「 a cupful of love 」↻hyunlix ✔

23. Confession

Hyunjin

As I walked into the office with my sister and mother behind me, I could already feel anxious ㅡ may be more anxious than the man inside the interrogation room. Or maybe not.

Mr. Lee stood in front of the glass that separated us from the man inside the room ㅡ it only permitted us to see and hear the things happening inside, the person inside could not see or hear us.

I cleared my throat so that the prosecutor could acknowledge our presence. He turned around and smiled at me.

"Are you ready?" He asked, I looked at the women and then nodded, "Let's get over with this ㅡ are the Hans here yet, though?"

Mr. Lee nodded. "Yeah, they're here," then he told the person who was standing next to him, "Tell the Hans that we're going to start interrogating him." He nodded once, then dashed to bring in the aforementioned people.

Feeling a soft tap on my shoulder, I turned to the women, "Yes, Yeji?" The girl looked anxious.

"Brother, is dad going to be fine ㅡ I mean, they'll not hurt him right?" I smiled warmly at her. "Don't worry, they won't do such a thing ㅡ it's just an interrogation."

Then, my mother pulled us into a hug, "Don't be anxious kids ㅡ even if he gets a beating, he deserves it anyway."

From the corner of my eyes, I saw the boys approaching us. Jisung was half crying but Ji-han was calm and collected.

"Hello boys," I said, smiling widely at them.

Ji-han greeted me then chuckled, "He has been crying since we got here, dunno what's the matter," He said nodding toward Jisung. I looked at the younger Han who was sniffling.

"Stop crying, Hanji," I said patting his shoulder ㅡ maybe a bit too long hard that he hissed and slapped my arm. "Woah, what was that for?"

I said, rubbing the area where he hit me.

"That was for hitting me first," He said and puffed his cheeks out making all the people present in the small circle laugh.

Then, the prosecutor called us and told, "I'm going in now, we're going to start interrogating,"

All of us wore a dead expressions on our faces as we watched the man go into the room where my father was seated.

He went in and sat down.

"Hello, Mr. Hwang," Prosecutor Lee said. The other male did not greet him back, instead, scowled and said something bitter.

"You may start doing whatever you came for."

The Prosecutor laughed. "If you wish to," he sat straight, "let's begin now."

A camera was set in front of my father as the prosecutor began to start questioning him.

"Mr. Hwang, my first question to you is that," he glanced at my father, "why did you frame an innocent civilian ㅡ especially when he wasn't connected to you."

The other man stayed quiet for a minute before speaking, "I didn't appreciate my son mixing with them ㅡ but he decided to not obey my words,"

He began again, "So I guessed if I was able to show him that they're a bad influence, perhaps he would listen to me."

I felt tears forming in the corner of my eyes as I heard my father confessing and that just made me believe that he was mentally ill.

A man with a normal mental health wouldn't go so far just to stop his child from mixing with people.

Mr Lee asked him again. "How did you do it?"

The man did not hesitate to answer ㅡ I reckon he knew he was going to jail for whatever he did, plus my complaint of him sending spies behind my back.