As Haeun went over the records – the ones Renjun managed to obtain as well as the ones that the company sent – she noticed a couple of tweaks. “Knew I couldn’t trust them,” she snickered as she went over it again, making the connection.

Hyerin, Yooji and Jaena were all under the company’s modelling part. Jaena’s name wasn’t seen in the records the company sent in but Haeun saw her name in the ones Renjun sent in. She was a trainee but quit after 2 months so her name for some reason, wasn’t added into the list. It was fishy, to say the least. However, Haeun could finally give out a sigh of relief. She had finally found a connection to all 4 victims and that link was the talent company.

Something was going on behind their doors and Haeun was determined to get to the bottom of it before another victim would be claimed.

Her first thought was to search whoever scouted these girls since they were all street-scouted. All of the previous victims had similar characteristics so it’s either the scouter had a good eye for faces or everyone in South Korea looked similar. Whatever the reason was, Haeun needed to find the scouter. Someone who had connections to that company was using it as a font to hunt more victims and another girl could fall prey towards their game.

“So,” Haeun spoke, her phone resting between her ear and her shoulder, “Any idea how these girls got scouted?”

Renjun went over his files, fixing his glasses in the process, “From location-wise, it’s not very specific but their locations are just around their school area. So, not that far.”

“Meaning the criminal already targets where they’ll pick up their next victim at. Each student from a different school would make it difficult to piece together unless anyone paid attention.”

Haeun hears Renjun hums in response. She slumps into her chair and yawns; it was probably around 2 in the morning. She rubs her eyes due to tiredness just as Renjun talks a little more.

“I found some connection to that old case,” his words catch Haeun’s interest. She moves from the chair to her bed, laying down on the soft pillow. “The siblings that graduated – all of them had a criminal history. Well, juvenile. It was hard to track down but what I managed to dig up was someone in that school had a tape rumour. Turned to a whole scandal which involved cyberbullying and physical bullying as well.”

Haeun goes quiet but Renjun doesn’t stop about his findings.

“That’s our suspect right there! All that trauma must have really messed up the victim’s head and they went out for revenge. Their pride was broken and their life was ruined over fake news and they decided to hurt those involved in the stupid rumour. For some people, having those around them get hurt would be worse than getting themselves injured. I’ll try and dig into it further – if I get lucky, we’ll get their names down in a couple of days. I’ll keep you updated until then,” she hears him yawn and as guilty as it sounds, she feels relieved that he stopped. “Night, Yuyan. Talk to you soon.”

The woman feels her heart beating fast – Renjun could find out about her identity if she didn’t stop him. But something he said did make some sense to her.

That old case Mrs.Kwon talked about. 

It started a couple of years after that big scandal of hers.

Haeun couldn't help but wonder; Could the case back then have a connection to the one she was investigating now? 

“Dang, Yuyan – you have killer legs!” Yeri gushed as she nodded her head in approvement.

Another day hanging out with the girls. If Haeun was honest, she was starting to get attached to this high school persona of hers. But she knew not to get too attached to them – this was all just a cover-up anyway so when the case was done she would leave them and pretend she never stepped foot in this school. Going back to her high school youth proved to be a much simpler time than she remembered. She had friends around her and no one was shoving her into walls or lockers whenever she walked down the hallway – she was just another normal teenager blending in with the rest of the crowd.

“Yuyan,” Eunbin tossed another blouse at her which landed on top of her head, “Pair it up with that and see how it looks. You can thank me later.”

Haeun takes a look at the blouse and her eyes widened. It was something totally out of her usual wardrobe – an off-shoulder mint green floral blouse. Before she could protest, Elkie and Yeri push her back into the fitting room and refuse to let her out unless she let them see her in that blouse.

“I really don’t fit these kinds of outfits!”

“Just try it on and complain later,” Eunbin chuckled, “If it looks bad, at least you tried it on. If it looks good, then it’s another win.” The three girls hear Haeun muttering some more words along the lines of – ‘-looking like a curtain- ‘as she changes into the offered outfit out of being threatened. They sit down on the stools in front of the fitting room as they waited for her door to open. They weren’t especially excited to see how she would fit into the blouse but truth be told, they were just bored of seeing her being dressed in such dark colours.

The door opens and Haeun comes out of the fitting room with a very sour look on her face that just screams ‘I told you this was an absolutely terrible idea and I can’t believe I let you talk me into this blouse’. She takes a deep breath and gestures to the blouse, waiting for someone to do a pretend gagging gesture.

Eunbin was the first to stand up. The expression on her face showed that she was carefully examining the entire outfit as a whole. It felt like hours had passed by before she finally said, “It looks really good on you.” She placed both of her hands on Haeun’s shoulders and smiled, “I’m not kidding. Your shoulders need to get shown more often. I bet that Renjun guy would stutter over his words if he saw you dressed up like this.”

“We’re just friends,” Haeun deflects back but she knows that they don’t buy it. She takes another look at her own reflection in the mirror and actually thinks that she looks good in the outfit the girls put together. She sees Elkie and Yeri showing her a thumbs up to give her their approvals. The two crackheads of the group suddenly stand up and the next thing Haeun sees is them bringing in more blouses for her to try on. They dump it into her arms and push her back into the changing room but this time, Haeun doesn’t protest. It had been quite a while since she last went shopping with anyone or shopping in general for the matter of fact. She was so used to her plain wardrobe that she never thought there was anything wrong with it until the younger girls pointed out - she really was in dire need for new clothes.

"Yuyan," Eunbin suddenly walks up to her when Haeun's is about to pay for her clothes. Haeun hands the cashier the cash while Eunbin begins to speak again.

"That Renjun guy," she says, "I think he's stalking you." 

Haeun raises an eyebrow and Eunbin points towards the outside of the glass windows of the store they had been shopping in. It was Renjun talking to Yeri and Elkie, the three of them seemed to be getting along rather well. "Is he stalking you? Yuyan, you know I can easily fight anyone - even if they're older or taller than me if it means someone's bothering you," Eunbin truly looks worried for Haeun and Haeun finds it sweet that the younger girl was looking out for her. Haeun just smiles and places a hand on her shoulder. 

"It's fine, Eunbin. He's not bothering me," Haeun proceeds to lie to throw them off her tracks, "I just texted him to meet me here for our date."

Eunbin's eyes widened at the sudden confession. Haeun swears she thinks a fly could go in and out of Eunbin's mouth by how big was hanging open. She forces herself to fight back a laugh at Eunbin's hilarious reaction. 

"No way - no way! You're dating him?" Eunbin whispers but it's clear in her tone that she's excited for Haeu