❝ 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐌𝐘 𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄. ❞
↳ "hey joonhwi, you think we'll be okay ?" jiyeon asked, quietly reaching for his hand as they sat in the comfort of her bed.
joonhwi held and rubbed his thumb over her hand. he looked down as he said...
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❝ 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐌𝐘 𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄. ❞
.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.
present time.
as joonhwi promised, both him and jiyeon decided to visit professor yang the next day. they arrived at the station only to find sol a writing grumbling to herself while writing a visitation form. they shared a look before going over to her as she crumpled the piece of paper while looking dejectedly. joonhwi quickly snatched the paper from her hands and wrote his name on below sol a's.
"i'll visit him after you guys," jiyeon said.
"you sure?" joonhwi asked.
"mhm, you guys can go ahead."
joonhwi raised an eyebrow but nonetheless visited professor yang first with sol a, who sends an apologetic look before following joonhwi as an officer led them to professor yang. jiyeon slumped in her seat as she sighed. truthfully, she wanted to visit her father alone, but going there alone would be too suspicious. so she settled on going with joonhwi instead, but now it seems like she was going to visit her father alone anyway.
she waited and waited and finally saw her friends exiting the visiting room, and a police officer motioned her to go inside. she bowed politely and waved at the two before walking towards the room with a small skip in her step. she was sat down behind the glass and finally came face to face with her father.
jiyeon's hand slightly trembled as she finally took in his appearance. her father, an esteemed professor of hankuk law, now in prison clothes. oh, the irony.
"hi. how have you been?" her voice was shaky for her first time visiting her father.
"good. are you eating?" he asked back, "you seem to be getting thinner."
jiyeon blinked away her tears when she heard his voice again, "i-i'm holding up."
yang jonghoon made no comment as he saw through her lies. he knew his daughter more than anyone, after all.
"ah, here um.. i found it on the floor after the police took you away.." she grabbed the puzzle piece from her handbag and gave it to him before her hands found comfort in fiddling her sweater again. he took it and slightly inspected it before putting it in front of him and looked at her questiniongly.
"do you not have money to eat? you can borrow some money from professor kim, i'll pay her back."
"n-no it's fine, really! i just. . ." she trailed off while looking down.
"what is it?"
"i just miss you, a lot."
she looks down as she said those six words. her father watched in sorrow and he wished for nothing more than to be able to hug her, or even feel her again.
"me too, sweetheart," he said. she looks up from her lap and looked at her father in the eye again. he swore he could feel the sorrow and the sadness she felt as she looked at him with those teary eyes of his. he wanted to tell her that she was the reason he was still able to continue prison life. that she was the reason he stayed strong even though he wasn't used to this kinds of life. but professor yang jonghoon, even though he was an esteemed professor, was no good at affection or words.
he took upon the role of being a single father very early after her mother, his wife, died not long after giving birth to yang jiyeon. jiyeon lived at the cost of his wife's life. and even though he was devastated, it seemed like she was reincarnated right back into her own daughter.
from her mannerisms, her bubbly personality which contrasted from his stoic ones, her eyes, her smile, she was a carbon copy of her mothers. and yang jonghoon counted it as a blessing for him, because even though he can't see his wife anymore, he saw her in their daughter. he smiled bitterly as he reminisced his loving wife as jiyeon stared back at him with teary eyes, and he couldn't help but say something that made her eyes widen.
"you remind me so much of your mother."
jiyeon couldn't say anything after that. it was the first time he mentioned her mother after her passing. he mentioned it once or twice before, saying that her mother had died not long after she had given birth to her and that she was a wonderful woman. but she didn't know why, getting compared to her own mother makes her feel so touched.
so loved.
she didn't know what to say, but offered a smile to him. a smile that said 'thank you'. a smile that radiated love and compassion only reserved for her own father.
"thank you."
.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.
it was the day of the on-site inspection of professor seo byungju's murder. as witnesses, or more correctly, since the footprints recorded the shoes that the study group wore, it was mandatory for them to be present for the on-site investigation. jiyeon walked quietly beside joonhwi who gave her hand a comforting squeeze to which she squeezed back in return.
"let's start in the media room, this way please."
jiyeon stayed behind with joonhwi as professor yang was led into the media room with professor kim trailing behind him. like a second nature, joonhwi unconsciously stood protectively beside jiyeon just in case the police officers tried anything. jiho and sol b shared a look at the sight joonhwi's nature.
"it was sugar, not meth."
jiyeon must've zoned out as she heard the police officer rambling about a scenario of what would've happened before her father interjects and protests.
"stop writing a novel of your own, for gods sake," her father glared at the police offier before shedding some light in the truth of what did happen.
"after i dumped the methamphetamine in the sink, he went into hypoglycemic shock. he passed out so i gave him sugar with coffee," he explained the chronology of events before running to the stairs to retrieve a part of professor seo byungju's glasses. he inspected it quietly. the crowd then follows him as the police took the glasses part from him.
". . .he rolled down the stairs?" the police officer asked, and asked a detective to check the glasses he was wearing on the day of his death.
professor yang slowly looked up from his hand and to joonhwi as they had a staring contest. jiyeon quietly observed them as she came to a realization of what her father might be thinking in his head. she slowly looked to joonhwi as jonghoon took slow and agonizing steps to the male beside her.
"it was you?" he asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked at him suspiciously, "han joonhwi?"
joonhwi didn't answer but instead looked back at jiyeon who had been staring at him with her mouth agape. she couldn't believe what her father was asking, yet she couldn't believe joonhwi, her own best friend, couldn't give an answer. her thpupghts were sent to a spiral as his intense gaze never seemed to break for the longest time.
