The Ace (Stray Kids Kim Seungmin)

27

Because I know who the Joker is. I've known all along.

Furrowing her eyebrows, Mel tried to focus on the statement Brea had made just hours prior. Hiking through the forest at night with numerous questions circulating in her head reminded her of the previous night when she had to leave Mia and Jisung behind. It made her feel like, slowly but surely, she was starting to piece things together and make sense out of everything. However, the more she thought about it all and the more she learnt, the less she wanted to know. Ignorance is bliss, right?

It didn’t take much to distract her from all the things she was learning, especially not when her gaze was fixated on the Aces leading the rest of them. Seungmin would say something to make her laugh and she would roar with laughter, slapping his arm playfully as he pretended to be hurt. Melody scrunched her nose in disgust, scoffing to herself.

“I really don’t like her,” Brea muttered to Mel. “And this isn’t just about the Harri thing either.”

“There’s something off about her, isn’t there?” the Ace of Hearts whispered back. “I noticed too.”

“I know she’s the Ace of Diamonds and all but don’t you think it was a bit odd that she had been camping out in the forest of that Pen? I mean, I couldn’t stand being in the shed, let alone the forest full of corpses. And Seungmin refused to even leave the entrance yet this girl was perfectly fine with living in the forest?”

“How do you know she was living there?”

“Well, I don’t,” she immediately admitted, sounding a bit deflated for a moment before growing eager all over again. “But we found the Pen at midday. Minho went back to get you and Seungmin while Jeongin and I waited by the entrance. No one went in, no one went out. Late in the afternoon, you and Seungmin showed up and we went in. We were in the shed for about twenty minutes before you went to the forest and searched in for an hour and a half, which would have been shorter had you not found Kayleigh. By that time, it was evening. It had been six hours since we found the Pen so that means she had been in the forest for longer than that.”

“She could have been thoroughly searching it.”

“If it was the first time she was there, why would she need to thoroughly search it? And searching the forest for over six hours? That’s quite extreme if you had just stumbled across the Pen, don’t you think?”

She was right and Mel knew it. When she first found Kayleigh in the forest, she was just relieved it wasn’t a Joker so she did not consider how weird it was that she was in there in the first place. As soon as she returned to the group with the Ace of Diamonds, Melody quickly noticed the uncertainty in Brea’s eyes but did not question it, knowing that in due time the girl would blurt out her distrust. Mel just did not expect it to be so coherent.

“Besides, you didn’t find any corpses, did you?” Brea mentioned. “I mean, you would have mentioned it before if you had, right? Why would she be in there for so long if she found nothing?”

“Are you trying to claim she was waiting for me? That she knew I was going to examine the forest?”

“Perhaps. Or perhaps she was looking for something.”

“Looking for something? What would she be looking for?”

“I don’t know,” Brea shook her head. “But I don’t think that was her first time in that Pen. I think she had been there before.”

“She probably has,” Melody shrugged. “I mean, she has been here for eight years. I wouldn’t be surprised if she had been there multiple times.”

“It was a murder scene, Mel. Even if she couldn’t find the corpses, one quick look in the shed said it all. Why would an Ace return to that place, especially if it reeked of Joker, like Seungmin said? And she claimed to have met the female Joker so she would know the smell well.”

“What do you mean? Do you mean she’s working with the Jokers?”

“I mean,” Brea narrowed her eyes, “you found something in the forest that you either don’t want to tell the rest of us about or you can’t tell us. I think whatever you found somehow links to her. I think she was involved in the events that played out in that Pen.”

“You think I did this? Honey, look at this place. There are bodies everywhere. If I were to murder a whole group of people, I wouldn’t be so sloppy.”

Out of everything Kayleigh had said when they first met, that had always stood out to Mel, mainly because she just couldn’t figure out what she meant by it. What did she mean by ‘so sloppy’? Why would she even mention hypothetically murdering a group of people?

There are bodies everywhere.

The Ace of Hearts furrowed her eyebrows. How did she know that? The skeletons had been buried under layers upon layers of leaves and Mel had been the one to uncover them. And if Melody had to describe what she saw, she would say there were skeletons everywhere, not bodies. She would only say bodies if she had actually seen the corpses. So why did Kayleigh refer to them as bodies?

“You shouldn’t be here,” the girl stated. Her voice was much deeper than Mel had expected and her tone had a hint of amusement.

Mel gulped, “why not? Are you going to kill me?”

“Not unless I have to.”

The Ace of Diamonds had completely ignored her first question. And not unless she had to? She held a spade and machete at the time, seemingly a bit too prepared to fight than someone who innocently wandered into the forest. At least, much more prepared that Mel would have ever been.

"Luckily for me, it was the female Joker. She was only a little girl at the time," the Ace of Diamonds glanced at Brea. "A bit like you with large brown eyes and rosy cheeks. I wanted to just squeeze her. In fact, I would have if she wasn't completely covered in blood-"

If Kayleigh had already met the female Joker before, why did she question Mel when she first met her? If she knew the Joker wasn’t her, why did she try to pin the murders on her?

“Brea,” Mel mumbled, face contorted in confusion.

“Yeah?”

“If you stood approximately five metres away from me right now, do you think you would be able to read the words written on the back of my jumpsuit? Would you be able to make out that it is written ‘Ace of Hearts’?”

“Of course! The letters are so big anyone would be able to read it from even twenty metres away.”

If that was so, then Kayleigh had read the back of her jumpsuit even before Mel had the chance to turn around and acknowledge her. Kayleigh knew she was the Ace of Hearts and yet still claimed she was the Joker. Why? Why would she pretend she didn’t see that? What would she gain from trying to pin the whole thing on someone she knew for a fact was an Ace?

If I were to murder a whole group of people, I wouldn’t be so sloppy.

If Kayleigh was to murder a whole group of people, she would make sure to hide their bodies and any evidence somewhere no one would ever find them. She would hide them in a place in the forest so dense very few people would be able to squeeze through. And for the people that are able to squeeze through, she would have another trap to throw them off. She would need a distraction to get them away from there and if she couldn’t, she would have to kill them too. She would have to pin the murder on them and make them believe they are the Joker. And if she can't, she would have to make the person trust her. Make Mel trust her.

There was something further in that forest, something deeper in it that Kayleigh didn't want anyone to find. And Mel swore she was going to discover what it was, one way or another.