---Chapter Thirty-Four---

"You're finally back!" Lisa greets her before hugging the life out of her. Chaeyoung lets her, savoring the human contact since six hours spent at the police station after her near kidnapping attempt has exhausted nearly to a breaking point.

Questions, questions, and more questions. Please explain, describe, explain again.

She thought it would never end.

But they also held up their promise to explain everything that happened.

How it was possible for him to find her and grab her.

The man who seems to be leading her questioning introduced himself as Detective Kang before asking her to relay everything that happened.

Chaeyoug loses count on how many times he asked her to start again, or to repeat certain parts before he seems satisfied.

Only then does he lay on the table a row of pictures, naming the men plastered on them as possible accomplices of her kidnapper.

He points to one of them, revealing he worked as a security guard who worked at the venue where their concert was held.

Looking at the other pictures more closely, Chaeyoung easily recognizes one as a man who worked as her bodyguard. The one who was guarding the restroom door.

"How did this happen?" she could only ask, bewildered. She remembers he'd been hired at YG months ago, before the trial even started.

"Why...why so much planning to kidnap me? Isn't it ridiculous?"

"We're still trying to find what their long-term plan might've been, but so far, they're not talking."

"And...all of them, you caught them all?" she asked, gesturing at the pictures.

"Yes. I have a whole team working this."

"And...is it possible there are more?"

"We don't think so."

She stares at the pictures, dumbfounded. Not the reassuring answer she was expecting.

This sounds like the plot of a bad police kdrama. How did this become her life?

"But we're just starting," he continues, maybe seeing her face fall.

"So...how did it play out? The police officer said I'd get explanations, so you must've figured some parts out."

"One of your bodyguards, a Mr Moon, got suspicious of Mr Song a few weeks ago," he answers, his finger moving on the table and taps on the picture of one of her bodyguards, the one she recognized earlier. "He went to your company, who contacted us. We investigated and took today's shoot as an opportunity. We didn't think the situation would escalate this way."

"...at least you caught him," Chaeyoung finally says, feeling like she just played bait.

"And his accomplices. And we'll make them talk. And if there's anyone else to catch, we will."

He sounds so sure, so confident. Chaeyoung wants to believe him, but she can't trust his words. How is she supposed to trust anyone at this point? She'll have to wait and see.

How jaded she's become.

"Yeah," she finally says to her members. "They asked a lot of questions."

"I imagine..." Lisa says as bites her lip while observing her. The dancer looks like she wants to hug her again, but is holding back.

"Do you need anything? And don't say no, because that's a lie," Jisoo says as she joins them, hands on her hips, her 'don't you dare lie to me' stare burning in her eyes, fixed straight on Chaeyoung.

"A shower would be nice..."

"Okay, let's go!"

"Uhh, I mean, by myself..." Chaeyoung sputters.

Jisoo rolls her eyes at her affectionately. "Of course silly, we all know you prefer taking showers with Jimin. I meant, while you grab some clean clothes, I'll get things ready in the bathroom."

Bemused, Chaeyoung does as Jisoo instructed, grabbing her most comfortable clothes and when she gets to the bathroom, the shower is already running and her towels hanging just outside the stall.

"Take your time, we'll meet you in your room when you're done."

Chaeyoung nods, and she slowly steps into the stall where the steam is already rising from the hot temperature.

Bless Jisoo.

She stays under the spray, water falling on her head. It drops low, her chin resting on her chest and her hair falling messily over her face. Water gets in her eyes, but she refuses to close them, doesn't want to see whatever ghosts might appear if she does.

A sob almost escapes her before she digs her fingernails deep into her palms, fighting it back. She's tired of crying. Besides, tears won't resolve anything.

But she can't stop thinking about it...

What if...

What if he escapes again?

What if...

What if they resume the trial and he's declared not guilty?

What if...

What if she can never return to her former self?

"No, no, no, no. Chaeyoung, no," she chastises, teeth clattering. Her hands tremble as they reach for the soap, and they keep on trembling as she scrubs the day's events off her body.

Scrub, scrub, scrub.

She can still feel his hand around her arm. There's a bruise darkening. Scratches on her knees.

But at least, she's right here right now.

She fought back, bought some time. People actually came, and she's here.

She has to repeat it a few times in her head because it doesn't feel real.

But it is.

She's won this round.

The hot water burns her skin but she waits until her breathing has returned to normal to get out, on wobbled legs.

She dresses in her grey sweatpants and a huge blue hoodie, feeling slightly comforted by the material's softness against her skin. Her hair ends up in a messy bun atop of her head, and after cleaning after herself, she pads to her room.

Her three members are already sitting on her bed, waiting for her. Chaeyoung slips next to Lisa, hooking their arms together and her head drops on her shoulder tiredly, staring at her bed covers instead of the worried looks on her members' faces.

"Do you... want to talk about it?" Jisoo carefully asks.

Chaeyoung shakes her head. "I don't...sorry. I can't, right now. I'll talk with my therapist, I promise. I'm just...tired of talking. But I'll explain everything later, I promise."

"It's okay. You're with us now," Jisoo answers, squeezing her ankle lightly.

"Yes, you're safe now. There's no way he's getting acquitted. He ran away from imprisonment, tried to kidnap you again, and there were cameras in the hallways, your stylist confirmed it. Not to mention all the witnesses who saw him drag you away. He's not going free," Jennie adds, sounding so sure Chaeyoung almost grows incline to believe her.

"I still need to give my statement at the trial though, and survive the counterattack."

"It sounds big now, but it won't happen tomorrow. You'll have time to gather strength," Jisoo counters with an encouraging smile. She sounds so sure, Chaeyoung feels almost inclined to believe her.

She hopes Jisoo will be proven correct. Right now though, she's too exhausted to think about the future. 

But sleep sounds scary.

"I texted Jimin while you were in the shower," Jisoo then tells her, her hand still on her ankle, a comforting weight. "He can't come today, because he's heading to his company for a late-night meeting."

"Oh." It's okay, she can't rely on him too much, but she would've felt much better if he'd been here with her. She barely had time to talk to him earlier before the police officers whisked her away to the station. 

Not to mention that she hugged him tightly and closely in a room full of witnesses.

She wonders if words of this are going to reach either of their company.

Somehow, she can't seem to care about what the consequences might be right now.

"We're all sleeping here by the way," Lisa announces, patting her head while squeezing her hard.

Chaeyoung groans, but lets Lisa do whatever she wants. "The four of us in my bed? Again?" she still asks, incredulous, her voice stronger than before.

"Yup! Wasn't the first experience such a blast to warrant a repeat?" Jisoo is the one to answer, with Lisa nodding her head enthusiastically beside her.

"You're saying that because Lisa didn't drool on you," Jennie argues with a frown. "You're going at the foot of the bed this time," she says to youngest with a fake glare.

"I won't sleep at the foot of the bed, I'm not a dog!"

This sense of normality, of her bickering members, is soothing to her troubled mind. It's exactly what she needs, and it's like they know it.

"I forgot, you texted me that you found something," Chaeyoung asks Jennie after Lisa won her argument and gleefully wiggles in victory.

"Oh...maybe now isn't the best time to talk about it. Maybe in a few days...?"

"No, you said it was huge. Besides, I could do with the distraction. And I'm curious, what did your PI discover?"

Jennie looks like she's going to be stubborn about it. And judging by the curious looks on her two members' faces, she hasn't told them anything either.

"It wasn't Choi Sung Hoon, right? That's why you don't want to say it in front of me, because I was right!" Lisa gloats.

"We were all wrong," Jennie finally mumbles. "But really, let's just wait...knowing now won't change anything."

"You started, you finish," Lisa argues.

"I can take it," Chaeyoung softly adds, her curiosity growing by each of Jennie's refusal to share the news.

"Is it...that bad?" Jisoo wonders, head bent to observe Jennie carefully.

The rapper sighs, defeated. "Fine... you know that a PI doesn't always obtain information legally. He told me he contacted the online website that first posted the news, met with the owner of that site. He didn't really go into the details of how he was able to obtain the info, and I'm not sure I really want to know, but..."

"Did your PI beat that person up to get the truth?" Lisa interrupts with wide eyes.

"This isn't a movie," Chaeyoung chides.

"Actually maybe he did, I don't know," Jennie says with a wince. "He looks badass enough."

"That's why you picked him, for his badass looks?" Jisoo teases.

Jennie shrugs, unaffected by Jisoo's tentative. "Actually my mother hired him before, and I remembered his name when I was eavesdropping on them."

"Oh, why did your mother- what no, don't try to change the subject! What did he find?" Lisa says with a threatening glare.

Jennie is silent and Chaeyoung doubts she'll ever answer, but she finally speaks. "He found who sold the story... he dug some more, and brought me a folder with bank proof of deposit... I'm so sorry, Chaeng... I didn't want to believe it, but the proof is rather undeniable. it's your manager..."

A shocked silence follows Jennie's revelation. Chaeyoung thinks she might have heard wrong. Maybe she meant someone's else manager. 

Because it couldn't be.

But Jennie wouldn't have brought this up unless she was certain. 

So that means...

"My...manager..." Jennie's words have crushed her, their weight so heavy on her, her own words barely come out of from a sudden lack of strength. Her manager did this? Shared a photo of her during one of her most vulnerable moments that resulted in an article attacking her?

"I'm so sorry," she repeats. "He found that her mother is sick at the hospital and requires expensive treatments. We think...we think that she might've held on to the pictures until she desperately needed the money... but she still thoug