▬ Chapter 14: Suspicions ▬

Day 1 - D2

One Saturday afternoon, in a far corner of the library, a stack of books and old newspapers lay scattered on one of the tables with one man immersing himself in what he read. With the quiet atmosphere, only the sounds of the slight crumplings of the newspapers that he held were heard as he turned from page to page trying to find the answers that he sought. He hunched a bit closer to the table, furrowing his eyebrows while moving a finger over the words he scanned as he mumbled them to himself.

“The blazing fire went on for a while, the fire department confirmed. There were no apparent casualties but after the number of students was taken into account, one student was deemed missing,” he read to himself. “Hankyung High representatives have taken note and are doing their best to find answers.”

He grabbed another newspaper among the pile, found a similar incident, and continued to read. “Hankyung High mystery: ten students and four teachers dispatched to solve the mystery of one missing student.”

“What are you reading, Sungjong?”

Startled at the voice, the student looked up to be greeted by a warm, smiling face. A man with brown and black ruffled side-swept hair, a bit of smokey eyeliner, and had a cross-chained necklace sitting on top of his open buttoned-down uniform stood in front of him. His intimidating features and the way he wore his outfit screamed delinquent but on the contrary, his smile radiated like warm sunshine.

“Oh, JR. You scared me, man,” Sungjong laughed. “I’m just, uh, doing research.”

“I thought so. You were quite serious over here so I wanted to see what you were up to. I mean, the tests are still a few weeks from now, right?” JR grabbed one of the newspapers and scanned the headlines. “Hankyung High. This isn’t for school assignments kind of research?”

“Not exactly.”

“Well, I don’t have anything planned today,” JR grabbed the chair in front of him which was on the opposite side of Sungjong’s table. He turned it around, sat on it with his arms crossed and propped on the back of the chair, and faced Sungjong with a smile. “Care to share as to why you’re doing this?”

Sungjong looked around the area then leaned closer to JR. “Then, can you keep a secret?” He whispered. After a nod of confirmation, he divulged his concerns. “Soon after Hoya came, he started acting weird. Then we found out that he was talking through a cell phone that he found to some strange girl. We later found out that he was talking to Han Hyerin. After the field trip, he did something weird and Sunggyu thinks that he’s doing some type of voodoo to get the girl here.”

“Ah, Han Hyerin,” JR’s smile stiffened.

“The name sound familiar?”

“Too familiar, actually. Her name is infamous to the students in our year.”

“Huh, weird. I thought only those who actually took their time to  research Woollim’s history knew about the name.”

“That aside, does your leader know?”

“Sunggyu? Yes, he does know. And now that I think about it, he seemed weird these days too. He’s been talking about some premonition about someone’s death or something and he’s been weird since we came back from the field trip.”

“Not surprising.” JR stood up from his spot and pushed his chair back where it belonged. “Well, good luck on your research then, Sungjong. I’ll see you around, okay?”

“Wait,” Sungjong stopped him before the man could disappear among the bookshelves. He placed a finger in between the pages of the newspaper he was currently reading to a page where he left off. “Kim Jonghyun is your real name, right, JR?”

JR looked back with a smile. “Yes. Why?”

“Nothing, just wondering.”

“I see. Then, later.” JR waved for the last time and headed out of the library. “He’s quite perceptive. I wonder if he already saw through it.” Once he got out of the library doors, his footsteps became slow and controlled towards a place even he does not know. “Now that that’s done, it’s off to finding a solution.”

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Sungyeol stood in front of the microphone and sighed. He looked at his watch then took out his phone to dial a number. Unfortunately, after a few rings, no one picked up. “Just where is that woman?”

“You know phones are off limits here, Sungyeol.” A girl with long, brown, and slightly wavy hair waltzed into the room. She placed her belongings on one corner then stood by the microphone next to Sungyeol. Unlike the impatient man standing beside her, she looked calm.

“You must be kidding me, Kang Minkyung.” Sungyeol huffed in disbelief. “You kept me waiting here for twenty minutes! Twenty! I could have gone to the restroom before then!”

“Wow, someone’s grumpy. And hey, if you want to go, then go. No need to wait for me and ask,” she placed her hands on her hips. When the man didn’t move, she narrowed her eyes a