interrogation

03 | deceive and believe

"name?"

"jeon jungkook."

"date of birth?"

"first of september, 1997."

"place of birth?"

"busan, south korea."

"occupation?"

at those words the younger boy choked, caught in emotion. "o-oh, i was a worker at shoulders cafe." he finally murmured. "was..."

the detective just nodded, scribbling away at his notepad while glancing constantly at the lie detector next to him. "so tell me, what are your connections to your other workers? how about your manager?" he inquired, the pencil he was holding resting on his lip as he thought.

"well," jungkook began. "the manager goes by the name of kim seokjin."

truth.

"we met sometime when my family was going through a rough time,"

truth.

"and he offered me a job at a cafe he was making. said something about following his dreams by owning a cafe or something. said it was to ignore he's parents or to impress someone, but either way they werent too happy with his decision but that was exactly what made him happy."

truth.

"i excepted because i needed the money for me and my family and it turned out to be the best desicion of my life!"

lie.

the detective glanced at the lie detector with an eyebrow raised before turning to glance at the boy who was sweating buckets. "i-i-" the boy stuttered, clearly at a loss of words and the detective sighed. "listen, boy. this interrogation will go a lot quicker if you tell me the truth whether that means telling the truth or confessing. we have no time to be lying here."

"i-i'm not lying!"

lie.

"the machine says otherwise, jungkook. please, just tell me, what could you possibly be hiding?" the detective asked, leaning in his seat in curiosity, his notepad completely discarded as he relied on his memory. "if you think you'e so innocent, prove it. prove it to me, where is your evidence?"

"p-please, sir, i'm innocent i swear!" jungkook begged as tears threatened to fall from his eyes and the detective felt his heart melt though kept his outer shell unreadable. "than what are you lying about?" the detective asked and a couple minutes past without the boy answering. "time is running out, jungkook. i'm afraid if you dont answer now and answer with the truth, i'll have to mark you guilty whether i believe it or not."

jungkook was quiet for a while, a look of concentration in his eyes as he pondered over the question "ok," he said after a while, broken to the core. "i'll spill." the detective leaned back in his chair, confident he had just solved the case. "it was two months ago when jin hyung had came over to my house for a visit," jungkook began but was cut off as the detective raised a hand to stop him. "he came over even before you accepted his job offer? does that indicate that you too knew each other before?"

"yes, he's my cousin."

"and you didnt bother to say so before?"

"i forgot!"

the detective let his eyes drift to the lie detector and nodded once it proclaimed the words that came out of the younger boy's mouth was indeed the truth. "alright, continue." under the harsh light of the lamp in front of him and the unwavering glare of the detective, the young boy felt his anxiety play up again, causing his breath to come out as short pants and his hands to start fidgeting. "a close save..." he thought as he had just nearly avoided the truth.

"the day he came up to me, my parents were having harder times than usual which just made the request more appealing than it would have been in a normal situation. he opened the door to find me bruised and bleeding and he helped patch me up and offered the job saying something like, "it would get me away from home," so i excepted."

truth.

the detective narrowed his eyes, studying the lie detector wondering how it bad showed truth and lie to the same statement. "broken darn thing," he growled under his breath. he turned to face the boy. "what about the lie? what was the lie?"

jungkook gulped. "n-nothing sir."

lie.

the detective slammed down a hand on the small table that seperated the two and jungkook yelped as he jumped metres high in his seat. "i will not tolerate anymore lies, jungkook. you are the main suspect right now and therefore, in no position to lie."

"h-huh? main suspect?"

the detective reached under the table and pulled up a bag, a bag very familiar to jungkook and he gasped as he saw it. "hey! thats my bag!" the detective nodded at his statement. "this bag was the only thing attached and in one piece at the crime scene suggesting that it was placed after the explosion and since we allowed no one but the authorities to enter the crime scene, we have placed you on the main suspect list. we also checked the substance after and discovered this." he opens up the bag and his hands dwell in it for a while, searching before pulling out a lighter. "do you smoke?"

"no."

truth.

"than what is this doing in your bag, mr jeon jungkook?" the detective leans back in his chair once again, already praising himself on a job done. "any last words?"

"but i didnt place that there!"

truth.

"i havent even used that bag since me and my boyfriend started dating!"

truth.

"i havent even touched a lighter before in my entire life!"

"then what? what was the fucking lie? it doesnt matter if all the words you say now are the truth until you tell me what was the lie you told start to my face before."

a tense silence filled the air, the only noise you could hear was breathing. "my boyfriend, taehyung."

the detective tilted his head. "your...boyfriend."

"yes. we actually met in shoulder's cafe and we started to date in my first few weeks. we were fine one second, happy and cheery but then suddenly it just went downhill." the boy clenched his fists, frustrated over the moon as to why that was. "all because of him..."

"so you are to tell me," the detective said after some time. "to tell me that all this time you were just lying about a relationship? fuck me!" and with that, he stood eruptively from his seat causing it to fall back to the ground and walked out of the interrogation room, hands in the air.