Chapter 1: Murder Weapon

The police station had a gloomy atmosphere to it. However, the place was quite busy although it was in the wee hours in the morning. Policemen were taking reports, detectives were asking questions and receptionists were taking calls. Nobody stopped to look at what others were doing as they were too busy with their own tasks. The policemen refused to waste any time as wasting time meant more time for the criminals to escape and their policy was to keep the country safe by catching all criminals as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, Yoona thought that she was wasting time by sitting next to Jinri who was crying her eyes out while waiting for a police officer to talk to them. They were told to come down to the police station with the police to answer some questions. Jongin's family, Luhan, Krystal and Sehun were on their way to the busy place too.

Yoona wished they would ask their damned questions soon.

She wanted to start investigating Jongin's death by herself and maybe with the help of the other members of Serenity Society as soon as possible. She wanted to find his killer and avenge his death by murdering the killer. She badly wanted to kill whoever that had shot Jongin's head and made Jinri cry due to his death.

How dare the killer made someone as delicate as Jinri cry due to the grief that she felt?

He or she won't get away with it, she vowed to herself fiercely as her right hand was rubbing Jinri's back in order to soothe her. Her cries would not stop. But it was at least better than denying that Jongin was dead. Yoona had read somewhere that some people denied it when their loved one died. Luckily Jinri was not one of those people or it would be ten times tougher.

Yoona wanted Jinri to get her head straight so that she would be able to help in the investigation, anyway.

The young woman looked up when she heard footsteps approach the seat where she and Jinri were sitting at. A woman that looked to be in her early thirties and a man who looked very young were walking towards them. "I'm Officer Song Victoria. My team and I are in charge in the case of Kim Jongin's murder," the woman said, flashing her identity card to them. Then, she pointed to her companion. "This is Officer Kim Minseok. He is my assistant."

Yoona nodded thoughtfully while Jinri tried her best to wipe her tears away. "I'm Im Yoona," she introduced herself. "I was Jongin's friend. This is Choi Jinri, his girlfriend."

Victoria nodded in acknowledgement. "If you do not mind, we'd like to ask you some questions regarding the victim," she told them.

Even if we say that we do mind, you're going to ask anyway, Yoona thought to herself cynically. She almost snorted out loud but she managed to refrain herself. "Ask away," she replied. If people were to see her at this moment, they would have thought that she was not grieving for Jongin's death. But if they knew her better and if they actually studied psychology, they would have known by her body language that she was trying hard to control her anger.

Her anger towards her friend's murderer was very deep that if it was to be expressed by actions, the world would have turned upside down. She really despised whoever that had killed Jongin with all her heart. Her hatred was raging inside her heart and she was waiting patiently to let it all out.

"Where were you between one and two in the morning?" Minseok asked, taking out his notepad to write down notes.

"I was in the nightclub, dancing and drinking," Yoona told the two officers truthfully. As soon as she said that, she realised that her head was hurting but since it was very important to pay attention in case she missed any details, she tried her best to ignore it. Victoria took out a small machine that looked a lot like thermometer but when Yoona got a closer look to it, she realised that it was the test kit for breath to see if it could detect any alcohol the person had consumed earlier.

Victoria used the kit on her and she let her do that, showing that she was not afraid to be interrogated.

After it was done, Victoria showed the result to Minseok and the guy wrote something in his notepad. "How about you Miss Choi? Where were you?" she asked.

"In the nightclub too," Jinri answered. Her voice was shaky and it broke slightly. Once again, Minseok wrote down something in his notepad. Yoona badly wanted to see what he had written down but she refrained herself from doing so. She had to curl her fist in order to resist the temptation of snatching the notepad away, though.

"We found the murder weapon in the crime scene," Victoria told them. She showed them the transparent plastic bag which had the word 'Evidence' written on top of it. Yoona did not even realise the older woman had been holding it all the time. The plastic bag contained a soundproof gun and Yoona somehow felt that she had seen that gun before.

"What's that?"

"Oh, this? Nothing. It's just a gun that I carry around with me to protect myself."

"Protect yourself from who?"

"I don't know. Criminals, stalkers and bad people, I suppose?"

"D-do you know who did it?" Jinri stuttered out almost hopefully. The hope that her boyfriend's murderer had been found was shining brightly in her eyes that Yoona almost felt sorry for her.

Murderers don't reveal their identities easily...

"We're not sure," Minseok answered her question. "But we found the fingerprints of a girl named Jung Krystal on the gun. Do you know who that person is?"

Shock was an understatement when they heard the news. A small wail escaped Jinri's lips while Yoona just looked dazed. There was no way Krystal was the one who killed Jongin. The police had to have it wrong. No way.

"Jinri-ah, Yoona unnie, what happened?" a very familiar voice called out to them. Yoona looked up and saw Krystal, Luhan and Sehun were rushing towards them.

As soon as they arrived, Krystal went over to give Yoona a hug and she accepted it but when she tried to embrace Jinri, the young woman snapped, "Don't touch me."

Hurt and surprise flashed on Krystal's face in an instant and the emotions quickly went away. "What's wrong?" Krystal asked, her voice was laced with what seemed like genuine concern. Yoona could not be so sure, though.

Did Krystal really kill Jongin? She wondered. But Krystal is such a sweet–

Slap!

The loud sound of Jinri's hand hitting Krystal's cheek echoed throughout the whole police station causing everyone to look at them. Krystal held her cheek with her hand and glared at Jinri menacingly. "What the hell was that for?!" she yelled angrily.

"You dare to ask me that?!" Jinri retorted, fresh tears began to roll down her cheeks.

"I didn't do anything!" Krystal denied, her face red with anger and hurt.

"Murderer," Jinri spat out, her tone was filled with heavy disgust.

"What?" Krystal asked, dumbfounded. Her anger was gone but instead, it was replaced with confusion and puzzlement. "I didn't kill anyone," she said softly, her eyes were still clouded with confusion.

"Miss Jung Krystal?" Minseok called out uncertainly. Krystal turned towards him and by the way she looked at him, it was obvious that she was asking what the officer wanted. "Where were you between one and two in the morning?" he asked, going straight to the point.

All eyes were on her. Even Yoona could not help but hold her breath as she waited for her answer. She badly wanted the young woman to say that she was at the nightclub too.

"I..." Krystal stammered slightly. It was obvious that her mind was racing, trying to find a legit excuse to act as her alibi. But since it was too obvious, she finally said, "I can't tell you."

Yoona's eyes widened and gasps were heard throughout the police station. Murmurs filled the busy place. People were judging Krystal's answer and to them, it was obvious that Krystal was the murderer.

"You have to come with us to the interrogation room, Krystal-sshi," Victoria told the young woman.

"Why?" Krystal asked almost meekly.

"You have no solid alibi and your fingerprints were found on the gun that was used to kill Kim Jongin," the older woman stated with no trace of emotion on her face.

Yoona observed the others' reactions. Krystal just looked dazed as though she was lost in her own world, trying to process what had just been told to her. Sehun looked very shocked. His eyes were wide open and Yoona felt afraid that they might come out of his eye sockets. She turned to look at Luhan. Luhan did not look as shocked as Sehun but the shock was still evident on his face. But it was more of like I-should-have-known surprise rather than I-didn't-know-that surprise.

"As for the rest of you, I will be assigning some of my team members to ask you basic questions before you're allowed to go home," Victoria told them as she and Minseok whisked Krystal away from them.

Yoona looked at Luhan again and this time, he closed his eyes as though he was accepting the fact that Jongin was dead. Strangely, to Yoona, he looked calm. It was almost like he had expected it to happen.

He definitely knows something that we don't.