𝗦𝗢𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗘 | 𝗛𝗔𝗡 𝗝𝗢𝗢𝗡𝗛𝗪𝗜

𝐖𝐇𝐎'𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐋 𝐌𝐔𝐑𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐑?

❝ 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐌𝐘 𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄. ❞

.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.

"he passed out from hypoglycemia, so i gave him coffee and sugar," yang jonghoon stated, putting a the cup in front of the mannequin as he stood back up. he was recreating the scene when  professor seo was going into shock and professor yang was trying to help. the police officers were stunned as they heard this. he never testified anything, so hearing this, during the on-site investigation, was new to them.

"but the sugar packet isn't here," one of the police officers said, addressing the elephant in the room, "we didn't find a sugar packer, and it's not on the evidence list."

jiyeon frowned as she heard this. it meant someone was messing up with the evidence.

one of the police officers gritted their teeth and clenched their fists saying, "stop trying to pull this trick on us. it was never here to begin with—"

"it was," yang jonghoon calmly said.

"you need to cut your crap—"

"don't talk to him like that," jiyeon cut the police officer off. everyone in the room silently watched her as she glared at the police officer. "you of all people, don't get to talk to him like that." her father's eyes widened as he heard this.

the crowd silently watched her in confusion as her eyes widened in realization to what she just said. saying that came out so naturally for her, so she didn't think. she mumbled a timid 'sorry' before looking down in embarrassment. yang jonghoon silently thanked her for backing him up, and made a mental note to thank her if she visits him again.

han joonhwi silently watched this unfold as the girl beside him timidly fiddled with her fingers. he reached over to her hands when she started picking at her nails and intertwined their hands together, rubbing his tumb over her hand as a form of comfort and to calm her down. jiyeon looks up at him and their intertwined hands, and blushed silently before observing the scene happening in front of her again.

"what is he yapping about.." professor kim mumbled as professor yang's attorney comes in. finally.

"please, um, hear— hear my client out!" his attorney stuttered, jiyeon mentally facepalming at him as he stuttered.

"then he'll need to at least make some sense!" the police officer fired back, "the sugar packet shouldn't disappear out of thin air, then!"

yang jonghoon's eyes suddenly widened and he ran to the staircase behind the room, leaving everyone else confused. jiyeon silently tugged on joonhwi's hand to follow him, as everyone else ran after the professor. from the corner of his eyes, he saw something glistening in the light, he crouched down and picked the thing he found. it was a bridge of a glasses.

everyone else followed to see what he picked up. the police officer inspected it a little before saying, "it fell out of the glasses?" and asked someone to check the glasses professor seo was wearing.

joonhwi, was holding jiyeon's hand, silently let it go when her father suddenly took a step towards him. jiyeon looked at him with confused eyes when he did.

"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.

"the video for the jurae-dong hit and run case?" yang  jonghoon questioned.

everyone was silent as they waited for joonhwi's answer.

"yeah, i sent it."

jiyeon's eyes darted to joonhwi.

just how many cases is he in before he'd get in trouble?

"you were the prosecutor in charge," joonhwi said, "someone had to reveal the truth."

"you met your uncle here, that day?" yang jonghoon asked.

joonwhi took a deep breath and looked down, and walked away to the entrance. yang jonghoon silently watched him leave, and watched jiyeon in a trance.

"go."

jiyeon broke her trance when her father looked at her in the eye, telling her to go. she silently looked at him before nodding, and catching up  to joonhwi who so happened to meet his aunt, professor seo's wife, the woman jiyeon met a few nights before.

"did you have to be the one to reveal," the aunt said, not looking at joonhwi as she saw jiyeon catching up to him, trailing behind the boy, "the truth?"

joonhwi glanced at his aunt, before looking down again and grasping jiyeon's hand who was behind him. he squeezed it once and let it go, saying, "we'll talk outside."

.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.

jiyeon silently waited as they talked somewhere secluded. she watched as joonhwi kept standing up and sitting down, with eyes filled with tears, before leaving for good. he walked towards jiyeon and pulled her, not giving her time to talk as he dragged her outside, behind the school.

he let go of her hand and buried his face in her shoulder, silently bringing her closer as his arms wrapped around her waist. she blushed at the sudden contact and froze before wrapped her arms around his neck.

"sorry i just.." he trailed off, "i just really need this."

she hummed in response and wrapped her arms around his neck tighter, "it's okay. take your time."

he sighed softly and nuzzled his face in her neck, breathing in her smell and relaxed in her embrace.

.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.

"don't be ridiculous, it's not joonhwi," jiyeon scoffed.

professor yang, his attorney,  sol a, and jiho were all sat discussing the alibis of different people during professor seo's time of death. with the conclusion that joonhwi was the real killer. jiyeon couldn't believe any of this bullshit.

he wouldn't kill his own uncle, would he?

"b-but, that's the only plausible story. . ." sol a trailed off, "i don't wanna believe it either but.."

"it's not joonhwi, goddamit!" jiyeon exclaimed as ran her  hand through her hair, "you really think it's joonhwi, professor yang?"

jiyeon looked at her father in the eye, glaring at him. her father took no offense to this as he looked back at her calmly. it was weird, he thought, that she got so worked up over some boy. he tilted her head curiously but made no comment.

"he tampered with evidence, jiyeon," jiho said, "why would he if he wasn't the killer?"

"you tampered with the evidence too, by the way. i-it's just.." jiyeon leaned back at her seat. she sighed and looked towards her father's defense attorney who was looking at her with a big smile on his face, "what are you looking at?"

her father's attorney only laughed, "is han joonhwi your boyfriend or something?"

she choked in her breath, "w-what?"

"you just seem really, really, really, defensive of him," he pointed out. jiyeon frantically looked at everyone in the room as she blushed, "w-we're just really close!"

professor yang jonghoon let out a small chuckle. afterall, he knew his daughter better than anyone.