CHAPTER THIRTY THREE: Being Truthful

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- KIM JIWOONG

wonyoung

wonyoung:
thanks for talking to me about this yesterday by the way, i'm glad it was you and not a stranger

jiwoong:
it's fine i'm glad we both know how fucked up and useless our actions were to the case

wonyoung:
yeah omg😭
anyway i'm going to tell yunmi now

jiwoong:
oh shit yeah
good luck

wonyoung:
thanks #i'llprobablybedropped

jiwoong:
girl i doubt it

wonyoung:
hm idk

wonyoung:
ANYWAY this weekend we're going to try hack that 'killer' Z person right?

jiwoong:
mhm
we can find it out on our own
gyuvin's parents have been very silent too

wonyoung:
pussies
if we find out it's them istg

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- HAN YUNMI

Yunmi walked into the college library and spotted Wonyoung straight away, sitting at their usual study table. She swiftly made her way towards her and called her quietly. "Uhm, Wonyoung?" Yunmi tapped her on the shoulder. "Why is everyone ignoring me? Youngeun won't even look me in the eye anymore."

Just a few minutes ago, Yunmi tried to talk to her friends just to be ignored and all of them to act like she didn't even exist. And since Wonyoung wasn't with them, she got worried and went straight to the library knowing she'd be in here.

Wonyoung widened her eyes as she turned to Yunmi. "Uhhhhh... I don't know.. why? Did they do anything or say anything? Tell me." She said with a rather sharp tone.

"Uh, no." Yunmi replied, pulling out a chair and sitting next to the girl with a sigh. "Everyone's ignoring me. I don't know what I did. Especially Youngeun, I don't understand why they're treating me like that all of a sudden."

Wonyoung gulped and decided to not stay silent about it. "I think it's about Ricky... you know they somehow found out you and him had a think they called you a snake." She said honestly, feeling a bit guilty for hiding it first.

"What?" Yunmi scoffed in disbelief. "That was a year ago, and she didn't even like him. And I didn't even like him, either. Why are they getting mad now?" Her temper rose straight away from the ridiculous reasoning to their behaviour.

The other girl shrugged and sighed as she rested her head on her palm. "I don't know..." She then looked up at Yunmi. "Anyway, can I tell you something now? Like I will say it straight up but promise to not shout at me."

Yunmi raised a brow from the last sentence but didn't question it. "Uh, yeah. Go on, what were you going to tell me again?"

She pulled out what looked like a burner phone from her pocket, and handed it to her unlocked. "Just go to the messages... you'll get it."

Yunmi felt a little nervous from the sight of the phone but nodded and took it anyway. She went onto the messages and furrowed her brows when she saw two familiar names and a random number. She looked up at Wonyoung in confusion and she just indicated that she carry on looking.

Yunmi went onto the most recent contact - Ricky and she didn't see anything weird until she saw the contact name for herself. "Z?" She said as a shiver ran up her spine. "Did you find this or..." She looked up at Wonyoung, whose expression was showing a lot of guilt. "Wonyoung, don't tell me that you-"

"Yeah. I was the one doing that to Ricky and Gyuvin." She admitted quietly, expecting a shout or a slap but instead Yunmi just put the phone on the table quietly.

"Wonyoung what the fuck?" She whisper-shouted. "Why would you do that?"

"Look I'm really sorry! I was ordered to and since I... was kind of in a hater mood I agreed and did it for fun." She sighed as she pulled the phone back. "But I've stopped now, I promise."

"Ordered by who?" Yunmi asked, trying to keep calm and not get angry at her best friend. As much as she wanted to shout and scream at her for it at first, she just took a deep breath to not start anything.

"Whoever the fuck is the overall Z person, like the leader or whatever. I don't know. And I don't know who it is; they said they knew I hated Ricky and Gyuvin so then they sent me their secrets in exchange for seeing them be in pain." Her words were so disbelieving that Yunmi couldn't even look at her anymore.

"Why would you do that?" She asked in desperation. "Wonyoung I don't even know what to say anymore." She sighed and watched as Wonyoung's eyes still didn't leave the floor and began to water. Even after knowing now that Yejun was this 'leader' that was mentioned, she still couldn't believe Wonyoung would listen to him.

Still feeling bad, Yunmi wiped Wonyoung's tears with her sleeve and exhaled. "Okay, do they know that it's you?"

"Only Ricky. I'm kind of scared to tell Gyuvin." She stammered a little and still refused to face Yunmi after the confession. "I hate both of them but I can't tell him face to face, he's a murderer isn't he?"

Yunmi ignored her thoughts on Gyuvin as the killer and looked up. And as if it was on perfect timing, the door to the library opened and Gyuvin walked in alone. "Can't you tell him now?"

"What?" Wonyoung scoffed, finally looking up and following where the other girl was looking, watching as Gyuvin had already spotted them and started to walk towards them.

He stopped in front of Yunmi and crossed his arms. "Why are you both looking at me like that? And why is Wonyoung tearing up...?"

"Don't get mad at her okay.." Yunmi basically got straight to the point and tapped Wonyoung. "Just tell him, there's no reason to keep it in now."

Wonyoung slowly looked up at Gyuvin, but this time with no guilt in her eyes. She calmed down and it was obvious she always got mad at the sight of him. "I'm Z, the one who was texting you."

"I'm pretty sure I realised that a long time ago." He scoffed. "You think I didn't know? Do you really think I'm that stupid?" He looked down at her in hatred and disappointment.

"What?" Wonyoung exclaimed in surprise.

"The way you texted and just how you were always so brutal to me, I knew no one hated me that much other than you or Yejun, but he's 'dead'." He looked at her in annoyance. "You aren't slick, Wonyoung."

"Okay awkward.... still hate you though." She shrugged. "I mean I've stopped now, that's all I can tell you."

Ignoring the now awkward silence, Yunmi got up from the chair and laughed nervously as she didn't want yo hear an argument between them two. "Anyway... I have to go." She started to walk away.

"Wait," Gyuvin grabbed her wrist and pulled her back without hesitation. "I have to talk to you about something... since Youngeun spoke to me earlier."

"You know if you just want to kiss her I'd rather you not do it in front of me- wait did you just say Youngeun spoke to you?" Wonyoung said, looking up at him with wide eyes. He nodded, ignoring her first comment.

"She spoke to me about you and Ricky... and said she doesn't trust you anymore and that I shouldn't either." He let go of her wrist and scratched the back of his head. "I mean it's obvious Z- Wonyoung told me about this already but I just want to ask you about it."

"Uhh..." Wonyoung said as she watched Yunmi step back from him and started to look anxious of the topic. "That's weird I literally mentioned this to Ricky yesterday."

Gyuvin ignored Wonyoung and turned to her."Be honest with me, did you ever have a thing with him? Or even like him? Just anything, tell me anything and everything."

"Uhm... kinda? I don't really know." She looked at Wonyoung in panic and the girl shrugged. "I mean we kissed but that's kind of it I guess..."

"You can tell me, I won't get mad. Tell me what happened at the summer house." He said, taking a chair and sitting in between Wonyoung and where Yunmi sat before.

Slowly and quietly, Yunmi sat back down and decided to finally talk about it, since it's been kept between her and Ricky for a long time. And also from the fact she's lied to the others about it, about all of it.

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FLASHBACK - LAST YEAR

Yunmi laid down on her bed out of her mind off of alcohol. Everyone else in the house had left to buy some things for the next party (although one had just ended that same day) and that left Ricky and Yunmi alone in the house as she was still drunk and he was asked to take care of her sober.

She heard sniffling and she turned her head towards the door, watching as a crying Ricky walked in slowly. "Can I sleep here? Something shit just happened."

She nodded and made room for the boy. At that time she was 'dating' Yejun but obviously didn't like him properly and still didn't know how she felt about Gyuvin. It was technically a whore era of hers and as much as she didn't want to admit it, she enjoyed it.

"Okay, uhm. Why are you crying?" She slurred as she turned to him and wiped his tears. "Did something happen to you or did you fight with someone again?"

He shook his head, still trying to calm himself down. "I ended things with Youngeun. She got sick of my shitty person act and then started talking down on me."

"Okay, well..." Yunmi sighed. "Expected, honestly. But why are you actually upset about it?" She raised a brow, still wiping his tears.

He sighed. "It's not that, it's just the being talked down on." He ran his hand through his hair in frustration and started to fiddle with his fingers. "You already know how much everyone looks down on me for being friends with you three..."

"Ricky you're literally a part of our friend group and that won't ever change." She huffed as she sat up, still trying to overcome her headache. "I get that acting like a bitch is your little act to people but you can't be offended by everything like that, especially from someone you tried to date."

He shrugged his shoulders and smiled at her. "I know but it's even worse when someone like Yejun, who literally joined our group for no reason is more liked than me. I feel oddly replaced, and you're like the only person who cares."

Yunmi pulled him into a hug and as much as her head was spinning like a little bitch, she tried to comfort him as much as she could. Although Gunwook was her day one friend, and Gyuvin was her old love interest, Ricky somehow managed to be both to her.

He was quieter and more 'mysterious' than the others, and was less of a troublemaker than both Gunwook and Gyuvin combined. Sure, he had his bitchy personality to others, but it showed a lot of his insecurity.

He would call Yunmi his comfort friend despite their past of 'not liking each other' but also having a semi romantic friendship at one point. But at the end of the day, they were friends. And Yunmi would keep it that way.

Ricky pulled back and looked at her. "Are you okay?" He asked quietly, his hand resting on her forehead. "You're very warm."

She giggled. "Yes, I just need to sober up before I can actually go to sleep." She slowly laid back on the bed and waved his hand off of her head.

"You reek of cigarettes." He snickered, pulling away from her. "I don't know how Yejun puts up with you, even when you smoked in his bedroom."

She scoffed. "Oh yeah, us two argued an hour ago because of that. He told me to fuck off or he'd go fuck someone else." She crossed her arms. "Seriously, he acts like we actually like each other. Acting like a single cigarette is equivalent to a body."

Ricky shrugged. "Maybe he just sees it that way, you know what he's like. But that threat of fucking someone is really... weird."

"He acts like he fucks bitches on the daily." She rolled her eyes. "Genuinely, I fucking hate him. Wish I never said yes to date that guy." Yunmi then turned to Ricky with a laugh. "We both now have sad love life problems."

The other snorted and somehow found himself staring down at Yunmi. "Yeah... sucks."

"Ooookay why are you looking at me like that? What'd I do this time." Yunmi joked, noticing how his focus on her had changed. "You look very attractive right now but like what did I do?" And without thinking, Ricky pulled Yunmi closer and connected their lips.

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PRESENT

Z

yunmi:
hey yejun
can we talk?

Z:
hi yun

yunmi:
don't call me that please
answer my question

Z:
ofc we can
why though?

yunmi:
it's about the case
i have a list of people i want to ask you about
and you know how to hack into cctv right?

Z:
oh yeah sure
do you want to call or something?

yunmi:
well um no
i want to meet you in person

Z:
oh that's surprising after what happened

yunmi:
i know it was an accident
i just want to properly talk to you alone

Z:
are you sure about this
i still really like you yunmi

yunmi:
it's fine.. and i just thought i'd establish that i don't like you anymore

Z:
understandable

yunmi:
i've realised my feelings for someone else

Z:
woah
gyuvin?

yunmi:
no
anyway, where are you staying right now?

Z:
ohhhhh gyu's dad got me a house to hide in, it's private property and really nice to stay in for a fake dead person

yunmi:
right can i um
come over today?

Z:
of course :)
do you want the address?
and you're going to come alone right?

yunmi:
yes, i am

Z:
okay then
i'll see you later

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"What did you want to talk about?" Yejun said as he sipped on some water, sitting opposite Yunmi with his eyebrow raised. Thankfully this time they weren't as awkward and he wasn't acting scary or weird yet.

"These five people." She pulled out her little notebook and gave it to him to read. All she wanted out of seeing Yejun was his opinions on the five suspects and nothing else, no catching up or him treating her like she's his property again.

He nodded at the names, recognising the obvious suspects until one name had caught his eye. "Hm, Gyuvin, his parents, Jiwoong and..." He paused. "Why is she there?"

"I don't know." Yunmi shrugged and quickly changed the subject since that girl was the least suspicious in the list. "Anyway, that doesn't matter. Someone said that you and Hyeri used to apparently be close years ago, and like I never knew that." She lied, obviously hiding the fact she had his phone in her room.

"I told you already, don't you ever listen to me?" He chuckled. "Hyeri went to my old high school before we both moved to the one you went to... we weren't that close but like I was the reason she even met Gunwook. Matchmaker, aren't I?"

"Yeah whatever." She rolled her eyes and took the notebook back. "Guess it makes sense then, oh and there's someone else I want to ask about. I wanted to ask you about Wony-"

"Anyway, before you ask me about those people, I have to show you something." He cut her off and pulled out a laptop and placed it in front of them. "Since I managed to hack into the cameras again and find undeleted footage..." He clicked onto a file and a video showed up.

Yunmi already forgot what she was going to talk about as Yejun moved to sit next to her, maybe a little too close for her liking again but she didn't say anything. "I found the footage of someone actually stabbing me." He clicked onto the video and a horrifying sight displayed on the screen. Yunmi's body shivered and she watched as she saw a very obvious girl coming up behind him with a shiny thing in her hand - a knife.

"It was a girl?" She coughed out. The boy paused the footage and hummed. "Then what the fuck does this mean?" Yunmi turned to Yejun with scared eyes, somehow feeling sympathy for him.

"It seemed like a boy had hit me, which is fairly obvious. And a girl had stabbed me." He sighed and clicked off the file. "It makes things obvious now, and I was suspecting her for a while..."

The girl looked at him with a sorry expression and pat his shoulder. "So you know who it is?" She tilted her head at him and he finally looked up with a sigh of realisation.

"I don't get how I didn't realise sooner enough... it's my ex girlfriend, of course."

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hmmmmmmmmmmmm

yejun a lil too calm rn bro

#SUMMERHOUSELORE

since ami's already said smth about it... ricky is very suspicious guys....