The Dead

Der Märchenclub
Please log in to read the full chapter

 

 

Chapter 39

[The Dead]

 

 

 

 

Jessica didn’t quite know who to believe anymore.

 

When Heechul and her made a visit to the police office the day after the bloody revenge Taeyeon took on Sungmin, Jessica knew that Heechul was equally unsure that they were doing the right thing. But what was the right thing again? It was something that no one could know for sure. Sungmin’s decoy as a policeman made Jessica wary of the possibility that his allies and even maybe boss remained. Worse, what if his allies were also in the police squad? Nonetheless, it wasn’t like she had another choice to make –she still had a situation to explain to the police.

 

But then again, how would one explain the situation that she was involved in? When the police (she didn’t know whether they were the real police or not) arrived at Seoul Opera House and witnessed the dead body of an heiress’ bodyguard and a police officer, it must have been plausible to designate the only living people as witness. Even that was a better situation. If things were not clarified, both Heechul and Jessica could very well be regarded as the culprit. Fabricating a new story did not seem to be an easy task either. Everything overlapped each other –lying would be so easy to detect anyway.

 

Jessica cautiously eyed Jae Won, the high-ranking official of the police force, as he attentively heard Heechul’s story out.

 

Heechul had told Jae Won numerous things: about the notes they found in Oryu facility, about their pact with Taeyeon (though to eliminate the police’s suspicion on them, Heechul told Jae Won that they were forced by Taeyeon to lure Sungmin out –which was not entirely incorrect), about the proofs he had that Sungmin was the real culprit all along, about the battle that occurred the night before, about Taeyeon who had run away…

 

Jae Won had a good five-second of being stunned, before he cleared his throat and spoke softly, “So you cooperated with a killer…to kill another killer?”

 

Heechul’s brow knitted together –clearly displeased with the way Jae Won perceived his testimony. His reply was an infuriated one (not that Jessica could blame him –after all, the two of them hadn’t had the time to sleep after the incident in Seoul Opera House). “Yes, but that’s not the only main issue here, is it? The issue is that one of your subordinates turns out to be the killer himself, and now we’re questioning the credibility of the whole police.”

 

Jae Won took a deep sigh and allowed himself a moment of defeat. “I… honestly can’t believe it myself. Sungmin has been such a dependable, trustable subordinate. I’ve never thought that…” he paused, only to take a different approach later. “Not that I declare him as the culprit already. I know you’ve handed the evidences, but we still need to study them.”

 

“Do whatever you want with the evidences,” claimed Heechul as he leaned back to the chair. Awkward silence emitted among the three of them, but Heechul decided that such silence should have been short-lived. “How…Sungmin could get into the police force again?”

 

Jae Won exhaled another long sigh before replying, “When he first got into the police, we didn’t work in the same division, so I don’t know much. All I know is that he was this talented man having trained abroad, brought by one of the most respectable policemen in that era. The recommendation and the display of Sungmin’s capability made no one question his position even when he…” Jae Won trailed off momentarily. After a quick mental debate, he decided to throw the truth out. “…Even when he didn’t take the official entrance procedures.”

 

“You’re admitting that you’ve accepted someone without following the procedure,” Heechul snorted. “I didn’t know that the police squad is this corrupted.”

 

“Well he showed talent nobody as young as he was had –“

 

“That talented man is a murderer,” countered Heechul.

 

“That’s not yet proven –“

 

“I’ve given you the evidences!”

 

“Which we have to study first, Kim Heechul-sshi. I hope you understand.” Jae Won’s voice equally rose.

 

Heechul stood up from his seat abruptly. “You’re just protecting the villain,” he said as he shook his head, feeling dread coming to him. “For goodness’ sake, who knows if you –if all of the police are part of this wicked scheme?”

 

Jae Won’s face –though was generally soft-featured and wise-looking by age – hardened. “I hope you won’t question the credibility of the whole police force just by one instance of something which has not been proven.”

 

The look on disbelief was so clear on Heechul’s face that no one there was surprised when the Kim heir suddenly stood up, kicked the chair in process, and wordlessly walked to the door, slamming the door hard by force.

 

Jae Won massaged his temple once Heechul was no longer in the room. “I knew that the oldest heir of the Kim is a troubled one, but I didn’t think he would bring this much trouble.”

 

With a grace of a princess, Jessica only stood up and stared down icily at Jae Won. “That troubled kid…has courageously risked his own life to stop the murders harder than all of your police force combined. I hope you look at the mirror first before you badmouth someone,” she said tonelessly before she turned around and headed out of the room.

 

The door was closed (softly, unlike in Heechul’s case) by Jessica, and Jae Won could only mutter to himself.

 

“And I forgot the Jung lady is equally as difficult.”

 

 

Jessica was mildly surprised that when she exited the police station, Heechul was waiting for her. He looked up to her figure descending down the stairs, nodded briefly, and headed to the car. She concluded that it was the signal to follow him, so she did.

 

“I don’t believe them,” he said inside the car once Jessica shut the door.

 

“I really want to, though,” Jessica agreed in a more diplomatic way. “It’s…hard having to deal with all of these without having someone to confide in.”

 

They stayed in silence for the next few moments. Heechul had turned the heater of his car on, but had not decided to maneuver the vehicle away. The two of them only stared at the sight in front of the front window of Heechul’s car.

 

After what seemed to be a long pregnant pause, Heechul broke the silence once more.

 

“Can I trust you, Jung Jessica?”

 

She didn’t reply immediately. She only continued to stare at the oblivious people outside the police office. After another long moment, she finally replied, “That depends. Can I trust you, Kim Heechul?”

 

“Maybe not,” he replied –in contrast to the implication behind his earlier question. “You still dislike me, I still dislike you. It’s hard to form trust between two people who have no chemistry to begin with.”

 

She made a face when she got her point crossed, “Chemistry? Duh, don’t make it sound romantic. It’s nothing like that.”

 

“Oh that, I absolutely agree,” he replied bitingly. “Damn, this attitude of yours… it always makes me wonder why I allow you to breathe the same air as I do.”

 

After another pause, Jessica let a bitter chuckle escaped her lips. “I wonder why you have not told me to get away from your car.”

 

“I don’t trust you, no offense,” he said sternly as he looked at her for the first time since they got into the car. “But Ryeowook is… gone. Kibum too. I don’t trust the police. I can’t involve my family when I am investigating them. I cannot…put Yoona into danger…”

 

The discrimination made Jessica snort. It was nothing new, but it still pissed her off to hear that from his lips. “Yet you’re willing to put me into danger.”

 

“Hey, don’t sound like a jealous girlfriend.”

 

“I’m not your girlfriend, and I’m clearly not jealous,” affirmed Jessica. “It’s just a displeasing thought to know that you would not hesitate to throw me into danger to save your own life,” she retorted –her hand reached out to open the door of Heechul’s car. “But then again, it’s my bad. I know we don’t trust each other and I should know better to expect you –“

 

Heechul’s arm extended to stop her from leaving.

 

And before she could let out another snarky comment at his gesture, Heechul beat her to it.

 

“I may not trust you. But I need you. I need you to solve this whole case.”

 

Jessica rolled her eyes. She did not care if she sounded like the one here, because then again, she had always been one, hadn’t she? “What an opportunist.”

 

“In exchange to that, you can use me too,” proposed Heechul. “You don’t have to trust me, but I know that you equally need me. Come on Jessica, believe me, our partnership isn’t the best, but it has worked quite well in the past. You owe yourself that truth.”

 

She wanted to deny it, she really did. After all, the thought of being in need of Kim Heechul tore something in Jessica’s pride.

 

But she knew he was right.

 

They did not have to trust each other, but they needed each other at the moment. As illogical as it sounded, their partnership was, as Heechul had quoted, working quite well based on experience. It might not have been the best assurance, but at desperate time like this, well, one could never be that picky.

 

Slowly, while still having a mental debate with herself, Jessica pulled the car’s door close again. Sighing, she then turned to ask Heechul, “Alright. Now what are we going to do?”

 

Heechul shrugged. “We’ll think of it after we freshen up. Your clothes are full of blood, surely you want to take care of that first?”

 

Jessica sighed. “Yes, I suppose you’re right.”

 

 

Lee Donghae stared at his reflection on the mirror. He counted to ten and waited for some moments, before he finally exhaled a relieved sigh.

 

He is not coming.

 

Donghae had discovered that his other self had the tendency to communicate with him when he was looking at his reflection on the mirror. He had been staying and undergoing the treatment in this mental asylum for several weeks. He could not declare that his other self had completely vanished, but if he allowed more credit to himself, he knew that he could suppress the existence of his other self better as each day passed by.

 

The doctors also told him that he was showing great improvement. They did not bother to lie to him and say that he could be released soon. But instead of being dejected, Donghae was grateful for such sincerity. He knew that mental diseases were not diseases that could be cured within months –or even years. To imagine that he would be spending the future years of his life in the mental asylum did not displease him. If anything, he thought that it was a good hiding place. He was more afraid of how he would hurt people out there if he was not hidden well enough.

 

That was why, the fear bounced back when she made her appearance to the visiting cubicle again.

 

Jessica, Donghae thought, was a courageous woman. Or an ignorant one–whichever fit her the best. Even his parents didn’t visit him as much as Jessica did. Well, his mother did visit him once –but she never came back again after that.

 

“Sica…” he whispered.

 

“How have you been doing?” the girl asked.

 

Donghae exhaled a deep breath. “Better, I hope. ‘He’ doesn’t show up lately. I think I’m controlling him better as time passes by.”

 

The smile on her face was genuine –one that she honestly, sincerely cast for the first times in the past few weeks. The corner of his lips also twitched upwards to reciprocate the gesture. Ah, he nearly forgot how beautiful her smile was.

 

But the beauty of her smile reminded him of how ugly his inner-self was in comparison. Albeit being in full control lately, Donghae could never be too sure of it. Jessica took more advance steps to approach him, but Donghae raised his hand as a warning not to come closer.

 

“Although he no longer appears, that doesn’t mean you should be less careful about me.”

 

She ignored his words and took another step closer. “I trust you. You won’t hurt me.”

 

He nearly chuckled at her belief as he took a step backward. “You witnessed the hideous things I’ve done in the past. I did something horrible to Yoona, I attacked Heechul Hyung, I even nearly attacked you. You can never trust me, Jessica.”

 

But she just took another step closer, earning him a worried look.

 

“But you’re stronger now, Donghae. I know you’re stronger than that.”

 

As much as he wanted to believe in her words, the insecurity crept back to him effortlessly. Donghae nearly gave up. Jessica knew how to argue better, but he could try again. “I’m not strong, Jessica.”

 

“You are.”

 

He chuckled humorlessly. “What made you so sure of that?”

 

“I know you.”

 

The comment sounded arrogant to his ears –as much as Donghae wanted to stop himself for thinking that way. “You don’t know me that much.”

 

But she ignored his cynic. She took bolder steps towards him, while he took some uncertain steps backwards. His hesitance made it easier for her to catch up, and by then, she already stood in front of him. Slowly, Jessica extended her hand to reach his hand that was laid limp on his side. His hand was warm, like the person she knew he was. She held his bigger hand within her smaller one and allowed herself to smile again, “I know it.”

 

“You know what?”

 

“You are a kind man, Donghae. That’s why you try to distance yourself from me. Because you don’t want to hurt me, do you?”

 

“I don’t want to hurt you, indeed. But that doesn’t mean –“

 

“I’m not a weak girl, Donghae. You should stop treating me as one,” she reminded him. Her eyes looked up at him and he widened his eyes as he saw the determination in her chocolate eyes.

 

And the more he saw it, the more he was ashamed of himself. Jessica was a good girl –someone who did not deserve the wicked side of him. He was embarrassed of himself and he drew his hand away from her tiny grasp. He averted his gaze off her, but he knew that she was still focusing her gaze at him. “Why, Jessica? Why are you doing all of these for me?”

 

The question, Jessica admitted, was something that she had asked herself countless times before –even before it came from Donghae. On an objective point of view, she would not normally allow herself to do this much to someone without expecting anything in return. Donghae was merely her childhood friend. Maybe once, he had been her first love, but that was supposed to be it. First love was not something sacred anymore. And she knew that her feelings had changed throughout the years.

 

But curse her, curse him; her feelings to him had grown stronger.

 

It was something rather inexplicable. If Jessica allowed herself the truth, there was nothing special about Donghae. After she had unconsciously erased her memory of him, she had never seen him again. And since they met each other again after years at the night of Der Märchenclub, he had not done anything special either. Sure, he was there, but so was everybody else. Sure, he tried to protect her, but truth be told, there were other males who tried to protect her too –Heechul, Hankyung…

 

But to her, Donghae was not like Heechul or Hankyung. No matter how insignificant Donghae’s actions were for her, everything he did, everything he said always left a bigger impact on her. She didn’t need to be that conceited anymore to deny that she cared for Donghae more than she did for other males. His actions to her may not have been special, but he was still special no

Please log in to read the full chapter
Like this story? Give it an Upvote!
Thank you!
pinboo
05/5/13: change the posters for chap 6, 9, 12, 14, 15, 18, 25, 26, 27

Comments

You must be logged in to comment
yeonniestan94 #1
Coming back to reread this. For a moment i thought the story was deleted because i search for this on the jessica tag. Kekeke...
Found it finally thanks to Haesica😀😀
Macaroonssi
#2
its 2021 and I'm stil here so.....
aseulmonsta
#3
❤️
gyuhyeon #4
I'm here again for the nth times. This is my fav fanfic ever! I used to dislike sugen pairing but this fanfic brought a new light. Pinboo, could you please sign this story up for a drama please? It will be daebak really.
bwtplove
#5
Chapter 50: This chapter will always traumatized me. Imagine to encounter something like that as child..... :(
bwtplove
#6
Chapter 38: I thought Sunny x Sungmin's side story will be my fav one...but after reading Kibum's story....I guess the ranking change. I could understand the hatred he has toward his family so well. It's such an emotional story to me and the way the poor always have a big heart than the rich....you really did a great job at interpreting this.
LeiLeiLeiLeiLeiLei #7
Hi there! I actually read this fic when I was younger, and I wanna reread it but it's members only :(

I have long forgotten my old AFF account....... AHH how do I reread? hehe
shiningshawol13
#8
Hi! I don't know if you'll be able to see this comment, but yeah, just gonna share my thoughts here hahaha.

So I reread Project: Cupid and Der Marchenclub earlier this week because I've been feeling nostalgic lately and thought, hey, maybe I could reread my favorite Super Generation fanfics coz why not?

And well, I'd just like to say that your works remain to be one of my favorites. It's been years since you've published this, years since I've first read it (early 2015). I could still remember the times when I read a chapter or two in between classes back in college, struggling not to give in to the urge to read them while in class hahaha! This is the first time in a long while that I read it again but everything is still as wonderful and impactful as when I first read it.

Der Marchenclub, in particular, is my favorite Super Generation fanfic. Reading it again cemented that fact in my mind. I loveeeee the plot! In particular, I love how you utilized previously uttered lines and details, smoothly tying a to b. I love the flow of the narration, I know you must've hit some rough blocks, too, but in the end, the writing is just superb: the balance between the dialogue and narration is very nice. I love the characterizations and how utterly realistic and imperfect and humane there are (Heechul's my fave haha), though I agree that there are some characters you could've developed more (Yoona and Siwon, for instance, as you mentioned in yuor DMC blog haha). Overall though, I'd go so far as to say that your work is a masterpiece. I took my time re-reading it again, took my time to appreciate the smoothness in the flow, the humanity of the characters, the thrill of solving the mystery. Every single scene played out in my head, and I could perfectly picture Super Generation here (man, I miss them!). This story, the whole plot, it's a very good material for a TV series, that's how good it is.

It's also good in inspiring people. This fanfiction, your fanfiction - it reignited my desire to write again. These past few years I've been stuck in a slump, probably because of the combined stress from my personal and college life, plus the slightly growing distance from kpop, that I wasn't able to continue any of my stories here at all. I even find it hard to write anything because I began to doubt myself. Whenever I type something up, I ended up not finishing it or just erasing it because it feels off. I've graduated now though haha, so college's one factor off the things stressing me out, but I still didn't dare try to write again. At least, not until I read your stories again.

Der Marchenclub (and Project: Cupid!) reminded me of my love for YoonHae, for HeeSica, for SNSD and Super Junior, and most of all, my love for writing. It made me want to try writing again, mostly about YoonHae and HeeSica hahaha!

So I wanted to say thank you. Thank you for creating Der Marchenclub, thank you for creating your stories, and thank you most of all, for sharing it with us and not deleting it. A few days ago I tried searching again some of my favorite YoonHae fanfics, I can't remember their exact titles but what I know is that it's on livejournal (and soon remembered that it's written by muffinmaverick, if you know her hehe). However, I found out that she deleted her account, which means that even her stories were deleted. It suffices to say that I was utterly devastated. Fanfictions are some of my ways of coping even back then, so to find out that I could no longer read them again really pained me. I know the author must have her reasons, and she has all the right to delete her own account and works, but it still hurt. So really, thank you for keeping this precious works here in this site, thank you for sharing it with us still.

I think I'm kinda rambling at this point haha but what I want to say is that your works have inspired me again, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I'm sure there are other readers out there, too who were inspired to hone or jumpstart their craft after reading your stories. So once again, I would like to say thank you to you. I'm still not very confident, I'm still doubting my skill but well, that can be honed and what's important is that I'm trying again, right? Haha.

Anyways, I miss seeing Super Junior and SNSD together, and reading Der Marchenclub again made me very nostalgic. I'm not that active here in asianfanfics nowadays but I think there are fewer and fewer Super Generation stories now, which I admit breaks my SONELF heart a little. I think it's fitting, though, since our idols have grown more and are living their own lives now, and we're living our own. It won't stop me from writing about them, though haha! If you ever get back to writing again (and I hope you do, I miss reading your stories!), I hope you know that there will still be people who'll welcome you back, and readers who will read your works.

Once again, thank you for writing!! Thank you for bringing Der Marchenclub and your other works to light, and for sharing it with us. :) It's rough in our world right now due to the pandemic but I hope you'll stay safe!