It’s the first time in two years that Lee Taeyong puts his foot outside of the prison; no high walls and no guards. No middle aged dealers fighting in the yard, no smelly men with hair looking like they didn’t shower at all. A deep breath; that’s the first thing Taeyong takes. A deep breath of freedom.

Finally, he was out, finally he could proceed with his plan. To take revenge on those who forced him into this godforsaken place. Those who dirtied his name, his soul, into a murderer. Those who had put a lot of time to make him look like the culprit. Yeah, he wanted it so badly. He wanted to clean his name, but also throw their names under the bus. It was a thrilling feeling, Taeyong almost couldn’t wait. All he needed was a lawyer, a lawyer who knew how to deal with things.

•  •  •

”Did you hear anything from Nakamoto Yuta?” Hyejeong, Inhye’s good high school friend, asks Inhye as they meet for their usual Friday coffee.

Or well, at least for now it is their usual Friday coffee. Inhye is running out of money and is about to panic. Hyejeong somehow managed to get a work at the kindergarten two blocks away from her house, while Inhye can’t even get the job to walk someone’s dog.

As an answer to Hyejeong’s question; Inhye shakes her head. ”Not even a text,” Inhye glares at her phone, scanning the couple phone case they shared for all these years. It’s worn out and kind of ugly, but so is their relationship. ”He’s great at updating his SNS with pictures of his Japanese friends, but he can’t even text me back?”

Hyejeong’s turn to shake her head, sighing loudly. ”I can’t believe him... You became the prom queen and king and he just flies to Japan? Did he completely forget the three years you spent together? Everyone thought the two of you would get married.”

So did I, Inhye was about to answer. Instead, she shrugs. ”Either you break up or you get married. Somehow, fate didn’t want us to get married.”

”But you didn’t break up either, right?”

Well, that may be true. Inhye and this Nakamoto Yuta that they were speaking about had a long history together. In high school, they were inseparable. Like molecules, they stuck together all the time. He was Inhye’s High School crush that later became her High School boyfriend. He was her first kiss, and her thousand kiss. As soon as she closes her eyes, she remembers the make out seasons against the lockers, his smouldering look and the perfect teeth. She could almost feel his hands roaming her body.

Every lunch, they ate together and after school they studied together until it became dark. The times Yuta finished school before Inhye; He brought them coffee and waited for her. Then Yuta walked her home, kissed her goodbye. 

They graduated a little over half a year ago. The graduation night was the best night in her life; the two of them had celebrated with their friends until they went to his place, made love to each other for the first time and actually became one. Inhye loved him for all these years, but that night it felt like yes, this is what love is.

Not too long after that, Yuta told her that he missed Japan - that he was going back for a while. That he’d come back for her, that if she wanted; she could wait for him. Suddenly, after three years of being with each other like someone had glued them together; Nakamoto Yuta was out of her life. At first, they texted everyday and every night. Yuta told her to make sure to come here, visit his parents and let him show her around.

That didn’t happen, and slowly it went days, weeks, months, without them contacting each other. On his SNS, Inhye could see pictures of Yuta with another female, a pretty Japanese girl. She had been forgotten. Three years together were gone, they didn’t mean anything. Yuta wasn’t coming back, Yuta was going to stay in Japan. He wasn’t going to come back, even if she waited for him until she died.

Inhye looks up to meet Hyejeong’s curious gaze, remembering that she actually asked a question. Once again, Inhye gives a soulless shrug. ”Well, if we didn’t break up and didn’t get married... That means we were nothing to begin with.”

•  •  •

”Inseong-ah, when is Inhye coming back home?” Inseong’s irritatingly nosey friend Soohyun asks as he’s lying in Inseong’s bed, scrolling through his SNS feed. Soohyun had just been out on their balcony, smoking for a bit and just got back into Inseong’s room. Therefor, he’s back to annoying Inseong again.

Inseong turns his head away from the biology book in front of him on his desk. ”Why are you asking? Man, stop having the hotts for my little sister, it’s disgusting.”

”Can’t help it, she’s just too cute,” Soohyun continues to tease his best friend, knowing how much it pisses him off. ”And you know, a heart broken girl is the easiest to take advantage of. I heard her boyfriend ditched her?”

”None of your business,” Inseong sighs loudly.

Soohyun, as the goddamn idiot he is, just continues to push Inseong’s buttons. ”Those are the ones who seek comfort, who need to get it confirmed that someone loves them, that-”

Fortunately, Soohyun is interrupted mid-sentence by a very irritated Inseong, who threw a piece of crumpled paper onto his face. ”Shut up, you’re disgusting!”

Soohyun’s lips turn upwards in a smirk. ”I’ve been like this since Middle School and you loved me back then too.”

Another disgusted expression from ”Love you? Hell, I barely like you, let alone love you,” Inseong mutters as he hears Soohyun’s phone vibrate loudly. ”I told you, if you want to bother me when I’m studying; at least be quiet. Just because I’m becoming a doctor and you’re stuck as a kid.”

Soohyun grins before clicking onto the message. That grins disappears directly, replaced by a wide eyed, shocked expression. Inseong just rolls his eyes and get back to work, waiting for Soohyun to explain what he saw. Like he always does. Even when Inseong really didn’t want to know why Soohyun changed mood so quickly. Once it was pop-up and Inseong had never wanted to get run over by a train as much as he did that day.

In the corner of his eyes, he notices Soohyun opening and closing his mouth like a fish, like he’s trying to tell him something but nothing is coming out. 

”Do you have something to say or n--”

”-Lee Taeyong got out of prison,” Soohyun finally manages to say.

Inseong drops his pen, mind going blank. ”I beg your pardon? Say that again? I think I misheard.”

Soohyun turn his phone to show Inseong something, but turns it back way too quickly for Inseong to be able to identify the text. ”Haeryung just texted me it. He got out today.”

”What?” Inseong hisses, squints his eyes. ”Which murderer gets out of prison after two years?”

”Well, he got sentenced as a minor, we were really lucky he actually even got sent to prison. Some kids that commit murder can get off with it completely in this country,” Soohyun explains.

”Do you think I don’t already know that?” Inseong spits out. ”We purposely waited for him to graduate so he could be charged as an adult, but this ing country still sentenced him as a minor? Is this a joke?”

Soohyun shakes his head. ”I-I don’t know, but what should we do, Inseong-ah? I doubt that he’s going to live this through. Lee Taeyong never did that.”

”He won’t leave us alone,” Inseong acknowledges. ”Without doubt; he will sue us. Sooner or later; he will sue us and prove his innocence. He’s going to fight until our heads are off our necks.”

Soohyun grabs his throat in an action to try to keep his head attached to it. ”What are we going to do?! He’s going to get a real lawyer and then we’re doomed!” 

When they last were in court, Lee Taeyong had a horrible reputation and the judge himself was honestly biased, and not towards Taeyong. Even the lawyer had no hopes in him; resulting with Taeyong loosing the case. Everyone being convinced that Lee Taeyong was the murderer resulted with him becoming one. This time around, Lee Taeyong spent two years in prison to set up a plan. This time around; he was going to win.

”I’m thinking! Just, go ahead and tell Doyeon!” Inseong yells, burying his face into his hands. This wasn’t according to the plan. This wasn’t what was going to happen. Getting charged for murder, you should serve in prison for at least 10 years. The guy got out after two tiny years.  ”That Lee Taeyong... This is typical of him.”

”I started a group conversation,” Soohyun informs. ”Doyeon, Haeryung, you and me.”

”Wait,” Inseong finally realises. ”Haeryung, isn’t her father the head of a law firm?”

Soohyun nods. ”What about it? God, do you think Taeyong might get someone from there?”

Inseong nods and the look on Soohyun’s face shows how close he is to fainting. ”We’re ruined... This time we’re really ed, man!”

Inseong is thinking again. ”Not if we... Give him a lawyer on our side.”

•  •  •

”I’m home!” Inhye shouts as she kicks off her shoes, hanging her jacket away as she’s greeted by their house dog. That’s it. That was without doubt her last coffee date with Hyejeong. She’s broke. She barely had the money to get a cab home. 

”Oh, you’re home already?” Inseong, her big brother, runs down the stairs to greet her.

”Yeah, did you wait for me?” Inhye raises an eyebrow, scans her brother suspiciously.

The between them is two years, so the two of them have always been really close. They’re like best friends. Ever since birth, the one person Inhye knew she could always turn to was her brother.

He shrugs as an answer to her question, then buries his hands into his pockets. ”Not really. But I do have a favour to ask you.”

”Sure, anything,” Inhye’s attention is back to their dog, petting him lovingly. 

”You wanted a job, right?”

”Yeah, so badly, I need the money,” Inhye answers with a sigh.

Yes. ”Be the lawyer of a murderer.”

Inhye can’t believe his words, so she just starts laughing; as she usually does when he’s joking. His humour . She waits for him to say something, comment on it or just tell her he’s joking. He doesn’t. ”Excuse me?”

”We need one, urgently.”

”Get a real one?” Inhye suggests, still in shock. Is her brother really serious? Her smart ‘soon-to-be-doctor’ brother actually wants her to be someones lawyer? He wants her; a newly law school graduate to be someones lawyer? That’s not only illegal, but also so wrong. ”I just graduated from law school, there’s still a lot of years left before I can call myself a lawyer!”

Inseong shakes his head. ”He must be proven guilty. He is too dangerous.”

”Then why don’t you get a real goddamn lawyer?”

Inseong shakes his head again, a little slower this once. ”He is just... Too dangerous.”

Thousands of questions are running in Inhye’s mind. ”I’m 18, Inseong,” she reminds him. ”No lawyer can possibly be 19.”

”Fake that you’re 22.”

”I can’t fake my age?! That’s outrageous!”

”Why not? I once faked my age to get laid,” Inseong jokes and earns a hit in the leg from Inhye and a high pitched yell.

Then Inhye starts thinking. She really needs the money, she’s becoming so desperate that she almost thought of ion. Only almost. Or sleep with Inseong’s disgusting friend Soohyun for a little pennies. Again, only almost.

”How much will I get paid?”

”As much as you want,” Inseong informs her. ”Just... Make sure he’s proven guilty.”

”... Deal.”

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