Bite Me [JiGyu]

Sociable

Woozi PoV

𝔽.𝔹.𝕀 𝔸𝕔𝕒𝕕𝕖𝕞𝕪, ℚ𝕦𝕒𝕟𝕥𝕚𝕔𝕠, 𝕍𝕚𝕣𝕘𝕚𝕟𝕚𝕒

"Think about killing Mrs. Marlow. What did she do to deserve this?" I motioned vaguely up at the image displayed on the projector screen of a woman with her throat cut open. The trainees amongst the class looked like they were struggling a bit with the question, so I did my best to clarify.

"That's your assignment for tonight- tell me your design. Put yourself in the shoes of her killer and tell me your design."

I start packing away my things as I dismiss the class, but I pause when I see... hell, what was his name again? He certainly looked familiar but I couldn't place his name. Fluffy hair, plush lips, a strong jawline... I mentally cursed myself for not remembering his name.

"Mr. Lee!" I keep my head down out of habit until he approaches me. "Special agent Choi Seungcheol, I head the Behavioral Science Unit." He held his hand out with a warm smile and I shook his back without looking up. Maybe if I act cold enough he'll go away.

"We've met." I murmured and he seemed surprised that I remembered.

"Yes, we had a disagreement when we opened the museum."

"I disagreed with what you named it."

"The Evil Minds Research Museum."

I grimaced at the name and finally looked up at him. "It's a little hammy, Seungcheol."

He paused and looked around my classroom, seems to have something on his mind. "I see you've hitched your horse to a teaching post." He paused again and gave me a calculating look. "I also understand that it's difficult for you to be... social."

I let my usual, long-suffering sigh ebb into my words. "Well, I'm just talking at them, I'm not listening to them, it's... it's not social."

"I see... may I?" He drew up his hand to fix my glasses before waiting for an actual response, and I froze up. My eyes tried to flutter closed, but I forced them to stay open while I avoided eye contact. "Where do you fall on the spectrum?"

Where do I fall on the spectrum- I fucking hate that question. "My... horse is hitched to a post closer to Asperger's and autistics than narcissists and sociopaths..." I keep my eyes trained on a spot near his shoulder as he continues to analyze me.

"Yes, But you can empathize with narcissists and sociopaths-"

"I can empathize with anyone, it's less of a personality disorder than an active imagination." I couldn't keep the mild irritation out of my voice as I explained. I froze again as he leaned across my desk to get a better look at me- except now he just looks curious.

"Can I... borrow your imagination?"
•
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•
"Eight girls abducted from eight different Minnesota campuses, all in the last eight months."

"I thought there were seven?" I gave him a curious look as I walked through the campus with Seungcheol to his office. "When did you tag the eighth?"

"About three minutes before I walked into your lecture hall."

I nodded slightly and turned the information over in my head. "You're calling them abductions because you don't have any bodies?"

"No bodies, no parts of bodies, nothing that comes out of bodies- we have nothing."

I hummed and tilted my head. "Then those girls weren't taken from where you think they were taken."

"Where were they taken from then?"

I shrugged nonchalantly and walked past him into his office. "I don't know. Some place else."

I could hear Seungcheol sigh as he opened the door to his office. "They were all taken on Fridays, so that they wouldn't be reported missing until Monday- whatever he's doing, he needs the weekend to cover it up."

I nodded passively and walked to the corkboard behind his desk, scanning over the information on it. Photos of girls were pinned up in a line, the locations of their 'disappearances' pinned next to them. Seuncheol plucks a photo of a girl with deep brown hair and bright eyes, and he hands it to me.

"Number eight?" I look down at the photo and examine it carefully while comparing it to the other photos.

"Elise Nichols. Saint Cloud State on the Mississippi, disappeared on Friday. She was supposed to house-sit for her parents over the weekend, feed the cat- she never made it home."

I look back down at the photo in my hands and mumble, "The other seven are dead, don't you think? He's not keeping them around... got himself a new one."

Seungcheol nods as I look back up at the cork board. "So we focus on Nichols" I ignore him temporarily in favor of completing the pattern evident in the photos.

"They're all very... Mall of America." I pin the photo back to the board and take a step back.

"Same hair color, same eye color, all around the same weight, same height- these girls are almost identical. So, what is it about these girls?"

My brain supplies me with the logical answer, but given the slightly surprised look on Seungcheol's face, it must not have come so easily to others. "It's... it's not about all of these girls, it's about one of them." I pause to look over the photos again and give out a humorless chuckle. "He's like Willy Wonka. Every girl he takes is a chocolate bar and he's looking for his golden ticket. He's looking for his one, true victim, and- if we follow our metaphor- that's his golden ticket."

"So... how do we know which girl is the golden ticket?"

"Well, it's not gonna be the first girl, and it certainly won't be the last, he'd want to hide how special she is... That's what I would do- wouldn't you?" I can't help but chuckle on the inside as he gives me a mildly concerned look at my last statement. I turn to grab my bag and leave but pause in the doorway at the sound of his voice.

"I want you to get closer to this."

No. Fuck. No.

"No, no, no, you have Park at Harvard and Kwon at Georgetown, they do the exact same thing I do."

"Now that's not true, is it?" He gave me a look that a mother would give to scold her child, and I couldn't help the flash of irritation in my eyes. "You have a very specific way of thinking about things."

I couldn't hold back a scoff. "There's been a lot of talk about my, uh, specific way of thinking about things."

"Jihoon, you make jumps you can't explain-"

"No, the evidence explains."

He gives me a slightly... pleading? look and I return it with a level one. "Then help me find some evidence."

I sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose. "That may require me to be sociable..."