Love Me If You Dare

Chapter 30

Lisa puts down the phone.  She looks at Jungkook. 

    He is still sitting on the bed, He leans forward and rests his arm on his lap, interlocking his fingers.  His face flashes a relaxed smile.  

He looks extremely pleased with himself…

    Lisa has to admit : “Wow, you are good.”

    - Actually, he is more than just ‘good’, he’s awesome. 

  But he doesn't seem to be touched by her compliments. He lies down on the bed, put his eye mask back on, and goes back to rest.  To him, this is a simple and easy to solve case.  There is nothing to rave about.  This is a case of logical deduction. It’s not even in his area of specialty - criminal psychology, serial killers etc.

    Lisa says : “Don't sleep.  Officer Hwang has invited us to oversee the interrogation process."

    “I am not going." He simply answers, "My work is done.  The rest is up to them.”

    -

  Lisa heads over to the conference centre by herself. 

   She follows Officer Hwang into a room that they are using as their control room.  Inside the room, two officers are observing several computer monitors, which are transmitting video images from the rooms where the Customer 3 division staffs are being questioned.  

    Lisa sits down in front of the monitors.  She sees a number of familiar faces.

    Song Jihyo, Jinyoung, Nayeon, Mark and Suga.

    They are arranged in separate rooms.  The police are recording their testimonies.  Everyone looks weary, except for Suga.  He looks disinterested, as if he doesn’t give a damn to what has happened.  

    Lisa remembers the times they spent together.  She is repulsed by his actions and attitude.  

    When the policeman throws the testimonies of others in front of him, he momentarily loses his composure.  He looks flustered.  But soon, he recollects himself. 

    “Whether you confess or not, we have enough evidence to charge you.” says the policeman.  

    Suga is silent for a moment.  He asks : “What is the penalty for murder?"

    Police replies: “That’s a matter for the courts to decide.  But they will show more leniency to those who confess.”

    "Ah……"

    -

    When did it all start?

    Long before Mina joined, Customer 3 division was already a drug house. Mina was like a small fresh flower planted amongst the decaying vegetation. She was totally unaware of what’s going on.

   But their private lives were quite separate from their work lives.  And there should have been no intersection between the two. They were not short of money.  They kept to themselves and were very careful around others.  The good kids like Bambam and Mina lived in a different world from them.  

    Until that night.  

Suga and Song Jihyo were wantonly indulging themselves in the conference room.

    “It doesn’t matter. No one will come." He said, "Jihyo, I want you here, in this very room that you use for telling me off during work hours.”

    Song Jihyo is a capable and shrewd woman.  But she is only a woman after all. Her husband was a professor in a music college.  He fell in love with his female student that’s twenty years younger than him.  He walked out from their marriage while she was still pregnant. Jihyo was devastated. She aborted the child to start a new life.  But life had stagnated since then.  She was not able to move on.