"Hey, Min! New case just came in!" William said as he slid over on his chair and dropped a thin folder onto his partners desk.

"What's this one about?" Yoonki asked.

"I don't really know. I just took a glance but I figured you'd like to look at it together. We are partners after all." Yoonki nodded.

"I guess so." He started to open the folder but William slammed his hand on it, closing the folder.

"How about we look at this over coffee? It's early in the morning and we already have a case. Isn't that a reason to get a little energy?" Yoonki stared at William for a moment and then slightly nodded.

* * *

"A mall Santa? Really?" Yoonki complained.

"Not a mall Santa. Don't think of it that way. A human being. You should be nicer about this stuff." William said before taking another sip of his coffee.

Yoonki mirrored his partners actions and then spoke. "We didn't have any other cases? Any more interesting ones? Maybe with more evidence?"

William stared at his partner for a moment. "You can't be serious! Every case is important! And, we ARE the detectives! It's our JOB to FIND evidence! Why are you in such a strange mood today!"

"Because it's Christmas Eve and this whole month has been chaotic. I can't get anything done because I'm too busy helping other people to do what they want. I'm going to stupid Christmas parties after saving someones mom, I'm baking a pizza size cookie only to almost die in a stupid fire, I'm looking into a thief that isn't even a person! It's all so stupid. I don't have time for anything that I want to do and it bugs me!" Yoonki finished his coffee. He started to stand up but William grabbed his hand and yanked it back down.

"What!" Yoonki yelled exasperatedly, catching the attention of many people in the cafe.

"Look." William said, taking his voice down to an angry whisper. "This is our job! I didn't choose this for you! You chose it for yourself! You CHOSE to make friends. You CHOSE to help them. You CHOSE to protect this town. These are YOUR CHOICES so you need to suck it up and do your job! Okay! There's a family missing their husband, father, child, friend, grandparent, great-grandparent I don't know! There are people missing him! Be the detective that you're supposed to be and help me find who killed him!" William took a long breath and let go of Yoonki's wrist. Yoonki glared at his partner for a minute before sighing.

"Fine. You're right. I'm probably angry because I wanted to be with my family this Christmas. My Dad's sick but I can't leave work for long enough to visit them in Korea. They can't come here either since Dad's sick so I don't really know what to do. I haven't even seen them since I moved here. They're halfway across the world now. I didn't even leave on very good terms so that only makes it worse."

"I'm sorry. Maybe there's something I can do to help but first, let's focus on our case. Where do you think we should start."

"I guess we should start at the beginning."

"And where's that?"

Yoonki slightly smiled. "I guess we're going shopping."

* * *

"Carl was never late to work but he did take long breaks sometimes. I saw him talking to a strange looking guy once." The girl said as she stared at Yoonki.

"You were the elf helper, right?" Yoonki asked. The girl nodded her head. "Alright, what's your name and how old are you?" The girl stared for a minute. William leaned over and bumped Yoonki's shoulder.

"Why are you asking her that? We don't need that information." He whispered. Yoongi bumped him back.

"Shut up." He muttered before looking back at the pretty girl expectantly.

"Um. I'm May. nineteen years old." The girl said. Yoonki nodded as he wrote that down in his note pad. The girl lightly smiled and blushed.

"I guess I should properly introduce myself. I'm Detective Min and this is my partner Detective Cody." Yoonki said as he gestured to himself and his partner." The girl nodded.

"It's nice to meet you Detective Min. You too Detective Cody." She smiled at them and earned a rare smile from Yoonki. William didn't smile back which was also a rare thing to see. It seemed as if the two partners had switched personalities.

"You said that you saw Carl talking to a strange guy once. Can you tell us what the guy looked like?" William asked.

"I remember that he looked hispanic. He had curly black hair and really tan skin. I think the strangest thing about what I saw was the tattoo he had on his upper arm. It was a really large, red octopus." May said.

"Red octopus?" Yoonki asked.

"Yeah." May confirmed.

"That's the Pulpos gang. They're probably the biggest loan shark group in this city." Yoonki said.

"Are they dangerous?" May asked.

Yoonki looked at her and laughed. "They're also the most dangerous gang in the city. Looks like Santa was running low on money and messed with the wrong group."

"Do you have any idea where Carl lived?" William asked.

"He lived in the apartment building just down the street a bit. He was on the second floor but I'm not sure what door number."

"That's good enough. Thanks for your help." William said as he tugged Yoonki's arm and they started to walk away.

"Hey!" May called out. Yoonki turned around and looked at her. "Um, maybe you should give me your number. You know, in case I remember anything else?"

Yoonki smirked a little. "Good idea. Maybe you should give me your number too so that I can contact you if I find anything that you should know." May smiled.

William watched as Yoonki walked over to May and wrote down his personal number before ripping out the page, folding it up and handing it to May. He handed her his note pad and she wrote down her number, ripped it out and folded it, handing it to him after.

She flashed a smile at Yoonki that made his heart jump. He slightly smiled back, trying to be cool about it even though he really wanted to smile fully at her.

* * *

"M'am, there must be something you can tell us." Yoonki said. They had found Carl's apartment number and his wife had answered the door. She seemed reluctant to say anything.

"I really don't know anything." She said. Her hands were shaking and she wouldn't make any eye contact.

"This isn't the first time I've dealt with a liar. You think I won't be able to tell you're lying? Do you want us to find who killed your husband or not?" The woman looked down and then hesitantly answered his question.

"Motto. That was the guys name. My husband and I didn't have a lot of money and since neither of us could get a steady job, we couldn't get a loan from the bank. We still needed to live so we had to go to the Pulpos gang for help. They gave us two months to pay them their two thousand back but something happened that made them ask for it a month early. We didn't have the money so they sent Motto to warn us. We didn't get the money in time so ... they killed him. They threatened to kill me if I told anyone."

"We won't let them hurt you Mrs. Sanchez. We'll find the killer. Can you tell us what Motto looked like?" Yoonki asked.

"Well, he had a red octopus tattoo on his upper arm and he was Hispanic like us. He had black, curly hair and he was pretty tall."

"Thank you Mrs. Sanchez. We'll send a cop over right away to watch over you until we get this guy." William said as both detectives stood up.

* * *

Right after they left they went back to their precinct to look through their files on the gang members. They found three guys that matched the description but only one had been in the area at the time of Carlos' death.

They were in their car, heading to Motto's house when they got a warning from the radio.

A dead body has just been found at the Sunnyside apartment complex. A woman in her late sixties. She's suffered four gunshot wounds to the chest. Requesting back-up immediately.

William turned the car around and headed back to the apartments. When they got there there was already an ambulance and a few police cars. A body was being carried out on a stretcher. It was Mrs. Sanchez.

"What happened?" Yoonki asked angrily. "You were supposed to protect her!"

"She was already wounded by the time we got here!" Officer Smith said.

"Dammit!" Yoonki yelled as he smashed his fist down on the car. The two men who were sent to watch the older woman stared at the deep dent that Yoonki had just put into the car. "Why did you guys need back-up?" Yoonki growled.

"We found the guy your were looking for. Tall, Hispanic, black curly hair, red octopus tattoo on his arm." Officer smith said as his partner dragged a man over to them. The man didn't seem to be in his right mind. It looked as if he had been doing drugs. "We found him nearly passed out in the alley next to the apartment. He had a gun that had been recently fired."

"How many bullets?" William asked.

"Four."

Yoonki grabbed the man from the other officer and shoved him into the back of police car.

* * *

Yoonki was gripping his hair tightly with his elbows on his knees and his head down. "How could I mess this up!"

"We both messed up." William said as he put his hand on Yoonki's back.

"No! I should've known that bastard would do something like this!"

"How were we supposed to know that he had a twin?"

"They're smarter than that. I should've thought about it more. Now we've got an innocent man who's been sitting in jail for two weeks and that bastard is still somewhere out there!"

"Well maybe-" William was cut off by the ring of Yoonki's phone. "Are you gonna answer that?"

Yoonki slowly picked up the phone. "Hello?"

Hello. This is the Daegu Fatima Hospital. We're sorry to inform you but your father has just passed.

Yoonki hung the phone up and put his head back into his hands.

"Who was it?" William asked.

"I'm taking a break." Yoonki said as he stood up, grabbed his jacket and headed to his car. He sat in his car listening to the sound of cars passing by and people talking.

His phone rang again and he looked at the caller ID this time. It was a new number. He stared at it for a minute before answering and pulling the phone up to his ear.

"Hello?" A feminine voice said. "Is this Detective Min?" His back straitened slightly as he recognized the voice.

"Yeah. Is this May?"

"It is. I'm sorry. I've been kind of busy the past two weeks. I was wondering if you had some time tonight. I have some extra beers and I was wondering if you'd like to come to my place tonight and have a beer."

Yoonki thought about it. A chance to see that beauty again AND and chance to forget all of the crap that just happened? He wasn't passing this up. "Yeah. I think I do have some time tonight."

"Cool. Is eight okay?"

"Yeah. Eight's good."