Seeing no other option but to do what Jooyi says, Joonmyun calls Jongin, although he keeps a close eye on his girlfriend the whole time Jooyi is bandaging her head to make sure nothing happens. When Jongin picks up, he, much like Joonmyun, is thoroughly confused and concerned, but he calms down eventually and agrees not to leave his apartment.

“Black tea okay with both of you?” Jooyi calls from the kitchen, rummaging through her cabinets. “Actually, it’s going to have to be okay, because that’s all I’ve got, unless you like instant coffee.”

“Tea would be lovely,” Joonmyun’s girlfriend says, polite as ever. “Thank you very much, Ms. Yoon.”

Kettle on the stove and tea leaves in their mugs, there’s nothing else to be done but wait for the water to boil, so Jooyi returns to the living room and sits down.

“So, down to business. First things first, you can stop looking at me like that, because I didn’t swap those swords.” She crosses her legs and sits back in her chair. “Second of all, Meiling is the real killer. And third, you’re going to help me get her thrown in prison for the rest of her life.”

“And how do we know we can trust you?” Joonmyun frowns.

“Because I know you were just ‘trying to get a bandage’ from Meiling to obtain her fingerprints, and if you’re bothering to try and match hers, then you must have already tried with mine,” Jooyi says, eyes unreadable. “And in that case, you know I wasn’t the one who switched the swords.”

“How do we know you didn’t hire someone to switch the swords for you?”

“Because I’m going to tell you exactly how and why Zhang Meiling killed Huang Zitao, and then I’m going to give you the evidence proving it happened.”

Joonmyun can’t really argue with that.

“Where should I start with this?” Jooyi opens but is interrupted by the whistling of the kettle. “Ah, tea! Excuse me, I’ll be right back.” She stands and makes her way to the kitchen.

The instant she leaves the room, Joonmyun grabs his girlfriend’s hand and stands up. “We’ve got to get out of here,” he murmurs quietly enough that Jooyi can’t hear. “It’s not safe. If we sneak out now, we can get into Jongin’s apartment and discuss what to do. Let’s go.”

“No!”

Surprised, he turns to her. “What?”

She bites her lip and looks up at him, eyes all pleading. “Joonmyun, I know this is dangerous, but… I’ve got this feeling that Jooyi isn’t as bad as we thought she was. Since the first time we met her, I’ve felt that she’s trying to tell us something, and we can’t leave just as she’s about to do it.”

He hesitates. “But -”

“Please, Joonmyun. Please.” Trust me, she’s begging with her eyes. Believe in me this one time. Please.

He stares at her for a second longer, pondering. He still doesn’t feel very comfortable with this, but if she’s feeling so strongly that they should stay, he ought to stay with her. So instead of grabbing her hand and pulling her out the door to safety like he wants to, he sits back down. “Alright. We’ll stay.”

Hardly believing her ears, she turns to him with a little smile. “Really? You believe me?”

The side of his mouth quirks up. “Of course.”

Her smile grows, and Jooyi snorts when she comes back with the tea just to see them grinning at each other like fools.

“Hey kids, this isn’t a date. We need to talk.” She sets the tray of mugs down on the coffee table and gestures for them each to take one. “It’s going to be a long conversation, so settle in.”

Warming his hands around the tea mug and tearing his eyes off his girlfriend, Joonmyun leans in. Although he knows this situation is dangerous, he agrees with his girlfriend that it’s intriguing. Just the thought of putting an end to the mystery they’ve been pursuing is tantalizing.

“My name, as you know, is Yoon Jooyi, and I am an immigration lawyer.” She pulls out another business card and slides it across the table for them to see. “I litigate cases in federal court, often pro-bono, regarding asylum and deportation issues. That, however, was not originally the reason I befriended your teacher.”

“Wait, you were friends with Mr. Huang?” Joonmyun blurts, unable to help himself. He can’t imagine it - warm, laughing Mr. Huang with this intimidating ice block of a lawyer?

“Yes, something like that.” Jooyi’s lips curve up in amusement, but there’s pain and loss in her dark eyes, sharp and raw, and Joonmyun can empathize with that all too well.

She did care for him, Joonmyun realizes with a pang. As a friend or something more, he's not sure, but it really doesn’t seem like she killed him.

“As I was saying, I got to know Tao through other ways. I started taking martial arts lessons from him several months ago, and we became close very quickly. He didn’t have much time outside of teaching at your high school and teaching martial arts, but neither did I, considering my job. Whatever free time we had, we spent together.” The sharp edges of her voice fade as she speaks, imbuing her words with a misty quality that matches the look in her eyes.

“But about two months ago, Tao started acting strange.” Jooyi snaps out of her reminiscent mood, gaze sharpening again. “He started teaching more classes, selling some of his things, and fretting about how he was going to pay his rent. At first, I thought he was just trying to save money. I offered to help him out, but he refused to take my money.”

Joonmyun frowns, and his girlfriend shifts beside him uneasily. This was strange. Mr. Huang wasn’t a rich man, but he wasn’t poor either; at school, he had been known for being dressed sharply regardless of the occasion, and the bracelet he had always worn was an expensive one as well.

“One night,” Jooyi continues, mouth grim, “Tao broke down in my apartment and told me the truth. Meiling was blackmailing him, him dry, really.”

“What was there to blackmail him about?” Joonmyun’s girlfriend asks. “Our friend talked with all of Mr. Huang’s gossipy relatives, and he didn’t uncover any scandalous secrets.”

Shaking her head, Jooyi pauses to sip her tea before speaking again. “This isn’t something a gossipy aunt would accidentally spill. This was a major secret, kept close and quiet, and this is where my expertise in immigration law came in. Now, do you know what Zhang Meiling’s occupation is?”

Brows furrowed, Joonmyun nods. “She’s an actress. A stunt double in martial arts movies. But Sicheng says most of her money comes from her rich father, not her job.”

“Oh, you talked to Tao’s cousin, too?” Jooyi raises an eyebrow. “Huh. Well, you’re right, but you’re also missing a vital piece of information. Meiling’s father is so rich because she comes from a family of conmen and conwomen.”

“What?”

The lawyer snorts at their astounded expressions. “What, why do you think she’s so good at playing the victim? I’m sure she gave you quite a performance, pretending to be terrified of me and implicating me in Tao’s murder. Her daddy’s been training her how to con the socks off people since she was old enough to talk.”

“But what does that have to do with Mr. Huang?”

“Let’s just say their four years of dating was really four years of Meiling draining Tao’s bank account behind his back.” Jooyi spits out the words like they’re burning her tongue. “She took him for all he had and then dumped him. Tao was so ashamed that he refused to tell anyone the truth or ask his family members for money. He ended up in trouble with major loan sharks in China and on the run.”

“What?” Joonmyun’s jaw feels like it has been permanently dislodged at this point. Mr. Huang, on the run from loan sharks? This is sounding more and more like those detective novels I used to read.

“So Meiling offered to help him relocate to South Korea using fake immigration papers. She said she felt sorry for him, that she still loved him, that her father had made her do it. Tao didn’t believe her, of course, but he didn’t have very many options at that point. He took her up on the offer and moved here using false papers and a new identity. Tao couldn’t come using his real papers, or else the loan sharks would have just followed him here.”

“So Mr. Huang was an illegal immigrant? Was his real name even Mr. Huang?” Head spinning, Joonmyun barely registers the comforting squeeze on the hand his girlfriend gives him.

Jooyi shakes her head. “That wasn’t his real name, no. A few of his relatives, like Sicheng, knew he'd changed his identity and moved to Korea, although they didn’t know it was because of Meiling, but the loan sharks are still trying to find him in China. That’s why his funeral has been delayed for so long; some of his relatives are terrified the loan sharks are going to come after them if it comes out that they knew where Tao was all this time. They’re using paperwork excuses to avoid coming to the funeral.”

“That’s terrible!” Joonmyun’s girlfriend scowls. “If they’re not going to come to the funeral, they should at least have the guts to just say it!”

“Agreed,” Jooyi shrugs, “but that’s not the worst of what’s been happening. When Meiling moved to South Korea a few months ago for a filming gig, she found Tao and threatened to report him for being here on fake papers if he didn’t give her all his money.”

“So she’s cheated him out of his life savings not once, but twice!” Setting down the mug of tea with a bang, Joonmyun struggles to stay calm. “If you knew all of this, why didn’t you report Meiling to the police immediately? You’re an immigration lawyer; you could have protected Mr. Huang from the police!”

She shakes her head, heaving a deep sigh. “I wish it were that easy. Tao and I spent weeks and weeks thinking of a way to get out of it. I pored over the law surrounding this, but I couldn’t find a way for us to report Meiling and keep Tao in the country. In the end, we decided the only way to stop Meiling would be to submit an anonymous tip to the Chinese government regarding her family’s illicit activities. That way, she and her family could potentially be imprisoned, and there would be no link to Tao for the authorities to follow.”

“So Meiling must have found out about your plan and killed Mr. Huang before the two of you could follow through,” Joonmyun breathes. “How did she find out?”

Jooyi lets out a bitter laugh. “Why do you think I knew to warn your friend not to come out of his apartment? Meiling’s a little rat; eavesdropping is in her nature. She probably heard whatever you were talking about today before you came out of the apartment; you’re lucky I came out in time, or else she would have taken you into her apartment, and you might never have come out again. I warned her to stay away from you, but it doesn’t seem she’s listening.”

A shudder tingles down Joonmyun’s back. If Jooyi is right, then they were all so close to death today without even realizing. He squeezes his girlfriend’s hand harder to stop the trembling.

“So Meiling switched the two jian. She killed Mr. Huang to shut him up. But why hasn’t she done anything to you yet?”

Jooyi grimaces. “Look, I’m a high-profile federal immigration lawyer with friends in high places. Tao was a schoolteacher with very few connections in South Korea and a secret to hide. Meiling might have escaped detection by the police with Tao’s murder, but she certainly wouldn’t escape punishment if she did anything to me. It’s not fair how it works, but unlike Tao, if I were murdered there would be lots of important people looking into my death instead of just a few overworked detectives.”

It’s not fair! Joonmyun wants to scream. It’s not fair that Mr. Huang was murdered by a conniving conwoman, and it’s not fair that he won