Scene 2

Backlighting

“Why would you bring up something like that now?” Sungjong asked. His face had fallen pale.

Woohyun turned to the chief instead; “I’m sure you’ve already looked into Sungjong’s past. The stalker, and the suspects.”

“We were thick as thieves back before that insident, all of us” Dongwoo continued.

“Needles to say that the thought of one of us going balistic, stabbing Woohyun and driving off our maknae weighed down on us” Sungyeol said in that irksomely carefree way of his.

“Even if we were pretty convinced that it wasn’t any of us" Hoya said sternly.

“Now we want to clear our names for good” Sunggyu said.

“Sungjong, we are going to find out the identity of the stalker” Myungsoo concluded.

The chief had had it with the rehearsed bits of drama. “Now you boys listen. I am not going to wait one more minute so spit it out; where is the money?”

 There was a pause. Then Sungyeol smiled; “Money? What money?”

“The substancial amount of cash you stole on the 15^th of September!” the chief was starting to get red in the face. It was never a good sign when the chief got red in the face.

“I have no idea about any money, do you?” Sungyeol asked Woohyun, who shook his head dopely; “Nope, no idea. I received an anomoys letter in the mail that had some details about the Chaser case inside and a call to meet everyone at the local Starbucks at 15 pm on the 18^th of September. The plan was included. It even told me to bring the letter with me”. He took a red envelope from his jacket pocket.

The chief looked incredillous. “I suppose you all have similar letters?” he asked and, sure enough, all of the boys took out pieces of paper in different states of wrinkle.

“Bag them and scan them for fingerprints” the chief instructed one of the officers. He had a bad feeling that they would have nothing in common except the message. He had a very bad feeling that he had been screwed with. The perfect crime had no hard evidence, and after keeping the boys locked up for a day and a half without pressing any charges he had no choice but to let them go; they only had to ask nicely.

“Okay, there are two possibilities. First; one or all of you were involved in the Chaser case or second; an outside malevolent force, the stalker most likely, sent those letters to lure Mr. Lee Sungjong out. Now think about those two possibilities for a bit” the chief said, happy atleast to see the satisfied smiles wiped of the boys’ faces.

“As you so expertly pointed out this is about Sungjong’s safety. I beg you to reopen the case of the stalker so we can all have some peace of mind. He is obviously someone dangerous, are you going to wait for him to kill someone!” Sungyeol said.

“Sungjong, we just want to ask you a few questions. Back then you were hurdled off so fast that we didn’t have the chance to hear how it all happened” Hoya pleaded with Sungjong.

“No! I left that all behind when I moved and you should, too” Sungjong’s mouth said, but his dark almond eyes spoke of nightmares and loneliness.

“Fair enough, at least we tried” Hoya said and stood up.

“Where do you think you are going?” the chief asked threateningly.

“I study law. What are the charges you are keeping us on? Because we said we have some information about a case that was delivered to us anonymiously?” Hoya asked. “Didn’t think so” he said when the chief simply looked at him menacingly.

“Just… Look into it, will you?” Dongwoo said just before he left the room.

When the last of them had gone Sungjong looked lost. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t think they would pull a stunt like that” he said.

The chief softened; “It wasn’t your fault. I was a fool to call you here. Can I just ask; what was your relationship with these men? One seldom sees friends as loyal as them.”

Sungjong’s face reddened and he avoided the chief’s eyes as he said; “They were just friends. My best friends, really”. The chief didn’t need to press on to know that fiddling wasn’t the appropriate reaction to ‘just friends’.

* * *

Sungjong woke up dazed and confused. It took him a moment to place himself. First he thought he was in the back of the police car, on his way back home. Then he realized that there was no net in between him and the driwer. The seats were a wrong color as well. Actually the car was all wrong, and he wasn’t with police officers, either!

“Morning sunshine. Feeling okay?” Dongwoo asked from the seat next to him.

“He’s waking up” Myungsoo informed the others. Sungjong looked around to see Dongwoo and Myungsoo on the seats next to him, Sungyeol on the driver’s seat and Sunggyu next to him. When Sungjong craned his neck he could see Woohyun and Hoya on the back of the van.

“What?” was all he could say.

“Sorry, we had to roofy you for a bit. Harmless, you’ll feel good as new in an hour or so, promise” Sungyeol said cheerily and smiled at him through the rearview mirror.

“What? What?!” Sungjong repeated.

“You sure it didn’t jinx his head? He sounds like a parakeet” Hoya asked from the back.

“Whatever it is it shouldn’t be permanent” Sungyeol assured (albeit a tiny bit unsurely).

“I think he’s just shocked” Myungsoo said after looking at Sungjong carefully.

“Oh, that could be it. Sungjong, are you shocked?” Dongwoo enguired worriedly.

Sungjong stared back at him; “You are mental. You are all mental. Did you just kidnap me from the police station? Do you want  to be locked up?!”

“Nope, he’s allright, sounds just like himself.” Woohyun said happily.

* * *

“Full police protection? Full police protection my !” the pitbull-like female officer that had was responsible of Sungjong’s rehabilitation raged.

“I don’t know what happened” the chief, normally at the top of hierarchy in his little kingdom, now seemed to shrink down in his chair.

“You don’t know what happened? Then who does? 21-year old boys don’t just disappear into thin air!”

“All I know is that one moment he went of to the bathroom and the next he was nowhere to be found” the chief said, continuing; “I’m as baffled as you are”.

“I’m not baffled. I’m furious! I can tell you that it will not be my going down because of this!”

The chief sighed. As much as it maddened him to do as those arrogant bastards told him, maybe it was indeed high time to look into the case of Lee Sungjong’s stalker again. That very person probably had the boy in his grasp already.