They're all unpleasant people

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YERIM was breathless. She made no appointment, so she prayed her spontaneous appearance wouldn't startle Seokjin. She looked up at the intimidating structure. Unlike her brother, she felt no nostalgia. She was nervous, excited, scared and ready. In her hand, she tightly held a large, yellow envelope. It had begun to show signs of crinkling because of the tight grasp of its owner.

She slowly walked into the building, filling her lungs with the new scents and feasting her eyes with the new environment. They were having a hard time settling on one place to observe so she stopped where she was and took a good look around her. Before her was a busy receptionist who was on the phone while on her right were a few employees in a line for collecting coffee for their respective floors. On her left was a section that had stands of business magazines and newspapers. Next to it was a couple of letter trays addressed to various organs of the firm, the one meant for customer service being the most crowded.

Beyond the receptionist's desk was an enormous canteen with several snack bars. On one corner a huge screen was mounted, showing the financial news for the day. On another corner, a similar screen was mounted, only it displayed the stocks of the day.

Between the receptionist's desk and the canteen, she found the elevator doors. And towards it, she headed. Nobody recognized her, for they were busy in their own bubble. She didn't mind it in the slightest.

Her eyes darted around her, taking in her surroundings one last time as the elevator doors shut with a ding.

*

Yerim found no secretary outside Seokjin's office, so she tapped on the door.

Inside, Seokjin raised his head. He knew only one person who would tap on doors and not knock on them; that person was supposed to be at home. He cast a quick glance at his cupboard. Curious, he said:

"Come in."

In walked Kim Yerim, the very person he was thinking about.

"Yeri! This is a pleasant surprise," Seokjin exclaimed. "What can I do for you?"

Yerim beamed. "Glad you asked." She sat before him and pushed the envelope before him.

"What's this?" Seokjin asked.

"Maybe if you open it instead of asking me useless questions, you will find the answer," she said.

Seokjin flicked it open and pulled out the sheaf of papers. One look at the bold letter on the first page made him widen his eyes.

"Your resume?"

"Indeed! I wish to apply for the job of a marketing advisor, sir. Kindly let me know when I must give an interview," Yerim said, perking up.

"An interview?" Seokjin asked, amused.

"Yes, I want to do it the proper way."

Seokjin considered her. "You do know you don't really require a job, right? You could ask to be paid out, or build a trust for yourself and live without lifting a finger. I won't mind if you do that, in fact, you'd have my full support."

"And that's another reason I'm here. I don't wish to be paid out. I want my money to remain in the firm," she assured.

She looked onto Seokjin for an answer. His face was a blank slate and she couldn't make heads or tails of it.

"I will inform you by today if there will be an interview after going through your resume," he finally said.

Yerim was elated. Thanking him profusely, she made her way to the door until a question posed by her cousin made her blood run cold.

"I have to thank you for saving the company a fortune. Tell me, how did you do it?"

"I don't know what you are talking about," she said, turning back as she smiled radiantly.

"Of course you do. Who else had a key to Hansol's bedroom? Who else could have got the sticky note?" Seokjin said, smiling pleasantly.

"Son Seungwan does," pointed out Yerim, acidly.

"She told me that you recently returned the key to his room. Technically, you are correct. Ms. Son now has a key to Hansol's bedroom."

Yerim pursed her lips. "What do you want me to say?"

"I just want the truth, Yerim. I won't tell anyone, I promise," Seokjin smiled. "Tell me the truth and I will assure the interview goes well."

"And if I don't?"

"I'd prefer it if you didn't know."

Yerim stared at him, eyes narrowed. Seokjin stared back, gaze unwavering. She broke into a fit of giggles and strolled up to the vast window beside the cupboard.

"It's been a month since Taehyung's execution. Haven't you moved on?"

"I could ask you the same. Wasn't it, excuse me, premature of you to apply for the job so soon? I thought you would require more time to grieve or get better, given all that you've been through. You took a month-long vacation just because Joohyun threw some nasty words at you," Seokjin said icily.

"She didn't just say nasty words, Seokjin," snapped Yerim. "For your ignorant self's information, she nearly sent me to the hospital by feeding me food I was allergic to, spilled the beans about my nose-job to a gossip magazine and routinely challenged my self-confidence with her disparaging words. Need I say more?"

"So you chose to run away instead of facing her?"

"You may call it running away. It was what I needed desperately when neither you nor Father were there for me! Otherwise I would've ended up wringing her neck!"

Yerim slapped a hand on her mouth. Seokjin was impassive.

"Did you?" He asked.

She looked as if wanted to deny the statement but eventually gave up that thought.

"Yes, I did!" She declared. "I wasn't blind, I could see the blatant flirting they were doing all the time! I kept denying it, thinking that she was just being friendly because she was man-hungry and that he got nervous around her. But when I saw them in the gardens that night, I lost it. Something in me snapped. At that point, I wanted to do nothing more than see her dead. She was the cause of all my misery."

She looked out at the crimson sky, not unlike the color of the lipstick she had worn. It was strikingly similar to the lipstick stain on the sticky note.

"So I killed her. My job was made easier because of those bath salts. I couldn't guess who else wanted her dead apart from me but I thanked my stars that the same night I took her life, that somebody had tampered with them. It removed all evidence.

"I had to pretend as if her disgusting lips had never touched his, each time he leaned in for a kiss. I suppose I could end up living like that, until those damn siblings ruined everything by letting the cat out of the bag: her goddamned will. That was the last straw. I lashed out at him. I can assure you that none of that was acting."

Seokjin laughed ironically. "I didn't think it was. And even if it was, it was the kind where the line between the script and reality was blurred."

"Tell me, how did you know?"

Seokjin raised two fingers. "One, the part about Hansol's bedroom that I mentioned earlier. And two, there was no way that Joohyun could've stayed that long in a bath with quicklime-mixed-bath-salts. The reaction is a very quick one. One would get an instant sting, thus offering the chance of escape. Even if you step in the water first and then add the bath salts, it wouldn't be the case. Someone had to put her inside the bathtub and then mix the bath salts. Since Jimin was already dead by then, it meant that Taehyung had crept back into the house to kill her. That was a very far-fetched theory. So, Hansol and you were left. I had a similar interrogation-"

"You mean your weaselling tactics," Yerim cut in, displeased.

"-with Hansol," continued Seokjin, unbothered. "He came out clean so it had to be you."

"Brilliant deduction," Yerim mocked. "Now, you die."

From the inside of her jacket, she extracted a revolver and pointed it at Seokjin's head.

"Since when did you carry a gun?" Seokjin asked, unmoving, arms where they were before she raised a gun.

"You seem awfully calm for someone who has a gun pointed at his head."

"That's because I'm not alone, sister dear," Seokjin smirked.

Unknowing to Yerim, the cupboard behind her had opened and out of it had emerged two red-haired individuals. Before she had time to react, something heavy hit the back of her head and everything went black.

"Is she unconscious?" whispered Wheein, who held a gun in her hand. She had knocked out the youngest Kim with the back of her weapon.

"I think so," Hoseok said, pulling an eyelid open and checking. He disarmed her.

They looked up to see an unfazed Seokjin.

"You have nerves of steel, Mr. Kim," Hoseok commended.

"Thank you. However, it is because out of the three of us, I alone don't possess the gift of predictability."

"I must give him that," Wheein muttered.

Hoseok cuffed Yerim and after that, began to make calls.

The two of them had come to Seokjin's office for the final legalities of the case. Incidentally, Seokjin happened to catch Yerim from the security cameras. He hurriedly confided his suspicions to them and asked them to hide somewhere in the room. Hoseok had managed to record the entire conversation while they were in the cupboard.

Curious, Wheein asked: "Was it okay for you to tattle on a close family member? Weren't you ready to fight tooth and nail for her, when she was arrested?"

"I was, until you explained everything to me in the station. The little detail about Joohyun's murder didn't sit right with me. I did my own research and found out something that the police may have missed. And I couldn't dream of letting an unsettled individual - whether they were kith or kin - work in my company. I was concerned about the safety of my employees."

"I understand."

"And I had to do what I had to do. You see, Chief Constable Jung, they're all unpleasant people."

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