Doctor Demon

Magrod was standing still on a closet, watching the kid carefully. His eyes were moving left and right like a pendulum as he observed the working of the puny human who was busy rolling around. 

Interesting, he thought. Miyoo was rolling back and forth on the carpet, pouting for some reason. She was not specifying any reason for it but it seemed that her brothers refused her something.

"Mmmm!" she puffed and rolled to the side. "Meanie!" 

She rolled to the left. Then right. Then left. Magrod let out a sigh and jumped on the floor to stop the roller coaster of a kid. He enlarged his paw and held it out to make her stop. Miyoo scowled when he managed to do so, holding her arm firmly..

"What the hell are you doing?" he demanded. "We're supposed to find the Prince!"

"Binbin!" Miyoo exclaimed. "Miyoo wants Binbin!"

She sat up and clutched her knees. It had been days since she saw Soobin because her brothers were almost always home now. Also, when Soobin came over last night, Yoonmin took her away on a date. Even though Soobin wanted to take Miyoo, Yoonmin refused and made Minyoon look after her.

"Oi, aren't you being too childish? Your brother went on a date with the girl! Have some pride, woman!"

"Miyoo, child."

Magrod only shook his head. He was glad to be a demon and not a human anymore. Full fledged demons were always adults. Handling children was out of his expertise. Moreover, the thought of tiny little demons like Miyoo, running around to create chaos was a nightmarish thought.

"Listen up!" he said. "We have little time! We must find the Prince-"

"Binbin!"

Ugh! I'm never gonna get this kid to focus like this…

He was thinking hard. There must be some way to use her to find the Prince. But how?

Just then, the doorbell rang. Miyoo scurried out of the room while Minyoon went to answer the door. To his surprise, it was Jiwoon and Soobin.

"Binbin!" Miyoo exclaimed and jumped into Soobin's arms. 

"She's really excited to meet me, I guess!" Soobin said, hugging her back. 

"She's been wanting to meet you for days," Minyoon yawned. "But why are you guys here?"

"Where's the Boss?" Jiwoon asked. "We can't find her. She was supposed to be at the precinct, but she's not there. Even her phone is turned off. We went to her house but the landlady said she's not there."

"Did you try that doctor's number?" Minyoon frowned.

"We did but his number was switched off too."

Jiwoon was now very worried. The Cho's were doing something crazy with a shaman and she needed to find out what they were doing.

"Why don't you wait here?" Minyoon suggested. "Sis might turn up. She did mention this morning that she'll stop by."

They nodded and stepped into the house. Magrod was watching them carefully from afar. He recognized Soobin but the other girl was unfamiliar to him. She looked very tense as she sat on a couch, fidgeting her fingers. Miyoon also noticed her state.

"What happened, Jiwoon sis?" he asked. "Why do you look so tense?"

"Uhh…"

Jiwoon was not sure if she should tell Minyoon the truth but Soobin came to her rescue. "We think that an acquaintance of Jiwoon sis is being taken advantage of by a fraud shaman. So we came to Jina sis for help!"

"But if he's a fraud, shouldn't Jiwoon sis be able to arrest him?" Minyoon pointed out.

"Well...he claims to be seeing spirits and stuff," Soobin added. "So we want to be sure before doing anything. She'll be able to tell us."

Minyoon nodded in understanding. Jiwoon called Jina again only to find that the number was still switched off. Please pick up, boss! She begged. 

Just then, the front door opened and to their relief, Junho was back. He was a little grumpy and scowling for some reason. Magrod could not help but notice how much grumpy Miyoo resembled her equally grumpy grandfather. Miyoo instantly ran towards her old man.

"Old man!" she greeted and jumped into his arms. Junho picked her up and handed her a candy which she popped in her mouth, feeling happy.

"Damn taxi driver tried to rip me off!" He growled at the others. "I saw his meter! It was 100 dollars not 101 dollars!"

"But...it's just one dollar difference," Soobin frowned but Minyoon cut in.

"Only one dollar?" he gasped. "Do you even know us at all, Binbin? We won't give even a dollar extra! Even my clothes are always bought at seventy percent off! We don't compromise with money."

"In your case, you can't even count money!" Junho grumbled. He then realized that Jiwoon and Soobin were there.

"What are the ladies doing here today?" he asked as he sat down. Jiwoon instantly spoke up.

"Grandpa Hwang," she began in a shaky tone. "I need your help."

Her eyes were glistening with hope and pleading which made Junho surprised. He had known Jiwoon for a while and she was always in the background, quietly doing her work. Jina always praised her as the one who kept the department together and also a tough person who rarely cried. Seeing her in that nervous condition made Junho suspicious.

"Minyoon, take Miyoo and put her to sleep," he instructed. "I need to talk to Jiwoon."

His grandson was sensible to understand that he should not be prying into this matter. He picked up Miyoo and went back inside, leaving Junho with the girls.

"Now," he began. "Tell me what's going on."

Jiwoon hesitated before she began to tell her tale.

"Ten years ago," she began. "I was married to someone. My real name is Ming Jisoo and I was eighteen when I got married to...to the son of the Cho family."

She expected Junho to disbelieve her or be surprised but if he felt anything, he masked it well. Instead, he nodded and told her, "Go on."

"His name was Cho Sungki," she revealed. "The Top Idol of that time. Money, fame, love. He had it all. Everything was perfect in his world. Until one day, his grandfather, Cho Mawon, told him about a promise he had made many years ago with my grandfather. They had promised to marry me off to Sungki when we grew older. That year, my grandfather passed away, leaving me an orphan."

At this point, Jiwoon broke off, not in sadness but in fear. Her nightmares started as soon as her beloved grandfather died and she was left alone in the cage of a heinous beast.

"And that's when my world crumbled," she whispered.

…

Jina was at the lab with Hobin. Kyuhyun had handed them the report of the bodies but they were more interested in how to find the demon.

"If he's targeting only women who are 29 and have dark hair, then the pool of victims is huge," Hobin muttered. 

"But why is he sending them hyacinths?" Jina frowned. "What's the connection here?"

"The hyacinths mean something to the killer," Hobin concluded. "Must be his favorite flower or his lover's favorite. Both of them are connected in some way."

Just then, Kyuhyun arrived with the reports of the victims and Yooseok.

"What is it?" Jina demanded. "What's in the reports?"

"The victim named Yooseok died sometime between four to five days ago, of acute starvation and dehydration of the body," he stated in his monotone. "Latest victim, Hyun Kara, died over twenty four hours ago of trauma to her head after being raped. The severity of her wounds is lesser than that of the other victims thanks to her early death. Also, she bled less when the knife was plunged up her-"

"We get the idea!" Hobin stopped him. "So you're saying that Yooseok died before Kara and is not her killer? What about the others?"

"I have checked the samples of Yooseok and compared the DNA found on the other victims," Kyuhyun stated. "It matches the crime scene DNA. Yooseok most definitely killed all the three victims and their families."

"Eh?" Jina frowned. "All three victims? Didn't he die before the third victim?"

"His DNA is all over her," Yooseok stated. "I even found a maggot in her body which matches the DNA of the maggots in Yooseok's body. Probably crawled into her body through her vagin-"

"Stop it with the graphic details!" Jina groaned but Hobin was now interested. 

"We'll take the reports and leave then," he simply said and motioned Jina to follow him out. Jina obliged, not wanting to hear any more of Kyuhyun's details at all!

Once they were outside, Hobin turned to her. "It's like we suspected," he said. "That demon possessed Yooseok's body before and after his death. But how did he hide his sulphur presence in front of me?"

"Only the demon can answer that," Jina winced. "But this really makes the case more complicated! The demon is on the loose and he's looking for a new host. We'll have to track down the demon before he finds a new vessel. What if we end up putting an innocent person in jail?"

Hobin sighed. Both of them were running out of time. If the demon found another body to possess then the human vessel would be accused of murder. It was something they wanted to avoid at all costs.

"I'll switch my phone back on," Jina said. "Screw Kyuhyun's no phone policy!" 

She switched her phone back on and to her surprise, there were several missed calls from Jiwoon and a message from Soobin.

"Meet me and Jiwoon sis at your brothers' house," Jina read out loud. "URGENT."

She turned to Hobin. "I feel that something is wrong. Why are Jiwoon and Soobin together?"

"Let's go," Hobin nodded.