“I know what happened to the victims’ remains.” I saw the shocked look on detective’s face. We both remained silent as we stared at each other.

“Well, for Heaven’s sake, my dear girl, tell me!” He finally spat out. I calmly took out a picture of the barn and pushed it towards him. Detective took the picture and inspected it. When he couldn’t figure out my clue, he placed the picture on the desk and looked at me.

“I don’t understand.” I took a deep breath to prepare myself to all of the disgusting things I was going to tell him.

“Most of their bodies, such as torsos and legs were… destroyed with acid but…” The lump rose to my throat again when I thought about the disgusting tanks behind the barn. I placed my hand on my mouth and closed my eyes for moment. I took a few more breaths and then I was somehow able to continue.

“Whatever was left… parts of heads and sometimes hands and things like that –“ I tapped the fields that were showing in the picture next to the barn.

“-Are buried somewhere in that field. Between the two huge trees that… I now realize were cut down a few years ago.” Detective Kim furiously wrote things down to his notebook. After that, he hastily looked for some more pictures of the yard of my old family home. He placed them in front of me.

“Miranda, I know you feel sick but we need to the exact spot where the remains of these people were buried” he told me in a serious tone. I understood what he meant but with the trees gone, I had no other way of explaining to him where they were.

“Detective Kim, I wish I could tell you the exact place but I really can’t. The trees were cut down so that more bodies could be buried but I really don’t know how to explain this to you.” Detective gently squeezed my hand that was resting on the desk.

“Miranda, if you really can’t tell me, then could you show me?” My eyes widened.

He wants me to go back?

I don’t even know why, but I nodded.

“Since it’s already dark, tonight is not a good idea. But I would like to do this as soon as possible. I think we should go there tomorrow.”

“I have classes with Joonmyeon but we should be finished by three o’clock.” Detective let go of my hand and leaned back on his chair. He ran his fingers through his grey hair and sighed.

“Quite a story you have, child. I can’t even begin to imagine how many nightmares you must’ve had about it.”

“There was none for a long time until what happened at school last week…” I said quietly, looking down on my lap.

“Yeah, Jongin told me. He also told me that he was a part in a way. He really feels bad, you know.” I looked through the office windows and saw Jongin, pacing around the waiting room. I smiled.

“I know.”  

“I think he really likes you” detective said and laughed. I looked at him in surprise.

“W-what do y-you mean?” Not a good time to stutter, loser.

“He has talked about you every day ever since you two first met.” I looked at detective Kim who smiled.

“Well, since you have school and other tasks tomorrow, I’ll let you go home for now. Rest well. Hard day ahead tomorrow” he said as he stood up from his chair. I did the same.

“Yes, detective. Thank you for your time” I answered and bowed. I was about to leave his office, when he continued talking.

“Miranda, would you like to take somebody with you tomorrow?” he asked. I turned around to face him.

“Would it be awful if I’d like to have Jongin coming with me?” He shook his head.

“If Jongin brings you enough comfort then Jongin it is.” Detective stood up and walked to the door and opened it for me.

“By the way, Miranda, since our families are quite close and do lots of things together, I think you should call me ‘ahjussi’ from now, okay?” I nodded as a response.

“You can call me ‘Annie’” I told him and smiled.

“Jongin!” ahjussi called out for his son. Jongin powerwalked to us.

“Yeah, hey, how’s everything going?”

“Annie, do you need a ride home?” ahjussi asked me, ignoring his son’s question. I shook my head.

“No, thank you, some fresh air should do me good.” Ahjussi patted Jongin’s shoulder.

“Jongin, could you please walk Annie home? Just in case.” Jongin eagerly nodded.

“Of course!” he said happily. I bowed one last time to ahjussi.

“Goodnight, ahjussi. See you tomorrow.” Ahjussi courtly nodded as a response. I followed Jongin to the elevator. He pushed the first floor button and the elevator started to move. The whole ride down we stood there in awkward silence.

“Uh… Jongin?” I said when we were outside, trying to break the silence. He looked at me and nodded.

“Yeah?”

“Your dad wants me to go back to my family home tomorrow…. And I was wondering if you wanted to come with me.” Jongin stopped in his tracks and grabbed my wrist.

“Your family home? Like the place where something over 200 people were butchered?” When he said it like that, I knew that he wouldn’t want to come with me.

“Yeah. Look, you don’t have to come. I can go by myself. It’s okay” I sadly said and began to walk away, but Jongin pulled me back in front of him.

“What? Of course I’ll come with you if you want me to!” Jongin craftily interlaced his fingers with mine and continued walking. I stared at our hands and then his face.

“Are you sure that you’re ready to go? You know, with the nightmares and everything?” I just kept staring at his face. Jongin noticed and stopped walking.

“Earth to Annie” he laughed and poked my cheek. I quickly turned away from him because I was sure that I was redder than a tomato on fire. I cupped the cheek that he just touched and mumbled:

“I-it’s fine. Your dad needs answers and I need to have a closure to this thing.” Jongin gently pulled me with him once again as we continued our way back home. Whenever I became aware of the fact that he was still holding my hand, loud sirens went off in my head.

He’s holding my hand! Oh my god, remember to breathe! What is air? Oh god Annie, relax, he’s just a friend… Right?

When we finally arrived to my front yard after what seemed like forever, Jongin stopped behind a big tree. He cupped my cheek with his free hand and leaned closer.

JESUS CHRIST HE’S GOING TO KISS ME!!

I instinctively closed my eyes as waited for his lips to touch mine. When the tip of his nose touched mine, of course, my phone started to ring. I felt Jongin’s hot breath on my face as we both giggled.

“Of all the time in the world… Your phone has to ring right now” he sighed. I opened my eyes and pulled the phone out of my pocket. The caller was Chanyeol.

“It’s Chanyeol. He probably wants to know where I am” I told Jongin.

“I should go inside.” I walked backwards towards the house. Jongin stood still in his place as he watched me walk away.

“So I’ll see you tomorrow” he said with a sad voice. I nodded.

“Good night, Jongin.” A small smile curved on his lips.

“Good night, Annie. Sleep well. Dream of me.” The door behind me opened and Kyungsoo looked out.

“Hey Annie, there you are. We’ve been wondering what took you so long. Oh, hey Jongin.” His funny eyes widened when he saw Jongin. Jongin waved his hand carelessly. Kyungsoo grabbed my arm.

“Well, come on you, come inside” he said before pulling me inside. I waved to Jongin before Kyungsoo shut the door behind us.

“So I just totally saved your ” Kyungsoo said as he dragged me to the kitchen.

“How so?”

“Let’s start off by saying that Jongin is madly in love with you” Kyungsoo said as he placed two mugs on the counter. I sat down in front of him.

“I mean, he was about to kiss you for Christ sake!” he kept on talking while he dug things out of the cupboards.

“Nothing wrong with that, at least not to me, but Kris was about to see you two out there! He was like ‘I’ll go looking for Annie’ but because I saw you from the window earlier I was like ‘No, Kris, she just texted me and said that she’ll be here in a few minutes’. So Kris went to the living room and I guess Chanyeol tried to call you and here we are now.” Kyungsoo took a deep breath before slumping down next to me.

“Wow, talking is hard. I have to give Jongin credit for being brave to try and kiss you right in front of this house.  But I like this kind of drama because Kris protects you like an older brother and he hates Jongin who’s your boyfriend and-“I shut him up by placing my hand on his mouth.

“Shh! Jongin is not my boyfriend -”

Not yet, anyways.

Wait, what?

I looked around to see if anyone would hear me and giggled. I whispered to Kyungsoo:

“- But I was this close to getting my first kiss.” 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UUUUUUUWEEEEEEEEE! *spins around like a crazy person*

Oh hi guys. Didn't see ya there. What's up?

Chapter number 17! Yayaaah! 

So school's starting next week and I don't know how much time I'll have to write and update but I'll do my very best to try and update at least once a week. 

Also, I'm super nervous about going to school. It's a new school for me and I don't know anyone and aaaaaaah.... Oh gosh. Hopefully I won't die :/

Anyways, I'll give you a happy and aegyo(ish) Kyungsoo now: 

There you go! :3 *Gif not mine*

Thank you wonderfuls for reading and I'll see you soon! (: