Let me In | Enhypen

Epilogue | 3

Jungwon's eyes were glued to the grey tabletop in front of him, it's surface smooth - almost like metal, except it lacked the metallic look to it. He had been in the same chair multiple times within the last week, trying to get the same point across.

"Alright... professionals have deemed you innocent in the case of miss Ahn's death," the office across from him revealed and a releived breath escaped Jungwon, "we will however ask you a few more questions today, to understand what happened up to her passing. You say you were with her for the whole week up until her death?"

"Yes," Jungwon nodded quietly as he rubbed his forehead, trying to collect himself enough to answer the questions after his relief.

"And at any time did she suffer any injuries?" the police officer continued.

"Yes," Jungwon nodded.

"Describe them to me."

"Uhm... she was... hit with the weird cane like thing. I suppose. I didn't see it, she only told me," Jungwon excused, "and she... hit her head and back quite a lot."

"Did she say who hit her with the cane?"

"She didn't know the person," Jungwon shook his head.

"And how did she hit her head and back?" the officer continued pressing.

"She fell..." Jungwon trailed off, pushing the side of her body getting dragged along the floor to the side.

He had given up on telling the complete truth on the first day of his investigation, they had almost admitted him to the psychiatric ward, which in hindsight probably would be good.

"Do you know the recorded cause of death in miss Ahn?" the officer continued and Jungwon gulped down, feeling his eyes burn - but having to push his tears back.

"No," he eventually shook his head, barely speaking.

"Alright. Can you describe her behavior in the last day of her living?" the office continued.

"Uhm... she fainted a few times... and sometimes she was unable to really express herself, using a lot of singular worded sentences to say things. Sometimes the things seemed weird and we had to decipher what she meant. She complained of being dizzy, having headaches, thing blurring and her hands going numb. As far as I recall," Jungwon frowned as he recalled the trouble, "she couldn't keep her balance. I carried her for a big part of that day. When she did walk she supported herself on walls or me. Sometimes it seemed like she didn't understand what we said and forgot recent events that had happened in the same hour. It almost seemed like she was in a trance for most of the time, like couldn't really get in contact with her."

"Hmm," he office hummed, "we determined the cause of death to be internal bleedings in the head caused by trauma. Your recollection of her behavior correlates with the symptoms of head trauma causing internal bleeding... may we call you back any time if we see a need to talk to you again? We still suspect it being an unintentional manslaughter."

Jungwon winced slightly at the word 'unintentional', he knew very well everything behind what happened to Jiyeon was intentional. But he didn't correct the office.

"As for now, I would prefer it if I could grieve her memory for a few weeks," Jungwon admitted and the officer nodded.

"We have a few artifacts you'll be handed on your way out of the station. A few of her belongings her family has chosen to hand on to you. Herein a diary, which mentions you quite a few times, I suppose they thought you'd find comfort in reading her words," the officer simply informed and gathered his papers.

"Thank you," Jungwon nodded quietly, "may I leave?"

The officer nodded as he scribbled down the last few things, eventually getting up and walking Jungwon out through the station. Stopping at an office to retrieve a box of a few things that had been set aside for Jungwon to take into possession. Not much laid in it, only a diary, another notebook, a brightly colored bracelet he had gifted her in kindergarten, an envelope and a locket.

Walking out through the front hall of the station he noticed a family sitting in the front hall. Three girls, a woman and a man. Four of them looked too much like Riki for it not to be his family, but the fifth looked nothing like them. Her face was slimmer, she was not as well, but she was not stick thin - who looked almost athletic. She had thin bangs covering her forehead and two longer strands of her framing her face, when the rest was pulled over in a ponytail. The other four didn't seem to comfort her the same way they comforted one another, it was only the two other girls who tended to her.

It was then it dawned on Jungwon, he recalled hearing of those thin bangs that had been cut within the past year, how she played vollayball on the school team, how his family didn't like her that much. Beside the family of a mother, father, older sister and younger sister, sat Emiko. With no word or real intention Jungwon put down the box before wandering over and standing in front of the odd one out. Her eyes slowly trailing up his body as she noticed the feet in front of her.

"Hakamoto Emiko," Jungwon calmly stated, soudning slightly clumsy when he tried to pronounce it right. She only nodded before Jungwon gulped down and tried to get across that he knew of her with his slim knowledge of Japanese, "Riki..." he didn't get to say more before the girl had been up on her feet and hugged Jungwon, with no other word exchanged between them.

He let her hug him for a while, after all, she did have the similar body of Jiyeon - she had been playing just like her. It felt just like her hugs, and Jungwon struggled to keep his tears from falling. He felt bad for having to leave Emiko behind at the station with Riki's family, but he needed to look through the box.

He only first looked at the notebooks and locket once he returned home. The locket was of their childhood pictures, one of a small Jungwon in one frame and the other was a small picture of Jiyeon. The notebook was filled with fictional writings by Jiyeon, short stories and longer stories. Some were unfinished meanwhile others had real endings. He had used the bracelet to hang onto his backpack for school, assuring she was with him everyday and going back to school with him.

The envelope and diary was the things that made Jungwon shed his tears for the first time since she died. In her diary was multiple recollections of their interactions through the years. They started when Jiyeon barely could spell, to the latest one being right before the roadtrip. Each one mentioned how much she cared for him, even through those years where they didn't talk.

The passage that hit him the most was the one mentioning how he had been suspended for hitting another student. She had condoned his actions in the passage, but still mentioned she didn't hate him for it. She'll never know the reason he fought Goo Kitae in the schoolyard was because of something he had said about Jiyeon.

The envelope was even worse. In it her family had put loads and loads of pictures they had printed from Jiyeon's small digital camera, which had been found shortly after Jungwon had escaped with Jiyeon. She had it with her on the trip, but it had appeared by a random roadside far from anywhere they had been on the trip. 

The pictures were all of Jungwon, ever since April - when they first began reconnecting with one another and letting their feelings show. A lot of them he recalled her taking. But even more he never recalled her taking. 

Whether it was just his back standing by the stove in her house, his side profile as he looked out the carwindow in the van, him happily showing off the dinner he had made for them or showing a face of disgust at the motel room Heeseung had gotten them. Each of the pictures only contained Jungwon and none of them contained her.

He had had loads of pictures of her on his phone, how she would play with Maeumi the week before the roadtrip, how she looked so safe and sound in his arm whenever she fell asleep while laying on top of him. His phone hadn't been recovered yet and all those pictures were gone.

Even though he had taken pictures of her, none of them meassured with the ones she had of him. Hers had something special to them, as if she had sprinkled some magic over the lens for the camera.

The diary and the pictures together had Jungwon realize something. She fell for him first and let her love grow, but he fell in an instant and much harder. 

If he could go back in time he had been more persistent by taking that hallway drag, but where had he been today? Had it then been Jiyeon sitting in her room and crying over a box with a few of his belongings. No, he'd rather feel this pain than let her feel it. 

Could he change anything he had insisted that he would stay home with Jiyeon until she had to babysit her younger brother. Then they'd both be sound and safe. But there was no turning back time.