That's The Way Of It

10: It's Not What It Seems

Brenna sat at the dining table in BTS’ hotel suite, flanked on one side by a nervous-looking Jungkook and on the other side by an unimpressed-looking Namjoon. Beside Namjoon was BTS’ lawyer and standing to the side was BTS’ manager.Directly across from her on the other side of the table sat Officer Hammill, the receiver of Namjoon’s look, and his female partner, Officer Barnes.

Brenna nervously looked back and forth between the officers, an awkward silence falling over the group of people. Unsure of what to say or do, Brenna kept her quiet, her nerves slowly building.

She didn’t like the way that Officer Hammill had been looking at her since the two police had come in. Neither, in fact, did Namjoon.

Officer Hammill had been staring Brenna down, a small smirk hidden in the side of his mouth, as if he found the whole incident somewhat amusing. His partner, however, seemed to be the complete opposite of him. Officer Barnes was polite and cordial and exuded an air of comfort and familiarity.

Brenna’s hands that were sitting on top of the dining table were slightly shaking and she crossed her fingers together to try to steady the tremors. As if sensing her nervousness, Namjoon placed his hand on top of hers and squeezed gently before taking her top hand into his. Crossing their fingers together, he gave her a nod of encouragement. She looked at him and gave a small but grateful smile, taking a deep and shaky breath.

Officer Hammill cleared his throat, disgust evident on his face as he stared pointedly at their joined hands.

“Before we start,” Officer Barnes stated, “do the three of you consent to being recorded along with your written statements, as well as submitting to DNA testing?”

The three on the other side of the table all nodded their heads in agreement.

“Of course, we are willing to do anything to help.” Namjoon said politely.

Officer Barnes made a note in her notepad and then placed a voice recorder on top of the table, smiling gently at Brenna. Her dark black eyes seemed to radiate kindness and understanding and it allowed for Brenna to feel a little more at ease knowing that Officer Barnes seemed to be on their side of things.

The jury was still out for her on Officer Hammill. Besides his weird looks and obvious show of snobbery, Brenna wasn’t sure what it was, but something about the man made her feel highly uncomfortable, like her intuition was immediately trying to tell her not to trust him.

‘But that’s crazy right?’ Brenna thought to herself.

BTS’ manager cleared his throat and stepped forward.

“We do ask that we keep BTS’ name out of it as much as possible please.”

Namjoon just side-eyed their manager, his lips pressing into a tight line. Namjoon hadn’t wanted their manager present to begin with, after all, this wasn’t a BTS issues. This was a very personal issue.

“Why don’t we just do what the police officers need us to do?” he asked tightly, the manager nodded politely and stepped back, still keeping a close eye on the situation despite Namjoon’s testiness towards him.

Officer Hammill’s eyes flicked between the Namjoon and the manager before coming to rest back on Brenna, who was now holding both Namjoon and Jungkook’s hands tightly, the three making a united front.

“Okay Ms. Brenna,” Officer Barnes said gently, “Tell us what you can remember.”

*

The questioning was rough for all three of them, but Officer Hammill especially went for Jungkook, trying to trip him up in multiple ways, much to his partner’s indignation.