“Im Jaebum has been arrested.”

There were few things in this world that fazed Mark Tuan. He’d seen a lot, and he’d handled plenty of difficult situations. He’d escaped direct threats to his life, rescued people who needed rescuing and killed people who deserved to die. But this was one of the rare moments when Mark Tuan felt his heart drop into his stomach. When he answered the phone and heard the familiar female voice over the line after months, he certainly hadn’t expected to hear this.

“What?” Mark blurted out, confused.

The female voice on the other side was speaking in a hushed tone, and she sounded urgent. “Listen to me. They’ve just brought him into custody. We’ve got solid evidence that he’s running a human trafficking ring, Mark.”

Mark tried to compose himself, tried to think rationally in the face of news that their leader had been arrested without a single one of them knowing. He took a deep breath and spoke. ”That’s not us. You know that’s not us. We don’t deal in the human trafficking ring, we draw the line when it comes to selling people.”

The woman on the line sounded exasperated and her voice was quieter, as though she didn’t want to be overheard. “I know that. That’s why I’m risking my job to tell you this. You need to get over here, and you need to come with the best lawyer you can pay for with your dirty money. Otherwise the other detectives are going to keep him here all night and torture a confession out of him. This is high-profile, Mark. We’ve got our best interrogators on him. He’s going to crack and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”

Mark took a deep breath and nodded. “I’ll handle it.”

–

It was 1 am when your phone rang.

You blinked drowsily, wondering if you should just ignore it. You had a terrible feeling that it would be your boss, maybe calling you into work to handle some documents in the last minute. These corporate tax lawyers had no qualms about hijacking their employees’ personal lives. You were exhausted from being in the stuffy office all day and you had no plans to go back and do anything until you’d gotten some sleep. But the phone kept ringing persistently and you took a deep breath.

“Hello?” you answered groggily, rolling over.

The voice on the other end of the line was familiar, yet strange.

“This is Park Jinyoung speaking. I need your help.”

You shot upright, heartbeat thudding. Park Jinyoung? You hadn’t heard that name in a long time. It sent an unpleasant shiver down your spine and you blinked a few times to clear your head. Part of you wondered if you had been hallucinating because of the stress of your job, but that wasn’t the case. You could hear Jinyoung breathing down the line, still waiting for you to respond.

“How did you get my number?” was all you could think to blurt out.

Jinyoung’s voice was tight. “Getting a phone number isn’t exactly difficult these days. I know it’s late, and I’m going to get straight to the point. Jaebum has been arrested. We need a lawyer.”

“And you called me, of all people?” you demanded incredulously.

“You know these are sensitive matters. We can’t just bring a stranger into this stuff and risk exposing everything. I’ll make it worth your while. We don’t just want any lawyer, we want a lawyer that we can trust.”

“You have a lot of nerve calling me up at this time of night and expecting me to rescue your ing leader, Park Jinyoung,” you snapped. Your stomach was swirling with anger and you clenched your fists tightly. “I’m not a criminal defense lawyer anymore. I don’t do this sort of and you know better than anyone why I stopped doing it. I’m definitely not coming there to bail Jaebum out of whatever horrible things he’s done because he deserves to go to-“

“But he’s not guilty this time.”

You froze.

“He’s being framed. He needs your help. Please.”

—–

You strutted into the police station as though you owned it.

Your heartbeat was thudding, your palms were sweaty and you wanted to die. But if there was one thing you’d learnt from your years at law school and your practice in the field, it was how to keep a straight face. They’d nicknamed you poker face back in college, and there was a running bet about how you wouldn’t bat an eyelid even if someone put a gun to your head. Some idiot brought a toy gun to class to try it once. You’d twisted his arm and he’d worn a cast for two weeks.

Your voice was firm and cold as you announced your presence. “I’m Im Jaebum’s lawyer. All questioning stops now. I need a personal interview with him.”

The police officer sitting closest to you looked up at you with a white face. He tried to stay calm, but you saw the flicker of confusion in his eyes. He cleared his throat and stood up. “We don’t have anyone here with that name-“

“Are you positive?” you snapped, eyebrows raised coolly. “Are you one hundred percent certain that you do not have a man named Im Jaebum, accused of running a human trafficking ring in your custody? May I record you making that statement, please?”

The police officer hesitated. “No, I mean…”

“So you do have him in your custody. He just hasn’t been allowed to make any phone calls, or call for a lawyer. Isn’t that right? How about you take me to see him right now before you make your situation worse by further violating his rights?” you demanded, arms folded across your chest. The police officer was still hesitating and you leaned forward, banging your hand on his desk and glaring at him. “You will stop his interrogation immediately and inform him that his lawyer has arrived and wishes to speak with him. Trust me, buddy. I don’t care what evidence you have on this guy, I can get your entire case thrown out and his confession invalidated if I prove that you violated his rights as an accused. Don’t this up for yourself further.”

The man picked up his phone and walked a short distance away from you, clearly speaking to his superior. He came back after a few moments and nodded at you.

“Follow me.”

You followed the officer down a long corridor of interrogation rooms. He asked you to wait outside and you did, tapping your foot nervously against the floor. Your heart was racing at a million miles per second. It had been exactly four years since you’d seen Im Jaebum, and now you were about to come face to face with him in a police interrogation room. You took a deep breath and tried to calm yourself, before the man came out with another detective.

“You’re his lawyer?” the detective spat, raising an eyebrow at you in disgust. He’d clearly expected to have more time with his prisoner and you took the irritation on his face as a good sign. Hopefully it meant that Jaebum hadn’t confessed anything particularly incriminating yet. The detective continued to eye you, his eyes scanning up and down your body. “You seem a little young to be doing this. And I’ve never seen you in this precinct before.”

You raised an eyebrow at the man. “No questioning will take place unless I am present,” you informed him calmly, ignoring his rudeness. “As for now, I think the accused has the right to consult with me in private. There better not be any cameras switched on in that room.”

The detective scoffed. “Go ahead. We have solid evidence. Nothing you do can stop this now.”

You raised an eyebrow. “We’ll see about that.”

You pushed past him and entered the interrogation room. The lights were dim, and you had to wonder if the lack of lighting was some sort of tactic to make the accused feel more miserable. The door closed behind you and you took a deep breath, letting your eyes fall on the lone figure sitting in the middle of the room.

Im Jaebum was on the other side of the table, his elbows resting on the surface and his chin resting on his folded hands. The outline of his broad shoulders and his familiar silhouette made your knees feel weak. God. Why am I here? What am I doing? Part of you wanted to turn around and run away, leave the interrogation room and tell the officers that you weren’t really Jaebum’s lawyer. But Jaebum had already noticed you. His sharp eyes widened in recognition, and his jaw clenched tightly when you stepped into the light.

“Why are you here?” he asked quietly. It had been three years since you’d heard that deep voice and it sent a shiver down your spine. Jaebum’s mere presence had always been enough to unravel you. He continued to speak when you didn’t answer him. “I didn’t call for a lawyer. They didn’t even let me make any phone calls after they arrested me.”

“That was a mistake. We’ll use it against them if this goes to trial,” you promised, walking into the middle of the room and taking a seat opposite him. The chair wasn’t very comfortable and it brought you eye to eye with Jaebum. His angular face, the way his lips were pressed together tightly and his dark eyes… they were all inches away from you. Jaebum’s tongue darted out and his lips as drank in the sight of you.

“That doesn’t explain why you’re here.”

“Apparently you’ve got some cops on your side. Somebody tipped off the gang about your arrest. I got a call from Park Jinyoung.”

Jaebum leaned back in his seat, letting his head tilt backwards with a groan. He looked exhausted and you had to wonder how long he’d been locked up here. His eyes were pained as he finally straightened up and turned to look at you. “. Jinyoung’s a ing idiot. You don’t have to be here. He’ll get me another lawyer. You had better leave. Just scare them into letting me make a phone call or two, and I’ll manage.”

You clenched your fists in irritation. “Shouldn’t you be a little more grateful that I drove down here in the middle of the night?”

Jaebum raised an eyebrow. “What’s the use in expressing pointless gratitude? We both know you hate me, you’re here because Jinyoung offered you a lot of money. Forget it. We don’t have to deal with this. I know what you think of me and I know that you’re not even a defense attorney anymore. Just go. I’ll pay you for tonight.”

You wanted to slap him. “You think I came here for your ing money?”

“Then why did you come here?”

“I came here because Jinyoung says you didn’t do it.” Jaebum looked startled. You took a deep breath, leaning forward and looking into his eyes. They stared back at you, hard, firm and yet with a hint of fear that only you could recognize. There was weakness there. There was always weakness there when it came to you.

Jaebum finally broke your gaze and looked down at the table. “Did he say that?” he mumbled.

“Tell me if it’s true. I heard about the human trafficking ring. Did you sell those girls, Im Jaebum? Did you keep them locked up in a basement before selling them to black market traders in the Middle East? Did you have them forcefully sterilized so that men could them without the fear of getting them pregnant?” you asked him.

“Would you believe anything I said?” he challenged, glaring at you.

“Try me.”

“Then no. I didn’t do it. I’m innocent.”

You scoffed, leaning back in your seat. Your hands were trembling but you kept them still on the table so that Jaebum wouldn’t notice. Your tone was acidic. “I would hardly describe you as innocent, Im Jaebum. You’re about as guilty as it’s possible for a single man to get. But if you say that you didn’t sell these girls then maybe you didn’t. I don’t know. The last time I believed you I came off looking like a pretty big ing idiot.”

He stared at you. “I don’t expect you to trust me.”

“I don’t.”

“Then why are you here?”

Why were you here? You didn’t know. Im Jaebum had done nothing but lie to you. He’d betrayed your trust, had broken every single part of you that was intact and had finally left you to abandon the profession you’d spent your entire life preparing for. No single person had ever done as much damage to your sanity as Jaebum had. He’d left you broken three years ago and it had taken you forever to pick up the shattered pieces and put yourself back together.

“Because I want to believe that you didn’t do it,” you whispered.

Jaebum leaned back and looked at you, his expression softening. He could see the fear in your eyes, could see the girl he’d fallen in love with all those years ago. He wanted to push away the table separating the both of you, to take you into his arms and tell you that he loved you more than anything in the world and that he would do anything to change the past.

But Jaebum only stretched his hands across the table, his handcuffed wrists reaching towards yours. You felt a shiver down your spine as his large, warm hands covered yours and he closed his eyes before he bowed his head.

“I didn’t do it. I don’t deal in that line of work. You want to know why?”

“Why?”

Jaebum’s eyes shot open and you felt your heart drop into your stomach as you stared back at him.

“Because I can’t look a scared woman in the eye without thinking about what I put you through.”

–

You giggled, wrapping your arms around him tightly. “Don’t answer that. I won’t let you.”

Jaebum raised an eyebrow at you, while trying to wriggle out of your grasp. You knew that he was strong enough to push you away in a second if he really wanted to, but he only struggled weakly and then fell back against you, his bare torso almost squishing you against the pillows. You squealed as he flopped his weight on top of you.

“Stop it! You’re squishing me!” you squealed, slapping his broad back.

He chuckled. “You’re the one who won’t let go.”

“Because if I let go then you’ll answer your phone, and it’ll be that stupid business partner of yours and he’ll call you into work for some bloody emergency that he could probably handle himself,” you pouted miserably. You were tired of Jinyoung’s phone calls interrupting your evenings with Jaebum. You let Jaebum turn to face you, but you kept your arms around him and pressed your lips to his bare shoulders. “You promised tonight was just us. I haven’t seen you in a long time.”

Jaebum looked down at you gently, letting you snuggle your face into his neck. “Is that my fault? You’re the one who never lets me anywhere near you during your exams.”

You whined. “Yes, it’s your fault. You’re too distracting.”

He chuckled. “But baby, it could really be something important.”

You gave him a playful glare and pushed him away. “Fine, go answer it. If you answered MY calls that religiously, we’d see each other more often.”  

Jaebum leaned forward and pressed his lips to yours gently, before grabbing his phone and walking over to the balcony to answer the call. You slumped back against the pillows and watched his silhouette in the dark room. Jaebum’s broad shoulders and were highlighted by the dim light streaming in through the balcony, and you had to take a deep breath at how attractive your boyfriend was. You still wondered why Jaebum adored you so much. You were difficult, and headstrong and liked having things your own way. But somehow he loved every part of you.

Jaebum finally ended the call and came back over to you, crawling onto the bed and letting you snuggle back against him.

“Was it Jinyoung again?” you asked lightly.

He nodded and wrapped his arms around you. “Yeah. He just wanted to clarify something about the accounts. We have a couple of new clients so things are messy these days.”

You giggled and rested your head on his chest. “I still can’t understand what exactly it is you do, Jaebum.”

He looked down at you with a small smile. “I told you. We’re business and marketing consultants.”

“Sounds kind of shady to me,” you teased lightly. You knew that Jinyoung was a business major, and that both he and Jaebum had opened up a start-up company recently. He claimed that they were consultants, and that they gave marketing advice but you’d honestly never understood the work they did. Jaebum never talked about it either, always jokingly telling you to keep your head in your legal books and leave the commercial stuff to him. You let your hand trail up Jaebum’s chest lightly. “It sounds kind of like the shady start-up business somebody would use as a front to run their illegal activities behind. Are you sure you guys aren’t like, smuggling some diamonds in from Africa or something?” you teased.

Jaebum raised an eyebrow and squeezed you playfully. “Oh , babe, how did you know? We were just talking about the latest that we’re getting from Mexico.”

You giggled. “Diamonds sound classier.”

Jaebum laughed and leaned his head back against the pillow. There was a few moments of silence and his breathing evened out. You wondered if he was asleep but when you lifted your head to check, he was staring down at you with his eyes wide open, watching you. “What?” you asked.

“What if I was doing something illegal? Would you still want to be with me?” Jaebum asked, a tinge of seriousness to his tone.

You blinked and sat up. “What kind of a question is that?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. You’re the one who wants to become a criminal defense attorney. You talk about how important it is to defend people accused of crimes in court, and give them a chance to get their stories out. I’m just wondering if you’d ever actually be with a criminal. Maybe sometimes, it’s okay to ignore the law.”

You sighed and leaned back. “The law isn’t perfect,” you admitted.

“Agreed.”

“But the point of being a defense attorney isn’t to support criminals, Jaebum. The legal system is adversarial by nature. That means the entire system depends on the concept of two sides fighting against each other in order to bring out the truth. The principle is that when two equally strong forces go up against each other, then the one with truth on their side will win. But if nobody wants to fight for the accused then their side becomes weak and they lose.”

Jaebum bit his lip. “But what if you end up getting criminals off and set them back on the streets?”

You sighed and shrugged. “Mistakes might happen. I’m not saying it doesn’t. Nobody can make miracles happen, nobody can read minds to tell who is lying and who isn’t. Discovering the truth is difficult. All we can do is accept that we’re part of the system. We need to perform our roles the best we can, and trust that the opposite side will do their best and that justice will come out of it. That’s all we can do. Play our part in a system that’s bigger than us. If a criminal gets back loose then that’s a failure of the system, not the fault of a single overzealous criminal lawyer.”

“I can’t understand you sometimes,” he admitted quietly.

You looked up at Jaebum and then back down at your lap. His arm around you was tight and you inhaled his familiar scent, before quietly admitting something you’d never told anyone before. “My father was arrested for something he didn’t do,” you mumbled softly. “He was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and a powerful gang framed him for their crimes. I spent most of my childhood without a father because criminal lawyers were incompetent and the system failed to get an innocent man off.”

Jaebum looked down at you, his eyes wide. “You never told me that before.”

You bit your lip and smiled at him forcefully. “I’ve never told anyone that before.”

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“I’m not. That’s why I want to become a defense attorney. I’m not letting any more innocent men go to jail. Not like my father.”

He nodded and pressed his lips to the top of your head. “I understand. I love you so much, baby.”

“I love you too,” you whispered, before looking up at him with narrowed eyes. “But I swear to god, Jaebum, if you and Jinyoung are trying to evade taxes or something in that shady business of yours, then you’d better think twice. I don’t want to have to defend my boyfriend in court.”

He forced a smile. “For tax evasion? Hardly.”

–

“So? What happened?”

You slumped back against the couch, tired. It was 4 am and you’d had to drive down to GotSeven’s headquarters once you were done dealing with the police officers because Jinyoung wouldn’t stop calling you.  An unfamiliar man had greeted you at the entrance to the business consultancy office and led you into the larger, more ominous building right behind it. There was nothing particularly incriminating here either… it looked like a regular office but you tried not to look around too much. Instead, you looked straight up at Jinyoung with red eyes, feeling a headache coming on as you gathered the energy to speak.

“They have eye-witnesses linking Jaebum to the human trafficking racket,” you explained, placing your files on the table in front of you. The police had been extremely uncooperative and you understood why. They were very close to nabbing a huge gang leader and they didn’t want you to mess things up for them. “From what I can tell, that’s the only major evidence they have on him. Also, he had an unlicensed gun on him when they arrested him, so that’s not helping matters.”

Jinyoung bit his lip and looked at you nervously. “But the gun doesn’t prove anything, right?”

You rubbed your fingers across your forehead, trying to soothe the ache. There were six large men standing in front of you and every single one of them looked helpless. It struck you that Jaebum had been the one holding this entire fort together. Without him, the gang couldn’t function. There was nobody to issue orders, nobody they could trust to stay cool and handle everything. Even Park Jinyoung looked like he was going to fall apart.

“Carrying that gun is a minor crime in itself, but it’s nothing too bad unless they can prove that he’s used it. Luckily, it was fully loaded when they found it so there’s nothing to suggest he’s ever fired any of the bullets. But that’s not what you should be worried about. The cops are going to get search warrants the moment they can get hold of a judge. That could be in a couple of hours. They’re definitely going to search this place, and they might just get into any other hideouts you guys have.”

Jinyoung glanced around at the others and exchanged glances with them before turning to you. “We cleaned this place up already. They won’t find anything here. Only Mark and Jackson have guns, and they both have licenses to carry them.”

You nodded. “Okay. The bail hearing is on Thursday. If you want your leader to get out of police custody then you need to make sure they don’t find anything else before I can get him out.”

“But what about afterwards?” Jackson demanded. He had his arms folded across his chest and you could see that he was nervous. “I mean, we can hide our tracks and all our other activities but the fact remains that Jaebum is still under arrest for human trafficking. We’re being framed. Probably by BTS. They’re the ones who sent the fake witnesses, right? Bambam, Yugyeom, you guys know more about this than we do.”

Yugyeom piped up nervously. “Hyung is right. Jaebum-hyung is being framed. We know a guy on the inside in BTS, we spent some time with them a few years ago. Jungkook told us that they sent in fake witnesses to identify Jaebum as the ring leader. They promised to let those girls go if they told the police the stories they prepared and directed the cops to Jaebum-hyung.”

You stared at them in disbelief. “For ’s sake, what kind of  do you all get up to?”

There was silence across the room and you instantly shut your files, standing up. What am I doing? Why am I standing in here in a room full of criminals, trying to help them hide the terrible things they get up to? You felt a burst of disgust towards yourself and you started to sling your bag over your shoulder while the other men watched you in silence. “Listen, I don’t care why Jaebum being framed or whether he did all this. In fact, the less you tell me about your operations, the better. I’m only going to handle this until I can get Jaebum out on bail. The actual trial could take months, and I’m no criminal lawyer.”

Jinyoung looked up at you desperately. “But you studied to become one. Please help us. I don’t know who else to ask-“

“Well, you sure as shouldn’t have asked me,” you hissed. These men had a lot of nerve, acting all innocent and scared when they were the bad guys. You refused to be manipulated again. “I’m not a criminal like you. It took me an entire year of therapy to get back to normal after what happened three years ago, so if you think that I have any intention of getting involved with your , you’re wrong.”

“I know we were careless back then,” Jackson began, but you cut him off.

“No, I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to know anything. I’m just going to help you get Jaebum out on bail, and for that I need you all to do two things. One, co-operate with the police whenever they show up with a warrant and for ’s sake, hide your other operations properly. If the police find smuggled goods or weapons or anything, the entire case is shot. Co-operate with them, but don’t tell them anything they don’t already know.” you ordered. The men were listening to you intently and you took a deep breath before continuing carefully.

“Two, we need to prove to a judge on Thursday that Jaebum won’t run if they let him out on bail. I’ll be back tomorrow evening so in the meantime, one of you prepare his employment records, his educational background, bring me anything you have to show that he’s a decent person and make his sister sit in the front row and shed a few tears for the judge. That’s it. I’m leaving.”

You stood up and started to walk out, but Jinyoung called after you, making you stop in your tracks.

“Is that all? Do you need us to do anything else?” he asked.

You turned around and glared at them all. “Yeah. Find yourself another lawyer by Thursday.”

–