A knock on the door woke me up. Groggily, I shot out of bed and put my robe on. I peered at my alarm clock through sleepy eyes. 8:38 am. Jesus Christ. Who the hell is awake at this time of the morning? Lazily, I dragged my feet to the door, carefully not to make any sudden noises. Mother was still asleep. I unlocked the bolt, a cold blast of morning breeze hitting my face. A cyclist slipped across the muddy road up ahead, but I wasn’t paying attention to the poor guy. The person standing at the front of the porch was holding all of my attention --- and astonishment. I hadn’t heard a word from her since the memorial.

I whistled under my breath. “Wow, you weren’t kidding. You guys are loaded.”

I stood in the middle of the Lee Manor, trying to take every single detail in. This place…..the word ‘house’ didn’t even deserve to be in the same paragraph as the Lee Manor. It was every gold digger’s dream….not that I was one, though. Smooth marble floors, endless classical staircases, and wall upon wall of famous paintings were all I could see. The living room was a mix of priceless antique furniture and modern luxury. An unbelievably gigantic HD flat screen was delicately installed into the wall. It made my television at home look like a piece of .

A maid --- Hyomin or Soyeon, I forgot which --- timidly came by and asked me if I wanted anything. I slowly shook my head, still absorbed at my surroundings.

Minah just watched me, faint amusement dancing in her eyes. “I assume that you are not used to such luxury.”

“No ,” I scoffed, before even realizing whom I was talking to. I quickly covered my mouth. “Sorry, that was---“

“It’s fine.” she quickly cut me off, moving towards a set of double French doors, which were completely made out of glass, and engraved in what looked like gold……yeah…surprisingly, all of what I have said so far is 100% the truth.

“Are you coming?” she asked over her shoulder and I immediately snapped out of my trance, scurrying to catch up to her. I followed her up the long, gleaming staircase. It seemed to go on forever, and by the time we reached the top, my calves were screaming obscenities at me. There looked to be a hundred doors on the second floor.

“How many rooms do you guys have?” I asked in curiosity as I continued to trail behind her.

“I don’t know…..vaguely around twenty-five,” she said absently. I was having trouble following her through the complicated turns and twists of room and corridors. I was so absorbed with my surroundings that I bumped into her, twice.

“Twenty-give..?! You have vaguely twenty-five rooms? What the hell do you use them for?!” I exclaimed, accidentally bumping into her again. I was about to apologize for the third time, until I noticed that she was frozen solid, staring into space. I followed her gaze into a room.

The room was big. Like, HUGE. The bedrooms of mother and I put together, not even that. Also, there were faded posters of bands half-peeling off the white walls, and a huge space in the middle for where a bed used to have been. Things were cluttered all over the floor, and it looked like it was in the process of being cleared.

“This was Taemin’s room,” Minah whispered, her voice cracking and I quickly looked at her face. The pain and sadness radiating from her made my eyes water. She closed her eyes tightly, and breathed out a painful breath. When she opened her eyes again, the pain in them was laced with determination. Her jaw went rigid. “Let’s go,” she said, picking up her pace again, faster this time. I even had to jog to catch up.

My curiosity had reached its limit, so I finally said, “What do you need me for, exactly?”

She stopped in front of two giant mahogany doors. Her hand rested on the gold handle. “We’re here,” she simply said, before opening the doors. “Krystal, I’d like you to meet some friends of mine.”

I only dumbly stared at what was in front of me. A long, golden table sat squat in the middle of the room. Men and women wearing business suits were all seated elegantly among the chairs, their faces were rather stern. They all looked up and fell silent as soon as we entered.

Minah closed the heavy doors, the loud thud echoing in the eerily empty room. She then cleared . “Take a seat, Krystal.” She motioned to the tall ebony chair on my right. I sat down quietly, feeling highly underdressed in my jeans and sweater. I noticed that my sneakers had left a muddy trail on the expensive carpet, too. Just great.

Eight sets of beady eyes were trained on me, making me feel highly self-conscious. Minah then broke the silence. “Thank you all for coming. I apologize for keeping you waiting.” she said, turning to me. “Krystal, why don’t you introduce yourself?”

I was completely at loss. “Ummm….” I mean, who the hell were all these people? More importantly, what the hell was I even ding here?

She let out a small chuckle. “Maybe we should have introduced ourselves to you first,” she mumbled.

“In Seoul, there is a very distinct line between the rich and the not-so-rich. I’m sure that you already know about this.” she continued. I only nodded. Of course I knew that. “Well, among us, there are 10 families that are more powerful and more influential than the rest.” Minah continued. “Each person at this table represents a member of those families,” she turned her head to gesture to the stoic looking snobs.

“This is Kim Haneul.” Minah continued. “She was the former assistant of Stella McCartney,” she nodded towards a rather very tall, very elegant brunette. Haneul’s sharp cheekbones and brown eyes made me very uncomfortable. I recognized her name, though.

“Are you by chance Kim Tae Hee’s mother?” I asked.

Her face twisted into outrage. “No. I’m her cousin.”

Oops.

Minah just ignored us. “This is Kang Jihwan, the father of Kang Daesung and Kang Jiyoung. I’m sure that you’re familiar with his children?” she asked.

An intimidating, broad-looking man stared me down through his lenses. He gave me a small nod in greeting, but the judgment in his eyes told me not to read too much into it. The Kangs were major snobs. Kang Daesung was the school president. He was ruthless, cold, and he would never even think of lowering himself into becoming friends with ‘filth’. Pretty much like me. Jiyoung was pretty much the same as her brother.

That’s a major lie, by the way. Jiyoung…..Jiyoung was something else. I’ll get to that another time.

“This is Im Ho, the owner of Im Mechanics. His daughter is Im Yoona, the international model for Vogue,” she nodded towards a man in his mid-forties. He pointedly ignored me, typing away on his Blackberry. What a douche.

“This is Kim Heechul, the son of Kim Jaesoon. The Kims control a multi-million dollar oil and trade company. In a few years, this business will be passed onto him.” my eyes widened at the sight of Kai’s older brother. He had a masculine aura to him, however his face looked like it belonged to a girl’s. He was still good-looking though. His brown eyes acknowledged mine, and for reasons I have trouble explaining, I flushed under his gaze. He seemed to notice as well, and a barely noticeable smirk twitched on his lips. I immediately averted my eyes.

“This,” Mrs. Lee continued, oblivious to what was happening in front of her, “…is Seo Joohyun. She is the sister of Seo Inguk and she is a librarian at Kyunggi High.” The familiar long-haired brunette and dark eyes made me do a double take. She seemed just as astonished as I was.

“Jessica…?” she asked.

I smiled, wryly. “Ahh…no…that isn’t really my name…” I corrected her, slightly blushing. I had forgotten all about the fake name I gave myself. “It’s actually Krystal…”

She looked confused. “But you told me your name was Jessica.”

I sank into my chair, just hoping that it would magically open up and swallow me as a whole. God, this was so embarrassing. “You see….I lied.”

She looked even more puzzled, and I noticed the stares that I had been getting ever since I walked in the room had turned even more hostile.

Mrs. Lee cleared . “This is Han Chaeyoung. She owns half of the Han Liquor industry. The other half is owned by her husband.” she continued, gesturing to a beautiful thirty-something-year-old looking woman with blinding white teeth and too much silicone. She just glared at me.

“This is Ahn Sungki, a once well-known producer who retired and settled down near the outskirts of Seoul.” A man who looked to be around his fifties smiles at me. Timidly, I smiled back. Apart from Ms. Seo, he was the only other person in the room who didn’t look at me like I was annoying and beneath them.

“This is Go Ara, an ambassador for the White House. She owns three properties here in Korea with her husband and two children.” She gestured to a tall woman. Her black hair was pulled severely into a ponytail, and her suit looked like it had been tailored to within an inch of its life. Something about her was vividly beautiful. Her hazel eyes stared at me, bored and uninterested.

“And I’m Lee Minah, co-owner of the Harper’s Publishing House and a mother of three children,” she stopped, realizing what she had just said. Her eyes lowered. “Two children,” she corrected, sadly.

Everybody went silent.

She gathered herself together a moment later before turning to me. “One of the Chois are supposed to be at the table today to represent their family,” she continued, “….but unfortunately, nobody has been able to get in contact with them after the memorial….”

“And that’s what we wanted to talk to you about,” somebody interrupted. It was the first time Mr. Kang talked to me directly, and the sound of his voice had caught me off-guard. It was dark and deep, as if he had too many cigarettes. “According to the police, you were the last person to see Sulli and Taemin.”

I nodded. “That is true.” I confirmed.

“Are you lying?” Mrs. Her-s-look-too-big-to-be-real Han asked snappily, her eyebrow raising. With the amount of botox keeping her face up, I imagined that the simple action must have taken a lot of work.

“Of course not. I would never lie about something like that.” I lied.

“I don’t think you even understand the seriousness of this murder,” Kang Jihwan continued, leaning his arms onto the table. It was really hard to not be intimidated by him. He meant business. “We have a network in our society, a very powerful and dangerous network. Ms. Jung, if you refuse to tell us the absolute truth, a lot of people might possibly be affected. Not just the Lees, and just just the Chois.”

“Don’t tell her that!” Kim Haneul snapped. “We have all sworn to secrecy. Nobody outside of our circle is supposed to know anything about the network!”

“This isn’t a normal circumstance, Haneul. My son has been murdered!” Minah cried. “Yes, we’d all like to stay noble to our precious little secret, but this is the last option we have. It’s either we get what we need from Krystal, or this criminal, whoever he is, could walk away scot free.”

“I’ve heard all of the rumors,” Kim Heechul eyed me, suspicion written all over his face. “All the high school kids, they think she did it. What if they’re right?”

“The police have already questioned me,” I tried to reason. “If I were the murderer, don’t you think that they would have locked me up by now?”

“Those officers are useless!” Im Ho yelled, banging his right fist on the table, causing us to jump. “We have already put this case into their hands, and they’ve got what? Not a single lead and not a single piece of evidence. For once, we’re taking the matters into our own hands!”

“Stop this!” Ms. Seo shouted through the noise. I had never heard her yell before. She was always so gentle. “Fighting and bantering will not get anything done! We need to sort ourselves out and come up with a plan. So much is at stake here!”

“Joohyun is right,” Minah acknowledged. “Krystal was brought here for a reason.” She said, turning to me. “We need you to tell the truth, absolutely all of it. We need you to tell us everything you have heard and seen that night.”

Anger burned through me. I didn’t like the way they were talking to and about me. As if I was some puppet, not a human being with feelings. As if I were merely something they would use to get the answers they so desperately wanted. I didn’t matter to them at all, but my answers did, and if that was what they wanted, I was going to give it to them. I was going to give them answers.

However, that doesn't mean that I'm going to give them the truth.

“Okay,” I sighed, hesitating before timidly continuing, “What I told the police was true. I did see Sulli and Taemin at the back of the pharmacy. They were arguing; however, what I didn’t tell them was that Sulli was drunk…..and she had a gun in her hand…..”

.