chapter fourteen

Matthew never thought he could hate being in the observation room, since usually that meant they would be getting answers, one way or the other. But with Somin being the one in the interrogation room, he had a feeling that ‘hate’ was the best word to describe his feelings.

She had surprised him by telling him as soon as he returned from work that she wanted to go in the next day to finish her statement. He had tried to dissuade her, pointing out that it was only earlier that day that she had given the first part of her statement, but she wasn’t about to change her mind.

“I want to get it over with,” she had said, and Matthew could understand. But she had seemed visibly nervous, and that was what Matthew didn’t want to understand. Being nervous about giving a statement . . . that could only mean that it was about something unpleasant.

He had made her hot chocolate, though, in an effort to help, and she had appreciated the gesture.

Jiwoo was to continue taking the statement, since Somin seemed rather comfortable with her. After starting up her laptop, she glanced up at Somin.

“Ready?”

Somin didn’t look ready, but she nodded.

“Okay, then let’s begin. Again, this statement is being videotaped for future reference. Somin Jeon, you’re here with me, Inspector Jeon Jiwoo, on May 13th, 2017, to continue giving your statement about your abduction. As I explained last time, let me know immediately should you want to stop or take a break. Understand?”

“Yes.”

“When you were here last time, you said that the person you spent the rest of the two weeks with—the person you were taken to—was J.Seph. Is this correct?”

“Yes.”

Matthew clenched his fists, regretting leaving the stress ball on his desk. Not that it was still usable, being torn up as it was.

Jiwoo glanced at her computer screen before asking, “Would you be able to describe the general events of the next two weeks? Or would you like me to ask you specific questions like last time?”

“I . . . I think I’ll be fine, just . . . going over it.” Somin bit her lip. “Where should I, uh . . . start from?”

“Well, just recount it in order, so whatever you remember next after Lee handed you off to J.Seph.”

“Lee?”

“Oh, sorry. Lee Sunghun was the name of the man who kidnapped you. But yes, continue from there.”

Somin took a quick breath and sat up straighter. Matthew recognized the determined look on her face, and his heart ached. She was really trying to push through this.

“I . . . don’t really remember what happened right after that. J.Seph shot the man, though, because he . . . he . . .” Somin frowned, blinking a few times as if to jog her memory. “He asked for a reward?”

Matthew had to remind himself that Lee was dead, and that there was no point in planning out how he would personally kill Lee.

“A reward?”

“Yeah . . . since he—” She cut herself off, but a few seconds later she continued as if nothing had happened. “The person who—Lee, right? Lee asked for a reward, for bringing me, and he—J.Seph—shot him.”

From beside Matthew, Jae said, “Well that clears one question.”

Matthew nodded uneasily.

“I don’t remember a lot after that. I . . . I’m not sure how much time passed, but when I woke up I was in a different room. I . . . um . . . do I just say what I did?”

“Yes. Just narrate it, like a story, no matter how small the event may have been.”

“O-okay. I just . . . got up, and I walked out of the room. And I was in a penthouse, I think . . . before I could think of what to do next, J.Seph was there . . .”

“Matthew, lean back, or you’ll fall out of that chair.”

Matthew grudgingly accepted that Jae was right.

“What did he do?” Jiwoo asked.

“He, uh, asked if I wanted water.”

The silence in both the interrogation room and observation room was almost deafening.

Somin, who had been focusing her attention on the table in front of her, glanced up at Jiwoo only to see that Jiwoo had stopped typing to stare at her. Jiwoo snapped out of it when they made eye contact, though, and she choked out, “What?”

“He asked if I wanted water. I didn’t say anything, but he gave me water, and helped me sit down—he said the tranquilizers were probably still in effect or something.”

As Somin paused to drink a sip of water, Jae tilted his head. “Was she really with J.Seph?” he asked out loud, half joking. Matthew could see where he was coming from—the actions so far seemed very . . . not J.Seph.

“The rest of the evidence supports that J.Seph was somehow involved,” Matthew said, deciding that he was in no mood for a joke.

“And there’s really no motive to lie, right?” Kevin added. “That we know of, so far at least.”

Then Somin was speaking again, and they reverted their attention to the observation window.

“He . . . explained that he was J.Seph,” Somin said, her eyes on the table. “He didn’t say what he did or anything, just that . . . that was his name. Then he asked for my name. And then he said that he . . . needed to keep me around for a few days. He promised that I’d . . . get to leave.”

If Matthew had been confused before, he was certainly confused now. J.Seph, who never became involved in the foreground, opting to operate the scene from backstage, kidnapping someone just to keep her around? Matthew decided to wait a bit longer before drawing conclusions.

“The next few days I was alone most of the time, so I just explored the penthouse and figured out how to use the TV. That’s how I figured out what day it was,” Somin explained. “Because I saw the news. It went on like that for a while, but on Thursday he came back.”

“Now, before you go on, this was the first Thursday you were gone, the 27th of April, right?”

Somin nodded. “He told me to get ready, and he took me to some . . . some office building, I think . . .”

Daejung Offices.

A glance at Jae and Kevin proved that they were on the same wavelength as Matthew.

“And what happened there?”

Before answering, Somin decided to drink some water, and when she put the bottle down it was nearly halfway empty. “I . . . I don’t remember most of what happened. There were a lot of people, and it seemed like a . . . a convention? I don’t know how to describe it.”

Jiwoo tapped her fingers on the desk, thinking. “Let’s see . . . what was everyone wearing? What were you wearing?”

“I was in a . . . a blue dress. It seemed to be a formal event, and they were talking about new medications for a while.”

Jae snapped his fingers. “That must’ve been the original convention! Somin was at the original convention, the one Youngji thought she was attending when—” He glanced at Matthew and then shut up. Matthew wanted to tell him he didn’t need to avoid that topic anymore, but a part of him was glad to avoid it. Besides, Somin was still speaking, meaning Matthew wasn’t about to take the time to reply.

“People started leaving, and then there were ten or so people left, including J.Seph and me. It was a lot less formal by then, and there was a buffet . . . after a while, J.Seph pulled me with him to go grab water.” Somin stopped to drink more water. Matthew had a strange feeling that he knew what happened next.

“He handed me a glass that he had filled, and told me to give it the man in the purple tie. So I—I did.” She took a slow breath. “He—then the man, he d-died.”

“Well, that was definitely J.Seph,” Jae said in the pause that followed. But Matthew was more focused on the implications of what Somin had just revealed.

“And that must’ve been Ahn,” Matthew said quietly. It felt as though a weight had been lifted off his chest. “She’s innocent.”

“So J.Seph essentially handed you a poisoned glass of water and made you kill that man?” Jiwoo asked.

“I-I didn’t know it was poisoned, I just—I gave him the water. I didn’t—I wasn’t—”

“Somin, relax,” Jiwoo intervened. “I didn’t mean to sound like I was accusing you of anything. I was just clarifying if that was what happened.”

Somin took another slow breath and nodded.

“Okay, you’ve done really well so far. Do you want a break or anything? Or would you like to continue?”

Somin stared at the back of Jiwoo’s laptop for a few seconds. “I . . . I think I’ll continue.”

Jiwoo nodded. “All right then. What happened next?”

“We . . .” Somin paused to take a breath. “We went back to the penthouse. I passed out as soon as we got back, because I . . .” She chuckled humorlessly. “It was a lot.”

Matthew didn’t know if he wanted to laugh at the fact that Somin was trying to justify a completely normal reaction, or if he wanted to hug her and never let go.

“I was passed out for a while. When I woke up, it was Friday afternoon, and I was at—I w-was—” She stopped suddenly, grabbing the water bottle.

Matthew wondered what had happened on Friday—and then almost smacked himself for not realizing what this could have been about.

Did . . . Somin have to witness . . . that?

Somin cleared loudly before continuing, and when she spoke there was none of her usual inflection. It sounded as if she was reading something from a book rather than describing a horrifying event.

“He said he had called Youngji, that he found out that she was my friend and invited her to a convention. I was in a separate room from the main office, and the door was locked, so I couldn’t get out. He let her come inside, and once she saw me she ran over, but she couldn’t open the door either. That was probably when she realized that it wasn’t a convention. He asked her if she knew anything about the investigation or me, and she said she didn’t, except that we were friends. Since she couldn’t leave, especially after seeing his face, he killed her. He later said it was a message, to make sure I didn’t fight back, because he’d hurt others if I didn’t listen.”

The sharp pain in his hand brought Matthew back to his senses, and he saw that he had been digging his nails into his palm so hard that he had managed to break skin. That was also when he realized that he was shaking—with grief, frustration, anger—

Jae interrupted his thoughts. “I can’t say I know what you feel, Matt,” he said, “but I know that I’m mad too. Just hear out the rest of the statement, okay? We can decide what to do after that.”

Matthew forced himself to take calming breaths as he continued listening to Somin.

“How did he kill Youngji?” Jiwoo asked carefully, trying to avoid triggering Somin.

But Somin maintained her cool detachment. “He slammed her head against the table repeatedly. The table was glass, so it broke, and she was bleeding heavily. I don’t know if she died while we were still there, because we left and he told two of his men to make the room presentable. They probably killed her, if she wasn’t dead already.”

Matthew suddenly wished that Somin would stop speaking like that—stop narrating it, as if it didn’t apply to her, as if she hadn’t been there, because the way she was speaking made it sound more chilling than it already was.

Jiwoo prodded Somin to continue when she spent more than a few seconds staring at the table. “That was it. We went to a few more conventions, some events that seemed like parties, they all blended together. They didn’t always speak in Korean, so I don’t know what was happening, but generally they were about medications, drugs, and the like. Some long names . . . I don’t think I can remember them, and their effects. Then on Friday, I think, he used another tranquilizer on me, and the next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital.”

Jiwoo finished typing up the rest of the statement, and if she seemed surprised, she hid it well. After asking a few more times if Somin remembered anything more, Jiwoo simply told Somin to come back if something else popped into her mind.

That concluded the statement.

Matthew took Somin home afterward. It was almost noon, but Somin said she didn’t have an appetite for lunch quite yet. She seemed tired, sleeping the whole drive home.

“You’ll be okay?” he asked as they walked into the apartment. Somin only nodded.

Matthew sighed. “Somin?” She kept walking away, heading toward the living room, and Matthew closed the distance between them with a few strides, carefully grabbing her by the arm. She stopped moving, but didn’t turn around to face him. “Somin?” he said again as he walked around to look at her. “Somin, are you okay?”

She didn’t look up at him; kept her head low, so he couldn’t see her face, and he frowned. He bent down, trying to catch her eyes, but she turned her face away quickly, using her hair as a shield.

“Somin. Talk to me.”

And then, when he thought he should give her the space she seemed to want, she sniffled, and all thoughts of letting go, even for a second, vanished.

“Come here,” he said quietly, and he pulled her into a hug.

Somin buried her face into his chest, silent for a few moments, and then Matthew felt her shaking slightly. Holding her tighter, Matthew rested his head on hers. “It’s okay,” he whispered. “You’re okay. Everything’s going to be okay now.”

She sniffled, and then, before he could say anything more, she was crying, her hands grasping at his shirt as she looked for something to hold on to. Matthew patted her gently on her back, saying nothing. He felt each sound she made, every trembling breath she took, tear a new hole into his heart. He wanted to stop her tears, wanted to help her, but he didn’t know how.

Suddenly, Jiwoo’s words rang through his mind. Maybe you’re anxious about something else, not just the statement.

It was this. This was what he had been anxious about. After everything had been said, after all the information had been relayed, they were still left with this baggage—the emotional toll of what had happened. And as much as he might have tried to help, it was still Somin that was going through it, still Somin that had to deal with the consequences of what happened to her.

After having all of the information, Matthew, as a police officer, would be able to solve the problem. Find the answer, the culprit, and bring them to justice; then move on. Even if he didn’t find the culprit, if it became a cold case, he would eventually move on. There were never any strings attached, nor many emotions involved. Matthew would just remove himself from the case and walk away.

But this case was different; it was personal. This was a case that, whether solved or not, he would never be able to walk away from.

And that scared him.

Matthew lost track of how long they stood there in the hall to the living room, him holding onto Somin as she cried. Eventually, she quieted down, but she still didn’t pull away.

“Tired?” he asked softly.

Somin nodded.

“The sofa or the bed?”

“Sofa,” she whispered, and her voice sounded hoarse.

Matthew wasn’t about to ask her to pull away. He didn’t want her to pull away—if she needed the support, he was willing to provide it for as long as necessary. So he picked her up easily, being careful to avoid hurting her, and carried her to the couch; she kept her face hidden in his chest the whole time.

He set her down on the side with the blankets, and though her movements were a bit sluggish, she managed to take one of the blankets and pull it over herself. In the second before she completely covered herself with the blanket, Matthew caught sight of a part of her face that wasn’t concealed by her hair; the tear tracks on her cheeks pained him.

Matthew stayed there, keeping a hand on her shoulder for reassurance. He stayed in that uncomfortable position for a few minutes before Somin coughed to clear . “I’m sorry, you have work,” she said, her voice throaty. “I’ll be sleeping. You can go.”

Matthew let out a deep sigh, briefly closing his eyes. “Somin. Do not be sorry. Please.” He leaned closer, and knowing that it would only upset her if he tried pulling the blanket away from her face to look at her, he placed his head on hers, leaving the blanket as a barrier. Speaking through the blanket, he said, “You’ve done nothing wrong, so please, for my sake, never say that you’re sorry. Okay?”

She didn’t move, so Matthew assumed that she was either asleep or still blaming herself. Knowing Somin, he guessed the latter. They would have to talk about it another time, but for now, as much as he wanted to stay beside her, he had to help analyze this case.

“I’ll come home early, in a few hours. I’ll bring lunch, and we can just stay home and eat on the sofa. Just spend the rest of the day relaxing. Sound good?”

After a few seconds, Somin nodded through the blanket, and despite his heavy heart, Matthew smiled.

No one commented on Matthew’s red eyes once he returned to the station, and for that Matthew was grateful. No one argued against Matthew leaving early that day, either.

They started by going over the new information they had gained from the statement.

“So now we know more about . . . everyone, really,” Jiwoo said. “Choi was killed by Lee during the party, Lee was killed by J.Seph after bringing Somin to him, Ahn was killed by J.Seph using Somin, and Youngji was killed by J.Seph as a warning to Somin.”

The room was quiet, and Matthew had a feeling that no one was still over the statement. Jae only proved his point when he spoke up.

“The way she was speaking . . .” Jae shuddered. “It gave me the creeps. She sounded like a robot or something.”

Jiwoo sighed, looking up at Jae from her computer. “It was a defense mechanism. She just wanted to get the story out, get the statement over with, and if she had to shut off her emotions to do that she would. So that’s what she did.”

“Yeah, I know, but with Somin . . .” He shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess that’s why they pull you off the case when you know the person.”

It was hard to stay focused on that case, so they decided that it would be the best use of their time to work on something different until Matthew left.

That’s how they found themselves continuing to work on the accident case from four years ago.

After catching Kevin up to speed on the latest developments—namely Hongbin’s strange comments—they all split up some of their research. Jae and Jiwoo were to go through the original documents and evidence again, since Matthew had already read through everything once and it was better to have fresh pairs of eyes look over them again. Matthew was to help Kevin with research, which mostly involved going through online newspapers and articles from that time (the next step would have been looking through the physical newspaper archive, but that would have been a last resort).

Jae and Jiwoo finished first; naturally, since they had a finite amount of information to sort through.

“Nothing other than what you told us,” Jae said, leaning back in his chair and putting his feet up on his desk. “It’s a dead end.”

Jiwoo didn’t say anything. As sure as she had sounded that Hongbin’s outburst had been truthful, the lack of evidence made it hard to argue the point.

Kevin sighed. “Well . . . I’ve been searching by Somin and Hongbin till now. Who were the two victims again? I’ll try looking under their names.”

“It was in the document I emailed you,” Matthew said. “But the two victims . . .” Matthew racked his memory before anyone could pull up the case files. “Jaehwan Lee and Hyeri Lee. Not related to each other or to Hongbin,” he added, clarifying their last names. “Oh, and there was the initial witness that had called the police to the scene, but that’s all.”

“Witness?” Kevin asked as Matthew went back to reading an article he had found. “Did they get more information on that person?”

“Nope,” Jae said, a tinge of annoyance in his voice. “It was just a witness, so they weren’t required to provide anything. No photo ID, no identifying information—”

“Wait,” Matthew interrupted. He zoomed in on the small text of the article, an interview of peers of the victims, to better see it, annoyed that he had left his laptop at home; his laptop had better screen resolution. He then turned the computer screen to the side so that the others could see it, a photocopy of a newspaper article from the morning after the accident. The text was slightly pixelated from zooming in. “They have a name: Kim Taehyung.”

hehehehe i did that :)

in case you were wondering (it should've been mentioned already in a previous chapter but i have a habit of forgetting these things fml): they don't know j.seph's real name, only that he's j.seph, since investigations have yielded no connections as to his true identity :)