C h a p t e r  3 2

Seven culprits.

Seven guys that had done more than just crushing Donghae's self-esteem.

Six of them charged with actual bodily harm or aggravated battery, one with attempted murder and then some.

Seven men, seven human beings.

Donghae called them devils when he talked in his sleep. Eunhyuk thought they were monsters.

The trial started with only six of them in the dock because Sunghoon's case was way more complicated than they'd thought it was. Sitting next to them were six defending lawyers and it seemed like each and every one of those six guys played their own little act. There was the one acting like he didn’t care, the one who played the innocent, the wrongly accused – no one looked guilty. But they all were. And it also looked like they were really good actors because their eyes weren’t filled with the emotions they should have felt when they looked at Donghae. There was no guilt, no silent apology. Some of them looked even proud as they sat there, a smug smile on their lips and their arms crossed. Maybe they thought they were as intimidating and frightening as they had been during the time when all those things had happened. They yet had to learn that it wasn’t like that anymore.

Eunhyuk had been in a cold sweat when the trial had been coming closer, fearing for Donghae to break down when he would see them again. He had thought he needed to be the brave one again, the strong one. But there was no need for that because Donghae was strong and he also was brave. More than Eunhyuk could ever be.

When he had seen them he had stayed calm and his face blank. There was no fear in his eyes and his hands on the table didn’t shake; his voice was clear when he spoke, even though it was silent. Donghae didn’t look afraid because he perfectly hid all of his emotions when they were in the same room as him. He didn’t want to give them the satisfaction of wielding power over him again and even though they didn’t show it, it wasn’t hard to guess that this was confusing them.

The trial was closed to the public and besides Eunhyuk who was there every time, there were always some members around. Donghwa was there too, but Donghae's mother wasn’t. They all knew that she wouldn’t be able to bear it to exactly know what had happened to her son and Donghae was even glad that she stayed at home. He also didn’t want too many members being there, at least not when they had something better to do. They had started to do some of their schedules again, small things at first and no interviews. But they appeared on TV again, did broadcasts or musicals. SM hadn't pushed them to appear in public again, it had been Donghae's wish.

"Super Junior's world stood still long enough because of me", he had told them with this small smile on his lips. "It should start turning again."

And when they came home from their schedules after Donghae and Eunhyuk had come back from court, the brunet enjoyed listening to their stories, he loved the distraction. Because Donghae was brave on the outside when he had to be, but when it was only him and the raven head, he didn’t hide what he felt inside anymore. There was no need for words then, Eunhyuk just had to be there.

It had been the right decision to trust Lee Soo Man; SM kept its promise to help them and hired their best lawyer, Mr. Lim. And he really was the best. He was kind and understanding when he talked to Donghae, but he was excellent when he was in court. Making those guys and their defending lawyers speechless with facts and accusations seemed like the easiest thing in the world to him; one of them had even looked like he was about to start crying after Mr. Lim had finished. But that didn’t happen to all of them and some were way too confident for their own good.

"Where's the proof?" one had asked after they had read the indictment. "Who says that he has ever been hurt by anyone? I bet there are no wounds visible anymore and who says that any scars on his body are caused by me?"

And he was right. There were no bruises or wounds left and the scars Donghae had couldn’t proof anything. But Mr. Lim had a reason to be called the best lawyer SM had to offer. He called Dr. Ko Sunyoung to the witness stand, the doctor in charge for the base hospital.               
Dr. Ko was a proud woman with a short black bob on her head; she wore an elegant ladies' suit and high heels as she walked to the front, every single one of her steps echoing through the room. The look on her face was stern as she held her head up high and her whole appearance was simply formidable. As she sat down, she sent Donghae a quick glance and the latter immediately dropped his gaze. Eunhyuk wasn’t sure if he was intimidated or if there was another reason.

When she gave her personal details, Eunhyuk tried to remember if he had ever heard her name before. He thought about it, came to the conclusion that he knew a lot of things already, but that he had never heard Donghae tell him anything about a doctor there. In fact, he had never told him anything about people who could have helped him. Had there really been none?

"Dr. Ko, what can you tell us about Lee Donghae-ssi's condition during his military service?" Mr. Lim asked after some time. "Is there anything suspicious?"

"There is", she said and straightened her back even more. "Lee-ssi is stuck to my memory because I had to treat him very often. In those two years he had been with us, I treated him at least once a month."

"What kind of injuries did he have?"

"It was always different. Sometimes he was sent to me because he was limping and I diagnosed a sprained ankle or a torn ligament. Sometimes it were bruises and scratches on his torso, other times he had sprained fingers and injured hands in general."

"Was there any pattern visible that made you wonder?"

"Yes. His injuries were never visible at first sight. There have never been bigger injuries on his face, only scratches now and then. But the main part of his injuries was always hidden, depending on the season. When it was winter, there were injuries on his arms that weren’t there when it was summer and he would wear sleeveless shirts."

"That doesn’t proof anything", one of the culprits lazily said. "He's clumsy as hell and fell down to the floor every time after taking a few steps. That's where those injuries came from."

Dr. Ko turned her head to look at him, her eyes narrowed and if looks could kill, the guy would surely have fallen from his chair. "No, that's not where those injuries came from", she said in a sharp tone and looked at the judge. "I've seen many injuries in my life and I can tell if someone just fell down or bumped into something. All of Lee-ssi's injuries and I mean absolutely all of them were caused by somebody. Purposely."

"How can you be sure about that?" one of the defending lawyers asked.

"I brought pictures with me. I think it's easier to explain when you see it."

Judge Oh nodded his head and the TV was ; while they were preparing to show them, Eunhyuk looked back at Donghae. The younger stared at the desk, his face blank. The raven head thought it looked like back then when they had been at the base. Donghae tried to block the things out that were happening around him.

"What was the reason why you took those pictures, Dr. Ko?" the judge asked in the meantime.

"It's prescribed at our base. I take pictures of every injury I tread."

He nodded his head again and shortly after that a first picture appeared on the screen, showing Donghae's upper body and face in side profile. Eunhyuk's eyes swiftly fell from the blank expression on the brunet's face to the huge bruises covering his skin in deep purple. He felt his stomach drop at the sight; he had imagined how the younger must've looked like after hearing all those things, but actually seeing it… It hurt. It simply hurt.

Dr. Ko started to explain how the bruises were caused by something hard repeatedly hitting Donghae's body and showed on other pictures that there were even shoe prints visible. Those injuries were the result of someone kicking him when he was already lying on the ground and that there were also bruises on his back implied that there most likely had been more than just one attacker. She said that she had seen bruises like those many times on his body, but not to this extent. Then she showed them the strangulation marks on his nape, taken on the same day – and it was clear to everybody that he couldn’t have caused all of this by himself.

"Lee-ssi", judge Oh said and made Donghae look up to him. "What happened on that day?"

The brunet's gaze dropped again and he explained with a low, but steady voice what he had explained so many times already. How they had headed him off after dinner, had dragged him to a dark side corridor and everything that had happened afterwards. He told them what had happened when somebody had walked by and how they had left him lying there after they were done, walking away laughing and proud. He had made it to the dormitories on his own, mostly crawling and in the middle of the night.

"He was sent to me because he was barely able to stand straight the next day", Dr. Ko said. "Apart from all those bruises and cuts, I diagnosed some major ones and two broken ribs. I asked him what the reason for his injuries were, but all he said was that he had sustained them from training. Of course I didn’t believe him, but I asked him the same questions over and over again and he never gave me another answer."

"Weren't you suspicious?"

"I was. But what should I've done? I couldn’t force him to tell me about it and even though I talked with the instructors and they promised me to have an eye on him, no one saw something happen. We, or at least I, knew that there was something going on, but he as the victim kept his mouth sealed. My hands were tied."

That was what the defending lawyers built their whole strategy on. It was a fact now that Donghae had been hurt by someone, but no one could tell who this someone was. "It's sad what happened", one of them said. "But there's no evidence that it was my client and as long as there is none, I don’t see the point in this."

They all seemed so confident and even smiled to themselves after every day of hearings that had ended because they knew that there were no witnesses. They even called the whole trial into question and why Donghae had decided to talk now when he had said nothing back then. Just because they had been close with Sunghoon didn’t mean that they had ever done something to him, that's what they said.

So while they felt safe enough to laugh even during trial, Donghae seemed stiff at court. To repeat everything, to go through all those things they had done to him again – it was torture. But his face never expressed that. There were no tears he cried, no frown, no anger and no fear. There was simply nothing his face expressed, only a blank stare. Eunhyuk couldn’t stop thinking about how brave the younger was and what impressed him the most was that Donghae didn’t avoid looking at the culprits. He always kept eye contact with them when