CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE: Yunmi's quest

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a few days ago.

- Z

"Fuck."Z cursed to themself as they struggled to hack into the computer. "The footage is all completely gone." They hissed in disbelief and almost shouted at the computer. "Who the fuck deleted it from here?"

They opened their phone and received a strange text message from someone. They opened it and it was screenshots of a conversation that happened the night of Yejun's death that was deleted. Their eyes widened and the person started typing.

"I found it." They said, but then it followed along with. "The last part is glitching though..."

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loading deleted messages.....

conversation loaded!

4:24am

6 feet above
3 members

gyuvin:
where are you guys

gunwook:
we've already left
it's scary and we might get caught

gyuvin:
no why the fuck did you leave

ricky:
because it's weird
yejun's probably just left too

gunwook:
he definitely wanted to get us together

gyuvin:
but i did it

ricky:
did what?

gyuvin:
i told you i did it

ricky:
gyuvin???

gyuvin:
i .!]!found:£wh3£2&,!(/who$€al/):£;1v3

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Z was in surprise from the messages from the way it literally showed nothing but also showed something. They sighed and swiped off the screenshot to text Yunmi. "I'm going to tell her who I am." They said as they typed. "She's the only innocent one."

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present.

- HAN YUNMI

Yunmi slowly opened the door to the summer house and chills ran through her spine. She hadn't been here in such a long time and seeing the inside like this again was so unsettling. The stairs creaked every step she took up the stairs and she heard rustling upstairs.

She searched for where her room used to be and noticed that the door was already open. She took a deep breath before grabbing the door handle and slowly opening it wider. Yunmi didn't know what to expect was there but she felt herself become more panicked by the second.

That was until she walked in fully and got a clear sight of Jiwoong inside. "Uhm, Jiwoong? You're still here?"

He turned around and his face was painted with fear. Jiwoong gulped before handing her a piece of paper. "I think I read something that was meant for you..." Yunmi looked at him in confusion and snatched the piece of paper from his hands before scanning the paper herself along with a notebook.

It wasn't just any notebook. It was Yunmi's forgotten scrap journal that she used during the time she lived in the summer house. "What the fuck." She hissed, the pain of seeing it going straight to her heart. "I thought I threw this away." She took the piece of paper and ignored the notebook.

"This was the house that contained all of your shittiest secrets, and I somehow found this in the bin that showed all of that a long time ago.

One thing that I know is that both me and the killer are somewhere in that book. You could take a look, unless you want all of those memories flooding back.

There's more in this room that would make you realise who I am, but I think you're too slow for that. :)"

Yunmi scoffed in disbelief then turned to Jiwoong although he was rummaging through the room. "The killer is someone we actually know?" She let go of the paper and Jiwoong looked at her with a sarcastic expression

Jiwoong scoffed. "It's obvious both whoever Z is and whoever the killer is has been here before. Almost every single person who knew Yejun came here. You guys threw too many parties. Are you stupid?"

Yunmi nodded. "Wait I'm not nodding to you calling me stupid, but I agree that we threw too many summer parties and too many people fucking attended them. This is a shitty clue." She looked down at the notebook.

In all honesty, she didn't want to open it yet; seeing everything that she wrote and the pictures she glued inside from a year ago would make her cry for sure. It was somewhat like a diary, but just with pictures stuck inside for context. Yunmi decided to ignore it and she put it into her bag.

"Anyway, Z is texting you too?" She sat down on the bed next to him. Jiwoong and Yunmi weren't the closest people ever but they acknowledged each other a long time ago because of Yejun. Sometimes she thinks Yejun's just some idiot who came from a good family, especially after having Jiwoong as his step brother. It must be hard for him too.

"Uhh, yeah. They told me to leave the phone outside the house so I did." He shrugged. "I'm really confused though, why are you being told to come here?"

She remembered the thing the person told them about not telling anyone and shrugged. "I was walking by and saw you all, and your mom told me that someone had left something for me here." Yunmi lied, staring at the notebook across the room.

He hummed. "Makes sense. I'm just surprised whoever Z is wants me to bring Yejun's phone here." He then paused and looked around in paranoia. "Shit what if they're inside right now?"

"Shut the fuck up don't make it scary." Yunmi said in panic, holding him down. "Anyway... about Yejun's phone, do you have it right now?"

Jiwoong calmed down and he nodded. He took the phone out of his pocket and sighed. This was undoubtedly Yejun's phone and once he pressed the screen, Yunmi caught sight of the lockscreen. "What the fuck.."

"Yeah, it's you." He said.

"Can I ask you a question real quick?" She turned to Jiwoong with a sigh, looking away from the phone. "Did Yejun actually like me? Because why the fuck is your mom telling me a bunch of bullshit that he did?"

Jiwoong gulped. After listening to Gyuvin's parents interviews, he wasn't so sure either. "I... don't know. Gyuvin's mother said that he really liked you too."

"Gyuvin's mother said that? How the fuck would she know?" Yunmi's eyes narrowed onto the phone and she snorted. "They're all telling me bullshit. I mean maybe he did, but they're making it out to be like he realllyyy liked me."

"Yunmi can I tell you something before I leave?" He asked, and she replied with a slow and cautious nod. He unlocked the phone, thanks to Yujin remembering it and went to iMessage. He pressed on Gyuvin's mother's contact and handed it to Yunmi.

She scanned the messages, then looked back up at the contact name. She couldn't even speak since she was in so much surprise from the contact name. Even after finding out he did cheat on her or whatever, she didn't expect it to be someone she saw as a second mother figure.

"I'm sorry." Was all Jiwoong could say. He pat her back slowly and was expecting a tear or two, but he heard laughing instead. "Are you laughing?"

She giggled. "I knew it." She handed the phone back to him. "Well I didn't know it'd be Yejun, but I knew the rumours were true." She snorted and stood up. "Okay, I think I need to go. I have things to do." Jiwoong was confused but didn't say anything as she told him to be quiet before texting someone.

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Z

yunmi:
what exactly was the point of this bro

yunmi:
you said you'd lead me to who you are why are
you just just telling me you made a feature in my journal💀💀

Z:
it wouldn't be fun if i was just giving you hints on who i was, i did tell you i'd tell you the truth about the killer

Z:
it was a shitty clue but that's the point stupid

yunmi:
okay then why is jiwoong here

Z:
he's still there?

yunmi:
well yeah you texted him to drop yejun's phone off outside didn't you?

Z:
no?
i never texted jiwoong
wait he has yejun's phone?

yunmi:
uhhh yeah? did you not want it

Z:
tell him to keep it and leave
whoever's trying to lure him is the killer

yunmi:
boy what

Z:
just tell him
trust me whoever is texting him is stupid
seen

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"Okay what the fuck this is weird." Yunmi walked back over to Jiwoong. "Read this," She passed him the phone. "Is there like another Z or something?"

Jiwoong tilted his head a little and squinted his eyes. "Yeah no what this is weird. I think there might be, they text pretty differently." He reread the messages again and again but couldn't figure out why. "Should I just listen to them?"

She shrugged. "I mean they act like they know everything about what happened so I would listen to them, but that's just because I'm a pussy and believe everything they say."

The boy nodded and kept the phone, sliding it into his back pocket. "Okay, let's leave this scary house before we get killed or something. I'm sure the boys are done packing anyway. If I find anything later, I'll let you know."

Yunmi nodded as she kept the note and followed Jiwoong out of the room."Make sure if you give Yujin a room, make it mine. I will physically not trust any other man besides my brother sleeping in what used to be my room." She said as they walked down the stairs again.

Jiwoong chuckled with a nod, and they left the house together. Jiwoong had to get somewhere later and she nodded before opening her phone.

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Z

Z:
now that you have your first clue, i can give you another one right?

Z:
now you know that both the killer and i have been there before, that's like the shittiest thing to find out right?

yunmi:
yeah it was mostly shitty cause i ran into gunwook, jiwoong, and yejun's parents lmfao

Z:
awww a meeting is it

yunmi:
now just tell me where i'm supposed to go next

yunmi:
wait how many places am i even going to today

Z:
after this, only three don't worry

Z:
but you don't need to be at all locations for a long time because i don't have the time to organise a two day trip to find me, you'll see me by the end of today!

yunmi:
right
okay
where now

Z:
i can't exactly tell you the place this time

yunmi:
??????

Z:
if you just go somewhere where you and your friends used to go to alllll of the time together

Z:
does ricky and shopping ring a bell?

yunmi:
how the fuck did you even know that?

Z:
i know everything duh, be there by 3pm
this time you can tell people i told you to go there, because many many people are waiting for you

Z:
make sure to answer those questions
seen

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Yunmi knew exactly where she was now. She arrived at the mall after walking for an hour. She was tired, but recognised the place straight away. This was the place where she would take Ricky when he was sad, and they'd go on serious shopping sprees together to make themselves feel better.

It was also the place where her and Yejun would go sometimes for dates as much as she doesn't want to remember it. She doesn't even know how to feel about him right now, it's too much to know he was talking to Gyuvin's mother, let alone everyone telling her that Yejun 'loved' her."

But then she saw something - or someone. A lot of people actually. "What.. the fuck?" Yunmi said to herself as she caught sight of the three boys again. It was as if they've forgotten all about each other's existences since they were walking separately into the building.

"Are you okay?" Taerae and Yujin both walked up to her in panic. "Are you here because Z texted you?" Yujin asked in shock.

"Uhh, yeah how'd you know?" She gulped before looking forwards. It was completely crowded outside and she was so baffled on why she was supposed to go here out of everywhere.

"There's no time for that, hurry inside because there's people who are going to follow you around." Taerae said before taking her by the arm and quickly dragging her towards the inside of the mall.

She was so confused but then noticed how the inside was closed off and she realised who else was inside with her. This was way worse than a random ass hangout. Around fifty odd people were outside of the doors and windows, holding cameras, phones, microphones and lights. Their voices muffled from the other side of the window and then she spotted signs. Written fucking signs held up.

She read some briefly, only reading the words 'innocent' and 'murderers' on some of them. She scoffed after remembering that the whole media still thinks they're guilty.

"What am I supposed to find here?" She whispered to herself. She scanned around and the other three boys were completely avoiding each other, only talking to the detectives that they were with.

Then, there was a sound that resonated across the room. A simultaneous sound of phones ringing and one of the rings was from Yunmi's phone. All four students looked down at their phones and a phone call displayed on the screen. The name reading "Z".

She looked at Yujin and the others already had their phones against their ears. She gulped and placed the phone near the ear. "Hell-" She was cut off by the robotic sound of someone's voice.

"This is your second clue: 'Z' couldn't have known everything for no reason. Who else would know all of the events of the friendships and murder besides the person actually in the friend group?"

Then the call ended. Yunmi panicked and looked over at the three isolating boys. All of their eyes were shooting daggers at each other and it looked like they all had the same phone call. It was so creepy, but it's obvious they were easily influenced by the call from the way they were looking at each other.

"What was it? What's happening?" Yujin asked in confusion, tapping Yunmi's frozen body. "Hellooooo? Yunmi? Why are you all making silly faces?"

"I'm leaving." She said, looking at the two boys. "If you see them being suspicious or on their phones in the next few minutes, tell me. I'm going." She glanced at Gyuvin on his phone and walked off without another word.

Both Yujin and Taerae were perplexed by her sudden reaction and then read the room. It seemed to them that they all received a similar phone call. The boys looked pissed off and suspicious of each other's every move.

As Yunmi left, she was bombarded by a crowd of people calling her name. She was so in surprise that she obviously couldn't escape the scene of cameras shutting in her face and the microphones being shoved in front of her.

"Han Yunmi! Is it true that you're innocent for your boyfriend's death?" An interviewer asked. She chuckled awkwardly. "Uhm, yes.." She began to walk backwards but they were still following her.

"What are your thoughts on your friends planning to kill him because of jealousy?" Another shouted, Yunmi began to panic and she started running. It felt like a horror movie from how many were following her and she just wished she didn't leave through the front.

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Z

Z:
are you done yet?

Z:
it's half past three

Z:
hello??

yunmi:
fuck you i just got chased across the streets for twenty minutes man oh my god

yunmi:
i had to call my fucking driver to get me
was this your fucking plan

Z:
i don't think i have the time to organise such a scare but no i didn't :')

Z:
so did you find the next letter?

yunmi:
there was a letter????

Z:
...
you're kidding right?

yunmi:
YOU CALLED ME DUMBFUCK

Z:
i did?
OH yeah i did whoops
so you just heard the call clue, not even tried to find the letter?

yunmi:
no ffs
tell me what it says i'm not running back

Z:
hm okay, well first i'll let you guess where i hid it... it was somewhere around the place where you and your friend group (including yejun) had their first friend meetup

yunmi:
what the fuck i don't even remember that

Z:
shame
guess it or i won't tell you

yunmi:
was it our first ever hangout as the 5 of us

Z:
yes that's what i just said!

yunmi:
ummmmm

Z:
cmon it can't be that hard.. it's where you decided to have a summer house together

yunmi:
tf are you on about the decoration store

Z:
bingo

yunmi:
why the fuck would i even look there?
thats such a shitty place to hide something

Z:
it was a huge memory for you, no? when you all decided to plan to build a house for the five of you as college students

yunmi:
ok whatever ur weird
what did the letter say

Z:
i think it said something like that's where you decided to plan the dumbest part of your life then it said that the killer and I was involved in the making of the house

yunmi:
hello what???

Z:
figure that one yourself if you have such shitty memory 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

Z:
anyway, next clue

yunmi:
you are shit at this i hope you know

Z:
hey don't be mean, i had to set this all up quickly without getting caught

Z:
i would've put more effort in it if the cctv camera footage for chaeri wasn't so hard to get

yunmi:
what?

Z:
anyway your next place is your college ofc
someone will help you find the next clue that leads to me and the killer :)

yunmi:
so ur telling me i went from college to the summer house to that stupid mall to get chased then go BACK to my fucking college

Z:
yo calm down i had to set up the shit
anyway, bye have fun

Z:
you're so close to me now
just one more place after narae and you'll find everything out

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Wonyoung was leaning against the gate and smiled once she saw Yunmi. "Yunmi!" She called, watching as the girl got out of the car. "I've been looking for you, a lot of people are still in the school."

"Why are you looking for me?" She asked as the two started to walk into the building. "It's not like anything happened."

Wonyoung pursued her lips. "Someone posted that video of you answering the questions." She said before leading her into the room that Yunmi hadn't seen in ages.

"I answered a question and ran for my life." Yunmi shrugged but then her eyes widened. "Oh my God did they post me running? That'd be so embarrassing..."

The girl chuckled and shook her head. "No, silly." She closed the door to the room. "Anyway, I wanted to take you to this room."

Yunmi looked around and recognised it straight away. "Oh... this was the room where we forced together." She sighed in frustration. "You know what I think? One of them is Z, it's so obvious."

"What? Really?" Wonyoung's eyes widened and she took bottles of water out of the fridge before throwing one to Yunmi. "You think it's one of them?"

"I got a phone call earlier saying Z is obviously someone in the friend group.. and it makes sense now a little. But I'm not sure I actually believe it.." She explained and chugged the water, obviously since running everywhere was already tiring as it was.

Wonyoung was going to say something but she stopped once she got a text message. She went quiet and Yunmi raised a brow, trying to look at the girl's phone. She pulled back and hid her phone. "Uh, sorry. I have to go. It's urgent." She gulped and ran out of the room before Yunmi could even say anything.

"The fuck is up with her?" Yunmi furrowed her brows and looked around. "Oh wait is this where I'm supposed to find a stupid letter?" She ignored Wonyoung's strange behaviour and stood up to look around.

This room was the room where they were forced in a lot during that one time they were supposed to act like friends even though they hated each other. Not much happened in here besides them arguing here and there.

It was just a bad memory to her. She had forgotten about the boys already until today and now she was searching for some shitty thing. If Z was one of them, it'd be obvious that they know about this place anyway. At deeper thought, she wasn't sure how Wonyoung even knew how to get in the room.

Pushing the thought aside, she finally found a piece of paper. "What the hell?" She picked it up and when she did, it revealed a picture frame and she recognised the picture straight away.

Before reading the letter, she picked up the photo. "God, it's the five of us." She whispered, looking at all of their smiling faces. "Ew why do I miss it a little bit." Besides the five, the rest of their friends and Gyuvin's mother were in the picture smiling. "Weird bitch." She said to herself once she saw the woman.

After judging Gyuvin's mother and reminiscing the old times where she actually trusted the boys, she held the letter to her face and read it carefully.

"I'm in this photo, and so is the killer.

We're all connected every time, it's sad to know your own friends would betray you."

She cocked her head to the side. "Okay they're straight up telling me who did it now." She picked up the picture frame. "I'll just take this too." She put it inside of her bag along with the journal and sighed.

"It's no doubt that Gyuvin's mother did it now." Yunmi shook her head in betrayal. "She probably wanted us to investigate Chaeri at the start so we could be suspects."

Yunmi's own theory is that since they never even got time to investigate Chaeri, Gyuvin's mother used that time away from this college to cover something up. Now that she knows Yejun probably played the woman, she would've at least attempted to kill Yejun out of jealousy.

It's known that she was some jealous woman who just had a facade of a sweet woman who owns a prestigious college. "Okay well, then who the fuck is Z?"

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Z

Z:
finished, are we?

yunmi:
uhm yeah

Z:
oooh it's your last stop now

yunmi:
i am exhausted
are you sure i'll see you

Z:
positive you will
the last place is......!!!

yunmi:
?????

Z:
where Yejun's body was found

yunmi:
fucking chaeri????

Z:
of course

yunmi:
how can i get inside though?

Z:
do you not remember how you got in last time?

yunmi:
i was intoxicated..

Z:
oh right
someone opens the back for you and there's a hallway that leads you to the principal's office, you'll know it when you see it

yunmi:
but what about gyuvin's dad?

Z:
don't worry about that, you should quickly make your way and sneak in before you get caught

yunmi:
oh my days
okay fine
you better be there

Z:
no duh
hurry up, i'm observing the cameras
you'll find out everything today

Z:
the password to the back door is 408060

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Yunmi arrived at the back, and she noticed that there was too many cameras around. But remembering that Z had probably seen her already, she shivered in fear knowing they're looking at her right now.

Her heart was beating rapidly and her body ached from today. Although she didn't do much, she was exhausted already. Despite that, she saw that the keypad was there. She sighed and entered '408060'. She heard a click and sighed in relief before opening the door.

It looked empty already, so she started walking to the right, she knew her way around her a little now due to the time they spent here and she begged not to be caught.

She saw the principal's office and smiled to herself. Yunmi looked around again and once she acknowledged that the coast was clear, she snuck into the office. She locked the door behind her and looked around, the office was very clean and there was a lot of picture frames inside too.

She glanced at the desk and saw a letter written presumably by Z. She picked it up and when she read it, her mind went blank.

"The killer knows this room a little too well, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, check your phone. Your last clue is there and you'll find out the truth."

She gulped and took her phone out. It turns out Z had already sent her a message and she read it in confusion."Reread this message I sent you a week or two ago." She read aloud with a frown. She scrolled down and a screenshot from their old conversation was sent, and Yunmi read it with a pit in her stomach.

She was now getting worried, she doesn't feel so safe anymore. Her hands were shaking and she felt guilty once she had to read all of the things she's done before.

[Z:
you already cheated on yejun twice
even lead on your first love gyuvin
jeopardised your friendship with ricky
usually lying to gunwook's face
now entirely lying to everyone?

Z:
also hurt all of their feelings on purpose
like they don't matter to you anymore
if you even care about anything else
very much just you and your addictions
everyone is harmed because of you]

Then, they sent another message. "First letter of every sentence." Read Yunmi, leaving her confused with a frown again. She looked closely and highlighted the first letters of each sentence to figure something out.

You already cheated on yejun twice
Even lead on your first love gyuvin
Jeopardised your friendship with ricky
Usually lying to gunwook's face
Now entirely lying to everyone?

Also hurt all of their feelings on purpose
Like they don't matter to you anymore
If you even care about anything elso
Very much just you and your addictions
Everyone is harmed because of you

"What???" She ruffled her hair and looked around in fear. "What the fuck does that mean?" She looked down again and reread the message with a beating heart. "None of this message even makes any sen-"

But then she realised. "Oh my God." She dropped to the floor in shock, her phone also falling in front of her. She shakily took the phone into her hands and made sure she had read it right. "Oh my fucking God.." Yunmi shook her head aggressively in disbelief, piecing the words together.

"Yejun... alive."

As soon as those words escaped her mouth, she was pulled away from the principal's office. The person'a grip was so strong and she tried to scream but they had put their hand over her mouth so it was all muffled. It seemed like she was pulled through some sort of secret door in the room and she panicked.

She tried to struggle. But she was still so weak from walking all day that she had given up and she accepted the fact she was probably going to die. However despite their hand being so secure, she had been picked up carefully - quite the opposite to the hand almost suffocating her.

He softened the hand and slowly removed it from her face. Yunmi's eyes were watering and she couldn't even get a glance at who was holding her. But to her misfortune, her vision cleared and she almost screamed once she recognised the face. This was not who she was expecting.

He put his hand over her mouth again. "Stop, Yunmi stop. Don't scream. They will find us, and me." He whispered. "There are still staff in the Chaeri school walls, you know?"

The guy placed Yunmi's fragile body down slowly, as if she was delicate and about to break any second. But although after being let go, she felt something weird. The pit in her stomach was gone and she somehow felt... safe?

"Gyuvin?"

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YES BOYS🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
I fear i kind of ate this one (it's actually not that good i just like the last part)

Long chapter for you lot & the 'yejun alive' message came from chapter 21, i'm glad no one realised TEEHEE

The killer is kind of obvious guys...

Also i'm really sorry that i haven't been writing abt ricky/gunwook/gyuvin that much i promise i'll get to their lores soon after i finish this part of the book xo