The next time Inhye and Taeyong meet, they agreed to meet in the park. Because both of them are tired of spending money on strawberry smoothies and hot chocolates. The weather is great, a typical June day, so Inhye brought two lemonades with her to their meeting place. And another surprise.

Taeyong is already waiting for her, impatiently cursing himself for forgetting that Inhye is either exactly on time or 15 minutes late. When he finally sees her, though, nothing other than a smile breaks out on his face; all the frustration from earlier washed away by the sight of her running towards him. With her is a fluffy, brown, middle sized dog.

”Sorry I’m late!” Inhye pants, leans against a tree for a second out of fatigue. ”Milou stopped everywhere to take a sniff, and I really wanted to buy us something to drink since the weather is too great!”

Taeyong almost didn’t get what she said, totally mesmerised by the dog’s charm. He squats down, pets it. ”Wow, you really did bring him? Hey there, buddy.” Taeyong glances up at Inhye, then down at the dog again. ”The proverb ’a dog will always resemble it’s owner’ really is true. You two are identical.”

”Excuse me?” Inhye exclaims, sits down next to her dog only to grab his face and put it next to hers. ”Stop with all your proverbs. How are we alike? His nose is like, my whole face and am I really that hairy? Do I look that stupid?”

”You could ask anyone; they’d all say that you look alike.”

Inhye pouts so Taeyong continues with petting the dog; enjoying the feel of fur against his palm after such a long time. ”He’s cute, though.”

Inhye nods, but as she takes in his words; her eyes widen. ”Did you just indirectly call me cute?”

Taeyong’s eyes widen as well. It was totally not intended. ”... Irrelevant.”

•  •  •

”Do you remember that you wanted to get to know me?” Taeyong asks as they’re seated on a park bench, drinking their lemonades while Inhye shows off all the cool tricks she taught Milou.

His questions came as a surprise. ”I still want to get to know you,” Inhye answers. 

”I just realised,” Taeyong leans back into the backrest. ”I don’t know anything about you either. Only your name, age, job, dog’s name and your favourite colour.”

Inhye smiles, even though she feels bad about her fake age and job. ”Go ahead, ask me anything. Just remember that you have to answer it as well.” Taeyong is about to complain but Inhye interrupts him. ”You have to play by your own rules.”

Taeyong grins. ”Fine, do you prefer calling or texting?”

”Call,” Inhye answers without thinking about it. ”Your turn.”

”Same,” Taeyong nods. ”Then let’s call each other from now on instead of texting, okay?”

”Okay.”

The questions goes on, only with Taeyong asking questions. He feels the best like this, Inhye guess, because getting interrogated only left bad memories on Taeyong. Since no one believed his answers. Inhye learns that he has an older sister, that he enjoys watching sport animes but hates doing sports, that he’s afraid of cicadas and dentists, that he enjoys cooking. A lot of things that Inhye didn’t know she wanted to know. 

”Are you single?” Taeyong finally asks and Inhye almost chokes on her lemonade.

She hits her chest with her fist until she feels like she’s able to breathe again. ”Sorry but are you hitting on me?”

That was Taeyong’s words, exactly expressed word per word, when she had told him that they should meet outside of the case. Now they were. And if it wasn’t so weird, she’d call him her friend. Because he was the one that felt the closest to a friend right now.

Taeyong almost panics. ”I didn’t mean it that way! But like, you were flirting with me not too long ago what the hell I need to know if there’s a guy on a motorcycle waiting to beat me up.”

”When did I ever flirt with you?!” Inhye playfully hits his arm, making him laugh. That laugh that makes her feel warm all over. Then she gets to the question. Is she single. Asked a month ago, she would’ve said no. Because she still considered her relationship with Yuta as a long distance one. Because it was hard to let Yuta leave; both the country and her heart.

”I am single,” Inhye finally answers, the words hurting more than they should have. ”You?”

Taeyong scoffs. ”I’ve been in prison until now and before that I was a bully and murder, of course I’m not in a relationship,” he starts, then he trails of. ”And who would date a murder?”

Inhye pouts. She was never the comforting person to begin with, and she feels like Taeyong is really in the need of comfort. She’s a terrible person for this job. She’s backstabbing him.

As if on cue, Milou comes with a stick and puts it on their feet; telling them to pick it up and throw it for him. Inhye obeys, throwing the stick away in the park, as far as she can.

”Dogs are great,” Inhye speaks as Milou comes back with the stick and decides to play tug of war with it. ”They don’t judge you, they love you endlessly and they don’t care about your past. They don’t care if you’re a murderer or prince, as long as you’re you.” Inhye grins. ”And that you throw a stick for them.”

Milou eventually wins the war and decides to bother Taeyong with the stick instead. He picks it up, throws it away and follows the quick dog’s tail with his eyes as he runs off.

”You should go and pick up Ruby,” Inhye continues her speech as Taeyong stays quiet. ”You’re lonely these days, even though I meet you everyday there are still hours that you’re lonely and when you’re lonely you start thinking.”

Taeyong smiles half-heartedly. ”That’s true.You do know a thing or two, don’t you, Mrs. Lawyer?”

Inhye also smiles. ”That’s true, but that has nothing to do with being a lawyer.”

•  •  •

When Inhye gets back home, both Inseong and Soohyun are standing in the hallway. As Soohyun sees her, he throws out his arms in a gesture to embrace her.

”Inhye-sshi!” he exclaims and Inhye can’t resist rolling her eyes. ”Where have you been? Oppa missed you!”

”I was out with the dog,” Inhye answers and dodge his arms, managing to escape the hug. ”And I need to speak with Inseong.” Inseong raises his eyebrows indifferently, tries to read her face as she says ”Only Inseong.”

”Soohyun was about to leave anyways,” Inseong answers, almost pushing Soohyun out of the door. 

”Don’t ignore Oppa’s calls!” is the last thing Soohyun says as Inseong smash the door in front of his face.

”Spit it out,” Inseong speaks. ”What is it?”

”I need to know the names of the persons who sued Lee Taeyong,” Inhye speaks. ”They may be anonymous in court, but somewhere their names must-”

”They’re not,” Inseong interrupts her. He does it all the time, she can’t even express how much she hates it. ”The suers names are nowhere.”

”That’s impossible and you know it.” Why is he trying to fool her? As said before; she may not be a lawyer but heck he did attend law school and she knows her facts.

”Why do you need them anyways?”

”Because I’m doubting that Lee Taeyong killed Min-”

”He did!” Inseong takes a step towards her which makes her flinch, pressing her back against the door behind her. ”God, everyone saw it, everyone witnessed it. A bully like Lee Taeyong, of course he killed her!” He runs a frustrated hand through his hair, looking completely furious.

”The judge was biased, the lawyer as well,” Inhye answers, building up her confidence and straightening her back. ”I checked all his courts, he didn’t stand a chance, even if he was innocent!”

”Let’s say he didn’t kill her,” Inseong exhales, his voice a lot raspier, almost angry. ”Even if he didn’t kill her, he has to be put behind bars!”

”Why would I put an innocent person behind bars?”

”Because you’re a fake lawyer, you could get put behind bars just as easily as him,” he pokes her in the ribcage as if clarifying that he’s speaking to her.

She slaps away his hand. ”What’s with you? You’re acting like you killed her.”

Inhye didn’t get to register the quick, short change in Inseong’s eyes. ”How dare you? I’m your big brother, how were you raised?” Then it’s like he realises that this won’t work. He takes a deep, shaky breath. ”Let me tell you what he did.”

No. No no no. Inhye didn’t want that. She wanted Taeyong to tell her, she wanted to hear it from his perspective. 

But even so, she couldn’t stop herself from getting curious. She couldn’t stop herself from letting Inseong speak.

”Do you know Doyeon? Kim Doyeon, one of my closest friends?” Inhye nods. ”Doyeon fell in love with him. When she confessed, he said that she was way too ugly, too fat and too dumb to date. That she wouldn’t ever get a boyfriend. He mentally, physically bullied her for her three high school years. Those three years that were supposed to be the best years in her life.”

Inseong, on the other hand, notices the change in Inhye’s eyes. She went from defensive to almost... Hurt. He knows that he shouldn’t feel happy by that, but how can he not? Maybe she started thinking about her three years in high school that went by perfectly thanks to her Japanese boyfriend and cheerful classmates.

”Is that enough? Do you want more? Do you want to hear how he backstabbed Soohyun, got him expelled from school and when Soohyun came back, he was treated like a nobody by everyone? Do you want to know what he did to Min Dabin?”

Inhye shakes her head. Inseong pats it. ”Good girl, now be good and earn his trust, get him to sue and then put him behind bars. Got that?”

Inhye never felt so helpless, never felt so empty before. Her mind was blank, she didn’t know what or whom to believe. I’m so weak, she thinks as she slowly nods her head.

•  •  •

Taeyong is laying on his back in bed, watching the grey ceiling. He’s feeling a lot less bloated and suppressed than before. Is it because of his encounter with a dog, or is it because of Inhye? His heart is almost feeling at ease. Of course, how could he ever feel completely at ease when he knows that he could get put in prison at any second? How could he ever feel at ease when people look at him as if he’s vermin whenever he’s out?

He is interrupted by his telephone ringing. He is surprised by himself as he notices that he’s hoping that it’s Inhye. But well, seeing Johnny’s name on the display isn’t much to complain about either.

”Yeah, what now?” he asks as he answers.

”You’re such a dickbag, I told you to call me,” is the first thing Johnny says. Taeyong can hear Ten scream ‘Hello Taeyong!!’ from the other side of the phone as well.

”I’ve been busy, unlike the unemployed you,” Taeyong smirks.

”Not like you have a job either, and besides; I give people rides and take charge for that.”

”You’re such a fake taxi driver.”

”At least I’m not a fake murderer.”

”Very funny.”

Taeyong was almost about to hang up when he hears Ten scream ‘Tell him now!’, which makes him curious.

”Ah right,” Johnny continues. ”I didn’t call you to burn you, I swear.”

”I doubt that.”

”You should. Either way, me and Ten are off to Busan tomorrow to spend the rest of our summer there. This is an invitation to the midsummer party - 25th June I think? - only, not spending the summer there, since we know that you’re busy being criminal and stuff.”

”How considerate of you,” Taeyong grins again. ”But thanks for the invitation, I’ll think about it.”

”Baby you don’t have a choice,” suddenly Ten is speaking into the phone, he can hear Johnny protesting. ”You still haven’t met Jaehyun, Johnny’s friend from America; he’s soooo c r a z y! And Doyoung, you didn’t meet Doyoung, right? Boring as ! And I have a friend who is here for maybe a week over midsummer that promised to come and he’s super fun! You have to come.”

Hearing Ten speak like that gives Taeyong war flashbacks from his own summer in Busan. God, what a nightmare. How is he supposed to survive another midsummer party? The town never became the same after that night.

”Alright,” Taeyong finally gives up. ”I’ll try to show up. No underage kids this time, right?”

”Nah, Jaehyun just turned 18 so this year I don’t think there will be anyone underage? Right hyung?”

”Good, because the police is waiting for me to do something criminal again to put me into prison again. The last thing we needed is underage kids.”

”Taeyong,” the phone is back into Johnny’s hands. ”You need to relax a bit, you’re so serious in Seoul. Your great personality shows in Busan.”

”Well, at least I’m not boring everywhere like you,” Taeyong spits back.

”How feisty.”

Taeyong falls back onto his bed. ”I am a murder after all, right?”

Wowow I'm still comment boosted so please leave a comment for extra karma! Also; subscribe, up-vote and most importantly; enjoy~!