(Prologue)

Kibum groaned inwardly as he looked at the stack of papers piled on his desk. His uncle had definitely been keen on Kibum acting as his personal dumpster. Everytime an even remotely hard case came into the law firm it was immediately onto Kibum and left there for him to deal with . And as if that hadn’t been bad enough Kibum’s uncle had already made it bluntly clear that he only had two options.Deal with it or get out. He sighed as he picked up the first folder on top his desk and started flipping through the pages.

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Jonghyun stared at the basketball in his hands. He dribbled,once,twice, and then threw the ball directly into the basketball hoop. ”Nice one Jong” said Kangin as he five-highed him. Jonghyun only scoffed and muttered under his breath “the obvious isn’t stated ” .At that exact moment the bell rang and made a bone chilling echo around the courtyard. Time to take the inmates back in. Great. Not that Jonghyun hadn’t already gotten used to it. This wasn’t the first time he was in jail and he reckoned it wouldn’t be the last either.

Sometimes young naïve boys would come up to him with scared eyes and ask him wether he was scared. “Scared of what?” Jonghyun would respond only to receive a dozen answers back.”The law, the punishment, the police officers, the judge, his family, the victims family, his honor, his family name, death, death, death, death.” For some reason that last one always made it onto the list .Jonghyun had always known what he was getting into when he accepted the $5,000 he was promised, all in cash nonetheless, in exchange for the quick and swift death of the wife of a friend of a colleague. Jonghyun had never tasted fear,he knew not what it meant. He had grown up a poor boy, no father to guide him into manhood and a mother who was barely there and much more rarely sober.He had gotten used to it. He was not one to take pity in himself. He vowed from then on that he would create a better life for himself. Better than what he had grown up in. He promised himself that when he was older he’d drink wine every night and sleep in silk bed sheets and wash in the most expensive lavender shampoo. However he quickly found out that a young boy’s dreams mean nothing out in the real world.

Sure he had wanted to create his life cleanly. Now don’t go off thinking Jonghyun was some pure angel that had never commited a felony. You must know better than that by now. But nonetheless smoking drugs here and there and stealing sometimes a little more than what was necessary never mounted up as being that dishonorable in Jonghyuns book. However he had always imagined he would get casted on some show for his talented singing skills, or open up a successful music store. Needless to stay none of those dreams came true. Turns out unless you’re some rich boy, whose got connections and a name out there you’re nobody in the eyes of society. So when he was walking alone in the streets in the dead of night, trying to find a good garbage bag to sleep in, after nights of restless sleep and people throwing coins and harsh words at him during the day he didn’t notice when a young man approached him and pulled out a pocket knife. Yet it wouldn’t of made a difference. Jonghun wouldn’t of ran. Couldn’t of ran if he wanted to. So he just stood his ground as best as he could in his beat up jersey and torn jeans. When the man threatened him with the knife he didn’t flinch and the man laughed. And to Jonghyuns surprise when the man extended an arm over to Jonghyun it wasn’t the hand with the knife but instead his free hand,offering Jonghyun to take it and shake it as old buddies that had just been reunited would do. So Jonghyun did.

“As easy as one, two, three” He had been told. Just follow those simple steps and he could keep all the money that had been promised. One wrong move and hed be killed on the spot. Originally they told him they’d kill the person he loved most, to which Jonghyun smirked and told them to go ahead and try. He didn’t even know his father and his mother had died a few months earlier. He hadn’t bothered attending her funeral. In fact he wasn’t even sure wether she had one. He didn’t care. So they had settled on simply killing him if things went wrong. He could live with that. The same way he could live with killing people. No big deal. So he took the cash, stuffed it in his pockets and walked out the door into the cold night. Cash on one pocket, gun on the other he made his way to a nice expensive neighborhood. It was late at night so it’d be easy to get up and over the security rails the Jung’s had circling around their house. “As easy as one, two, three” Jonghyun repeated in his mind over and over again until he was standing in front of the back door, which he had been informed was always kept open. Lucky for Jonghyun they had been right.

Jonghyun didn’t know what he was expecting when he walked inside the house. He had no idea what a rich person’s home was supposed to look like. So when he walked into a spotless kitchen, with this year’s stainless steel appliances and granite countertops he just did his best not to stay still and gape at the sight before him. Instead he made his way around the kitchen and onto the equally impressive living room. ”One, two, three” he softly murmured over and over again. It kept him from stopping. It kept him from stealing something and thus leaving possible fingerprints all over the soon to be crime-scene. It kept him from tripping over the floor that suddenly felt extremely slippery for his liking. But most importantly, it kept him sane.

When he finally reached the top of the stairs he took a right and then a left and then, just as he had been informed in front of him stood a double door made of the finest mahogany wood. He took a deep breath. ”One two three” He opened the door. He crept inside. He let his eyes adjust to the darkness that engulfed the room. Unlike the many windows on the first floor of the house that made it clearly easy to see, the master bedroom had only one window that led to the balcony that was currently covered with curtains. He felt like he could choke on his own saliva. Instead he kept moving .One foot in front of the other. ”One two three” He recited almost like a prayer. When he finally reached the edge of the bed he looked down onto the currently breathing body. He watched as it breathed in and out, how the woman’s chest rose and fell. ”One” Jonghyun took out the gun and pointed it at the body. ”Two” Jonghyun cocked the gun. He took a deep steading breath. ”Three’’

Four years later, Jonghyun had finally made a name for himself, just like he had promised his younger self so many years ago. He now drank probably too much wine for his health and slept in silk sheets the nights he actually found sleep. He had finally found his calling and that made his chest swell and make him feel proud. For once in his life people would congratulate him and tell him what a great job he’d done and how he was the best out there. He tried to ignore exactly why they were congratulating him.

It had become almost a routine for him. On the nights he’d get called up on jobs he already knew exactly what to do.Where to go. How to walk . How to climb. How to shoot. So when he was called up for another “favor” he quickly put on his running boots and grabbed his gun and walked out the door. He found the home quickly enough. A nice small home in a quiet neighborhood. No problem. He walked with ease and skill around the house, never forgetting his mantra. ”One, two, three….”.However that night Jonghyun hadn’t been counting on something .Actually he hadn’t been counting on a lot of things. He hadn’t been counting on not being informed that the house had a security system. He hadn’t been counting on stepping inside the boundaries of the house and the alarm ringing off. He hadn’t been counting on the cops being right across the street. He hadn’t been counting on twisting his ankle as he attempted to flee the scene. He hadn’t been counting on being charged with attempted murder.

After what felt like thousands of lawyers had refused to take his case, convinced that there was no hope whatsoever in him being innocent he stopped bothering with them. He stopped bothering learning their names, learning their pros and their cons and whatever empty promise they made him every time they met him. So when he was told that a lawyer called “Kim Kibum” that sometimes went as “key” had agreed to take his case, it made no difference to him. When he met the man for the first time he tried to use the same tactic he had used with all the other lawyers. The same tactic he’d learned long ago, so that he would learn not to expect anything and in turn to never be disappointed with the results. He tried. He really did. He tried no to learn his name, but the way it rolled out of his tongue sounded almost melodic to him. He tried to avoid the way the man would always walk in cheery and happy with a smile on his face, despite the dark circles under his eyes that told a much different story. And most of all he tried to not hold onto all the promises Kibum would make. The promises he knew were not up to him and he couldn’t follow through no matter how much he meant them, and Jonghyun wasn’t even sure he did. But those were the hardest to ignore. So week after week Jonghyun slowly stared looking more and more forward to his meetings with his lawyer and less and less toward his trial date.

“Will the accused please rise” Jonghyun had done his best to impress Kibum when the trial started. Kibum had told him to freshen up and look his best. So Jonghyun did. Not because he cared about how the judge or the jury saw him, but because Kibum had asked him to. And he couldn’t say no to Kibum. He had smiled like a foolish kid when he first saw Kibum the morning the trial had started almost three weeks ago. He was given strict instructions by Kibum as they entered the court room. ”Just sit here and look as regretful and remorseful as possible”. So, just as a puppy would follow the commands his master would give him, Jonghyun followed Kibum’s instructions down to a t. He just sat there perfectly content with watching Kibum walk around the court room and expertly refute every attack directed toward Jonghyun. He could tell form the looks on the jurors faces that it was working. But maybe it wasn’t enough. The defence was better than he had expected and somehow managed to pinpoint everything at how Jonghyun was some kind of crazy psychopath that should have been locked away a long time ago. Kibum grimaced at the words, but quickly regained his posture hoping no one saw him. Jonghyun did. The days went by painstakingly slow. Everyday some new witness would stand and give his or her version of events and that would be followed by a match between both lawyers of who could out-win the other. Jonghyun stopped paying attention after a week. The words Kibum said in his defense didn’t even enter his mind as he was too busy staring at the way the younger man walked gracefully around the room, exerting an aura of confidence like none he had ever seen before. After two weeks Jonghyun found it hard to stay awake during the long hours of the trial. By the third week he was ready to give up. But then that fateful day came. The day his entire future would be decided by a handful of strangers. But Jonghyun wasn’t afraid. He walked proudly into that room, aware that all eyes were on him. And when he was told to stand he looked over to his right and saw the man he called out-loud his lawyer standing next to him giving him a reassuring smile he knew that it was no longer important. He did the only thing he knew how to do. ”One” He whispered One is his name. Kim Kibum. “We the jury find the accused,Kim Jonghyun,”. ”Two” His age. Twenty years old. “accused of attempted murder on the first degree”. ”Three” The way his hands fit perfectly into his, as if they had been molded together. And Jonghyun knew. He knew as he looked over to Kibum that it didn’t matter anymore. It didn’t matter wether he was innocent and free to go or guilty as charged. He could care less, because at that moment all he cared about was the way he and Kibum’s hand fit so perfectly against each other as the younger gripped his hand reassuringly, promising so many things that all the other lawyers had failed to fulfill. And he knew. He knew Kibum hadn’t just been empty promises and words. He no longer cared what the jury found him,for after all these years he had finally found himself. He gripped Kibums hand tighter as the jury finished their verdict.

He smiled.