⇉ the one where they agree to investigate.
part fifteen
The door to their room bangs open.
"Ri-el, that is it." Reina steps in, breathing a little hard. Her roommate and friend stares back at her from where she has been lounging on her bed. Reina shakes her head. "I told you it wasn't just a coincidence. We have to let someone know - a teacher, student, anyone."
Ri-el sits up, eyes widening. "What are you talking about? What happened?"
"Yoon Jaesu was found dead in the pool just a few minutes ago." Reina's eyes are also wide, scared and haunted. "You know as well as I do that this cannot just be another random occurrence. You know."
"Okay, okay," Ri-el is now a little spooked too, exhaling hard before swallowing. But ever the voice of reason, she gets up and guides her friend over to her bed. "First of all, let's calm down. It'll be useless if we panic."
"Why did we ever even make that stupid list?" Reina wails, head in her hands. "This is all our fault, oh my god."
"No, it isn't," Ri-el says sharply, losing her cool for a moment. "We are not to blame. If all those people hadn't treated us like utter shit while lording their power over everybody else, we never would have gotten angry enough to make a fake hit list."
"Well, it's not so fake anymore." Reina raises anxious eyes to her friend. "You didn't kill them, did you?"
"Of course I didn't! We made that list in the heat of anger, okay? We'd finally had enough." Ri-el gets up. "Song Jihyi and Park Jaesu were the very first two mentioned on it, and I know it looks bad, but there's still a chance that this is a coincidence-"
"Who is killing them?" Reina runs a hand through her pale pink locks, fingers trembling. "Don't you get it? Someone saw our list, somehow, and they're slowly making their way down-"
"Isn't this what you wanted, anyway? The list was your idea!"
"Maybe it was, but that was just because I went mad after their bullying!" Reina shouts, and then immediately looks around to see if she was heard. She wasn't, of course. It's their dorm, and they're the only ones inside. "Why on earth would you ever think that I'd want them dead?!"
"Let's not fight, it'll only make this entire situation worse." Ri-el takes a deep breath in, closing her eyes. "You and I are the ones who drafted that list. We are the only people who know about it. How could someone else get ahold of it?"
"I don't know, but we have to tell Ms. Yang." Reina is shaking her head again. "We have to come clean and show it to her. It may help with the investigation."
She's just turned away when Ri-el grabs her shoulders, pulling her back to face her. "Don't be dense. The second we go and show that to the teachers, don't you realize who the prime suspects will then be?" She narrows her eyes at her best friend. "They're gonna think either of us, or better yet, both of us killed them. And then what? We'll be shipped right back to the outside world only to be thrown in jail even though we're innocent!"
Reina says nothing, seeing the truth in Ri-el's words.
"Listen to me carefully. We have to find out who stole our list, because they're most likely the real culprit. And then we can report them. That's the only way we can come out of this unscathed. For now, let them continue to suspect that new girl."
"But Juno is so sweet, she would never-" Reina stops. "Wait, what do you mean, stole?"
Ri-el sighs. "After we made it, I stuck it in the back of my Physics binder. But when I was looking for it there last week, it had disappeared." Reina's eyes widen, but Ri-el holds up a hand. "I knew it was going to freak you out, so I didn't say anything. But I've looked and looked and I can't find it anywhere."
"Okay." Reina closes her eyes, breathing in deeply. "So someone probably took our list and is now slowly killing off everybody on it, one by one." Her eyes flip open. "We didn't mean it," she wails. "We didn't mean for anybody to die. But why? Why would anyone do that? Why would anyone kill them off in the exact order we wrote them down in? Just to f*ck with us?"
Ri-el sighs. "I don't know, Rei. I sincerely don't know. But we're going to have to find out."
▸
"They're connected."
Juno sits up straighter in her chair, peering at the boy opposite her. "You think so?"
Renjun hesitates, then nods. "I'm almost completely sure." He leans in closer, lowering his voice. "Look, two different murders of two pretty high-up students within the space of two weeks? There's definitely something else going on here."
"At least I don't think anyone knows that I'm the one who discovered the body again this time," she says. "I snuck away right after puking in the bathroom."
"And you're sure no one saw you swimming?"
"I don't think so. No one was really around the pool in the evening, and it was completely empty. I guess someone might've passed by while I was under, but..." She heaves a sigh. "I just wish both murders didn't happen right when I was around."
"Do you think that's a coincidence?" he asks, and her eyes snap to his. Renjun shrugs. "It's happened twice now."
"Now that you mention it, I do feel like someone is trying to make me look suspicious," she says slowly, brain whirling. "I have no idea. But, this Yoon Jaesu guy... did he have many enemies?" she asks.
"As many as Jihyi did."
"Okay, so we can draw the conclusion that only stronger students are being targeted." Renjun nods in agreement. "And that makes me look even worse, because I'm currently the lowest-ranking senior in terms of my flair strength. It looks like I've got motive." He nods again, and she exhales. "Shit."
"What are you two whispering about?" Juno and Renjun glance up to see the four other boys entering the class. Jeno takes his spot in the desk next to hers. "Did you hear about Jaesu?"
"I was swimming when I heard someone push him into the water," she tells them, point-blank, and they all stare at her. "Yeah, and when I got out the place was empty. I went to puke, and by the time I got back somebody else had seen and reported it."
They gape for a moment more. Finally, Haechan heaves an exasperated sigh. "This is why I said you only bring trouble - what the hell were you doing in the pool at nine pm in the first place?"
"Is it such a crime to want to de-stress?" Juno shoots back, eyes narrowing at the boy. "And yeah, because I definitely wanted to stumble upon two different murder scenes after I just got here." Sarcasm drips from her voice as she glares. "Let me guess, you think I killed them too."
"No, he doesn't," Mark cuts in, giving Haechan a look. "They're just coincidences that aren't really working in your favor right now."
"We should investigate," Renjun says, and everyone turns to him.
"You're helping her?" Jaemin asks in disbelief, and the shock in his expression is mirrored on the others' faces. "Why? I thought we decided we weren't gonna get involved."
"No, you guys decided that. I do what I want," Renjun says, unbothered, and Juno grins.
"Well, you heard him, Grandpa," she smiles, and Jaemin rolls his eyes at her shit-eating grin. "And I agree," Juno says, turning back to Renjun. "We need to do something. But isn't the pool closed as a crime scene right now?"
"Yeah, but we should be able to sneak in before curfew. We'll just have to be careful not to contaminate the scene somehow."
"Okay, when are we gonna do this?"
"Around nine, maybe. Before curfew. Hopefully, not too many people are walking around."
"Alright, and we should probably meet there so that no one suspects anything."
"Of course."
The others watch them carefully, eyes bouncing back and forth between the two as they converse. Jeno raises a brow, tongue poking into the inside of his cheek. "I'll come with you guys," he says.
They don't miss how her eyes sparkle as she moves around to face him. "You'll help?"
Jeno sighs heavily, but a smile lurks at the corners of his mouth. "Unfortunately, I do care about your safety, so yeah." He eyes her. "And it's not like I don't care that random people are being murdered. I just would rather stay out of it."
Jaemin scoffs, heading to his seat just as the warning bell rings. "You guys are dumb."
"Maybe so," Juno allows. "But the so-called authorities in this place don't seem to be doing shit, for all their talk of investigating and counseling. Otherwise, this could've been avoided. If our theory of it being the same culprit is correct, whoever killed Jihyi should've already been found." She sighs. "We do need to investigate. And we'll be fine because we won't get caught."
"Don't jinx it," Renjun mutters.
▸
Taeyong is puzzled.
That's really the only way to describe the confusion he feels right now, examining the crime scene. He reaches out a gloved hand to run his index finger along the table's surface. It is clean and pristine. "What the hell?" he mutters.
Yiran walks over to him, clasping her own hands behind her back. "There's literally nothing here that points to a murder happening at all. Everything appears undisturbed."
"Yeah, figured that much." Taeyong rises, ignoring her frown as he does a quick sweep of the living room of the small apartment. "She was found here." He points to the carpeted floor a little ways from the door. "But there's no blood, not even any sign of a struggle. The killer knows what they're doing."
"What the hell kind of serial killer uses electricity to murder people, anyway?" Yiran scoffs. "Didn't shoot or stab, but actually electrocuted her to death."
"You're telling me you haven't encountered anything like this before, Detective Huang?" Taeyong snarks, stepping away to examine the contents of the trash can. What he is looking for, he doesn't even know. "You're known for finishing cases so fast, I'm surprised this one seems to stump you so much."
"We're not going to get anywhere with your constant snide comments, Detective Lee," she responds, unfazed. "I'm putting in lots of effort to work civilly with you, and I recommend you do the same."
He rolls his eyes but says nothing more.
She sighs. "I am wondering, however, what the culprit would've used to kill her. A taser? It wouldn't have done nearly this much damage."
Taeyong nods, having to agree. "Everything about these killings is just strange."
Another officer walks in, handing Yiran a clipboard. "The results of the autopsy just came in, Detectives," he tells them, and Taeyong leans over to look at what the papers say. "There weren't any other evident damages to her body save for the electrocution."
They thank and dismiss him quickly, perusing the documents anyway. And it's true. According to the examination, the cause of death: electric shock. The manner? A situation like this would ordinarily be written off as an accidental death, but after three similar deaths had happened beforehand in places where dying by electricity would not have been likely, the word jumps out at them, bold and underlined.
HOMICIDE.
Mode of death? Stamped with a very cheerful UNKOWN.
Despite themselves, Taeyong and Yiran share a look of hopelessness. When Chief had said these new serial killings were confusing, the two detectives hadn't grasped just how much.
They have never, ever seen anything like this before.