"Joanne Miles, Henry Campbell and Victoria Morales," Harry spoke as he looked at his colleagues. He was sitting on the side of his desk facing them, with Ron having already packed his things, ready to head back home. They had a while before their shift ended, though. Talking about the cases they had to investigate seemed like a good enough way to spend their time.
"All of them young, around the same age of twenty five, living alone, they didn't leave the house often, didn't have many friends."
"You can say they were loners," Theodore spoke with a dismissive shake of his hand. "They preferred to stay at home instead of going out to interact with people, friends and family. I can't say I blame them."
"It's not like we do something much different anyway," Draco pointed out, to which Theodore and Bada nodded, while Harry remained silent and Ron shook his head. They got over the interruption soon.
"They weren't inside the house when the murderer got in, they had just enough time to ask for help before they were killed in a manner that seems to suggest they killed themselves. The cases have in common their age, their preference to stay on their own at home most of the time and the manner of murder."
"The murder weapon is always a kitchen knife but they always die in the living room," Theodore added moments before Bada spoke up.
"And they leave the same sea shell in one of their pockets."
"Perhaps that is the mark of the killer," Draco thought out loud, "but there have been no traces of them on it, it's completely spotless. And my initial question about these crimes still stands; what's the motive?"
"That's a question I've been thinking about as well," Harry admitted as he leaned forward, his tone dropping. "Why them? They came from families without wealth and they didn't steal anything from the house. The only thing they seemed interested in was to kill them. Are they doing it for satisfaction?"
"That's so sick, mate," Ron shook his head, his lips curling into a snarl. "To think-"
"Or maybe they want to teach someone a lesson," Bada cut him off, her gaze on her desk as she thought. "As some sort of revenge, perhaps."
"The victims had no connection. They didn't even go to the same school, Victoria lived in Mexico up until a few years ago and Joanne was in France, the only person who lived in England was Henry," Theodore pointed out with a harsh shake of his head. "They don't even have the same age, exactly. All of them are around twenty five years old but it's not common. And we can't say they did it because they hate women because Henry is dead too."
"What if their sexuality was different?" Harry thought out loud. "Perhaps that's why they killed them."
"We would have known," Draco disagreed at once, "the neighbors or the family would probably know and they would have told us. Some might have thought this could have been the cause of their premature death but none of them mentioned it."
Silence fell once more as the five of them thought, expressions stern and serious. Theodore's harsh sigh had them looking his way.
"The crimes are confusing but the most confusing part to me was the sea shell. Why put it there? What is it supposed to mean? Why would anyone pick that as their symbol?"
"They could be wishing to toy with us," Harry replied without missing a beat. "They might be attempting to throw us off or it's just a game to them."
Bada thought she could feel Harry's gaze on her at the last part but she didn't look up, forced herself to not react. She had yet to receive a letter back from her parents and so she had no idea where Hae was and the thought of her being closer than she thought was stress inducing. She was expecting their reply any day now.
"I'm worried about their next attack," she murmured as she slowly looked up to face her colleagues. "If they keep their pattern up, the next murder will take place soon. Can we not warn the people?"
She already knew they couldn't, but the negative replies she received were disappointing still. She let out a deep sigh, let her head drop for a moment. Their cubicle was covered in silence for a while until Ron spoke up.
"We will think about this again tomorrow." He stood up, sent them a nod. "Time to go."
"Granger's waiting for you?" Draco asked him as he started gathering his things as well.
"Yes, she's probably already home," Ron admitted with a small smile.
"Hold on," Theodore blinked up at him, "when did you start living together?"
"A few months back," Ron replied, "oh, don't look at me like that, I had no reason to tell you."
Theodore shrugged, "Fair enough."
Bada didn't take part in their conversation as she gathered her stuff in her bag and followed after Draco out of the cubicle. To her slight surprise, Theodore and Ron walked a few ways ahead and she could vaguely make out their conversation if she tried. Instead of listening in, she was more focused to the fact that Draco and Harry were beside her, each taking one side, and Harry was talking.
"What are you going to do when you get back?"
"Look for my cats, cook dinner," Bada replied with a small shrug, "I don't have plans."
"I don't have plans either," Draco admitted, "the weather is getting better, though. I might take a few walks in the gardens."
"Yeah," Harry murmured, "I've nothing to do too."
"Perhaps we should plan to spend a while together one of these days," Bada suggested, "we don't have anything better to do anyway. It would be better to spend the time we have left with someone else for a change."
"Chances are we are going to talk about work again, though," Draco pointed out as they got in the lift.
"It wasn't like that the last time."
"Our work wasn't the same," Draco argued.
She sent him a look but he appeared unaffected as he raised a brow at her, as if challenging her to change his mind. With a shake of her head, Bada turned back to her front.
Their walk to the lift was spent in mostly silence, with Harry greeting a couple of their fellow Aurors on the way, some of which extended their greetings to Bada as well. Even though she greeted them, she was certain she wouldn't remember their faces by morning.
The lift was almost empty as they stepped in and pressed the button leading to the Atrium. After a detour to level four, they found their way to their destination and left the lift, headed to the main entrance of the Ministry. And it was there they separated. Smiles and short farewells were exchanged and one by one, they all left.
Bada landed in one of the alleys she had come to know over time and rushed off, knowing it wouldn't be wise to linger. She had no coat on today, having thought it was no longer needed as they were nearing the start of May now and summer was near. Somehow, the rains hadn't stopped still. The pavement was wet as she reached the front door of her apartment and after opening the door she didn't waste a moment to dry off her shoes at the door mat, wary to bring the soiled water inside. Once that was done, she hurried to the first floor.
Music was heard from Sahira's apartment, just loud enough that one could hear it from outside her door but Bada knew no other apartment could hear the music. The corridor was build in a way that separated the apartments from each other via the staircase. On the right side, where Bada and Sahira were, no other apartment was, so they both could be a bit more loud if they wanted to. Sahira seemed to have used that little detail to her benefit.
Bada's small smile as she heard the music—complex drums sequences and hard guitar strums—was automatic. Sahira seemed too sweet to be listening to this kind of music. Evidently, her appearance had nothing to do with her preferences.
Bada unlocked her door and slipped inside. She closed her door, took off her shoes and then looked up in her house, her smile widening at once as she noticed Geomeun and Jakda on the floor by the couch, Geomeun sitting while Jakda was laying down, playing with his tail.
"I see you finally let go of my bed," she chuckled as she walked forward. On her way, she reached down to pat Geomeun's head, the black furry kitten raising his head just slightly to be pet sooner. Bada stopped herself from fawning at him as she walked on, although she did steal glances at both of her cats as she went.
After changing into more comfortable clothes, she hurried back to the living room with her camera at hand, just so she wouldn't miss this moment. She snapped a picture—one of the many she had taken of her cats ever since she had gotten them—and after putting the camera away, she set to make herself some dinner.
It was time to make kimchi. She hadn't had it in a while and nothing else could take her back to the time she was home better than kimchi. And so she set out to make some, humming to herself as she did. It was only when she had finished that she realized she could not possibly eat this much kimchi on her own. It took her a while of just staring at the food before she decided.
She left the apartment, leaving the door almost closed, and headed to Sahira's door. She raised a hand and knocked. Bada took a step back. She only needed to wait a while before the door opened and Sahira appeared. At once, her eyes widened.
"Oh, I'm sorry, did I interrupt something? Are you going out?"
Sahira was dressed casually, as she always was, but her lips were painted red and she had put light pink eyeshadow. Bada truly thought she was getting ready to leave until she shook her head and denied it.
"I was just practicing, I have nowhere to go. Are you alright? Did something happen?"
"Nothing dreadful," she assured her at once. "I just came by to ask whether you wanted to have dinner with me. I made more kimchi than I was supposed to."
Sahira's eyes widened. "I was about to call for takeout actually, so you came just in time. I would love to."
"Great," Bada beamed at her, took a couple of steps back, "come whenever."
"Yeah, just a moment."
Bada got in her apartment and true to her word, Sahira got in a moment later. Her gaze fell at once on Geomeun and Jakda. She grinned.
"Look at those beauties!"
"They are, aren't they?" Bada agreed without hesitation as she walked in the kitchen.
"Remember me?" Sahira asked them softly as she leaned down to pet them. The kittens did seem to remember her and they didn't refuse her pets, the whole interaction leaving Bada to set the table unbothered. It was only when she had finished that she called for Sahira, who all the while hadn't stopped cooing at the kittens.
"The table is set."
With one last pet, she stood up, just as Bada reached up to let her hair loose from the bun she had it on all day. Sahira followed the movement with her eyes, her face brightening as Bada, unaware of her attention, brushed her hair back and then pushed it behind her ears.
"Your hair's so nice!" she exclaimed as she reached to take her seat. "It's so long and dark and straight and it looks so soft."
"Thank you," Bada replied with a small chuckle, her eyes expectant as Sahira took a bite from the kimchi. It seemed like she had nothing to worry about a second later.
"And this is so good. You will have to show me how you do it."
"I would love to," she assured her, features softening at once.
"I'm really interested in cooking. I wasn't always like this, of course, but after I started living on my own I realized that taking takeout every day wasn't all that beneficial for my health and my pocket so I started cooking on my own more often and ever since then I think my cooking has grown better and I also know a lot more recipes! Of course, no matter how many recipes I know they aren't enough and this one seems rather interesting! I know you don't have much time, of course, I hear you when you come in and you always come a lot later than I do so you might not have much time but I have a flexible timetable, you can tell me whenever and I can come watch you make it-"
Sahira went on and on, excited. Bada was more than pleased to listen, watching her with a wide smile that never faded.