"Alright, you all know what to do. I want all of you to invent a mystery, litter it with clues, then present it to your classmates. Your classmates will try to solve your mystery, and I'll be the judge to see whose mystery is the most inventive, intriguing - and most importantly, logical."
The teacher peered around at us knowingly. "Are we clear on that last part? If any of you dare to tell me that your murderer pulled it off because he gained access to Harry Potter's invisibility cloak, I'll make your marks invisible as well. Now off you go. Create a crime."
I turned around to face the rest of my groupmates. If there was one gripe I had about this course, it was that there was a heap load of group work involved. Which I suppose made sense in its own right, because cops worked in groups, don't they?
There came a sharp little rap on the table and Song Rae cleared her throat importantly. I let out an internal groan, rolling my eyes. Song Rae was the kind of person you both hated and loved to have in any group projects - she was brilliant and could handle anything you threw her way, unfortunately she also knew it. Which made her used to being the leader and giving out orders. Couple that with her perfectionist streak, and it was enough to make me want to jam a stuffed armchair down her throat. I did however, wanted to maintain a passing grade, and so regretfully decided to postpone aforementioned jamming until further notice.
"So, any ideas?" she asked.
I drew a lazy arc on the tabletop with a capped pen. "How about a criminal empire that's being sabotaged by a group of unknown persons? It'll put another spin on the whole thing - instead of good guys finding bad guys, it'll be bad guys finding bad guys. We might get marks for creativity, inventivity - whatever it is the teacher said."
Song Rae gave me a look that managed to be both prim and full of disdain. "You've been reading too much novels, Anis. Those things don't happen in real life."
Bitch, how dare - I bit down on the retort that was about to fly right off my tongue. That's the story of my life you're putting down right there, thank you very much.
Song Rae led the discussion for another ten minutes before eventually the group settled on her idea. Naturally. We presented it, there was polite clapping, the teacher looked satisfied, and we sat down.
As the rest of the presentations went on, I tapped the heel of my shoes against the floor, bored. They all look and sound the same. They were all so typical.Truth was stranger than fiction it seemed - I could name five major crimes the yakuza had pulled off that was way better than what I was hearing.
Then Taehyung's group walked to the front. Without thinking, I straightened myself up in my chair. Today he was wearing a loose white shirt and tight-fitting black jeans, though honestly he could have showed up in a rice sack and I'd still drool.
Someone in Taehyung's group had brought along his laptop, and the result from that was a professionally made slideshow detailing their invented mystery. I watched the teacher scribble down marks, looking impressed, and next to me Song Rae fumed.
"I didn't know we could do that," she muttered furiously under her breath.
The lights dimmed and the slideshow played.
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