Jungjin's Counters

𝒞𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓉𝑒𝓇 2. 𝒟𝑒𝓂𝑜𝓃𝓈 𝒶𝓂𝑜𝓃𝑔 𝓊𝓈

This chapter took a bit longer than expected since I ended up not finishing it before my final exams, but it's finally done and I hope it doesn't feel too rushed!

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A new day came, and Hyeok-Woo awoke only a few hours after falling asleep. He already had some experience pulling all-nighters, mostly because of gaming or clubbing, but he used to study all night when he was younger and more naive, thinking that if he kept getting good grades he would be praised by his father one day. That never happened, and no matter how many tutors and teachers sang him praises for his understanding of materials clearly beyond his age, he has never felt accomplished by his studies which is why he let his grades drop since the beginning of the school year, right before he dyed his hair. It was to spite his father, mostly, but seeing the teachers unable to say anything as well made him laugh, after all, he kept his grades just in between bad and good, not enough to fail but no longer a straight A student and first in the school he used to be.

And nobody said anything.

So instead of studying with tutors about university lectures, he went out to arcades, to watch movies in the cinema, or to play billiards.

Instead of late-night revisions he played games and listened to music in the quiet of his house.

So even if he didn't sleep for long, he still woke up because of the school alarm on his phone. But instead of getting up, he kept laying in his bed and waited.

A little while later and he heard the garage doors opening and a rumble of a car engine. Hyeok Woo immediately stepped out of his bed and rushed to his windows and sure enough, it was his father's car leaving. "Precise as always." though, at the same time he wondered where was he driving to. "Is he seriously going to his office so soon after his arrest?" Hyeok-Woo mused "Well, it's not like there was anything more important to him than his job and power. Journalists are probably already writing articles about how hard-working he is."

Of course, since he started thinking of his father. the scary imagery of yesterday flashed in his mind. There was definitely something weird happening, and he needed to know what.

He left his room, still in his gray sweatpants with matching slippers and black shirt, and crept through the hallway until he stood face-to-face with the office doors again.

   "It's not like there is any evidence here, or else the Police would find it already. Not all of them are under Dad, So Mun said so too." at the reminder of the former cripple and their conversation yesterday, his face scrunched up. It's not like he agreed to work with him, nor would he get anything from turning against his dad, in fact, he would probably lose everything he ever knew until now, so why was he even entertaining that idea?

   "I hope you'll do the right thing, so all the victims can move on to the afterlife peacefully at least." the words rang in his head.

   "She was pregnant. Dad- He killed her when he was about to become a major, so at least 7 years ago? How old was I, 12? Then Mom was still here, he cheated on her. Is that why she left? Is that why he killed that woman, just to cover up his cheating?"

   "I was ready to lose everything since yesterday when I entered his hospital room. I need to know what's happening." he stepped inside the room.

The chances he would find something were small, he knew that. Police would've taken anything that can serve as evidence, and if the whole team here were corrupt, then all the evidence was lost and disposed of by now. Still, he carefully combed the office for anything amiss. He felt silly, acting as if he was some double agent while looking at all of the typical places to hide things that he saw in spy movies. He also felt terrified, because most of them have that one moment where the spy almost gets caught but they do some cool move and climb the ceiling or something to hide. He cannot do that, and he'll probably have a heart attack if he's put under such pressure.