“Did you hear?”

L.Joe groans as he hears the shriek from in front of him, knowing that his peaceful Saturday of lounging around in his room and playing his computer is over. The male with flat blond hair looks over his PC to see a bright green halter top and pale arms sassily crossed over it.

“Why are you here?” he spits out in disgust at the lady.

“I already told you why; it’s about the current affairs.” She remains calm even after the boy’s blatant display of hatred.

He harrumphs. “That’s not what I meant. Why are you in my room? More like, who the hell let you in?!” L.Joe stands up angrily and his loud voice echoes easily through the mostly empty two-storey house.

“Your younger brother was kind enough to let me in.” A sweet smile spread on her lips as she watches the younger male fume. The two had known each other since they were five, when they had attended the same school and coincidentally, continued to attend the same school.

“Ricky!” he shouts and a small ‘eek!’ from the culprit is heard. “What did I tell you about letting strangers in?!” The quiet protest of ‘but she isn’t one…’ is ignored.

“And you-!” He turns to look up at the girl in his room. “Don’t just en-” L.Joe realizes something’s wrong with this picture and his voice and anger subsides. “Did you grow taller, Hyuna?”

Hyuna laughs, enjoying the view from above the boy (well, he wasn't all that much taller than her normally, so she had no reason to be spiteful). “I thought you would notice, Joe!” She raises her feet to show off her new twenty-centimetre heels. “There are only five of these shoes in the world. They’re created by the designer, Chunji!” The girl continues to gush about how these shoes are uniquely Chunji’s with a butterfly pattern under the sole and how she’s now one hundred and ninety centimetres tall.

“Ah, okay…” L.Joe doesn’t even pretend to be interested in the black shoes while he sinks back onto his seat and stares at the computer screen, regretting asking the question in the first place. “Why are you here again?” He would have liked to kick out this annoying girl ages ago, but he figures doing that to the daughter of his mother’s best friend is not the brightest idea and is more trouble than it’s worth.

“Ricky let me in,” she answers.

“I didn’t mean that this time.” L.Joe’s finger quickly and silently tap on the keys and the computer screen is reflected on his large hazel-brown eyes.

Hyuna frowns. “You should word all of your questions properly next time. Anyway, it’s about this.” The girl digs deep into her tight black jean shorts and pulls out her phone. She touches a few things on the screen and brings up a text message with a photo attachment.

L.Joe doesn’t bat an eyelid at the girl’s action and promptly ignores her, his eyes continuing to be glued to the screen. Annoyed, Hyuna swings her head down to see the large screen. “What are you-” The boy’s reflexes are quick and he immediately turns off the monitor before the girl can see anything. “-doing that is so important?” Her eyes widens when all she sees on the black screen is the reflection of L.Joe’s angry face.

“That’s none of your business,” he growls glaring at the younger female.

She forces out laughter and steps back. After all, she’s known that guy for about a decade now and understands when she’s gone too far. “A-anyway, I’d send you the text, but your phone doesn’t have a working number.”

“So…?” Now indignant as well as impatient, L.Joe tries to hurry along the conversation with intimidation.

Hyuna is not stupid. She quickly raps out her words (and perhaps this would be the foundation of her skills in the future). “Basically, there’s been slander posted up on our school website about people.”

L.Joe furrows his eyebrows. “What makes that so different from all the baseless rumours that go around anyway?”

 “There’s not much difference,” she continues, “but people have been taking them seriously. So far, there’ve been three victims and all are refusing to say anything about the accusations. But the really funny thing is that all three people are very famous around the school and only become more famous and liked after the incident.”

“Who are they?”

“Even you, the recluse and loner, should know them: there’s the singer Niel, Changjo, the star of taekwondo team, and the school president, CAP,” Hyuna recites the information she had previously written onto her phone.

Ignoring the subtle insults, L.Joe nods. “I see. Take a seat. I will be a while.” He begins to type furiously on his keyboard and clicks links with his mouse.

Hyuna looks around the messy room and opts to sit on the bed instead since it was cleaner than the rest of the room. Five minutes later, she is beckoned to his side. “See this?” he asks and she squints at the screen with her brown eyes.

“They’re the posts…?” she responds unsurely.

“Yes. Take a look at the dates of which everything was posted up and at the time.” It is a small detail on the top right corner of the page that is easy to miss, but it states the date and the last time the page was edited. “What do all these dates have in common?”

Hyuna stares for a while and her dusty clogs in her head begin to move. “Nothing.”

“Try again.”

“What? Just tell me! What are you trying to prove?” Hyuna screeches in annoyance.

L.Joe smirks. “You really can’t see it?”

With a deep frown, Hyuna once again attempts to decipher the clue that L.Joe has found. A light bulb is lit as she spots it. She smiles. “They were posted on a Tuesday, weekly, in the middle of lunch. In other words…the crime is done at school, implying that a school computer is used!” She puffs out her chest, proud of herself.

Wide-eyed and surprised, L.Joe compliments the girl. “W-wow, good job.”

“I’ve been staking out at computer rooms everyday for the last three weeks, but the culprit always escapes me,” Hyuna informs, now at least knowing the reason for her failure.

“For the last three weeks…so that’s where you’ve been instead of eating with us.” L.Joe ponders for a while. “Well, we do have two computer rooms in the school.”

Hyuna suggests her idea, “Should I watch one room while you do the other?”

“Good idea…” L.Joe says after pondering for a while. The male’s brow twitches when he realises something. “Hey, wait…why are you trying to solve this in the first place? And why did you come to me for this?”

Hyuna smiles and looks at her imaginary watch. “Woah, would you look at the time! I best be off.” Just as sudden as she first arrived, the whirlwind of a girl exits the house, leaving the question unanswered.

L.Joe sighs. “Suspicious…”

-

Tuesday lunchtime comes by quickly and L.Joe nods to Hyuna who quickly puts their plan in motion by heading to the computer room in the library. The boy heads to the computer room closest to his classroom and has a look around. There are very few students who hang about here during this time. He walks to the computer furthest from the entrance, dodging all the dirty litter on the way. There’s a disgusting half eaten banana on the grey carpet. Just when he’s about to log on the computer, L.Joe hears a squelch and loud footsteps running away. He’s about to give chase since it is probably the culprit coming to get rid of any evidence or to put up the next post, but he knows it’s already too late. Instead, he looks around and sees something…the culprit stepped on the banana, and there’s a strange butterfly pattern engraved in it.

 “So did you figure anything out?” Hyuna asks L.Joe as they head to class.

“Yeah, some stuff. You?”

Hyuna beams. “How ‘bout I head to your house after school and we’ll discuss it.”

“Sure.” L.Joe does not miss the sweet scent of the school toilet’s soap from Hyuna as they part ways.

-

L.Joe nonchalantly kicks away all the garbage and dirty clothing to clear a path. “I’ll start first,” Hyuna chirps when she enters the room. “I was unable to find anything,” she reports like a detective to her superior. She looks towards L.Joe hoping for praise (even though she hadn’t accomplished anything), but instead he’s glaring at her.

“Cut it out.”

“Huh?” Hyuna innocently looks at the boy.

“We both know that you already know who the culprit is,” he states.

Hyuna gives in. “So you’ve found me out. What gave me away?”

“You made six fatal mistakes,” L.Joe announces, ignoring the loud exclaim of ‘that many?!’, “You mention that you’ve been staking the rooms out for three weeks when the posts only began three weeks ago!”

He begins to lean towards the girl as he spits out all of his reasoning. “Also! You went to the computer room I was in immediately instead of your own!”

“Next! The shoes you bragged about so much with the butterfly patterns could be seen on the banana you stepped on!” Hyuna looks down at her favourite shoes in fear. “And you had smelt like soap from the toilets because you were washing your shoes! And you knew too much for someone who only just got involved,” L.Joe shouts as he presents his evidence.

“That was only five mistakes…but otherwise, you’re completely correct.”

L.Joe shakes his head. “I must be so stupid…I can’t believe it’s you.”

Hyuna stands and laughs evilly. “Indeed! It is me! I am the one who figured out that the culprit is you!”

L.Joe groans. “What are you going to do now that you know?”

The girl ponders for a moment. “Nothing, really. But let me ask you this-”

“Let me just say this first. I had no real motive for fabricating those lies about the people. I just hated how popular they were,” L.Joe says interrupting Hyuna’s question.

“No, I don’t care about that.” Hyuna waves that idea away with her hand. “What I really wanted to ask is…can you do the same for me?!”

“Ah…I get it now…” L.Joe laughs loudly. “So that was your real motive!”

-

Tuesday lunch comes and L.Joe’s figure hunched over the computer furthest from the entrance is seen along with a now just-over-one-hundred-and-sixty-tall girl. His fingers quickly and silently tap on the keys and the computer screen is reflected on his large hazel-brown eyes. “And done!” L.Joe exhales and smiles at his female friend.

She grins back at him. “Thanks!” She walks out of the library with her head held high and L.Joe following shaking his head and laughing.

“That’s her!” someone screams. The students gather around Hyuna as she basks in the light of popularity.