March 10th, 2039

10.30 pm

The day was pretty cold for a spring day. To add to that, it rained cats and dogs just before Jeon Wonwoo left his workplace. As he made his way down the street, the air was cool and damp due to the torrential downpours. The rain hit him gently, covering the lenses of his glasses with tiny water droplets. But Wonwoo, as one of the best investigators in the business, was too caught up with his first ever-complicated case.

Murder without any evidence. Not 1 but 3. Something that neither he nor his 12 colleagues could even fathom. It was the first day they were assigned to this case that they grinned for the final time.

Two weeks after the New Year, they were presented with the first murder case involving Professor Park. Before that, all 13 of them were on their vacation, sort of an award the president of the country offered for their outstanding performance over the past five years. Just when they thought their holiday break wouldn't be any different, their chief had called them off to get on their suits. Not a complaint from anyone, all 13 made their way to his office which now, after 3 months, all of them regret going there. However, they were unable to uncover anything relevant to the case. and it didn't just stop there. Two additional cases were added to the investigation.

He reached for his wristwatch and phoned one of his coworkers while holding his bag in one hand. In a matter of seconds, Soonyoung, one of the 13 investigators and one of Wonwoo's closest friends, was the first thing he saw when the call came through. He was trying to balance himself on one hand, with half of his body dangling right off the bed, towards the camera mounted on a platform.

"HEY WONW-" before he could express his excitement to him, he was yeeted out of the screen by the leader as well as the head of the west wing of their headquarters, Choi Seunghceol.

"The hell are you screaming for?!?!," He sat on the bed so Wonwoo could get a clear view of him but he was too busy staring out of what appeared to be a hotel room window To ensure that no one was disturbed by Soonyoung's shriek. "Sorry Won. Remind me once again why I got him with me. SIgh. Actually, I don't. I don't wanna be reminded". He pulled Soonyoung, who was rubbing his butt, back to the bed to make him sit next to him.

"How was the flight Hyung?" Wonwoo asked.

"Nothing out of the norm I must say. Mingyu called us right after we landed. We just got the room a while ago. Rest up tonight and head out to Professor Han's tomorrow before sunrise"

"Make sure you two find something. I'm really getting sick of this game of whoever is behind this"

"Trust me we all are'' Soonyoung added. "Hey, wait let me add the other team." In a few seconds, another screen popped up next to Soonyoung and Seungcheol.

" You better have a good reason for calling Cheol" The screen was adjusted chaotically while Yoon Jeonghan, The head of the North Wing, moved himself to their hotel room couch. " I thought we could be peaceful without seeing you till tomorrow. But I guess not"

"Hey don't look at me" he raised both hands. " It was Soonyoung who called you. AND WHAT DID YOU MEAN BY-"

"SHUA !!! WONWOO AND SOONYOUNG ON THE CALL!"

"......did you just cut me off while I was talking?" Seungcheol looked offended and Jeonghan took no note of it. Soonyoung scooted closer to him and whispered, "It's called karma Hyung" and was promptly smacked on the head in return. While the whole childish ruckus going on the other side of the screen Joshua, the head of the South Wing, joined in.

" Wassup Wonwoo? Where's Junnie? I thought his flight was today"

" Yeah, I dropped him home from the airport and went back to grab my things," Wonwoo replied. He gets into a warm bakery shop around the corner to grab some patisseries Jun likes before heading home. He wanted to cheer him up as the lad when returning back from China didn't look as happy as he always does which made him a bit concerned.

"How was his trip? Did he shower you with all his stories? I bet he made your mouth water just by telling how good his hometown food was" Jeonghan asked.

"No, not really. He was pretty quiet the whole time. Maybe tired?" Wonwoo wanted to wait until the rest of the guys came back from their investigation instead of talking about Jun and making them all worry. " By the way, where's Jihoon?"

"Sleeping," replied Jeonghan. "He was more tired than the two of us so we put him to sleep first. We'll grab something to eat and head to bed later on"

"Hey, Wonu tell Junnie to call me. I wanna talk to him," Soonyoung asked.

"Alright, sure. Now I gotta go. Bye" before Wonu hung the call he could hear Seungcheol asking what he had to talk to Jun and the quarrel started again. He was preoccupied with what he wanted to buy from the bakery, scanning through everything that was kept inside the glass counter.

" Was that Soonyoung ?" A voice came from the other side that startled him a bit. Looking up he saw Ahn Hyunjoon, a very close school friend of his and the other three. After graduating high school, he took on his dad's bakery instead of joining them. So whenever the 4 of them felt like taking a break they'd crash in his bakery to boost their spirits up. But he left to continue his studies overseas for a year and didn't hear from him again and he was standing right in front of Wonwoo, looking the same as a year ago.

Without thinking back, Wonwoo grabbed Hyunjoon and drew him into a warm hug, followed by a hard blow to the head.

"OWW! What the hell was that for Won?"

"For not telling you came back" saying that he again hit him on the head. " And that's for disappearing on us," He again raises his hands but Hyunjoon didn't wanna take one more of it.

" I'm sorry, okay?" He made a puppy face, making Wonwoo cringe. " Besides.... I had to come back not because I wanted to or anything, it's because I needed to do something" Even though he was only murmuring under his breath, the detective was sharp enough to catch it yet kept calm without making himself obvious.

" how about packing me some of Jun's favorites to make up for it ?" Wonwoo asked to which Hyunjoon gave a big yes and ran to pack them up. A couple of minutes and he came back with 4 different plastic bags in his hands. All having a big box in them. By the looks of it, he packed for all four of them.

"Make sure you give the other two too" handing it over Hyunjoon stood proud for what did with one hand brushing his hair. "Take this as my apology gift. No need to pay me or thank me"

" Who said I was even going to ?!?!" Wonwoo snapped back. " I'll get going then".He got up and collected the bags from the table to leave but Hyunjoon grabbed his hand and stopped him.

"I've put something special in your box so make SURE you taste it without throwing it ". At first, Wonwoo thought it was one of the pranks he did back in high school. With some quality experience in the field, he has learned about human expressions and he could definitely tell Hyunjoon wasn't joking about what he said although he covers it with his ever-so-friendly smile. Reading the situation, Wonwoo played along with him and cringed at what he said, acting as though he was disgusted. " Cringe all you want. I know you guys love me so much that you'd probably thought of me every single day"

"I'm too exhausted to tell anything right now, so I'll let it pass. Be prepared to not die when others find out that you came back." Wonwoo opened the door and thought it would be nice to have another company at home, and it would probably be a good idea. " Do you wanna come with me and have dinner at my place? Junnie is there too. He just came back from China"

"I wish I could come and join you two but I can't man. I have a lot to do at home. Next time?"

"Sure. Then it'll be the 5 of us. Soonyoung and Jihoon will be back too." They said their goodbyes, and He headed straight to his house after leaving the bakery. As it was only 3 blocks away from the bakery, the trip was quick and pain-free. He let himself in and called out for Jun.

" Junnie? I'm home!"

"I'm in the kitchen Won!" He could see Jun waving at him from the kitchen, which wasn't a closed room, but rather an open area following the hall. Upon entering the kitchen he was welcomed with a lot of food.

"Why aren't you resting? We could have always ordered something for us to eat, you know." He kept the four plastic bags on the table which pulled Jun's attention faster than anything, scooting Wonwoo to the floor, he began to check all the boxes and finally found the box with his name.

" All the ones I like... and there are even the ones you have no idea about too" after examining thoroughly, his eyes widened " DON'T TELL ME HYUNJOON IS HERE!!!" he looked at Wonwoo who was still on the floor helpless. "and why are you on the floor?" Laughing, he pulled him up all the while knowing Wonwoo was basically cursing at him the whole time. He gave a slight punch on Jun's shoulder before walking out of the kitchen.

"I'm gonna go take a shower"

"Okay"

"Will be out in 15 minutes"

"Okay"

"You better wait till I come"

"Okay"

"Cz we need to talk about you"

"O-.......Not okay"

Wonwoo knew something was up but he knew Jun would eventually rent it all out before sleeping. His whining from the kitchen table was ignored as he went to his room with his box. Luckily Jun didn't notice that otherwise, he wouldn't be able to check it alone in peace. Sitting on the bed after closing the door, he opened it to find shortcakes, cookies, and biscuits. It's everything that he typically buys. But he wasn't bothered about that, it was about what Hyunjoon said. That Something special.

It took him a while to search through all of the foods to see if he could discover anything. It was just as he groaned, hating him inwardly while lifting the flap to seal it, that something grabbed his sight. In between the cookie packet, was an envelope and a ring tied to it. The ring seemed to be of some sort of stone and looked like Wonwoo would be able to easily fit 2 of his fingers into it. He concluded that Hyunjoon gave it to him as a modest present. Maybe he put something similar in the other three boxes as well. His eyes were drawn to something on paper As soon as the envelope was opened.

'Keep it in front of the mirror and you'll see the reason why I gave you this'

As per what was written on the paper Wonwoo walked toward his dressing mirror, stood there looking at himself for a second, and kept it in front of it. Taking a few steps back he crossed his arm and waited, staring right at the small pyramid. A few seconds passed and nothing happened. He checked his watch and decided to give a few more seconds before giving up. He couldn't believe he was actually falling for Hyunjoon's pranks.

Seconds down and Wonwoo sighed.

'This isn't doing any shit' Thought to himself. Walking up to it, he banged his foot on the dressing table edge as he reached up to get it. A split second later, after losing his equilibrium, he grasped the mirror's frame and felt dumb for following the instructions on the paper.

After a brief moment of pain control, he regained his equilibrium and grabbed the ring with one hand. That's when he came to his senses when he noticed his hand clutching the frame. He felt the chill creeping up his spine. Nothing was in the way of his fingertips as they held around the frame as if the mirror that was there a while ago was removed in the fraction of second he fell. It took him a while to look straight up, only to realize that he was no longer looking at his own reflection, but rather a whole other place on the other side in front of him.