I arranged for a medium-sized closet to be cleared, one that was still part of the hall where everyone was waiting. Quietly, I cleared my throat and scribbled down a few notes.

16^thof November, 2011 – 8:36pm

List of people I need to interview:

• Kwon Yuri – girlfriend
• Kim Hyuna – closest family member
• Infinite

I can only think of these three at the moment, and some names may be added later.

I looked up from my notebook and watched Yuri as she fidgeted. Her pretty face was stained with tears.  

“So, Yuri,” I said, breaking the awkward silence. “Just to start off, can you tell me what you know about Sunggyu?”

She rattled off facts as if it was a test. “He’s Kim Sunggyu. He was born in April, on the 28^th. He’s 23 years old. He’s the heir to the Kim corporation. He has a younger sister called Hyuna–”

“Tell me about your relationship with him,” I interrupted. 

“Our parents were business partners,” Yuri said, her voice bitter. “After they found out my mother was pregnant, they arranged a marriage. If I was a girl, I would marry Sunggyu, and if I was a boy, I’d marry Hyuna. Naturally, they were over the moon when I was a girl, since he’s the oldest would inherit. Our parents wanted to merge their companies together, to create one huge ‘super-company’. I guess to make it easier, they had us go to the same school and everything since we were born. I’ve known him since my birth. ”

 As she spoke, I jotted down notes.

• Parents = business partners
• Arranged marriage to merge companies
• Both eldest in family/set to inherit
• Known each other since childhood

I tapped my pen. “Mmm-hmmm. Tell me how you feel about Sunggyu,” I suggested.

“I never really liked him,” she said, shrugging. “As a kid he was alright. But since we started going to high school… he’s been a huge jerk. All he thinks about is money and girls. He dated Tiffany for a while before dumping her in front of the whole school.” She scowled.

“Are you two close?”

“Our whole group is pretty tightly knit,” she answered, “and no, I don’t resent her or anything. SNSD knows that I don’t like Sunggyu. And she doesn’t resent me either.”

List of people I need to interview:

• Kwon Yuri
• Kim Hyuna – closest family member
• Infinite
• Hwang Tiffany (ex-girlfriend )

“So, tell me about you,” I said. “Your family, your friends and what you think of them.”

“My family is all about business,” Yuri said without hesitation.  “They didn’t even care whether I was male of female; all they wanted was an heir to marry off. I was lucky enough that they cared for me enough to give me a chance to get to know him, rather than force us straight into a marriage as soon as we graduated. When I protested, my parents told me that if I showed someone I truly loved, who loved me back, they might reconsider.”

She smiled wryly. “I think they expected that if I found someone else, I would find another rich heir just like Sunggyu.”

I raised an eyebrow at her implication but Yuri didn’t notice. “As for our relationship…” She bit her lip. “He wasn’t…the best, obviously. His love for money was the only thing keeping him in this arrangement – if he broke off our engagement by cheating or something, he would be disowned. So he ‘compromised’ by acting like the perfect boyfriend in front of our parents. He didn’t bother at uni – he threatened people to make sure they wouldn’t tell their own parents about him being a cheater.”

“And last of all…” I finished writing notes. “Tell me everything about tonight. ”

Yuri paled. “B-But you’ve already seen his…Sunggyu,” she stammered.  

I stared steadily into her eyes. “Kwon Yuri,” I said seriously. “You were the first to find him. I may have seen him too, but you could have seen something else. What if you had seen his murderer?”

She swallowed. “Our parents knew we were going together,” she said haltingly, her voice barely audible. “He picked me up, like we planned, and we drove here. We were dancing, just like everyone else.”

16^thNovember, 7:27pm – Flashback, as described by Kwon Yuri

I pasted a content smile on my face, resting my head on Sunggyu’s shoulder and my arms around his neck. To everyone else, we looked like the perfect couple.

We swayed from side to side, revolving slowly. As we turned in a half-circle, I caught a glimpse of Minzy from 2NE1. She smirked at me.

I glared back. It was obvious that she knew that Sunggyu was interested in her. “Sunggyu-ah,” I murmured.

“Hmmmm?” We had circled back to our original position, my back to Minzy. I sighed. Only Sunggyu’s friends and I knew that he was totally and completely distracted – this time by another girl.

“Sunggyu-ah, we need to talk,” I said sweetly, masking the annoyance inside.

“Can we talk later, Yul?” he responded absently. “Busy.”

“Busy with what? Leering at other girls behind my back again?” I hissed. “Remember, you’re dancing with me. You’re busy with me.”

Sunggyu sighed in exasperation. “Fine,” he growled. I held his hand and led him out into the hallway. “What do you want now, Yuri?”

“I want you to stop being a douche,” I said bluntly. “I know you don’t like being forced to date me. All you want is the money and power, right? Just tell your parents you don’t like me and we can both be happy.”

 “Don’t tell me what to do, Yul,” Sunggyu snapped. “No one tells me what to do, especially not some goody two-shoes like you. I do what I want, okay?”

“All you want is money!” I cried. “Admit it – you only want your precious allowance to continue. If you break it off, you’ll be disowned. You’re so selfish! Your sister can do a better job that you, and you know it! Face it, Sunggyu – if you inherit the company, you’ll ruin it. You’re selfish – you don’t care about anyone but you. You don’t care about your sister, you don’t care about your parents, you don’t care about business, you don’t care for those random girls you screw over – you don’t even care for your friends. Why should I expect you to care about me?”

“What, so you’re in love with me?” he snorted. “Well, you’re lucky because we’re getting married! Whoop-de-doo!”

Furious, I slapped him as hard as I could across his face, leaving a reddening handprint. He gaped as I turned and stalked away.

“…and that was the last time I saw him,” Yuri finished. “I went outside, to calm myself down, before going back inside. He wasn’t there, so I assumed he was with Minzy or something.

“When he didn’t come back after about 45 minutes, I thought he must have gone home or was still, you know, playing around. I went to tell him off, and I looked at all the different rooms until I found him….dead.”

The quiet scratching of pen against paper was the only noise in the room, apart from Yuri’s occasional sniffle. Inwardly, I was surprised at the way she had described herself – I had never expected for sweet, kind Kwon Yuri to have so much hatred within her. To think she’d been hiding that for all this time…

“Is that everything?” I asked, setting my pen down to stretch my sore fingers. She nodded, head bowed.

“C-Can I go now?” she whispered.

“Thank you, Yuri,” I said, consulting my notes. “Could you send in Kim Hyuna, please?”