The door opened again almost an hour later. The officer who had questioned him walked in, followed by Ahjumma and another man. Leo looked at all of them hopefully; maybe they’d let him go?

“We have a few questions for you Taekwoon.” The officer said, as if they hadn’t already had this conversation. Leo looked up at Ahjumma, but she wouldn’t look at him when she gestured to the man behind her.

"This is Jung Yunho, the lawyer that’s been assigned to you.” She said expressionlessly. She left the room after saying so, and Leo felt his stomach drop in fear. He was surrounded by people he didn’t know and who didn’t have any reason to help him out.

The lawyer sat beside him and instructed him not to say anything that might incriminate him in the crime he was accused of. Leo found himself nodding numbly, unable to believe that this was actually happening.

“Can we un-cuff him please?” The lawyer said with a bite of impatience in his voice. “You have no probable cause to keep him restrained.”

The officer nodded, somewhat reluctantly, and released Leo from the metal bracelets chaining his hands together and the boy brought them forward with a sigh of relief.

Throughout the questioning, Leo didn’t open his mouth once, to the point where even Yunho was getting frustrated. He kept prodding Leo to say something, anything, that would prove himself innocent, but Leo couldn’t open his mouth to say anything, even though he knew it wasn’t in his best interest.

Finally, after an hour, the officer gave up. He grew tired of Leo’s constant shrugging and shaking and nodding of his head, and stood up from his chair.

“I’m afraid I’m going to have to charge you, Taekwoon. We have the victim saying that you were the one who did it and no reason to think otherwise. You have not provided us with an alibi or given us anything that tells us that you didn’t beat and this girl.” Leo glanced at the lawyer, who was shaking his head morosely like there was nothing he could do. Leo looked back at the officer, who nodded at the stretch of mirror opposite Leo, and the door opened a second later.

The biggest tidal wave of fear he’d ever felt tumbled over Leo as another officer came toward him with a second pair of handcuffs. He finally opened his mouth and mustered up all his courage to make himself speak.

“I didn’t do it.” His voice was barely a whisper, and it seemed the officer didn’t think he’d heard correctly. He stared at Leo.

“Did you say something?”

Leo didn’t think he could stand saying another thing and kept his mouth shut. The officer shook his head, evidently believing he’d imagined it out of sheer desperation and allowed the second officer to cuff Leo’s hands behind his back once again and him out. At least I said I didn’t do it. That should count for something.

Leo was transported to the nearest Juvenile Hall and processed. He was fingerprinted, inventoried, strip-searched, and given a gray t-shirt and pants to put on in place of the school uniform he had been wearing. School seemed so long ago. Hands shaking, Leo found himself in a cell with three other boys in their upper teens who looked at him disdainfully when the door clanged shut behind him.

Don’t leave me here alone.

"What have we here?” One of the boys slid down off his bunk and came right up to Leo, getting up in his face as if Leo had personally offended him. “A pretty boy, huh? What’s your name?”

There was no way Leo was going to open up his mouth for this lowlife. He kept silent and just looked over the boy’s shoulder, too scared to actually look him in the eye.

“Idiot, don’t you talk? Look at me!” Leo snapped his dark gaze onto the boy’s equally dark eyes and the boy laughed. “Scared, huh.”

He left him alone then, at least for a few hours. Leo spent the time staring into space while lying on the only bunk that wasn’t already occupied. When the guard came to bring them dinner, the boy started up with him first. “Hey, Sungmin-ssi, know what I’ve got waiting for me when I get out?” The guard ignored him and continued placing trays on the table just inside the door. The boy continued on despite this. “Lots and lots of customers just begging to give me money for my goods.”

Leo stood and reached for a bowl of rice and a pair of chopsticks. Is he a drug dealer? His hand was slapped away by one of the other boys who had somehow gotten there without him noticing.

"Oldest’s privilege.” He said with a smirk and took the bowl from Leo’s hand. The other boy was still bragging and was clearly getting on the guard’s nerves.

"Cut it out, Jiyong.” The guard, Sungmin, snapped. “You won’t be getting out for a while.”

“Oh, I beg to differ, Sungmin-ssi. My lawyer dealt with the judge. I’ve only got a few days left. And there’s a new boy I found who was profoundly interested in my merchandise waiting for me for when I get out.” Jiyong snickered and Leo tried to tune him out but his voice still oozed its way into his mind. Sungmin finished with the food and closed the door with a loud clang. Oh please don’t leave me with them. Leo was left with the smallest bowl of rice and meat and a flimsy pair of chopsticks. His stomach grumbled.

"In fact, I think he might be a valued customer!” Jiyong called after Sungmin. “I didn’t quite catch his name, maybe Han something, but he lives at some home for boys. Don’t remember which one.” This was said to the other boys, who snickered along with him and slapped each other’s backs.      

“Those are the best.”

Leo wasn’t paying attention to the others. Some home for boys? Han something? He thought back for a moment; Hyuk had come home late a few weeks ago with a small bag of something and hid it under his pillow. Leo found it while Hyuk was showering and discovered it was a bag of .

When Hyuk came back into the room, clean and smiling, Leo confronted him angrily, shaking the bag in his face. This was the first time any of them would see Leo angry or speaking above his usual soft voice.

“What is wrong with you Hyuk??” Leo had shouted, bringing the other boys running in shock, skidding to a halt in the doorway and staring at their normally excessively quiet friend. Some of the younger boys on their floor came running as well, but Leo didn’t care. “Do you realize how stupid you’re being? Who on earth would sell drugs to a twelve-year-old? Why would you want to buy drugs in the first place?”

Hyuk’s smile all but disappeared from his face and he looked stressed. He pushed past Leo without saying anything and put his things under his bed. Leo followed him and turned him forcefully so he was facing him.

"Promise me, no, swear to me that you won’t start with drugs. Hyuk, please, I can’t lose you to that.” Leo pleaded with him. “Please Hyuk-ah. Don’t do that to yourself.”

Hyuk didn’t say anything but he nodded. Leo wasn’t satisfied. “Swear to me.”

“...I swear.”

Leo wasn’t completely sure he was sincere, but he made Hyuk follow him to the bathroom and watch him flush the contents of the bag down the toilet into oblivion.

“Hyuk.” Leo whispered to himself, his appetite vanishing in a puff of smoke. Jiyong looked at him and his eyes narrowed.

“What did you say?”

Leo looked at him with dull eyes, but didn’t repeat what he said. For some reason this infuriated Jiyong and he lunged toward Leo, pressing him against the wall by his throat so that the younger boy gasped for breath in both surprise and fear.

"Come on pretty boy, cat got your tongue?” Jiyong’s voice had lowered dangerously. Leo shook his head frantically, struggling to free himself from Jiyong’s grip. Jiyong only held on tighter.

"Tell me pretty boy! Tell me what you said!”            

When Leo still didn’t say anything, Jiyong threw a punch into his stomach, again and again until Leo broke.

“Sanghyuk! His name is Sanghyuk and you’d better stay away from him!” Leo cried, tumbling to the floor when Jiyong suddenly loosened his hold.

“Sanghyuk, huh?” Jiyong sounded thoughtful. “Thanks.”

"Stay...away from him.” Leo got painfully to his feet and stood his ground before the older boy. “I’ll kill you if you try anything.”

Jiyong laughed and grabbed Leo’s arm, squeezing it so hard Leo felt tears of pain spring into his eyes. “You will, will you? Well, I’d like to see you try.” He released Leo’s arm and Leo stumbled as far away as he could from the vicious dealer.

He narrowed his eyes at Jiyong. “I will. I will kill you if you start Hyuk on that.”

That was the last thing he said.

Jiyong was released the next day. A week later, Leo was released when the girl he’d been accused of admitted to lying and saying the first name that came to her head to protect her stepfather. He would never know why his name was he first one that came to her head.

When he walked out of the prison, he found that his arrest had been announced on the news, as this had been a fairly well publicized incident. He had a police back to the home and met his friends, who ran forward and enveloped him in a group hug of relief.

“We’d been collecting stuff to show the police that you were innocent.” Hyuk said somewhat shakily, showing him a stack of notes of written accounts of what he’d been doing that night. “We showed it to them, but they didn’t really look at them...”

"It’s okay though.” N said hastily. “But we were doing everything. We asked Joohyun’s classmates about her and everything.”

“We’ve been questioned like no tomorrow about you though. The police were still investigating, even though they thought they had the person responsible. And now that you’ve been proven innocent, everyone’s blaming the police for a wrongful arrest. They’re in big trouble.” Ken told him gleefully.

Leo felt a surge of gratitude and he took in a breath to thank them but found that his voice was caught in his throat. He looked around the room and saw a small bag peeking out from under Hyuk’s pillow. His eyes widened and he turned to meet the youngest’s eyes. Hyuk looked normal and cheerful, just as he usually did, and Leo looked closely at him. Hyuk’s smile began to slip when he saw Leo’s eyes narrowing. Leo opened his mouth to tell him off, even before thanking the rest of them for what they had done for him, but again, found that he couldn’t speak.

"What’s wrong?” N asked, the smile sliding off his face. Leo just looked at him and shook his head slowly. This is all my fault. He closed his eyes for a moment and knew that there was no way anyone was going to coax another word out of him. “Leo-ah?”

He never said another word.

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Sorry about the long wait, but here's the chapter to make up for it =) Hope you enjoy!