The door was opened after a few consecutive knocks by a woman in her late fifties or early sixties. She furrowed her brows when she saw Yoohyeon, unable to recognize the younger. "Yes, may I help you?"

"Are you Lee Yoobin?" Yoohyeon asked.

The older woman sighed. "Yoobin, huh?" she murmured. "I haven't used that name in a long time."

She looked up at the younger. "Which brings me to the question of how you know my real name, and why you're here."

"I-uh-found it in your family registry," Yoohyeon said.

"And why would you be looking through my family registry?" Yoobin inquired.

Yoohyeon took a deep breath. "I'm looking into an old case from 1968," she said. 

Yoobin scoffed lightly. "That was a long time ago, long before you were born," she replied. "What interests you there?"

"The case involved your brother," Yoohyeon blurted out.

Yoobin froze for a moment, staring at her. Her the slowly fell to the ground as she slowly realized what Yoohyeon was talking about. 

"Come in," she said, stepping aside.

Yoohyeon quickly murmured a thanks before walking inside the house. 

"I may not be able to give you a lot of time, since I have an appointment with my daughter in an hour, but that should be enough, shouldn't it?" Yoobin asked.

Yoohyeon quickly nodded. "Of course, of course," she assured the elder. "That's more than enough time.

She looked around the well furnished house, musing at the mantelpieces and the decor. Photo frames rested upon glass shelves, and degrees and accolades were hung on the wall opposite her. 

She stopped by one of the shelves, looking at the pictures. Out of the five on that shelf, four were of Yoobin alongside her family, her husband and daughters. 

The fifth was the only one that had a much younger, very young looking Yoobin alongside a handsome teen, a teen she recognized as Hongbin.

She reached out for the photo, picking it up and studying it thoroughly.

Yoobin looked like she was around ten, well, from what she could decipher from the old and yellow photograph. Hongbin, on the other hand, looked no different than what she'd seen, with his hansome face, dark hair, albeit his smile was wide and he looked happy.

"I was 10 when the whole case happened."

She turned around to find Yoobin behind her, her eyes misting slightly at the photograph.

"Hongbin...he changed after that day..." she narrated. "Before...he'd be this hilarious, happy-go-lucky guy who had no care in the world, always smiling, always laughing. But after that day?" Her voice cracked a bit. "He stopped smiling, stopped laughing. At times, he'd even ignore me. It became a mission for him, to prove that Taekwoon was innocent, and he became even more driven after Taekwoon killed himself in that asylum. After Hakyeon..."

She cast her eyes to the floor, taking a deep breath. "After Hakyeon was found in his room overdosed on sleeping pills, my brother became obsessed. The only thing that drove him to live was to make sure that Hakyeon didn't die for nothing."

Yoobin reached her hand out, running her smooth long fingers along the glass. "When Wonshik got into drinking, it really hit him hard, because no one else would believe him, not even his own parents. He withdrew, moved out, contacted us less and less. He'd go months without contacting us, the longest was four months."

She gulped. "The...the last time I heard from him was when he suddenly called home, and I was there to pick up the phone," she related. "He told me that he was sorry for neglecting me so much and that once he was done he'd come over and pick me up for lunch. That was the last time I heard of him..."

"What happened?" Yoohyeon asked kindly, placing a reassuring hand on Yoobin's shoulder.

"Car crash," Yoobin said. "Drunk driving accident. Neither the driver nor Hongbin survived that impact." She drew a shaky breath. "I was 15 then."

Yoohyeon gave a small squeeze. She was unable to imagine what the elder might have been going through, to lose her sibling at such a young age. She knew the bond siblings could have, and it seemed she and Hongbin had been very close. She could not even bear the thought of getting that call, that Gahyeon would never be by her side again.

"For years I tried to distance myself from that case," she said, her voice shaky. "Why wouldn't I? It took my brother from me, my own brother." She straightened up, turning to Yoohyeon. "However, times have changed, and so have I. If you need help, I'm willing to provide it."

"Do you happen to have anything about your past?" Yoohyeon asked at once. "Anything small will help."

"I do have their high school yearbook, if that'll help."

She disappeared inside for a moment, and Yoohyeon could hear her shuffling through crates as she found a seat on the couch.

"She must have hidden it somewhere deep," a voice beside her said. "She didn't seem like she wanted to remember it too much."

Yoohyeon turned to her side to see Sanghyuk, leaning back against the couch with his arm resting along the headboard. "When did you get here?"

He shrugged. "I assumed by now you would've noticed that I tend to hang around you."

She sighed. "Very much so," she replied. She then turned back to the door where Yoobin had disappeared as the shuffling seemed to be coming down.

Sanghyuk followed her line of sight. "You think a yearbook will have evidence?" he asked.

"Not if you put it that way," Yoohyeon answered. "But background is important, it gives a direction for the investigation. If Taekwoon had any enemies, we'll need to know who."

"You think he had enemies?" 

She hummed lightly. "Well, someone must have hated him enough to frame him with full evidence and no witnesses." 

"And you think we'll find some leads here?"

She nodded. "Why else would I be here?"

At that point, Yoobin came out of the room. "I'm sorry, were you talking to someone?" she asked.

Yoohyeon smiled, shaking her head. "Just thinking out loud."

Yoobin said nothing, instead walking over to them and sitting on the armchair opposite them. She carried a huge book in her hands, which she handed over to the younger.

Sanghyuk peered over her shoulder at the book filled with old, yellowing pages and black and white grainy photographs.

Yoohyeon opened up a page of a group shot of all the class' students, instantly recognizing Hakyeon, Hongbin, Wonshik and Taekwoon, along with some of the other students she'd looked up but found nothing. 

Yoobin smiled fondly, her eyes misty. "That was the very last one they took," she said sadly. "Precisely a month after that picture was taken, the whole thing happened. None of them ever sat for a group photo ever again."

"What were they like?" Yoohyeon softly asked.

Yoobin smiled. "Hakyeon was the eldest, even by a couple of months, but he considered himself the leader of the group," she said. "The others wouldn't agree however, and got a lot of fun tormenting him. However, yeah, he was the only one they'd all listen to." 

She exhaled lightly. "Wonshik was...weird," she grinned. "Seriously, he looked like this big bad gangster guy, with the tattoo and all, but at the end of the day he was nothing but a cinnamon roll." Yoohyeon chuckled. "Even though I heard my parents tell Hongbin many times to stop hanging around him because they thought he was a bad influence, but actually, Wonshik wasn't really into gangs and all."

"Meaning?"

"Drugs, alcohol, , the works." Sanghyuk raised an eyebrow at that statement, something which Yoohyeon caught from the corner of her eyes. "Now, there were some people who actually were into that stuff, and they terrified me. But Wonshik was not one of them."

"What was he actually like?" Yoohyeon softly inquired.

Yoobin cast her eyes to the floor, smiling. "He was a softie," she said. "He was actually pretty studious, even though he'd like you to believe he wasn't. He was dense, like thick fog dense," both girls laughed, "a girl could go up to him and confess and he'd have absolutely no idea what she was talking about."

"And Taekwoon?" Yoohyeon asked.

The smiled on Yoobin's face wavered. "Taekwoon...was the actual strange one," she said.

"Why?" the younger asked. "Did he ever say or do anything?"

Yoobin shook her head. "No, no, he was very sweet," she said. "He was the top of the class, captain of the soccer team, highly intelligent, highly sought by the girls, even though he paid them no attention." She hesitated a bit. "But...he lacked...something...emotionally."

Yoohyeon narrowed her eyes. "Lacked something emotionally? What do you mean?"

"I mean...it almost seemed like he didn't have many emotions," Yoobin explained. "He was what you youngsters would call 'chic', but it was unnerving to say the least. But when he did have emotions, they affected him like anything."

Yoohyeon waited. "I once heard my brother return, and when I peeked through my door, I saw them trying to calm Taekwoon down. It seemed like he was...crying, why I still don't know," Yoobin admitted. "I went to one of the soccer games because Hongbin asked me to go there. Their team won the match, but one of the members saw me and tried to lay a hand on me. Taekwoon was there in a second."

She shuddered. "I'd never seen him that angry, and frankly, it scared me, even though he was protecting me."

"What did he do?" Yoohyeon asked.

"He broke that guy's wrist," Yoobin replied. "And I'm sure he could've done more to him. And after that, he just soothed me, asking if I was alright, and brought me to my brother." 

She opened her palm, staring at it. "I-I didn't know how it could be possible, that the same hand that had broken a wrist could have been so gentle, so nice, so soothing. That same hand softly patted my back as he lead me back to my brother."

Yoohyeon stayed silent, thinking deeply, as Sanghyuk pursed his lips beside her. "You're wondering about his condition, aren't you?" he asked. "What do you think? Bipolar? Something else?"

It's not bipolar at all, Yoohyeon thought. 

"Did he have any enemies?" she asked.

"He was a high school kid, what enemies could he possibly have?" Yoobin scoffed. "However...he did have a rivalry with Lee Jaehwan, the guy who was killed."

"A rivalry?" Yoohyeon asked. "Of what sorts?"

"Oh, just your regular one. Taekwoon was the reigning champion in the school, top of the class, rich and everything. But then, Jaehwan moved in and immediately took his place at the top. The two would often fight for first place, and then Jaehwan also joined sports, although not soccer. He was also rich, richer than Taekwoon, and not to mention, he was charming as hell."

"The perfect package..." Yoohyeon murmured, to a snort by Sanghyuk.

Yoobin nodded. "He certainly was..." she trailed off. "As far as I know, all the girls were charmed by Jaehwan, even Taekwoon's own girlfriend."

"Taekwoon had a girlfriend?" This was the first she was hearing of this.

Yoobin nodded, pointing to a girl in the yearbook photo. "Kim Bora, she and Taekwoon dated since first year of high school. They were like the perfect couple, until Jaehwan came along."

"Did they break up?" 

Yoobin shook her head. "No, not at all. Taekwoon was faithful to her, although I'm not sure it was reciroprocated."

"Do you think Taekwoon killed Jaehwan?" Yoohyeon asked after a few moments.

Yoobin was silent for a few moments before raising her eyes finally to meet the younger's. "Taekwoon may be many things, but I doubt he was a murderer," she said. "However, who am I to refute the court's judgement. Perhaps the boy I knew was not the same."