chapter fourteen

although we are nearing our end. this will be the first of many.

        The following afternoon, I went to visit Minseok in his cell at the police station. I had this prepossessing need to get him to explain to me what had happened—what had made him do what he'd done. I was nervous to speak to him, not knowing which Minseok was going to greet me—the sweet, funny one I'd first met, the vindictive one who had frozen me out for making new friends, or the somewhat scary, intense one who had been arrested the night before.

"There were two cells on either side of the small building so that they could separate suspects if they needed to. Sura and the slimy guy, whose name turned out to be Donsung, were in one set of cells; Minseok was alone in the other. Yifan opened the outer door for me, and Minseok sat up from his cot. I half expected him to be stoic and turn her back on us, but instead he got up and walked over to the bars as if he were psyched to see me. 

"I'll be back in ten minutes," Yifan said before closing the door. 

"Hey," Minseok said tentatively. 

"Hey," I replied. Suddenly, even though I had wanted to come here, I had no idea what to say. 

"You're not here to upbraid me, are you? Because I don't think I can deal with that right now," Minseok said. His fingers curled around the bars, and it seemed to hit me for the first time. Minseok was in jail. And I had put him there. I was so bizarre. 

"No," I replied. I pulled a chair out from the wall and sat down across from him. Minseok turned and sat down on the edge of his cot, facing me. "I guess I'm just wondering why." 

Minseok sighed and looked at the concrete floor. "I didn't want to do it. Not at first anyway." 

"So... what, the devil made you do it?" I asked. 

"If you're gonna be all sarcastic..." Minseok started.

"You're right. Sorry." I raised my hands in surrender. 

"Look, I didn't get sent to Hereford so that I could get into an Ivy," Minseok said, getting up and starting to pace. "I was sent there because Sura and I were caught dealing drugs." 

I raised my eyebrows and leaned forward in my seat. "Wait a minute. If you got caught dealing, then why aren't you already in jail?" We both looked at the bars as if seeing them for the first time. "I mean, why weren't you in jail, I guess." 

"Good lawyer," Minseok said. "They refuted every bit of evidence and we got off. It was totally expunged from our records. My parents told me I could never see Sura again, and I was relegated to Hereford." 

"So then you just set up a new HQ." 

"Like I said, not at first," Minseok told me. "I told Tag I wanted out, and he said he did too. For a while everything was fine. We were writing emails, she was talking about this new job her dad got her working at a computer company. I was getting on with my life." He paused, took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. "And then, she started asking about the situation at Hereford—was anyone using, did I know of any dealers? At first, it honestly seemed like she was looking out for me."

"But she wasn't." I supplied. 

A pained look crossed Minseok's face. "I don't know if I really want to talk about this any more." he said. 

But I had a feeling he did. He wanted to confess it all and get it out of his system, or he wouldn't have started babbling in the first place. He needed to spill. 

"Why did you get back into it?" I asked. 

"Krystal and her idiot friends," Minseok snapped. "God, sometimes I think that if they hadn't been such es, this would never have happened." 

Interesting argument. I didn't think it was going to exculpate her in a court of law, but it was intriguing. 

"I was totally ostracized. I had no one to talk to. And because they were constantly browbeating me, I needed someone to talk to," Minseok said, growing fervent. "Sura was the only person who ever stood by me." 

Right, and got you to be the front man of her drug venture," I said. "Minseok, she totally manipulated you." 

Minseok's eyes flashed. "You don't know what it's like," he said. "Krystal and those girls are so evil to me, and Sura and I... we have something that goes beyond stupid high school relationships. We need each other." 

Oh, God. I was going to hurl. Did he have any idea how pathetic and programmed he sounded? 

"Besides, Sura is incorrigible," Minseok said. "The first time she came to visit me at Hereford, I swear there were dollar signs in her eyes." 

"Sounds like a real catch," I said under my breath. 

Minseok chose to ignore this comment. 

"So anyway, the short version is, I wrote a cryptic email and sent it out to the entire student body. The people who are looking for drugs know how to decipher these things, and the orders started pouring in." 

"To where?" I asked. 

"Oh. I said to contact Cassiopeia at box 313." 

"Huh?" 

"Oh yeah. You know Mr. Smoot at the post offices? He's in on it." Minseok said offhandedly. "I think they're bringing him in right now." 

"Mr. Smoot?" I suddenly recalled how happy he had been to see Minseok that day he dropped off the gift for his sister. He'd asked him if he had anything else for him, and he'd said, "Not today." I hadn't thought anything of it. Why would I? 

"Yeah, that guy hadn't gotten a raise from Hereford in about fifteen years," Minseok told me. "We gave him two hundred dollars a week, and he procured an extra post office box for me. I'd get the orders there, then Sura would bring a shipment to the old stable once every two weeks. I'd give the boxes to Smoot, and he'd distribute them. They were always small enough to fit in the mailboxes so that Sehun never touched them." 

By this point, my mouth was hanging open with shock and shame. I had seen Minseok take a bunch of envelopes out of her mailbox and slip them into her bag. It had seemed like a lot of letters, but I hadn't thought anything of it. She'd done it right in front of me! 

Okay Lu, chill. He wasn't a suspect then. He was never a suspect until you snagged him. 

Still, it was hard not to feel totally inaqdeuate. He hadn't even been covert about it! 

"It was a pretty good scam, all in all." Minseok said finally, sounding proud. 

I had to agree. It was simple, but perfect. As long as Smoot stayed in their pocket, he and Sura were home free. Until I came along, of course. 

"Okay, but Cassiopeia?" I asked. 

"Sura's a big TVXQ fan," Minseok said, almost wistfully. Ugh! He really did love that girl. One day, he was going to wake up and realize he'd let her ruin his life, and I felt sorry for him in advance. 

"So anyway, that's the story," Minseok said, sitting down again. "Yixing didn't know I was