Cold Blood

Chapter 13: Arcane

"Taeyeon, calm down. I don't believe them. The way you treat me since my very first day in this place is more than enough to convince me that you're innocent." I cupped her face and I made sure she's looking at my eyes when I spoke. I want her to see how sincere I am.

"Now could you please tell me what really happened from 2 years ago?"

She blinked her eyes several times before clearing her throat. "Let's take a sit." She said. And at that moment, I knew. She's about to tell me her reason. She's going to tell me her side of the story that no one had ever heard before. Well, except for Jessica for sure.

We sat on the couch, facing each other. She held my hand. She's playing with it for a few minutes and I didn't bother to interrupt. I know she's gathering her courage to say what she's about to say. This could be hard for her so I let her took some time to ready herself.

"Which one would you want to know first?" She asked, still playing my fingers.

"Why did you disappeared for a whole week after Jessica's family died?" I decided to ask the basic because I don't wanna overwhelm her if I were to ask who's the murderer.

I saw her gulp and took a deep breath. "Because of my father." Her voice cracked at the mention of her father. I furrowed my eyebrows.

"You see, unlike to what people gossip about, the Kims and the Jungs are friends. My father and Jessica's father are close friends. It explains how close Jessica and I. Well, yeah, our parents doesn't have the slightest idea that we were in a different relationship at that time." She gulped after that. Seemingly afraid that I'll get jealous of her past relationship with Jessica.

"So yeah, the Jungs are in my Father's Ranch that day not because I invited them but because they visited my father to talk about business. But suddenly..." She took a deep breath. "Gunshots were heard and the next thing they knew, they are all bleeding to death." My eyes widened. That's cruel!

"I was not in the Ranch that day. And I blame myself for not accompanying them instead. Because when I heard the news from my uncle, my father was rushed to the hospital and my mother is completely missing! I was so stupid! I should have just accompany them!" She's blaming herself in gritted teeth while hitting her head. I held her hand to stop her from hurting herself. I'm crying with her. I never knew that it could be this painful.

"My father was shot on his chest. The bullet had almost hit his heart but he was lucky enough to survive. We transferred him on a private room, he was in a coma for 3 days. When he woke up, he doesn't talk. He can't even move his body except for blinking his eyes. But nonetheless, I was so happy because he's finally awake. 2 days passed and he's recovering very well. I was sleeping on the couch in his assigned room when suddenly, I heard a loud noise. My father's body is shaking uncontrollably. I called the doctor. And while he was trying to save him, my father held out his hand to me. I held it and I saw his eyes. He's crying. He whispered a word to me." She stopped as she sob from the painful memory of her father. My eyes are swollen when I pulled her in my arms.

"Choi. That's his last word." She sniffed.

"I'm sorry you have to gone through that pain, Tae." I rubbed her back, trying to soothe her.

"It's not your fault. Anyway, I told my uncle about my father's last word. We planned to set a meeting with the Choi family because we believe that they are the key in this case. We sent them an invitation and they are kind enough to meet us after a week. We understood the time span because we know that they are also busy with businesses. After all, the Chois are not new to us. They are actually proposing a partnership with the Kims. So yeah, after two days of mourning to my father's death, I showed up to the university. Then, I started to hear different criticisms and accusations. But I did my best to shrug it off. I found Jessica and we talked about the case. That's when I found out that her sister is missing. So when the people started to notice that Jessica is missing, we are already on the search for Krystal and my mother."