"Have you been taking over Jinyoung's work in your father's company after he was gone?" Jungkook finally asked, although you hadn't quite expected him to start questioning your job at your father's company, or for him to mention Jinyoung's work that he left behind in his passing.

You couldn't understand why he would even care.

While you were trying to figure out what his intention was, the detective began glancing around, taking in your surroundings. You noticed by then that he had been doing this ever since you began walking together, and his cautions made you grow wary.

"I've been taking Jinyoung's role in the company, but not completely. I'm just starting to receive some of his work, but since I still have my own responsibilities and Jinyoung handled a lot more during his time in the company, it's been a slow process with the handover. I have his former assistant and his previous team helping me handle the rest for now," you slowly explained to him the situation that you were dealing with after Jinyoung's passing while wondering if any of this had anything to do with the reason why the detective had been seeking you.

He made a humming sound as he took the information in before asking in a low voice, "What about back when Jinyoung was still alive? Had you ever talked about work outside of the company, or had your work ever overlapped?" He stopped for a moment before adding, "Had Jinyoung ever talked about any of the work he was doing specifically, both in and out of the company?"

It took you a moment to decide what to share with him. Yet your curiosity kept winning, as always, and you decided to share what you could to figure out why he brought this up in the first place.

"We didn't talk much about work unless we were at the office. Yes, our work used to overlap with each other, mostly when we had to directly work alongside my father," you said, recalling how you became close to Jinyoung in the first place, "But the moment we left the office, all talk about work, the company, and our duties would stop. Even when he would bring home some work, he insisted on doing it on his own so I could enjoy my downtime."

Reminiscing the time you shared with Jinyoung, his words came back to you—

"We may be partners in the office, but once office hours end, let's focus on ourselves and enjoy our time together without stressing about work."

Back then, those wise words felt so reassuring that you never questioned it. It made you believe that he wanted to put your relationship first before anything else. Including his position in your father's company or his future once he joined your family after marriage.

But now, seeing the look on Jungkook's face as you shared all of this with him, you began questioning everything.

"Ever since you got back to work again," the detective continued, "Have you ever found anything suspicious happening in the company? Has there anything in his work which was passed on to you that may look a bit—off, or questionable?"

You turned to him with your brows raised. "I'm not sure what you mean," you slowly said to him. Your heart began racing, and the drizzling sound of the rain faded to the background when your suspicion grew, even before he added,

"Have you ever found or noticed any suspicious activity happening in your father's company lately, or back when Jinyoung was still alive?"

"Should I?" you questioned him in return. Uneasiness filled your chest, and when the detective remained silent afterwards, you pushed him further by asking, "Detective, what are you trying to tell me? Did Jinyoung say something before he passed?"

When Jungkook said nothing, yet began clenching his jaw while keeping his eyes on you, the small voice in your head that you had been trying your best to ignore began nagging at you.

As much as you hated to admit it, ever since the accident, you had been plagued with lingering doubt.

Nothing about the incident made any sense, especially the fact that your late fiancé had been somewhere else other than the place that he claimed to be at when it happened. And when Jungkook began questioning about Jinyoung's work, your suspicions only grew stronger. Yet you tried to deny it, even as you were listening to him speak.

You said nothing until Jungkook finally spoke first,

"Do you really believe what happened to Jinyoung was an accident, ______?"

The moment he said those words, your chest felt tight, almost as if every bit of air was sucked out of you. Your mouth opened and closed, yet no words came out. Until a bitter, incredulous laugh came out of you.

"What—" you tried to speak between your laughter, "what are you talking about, detective? The police department — your people — were the ones who claimed that it was an accident, so why would I ever think otherwise?"

You kept refusing to think that you may have been misled into thinking that there was nothing more about Jinyoung's accident which you should be questioning about. Yet, when Jungkook's eyes began to show sorrow, you realised that whatever you had believed hadn't been the complete truth.

Resigned, you pulled back with a soft exhale of breath. "It wasn't an accident, was it?"

Jungkook released a deep, regretful sigh. "I am not allowed to say anything about it as it may compromise the people I work with or the investigation, but—"

"You have suspicions that it wasn't. That there was something more about his accident," you finished his words for him, as you began to understand what he was trying to say. "What makes you think that way? Then—is the investigation still ongoing? The police department never said anything more about it, so I assumed you had everything resolved."

Even as you said those words, your doubt continued to grow stronger. Suddenly, you felt like you were missing something. You kept trying to recall everything that you learned from the police about Jinyoung's crash.

Where it happened. How Jinyoung was nearly buried in the wreckage of his ruined car. The lack of witnesses. And then—

Jungkook took a quick glance around before stepping closer. "Can you keep a secret? What I'm about to tell you—" He stopped, suddenly looking tense and unsure, yet he quickly shook his head as if reassuring himself before speaking again. "You need to promise to keep this to yourself. I'm not sure if it's safe to share this, but I still think that you need to know what I've found. Especially when Jinyoung vouched for you."

You nodded. "Tell me everything you know," you said with a small voice, and Jungkook began to explain carefully.

"I'm sure you've seen the pictures from the wreckage—" Once again, you nodded. "I was there at the scene not long after he was brought to the hospital. I wasn't sure if anyone other than the EMT crew had compromised the scene after pulling him out of his wrecked car, but I can tell you that it was far worse than what a solo accident would look like."

Your heart was beating fast. "What's your theory?"

Jungkook pressed his lips before answering, "I saw signs of another vehicle at the scene. Another car might have run through a red light and Jinyoung failed to see it coming, or he could have been the one who did and was hit by a car that was driving across the intersection."

"I never heard of any hints about another car at the scene in the police reports, only that Jinyoung seemed to have been speeding across the intersection and lost control of his car," you faintly shared what you learned from the authorities when they came to see your father about it.

Jungkook clenched his jaw. "I reported seeing tire marks heading towards Jinyoung's wrecked car. Yet, once I finally got the copies of the final reports, I found that those details had been omitted from them. Nobody questioned my reports further seeing that the street was known to be deserted at night, yet large vehicles would often cross that same road starting from early morning to dusk."

Clenching your hands on your side, you found it hard to make up your mind what to believe. "How about the CCTV? Were there any records found—"

You barely finished your question when Jungkook began shaking his head. "The traffic cameras from the intersection were coincidentally reported to be broken that day. Only one of them worked, yet there was no record of the accident found as it was facing a different angle," he bitterly said, as if he found it hard to believe himself as he said those words out loud, "There were no records from the CCTV from that night, and any record from the black box found in Jinyoung's car had gone missing."

Hearing this, you staggered back. "How—?" you asked him breathlessly. "The police said they had everything and had collected all the evidence needed."

"That was why I said it wouldn't be safe to let this come out. Because I can't find anyone that I can trust, not even the people working in my department," he said with a resigned sigh, and you began to understand why the detective would doubt Jinyoung's accident and suspect it to be something else. "I also have other reasons to believe that it wasn't a simple accident."

"What other reasons—?" you tried to ask him. Your voice came out frail, almost as frail as how you were feeling at that moment.

The reality that you had known was suddenly altered, your beliefs completely shattered, and you were made to doubt everything that you had known about Jinyoung and the circumstances behind his death.

Before you could manage to finish your question, Jungkook answered with a firm voice. "Because he warned me," he said, "he told me not to trust anything or whatever anyone says if something should happen to him."

"If something happens?" You furrowed your eyebrows. "How—" Your breath got caught in your throat that you almost couldn't speak. You couldn't even breathe properly under the shock you were feeling. "What does this even mean? Are you saying that he knew something was going to happen to him?"

You refused to believe it. Because if that was true, then something else was going on in his life that you knew nothing about.

Sensing your distress, Jungkook gently pulled you aside to get you away from the sidewalk. Away from prying eyes and people who were passing you by in their rush to escape from the rain. Once you were in an open area between buildings and hidden under a small canopy, Jungkook reached into the pocket of his coat to retrieve a cell phone. He tapped on the screen to unlock it, before pressing the device close to your ear.

"You might understand more if you listen to this," he said, before he pressed a button and a familiar voice was heard.

"Jungkook, it's me, Jinyoung. I—I think I was right. I was right about everything. I can't explain it to you on the phone. They might have bugged me, I don't know. Fuck, I know nothing at this point."

Tears began to well up in your eyes at the sound of his voice, noticing the tremble in his voice which showed distress and fear, and how rushed he was as he spoke—as if he was trying to escape from something, or someone.

An incredulous laugh came through the speaker, lathered in fear. "I'm not sure I can make it to your place on time. I'm not even sure it'll be safe to see you. I don't know where you are right now, but—" Jinyoung's voice broke for a moment, then, "I just want to say that if—" A sharp gasp, and he continued, "If anything happens to me on my way there, please—I beg you—please find _______. Get to her first, and make sure she's safe. She won't be safe if I'm gone. Please, Jungkook. Promise me."

You could feel your blood getting drained from your face. And you fell completely frozen still, filled with shock and disbelief after what you just heard. Everything seemed to stop right at that moment; time, the rain, the sound of your heartbeat, even your breath.

Jungkook locked the phone and quickly slipped it right back into his pocket, just as your knees grew weak, and he caught you just in time before you could fall to the ground. He held you up by your waist until you stopped shaking, and only released you once you managed to gather your bearings and found the strength to push him away.

"When was this?" you asked, still unable to look at him.

Jungkook sighed. "He left the voicemail around one hour before the accident. We were supposed to meet later that night, but I was suddenly sent out to another crime scene right before his call came in. That's why I couldn't take his call, and this was what he left me with," he explained. His voice was heavy with regret. And when you looked up at him again, his eyes were filled with shame.

"When I got to the scene of the accident that night, I didn't even realise that I would find Jinyoung in that state. Or that the victim of the crash would be him." He clenched his jaw as he was brought back to the night of the accident and recalled everything that happened.

"The moment I got there and recognised his car, I knew something was wrong. Then I saw him being wheeled into the ambulance, severely injured and barely responsive. That was when I turned on this phone and found the message he left me. Only that I was a little too late," he added with a bitter chuckle while looking defeated.

You took a moment to process everything before asking, "What you were asking me earlier"—you looked up at him, meeting his gaze—"what did my father's company and Jinyoung's work have to do with this—with his death?"

Jungkook's jaw contracted for a moment as he mulled over his answer. "I'm afraid that's the only thing that I haven't figured out yet. That's why I needed to see you and talk to you," he finally explained, his voice low. "What happened to Jinyoung, and whatever he was involved with, was definitely connected to his work in your father's company."

Your head was spinning, yet you still had a clear mind to hear his request, "And I'm going to need your help to find out what it was and who may have been responsible for this."