Bad Coffee

            The next morning, Sungmin found me standing several meters out on the frozen lake, just staring out onto the emptiness.  He walked out onto the lake, taking careful steps, and stopped once he was next to me.  He was pale as a ghost and looked is if he had slept about as much as I had.  His hand was shaking as he lifted his thermos of coffee up to his mouth. 

            “Your piano playing has improved vastly since I last heard you play,” he commented.

            I glared at him.  I was in a terrible mood that morning and it had nothing to do with the complete lack of sleep I’d gotten.  But that certainly wasn’t helping it any.  “No, it hasn’t.”

            Sungmin nodded and frowned.  “I was afraid you were going to say that.”

            “Does this mean you believe me now?”

            He nodded again.  “I’m starting to lean that direction.”

            “Good because I’m going to need help if I’m going to track down a killer seven years later,” I informed him. 

            “But you have no proof that he was murdered!”

            “Kangin said that there was blunt trauma to his head, which I think happened before someone shoved him in the water and let him drown to death.  His cousin and friends insisted that he wasn’t depressed and the toxicology report claimed that he’d used no substances.  There’s even a missing boyfriend and/or someone who took a large interest in him.  They are both missing, unless they are the same person.  What other conclusion should I come to?” I heatedly asked him.

            “Why are you so angry?” Sungmin asked.

            I took a deep breath.  “I’m sorry.  I just want answers and I’m frustrated that he won’t speak to me.”

            “Did you see him?”

            I shook my head.  “He doesn’t want to see me.  He just wants to play the piano in peace.”

            “Isn’t that enough for you?”

            “No,” I replied, “but I’m not going to make him speak to me if he doesn’t want to.”

            “So, what are we going to do?”

            I headed back to the house, quickly stomping over the ice.  “We’re going to dig up every person that knew him and quiz them until they speak.”

            Sungmin slipped and slid over the ice as he rushed to follow me.  “Don’t just leave me out here!  I’m afraid I’m going to fall through!”

            We spent the next several weeks interviewing everyone who knew Ryeowook who still lived in town, but it didn’t get us any closer to the killer.  I pored over the police reports and every news article I could find about Ryeowook’s death.  Nothing stood out that made me wonder, aside from the inconclusive cause of death.  The coroner had called it an accidental drowning, but the term felt vague and the circumstances were questionable.  It was the middle of the summer when he drowned.  He wasn’t dressed for swimming or riding a boat.  He had no reason to be in the water, as he was waiting for his cousin to come over.  And he was an expert swimmer.  He’d taken lessons for years as a child.  What were the odds that he’d accidentally drowned compared to being murdered? 

            But there was no proof of foul play either.  No one had seen anyone come over to the house and no weapon was every found.  Nothing around the house made them think there was a struggle. 

            Sungmin was beginning to doubt my conviction that he was murdered.  I refused to give up until I tracked down everyone who knew him, but some of the people that had lived in town when Ryeowook was alive had moved away in the last seven years.  His parents lived across country.  I could probably track them down easily enough and they might even remember something that the others hadn’t, but I was hesitant to contact them.  I thought they might not want to speak to me about Ryeowook, especially when they found out I’d bought their old house.  Hyungsik was even more elusive.  No one had seen him in over six years.  He had spent another year living in town, after Ryeowook’s death, to finish high school.  Then he simply vanished overnight.  It was awfully suspicious, but I had no idea where to start looking for him. 

            The only person who still lived close and had some connections to the town that I hadn’t spoken to was Donghae.  But the only person who seemed to know where he was living was his ex.  It took me three weeks of harassing Eunhyuk until he finally broke down and promised to bring me to his house.  He made it sound like I was torturing him.  I have a few exes in my past that I would never want to see again, so I understood where he was coming from.  And I wouldn’t have forced him into it if it weren’t for the fact that all my other leads had grown cold.

            I drove out of the town with him as he showed me how to get there.  If I thought my house was secluded, it was nothing to how secluded Donghae’s house was.  When we pulled off the main road, it still took several minutes of driving down the dirt path until we reached his house.  And people thought I was withdrawn!

            Sungmin thought I was wasting my time tracking down Donghae.  Eunhyuk and Ryeowook were the best of friends.  He told Eunhyuk everything, as far as most people were concerned.  Sungmin was convinced that we would learn nothing new from him.  But apparently, they’d all gone to school together and they often hung out alone as well. 

            I know I’m far closer to my best friend than anyone else.  I tell Changmin just about everything, except for the fact that my house is haunted by a young, y, and very dead musician.  After all, I want him to come visit someday without worrying about seeing ghosts and I’d rather him not encourage me to seek professional help because he thought I was delusional for being obsessed with a dead person.  In all fairness, though, I was.

            That was why I talked to Sungmin instead of Changmin on the matter.  At least Sungmin already believed Ryeowook haunted the house.  So, I thought it possible that Ryeowook would have confided in someone else he was close to.  Perhaps Eunhyuk would have flipped out if he knew who Ryeowook was dating.

            I pulled up outside of the house, surrounded on all sides by thick woods.  “Well,” Eunhyuk said, patting my shoulder.  “Good luck.”

            “I’m not going to the house alone.  He doesn’t know who I am,” I insisted.

            “I’m not going to the house either!” he claimed.  “He doesn’t want to see me.”

            “You have to,” I said, unbuckling my seatbelt.  “He doesn’t know who I am and has no reason to speak to me about Ryeowook.”

            “You’d be surprised!  He’s kind of a blabbermouth!”

            “I’m being serious,” I said, opening the car door.  “Don’t make me force you.”

            Eunhyuk glanced over at the house, smiled sweetly, and shook his head.  “I’d like to see you try.”

            Seconds later, he was screaming bloody murder as I drug him out of the car and lifted him over my shoulder.  The noise must have alerted Donghae because I suddenly noticed someone staring at us through the window.  Before I’d even made it to the door, the man was bursting out of it, clearly concerned for his former lover. 

            “What’s going on here?  Put him down!” the man demanded. 

            Amused at the reaction I was getting, I decided to comply and set my kicking and screaming friend down on his feet. 

            Donghae still looked worried as he looked from me to Eunhyuk.  “What are you doing out here?”

            Eunhyuk straightened out his clothes and tried to fix his hair.  “My new friend wanted to meet you.  He bought Ryeowook’s place.”

            Donghae gave me a startled look.  “The house by the lake?  You bought it?”

            I nodded and held out my hand.  “My name’s Cho Kyuhyun.  I’m a friend of Sungmin’s.”

            Donghae shook my hand but gave me a puzzled look. 

            “That’s Saeun’s husband,” Eunhyuk informed him.

            “Ah, yes,” Donghae said, nodding.  “Would you like to come in?”

            “I’d love to.  Hyuk?”

            Eunhyuk rolled his eyes at me and followed Donghae into the house.  The moment he was inside, he began looking around curiously.  “You redecorated the living room.  I like it!”

            “You do?” Donghae asked, looking around.  “I thought it needed a more adult look instead of the kpop idol posters and artwork.”

            “I love your artwork though,” Eunhyuk said, sighing.

            It took me about thirty seconds to figure out that Eunhyuk still had feelings for Donghae and even less time to figure out that Donghae still had feelings for Eunhyuk.  Donghae kept watching Eunhyuk as he looked around the house—which Eunhyuk had clearly been very familiar with at some point, although I was told that they’d split up six years ago, before Donghae moved out of the town—and seemed to forget I was even there. 

            But I was determined to get answers, even if my host was a little negligent.  I’d begun to wonder, a while back, if Ryeowook hadn’t suggested that I get a plant with purple flowers knowing that I would run into Eunhyuk.  There was no nursery in town and the hardware store only sold flowers in the summer, I was told.  If I wanted to buy a plant, I either had to leave town or buy it at the grocery store, where Eunhyuk ran the floral department.  I don’t think this was coincidental.  Ryeowook must have known I’d run into his old friend while looking for a plant.  And Eunhyuk would, inevitably, lead me to Donghae.

            “I have some questions for you,” I reminded Donghae.

            He looked over at me and seemed a little stunned to see me there, as if he’d forgotten that I even existed.  “What kind of questions?”

            “About Ryeowook.”

            Donghae gave Eunhyuk a confused look.  “He’s convinced that Ryeowook was murdered.”

            “