[Sunwoo] : Oh man, another murder occurs at time like this?

Now, the three of them—Shinwoo, Sunwoo and Sandeul—are having conversation at phone regarding the recent murder. Shinwoo can’t reach Jinyoung several times, so he left him be.

[Sandeul] : Man, the gap was like….. A month, or so. Why there’s a gap in the murder, tho?

[Sunwoo] : I have no idea about that thing either

[Shinwoo] : Maybe the murderer has a difficulty in picking the victim?

[Sandeul] : Really? I thought picking a victim is like taking chips—just take it randomly

[Sunwoo] : Maybe he or she spies the person first, so he or she might know the person’s habit? Like in the first case, Jang Yoora was missing around 5.44 PM, but if we remembered the timing calculation that we done in the past, she should have arrived at the restaurant by….

[Shinwoo] : 6.35 PM.

[Sunwoo] : There. So whoever killed her, this person might take her somewhere to chat or something and maybe this person interact with the victim before she dies.

[Sandeul] : But man, why interacting with your victim?

[Sunwoo] : To make them less suspicious with you

[Sandeul] : … That might be one. But what if the murderer threatened her to go alone somewhere?

[Shinwoo] : Threatens?

[Sandeul] : Yep, like ‘If you didn’t meet me at here at this time, I’ll kill your friends’. Simple as that.

[Sunwoo] : Man that was a possibility.

[Shinwoo] : But, you guys saw the news, right? It was said that the victim was on xxx ‘s restaurant—

[Sandeul] : NO ING WAY! THAT’S NEAR MY HOME! No wonder I heard police sirens like few minutes ago and it gave me a headache

[Sunwoo] : Yah you go out there and get some information! Don’t waste this opportunity!

[Sandeul] : Wait, why me?? I still doing my homework by now—

[Shinwoo] : Just check on the crime scene, how’s the body et cetera. Let me help you with the homework before the class.

[Sandeul] : Damn Shinwoo, you’re such an angel in disguise. Thanks a bunch! Okay, let me check the crime scene and let’s see what I got.

[Sunwoo] : Okay Sandeul, see ya tomorrow!

By that, the three of them hangs the phone.

Shinwoo looks at Chansik’s room, and then walks to his room. As he closes the door, he lies on the bed.
‘Just why... Another murder happens….’

He is in an extremely worried state. Especially Jinyoung—he didn’t even answer the calls because the operator said that his phone was off. Shinwoo understands a bit, since it’s around 10PM and Jinyoung might be busy doing his homework or already sleeping.

Why he was so worried about Jinyoung, anyway?

Shinwoo sighs, and then grabs his blanket to go to sleep.

*******

It is 3 AM when Jinyoung calls him.

Shinwoo grunts as he opens his eyes slowly and sees his phone ringing wildly. He picks the phone up, hearing Jinyoung’s fresh voice.

[Shinwoo] : Annyeong…. Haseyo….

[Jinyoung] : Shinwoo, are you already asleep?

‘Jinyoung was really fresh’ Shinwoo thoughts slowly. ‘Did he even sleep?’

[Shinwoo] : P-pretty much….

[Jinyoung] : Really sorry to bother you. Why did you call me before?

[Shinwoo] : .. Oh, that one? I tried to call you because I heard the news that someone was murdered and the way this person was killed was…. same as before.

[Jinyoung] : … Ah, I see. I’m sorry, at that time I was already asleep and I just awoken by now. Thanks for informing.

[Shinwoo] : Yes, you’re welcome. Now I will go to sleep again…

[Jinyoung] : ‘Night Shinwoo, sweet dreams.

Jinyoung hung the phone. Shinwoo throws his phone to the table on his side, and then he goes to sleep again.

***********

The last thing that Shinwoo wants to hear was, in fact, the victim was from Gongchan’s school.

To make it worse, it was Gongchan’s closest senior.

When Shinwoo finish preparing for school and opens his room’s door, he sees Gongchan talking on the phone with sad and disbelief tone, as Shinwoo can detect Gongchan’s shaky voice.

“Wait, are you serious?” Gongchan speaks on the phone “Are you serious that it was Lee Jihei-ssi?”

There is a pause, and then Gongchan puts his palm on his face. He is about to cry now.

“Kang Hongnim,” he speaks “Are you sure? You’re not even joking about her disappearance before her death, right?”

‘She disappears before she was killed?’ Shinwoo thought to himself. ‘It was the same thing as before.’

“No, I mean—“ Gongchan speaks as he slams the table “She was with you, right? At evening, she was with you, right? Then how the hell you can lose her so easily?? If you didn’t go away from her, she won’t be dead!”

Gongchan talks with loud voices, and Shinwoo just watch his younger cousin in anger. As Gongchan hangs up the phone, little stream of tears fells out from his eyes. He looks at Shinwoo, and then wipe his tears.

“Morning, hyung.”

“Morning” Shinwoo speaks as he grabs an orange juice and then sits in front of Gongchan “Just take your time, Gongchan. I won’t disturb you.”

“No, it’s okay hyung” Gongchan speaks as he tries to finish his breakfast “It’s just that, Lee Jihei-ssi…. She was my closest senior at school. She always helps me with my work and she always kind to me at many ways.”

Shinwoo nods to his words.

“But then I heard some rumors about her.”

“What rumors?”

Gongchan puts his empty plate on the dishwasher.

“Some people said to me that she was kind to me because she wanted to use me as her protection from bullying” Gongchan speaks “From what I know, Lee Jihei-ssi was a quiet girl in class, and she didn’t have many friends at her grade.”

“Really?”

Gongchan nods “She was very kind to me, but some of my friends said that she’s only nice to me and she’s mean to others.”

Shinwoo absorbs all the information as he eats his breakfast and prepares for school.

********

The gang (Jinyoung, Shinwoo, Sandeul and Sunwoo) gathers at their base at lunchtime. Jinyoung just follows them to the place, and somehow he doesn’t mind their new base.

“It’s kinda a great place to have a chat together” Jinyoung says, follows by Sandeul’s nods

“Actually, Sunwoo finds this place first” Sandeul adds as he opens his food “He was looking for a dance room in the school, but instead he finds this abandoned place and he thought that he could use this as our base.”

“As to what Sandeul says earlier, I thought that this is a perfect place for our base” Sunwoo gives his bright smile “And I’m glad that all of you agree with this.”

After talking about their base, the talks about the case again.

“So, Sandeul” Shinwoo says as he drinks his water “Did you get any information from checking the crime scene?”

“Geez, I got a freakin’ lot.” Sandeul says as he takes out his phone “I’m kinda sad for the victim, but I took of the body’s photo.”

“How’s the condition?”
“As like before, it was hell” Sandeul replies as he pass his phone to the others “Bloods were everywhere, her bag was in the trash also, and the cut on her body parts was somehow clean. The back alley was dark and silent, so no wonder that the attacker attacked her there, or maybe dumped her there. But then, judging from her school uniform, I can deduce that she was younger than us.”

 “Holy man, so horrible” Sunwoo says as he grab Sandeul’s phone, “Wait… her uniform… Was it—“

“I know” Sandeul states “Gongchan’s school, right?”

Jinyoung stares at Sandeul.

“Wait, Gongchan’s school?” Jinyoung speaks, then shifts his attention to Shinwoo “Shinwoo, did Gongchan talk about this in the morning?”

Shinwoo silences, then he nods.

“He actually talks about the victim.”  Shinwoo states sadly “It was his closest senior.”

“Ouch man, I feel so bad for him.”

“Her name was Lee Jihei, 3^rd year” Shinwoo replies while looking at others “Gongchan said that she was a quiet girl who’s only kind to Gongchan, and she was pretty mean to others.”

“So she has no friends at her grade, right?”

Shinwoo nods at Sandeul’s statement.

“Just a little, Sandeul.”

“A quiet girl who’s mean to others, but good to Gongchan only…” Sunwoo mumble, “I don’t know why, but I think she had this bad intention to Gongchan.”

Shinwoo tilts his head. “You think so?”

“Yeah, man” Sunwoo nods while trying to stop Sandeul from eating his lunch “Say, from what I saw from him, Gongchan was a type of a lonely guy and he hasn’t much friend at school.”

“She was popular among girls.”

“No wonder.” Jinyoung states. “Those who’re too popular will be an outcast to others.’’

“Hell, Jinyoung is 100% true” Sandeul adds “I can see loneliness in Gongchan’s eyes, so this girl’s death must hurt him a lot.”

Shinwoo silences. He remembered when Gongchan cried as he heard the news.

“But then, I got something important too.”

The others look at Shinwoo.

“The floor is yours, again.”

“At phone,” Shinwoo recalls what he saw in the morning “Gongchan said that Lee Jihei was missing before she was dead.”

“Just like before.”

“Yes I know” Shinwoo replies “But then, Gongchan said to the person he called, that ‘how can you lose her so easily? If you didn’t go away from her, she won’t be dead.’ Yeah, something like that.”

The others begin to think.
“Leave her...?” Sunwoo speaks “Wait, Gongchan’s friend leave her be?’’

“Her body was found at 10.11PM” Sandeul states, “So, the things that’re missing is what she’s doing before her death. Argh, we need more information.”

Just like that, it’s time to go back to class. As Sandeul and Sunwoo walks to the class, Jinyoung hold Shinwoo’s hand, preventing Shinwoo from leaving the place.

“Jinyoung?” He states awkwardly “What’s wrong?”

Jinyoung closes his distance to Shinwoo, so close that Shinwoo can hear Jinyoung’s breath.

Shinwoo’s heart is about to explode.

“J-jinyoung?” Shinwoo tries to move back, but he can’t move—he just can’t. Jinyoung touch Shinwoo’s cheeks slowly

“Do you like me, Shinwoo?”

Shinwoo is dumbfounded. ‘Wait—what??’

“S-sorry?”

“I say,” Jinyoung closens his lips to Shinwoo’s right ear, then he whispers, “Do you like me, Shinwoo?”

A cold sweat runs over Shinwoo’s body. What was it—a threat, a seduction, or a question? Shinwoo doesn’t know which one is the right choice.

Or, is there any right choice?

Shinwoo push Jinyoung’s body gently, afraid that Jinyoung might be mad at him.

“Jinyoung, I’m….” Shinwoo tries to avoid Jinyoung’s eyes “I’m sorry, I can’t answer that.”

Jinyoung silences, and then he grabs Shinwoo’s hand lightly.

“Let’s go back to the class, then” Jinyoung says “Don’t worry, you don’t have to answer it now. I’ll wait for your answer, however—and don’t make me wait too long.”

Then Jinyoung pulls Shinwoo to the class (and Shinwoo can't resist it).

As the class ends, they actually still want to gather much information about the 2^nd case. But asking Gongchan about it will be the worst choice ever.
“Gongchan definitely be interviewed by the police today, I’m sure of it.” Sunwoo says

“But asking him will just, hurt his feelings” Sandeul says, “You know, that we are talking about his freaking close senior ‘s death? This just means a damn lot for him.”

“I know I know” Sunwoo nods “But…. Okay then, let’s just head to Shinwoo’s home and pretend we’re going to study for the test.”

Four of them walk to Shinwoo’s home, and they meet Gongchan who just finishes cleaning the table.

“Hi hyungs” Gongchan says, giving out his weak smile “Are you guys come here to play?”

“Not really” Shinwoo says, “We actually plans for group study, but I’m not sure if both of them will stand it.”

“Of course we will!” Sunwoo says as he puts his bag near the sofa “Hell, the teacher was damn annoying and I can’t ing understand anything that she teach to us. What a horrible one.”

“That’s because you sleep like a sleeping beauty.”

“I’m not!” Sunwoo replies at Sandeul’s statement “Okay, I do fall asleep in her class, but not everytime.”

Gongchan just chuckles at their statement, and then prepare them some hot tea. As the gang opens their book and immerse themselves in the lesson (although it needs hardwork to keep Sandeul and Sunwoo stay focus), Gongchan just watches them as he prepares for dinner.

“Yah Sunwoo, you’re even worse than me” Sandeul speaks as he writes the answer on his book “Jinyoung already told you that you can’t use that equation on that particular question.”

“But it’s the same thing!”

“It’s different, Sunwoo” Shinwoo speaks as he looks at the question again “If you look at this question and question before, you can see that they asks for a particular same thing, right?”

Sunwoo nods

“It’s actually different” Shinwoo adds as he grabs his pen and write in a piece of paper “If you deduce it, the first question asks you to use that equation to get a particular answer, but the second question is using the equation to get a new equation.”

“Holy man, you’re so smart” Sunwoo says with amusement in his face “No wonder you got scholarship here.”

 “As expected from Shinwoo” Jinyoung says calmly while writing the answer on his book “Hey Sandeul, do you get this question right?”

Sandeul peeks at Jinyoung’s book. “I think I got it right, but I’m not even sure about it—“

Gongchan just watches his hyungs studying in the living room. Gongchan just feel a bit envious that his cousin, Shinwoo, has some really close friends and he has none, by right now.

‘Jihei-ssi….’

When the gang finishes studying, Gongchan asks them to eat together for dinner and then talks to them.

“Did you guys get interviewed by the police?”

The gang looks at Gongchan in confusion. Jinyoung shakes his head.

“No we don’t” Sandeul states “What’s wrong?”

Gongchan puts down his chopstick.

“You see….” Gongchan speaks with a low voice “… The police came to the school by today, and since I was the victim’s friend, they interviewed me.”

The gang looks at each other, then back to Gongchan.

“They didn’t hurt you, right?”

“Oh no they don’t” Gongchan replies as he shakes his head “They’re just asking about my activities prior to the incident, how close I was to Lee Jihei-ssi, things about Jihei-ssi that I notice at times I interact with her—just stuff like that.”

‘’Ah, we see.”

“And then a friend of mine, who was with Lee Jihei-ssi prior to the incident, told us that he leaves Jihei-ssi in a mall.”

There is a silence in the room: Sandeul stops eating, Sunwoo nearly drops his chopstick, Shinwoo stops drinking.

“A… mall?” Jinyoung asks
Gongchan nods. “The body was discovered by 10.11PM, right? So apparently, a friend of mine was Lee Jihei-ssi’s underclassmen in the tennis club and he asked Lee Jihei-ssi to watch a movie. The movie started at 6.00PM and then finished by 8.35PM. Then my friend leaved her on the mall by 8.44PM since my friend had to go home because he wanted to watch a football show at 9.00PM. Around 9.35PM, my friend called Lee Jihei-ssi because he forgot to asked about the club’s training for tomorrow, but then there’s no answer. Afraid, he tried to call Jihei-ssi’s neighbor, who’s apparently his classmate, but she said that Jihei-ssi hasn’t arrived at home. He also texted me by 9.42PM, but I told him that I was at home. He used his bicycle and gone back to the mall and checked for her sign, but there’s no result. Desperate, he gone to the xxx’s restaurant to grab some dinner—he said it was around 10.00PM. When he ate there, he heard a ruckus at the restaurant’s back alley, so he went there and found Jihei-ssi’s headless body.”

The gang just pause at the story. No one moves an inch.

“Kinda same like the first one” Sunwoo says “There’s a gap at the time they were missing, to the time people found their body.”

“Did the culprit manage this to happen?” Sandeul says “If the culprit really manage to spent time with the victims, I will really say that this culprit is either clever or stupid.”

“But why such gap?” Shinwoo states, “The place that this person choose was near the crowds, although it’s a bit secluded. Hence, the place that the body ended were always not the same as the place they were supposed to be.”

“Exactly” Sunwoo agress to Shinwoo’s statement, “So, if we can connect this to the previous, the culprit always tries to find a place that wasn’t far from their original place so it was easier for the victim to approach them.”

“Oh yeah” Gongchan speaks as he continues to eat “A friend of mine said that he found Lee Jihei-ssi’s phone on the mall’s trashcan”

“I see,” Sandeul says “So, both of them didn’t bring their phone when the incident occurred. This also means that it was one of the requirement to meet the culprit?”

“It appears to be like that.”

The five of them tries to absorb the information, but then they just left it and then continue eating; the case can wait, but stomach can’t.

**********

2 weeks after Lee Jihei’s murder and Shinwoo finally states his love.

It was after class, and both of them were still in the class. Shinwoo just finished packed his bag when he saw that Jinyoung was still packing. Sandeul and Sunwoo left them because they wanted to go to the arcade (Shinwoo passed the opportunity, along with Jinyoung).

Just after Jinyoung said that weird statement, Shinwoo began to felt that Jinyoung was getting more attached to him than before: At free time, Jinyoung slept in Shinwoo’s shoulder and Shinwoo just stay silent; Jinyoung shared his food with Shinwoo, so far that he even fed Shinwoo his food (luckily they done it privately); Jinyoung allowed him to slept on his lap (hell yeah Shinwoo love sleeping, and he can’t reject Jinyoung’s special offer) and Jinyoung would sang a random song for him. And many other things that he couldn’t said one by one.

Shinwoo looked at Jinyoung. Maybe it’s time for him to answer Jinyoung’s question weeks ago.

“Jinyoung”

Jinyoung looked at Shinwoo; eyes sparkling like a diamond.

“Yes?”

Shinwoo rub his neck as he looked down.

“You know….” Shinwoo said “… I… I wanted to answer your question, few weeks back.”

Jinyoung stood up from his seat, narrowing his distance to Shinwoo.

“It’s about time” Jinyoung said with a smile “So?”

Shinwoo tried to arrange his words, but it’s too difficult—especially when he was so close to you.

“ Actually, Jinyoung…” Shinwoo stated, “I… I don’t like you… But…”

Jinyoung tilted his head.

“But?”

Shinwoo stared at Jinyoung, and he finally, said it out loud.
“I love you, Jinyoung.”

There was a huge silence in the class. Shinwoo afraid that Jinyoung might mad at him, so he steps back a little. But then, Jinyoung just chuckled and then replied:
“I love you too, Shinwoo.”

As that was a winning statement, Shinwoo felt a great feeling in his heart: the feeling that, he finally be able to state his feelings and to have Jinyoung to felt the same way.

It was, the best moment ever.

And just as simple as that, both of them were a couple.