Film cameras are better than digital ones. Why? Because in that moment the light flashes, the truth is etched into the film forever. Because truth is perceived as valuable.

—

“I just hated Jihyun for making this whole mess so I just did it, alright?! Happy now?!”, Taehyung’s voice sustained despite the recording having ended.  

“Thank you for giving me the idea of using a recorded confession”, Haejoong smiled at you with that same expression that used to make you feel comforted but now all you wanted was to punch his face in.

It wasn’t only you, Taehyung also had his fist clenched tight to the extent his knuckles were turning white.  

“The moment either of you try to report any of this, just know that I wouldn’t go down alone…”, the sly being tucked his phone back into his pocket, hardly moves a facial muscle before giving you one last nod and eventually sauntering off the hospital porch.  

—

“Don’t you want to know what happened?”, Taehyung asked you apprehensively as both of you sat in a corner of a sparsely patronised café near the hospital.  

Your expression looked angry but your eyes told him that it was more complex than that.  

“Why didn’t you tell me? Can’t believe he thought of threatening you to say those things… and all because of me… I’m such a burden…”, you ranted and Taehyung was astonished, that you never momentarily doubted that him and was even able to figure that much by yourself.  

“Don’t say that! You are not… Nobody would have known that he would go to such lengths. He’s crazy, we have to report this to the police”, Taehyung felt indignant that Haejoong made you feel this way about yourself.  

“We will have to report it to the police but he has that damn recording…”, you were biting your fingernails, deep in thought.  

“Should we tell Ms. Helen about this and let her report it?”, Taehyung suggested. 

“That’s equivalent to reporting it, Haejoong will just use that recording…”, you answered with a deepening frown.  

“Let’s face it, Y/N. There’s nothing that can stop him from releasing it…”, Taehyung was getting impatient. He knows he had everything to lose, but he hated this hostage-like situation.  

“No, I won’t let him do that you!”, you raised your voice, annoyed that there seems to be no option.  

Both Taehyung and you could see it. Haejoong will keep gaining the upper hand if you continue to hold each other down like this. It was so unfair, you thought. The ones that have nothing to lose, can always afford to play the dirty game. They only stand to gain.  

That was when your mind suddenly clicked. No, Haejoong has something he can’t lose too… someone.  

—

Taehyung and you sat next to each other nervously gazing at the café door. Finally it rattles and flies open, the person you were keenly waiting for walked warily towards the both of you.  

Taehyung stood up from his seat, “Jihyun…”, he calls her name gently as she approached the table. “Have a seat, do you want a drink?”  

“It’s ok… what do you want?”, Jihyun’s attitude was uncertain as she rejected the drink but still took a seat opposite you.  

You carefully broached the subject, starting from the point when you found out that Haejoong liked her.

“So, now he has a recording of Taehyung ‘confessing’. Jihyun, he is not what he seems, you have to believe us”, it took a good eight minutes before you managed to finish the recap. You were kind of surprised that Jihyun stayed quiet throughout although she did look apprehensive.  

“Y/N, I know I said that I believe that you didn’t do it. But don’t be mistaken. It doesn’t mean I trust that you are on my side. Haejoong was the only one who had comforted me and stood up for me during this time… How can you expect me to take your words about him, when you were not even there with me when I needed it”, she was mostly staring at Taehyung as she expressed her doubts.  

“I tried calling you, I thought you…”, Taehyung attempted to explain.  

“You thought I wouldn’t want to see you? You are not wrong though”, Jihyun sounded exhausted. “Didn’t you say that he likes me? If that’s the case, why would he do that to me?”  

You had no answer.  

“I don’t want this thing to get any bigger than it already is… I just hope it dies down quickly and quietly. That is all I want now. It’s not about the truth anymore. Somehow the world makes me feel that as the victim, finding the culprit, seeking justice, is not my priority”, she sounded utterly drained.  

She stood up to leave and you bolted up from your seat too, “Jihyun…” There was a stillness in the air, you had almost never called her by her name like that.  

—

“Taehyung and Y/N came to look for me this afternoon…”, Jihyun said nervously. Haejoong had just brought her to their comfort food place - a kimchi soup restaurant, which is the only thing she can eat whenever she felt awful, and they are now strolling towards her hostel. His scarf was wrapped around her neck after he adamantly insisted that she wasn’t wearing enough layers.  

Haejoong stopped in the middle of the pavement upon her words and turned to face her.  

“They told me that you were the one who took those photos of me and wanted me to report you…”, Jihyun elaborated, stopping and spinning to look at Haejoong too.  

Haejoong was completely still, his eyes moving unnoticeably, observing all the tiny signs in Jihyun’s features.  

“They say you forced Taehyung to record a confession…”, Jihyun continued.  

“Do you believe them? What is it that you want to hear from me?”, Haejoong replied cautiously.  

“… you are the only friend I have now, so I want to hear you say that it’s not you”, Jihyun mumbled.  

“Will you believe me if I say that it is not me?”, Haejoong asked.

“I will”, she answered, never once averting his eyes.

“It’s not me.”  

A comforted smile slowly spreads across her lips.  

“It can’t be you…”, she whispers, and he was relieved to see that she will take his side. “It cannot be you…”, she uttered, and his expression changes. Yes, it cannot be him, if it were, Jihyun might lose it altogether.

“I was looking for the right time to let you hear the recording… I didn’t want to traumatise you just when things were getting better. Isn’t this like the thief calling someone else the thief? Unbelievable…”, Haejoong was careful that he didn’t appear too keen to explain the situation.  

“They pretend they can understand how I feel after all that has happened. How can they ever understand the feeling… it’s not as if it has happened to any of them”, Jihyun started to tear up.  

“Do you want to hear it? If not, what do you want me to do with the recording?”, Haejoong prodded.  

Jihyun thought for a while and said, “Nothing… delete it.”  

“You want me to delete it? Jihyun, I can’t-”, Haejoong started to resist.  

“I have known Taehyung for years! I’ve liked him for half that time! What do you want me to say?!”, Jihyun was agitated suddenly. Haejoong just stared at her in shock. But in a matter of seconds, she managed to catch herself again, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have shouted at you. I just want it to be over, Haejoong…”.  

“Do you still like him… Kim Taehyung? Even after all he did to you?”, Haejoong questioned her, his heart never felt heavier than it is now.  

“Have you ever had such a person? Even if they hurt you a lot, and they do all sorts of bad things, you feel like you can’t leave them? Maybe one day he will see that I was the one sticking by his side through it all… maybe then, I stand a chance. If only…”, Jihyun suddenly stopped, and shook her head.  

“If only what?”, Haejoong pressed on.  

“Nothing… I shouldn’t be thinking such things”, Jihyun became tight-lipped.

“If only Y/N never came into the picture?”, Haejoong completed her statement.  

The shock in her eyes were evident.

—

Water was dripping from your hair all over the floor. You undid the bath towel wrapped around your body and flung it over your head, squeezing the moisture from your troublesome hair.  

You walked along the window towards where you had left your clothes hanging off the chair in your dorm. The windows were shut tight and you had drawn the worn-out curtains. Despite all that, your ears perked up when you heard a queer buzzing sound outside your window. You quickly threw on your sweater and slowly peeled open the curtains.  

A dark figure was hovering outside the window, you squinted at it and thanks to the light emitting from the other units you realised that it was a drone pointed right at your window. Right as you identified the foreign object, it started to fly away from you.  

You turned and scanned your room quickly, dashing towards your handphone.  

—

The drone zips through the night sky and to a secluded field not far from the school hostels. Donning a black hoodie, Haejoong looks up at the drone while controlling it with the remote in his hands. As the drone lowers itself, Haejoong spots the silhouette of another object behind it.  

“What’s that?”, he mumbles to himself, furrowing his brows.  

The object came closer towards him and his heart almost stops when he realises it is another drone which had been following his! He quickly lowers his head, trying to hide from it, running to pick up his own drone from where it had landed on the brown lawn.  

The sound was soft, a bit mushy, but he could definitely make out the footsteps approaching from behind him. 

Haejoong stops in his crouched down position. In a split second, he picked up his drone and started sprinting towards the buildings. Just as he was approaching the edge of the grass field, Taehyung dashes out of nowhere and tackles him to the ground.  

The two men were struggling in each other’s holds, Haejoong desperately trying to break free and Taehyung refusing to let go. Haejoong’s drone was crushed between their tangled bodies and in the midst of the tussle, one of the blades on the drone slices across Taehyung’s collar bone.  

Eventually, Haejoong managed to pin Taehyung to the ground and was fiercely shaking off Taehyung’s grasp on his ankles when a second person jumps on him, causing him to fall over. This time the man was much larger than his size and he twisted Haejoong’s arms behind his back, shouting into Haejoong’s ears, “Stop it! You are under suspicions of stalking and ual harassment. You are required to- cooperate- with our investigations!”, the policeman huffs while working to hold Haejoong down.  

—

You burst through the doors of the police station. Ms. Helen was sitting next to Haejoong and you had the urge to just grab him by the collars and demand all the explanation you deserve but that was not top priority at the moment.  

“Where’s Taehyung?”, was all that you spouted, “Is he at the hospital? Which hospital?”  

“Y/N, I’m here, behind you”, Taehyung shuddered in embarrassment of you making a fuss in the police station.  

“Oh my gosh!”, you exclaimed when you saw his white knitted sweater covered in blood stains. You ran towards him, with fear and worry written all over your face. Seeing your reaction, Taehyung quickly revealed the bandage on his collar bone, “I’m ok I’m ok, it’s just a minor cut, they already fixed me up here.”  

That assured you not to worry about him but the fury did not die down and you immediately turned to lunge yourself at Haejoong. Helen threw herself between you and your nemesis, throwing her arms up to prevent you from exacerbating the situation.

“Y/N, that’s enough!”, she chided and luckily Taehyung ran over to drag you away.  

No matter how much the police questioned him, Haejoong remained silent and denied everything.  

“Mr. Im, the implications here are pretty obvious, wouldn’t you agree? We set up a net to catch the fish. If you aren’t the fish, why did you fall into the net?”, the inspector was pretty patient.  

“If you go around setting random nets, you are bound to catch things that are not fishes”, Haejoong replied defiantly, his words still sparse.  

“Well it was a pretty specific net, after all we used the victim as the bait to set it up…”, the inspector casually commented.  

Haejoong scoffed, “the victim?”, he turned to glance at you, and Taehyung’s feathers were vehemently ruffled again. “Are you sure this alleged victim knows enough to help you set up a net? You have got the wrong person, officer… she’s just trying to-”

“Oh no no, she’s not the victim I’m talking about”, the policeman cut Haejoong off.  

Silence ensued as Haejoong processes the assertion. Then who is this ‘victim’ they speak of?  

The door opens again, wind howling as it did.  

“Ah Ms. Kim, sorry to make you come all the way, this late at night”, the inspector greeted.  

You always felt that there was a kind of eeriness to the silence that came abruptly after a loud sound. That moment an explosion subsides, that sound which is quieter than silence itself.  

This was that moment.  

“A sound of something breaking
A sound full of unfamiliarity”

He always had the same disposition. It always felt familiar. But that was just a mask he wore. Now you see it, the truth of him, the unfamiliar reflection of his soul. As he looked at Jihyun entering the dusty room, it was alive in his eyes. The vengeance that he hold, the indignation that he suffer and most importantly, the hurt that he never once imagined she would bring to him.