Investigation

Chapter 9

Author

"I-I don't... I don't know," Jihyun said. "It's crazy to think that the killer is back and doing the same thing they did ten years ago, but Jimin's mouth was also sewed shut like this."

"Is it possible that it's just a coincidence?"

"Yeah, perhaps, maybe," she said, ruffling her hair out of frustration before taking a seat on her desk. "I'm sorry, Tae. This case is bringing up old memories."

Taehyung sat beside her and pulled her into his arms. "No, no. Don't be sorry," he said. "I can take you off the case, if you want to."

"No, no, no. I'm staying," she said, sighing. "I'm fine. I've just gotta be more professional."

He looked at her worriedly. "Are you sure? Wouldn't it be too much for you?"

She shook her head. "We don't even know if this is connected to Jimin's case," she said. "Until we know for sure, I'm not going to have another breakdown."

Jihyun then stood up and packed her things. Taehyung knew that deep inside his best friend's heart, she had a strong feeling that the killer was back. He knew that even though she seemed to be tough and strong gutted from outside, she was actually terrified and was on the verge of having a mental breakdown.

He grabbed her wrist when she was about to leave. "Let me take you home."

---

"Even though... I knew about what happened to Jimin, you've never told me pretty much anything else beside that," he said with Jihyun sitting next to him. "What's he like?"

She smiled while looking down at her glass of wine. "He's... a very sweet man," she said. "He was a good-looking gentleman. He respected me. He was incredibly supportive toward me and my dream. Basically he was the kind of guy that you couldn't find more than one."

Jihyun started to tell Taehyung some stories about Jimin. At some point she broke down crying, but she just laughed it off and continued telling the stories.

It had been so long that Jihyun appeared as a woman who was determined to live the single life that Taehyung forgot she once had someone she always gave her beautiful smile to, someone who had her whole heart.

"I didn't mean to cheat on him, you know," she said. Taehyung remembered that night at the bar where Jihyun yelled to no one that she was a stupid human being who deserved to die. "I was lonely and drunk. We had a fight and we didn't talk for weeks."

"How do you feel about that?"

There was a silence for a while before she answered, "Sometimes I wonder whether or not Jimin would still have been murdered if I didn't cheat on him."

He raised an eyebrow. "What does you cheating on him have to do with his murder?"

"Karma, I guess."

"That's stupid to assume," he said. "His death is no one's fault but the actual murderer. I thought you've stopped beating yourself up. We've moved past that."

She chuckled. "Yeah, yeah, I know," she said, "but you can't blame me for going back to an old habit when something reminds me of him."

"Everything is going to remind you of him," he said. "You just have to forgive yourself. I'm sure Jimin had forgiven you for cheating."

Jihyun had a bitter smile on her face, a smile that only Taehyung would have noticed to be a fake one. "He didn't know I cheated."

"O-Oh."

"I guess that's why I haven't been able to forgive myself for what happened," she said, taking a sip of her wine, "but at least I can already accept it and be at peace with it."

Taehyung looked at her and caressed her cheeks. "You will never be fully at peace with what happened if you haven't even forgiven yourself."

She scoffed. "What are you, a therapist?"

He chuckled. "It's just something I learned in life."

"Ugh, so cheesy," she said before taking her last sip of wine and putting it back to the kitchen. "It's late and I'm a little drunk now. It's better for me to sleep."

He noticed that her face was all red and she seemed flustered, something that always happened every time she had too much to drink.

"I'll be going now," Taehyung said, grabbing his things and was about to head out when Jihyun grabbed his wrist.

"W-Wait," she said and without her realizing it, their faces were so close that it only took one more step for their lips to be touching with each other's. "U-Um, you forgot your wallet."

He looked down and saw her holding his wallet. He chuckled and put a peck on her forehead. "Night, Jihyun."

"Night."