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BOY MEETS EVIL
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Yi-Seo

“I just spoke to the matron. They’re bringing Se-Young-ssi to court, and he has been cleared to use a portable oxygen cylinder,” I ecstatically inform Jimin, Woo-Bin and Taehyung, standing outside the courtroom along with attorney Seong.

“Amazing!” Jimin exclaims, letting out a victorious chuckle and slapping his palm on mine for a dramatic high-five.

I’m thrilled not only because Se-Young would be coming here to give his confession in person but also because his health has improved to this extent. The scene was so hopeless even two days ago, making us all so restless. But now, things have flipped for the better. Not to mention the curiosity of getting to see the secret evidence that he has been talking about, which may be disclosed today.

Taehyung, however, stands by looking unamused, without expressing much even though he should be the most excited among the four of us.

Without bothering about the humans around us, he holds my gaze for longer than usual; my smile vanishes, and the intenseness of his stare makes my blood rush within my veins. My palms and cheeks heat up, and memories of last night’s intimate hold, slow dance, and soulful confessions begin to float to the top of my mind.

Even though Taehyung is putting on a well-practiced poker face, there’s a kind of clarity in his features today. I had to leave right after waking him up, and I couldn’t spend enough time with him like I wanted to, but he definitely looks like he slept well.

He’s trying to convey something through his eyes, and so am I, but the signal reception system in my brain seems to be functioning very poorly right now. I can’t catch his thoughts, but I wish I had a way to tell him that everything would go well today if that’s what he is thinking about.

I also wish I could hold his hand and take a long walk with him in an ideal world where neither of us has any troubles. My ideal world would have just the two of us and everyone else that I care about—all of us living our lives without any worries or pain or agony.

A feeble smile and a helpless sigh are all I could muster up while looking at him and realizing over and again that I have no power to do any of that. His smile comes out weaker than mine, and he is forced to look away from me when Woo-Bin draws his attention by talking to him.

In about fifteen minutes, we’re all seated inside the courtroom, with Jimin and I sitting beside each other on the left aisle, and Taehyung and Woo-Bin sitting next to Jimin. Attorney Seong goes to his desk on the plaintiff’s side and arranges the paperwork, meticulously scanning everything by looking at the papers in his hands through the top of his glasses.

Just then, the door to the courtroom slowly grinds open, and my head snaps in that direction to find Se-Young being ushered in slowly by the matron of the old home. The instant I see them, I rise from my seat and make my way down the walkway to the entrance.

Se-Young stops in his tracks as soon as he sees me, and he greets me with a big ear-to-ear grin, which I return as my steps pick up pace and turn into a small, brisk jog. Once I get closer to him, I bow and greet the matron and delicately take hold of Se-Young’s bony hand in mine.

I hold his portable oxygen tank in my other hand and roll it along slowly as we walk down the path with all eyes in the courtroom now concentrating on us. But my eyes lift to look at Taehyung’s alluring eyes only, and our gazes lock as we stare deeply at each other while I take Se-Young with me and walk past him to the seats in the front row.

Once I’m sure that he’s seated comfortably and his breathing equipment is also settled safely beside him, I return to my seat which is right behind his seat.

There is a low and restless murmuring of the crowd in the courtroom that fills the surrounding air, which is a total contrast to the radio silence prevailing amongst the five of us who seem to be lost in our own thoughts and existing within some kind of bubble that’s cut aloof from the rest of the courtroom.

The judge arrives in the courtroom, and everyone in the room pays respect to her by rising from their seats and bowing to her. Once she takes her seat, the audience in the courtroom sits down as well, after which the court clerk introduces the case and begins the formalities by swearing in the advocates and administering the oath to the defendant, Se-Young.

I help Se-Young move to the defendant’s stand and place his oxygen tank right beside the stand, and then I return to my seat.

Attorney Seong begins the case by rising from his seat and clearing his throat before he speaks into his talkback mic.

“Your Honor, as introduced earlier, this personal loss case is filed by Kim Taehyung, the plaintiff, who has suffered insurmountable damages in his career and personal life owing to the misuse of medical liberty by Dr Han, the defendant,” he points to Se-Young, and the judge nods in agreement.

“Dr Han, you have chosen to appear as a ‘party in person’, and in your response to the court complaint, you have also confessed to the charges filed against you. Do you want to elaborate on the details?” The judge asks him in an understanding manner, and Se-Young weakly nods.

Taehyung

“My name is Lee Se-Young, formerly known as Dr Han Woo-Seong. Ten years ago, I was working as a physician at the Samsung medical center for more than seven years,” he pauses to take a deep breath and coughs a few times before he resumes speaking. “I used to attend to most of the celebrity patients, and that is how I happened to treat Taehyung on the day of his stage injury,” his depleted eyes flick to look at me, and I’m looking only at him with bated breath, intently listening to every word that he is speaking.

“Which was on the 28th of June, ten years ago, and can you recollect what the nature of the injury was?” Attorney Seong interjects with a question, and Dr Han nods his head once.

“It was a sprained ligament injury in his left ankle, but I already knew that he would come to me that day with some kind of injury during his soundcheck,” he explains clearly, and his words make my eyebrows come together; my face twists in utter shock.

“Pardon? Do you mean to say that it was already conceived?” Attorney Seong’s question is answered with a firm nod of Dr Han’s head.

“Yes. It was planned, but I had no connection with Taehyung whatsoever. I had never even met him before that day,” Dr Han confesses the truth, “but I had heard a lot about him from a person very close to me,” he adds, further fueling my confusion.

I turn my head to the side to look at Woo-Bin who looks equally perplexed, and then I turn to look at Jimin whose face looks calm as a lake.

“Who was this person? Did they have anything to do with Taehyung’s planned fall on the stage during the soundcheck?” Attorney Seong questions him.

Dr Han sucks in a deep breath and pushes it out slowly through his mouth, and then he says softly, “Choi Sung-Won.”

As the sound of his name resonates within the silence in the courtroom, I almost stumble in my seat, and my heart sinks into the pit of my stomach, threatening to wrench my insides out. Sung-Won wasn’t even on my suspects’ list in this matter, and I never thought that he had anything to do with this because we were actually on good terms after his apology and the patch-up. Not good, and things were still a bit sour between us, but little did I expect that it was to the extent of him scheming such a huge act of betrayal against me.

As I jog my memory, I clearly remember that Sammy was present with me when I injected myself in the dressing room, and I also know that he was with me when I was taken to the hospital afterwards and during every other event that happened after my collapse during the concert. The only time I remember him not being around me that day was when I was taken to the hospital after the soundcheck injury, but that was no reason at all for me to suspect him.

“Choi Sung-Won, also popularly known as Sammy, the singer, am I right?” Attorney Seong asks him confidently, directing my focus back to the courtroom.

“Yes. He was from the same agency as Taehyung, and he was also a close friend of mine for a long time,” the revelation hits me like a truck on the face, and my fists clench in fury and dismay.

Taking a step back now, I think about how Sung-Won never contacted me after my blacklisting. Not once in these ten years has he tried to contact me. I did not, as well. I never contacted anybody except Woo-Bin, but many artists and industry mates that I knew contacted me and tried to comfort me. But Sammy never did, and I have never thought of it as a big deal until now. Now I think I know why he stayed away. He was guilty. Probably, feeling triumphant even.

“Can you please explain how he was connected to the actual issue?” An explanation is demanded by our attorney, which is also what I’m dying to hear at this point. My anxiety manifests in the way my teeth begin to assault my lips as I bend forward, resting my elbows on my knees and keeping my hands linked together while I keep my eyes dead set on Dr Han.

“Sung-Won had personal issues with Taehyung. As per what he told me, they weren’t on good terms, and he was also harboring a lot of jealousy and hatred for him seeing his super successful career. Every time he met me, he sounded so dejected, and he was so upset about Taehyung, and it made me feel so helpless. I wanted to do anything I could do to help him feel better and stay happy,” Dr Han runs out of breath as he seems to have spoken too many words beyond what his lungs could handle at the moment.

His face turns pale, and he holds on to the railings on the stand for support as he stoops a little. Seeing his struggle, the judge asks the court clerk to provide a chair for him to sit down, and this request is soon fulfilled. After sitting down and collecting his breath for a while, Dr Han confirms that he is ready to proceed.

“So, when Sung-Won told me that he had a plan in mind, I found it to be the right opportunity to help him and be of some use,” his voice sounds remorseful, and my jaw tightens as I press my feet down on the floor beneath.

He continues before attorney Seong could probe him any further. “I don’t know how the fall on the stage was planned by him, but he said that there would definitely be some kind of injury. And as planned and expected, Taehyung fell on the stage and twisted his ankle. He was also brought to me for treatment as per our plan,” each revelation that he lets out causes the tension in the tug of war between my frustration and anxiety to increase at an exponential rate.

“I injected him with a minimal dosage of painkiller, and sent along another painkiller injection for later use if he needed it. And I was sure that he would need it, given how intense his stage activities were, and how severe his ankle injury was,” Dr Han’s voice lacks any emotions, and it is as though he has rehearsed this confession a million times within his head.

“And then what happened?” Attorney Seong inquires.

“So as expected, Taehyung’s pain did not reduce, and he had to use the second injection which I sent along with him. The emergency medical team at the concert venue was from our hospital as well. What I did not expect was for Taehyung to inject himself with the medicine, and even though he told me earlier that he was familiar with intravenously injecting himself, I did not expect him to do it on his own at a crucial time of his own concert,” I have no idea what humor he finds in this part of his confession, and his low chuckle makes my blood boil and fume.

“The medicine that I sent along with him was a twenty-times more powerful painkiller—a narcotic to be specific. And it was sure to knock him out, and that’s exactly what happened,” he pauses and sinks into his seat.

There is a deafening silence that prevails within my head. I feel defeated and deceived; my heart shrinks inexplicably. Everyone has worked against me, and it kills me to think how foolish I was to have trusted everyone.

“So you had intentionally sent along a higher dosage of narcotics for injection, and what did Sung-Won have to do with this? Besides planning Taehyung’s fall on the stage during the soundcheck, did he have anything else to do with this whole matter?” My eyes move to attorney Seong as he questions Dr Han and raises a brow at him.

“Sung-Won was the one who sent Taehyung to me for treatment, and he procured the high dosage drug and passed it on to me. We had planned together that I would be giving Taehyung a high dosage of the medicine for injection.”

There is a moment of profound silence in the courtroom that follows his words, and I can literally hear the deafening beats of my heart in my ears.

“But as per the purchase bills that you submitted during the initial investigation, the medicine strength of the painkiller that you had handed over to Taehyung was within the permissible limits,” attorney Seong claims, and I almost nod my head in agreement.

“That was manipulated,” he shrugs casually, sounding almost sassy.

I knew it. Even before Yi-Seo told me about it, I knew for sure that the medicine was the problem, and I knew that Dr Han had something to do with all of this wretched mess. But I also had a flickering instinct that he might have been innocent, and someone else would have switched the drug before I injected it.

The purchase bills that he submitted were added proof of his innocence, but I guess I was the naïve one to believe what the bill stated was true. Hearing from the conspirator himself that the medicine was switched at the source itself actually brings about a state of order to the chaos that was swirling restlessly within my mind for so many years. That was the only truth that everyone needed to hear to know that I had nothing to do with the high-strength drug.

The answers are coming out now, the pieces are falling into place, and I have a faint feeling that there will be an end to the misery when my innocence would be proved, finally. I can spot a feeble light at the end of the tunnel.

“Sung-Won and I planned it together. We switched Taehyung’s injection medicine, and we made sure to forge the purchase bill. The secret was between us, and the motive for Sung-Won’s deed was achieved…” Dr Han lets out a humorless chuckle, keeping his gaze down on his ageing hands. “But mine was forgotten… More like purposely ignored once his goal was achieved,” his eyes still don’t lift to look at anyone inside the courtroom.

“The court has the right to know the motives behind the actions of everyone involved in this case,” the judge interrupts this time, and Dr Han’s eyes meet hers briefly before he nods a few times, looking away.

“I- I had a lot of affection for Sung-Won, and he promised to return the same if we pulled this off perfectly. Taehyung’s downfall was what he wanted, and he succeeded in making that come true. But he broke the promise that he made to me,” Dr Han complains timidly.

The judge exhales deeply. “Dr Han, you do know that you’re making accusations against a person who isn’t present here in court. Do you have any proof for these accusations against the apparent instigator, Sung-Won?”

“I do,” Dr Han retorts without any hesitation.

“Then you must be ready to produce that in court, and the court will then decide if Sung-Won is connected to the case as well. Is there any problem in producing the evidence that you hold against him?” The judge’s question forces an unexpectedly embarrassed reaction out of Dr Han, which isn’t helping the turbulence within my head one bit.

“It exposes something about me which I wasn’t comfortable opening up about all these years,” the frail man states in a feeble voice. “My sexuality,” he adds before anyone could question him, and his words are followed by the entire courtroom falling into pin-drop silence for a few seconds, after which there is an outbreak of murmurs among the audience.

However, my eyes pop out, and my heart races at this completely unexpected revelation. Although I have a slim hint about what he meant, I can’t wait to find out what the evidence is, and how it is going to expose Sammy’s ghoulish side to the world.

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Are you also eager to know about that evidence? I know you are!!
😏🙃

Published on : 02/12/2023