Detective Kim didn’t know why Seulgi was looking at him like that but ignored it for the moment. He started bringing out the tools of the trade.

  Detective Kim, surprisingly, brought out his phone and a wireless headset. He kept murmuring a dialog about what he was seeing, his version of verbal notes to be transcribed ter. If there was a steno pool of people to transcribe, someone that he hires or if he does it himself is still yet unknown.

  Speaking to Seulgi, he said: “Ma’am, may I get a fingerprint of your thumb and forefinger? I need them so that when I dust your desk, the card, and the box, I can rule your prints out. Obviously, the majority of the prints in here are going to be yours and your co-workers, as this is your office and workspace. Thank you.”

  He proceeded to gather evidence. Fibers, fingerprints, and anything that might be useful. Clearly, he had done this before. He was able to take Seulgi’s prints, then dusted her desk, the letter, and the box. He collected what he could. Using tweezers and tiny baggies, the pile of potential evidence in front of her was staggering.

  She picked up a particur baggy and said, “Sir? If you see ones like this, you can ignore them. It’s my cat’s fur.”

  “That’s fine, please put it back. I can use it as a baseline. Much like the same way when using a lie detector, you ask the subject to say their name and then, ask them to say a lie. This way you establish the parameters.” He continued his monolog expining the mystical arts of his detective work. None of what he said was too surprising as they had all watched procedural police shows on the TV before. No one had seen it in real life before, though.

  Only Min-jeong had seen him use this before. When she was still a little - well, littler, girl, she watched her uncle practice dusting her home for prints. Sometimes, he needed additional time and space to practice somewhere for his practical exams. This was just one more thing that she had seen him do. Being his niece, she got away with asking more questions than the rest of them wanted to. She shamelessly asked all of the questions that everyone else wanted to ask, but couldn’t. Occasionally, it was good to be the bratty niece who was loved by her uncle.

  Noticing the growing annoyance at his niece’s persistent questioning, Seulgi shooed everyone out of the office to let the poor man work in peace. She promised to update everyone when she had information. Detective Kim didn’t say anything, but he made eye contact and nodded in obvious appreciation. He also stopped muttering maledictions from under his breath. About the people in his surroundings, at least. Seulgi’s keen hearing let her know that a good portion of Detective Kim’s vocabury was profane.

  Seulgi is no shrinking violet, but she was still taken aback by the depth, the variety, and the extent of the profanity that was avaible to use ter. She got out her notebook and started keeping track of new profanity for future use. She actually enjoyed profanity, even though she rarely if ever used it. If anyone knew what she was doing, everybody would be shocked. She would be just as shocked as everyone else if she thought about it.

  Profanity aside, it was still a functional lesson in detective work watching him how he canvas the room, taking off bits and things that seemed to have nothing to do with the case and putting in evidence baggies. She knew that she really ought to get out of the office, too. But, this might be the only time she would ever be able to observe the work of a real-life detective up close and personal. He didn’t seem to mind as she generally knew to stay out of the way. That and he could usually work around her if she stood still. Or, sat in this case.

  The detective chased her out of the chair that she was sitting in and went over it with a fine toothcomb. Once again, he felt the residual heat left from her body in the chair. Normally, he could deliberately ignore these little details, but that was not working today. Not much could disturb the computer-like, calm thoughts of this professional man. But, like everyone else, he found that it was impossible to ignore her.

  At the hour and a half mark, the Old Man came by, looked into the door, and shuddered at the chaos, then he saw the intensity that Seulgi was watching the detective and that he didn’t even enter her notice. Then he shook his head and went back to whatever he was doing.

  Soon, it was only Yeji left at the door, looking in. She had an existential look on her face. Seulgi remembered that she was an avid reader of murder mystery novels. She was at an active crime scene, with a real life detective collecting evidence. Now, she was like an eight-year-old child looking at a candy shop. She looked like an anime character, eyes gleaming, mouth slightly agape, and in a near catatonic state.

  After clearing an item with the detective that it was no longer needed, a squeaky toy sailed across the open space and Yeji was woke from her trance with a start and a double squeak. The toy hit her right in the middle of her forehead. Another point was scored for Seulgi.

  Yeji, who was normally the center of calm, cool, and composed, grinned in a tomato-colored blush. She had been hit in the head with a squeaky toy before, but it was not nearly as embarrassing as this time. She picked up the toy, tossed it back to Seulgi, and wandered off grinning like an idiot who got their hands stuck in the cookie jar.

  The power of that grin was enough to get her ranking back as the Number Two Office Madonna. She and Nayeon have been blissfully unaware as Seulgi about the office rating system and their pcement on the charts. What would have surprised the three the most was despite this being a typically male-chauvinistic and sexist endeavor, most of the people voting were women. These three knockouts were just special enough that the girls wanted in on the voting, too. Of course, there were a position four and five. Those st two positions were being threatened, unknowingly by the participants, by the Terrible Twins. The real question would be which one would be four and which five. This was already being hotly contested.

  What no one knew was that Bhuwakuln was quietly aware of this plot. When he got bored, he would deliberately stir the pot just for his personal amusement.