Title: SM-5 The Perfect Mystery 

Genre: Romance, Comedy, Mystery, Angst, Action 

Ratings: All ages 

Case #02: M e m o r i e s

Part 8

  ~~~

  She stared right at him, trying her best to uphold her defiant expression though for some reason, she felt herself loosen her clenched fists. She didn’t know why, she didn’t understand why, but as she stared into his deep, dark eyes, a part of her hate, her anger and her detest for him had dissolved.

  But she knew she couldn’t just forgive him that easily. No. He was an unforgivable, ruthless and deranged mafia lord. No matter what, he would still be the main suspect, and she had already vowed to drag him to jail with handcuffs on his wrists. She wouldn’t let herself soften just because of a small part of her instincts. He was evil, and she was sure of it. Even if, in humane terms, he wasn’t evil…

  She still hated him.

  “…What is this?” She said through gritted teeth.

  “It’s the key to my office.” His tone was soft and it bewildered her, making her struggle even more to maintain her rigid expression. “…It will not help you much, since everything that was needed, was already taken out but… Maybe there was something your co-workers did leave behind.”

 “My co-workers?” She raised her eyebrows, unable to control herself. “They searched your office? You mean they had a warrant? What’s…what’s going on?”

  “In a few hours my alibi will be validated.” Instead of mocking her, his tone was somewhat sympathetic, genuinely sympathetic. “And yes, they did search my office, without a warrant.”

  Yoona, being Yoona, misunderstood his words. “I do not need you to poke fun at me. Leave. They’ve done a good job since they’ve already searched your office and it’s not necessary for me to know. With an alibi or not I will still-“

  “Im Yoona!” He raised his voice, before leaning towards her and lowering his tone. “In time you will realize that I am not the murderer and if you continue this way, you will be running a useless race. I am merely trying to help you.”

  She was getting more and more confused by the minute. “…I don’t need you to help me. I… I will help myself, like I always do.” She bit her lip as she walked out of the café counter. “…You’re hiding things, still. You’re hiding things with your words.” She looked up at him. “Whether you’re the murderer or not… you’re hiding things.”

  He was exasperated, but he knew he could not give her a direct answer. As frustrating as the whole thing was for her, he could understand it, and he did not detest her for the way she had acted towards him. But despite the fact that there were only little details he could say, he was determined to help her find a way out, and find an answer as well.

  “Take this, Yoona.” He placed his office key in her hands before heading towards the door. “It’s got my name and contact number on the back. You can go there on your own, or you can call, or anything, it’s up to you.”

  “You’re hiding things but…” Yoona trembled, for a reason she couldn’t comprehend. “…Why do you sound so confident as if you’re hiding…nothing?”

  He took a deep breath. “Because some things are hidden in plain sight, Yoona.”

~~~

  “Not a word, Minho.” Victoria’s reminder was strict as they stood in front of the office building, taking deep breaths before heading inside and making their way back to the main office.

  Minho sighed deeply as he walked along. “I think it would actually be right to tell her that-“

  “No.” Victoria’s answer was sharp. “I know you have your mind on her well-being, Minho, but still, reliving old memories will not be good for her, especially when she realizes the boy she once loved has now become the enemy she hates the most.”

  “I don’t want something more tragic to happen, you know?” Minho stated his thoughts. “…He’s a gangster, and his job pretty much puts his life on the line. If we don’t tell her-“

  “Don’t worry…” Victoria glanced at the mirror in the elevator as they entered it, checking her makeup to make sure there was no sign that she had been crying in the car. “…It won’t be another case like Krystal.”

  Minho flinched. “And what do you mean?”

  “Kris Wu’s smart, he’s not telling us everything and he won’t tell us everything.” Victoria thought carefully. “He is not the murderer, and despite the fact that he might know things about the case, it is not wise to use him as a pawn and force him to give us the information. We need a different and more direct lead, Minho. What Kris Wu’s hiding…is probably a new case altogether.”

  Minho did not fully understand Victoria’s words, but he nodded anyway, knowing that she was confident of her decision. “…So where’s Kyuhyun? Did he follow Kris Wu?”

  “He did, and apparently the important place Kris Wu needed to go was the café Yoona worked at.” The both of them walked through the corridor, heading towards the door to their office. “…I told Kyuhyun to just leave it be. Kris Wu is not the murderer and we should not waste any more time pursuing whatever’s on his side.”

  “Then Yoona-“

  “There will be several things Kris Wu probably intended to reveal to her, bit by bit, and if he truly loves her and does know something about the case, he will lead her to whatever he knows. We’ll leave it at that.” Victoria came to a firm conclusion.

  Just as they were about to open the door to go into the office, footsteps sounded through the corridor. They turned around to find themselves with another pair, a tall man wearing a dark blue office shirt and a young lady with a polka-dotted dress, slowly following behind him. As Victoria glanced closer, she saw that Changmin had handcuffed the girl, leading her through the corridor with one of his hands on the handcuffs.

  But it was Minho who had the worst surprise. “…Sulli?”

  “Oppa…” Sulli looked up, biting her lip as she saw him.

  “Sulli, what are you doing here?”

  Changmin turned to Victoria, who was gaping as well. “Victoria, prepare the questioning room.”

  “Seriously…?”

  “Miss Choi Sulli is now one of the main suspects.”

  Minho’s shock was probably indefinable.

~~~

  “…Hey, Kyu!”

  Yoona had just left the café after the strange, yet very troubling chance meeting with Kris Wu. She had been walking, thinking carefully about his words, trying to derive something, possibly something related to the case when she had looked up and seen a curly haired boy clutching a laptop underneath his arm, heading towards the office as well.

  He whipped his head around. “Yoona?”

  “You’re heading back to the office?”

  He nodded slowly. “Yeah, I guess so. You’ve heard-“

  “I have. Minho’s sister… She’s now a suspect, isn’t she?”

  “Apparently she is, and we’re not quite sure why because we’re all now heading in different directions, and we all suspect different people… It’s all getting messed up, and we haven’t properly went down on each and every detail yet…” Kyuhyun said his words all in one breath. “What’s your lead? Still think Kris Wu’s the murderer?”

  She neither nodded nor shook her head. She just stood there, pondering the thought in her mind. “Truthfully… I don’t know. I want to suspect him, yet there’s this strange feeling that he’s not the murderer, you know?” She let out a bitter laugh. “…I still hate him very much but… Maybe I was wrong.”

  Kyuhyun smirked. “Well, I hope you find something out then.”

  “And oh Kyu…” She suddenly remembered. “Did you and the rest of the team search his office?”

  Kyuhyun hung his head, feeling rather guilty. “We did, in fact… But-“

  “What did you find?”

  Kyuhyun was taken aback by her question. “We found the vitamin bottles, we found the mobile phone hacking system…” He then recalled the bank account number, and he knew it wasn’t wise to say it out, especially not to Yoona. “…That’s it. Why?”

  “Well, he insisted that there’s something more that’s hidden.” Yoona walked in front of him, thinking to herself as she said her thoughts aloud. “I think I’ll try and find out more. I’ve been… I’ve been wasting too much time.”

  For a moment, Kyuhyun was struck by her words and her manner of speaking, making him confused with himself. “But Yoona… You’re not too affected, are you?” Such a question, it was something he usually never asked, but for some reason, at that moment, he just asked.

  “No.” She smiled, putting up a brave front. “I want to solve this case… Not just based on instinct. There’s a lot more to it and I think I’ve been a bit too rash.”

  “I see.” He didn’t realize, a single smile had formed along his lips.

~~~

  “I want to know why there was your white ribbon found in Suzy’s apartment, Sulli.”

  Changmin went straight to the point, questioning Sulli alone, with Victoria and Minho watching from the back room. Changmin’s direction was somewhat different from the rest, and seeing Sulli’s solemn expression, he was following this lead to discover more, though he knew for sure that Sulli, of course not Sulli-

  “I don’t know, Changmin.” Her words were brisk, somewhat listless.

  “You do know, Sulli.” He purged on. “You do know something, and there have been things you’ve not been telling me.” But she kept silent, and it infuriated him. “…The clique, there were many things going on in between the clique right? The many relationships?”

  Sulli immediately flinched, biting her lip and drawing back her breath for a moment before resuming to her original position. “Everything about the clique has already been said, and there is nothing more I can-“

  “It’s either you tell me the accurate version of the correlation, or I will judge based on my predicted correlation.” Changmin said firmly. “…You’re not the culprit, Sulli. But you’re hiding something for a reason I do not know.”

  “Suzy and Jiyeon-unnie were close, me and Krystal were close, Jiyoung in the middle and-“

  “I’ve heard that before.” Changmin interrupted. “…Too many times. But I know something Sulli… everything you’ve said is the exact opposite.”

  She shook her head quickly. “Not everything, really, not everything that-“

  “You and Krystal were never that close. It was because of your brother, wasn’t it? You were just normal friends with Krystal from the start but you knew that Minho liked her, so you befriended her so she could get closer to Minho.” Changmin stated his deductions. “…As for Jiyoung, she was in the middle, in the middle in a sense that she wasn’t close to any of you. She was just a symbol of the clique because she’s quick-witted and clever.”

  Sulli was dumbfounded, wide open. “How did you…how did you even-“

  “As for Suzy and Jiyeon, they probably were close since Suzy was the one who comforted Jiyeon when the gangsters came and messed up the house… That fact is a mere prediction and it is still questionable.” Changmin continued. “…How accurate am I, Sulli?”

  Sulli fidgeted uncomfortably, then with one deep sigh, she looked up at him. “…The ribbon was something all five of us had, despite the fact that we probably never were truly close. We each had ribbons of different colors…showing that we were different, yet similar, in a way. I had kept my ribbon for long because well…that’s friendship.”

  “Then why was it in Suzy’s apartment?”

  Sulli bit her lip, then she leaned forward. “Changmin, the ribbon has got nothing to do with this. I swear to hell that I wasn’t the one who did that to Suzy, but I know the person who I think had my ribbon before this… I know she wouldn’t do that to Suzy either. I swear I don’t know anything else, I…”

  “Who, Sulli, who?”

  “…Jiyoung.”

~~~

  “Alright team, we’ve got to go in directions, proper directions.”

  Changmin led the meeting, with Victoria, Kyuhyun and Yoona in the meeting room, leaving Minho to rest in the office because Victoria knew he was deeply affected by the whole thing. Sulli had been sent home and put on house arrest for the moment being, and once again, they were all unclear about their main suspect.

  “I’ll look into the mobile hacking system and see if there’s any other clue of who was really using it, if it wasn’t used by Kris Wu.” Kyuhyun was the first to start. “And I’ll map out the locations and see whether it was a possible ploy, and I’ll also check if Bae Suzy and Kang Jiyoung were being stalked as well… We still have to figure out the identity of Park Jiyeon’s stalker.”

  Victoria looked through the papers, before coming to a decision. “I believe the key of this is the stalker. There’s got to be a reason why someone stalked Jiyeon and tried to frame Minho for murder.” She thought of it carefully. “I will study the mindset of the stalker and see if it matches up to my own presumption of the murderer’s mindset.”

  Changmin turned to Yoona, who had been deep in thought as well. “…I thought I would assist you, Yoona, in what you need to do. Along with that we should also investigate more about Kang Jiyoung and Bae Suzy, I don’t think Sulli’s words were-“

  “I’ll… I’ll pass.”

  Changmin was surprised, but Victoria and Kyuhyun were unfazed. “Yoona, is anything wrong?”

  “I have a direction, but it seems fuzzy and unclear…” Yoona admitted. “I know Victoria said not to go on to Kris Wu because he’s not a suspect any longer but I think… I think I’ll be able to find out more if I continue in that direction.”

  “You’re sure, Yoona?” Changmin began. “But you know-“

  Victoria placed her hand over Changmin’s, then she turned to Yoona. “…Do what you think will be better for you, Yoona. Just make sure to alert us before getting into unnecessary danger, we do not want a repeat of the incident during Kim Jonghyun’s case.”

  Yoona smiled. “I will.”

~~~

  She found him sitting there at his own desk, all alone. The other members of the team had left, in fear of upsetting him. Him, and his somewhat fiery temper. But she wasn’t afraid, no, she was used to seeing the many sides of him and be it cheerful, upset or depressed, Yoona didn’t mind. There was a part of her that constantly called on her to check on Minho.

  “Hey, Min.” She greeted, as she stepped over, leaning against her desk, which was right across his.

  “Oh, hey.” He raised his head, jolted out of his thoughts.

  “I’ve decided… I’m going to continue investigating Kris Wu.” Yoona announced, with a small smile.

  He stared at her in surprise. “Really, Yoona? It won’t… it won’t disturb you a bit?”

  “It won’t.” She continued to smile, shifting her gaze to him. “…There were many times in this case, and not just this case, but also since I’ve been working as a part of the team…That I’ve lost my temper over stupid, trivial things.”

  He tried his best to force out a smile. “That’s good, Yoona, but you don’t have to push yourself-“

  “No, I do.”

  “…You do? Why?”

  She stood up straight, walked over to him and positioned herself right in front of his desk. “Because… Because of you.”

  His eyes widened. “Yoona...you don’t-“

  “I know you’re upset because of Sulli, aren’t you?” It was then that Yoona saw the right time to say her words. “The vague answers, the way she hesitated, and then, you know that she was hiding it all. You know she’s connected…to this case…But you’re…you’re not…” Yoona began to stutter towards the end.

  He shook his head with a bitter smile on his face. “Sulli can do as she li