“Oh, I almost forgot, the name of the organization is White Liars.”

Once Aeri left the car, Yeri stopped the recording from her phone. It’s illegal, but it is needed. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

White Liars? What kind of name is that? I wondered why they chose an English name. As far as my knowledge of English vocabulary goes, I think it stemmed from white lies. This means that they are lying for the safety of others. What do they mean by the safety of others? So are they pretending to be innocent to protect others? Or is this a pun since liars rhymed with lawyers?

I have to process this ton of information that Aeri just gave me. First, she is somehow connected to the organization. She is a cousin of Kim Jonghyun, and also BI. Wait, should I call him Hanbin? Nevermind. The Kang family used to be involved in this . The family of my adoptive mother. Maybe Junmyeo oppa knows about this? I’ll just ask him later I guess.

Second. They have the evidence to take down the heads of the organization, but they stopped due to the fear that others will rise to be the new leader. This doesn’t make any sense. They could just keep on fighting against them. Once the top families are gone, it will take a lot of time for the other families to recover. 

Maybe the problem is there are possibly other top families out there that they haven’t met. Since they still have the status of being the top family, they can easily acquire the leadership. This still doesn’t make any sense. They have evidence and other things, but they still haven’t managed to arrest them, unless they are supporting the beliefs of that group.

Third, if the Kang family is somehow involved in this, what are they in for? What division are they leading? If I assume that my adoptive parents married each other for their companies, this would probably mean that they are leading a division which is related to technology. I mean Junmyeon oppa is engaged with Joohyun unnie because of BH entertainment planning to integrate our technology into their idols’ merchandise. This is the same as Jaehyun and I. Possibilities are, they are technology related. Also evidence is Kim Jonghyun. If I remember correctly, Hayi unnie said they are both interested in science stuff. 

Fourth, I doubt if she is only connected to Beomgyu. Her alibi is that my mother is her father’s ex. This isn’t a reason to go and contact him during his break.  She is obviously related to him, but I’m not sure how. Wait, is it possible that we got the same mother? If this is true then she would definitely have a good reason to meet up with him. The problem is me. Aeri and I were about the same age. I’m only older than her by months. This would be impossible right? So this theory would be false. This would only happen if again, I am not from that family. Wait, I almost forgot that Beomgyu gave me a gift.

She opened the box that he gave to her.

Wait, it’s my diary from when I was a kid. I purposely left it there to avoid cringing. He did this on purpose to embarrass himself.

The first entry goes like this:

October 3, 2009.

This is the first time I write in a diary. Today, my mother scolded me because my brother fell to the floor. She said it is my fault for not looking at him. 

What kind of handwriting is this? I can’t believe that my grammar was perfect when I was a kid.

She flipped through pages and pages. Every time she reads what she wrote, the exact scene plays in her head. There are a couple of torn pages though towards the end part. Other pages are torn off while the others are cut. Is it possible that someone was able to access this diary other than me? Maybe Beomgyu. I can’t remember, but I have this feeling that I was the one who tore the pages. Naturally, if this notebook is only for me, I don’t think I would bother making it clean. It is possible that someone cut several pages off. It seems to me that they tried hiding the fact that the page was cut.

Throughout the ride, she was able to finish it since most of the entries were two to three sentences long. The latest entry was around seven years ago. I wonder why Beomgyu kept teasing me with this diary. This was already years ago. Seven years ago. I was thirteen at that time. The last entry was about the visit to Japan. 

Wow, I can’t believe that my memory is quite good. After all these years with the first entry being twenty years ago, I still can vividly remember it. How is that possible? I can vividly remember the events written in my diary. How about the memories I haven’t written during those years?

She thought about it for around five minutes. Nothing. She can’t remember anything outside of her diary. Weird. I can’t remember anything between 2009 and 2017. The only thing I can remember was all written in my diary. Something isn’t right.

Her train of thoughts was cut due to recognizing someone walking down the streets.

Saeron.

“Follow that girl.” She pointed her hand towards Saeron’s direction.

“I would like to remind you that your visit here will be over soon. We need to go back before six o’clock. It is already five.”

She then saw her entering a dormitory of a famous university in Seoul. So is this where she is going to school? Good for her.

“Wait for me here.” She told BI as she hurriedly went to Saeron’s dorm.

“Excuse me, where is your ID?” The guard stopped her.

“I’m not a student here. I’m just going to visit someone.”

Just as she started talking to the guard; Saeron was out of her eyesight.

“Who are you visiting? Does this person know you are visiting?”

“I’m visiting someone named Kim Saeron. No, she doesn’t know that I’m going to visit her.”

“There is someone named Kim Saeron here. She is a student who also works part-time as a cook here. Let me call her to ask if she knows you. What’s your name again?”

She’s working as a cook? How so? Her mother is a professor herself at an international school. Why does she need to work part-time?

“My name is Kim Yerim.”

“Okay.” The guard replied as he used a phone to contact Saeron. The call took just a minute.

“She agrees to meet you.”

Finally, after months without contact. I’m meeting her again. I really have a lot of questions to ask her. Which one should I ask first? Why haven’t you contacted me or do you know Jungkook?

Minutes later, she saw Saeron rushing to her excitedly.

“Where the have you been?” Yeri said as she embraced her.

“Why the are you here?”

“Why are we both swearing?”

“I don’t know. Out of happiness maybe?”

The two calmed their down and started talking to each other.

“Why didn’t you contact me?”

“I’ve been busy. The guard probably told you that I work here part-time to support myself.”

“Your mother didn’t support you.”

“Things got with her. I’m sorry I can’t talk about that.”

“It’s fine. I understand.” She said as she glanced towards her phone to check the time.

The trip to the mainland from here is about forty minutes. It’s already fifteen minutes past five. I have to ask about Jungkook.

“By the way do you know Jungkook?”

Saeron’s face changed in an instant.

“Yeah I know him. Why do you ask?”

“What is your relationship to him?”

“How do you know him?”

“I met him somewhere. Then I remembered seeing him when I visited you in the hospital months ago. So I asked him and he said you two are in a relationship.”

“That’s odd.”

“So how are you related to him?”

“I’m not. Actually my mother is closer to him.”

“Huh?”

“Let’s just say I got involved with him because of my mother. I’m sorry I can’t talk beyond this point. It is just frustrating to talk to my mother again.”

“It’s okay, I understand.” Yeri felt someone tapped her shoulders. It was BI.

Since their high school days, whenever Saeron mentioned her mother, Yeri can’t ask more. She knows what Saeron's situation is. She doesn’t know how to comfort her so she usually changes topics. 

“Who’s that?” Saeron asked.

“A friend of mine who I met in Japan. He’s rich so I asked him to pay for my airplane ticket to go back here.”

I hope he won’t get mad at this alibi of mine.

“Oh I see. So is this a goodbye?”

“Wait, are you still using your old phone number or your old social media accounts?”

“I don’t. My mother is bothering me so I deactivated it. The same goes for my phone number. I changed it.”

“Can I have your phone number?”

“Sure here it is.”

Saeron recited her phone number which Yeri gladly typed in her phone.

“It seems that your friend is getting impatient already. I’ll just text you my social media usernames since I hid it from my mother. I assume that your phone number is still the same.”

“I do. Okay. We’ll see each other then. Bye.”

“Bye.”

As soon as Yeri enters her car, she’s been waiting for Saeron's text. They already reached the mainland, yet she still hasn’t received a single text from her.

She probably forgot about it. Let me call her.

It took a couple of rings before the call was answered.

“Hello who’s this?”

This isn’t her voice. 

She spent the whole night wondering what Saeron’s reason to do this. So she’s hiding from me, not from mother? She took advantage of the fact that I can’t ask her about her mother. Did Jungkook tell her to do this? If she is avoiding me then why did she agree to talk with me earlier? If she intended to meet me, then why did she give the wrong number? Or maybe she didn’t intend to give the wrong one. Whatever Saeron’s reason is, Yeri was drawn into her thoughts the whole night.

The next morning, she sent the recording for her cousins, BI, and Jaehyun to listen. An hour later, after listening to the recordings, they are all both enlightened and confused.

“You didn’t tell me that your other brother is an idol.” Jaehyun commented.

“And it would be a dead giveaway to others that I’m not from here. Enough about my brother, what are your thoughts about this?”

“Hanbin, did you know that your mother’s family is involved in this?” Hayi asked.

“My brother told me about this, but not that much. I don’t know my other cousins actually

I, myself, am learning what he sends to Hayi weekly.”

“By the way Hayi unnie, what is that information that you get from BI’s brother?”

“Mostly it’s about science and stuff. There’s also those which are related to the organization as well.