"W—What's wrong? Is everything alright?" Youngmi's voice saturated with concern as she rallied her gaze between the frantic boy and her phone that now laid flat on the floor.

"That's enough for today... I—I feel tired all of a sudden. Can you please leave now so that I can rest? Thank you for the kind gesture, though. Seems possible to me at this point that even after I've died, I'll remain indebted to you for all the efforts that you're putting in for me." The male had attempted to nip the conversation in the bud to no avail.

The embers floating in Youngmi's hazel eyes depicted well how she was adamant upon keeping every kind of distraction at bay. Consequently, the skin on her forehead also crinkled as her eyebrows buckled owing to puzzlement. Succumbing to her steadily disorienting gaze, she did not realize exactly when was it that she resorted to wool-gathering— sifting through every suspicion pertaining to the male's reticence in her head, only to earmark them as far-fetched in the end.

It was only when he had shifted in his spot in order to lie down, that Youngmi was dragged out of her musing. Her attention at once snapped in the direction of her phone, whose compact screen was still playing the video that they had wound up abandoning before completion. As a result, she bent down, picking the device up in haste as she pressed on the slider— that depicted the amount of playback that viewers had already gone through— until it had reached the time-stamp that she vaguely remembered had left her friend paralysed for a few moments.

"Hi buddy, I heard you were cornered by some thug a few days back—"

Since Youngmi had her back against the boy, she could not catch his ears perking up when the audio commenced.

"Didn't I tell you to leave?"

His glazed eyes bore into the back of Youngmi's head, but despite having felt that, she did not proceed with paying him her heed. Instead, she pretended to focus on the figure inside her phone's screen.

"I'm worried sick for you, bro. Don't do things whose aftermath you aren't sure of sailing through— like walking through deserted streets at night, or getting on somebody's nerves who's clearly more powerful than you in every aspect. Get well and come back as soon as possible, we have so many things to check off our list, right? No chance I'm doing it with someone else." The person in the video grinned, waving his hand soon after as if to signal Youngmi to switch the camera to someone else.

It was natural for the Youngmi who was recording those messages, not to decrypt his innuendos first things first and move on to another pair of the boy's friends who were awaiting their turn to render their parts. But the Youngmi of now— who had witnessed her dependant undergoing a panic attack as soon as the other male had popped into his line of sight— could not help but mull over the fact that how his remarks were indeed double-edged.

How come she did not feel the necessity of assessing the undertones of his overtly dramatic address yet?

The video rolled backwards once again when Youngmi maneuvered the slider, this time her objective being that of identifying the name of her guileful batchmate.

"You're this close to being pushed from the precipice." Youngmi murmured aimlessly, squinting her eyes at the freeze-frame when an unobstructed view of his name tag finally became possible for her, "Choi Yoo...an?"

She had only lifted up her head to gingerly familiarize herself with the newly-acquired information, that her phone was plucked from her grip. It now belonged in the clutch of the one seated beside her, at whom she could not refrain from gawking after what he had just done.

"Forget that name. He has no relation whatsoever with me." The boy stated, determination burning in his eyes.

"Cut that crap," Youngmi retorted, "I don't understand why you're trying to save him so desperately when he's evidently the one behind such condition of yours. Does he have something on you? Something that you don't want to come out?"

"I don't want to discuss that."

"Look, it's not like this is the first time that I've seen you growing anxious due to him, alright? You sleep-talk taking his name and begging him to spare you, for crying out loud! I can't possibly disregard what I've already heard, a—and is extremely problematic in every sense of the word. You can't expect me to shut up despite knowing all that." Youngmi could not contain her frustration from debouching.

"You've got to shut up sooner or later if you don't want to end up like me—"

"I don't care about that. If you can't tell the police what happened, then I'll take the high road. It's as simple as that. And yes, I don't give a fuck about him being a king— as he claims. He can't trample over me unless I allow him to, he doesn't have the same leverage over me as he does in your case." Youngmi continued to dwell on how the odds of her getting intimidated by Yooan were undoubtedly in negative.

"Oh, so you guarantee my family's safety too, then?" The male scorned, prompting Youngmi to press her lips into a thin line in anticipation of a spiteful comment, "It's better not to react when you don't know the whole thing, Youngmi. He can easily jeopardize my entire family, and I could tell by his tone that he didn't say it just for the sake of looking down on me. He's very capable of doing that. So stop meddling in other's business. My decision of not taking measures against him, stays."

"Mock me all you want but I'll try my best to ensure you justice," Youngmi paused for a breath, "and that's my decision."

▪️

Youngmi had descended down the flight of stairs that connected her academy with the ground floor, the moment she figured that all her classes for the day had been successfully attended by her. However, unlike other times, her expression was anything but cheerful. Her pretty face was twisted in a frown, while her eyes unconsciously glared at everyone who entered into her vision. With hands firmly clasping the straps of her bag that spread over her shoulders, she stomped resolutely towards the police station of that area, rehearsing the manner in which she would recapitulate the horrid episode to the officer in-charge.

But that would be her last expedient, because what was to spearhead her contention was a wholly different one.

A sense of accomplishment gradually crept into her veins as she thawed into a smirk, recollecting how impeccably she had audiotaped her friend's somniloquy last night, which consisted of inculpating testimonies in the form of implorations directed at Choi Yooan— miserably asking him to forgive him. Every trace of that vanity was soon erased from her face though, once she discerned that she was just a step away from crossing into the threshold of her region's precinct.

Additional emotions of guilt and terror seeped into Youngmi's skin simultaneously when a detective approached her to lend her an ear, leading her to gulp in apprehension. As much as she wished for her friend to approve of her action, her heartbeat thrummed in her ears when she got reminded of how sternly he had forbidden her from advancing as she pleased. Even though she had confidently rebuffed his viewpoint at that instant, the thought of his fear actually being valid, had begun to course through her blood now.

Youngmi had never had last minute jitters. Then again, the current event was multiple times more life-changing than a mere preparatory test. Being indifferent to it would be living in denial. But that was also the most she could do at that moment, to cruise through the hurdles of her internal contradictions and disagreements, and truly contribute something pivotal that would in turn, aid her friend in smiling genuinely once again.

Youngmi would do anything to convert that pipe dream of hers into reality.

"I'm here to file a complaint." Youngmi started, her eyes shimmering with hope, "My friend was physically assaulted and mentally tortured by Choi Yooan a couple of days back, but no action has been taken against him yet. I have an audio recording that incriminates him, so please give it a listen and help us ou—"

"Does this recording contain a conversation?" The cop interrogated without positioning his gaze at Youngmi, his concentration still fixed on the document that he was filling.

"A conversation? No, it's not. Why?" Youngmi quizzed, dread surging inside her.

"Which means it's a confession, then. Did the speaker consent to being recorded?" He stared at her with curiosity.

"It's more like a revelation but," Youngmi's voice cracked, "I didn't take his consent prior to taping him."

"Miss, did you not consult a lawyer before arriving here? Aren't you aware that recording an exchange which you are not a party of, or an individual statement without having it consented to, is a legal offense? Do you wanna wind up behind the bars instead of the real offender? Because the punishment is not light, I can assure you of that." He delineated to Youngmi how she was almost on the verge of being labeled as a lawbreaker.

"Is there no way I can put this clip to use without having a complaint lodged against my own self?" She articulated what had begun to whirl inside her head upon getting abreast with the entailing complications.

"I'm afraid that seems like the case to me."

Cupping her face around her eyes as she gave the impression of someone deliberating hard on the options that she was left with, Youngmi heaved a deep sigh before groaning under her breath. She hated how she had been pushed into the middle of the crossroads in spite of having explored every sort of scenario that might end up cropping up for her to deal with in the process. Now, with one of the paths already shut down for her, she could not hold back from snickering at herself once she registered that she had been racking her brains for nothing.

That falling back on her final recourse was not so far as she had imagined.

With alternatives disappearing from before her like they never existed, Youngmi's lips slightly parted when she ultimately fixated on what she ought to do in order to draw this nightmare to a close.

"Please log the complaint under my name." Youngmi's intent look could have effortlessly impaled the detective's head, "Shin Youngmi, first-hand witness."

▪️

a/n

hello hello hello! how have y'all been? well, i hope? i've been good too hehe. so the thing is, i recently made a video trailer for this book. i've already attached the link in the intro chapter, but thought it'd nice if i pasted it here as well, isn't it? (bcs yeah tmi, but my ocd gets triggered badly when the disparity between the views of first and latest part keeps on increasing) you can click on the 'external link' option to watch it if you haven't yet! and ngl, i'm quite happy with how it turned out to be hihi👀 meet y'all next week! also, i like this chapter for some reason. do you too?😔 pls vote and comment if you did. thank you <3