[edited]

Fast forwarding a few days, SeokJin now sat patiently on the edge of the bed of Aera's bedroom at Nia's house, as Aera put the coat on.

He sighed. "You don't have to go, you know. I can take care of it. You are supposed to be resting right now."

Aera turned around to face him. "I know I should, but this is something I want to watch and hear myself. This is- incumbent for me..."

SeokJin stood up to step nearer to her to put a hand on her shoulder. "Yo-you aren't completely healed Aera. Anything can go wrong and I-" he runs his palm across his face with a suspire, "I'm worried for you."

Aera put her arms around him and pulled him closer.
"I know. But I've to know why, why he did that, w-why he took away my, my fa-" She whispered, but soon her voice broke into a sob. She hid her face in the crook of his neck and soon he felt drops of warm liquid on his skin.

"Yah, Aera, baby, don't cry now. We're going to get him to pay for what he's done to you, yes?" He consoled her gently, caressing her hair.

He felt Aera nod lightly, before lifting her head and wiping away her teardrops.

Jin smiled, lifting her head by her chin, and pressing his lips on her temple.

"Good girl." He whispered.

They walked outside the house. The sun was harsh but spread a comfortable warmth and was high up in the sky, indicating it was already late in the afternoon.

-

Stepping into the police station, a shiver ran down Aera's back. This was it. In a matter of a few minutes, she'd come to know why. Why she'd been hated, ill-treated by her own uncle. Also maybe, finally she'd come face to face with the murderer, of her only family she was left with.

"Miss Aera," Jungkook escorted them to his office, "Please have a seat."

He turned to Jin.
"Hyung, can you please wait for a few minutes? We have to, you know..." He tilted his head, hinting to him what he wanted to convey without words.

Jin understood it perfectly.
They had to prepare him for his confession.
"Yeah, fine. It's okay. You take your time." He smiled, taking Aera's hand in his own, under the table.

Jungkook nodded and then left.

Aera sighed and scooted in her seat nearer to Jin, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Oppa?"

He hummed along.

"Why do you help me? I'm just a patient right? Why would you help me so much?" She asked in a quiet voice, the question which had been bothering and lingering in her mind for quite some time now.

Jin, who was clearly surprised by the sudden question, exhaled and opening and closing his mouth a few times to find and gather the correct words to reply.

"Yo-you aren't...just a patient, to me. You are...I-"

"Hyung, everything's ready." Jin was interrupted by Jungkook barging into the room. "It's time."

Jin nodded to him, getting up with Aera, and enveloping her small hands in his, only to whisper in her ears, "I'm with you, okay? Never worry."

Aera smiled at his concern for her, feeling her affection for him grow impossibly more.

A throat clearing for behind brought them back to reality.
Stepping back shyly, Aera looked Jin again, who ushered her forward with a meek grin.

Jungkook followed them from behind.
"I swear, Jin Hyung starts anywhere." He muttered to himself, snickering, only to be smacked on the neck by Jin.

"Brat."

-

There he was, wrists cuffed to the chair and defeated, yet, wearing a hideous hateful scowl on the face.

Aera stood at the threshold of the interrogation room, her face betraying the pain she felt inside her heart.
This was the same man, who had ruined her innocent childhood, and her life. The same man, who was perhaps the same as the person who had murdered her only family so very brutally; the same man, who ended his own blood brother's life, with his own hands. This, was the same man, because of whom Aera had come to what she had come to right now, fearful, weak, heartbroken, incomplete.

Jungkook ushered her inside them inside the room.

"Watch from here alright?" He said, and left SeokJin and Aera in front of the huge glass window, through which they could see what was happening clearly.

Jungkook entered the connecting room and shut the door behind him. He stood in the corner of the room, hands folded in front of his chest, and motioned to the other person present inside to commence.

"Alright, so...Mr.Park JunKyung. Let's start, shall we?" The interrogator took the seat across JunKyung.

"Hm, so...years ago, you were given the responsibility to take care of Miss Park when she was a child and your brother had gone into a coma after the accident. Is it true she was tortured mentally by you?"

JunKyung scoffed.

"She was and is just a dead weight. Useless as ever, and incapable. I just reminded her of that, not my fault she couldn't accept her own worthlessness." He said, voice void of any emotions.

Aera, on the opposite side of the glass, felt tears brewing up, but strange was the fact that it didn't hurt her heart like she expected it to. Feeling SeokJin's palm rest on her shoulder from across her back, thumb rubbing against it assuringly, she gathered her calm to listen to what more had to come.

The interrogator huffed, slightly annoyed by his indifference.
"Alright. Not gonna beat around the bush, now," he inhaled, "Shall we assume, you the one who murdered Mr. Park and Kang Yeojung?"

Aera's posture tensed visibly, and Jin very well noticed that. He moved closer behind her, and rested both his hands on her shoulders, massaging them gently and so softly.
"It's okay." He whispered in her ear, warm breath caressing her skin.

JunKyung chuckled, "Took you long enough to find out..." He said while looking at Aera straight in the eye. "Yes, I did."

A tear escaped her eye, followed by another, no matter how much she tried to keep them in, as she was reminded of the painful scene when she had come home to her loved ones, lying dead on the marble floor, their blood staining the white tiles, their eyes still open, yet still and lifeless, and their bodies marked with dark bruises and deep wounds of the torture they'd taken, before finally giving up.

Jungkook straightened his back, now that the truth was out.
"What were your motives behind these fiendish actions?" He asked, his voice abnormally low.

JunKyung was seemingly not at all remorseful. His shameless smirk let it all out.
"You want to hear it little girl?" He looked straight through the glasses, in Aera's direction.

A soft incoherent whimper left her lips, her fists tightening by her sides.

"Then listen carefully."

Jin's grip on her shoulders tightened.

"I did it because I hated him and his existence. He'd stolen everything from me. My love, property, the bright future which could've been mine, every damn thing, and he named it his. So I decided to take it back. The bus accident was a blessing for me, or so had I thought. Unfortunately, that scumbag and you still managed to survive. I wanted to make your life a hell, since I thought he wouldn't survive the coma, but hell, he did it again. So I got him and that simpy moron-what was his name again...oh yeah, Yeojung, I had them murdered, and you were next. But your darned lover boy here..."

--

"Give me yourself,
and I'll protect you with my life..."

---