Jake bit his lip hard. The professor was droning on about channelling emotions into power for sucking out illnesses, but it felt like the replay button in his head was broken with yesterday's encounter playing in his head without a break.

Jake stood outside his house. He was greeted by a tall, dark haired man with a light stubble.
'I thoroughly apologize for bothering you at this hour,  Mr. Shim,' he said.
Jake stared at him, confused.
'Oh. Allow me to introduce myself,' he reached out to shake his hand. 'I'm Detective Ahn Minsook,' he showed him his ID card. 'I wanted the matter to be private, since this could end up being a high profile case that's why I'm contacting you like this, all alone.'

' How may I help you?,' Jake said.
He moved closer to him.
'It's related to your mom's death, I'm afraid. Shall we go in and talk?,' he whispered carefully.
Jake looked at him, flabbergasted. Nevertheless, he motioned him to follow him inside his house.
Detective Ahn removed his shoes and sat on the couch while Jake got some water for him. 'It's related to Eomma's death? What do you mean? Why are you here?,' he said in one breath.
'Calm down, Jaeyun-ssi. I'll explain everything to you in detail. But tell me something first. Did you not have a look at her autopsy report?,' he said.
Jake's heart skipped a beat.

'Autopsy report? What's in there to look at?,' he tried to sound confident and composed but his body was shaking all over. 'She slipped and died, it was probably haemorrhage...There's nothing to-'
'Severe brain damage. Cracked skull. Some of the things that the report says,' he read from his phone.
Jake's face drained color. 'What?,' he managed to squeak out.

'You can give it a look,' he held his phone in front of him.
Jake's vision turned blurry. He could feel blood throbbing in his temples.
The detective looked concerned. 'Are you okay?'
'I'm fine,' he waved his hand. 'Does this mean she was...'

He didn't want to say it. Not the M-word. It was impossible. No way.

'Murdered? Probably,' Detective Ahn nodded. 'Jeong Jimin was a famous pianist and a national asset. It was obvious for her death report to be examined carefully. The doctors ended up contacting the Police since the cause of her demise is anything but ordinary. And that's what brings me here.'
'But who would kill her? Why would anyone kill her?,' Jake started panicking and breathing heavily.

'Relax, Jaeyun-ssi,' the detective widened his eyes slightly in worry. 'We'll discuss the rest of the details tomorrow at the police station. Good night.'

He had called out after him that day, but he insisted on talking to him today since he was busy with another case he had been working on.
Jake felt restless. He wanted answers. Why would anyone want to hurt her?
Why?

'That's it for today's lesson,' Professor Wang said.
'Yah Jake,' Sunghoon called him. Jake turned back to face him. 'Hmm?'
'Did you apologize to Jungwon?'
Jungwon?

Then it suddenly hit him. He couldn't believe what he had done yesterday.
'No,' he gasped. 'I totally forgot, Sunghoon ah.'
Sunghoon scorned.

'Heeseung him told me that he hurt himself on his way to the Coaching Center because he thought someone was following him.'
'Jungwon hurt himself?,' Jake looked at his friend, half confused and half worried.
Was it because of him? Was it because his mind had been too preoccupied thinking about why he pushed him that's why he couldn't think straight?
Jake felt horrible. He had to call Jungwon as soon as possible.

Sunghoon nodded as they both started walking out to the cafeteria.

'I need to contact him as soon as I can. Speaking of which, I think I need to tell you something, Sunghoon,' he said carefully, looking around to make sure nobody was eavesdropping on them.
Sunghoon raised his eyebrows.

'I-,' he struggled to find the right words.
'It's possible that somebody murdered eomma,' he whispered in his ear. 'What?,' Sunghoon blurted out, his eyes widening.
'Shush. Keep it down,' he nudged him.

'How...Why?,' Sunghoon scratched his head. 'The only murderer we know about is that serial killer, and your mom's head was definitely not decapitated, was it?,' he said. 

'I know right. That's why I'm gonna go see that detective today,' Jake said.
'Detective?'
'Some Detective Ahn came to my house yesterday and told me that she died under supposedly suspicious circumstances.'
Sunghoon shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair. 'This...This feels so goddamn unreal, Jake. Why the hell would anyone kill your mom?,' he whispered. The tension in his voice was evident.

'Sunghoon, I have absolutely no idea,' his voice went hoarse as he held his head in his hands. Sunghoon hugged him.

'Be strong, okay? I'm always there for you,' he rubbed Jake's back as he sobbed. Jake could feel himself losing control over his body. He couldn't hold himself up anymore. It was an absurd feeling. He felt like he was being torn apart in every single way possible, and the shreds of his body were floating around, struggling to put together.

If it wasn't for his friend holding him steady, he would have probably fallen on the ground. He felt weak.

'Jake, let's go somewhere else,' he dragged him away from the cafeteria. They walked further away into the campus and entered an empty room. They sat in there.

'Are you fine, Jake?,' Sunghoon squeezed his arm.
No. I'm breaking. It feels horrible. I feel like I'm losing myself. I want eomma back. She couldn't have been killed. Not like this. She never hurt a fly. Dislike her? Possible. But the fact that someone out there hated her guts enough to murder her?

'I'm fine. I'll be fine,' Jake smiled and took a deep breath.

'Let's talk about something else for now, okay?,' he said. 'We'll talk about this tomorrow after you contact Detective Ahn,' he smiled. Jake nodded.
'What exactly happened to Jungwon?,' he said. Sunghoon's pupils went up as he tried to recollect what Heeseung had told him. 'Jungwon had left his water bottle behind and Heeseung hyung left a couple of minutes after he did so he decided to return it to him on his way. He was walking behind Jungwon but the latter assumed that someone was stalking him and about to kill him. He got extremely anxious and tripped over. He ended up hurting himself so badly that hyung decided to drop him home instead of the coaching center.'

Jake felt a sudden pang of guilt. 'I was...terrible to him. I literally pushed him...,' Jake hit his forehead with his hand. 'Why the hell did I do that? I literally got mad for no reason. He must be so hurt,' Jake's lips trembled.
'It's alright. You always get anxious while talking about her. It's only natural that you react in ways you didn't think you would, Jake. I'm sure Jungwon would understand,' Sunghoon patted his back.
Would he?
Would Jungwon understand?

Jake sighed. He hoped Jungwon would understand. 'Uhm Jake?'
'Hmm?'
'I don't want you to take this personal but,' Sunghoon looked at him, searching for the right words. 'You looked pretty intimidating that day. We all were...scared,' he said. 'Was I?,' Jake looked at him incredulously. Sunghoon nodded. 'We were all scared of you, Jake. It's like...You turned into a completely different person altogether.'

Jake bit his lip. 'I don't know bro. I got really overwhelmed I guess. I was feeling too many things at once. I couldn't handle it so I took it out on him. In my defence, he was asking me questions about eomma repeatedly.' Jake's face started turning beet red. 'I didn't want to talk about her, why do I have to talk about her? I miss her enough everyday, I don't want people to remind me that I'll never see her again! I'm so sick of everyone asking me how I'm holding up! I don't care if it comes from a place of concern, it does nothing but rub salt in my wounds!,' he shouted indignantly. 'Hey buddy, relax,' Sunghoon handed him a bottle of water. Jake drank from the bottle. 'This is what I was talking about, Jake. You should do something about it,' he said gently. 'At this rate, you mind end up killing someone yourself,' he chuckled.

'What do I do about it?,' Jake looked at his friend. He felt like he was going bonkers.
'I don't know bro,' he shrugged. 'Go to a support group or see a therapist?,' he suggested.
'You're right. I'll think about it,' he said.
Sunghoon smiled. 'Okay let's head back now. We have a class. After college you can talk to Jungwon and then visit Detective Ahn.'
'Yeah, let's go,' he said. 'By the way, don't tell anyone else about it...About eomma,' he whispered to him. Sunghoon furrowed his brows. 'Not even our friends?'
Jake shook his head. 'I want this to be as low-key as possible. If you want to tell them, do it in person. You don't know who's tapping the calls and hacking into our phones to get records of our conversations.'

'Geez you are thorough,' Sunghoon widened his eyes. Jake chuckled.

The rest of the classes went in a blur. Jake called Jungwon as he started leaving the campus.
~The person you have dialled is currently busy~
Jake looked at him phone.  Did he just cut his call?
Jake gulped. Was he that mad at him?
Of course he is mad at me, Jake thought. I yelled at him and pushed him. I deserve all of this.
He got a text notification from Jungwon.

JUNGWON : Hyung I'm in class right now. Don't worry about me, I'm completely okay :)
And I'll call you back later 🤍

Jake smiled in relief. Maybe he wasn't mad at him, after all.

Jake took a cab to the police station. The driver tried to strike a conversation with him because apparently if you're heading to the police station right after college then you must be a really interesting person.

Jake reached the station and asked for Detective Ahn.

'Jaeyun-ssi,' he greeted him. 'Annyeonghaseyo,'Jake bowed.
He took him to the interrogation room. Don't ask me how Jake knew it was the interrogation room, I'm guessing he probably watches too many crime dramas.
'Pardon me, but this is the only place private I could find. I hope it doesn't intimidate you in any way, Mr. Shim,' he said. 'Oh no, it's fine,' he smiled. 'Take a seat.' Jake sat opposite to the detective. 'Is this case so private? I mean...We're literally at the police station. Are you supposed to hide this from other officers too,' he quizzed.

Minsook exhaled deeply. 'Well, Mr. Shim,' he said. 'Ms. Jeong was an eminent pianist. And according to what we have gathered up till know, she was probably not killed by the notorious beheading serial killer.'
'All of this can only only mean one thing,' he said, his voice dropping down to a whisper. 'There's someone else who killed Ms.Jeong and we don't have the slightest clue who it could be.'
Jake stopped breathing for a few seconds. Someone else? Who?

'We haven't seen a single brutal murder in Korea apart from the recent string of murders in the past few years. Murder by poisoning, yes, have seen quite a lot of it, but this is very new. It's a high profile case so the government knows about it too. And I bet you, they're freaking out. This shouldn't go public at any cost,' he said. 'What about eomma? I mean what about the killer? How do we find out?,' Jake looked at the Ahn Minsook.

'That's my job,' he patted his chest. 'Leave it to me. Although I will have to ask you to come in for questioning and I will need your help to come up with the list of suspects,' he said. 'You can leave now, I think they want me somewhere,' he said and squinted while staring at his phone.

Jake nodded. 'I'll help you whatever way I can, sir,' he bowed and left.

Author's note
Hey guys! I hope you're all doing well and I hope you liked this chapter. Do you guys like the direction in which the story seems to going or do y'all find it a bit convoluting? Tell me in the comments ❣️

Vote and comment if you liked this part ❤️