When Jungkook woke up in the morning, the first thing he noticed was his baby sister’s absence. He couldn’t believe that she didn’t wake him up to let him know that she was going somewhere.

He found out through Jin that she left a couple of hours ago, dressed quite professionally and looked dangerous. He wanted to know where she was going, and what she would be doing dressed in that manner. Of course, he realized he wouldn’t get that chance since he woke up late.

He grumbled inwardly about this and pondered if he caught Yoongi’s sleeping habit after several years. It wouldn't surprise him considering how many years they've lived together. 

“Jungkook-ie, your sister is on TV.”

He blinked in startled and immediately grabbed his half-eaten cereal to relocate to the living room. He noticed that the other members were already crowding around their medium-sized television (which they kept telling each other to upgrade since last year but never had time to do so).

He had no idea why she would be on TV. As far as he knew, his baby sister wasn’t a celebrity or anything of sort that made appearances on public platforms like him and his hyungs. Then again, he remembered about yesterday’s phone call in the van regarding a Defense… which he didn’t have an idea what that meant until now.

The first thing he saw was the courtroom setting. He didn’t pay attention to the head judge, who announced something, since his focus landed on a familiar someone on the lower left screen.

Jungyoon, dressed in white and black business attire, was sitting next to a young man dressed in similar outfit. They both had serious expressions and didn't seem to care about various cameras in the room. 

“Would the People begin with their opening statement?” One of the nine judges requested.

He heard Jungyoon uttered an affirmative, and stood up from her seat before she strolled slowly yet purposefully to the middle of the court. The aura she had drew everyone's attention to her, and it made him think this was her natural setting.

His heart nearly stopped when the camera zoomed in on her facial expression. That cold, serious yet calculating look made him feel like he was under meticulous scrutiny for one thing or another. He quickly shook it off and resumed eating his breakfast as he listened to her speech. 

“When a child goes missing for some time, the community and the police work endlessly to reunite that child with the parents. Yet, when a young adult goes missing for an equally same length, the community and the police presume that person went on a vacation without a notice. When an adult goes missing for the same period, everyone presumes that person relocated elsewhere for better opportunities. However, when countless people from all three age-group goes missing for several years without a trace, and when both the community and the police gave up on the search, the victims’ families are left undoubtedly without a closure. What happened to these victims, you asked?

Girls as young as seven, young women who were preparing to enter universities and adulthood, and women who had families waiting for them… They all became victims of Park Sung Dung, a man whose greed and ersion led him to willful and deliberate deed of human trafficking. He blackmailed them into ion, and murdered them if they chose to keep their pride and refused to do his bidding.

Today, the People will prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Park Sung Dung kidnapped women of all ages with malicious and avaricious intent to hurt them. We understand that it is strange that a single man had deliberately hurt all these women. However, we will prove to you the defendant’s conduct that killed 67 young girls and women over the course of 4 years was intentional human trafficking, ion, and murder, beyond a reasonable doubt. Beyond a reasonable doubt means that any questions or doubts you may have at the end of this trial must be based on common sense and reason, not simply guesswork and speculation.

Due to the defendant’s decisions, many families no longer have daughters, sisters, cousins, mothers, wives, and aunts to celebrate special events with. Now, every year that these women would have celebrated another year of life, her family would have to visit her grave. These young girls’ parents will never get to see their only daughter graduate from college, they will never see her get married, they will never see her have her first child, or hear their grandchildren laugh. These parents had to bury their child because the defendant decided to kidnap, e, and murder them.

At the end of today’s trial, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I ask you to render a verdict you could be proud of – the correct verdict under the law and the evidences you hear today.

Under the laws of Imperial Court of Justice, the People are charging Park Sung Dung, a Korean native, with violations of ICJ Penal Code 136.1, 98.2, and 242.1 – violation of human trafficking, ion, and First-Degree murder, respectively. The People are seeking for capital punishment for his crimes, and ask that he be remanded for the duration of the trial.”

“Wow, that’s some heavy stuff.” Jin exclaimed with a shake of his head.

“Jungkook-ie, your sister is a prosecutor?” Jimin choked out in surprise.

He paused in his mid-action of putting a spoonful of cereal into his mouth, and looked at them with similar astonishment. As much as he wished to say that he knew about this, he doesn’t – in this case, his baby sister didn’t reveal much to him about her school life in Japan. The only information he knew was that her curriculum includes detective work and such… he couldn’t believe that ‘and such’ included studies of laws.

“I’m just as surprised as you are.” He answered before stuffing his mouth.

“I don’t know anything about law, but I think her speech was effective.” Hoseok chimed in with an awed exclaim. “Some of the jury members looked uneasy. I don't know if she was going for that effect.”

“Is it just me or does the other side looked pissed?” Taehyung asked with a brow raised.

“You mean the Defense?” Jimin stated for clarification, and then let out a thoughtful hum when Taehyung confirmed. “Now that you mentioned it, he does look angry.”

"He's biting into his handkerchief a little too much." Yoongi smirked in amused. 

“I tried looking up Imperial Court of Justice online since I don’t think we know what it is. Guess what I found?” Namjoon started with a tablet in hands. “They have two headquarters: one in Japan and one in Netherlands. The interesting fact is that it is the only school in the world that allows its students to be armed detectives and lawyers. High ranked students work closely with world leaders associated with United Nations for counterterrorism and humanitarian cases. The lower ranked students help the law enforcement agencies from various countries to aid in solving difficult cases. Overall, every student there work closely with very distinguished officials, who regard their judgments favorably.”

Hoseok let out an impressed exclaim before he commented, “And your baby sister is one of them, Jungkook-ie.”

“Did you know about that?”

Jungkook looked over Yoongi when he heard the question, and shook his head in response, “I had a vague idea that her school wasn’t a normal school. That’s why I didn’t mention anything about her in my profile when I debuted. She didn’t complain about it, so I figured it was the right choice.”

“Ah, we missed what the Defense said for their Opening.” Jimin interjected in realization.

“It doesn’t matter. The only thing I want to know is the final verdict.” Jin declared with a nod.

“I’m so tired.” Jungyoon groaned as she massaged the back of her neck while she walked towards her brother’s dorm.

It had been a long and arduous day for her and her partner, but it was an easy open-close case for them. They had every critical evidence needed for guilty verdicts on all three counts, and all they had to do was watch the other attorney stammered out a half-baked defense. There wasn’t anything the Defense could do, really.

She was just glad that the trial finished in one day. She wasn’t sure if she or her partner could handle Defense’s incompetency any longer than needed to. Additionally, she didn’t think the Defense would seriously attempt an insanity plead like she hypothesized in one of her scenarios. 

According to her partner, insanity plead seemed to be the to-go for every heinous crime he prosecuted. That was why they were ready and had a counter to debunk it. 

What surprised her was the speediness of jury deliberation -  they only took three hours to deliberate, and the verdict was unanimous. Guilty, as she and the others knew it would happen, on all three counts. Additionally, all nine judges approved her proposed death penalty due to unanimous guilty verdicts.

This was one of the laws of Imperial Court of Justice. Nine judges had to be present for the trial, and those nine judges and twelve jurors needed to agree unanimously for the death penalty to work. If any of them disagreed, the judges, the defense, and the prosecutors compromise on a different penalty. 

The only thing that annoyed her throughout this whole ordeal was the media. Just because she and her partner agreed – more like forced to agree – with media presence, it didn’t mean that the reporters had the clearance to be intrusive with their questions during recess. She couldn’t believe some questions they asked her after hearing the verdict either.

“You are on the young side to be a prosecutor. Do you really have what it takes to challenge our laws?”

“How did you become a prosecutor at a young age?”

“Did you bribed the judges and jury members to get the guilty verdicts you wanted?”

It was as if they don’t understand that neither she nor her partner could talk about anything related to the case. In fact, she couldn’t believe that some reporters thought she bribed the judges and jury members to get the verdict she wanted.

Did they not see her present video evidences one after another? Were they not paying to the trial and simply wanted to fish for controversial responses for more attention?

She let out a wide yawn as she finally stopped in front of the correct door, and punched in the security code Jungkook told her. She doubted anyone was awake at four in the morning.

Even though it was an easy trial, despite the media’s interference, the detailed report took some time. She could have done it at another time, but she wanted to finish it while everything was still fresh in her mind.  

She quietly placed her bag next to the couch before she unceremoniously plopped down on the furniture. She didn’t bother to go to the bedroom she shared with Jungkook to change out of her uniform since she didn’t want to wake him up. Instead, she just covered herself with her trench coat and made sure she was comfortable with couch pillows underneath her head.

Today had been a long day, after all.

.

.

She stumbled into the kitchen groggily, inwardly pondering who brought her to the bedroom but not really caring about the answer to contemplate on it further. The first thing she did when she woke up was to change out of her uniform. While it looked professional and served its purpose well in the field, it doesn’t do well as a sleepwear.

She covered as she entered the noisy kitchen and attempted to tame her unruly hair into a high ponytail. She quietly plopped down next to a laughing Jimin, and put her head on the table, silently wishing she could just sleep the day away.

‘Curses for having hypersensitive hearing.’

“Ah, Jungyoon-ie. Good afternoon.” Jimin greeted as soon as he noticed her.

She replied with a series of incoherent words that sounded gibberish, but she didn’t care to correct it either. In fact, she didn’t even bother to glower at him for laughing at her tired and half-awake state.

“If you’re that tired, you could’ve slept in. We wouldn’t mind.” Hoseok remarked from across the table.

Jungyoon muttered a, “Thanks,” when her brother put a cup of coffee in front of her, and then replied with a, “I got hungry.”

She sat up in her seat and took a sip of the coffee – somewhat wishing to add more milk and sugar to it, but too lazy to get up to do so. It didn’t help that her head throbbed from lack of sleep, considering she had been staying up late in the past few days to prepare for the case.

“So, you’re a prosecutor?” Yoongi questioned with a brow raised.

She knew that they wanted to know after yesterday’s livestream of the court proceedings. In fact, she had a feeling a lot of people would be curious about Imperial Court of Justice and its personnel considering they were unknown to the public for years. None of them planned for a ‘debut’, so to speak; in fact, they didn’t want the public to know about them because they worked closely with government officials and everything they does happened to be confidential.

“I guess you could say that, but I rarely step into the courtroom, though. This is the third case I’ve done aside from the mock trials we’ve done at school.” Jungyoon answered with a shrug.

“So, your school trained its students to be armed detectives and lawyers?” Jungkook questioned with a look of disapproval. “I had a feeling your school wasn’t normal based on our phone calls and emails. When were you going to tell me?”

“There wasn’t anything you could do if I told you.” She replied with a pointed look, and then turned back to her cup of coffee. “We all know who the talented one is between the two of us. I can’t just waste my life doing nothing. That’s why I participated in this government program or rather… mom made me participate in it.”

“What do you mean mom made you?"

“Look, I don’t have anything against you for what you’ve accomplished. Not anymore.” She added without looking at his direction or answering his question, and took a sip of her coffee to gain some seconds to gather her thoughts. “Everything you’ve gained is through your own hard work and dedication. I’m proud of it, really. But… what you’re doing is very public, and I can’t have that around me. Everything I do is very private, and it’s on need-to-know-only basis.”

“Everyone knows you and that guy you were with yesterday now though.” Namjoon interjected with a brow raised.

She hummed in agreement and looked up to meet their curious gazes. “That may be, but do they really know us? Even if that’s the case, there’s nothing they can do with the information they have. If they do decide to try something, I’m confident that we can shut them down before they could. My team and I already took that precaution.”

“So, what do you do, and how good are you?” Hoseok questioned curiously.

“Let’s just say that you don’t want me as your foe.” Jungyoon replied very vaguely as she took a sip of her coffee.

“Where you going to keep it a secret until I somehow figured it out?”

She flicked her gaze to her brother when she heard his quiet question, and then looked down at her coffee. “I guess you could say that. Frankly, I never wanted you to know – like I’ve said, you’re a public figure. If my targets figured out that you’re related to me, well… you can only imagine what they’ll do. Besides, I’ve considered cutting you and our family off my life completely, but… I realized that would only compromise your safety more.”

“What? Why?”

“For starters, why don’t you ask our dearest mother as to why she signed me up for that government program?” Jungyoon retorted with a slight bitterness in her tone. “I may not resent what I’ve become now, but I’ve always loathe the history behind it. More so, when I learned the reason behind her action.”

She didn’t bother to check to see what kind of expression her twin had with her revelation. She was going to keep that information a secret and take it to her grave because she didn’t want him to know. That seemed impossible now that she slipped. She doesn't regret it, but she doesn't want any friction between the two when he learned the reason.

An uncomfortable silence blanketed the room as no one knew what to say and instead exchanged eye contact with one another.

“You were so cool yesterday, Jungyoon-ie.” Jimin commented abruptly to change the topic and atmosphere.

“Thank you. It took me quite some time to come up with the proper opening statement.” She responded before she finished her coffee. Her eyes then flicked over to clock, and let a groan when she noticed the time.

“It’s still early. Do you have an appointment or something?” Jin asked quizzically.

“The judges are going to discuss how they would issue the penalty. They want both teams to be there. It may be a legal punishment, but it takes a long time for then to deliver it that it goes against ICJ's laws.” Jungyoon remarked as she stood up from her seat. “Besides, I get the feeling that the Defense is planning to grovel for a different penalty. He'd probably say how death penalty is inhumane and whatnot. This is one aspect of my job that I utterly dislike. Frankly, the punishment needs to fit the crime committed, and even though the death penalty is a capital punishment, I feel it’s an easy way out for the defendant. His victims suffered, so should he to a certain extent.”

“Are you saying you want an eye for an eye?” Jungkook questioned in a stunned tone. “I don’t want you to be known as a heartless person because I know you aren't that kind of person.”

“I truly hope you don’t see me in battlefield then. Compassion is a dangerous tool to have in battle.” She replied with a mirthless smile. “Well, I’ll see you later tonight.”