𝐧𝐲𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚 ✓ | ˢᵉᵘˡʳᵉⁿᵉ

31

Breakfast passed in a blink, everyone was doing their own things including these four humans inhibiting one room. Joohyun as the investigator sat on the edge of Yujin's bed while the girl positioned her back against the wall. On her arms was a puppy plushie, the most valuable one in her possession. Yujin hung her head low timidly, keeping a tight hug on her stuff.

Seulgi and Ryujin accompanied them but decided to stay on the other bed, silently constructing a lego car. But the troublemaker looked uneasy, she would check if her roommate was comfortable or not. She would be lying if Yujin seemed unbothered yet simply let it be since nothing weird was happening until now.

"So can we start? My name is Joohyun, you can call me Joohyun unnie."

Yujin's mouth was still shut. Joohyun remembered Seulgi's advice if something wasn't going well with the kids, chocolate was always the answer. She handed a bar to reassure the kid and thankfully Yujin accepted it. She waited for a while, thinking about the bear's words earlier.

Don't push her too much.

"Can you tell me a little about your father?" Joohyun knew this wasn't the best way to make a kid open up, especially when going to narrate an unwanted past, but this conversation needed to be done. Upon hearing her father, the treat stopped halfway on her mouth, she was stunned. "My father- my father died. He put a knife eigh- eight times into my father." Her voice lowered after each word.

"Do you know who killed him?" The questioning continued. Yujin shook her head, pupils already shaking with tears threatening to fall. "What happened after that night?"

"I-I don't really know, s-scary men took me." Joohyun furrowed her eyebrow in confusion, not fully understanding the reason behind kidnapping a child. She slipped out a small polaroid of Jongin and Jongdae from her notebook, showing it to the young girl. "Are they one of them?"

Yujin rose her head to take a better look. Her gaze directed to Jongdae, she didn't know how to react. Voices and vivid images played back in her mind like a semi-broken recording. The image of the seen man stabbing her father, a few men arrived and brought her into an unfamiliar room. One night, they entered her little space, the scent of fresh alcohol wrapped their body.

Her little figure being pushed to the wall multiple times as if she was a toy. They knocked her down on the floor, throwing tantrums with no conscience, their faces full of annoying grins. Yujin reminisced her trembling body as her breath hitched midway on her throat. Who knew what would happen next if the man next to Jongdae's polaroid didn't stop him.

Seeing her non-biological sister's messed up state, Ryujin immediately hopped down her bed, rushing to embrace her. "It's okay, unnie's here. They won't bother you again." She kept whispering the sentence in comfort while rubbing her shaking back. Joohyun didn't move an inch, she couldn't do anything. Waiting for the girls, she made small notes in her book to capture every possible leads.

Yujin's breathing became more stable than before and soon she fell into a deep slumber. The older tugged her in the blue blanket, wiping the tears left on those puffy cheeks. Ryujin continued to explain Yujin's story on behalf of her. She had it all the pieces constructed since every night they went through was full of her hearing Yujin mumbling in her sleep.

"In conclusion, this guy murdered her dad and the other one kidnapped her with his gang." She pointed to Jongdae then Jongin respectively. "Two days later, they dropped her in front of our gate. Now, she kinda has a trauma."

Joohyun wrote it all down and at the same time, she was finally a step closer. All she needed to do now was wait for the others to do their works. One group visited the polices that investigated Jongdae's case a year ago while techies tracked the numbers found on Jongdae's phone hidden inside his penthouse, see if there was anyone fishy enough to be suspected.

"DO YOU WANNA CELEB FIVE----"

"Hey Yerim, what's up?"