Sasaeng Sister [In big roles: Sunghoon, Lee Know, skz, Ateez, Jungkook]

Chapter 71

Okay, this one is probably the longest chapter so far ,:D
Enjoy! :)

Mike had found a few promising apartments for us. I would have liked to visit them with him, but I had to attend my first-ever trial.

He left me at the courthouse on his way to the open houses. Hopefully, I'd get to live in one of them.

Everything depended on the outcome of the trial. In the worst-case scenario, I'd be sharing a cell with Hari.

It was almost funny how all the women in our family had been charged with a crime.

I was the first defendant to appear in the courtroom. Attorney Kil advised me to sit at the front, while my defense team took seats behind me. Our chairs were separated from another cluster of seats by wooden panels.

I rested my hands on a table-like structure in front of me.

The footsteps of the court officials echoed in the half-empty room. Rows of benches remained unoccupied because the trial was closed to the public. The concern was that a public audience might compromise the defendants' freedom and hinder the fairness of the trial, especially since all of us had become somewhat famous. Not even family members were allowed to attend.

I wouldn't have had many supporters in the audience anyway. Probably only Mike would have shown up. Minho was in too much pain to sit for hours straight. He would have needed to wear a back brace, and he hated that thing. Besides, he didn't think I was his sister...

Luckily, Ae Ri considered me her stepdaughter and she was filthy rich. Attorney Kil must have cost her a small fortune. Or had Mike hired her? It was hard to believe Ae Ri would have picked a lawyer as direct and just as Attorney Kil. Besides, Ae Ri paid for Hari's lawyer, and Attorney Kil was trying to add charges against Hari, which would have been bold if she had been hired by Ae Ri too.

On the other hand, Kil didn't care who hired her. Only the client mattered. I'm pretty sure she was never tempted by bribes. She went for the kill, fair and square.

In Korea, trials were decided by a panel of judges, not a jury. At the highest seat was the Chief Judge, who monitored the court officials as they made the final arrangements, ensuring everyone was in their proper place and that no outsiders were left inside.

Two associate judges, one man and one woman, sat beside the Chief Judge. All three were pale and wrinkled, having spent too many hours in this windowless courtroom.

The Public Prosecution was seated on one side of the courtroom—the right side from the judges' perspective, probably because the judges assumed the prosecution was always right.

My heart rate picked up.

Before I could succumb to the fear of unfairly losing the trial, the side doors opened, and the other defendants were brought in by security officers.

Lucas wore a beige prison uniform. His hands were cuffed in front of him, and he kept his head down. The security officer who led him to his seat removed the handcuffs after he was seated. His attorney instructed him to sit up straight and hold his head high.

Lucas didn't straighten his back, but he did look up, staring at Hari as she was led to the other side of the room. Her hands were free, and she wore a white dress shirt and pressed black pants. Of course, she had negotiated special treatment for herself.

My blood boiled seeing her so unaffected.

She was the one who should have been in cuffs, yet she walked in like a runway model and smiled at Lucas.

What a bitch!

The prosecution introduced themselves. They were a team of five, led by a man who seemed incapable of relaxing his face. A crafty, asymmetrical smile skewed his mouth into a constant, crooked line. His eyes drilled into me for a second, but that brief glance felt like an X-ray, exposing every wrong thing I had ever done. This man was not just intelligent; he was highly motivated to bring us down.