hide the murder weapon and therefore concealed it on your body in the most inauspicious location.”
“You have no legitimate proof,” Jongin says.
“You’ll see the proof upon inspecting her hair,” Kris replies, unfazed. “The evidence may seem circumstantial, but it doesn’t matter what the circumstances were. There is only one truth, and the truth is that Choi Soojung killed her sister.”
Silence falls as everyone stares at Soojung. She holds a hand up when one of the officers approach her. “It’s okay,” she says quietly, loosening the hair tie around her ponytail until her hair falls in cascades around her face. Hidden underneath the hair tie is a considerable length of fishing wire originally wrapped around her hair. The width is consistent with the second set of strangulation marks around Jinri’s neck. Kris thinks it’s probably also what she used to lock the balcony door.
“Why, Soojung, why?” President Choi hisses, walking around the room with his face in his hands.
“Of course it’s my fault,” Soojung whispers, glaring at everyone with watery eyes. “Of course no one is shocked. I’ve always been the mean spirited and untalented sister, right?” She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. “Do you know what it’s like to always be compared to Jinri in everything? But you guys are the cruel ones.” She looks at Jongin, frustration and defeat flashing across her face. “Everyone knew I was in love with you. You, Jinri, and even Sehun. No one cares about what I think. Even after I told Jinri the truth, what did she do? She hid that letter and told me that they can’t call off the wedding.”
“But why?” Jongin asks. “You two were always together.”
Soojung smiles wryly. “It’s possible for someone to be extremely lonely, even if they’re surrounded by other people.” She looks away when Inspector Byun handcuffs her.
“Is that why you took Jinri’s necklace?” Jongin asks faintly.
Soojung glares at him. “Yes, I took it in jealousy.”
“You never had to be jealous of her,” Jongin whispers, setting a hand on Soojung arm. “The reason we couldn’t call off the wedding is because my family needs the money from the marriage. The only reason I asked Jinri to marry me is because-I-Jinri told me that you would never return my feelings.” Jongin, too, looks like he’s about to cry. “If we had both been honest, that necklace would have been yours.”
Soojung just stares at him. An uncomfortable silence fills the room as something monumental shifts. Soojung is crying too, hands traveling to her belt as she adjusts it around her waist, trying to pull something out to no avail.
“Is that where you hid the necklace? ” Kris asks, recalling the way Lu Han’s hand had lingered on Soojung’s waist previously. He glances around the room. “Where’s… Lu Han?”
“I thought Inspector Kim went to fetch him,” one of the officers replies.
But why would Lu Han take the necklace? Kris remembers what Inspector Kim had said about Lu Han and suddenly recalls something. Lu Han’s favorite movement in The Planets is Uranus, the Magician.
“Aw, fuck,” Kris says, sprinting out of the crime scene and down the hall to Lu Han’s room, ignoring the confused calls behind him. He vaguely remembers everyone shouting his name before bursting into Lu Han’s room. “Joonmyunl! Be careful, he’s-” His eyes land on Inspector Kim, handcuffed to the back of the door as his body curls forward in unconsciousness. “Joonmyun!”
“Inspector Kim is fine, don’t worry your pretty head off,” a smooth voice says. “He’s asleep.”
Kris stands up, turning around slowly to face the window behind him.
A familiar smile greets him from behind tousled brown hair an infamous monocle. It’s a face that Kris had seen countless times in the newspaper. With the open window as his backdrop, internationally wanted phantom thief Kaitou 0420 is a vision in white under the moonlight.
♠
Kris can’t believe he’d stared at Lu Han’s face for so long without recognizing him. But then again, Kaitou 0420 is a master of disguise. No wonder Inspector Kim couldn’t confirm Lu Han’s identity with the newspaper; he was never here to write an article.
Kris pauses when yells are heard in the hallway, followed by the sound of fumbling and the scent of smoke.
“Don’t worry,” Kaitou 0420 says silkily, pulling out what appears to be Inspector Kim’s gun as he unloads it gracefully. “I simply set off the gas bombs so our friends in the hallway can’t interrupt our conversation. I’ve always wanted to talk to you, Detective Wu. It’s a shame your boyfriend can’t join us.”
Kris glares at him.
“Do you want to see a magic trick, detective?” Kaitou 0420 lifts one hand into the air. With a flick of his wrist, Jinri’s necklace appears in his gloved hand.
“You knew it was Soojung all along, didn’t you?” Kris asks, continuing the conversation in an attempt to buy time. “That’s why you kept staring at her.”
Kaitou 0420 doesn’t move from his spot on the windowsill. He holds the necklace over him, letting the moonlight filter into the jewel. At last, he offers Kris a faint smile. “You picked up on it eventually. The movement Choi Jinri played after Saturn was Mercury, but that’s not the order in which The Planets was arranged. If the victim truly loved classical music, she would’ve known so. Therefore, she must’ve changed the order of the movement for a reason-perhaps to suit her mood.” He looks at Kris meaningfully, one eye carefully concealed behind his monocle. “In astrology, Mercury is the winged messenger and the planet in charge of Gemini, the twins. Choi Jinri changed the music because her twin came into the room.”
The thief had noticed this before Kris did-the acknowledgement of subtle details that came with age and practice. “You could make a good detective,” Kris says.
Kaitou 0420 grins. “I’m not like you. I am an artist and detectives are simply critics. Then again, I am also a thief. It is my job to steal things, even if those things are hearts.”
Kris stares. “Are you hitting on me?”
Kaitou 0420 laughs and nods at the commotion outside. “You’re more interesting than I imagined, Detective. I’m glad we were able to meet, but alas, our time together has come to an end.” He salutes Kris, and the room is filled with pink smoke just in time for Inspector Byun to burst in.
By the time the smoke clears, Kaitou 0420 has already escaped from the window into the safety of the darkness.
“What the fuck,” Inspector Byun says. “Was that- Shit, that wasn’t…. Was it?”
“It was,” Kris says gloomily.
“Wait,” Inspector Byun adds. “Why are you wearing the necklace?”
Kris blinks and looks down. Jinri’s necklace had appeared around his neck in the midst of the commotion. Huh, Kris thinks. That was an interesting magic trick indeed.
♠
“Wow,” Yixing says later as they watch Inspector Kim fumble into the car to the amusement of his partner. “I can’t believe the most wanted phantom thief in the world spent two days with us and we didn’t even notice.”
Kris watches the police cars pull out of the driveway of the estate. There’s always an eerie sense calm following every case, as if he can’t believe it’s really over. “He is a master of disguise. Besides, everyone was too wrapped up in the case to notice something was off about him.”
“Inspector Kim noticed,” Yixing points out, leaning into Kris’s side. They don’t mention that Inspector Kim also got knocked out by a jewel thief and will not be living that down any time soon. “I still can’t believe Kaitou 0420 was here and flirted with us.”
“He flirted with you,” Kris corrects, spotting their taxi as it pulls into the driveway. Needless to say, their vacation had ended prematurely.
Yixing grins sheepishly at him. “Heh. Do you think Lu Han was his real name?”
“I doubt it,” Kris mumbles as the taxi stops in front of them. He spends a minute loading their luggage into the trunk, looking up when Yixing loops an arm through his.
“Don’t be grumpy because you only caught one culprit tonight,” Yixing says with a smile. “At least he returned the necklace.”
Kris doesn’t point out that stealing and returning jewels is 0420’s normal mode of operation. Although, up to this point, most of his appearances had been at scheduled heists televised by the police, much to the frustration of the Kaitou 0420 task force. He was much more high profile than anyone Kris has worked with.
“I’ve been thinking,” Yixing says when they’re in the taxi. “Why do people hurt each other?”
Kris leans into his side of the door. “Money, jealousy, love-those are all common reasons to drive crimes of passion.”
“I don’t think anything drove Choi Soojung to kill her sister,” Yixing replies, looking at Kris. “She made a deliberate choice. It’s terrible to think that Jinri didn’t have to die if only everyone had been more honest.” He swallows. “Maybe the secrets we keep from our families really are the worst.”
Kris stops watching the landscape, setting one hand on Yixing’s knee. He sighs when Yixing blinks at him. “About that- I’m not- You know I’m not trying to keep us a secret from my parents, right? It’s just- I-”
Yixing smiles, his hand curling into Kris’s. “I know. You don’t have to explain yourself to me.”
Sometimes Kris thinks that life is simply a series of puzzles for him to solve. With every case, Kris learns a bit more about human nature and more about himself. Kris knows there’s no glory in uncovering the depth of human greed and hatred. It’s his job to solve murders, not to prevent them. People are capable of doing terrible things to each other, but Kris would like to believe there’s good in everyone.
For now, Yixing is what keeps Kris good.
File 33 Preview:
- “Hey,” Jongdae says, coming to a halt outside of the amusement park. He uses the arm that’s not looped through Yixing’s to point somewhere in the distance. “There’s someone climbing on the Ferris wheel!”
Kris squints up at the sky, towards the direction of the Ferris wheel. Under the glare of the sun, he can make out the figure of someone dangling over the infrastructure. Whoever Jondgae is pointing at isn’t climbing but rather- “Fuck!” Kris says, throwing his backpack on the ground as he rushes towards the ride. Why does shit like this always happen when he's on vacation?!
He only gets halfway there when the body comes crashing towards the ground, causing a ripple of screams from everyone at the base of the ride. -
- “Are you saying that the victim was pushed?” The officer asks.
“I saw it too,” Jongdae says, stepping forward when Yixing doesn’t reply. “I saw the figure of someone else up there!”
“Of course he didn’t fall by himself, that’s what I’ve been telling ya!” A new voice says, and they turn around to find someone making his way across the police tapes. The police officers don't seem surprised to see him. The newcomer grins at Kris, a childish quality painted all over his face. “This was murder.”
“Who the heck is that?” Jongdae whispers from next to Yixing.
“My name is Park Chanyeol,” the boy says, twisting his baseball cap backwards. The introduction is unnecessary, because Kris has already heard about him. Park Chanyeol is famous around these parts. Chanyeol’s grin grows wider at the sight of Kris. “They call me the College Detective of West.” -
- “You see it too, don’tcha?” Chanyeol asks from behind Kris. “The answer has been right in front of us.”
Kris smirks, standing up from his crouched position. The powder on the ground had confirmed everything. “I know who killed the victim,” he says as they share matching smirks. “There is only one truth.” -
FILE 33: Falling Skies and Upturning Ferris Wheels. East Meets West!
a/n: This was an experiment in trying to incorporate as many Conan tropes as possible, including
1. Locked room murders!
2. Family secrets
3. Kaitou KID trolling Shinichi/Kris. In DC, Kaitou KID is always comically crashing the party in his search for a jewel that shines red under the moon. The reason Kaitou 0420 showed up here is because he was interested in the diamond on Jinri's necklace, which was highly publicized thanks to the engagement. Upon realizing that the object of the heist is not what he wanted, KID always returns the jewel.
4. The clumsy inspector with his whittier (female) partner who are always on duty
5. Kris solving crime through some obscure knowledge. In this case, it’s musical knowledge about The Planets by Gustav Holst
This must be a testament of how many DC episodes I’ve watched (fan since 96 :’) desu ), but according to TV tropes, I can also check even more off. Brownie points for anyone who can find another handful of Conan tropes this fic satisfies! LOL WHEN WILL I STOP WRITING ANIME AUS?? NEVER.
♥♥ to parametre for betaing!
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