1.2 | The Night and Its Stars ⌜ yeosang ⌟

THIRTEEN | CONSPIRACY

Then there was V. Min wouldn't have thought anything of him, but she remembered the bonfire. The day she was forced to join the game, he had been there with the rest of The Night. The firelight reflected a shadowed, calculative gleam in his eyes. He wasn't just talking about his ex. He was making a plan.

"Two birds. One stone," he had said.

Two birds. One stone.

Two birds. Holy shit.

Framing Lucas had been a ploy to divert attention and responsibility away from the blog the entire time. It came down to control. It always did. Min just hadn't had the foresight to know who Lucas's arrest was meant to hurt until moments ago when all the pieces rearranged themselves in her head.

"You're V's ex. Aren't you?" Min whispered finally. It was a guess, a vague shot in the dark, but it landed anyway.

Jisoo choked. Min heard the crinkle of her bedspread as her body shifted, unable to get in enough air. The ballerina reached for Jisoo's hand, then gave up in favor of grabbing her face.

"Shit. I'm sorry." Min wiped her tears away with her thumbs. She inhaled deeply. "Breathe with me."

Jisoo's mumblings were incoherent. Wheezy. "I can't. I can't."

"Shhh. You're okay. He's not here. You're safe."

Min had heard a little bit about Jisoo's ex. Never too much. She did not like to talk about her past and Min was never one to push. What Jisoo had told her about her previous long-term relationship was concerning. It had been toxic, codependent, messy, and like all things at NHU, it had been under close scrutiny, a very public spectacle.

Jisoo just let Minni hug her and eventually, after a long few minutes, her body relaxed. Min ran her fingers through her hair until she felt ready to talk.

"You're right," she admitted, her voice weak. "I'm sorry."

Min pulled back with a deep, unsettled frown. "You have nothing to apologize for. If anything, you deserve an apology."

Jisoo nodded at that, her voice wavering like a tree in the night. "He's fucking insane."

"I got the feeling."

"He's so...controlling. Possessive," she continued, pulling away from Minni's grip. She had to get it all out and she wouldn't be able to do it without breaking down if she was still being held. "We've been broken up since March, but he's still trying to win me back. I just want to move on."

There was a pause as Jisoo wiped her tears away and then she continued.

"Since then, every single guy I meet, something goes wrong. Most of them go ghost without explanation. Lucas should have. He told me about...threats he was getting, but said he still wasn't going to give up on us. Now he's suddenly responsible for Somin killing herself? What a load of shit. He didn't even know her."

Min was quiet, pensive. Out of everyone else behind the blog, V's motivations for his action were now the most apparent. He likely targeted people close to Jisoo, anyone that could serve as his replacement. It made sense now why only Jennie and Kevin had been put on the list.

If they wanted to really hit Min where it hurt, they would have threatened Jisoo too. Out of all her friends at NHU, she was her closest. But they couldn't. Because V wouldn't let that happen. He wanted to have her to himself, not destroy her.

"V framed him, didn't he?"

"I think so," Jisoo mumbled. "But why do you know all of this?"

"I..."Min hesitated, trying to deduce how much she could reveal without putting a bigger target on her back. "It was the party. I heard things that I shouldn't have."