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"I better tell Sohyun this," Kris said and texted her immediately. Right after the text message was sent, he got a video.

It started with a black screen, only a voice was heard. An unfamiliar voice, a male one. "Sohyun's in my hands. Hand over Goo InHee, or else you'll see a dead body tomorrow, reporting as Kim, Sohyun," he said and the screen flickered. An image appeared.

His eyes widened in shock as he saw Sohyun unconscious, tied to a chair, her chin resting on her chest. "Sohyun!" he shouted in the phone.

The man didn't laugh. Nothing could be heard. "You'll see her. But you need to hand Goo InHee over within five hours." And the video call ended.

"Wait!" he shouted, but it has alredy ended. "Call Baekhyun," Kris instructed.

"Now it's already midnight. We have only until dawn," Kris said and he bit his lip, frowning.

"I'll send this to Baekhyun. I'll check if he could help us anything. And now, we can only wait," he said.

Kris felt guilty. He felt awful. He felt useless. Sohyun is out there in the cold, in some deserted place where he's here, doing nothing.

---

The next thing Sohyun opened her eyes was seeing Jiho on a chair opposite her. She gasped and stared at him in shock, gulping. This time the pain wasn't as much as before, and she could see everything clearly. "JiHo.. It's you.. It's really you.." she said and bit her lip, looking away. She was being deceived, by Jiho.

He looked away, his fists clenched into a ball and he drank his water. "Nothing can change. Like you said, the truth's the truth. I'm the murderer."

"But why?" she asked in a harsh, disappointed tone. She wanted to walk right towards him and shake his shoulders demanding an explanation, and answer from him, but those ropes tied her down.

"Why? I should be asking this question. Why did my wife take the rap? Why was she sentenced even though she was innocent? Because of one person, the judge," he said. His tone, filled with anger that was boiled in his body for so long, any minute will he explode.

---

"Baekhyun, try to see if you could find anything," Kris urged and kept his eyes on the computer screen, frowning. "I know. I'm trying. I'll try lower down the man's voice, to hear the background noise," he said.

"Who can it be.." Tao muttered and bit his fingernail, thinking.

"It's definitely JiHo."

"JiHo?"

Baekhyun looked at them, then back at the screen. "Who else? Inhee's husband it JiHo. I just knew a leopard can never change its spots," he snickered, disgusted.

"Wait a second," Kris paused for a moment. "He knew we would know his identity, that means he knows he's going to be caught once he stays in Korea," Kris said and clasped his hands together. "He's going to leave Korea. He never thought of coming back."

"And he's going to leave Korea, with his wife.." Tao continued. "But, she's dead.."

"If Jiho knows his wife's dead, Sohyun might be in danger," Tao said.

"I sent the text to SoHyun. And now JiHo used her cell phone to send us the video. He may have seen the text." It dawned upon him. He clutched his head and slammed the table. "I shouldn't have sent it to SoHyun!" he groaned.

"I got it," Baekhyun said. "I've tracked her location through her cellphone. She's in a village."

"What village?" Tao and Kris asked.

"Here, southern side," Baekhyun said, his eyes looking around the small blue dot, a circle around it, that blinks and expands, then contracts every minute.

---

"Twenty years ago, my wife was caught shoplifting and she was sent to jail for six months," JiHo said, his tone filled with pain and misery. "It was just shoplifting, why must she be sent to jail?" he murmured.

"A-and?"

"But she shoplifted because of her father! She wanted to buy some medicine but she was too broke. She was a young girl in her twenties, and in a blink of an eye she was sent to jail, I was there too and I couldn't do a think about it!"

"No sooner after she was out, she was sent to jail again for smuggling drugs, for a crime that she did not committed, because she took the rap for me. I was the one for smuggled drugs! Not her! Can you believe? The judge just sent her to jail! Just because she admitted to it! And also because she had a criminial record!" he shouted in agony, and Sohyun flinched.

She hesitated, then spoke up, "but how do you know the judge was biased? As long as there was evidence, witnesses and-"

"The judge was biased! It was so obvious!" he shot up from his seat and threw the glass bottle on the ground, smashing it into pieces and sent it flying everywhere, which made Sohyun flinch once more.

"The jury needs to consider too. She stands a higher chance of committing an offence than others because she has a criminal record, the judge and jury must consider this point and also the evidence that is all against her," Sohyun reasoned out. "And even though how poor she is, a crime is a crime, you can't escape the law. You need to face what you have done. She shouldn't have shoplifted in the first place, she needs to face the consequences of what she has done," she said.

She bit her lip and cleared . "And the judge won't sent to jail immediately, he will go through the evidence and analyze it, before coming to a conclusion. Judge can't be biased. Once they wear the wig, it is to prove that they will be impartial in whatever sentences they give out, regardless of kinship or any relationships linked to one another in court," she persuaded, which agitated JiHo even more.

"Then do you think that being punished for a crime she never did was fair?" JiHo shouted, clenching his fists he walked around.
He faked a laugh. "You know what? I will kill whoever harms me, or my wife. Even Hyomin."

---

Tao frowned and bit his lip. "That's all? It's hard to find her within five hours," he sighed, exasperated.

Kris bit his finger and shook his head. "Not really, listen to the background noise, there's seagulls, and the waves. SoHyun's near the sea, and remember. JiHo can't possibly hide her in a beach or something, I suspect he hides her in some old desolated hut from other residents," he pointed out, analyzing each and every single detail he could find in looking for Sohyun. He has to find any details and possibilities of finding SoHyun. She's too dear for him.

“You, what?!” Sohyun screamed as she swallowed back her tears. Jiho sat on that old scrappy sofa and smirked to himself. “I killed her. Whoever gets in my way, will disappear from the surface of the earth,” he said, proudly which made Sohyun shake her head. “Impossible.. The Jiho I know won’t do this..” she murmured and lowered her head, biting her lip.

"Jiho won't do this. He changed. The first time I met Jiho, he was discriminated because he was a convict, and because of that he wanted to turn over a new leaf, stop harming anyone, and get accepted by everyone, not to go back to his original path again. That was the real Jiho."

"Wrong. This is the real Jiho. That Jiho, was stupid, ignorant. He won't get accepted by everyone, why hold onto that belief? This Jiho standing in front of you is the real one. Jiho is a murderer, always a murderer."

Maybe Baekhyun is right. Maybe a leopard can never change its spots, for Jiho’s case. And she was so disappointed. In both Jiho and herself. She harmed Hyomin. She indirectly caused Hyomin’s death.

-----

Hey guys. Didn't update for a week+ because I didn't even dare to be on AFF. I wasn't in the mood for it. I don't know why but after the news of Kris I just didn't feel like doing anything.

But of course, I had to update and account to all fo you, so yea, here I am :)

Sighhhh I really don't know how to continue this.. both this message and the story.. but don't worry. I WILL complete this story because I don't want readers to be left hanging in the middle of the story.

-HappySmiley