Deranged | Jimin

Perplexity

I shakily sat down on the sofa as Jimin closed the door. Who wrote the note? How did that person know? My mind failed to come up with possibilities.

"Jimin," I whispered. "This is bad."

He nodded. "Only five of us should know: you and I, Yoongi-hyung, Eunjung and Jungkook."

"Wait... Does Taehyung know?" I asked.

"Did we tell him?" Jimin was unsure as well.

Could it have been Taehyung? I sincerely hoped it wasn't. I had long accepted that he was on our side and completely loyal to Yoongi.

Jimin took his phone out from his pocket and dialed. "I will inform Yoongi-hyung now."

Jimin put Yoongi on speaker and told him what just happened over the phone.

"How strange," Yoongi commented. "I personally made sure no information about the Busan Killer's true identity would be leaked. It's not anyone from FIRE for sure."

"Is it Taehyung?" Jimin asked.

"We never directly told him about it," Yoongi answered, "but it would not be hard for him to work it out if he was clever enough."

I spoke up apprehensively, "So it could be him?"

"Yes, it could, though I don't think it is."

"How would we know?" I asked.

"You can find out," Yoongi said.

"How?"

"Ask him."

-----

I looked around the shopping mall, looking for the familiar face in the sea of people. Finally, I spotted it approaching me.

"Hey Yerin!" Taehyung' usual bright smile was on his face as he greeted me.

"Hello Taehyung," I replied.

"So how come you want to hang out with me?" He asked.

I shrugged as nonchalantly as I could. "We just haven't seen each other for a while."

He shrugged then seemed to decide to drop that topic. "Alright. Let's go."

I nodded and we headed towards a cafe two floors up. We ordered and sat down at a table.

I took a sip of my Americano and began, "So, Taehyung, how have you been lately?"

"Um... I'm good. I mean I've began getting more and more work from FIRE, and that's a good thing."

"That's good," I nodded along. I purposefully sighed, "But I've been quite worried lately."

His smile faded. "Why?"

I leaned a tad closer to him and said in a volume of voice only he could hear, "Remember Nam Seoyun?"

He nodded quickly and whispered back, "Yes, of course. The person Boss framed to be the Busan Killer. Why?"

"Do you know who the real Busan Killer is?" I asked, carefully choosing my tone of voice as to not sound accusing.

He thought for a moment, then said, "Well... I've never been told... But I have a few guesses."

"And who are they?"

"It's not you even thought the police thought it was... So I was thinking... could it be Executive Park?"

I refrained from changing my expression from a neutral one. So he did guess. What did this mean? Was he the one who wrote the note?

"Why would you guess that?"

He shrugged while avoiding my gaze. "I don't know, just an instinctive guess."

"Alright," I said. Not know what else I could ask to get any further information without my intention being discovered, I decided to change the topic and just chat to him and be less direct. I wanted to see if I could get him to slip and tell me anything thing that way.

Nothing much was gained throughout the conversation over the coffee table. I still had my suspicion of him. We left our seats and he offered to pay for us both, to which I accepted.

We exited the coffee shop together, but after a minute, I realised something of mine was missing.

"Oh my gosh I left my bag there!" I mentally facepalmed as I immediately turned and ran back to the cafe. I had been so engrossed in the Busan Killer note that I didn't even pay attention to my personal belonging.

When I arrived back in that cafe, the bag was nowhere in sight. I went to the counter and asked one of the staffs. Luckily, she said someone had picked up a bag and handed it in to them. She went and got the bag and it was indeed mine.

"Thank you so much!" I bowed a little and went back out. Taehyung came up to me.

"What happened?"

I chuckled. "It's nothing, I just left my bag..."

I was going through my bag just in case anything was taken when I noticed something extra.

Another note.

I picked it up, a sense of foreboding washed over me again just like last time.

It read, 'I know the true identity of the Busan Killer - someone close to you.'

I crumpled the piece of paper up in my fist and tossed it back into my bag. I immediately looked around, and there he was, looking silently at me. I once again spotted that man in a coat with a cap on which castes a shadow over his face. He turned around and disappeared into the crowd. I quickly started chasing him in that general direction, earning quite a few death glares from the people I bumped into.

I caught sight of his back at the bottom of the escalator in front of me. I took that downward escalator and did my best weaving between the stationary people to get down faster.

But once, again, I lost him by the time I got the that floor. I looked around in frustration.

Taehyung finally managed to catch up. "Yerin? What happened?"

"It was not you," I muttered to myself.

"What did you say?"

I unconsciously clutched the 'J' pendent on my neck. "Someone other than us six knows."