I don't own this story .
Present time (2020)
He was already waiting at some street corner around their neighborhood when she got there. Sehun was staring intently at a few posters on some post regarding the district councilman's latest project. He had that look in his eyes, the same one he had the day they found out what happened to Lisa . That calculating look mixed with anger and hatred as Sehun did his best to quell the fire of the steady burning rage that had been building deep inside of him these past nine years.
Jennie would always remember that day.
It was just too hard not to.
Until everything was over, or perhaps even beyond that, she would always remember it.
The news they received that morning pretty much shaped the future that was still ahead of them, after all.
It was homeroom. She was getting antsy, just like Sana, Dahyun, and Sehun had been that morning. The late night call from Chaeyoung as she asked around for Lisa was the last they heard of her. She's been pretty much ignoring all calls from them after that. Lisa hadn't been answering her calls either.
To say they had been worried was quite the understatement. Dozens of questions were already forming in Jennie's head as she watched Momo enter the classroom. Dahyun suggested that since she was safe, then nothing bad could have happened. That Lisa was probably getting to school late for something Chaeyoung -related. Maybe she got in trouble for playing detective.
But then Seungri entered class with no enthusiasm at all. He looked quite pale, in shock to be honest, as he trudged along to cross the room before settling down on his desk, head in his hands.
They settle down quickly after that. That was the first time ever anyone had seen Lee Seungri look so downtrodden.
A full minute passed with Seungri doing nothing. Each second passing felt like an entire eternity as they waited for him to speak. Jennie kept switching her gaze to her confused friends, Seungri , and the back door as she expected Lisa to come sprinting in at any moment.
There was a knock on the door, and Seungri waived for the person outside to enter.
Jennie watched curiously as she saw their guidance councilor, Dong Taeyang, enter the room with a grave look on his face and an equally grave tone as he delivered his bad news.
Lisa was found in a car submerged in a frozen lake at the state park, authorities were looking for the culprit responsible for it. Not much information was available but the police most definitely suspect that it was attempted murder.
Jennie felt cold immediately after hearing the news they just received. She turned around to see a look of shock in each of her classmates' faces.
More so on Dahyun and on Sana.
But the look of shock was brief on Sehun as he snapped the pencil he was holding in half, setting his eyes in front, with that look in his eyes as they all processed the information.
"You said attempted murder… Mr. Taeyang , what's happened to Lisa ?" Sehun had then asked, as he looked him straight in the eye from where he sat.
Nothing escaped Sehun attention from that moment on.
And the usually cheerful boy-next-door they all loved was replaced by the soon to be criminal prosecutor right in front of Jennie now.
"She's in a hospital." their guidance councilor had given as a reply in as sullen of a tone as possible. "Teetering between life and death."
Those words pretty much stayed stuck with Jennie as she watched him leave, ending things with his usual speech of if anyone wanted to talk about what happened and process things or if they knew of anything, then his door was always opened.
Though none of her friends ever actually did accept the offer. Mostly because they didn't even know where to begin.
Lisa … the first time she ever gave a damn, she had to go an actually risk her life for something.
For them, for her friends.
It was the first time they realized the unlikely threat Lisa had been going on and on about and chose to believe in was actually truly real.
Yeah, Lisa was most definitely not playing detective after all.
Jennie took a deep breath and shook her head. Nine years, it's been nine years.
And that threat was still out there.
"Have you been waiting long?" Jennie asked, slowing down her pace as she reached the spot where he stood.
Sehun tore his eyes off the posters and shifted his attention back to Jennie, weak smile on his face. "Not that long." he replied before running up to meet her with a hug. "How's grad school?"
"Grad school." Jennie replied as she wrapped her own arms around Sehun. "Stressful, frustrating, but oh so definitely worth it when you make that break through. I promised I'll work on something to help Lisa recover, didn't I?"
"Yeah, yeah you did." Sehun then said before letting her go. "I could still remember you making that declaration during high school grad. I'm proud of the work you've been doing, a saw a little article about your lab before heading here. We've gone a long way, huh?"
"Gosh, Oppa, yes, it's been too long! But yeah, I am proud of all of us." she replied. "How's New York?" Jennie asked.
"Pretty much what you'd expect of a big city. Not so different from here, maybe a little bit colder, people-wise, not just weather-wise." he replied.
Jennie chuckled. "Settled in okay? How was the flight? You've been here for what, the last five hours and you already want to get started with work?"
"Don't blame me, blame your girlfriend." Sehun then said with a shrug. "Where is she?"
"Back at the base." Jennie replied. "She sent me here to fetch you."
Sehun nodded, looking deep at thought for a moment.
"Although if you'd like to see Lisa first…" Jennie then said, reading Sehun's mind all too well.
Sehun shifted his weight a bit, unsure of what to say in response. Jennie could tell he was very much tempted to. He hasn't seen Lisa since he left for NYU about three years ago.
Since he left that bold promise that they'll catch him for sure.
And by God, Sehun will be the one to get him in that prison cell where he belonged – something that Jisoo would always respond with they, they will all do just that. He wasn't alone in this fight after all.
"Has she woken up yet?" Sehun then asked, keeping his emotions at bay. But Jennie could tell the frustrations hidden by the simple question.
The lingering hope in it.
But Jennie simply shook her head.
"Then no. I'll see her when she wakes up, when we have something concrete in our hands to show for." Sehun said with a serious look in his eyes. "Because we will, Jennie, I promise you that. We'll get the person who did this to her."
Jennie simply nodded, trying not to think much about it.
There was so many thoughts, so much doubt in her head, as the frustration of chasing after what seemed to be a ghost was slowly taking its toll.
But Lisa never gave up in trying to keep them all safe.
So she was going to do her own part in trying to help her as much as she can now.
She won't give up that easily.
"You took your sweet, sweet time." Jisoo huffed as she finally saw Jennie arrive with Sehun at the base.
With the base being a rather cramped but highly organized office space somewhere near the state university.
It wasn't exactly the most ideal place to cramp a good what, ten or so people at most in a given time, but the rent for the place was cheap. The room was surrounded by boards all around, a mixture of cork and white boards with notes and updates on their research. Somewhere in the middle, Dahyun was updating a map with push pins as they try to figure out the radius of crimes the fiend they were after had cast his web upon. For some reason, Tzuyu, a highly decorated FBI agent and friend they made met in college, had insisted on calling him a spider. Sooner than later, Jisoo agreed.
"Aww, Kim Jisoo, are you jealous?" Sehun teased. "You know I can't steal your girl."
"Excuse you, Kim Sehun, but you're not exactly worth being jealous about." Jisoo replied, shooting his remark down without any mercy. "I just have a few cases back at work that needs handling. That and your dad would very much like for you to get started too now that you've passed your bar exam, which means we have to make the most out of our free time building this case." she then went on to say.
Sehun nodded and immediately asked what he could do to help. Jennie had to excuse herself to bounce, she was very much needed at the lab once again. Ji hyo, old friend, current private investigator, handed Sehun a few files to get started as she caught him up with what they found so far. Meanwhile, Mina, freelance journalist and daughter of a man currently in death row because of the same spider they were chasing, headed straight into their small makeshift kitchen to make some tea and coffee.
Jisoo found herself marching towards the crime board to clear her head and focus. To her left, Tzuyu was typing away on their main computer as they tried to dig up more clues, history, anything really, that could help put away the man who did this to Lisa , who killed Ji hyo's detective of a father after he swore to help Dr. Manoban find who nearly killed his daughter, who framed Mina's father for that death because he wanted to help his friends get to the truth, and who killed so many more people.
Allegedly.
The case they were building had flimsy foundations for sure, all could easily be excused to circumstance, and be explained as unrelated events.
But through years of digging for clues – through nine painstaking years of slowly putting together a story that many people who were originally involved in the seemingly unrelated cases – they discovered, it had to be just one incredibly crafty killer behind all of them.
The problem was, they don't know just how far back the killings go, which cases still connected, and which didn't.
After what happened to the bore girl – who Jisoo , without a doubt, knew she owed her life to – only three or so killings occurred, including Ji hyo's dad.
Really, the only reason why they had anything to start with was Lisa 's own little crime board, the one that Dr. Manoban , Chaeyoung , and Sehun found one afternoon after going through her stuff in her room.
They found a list of crimes that happened not long ago that Lisa suspected was carried out by the same person – which, on that note, Jisoo was still very much confused on how she knew about.
That and initials consisting of three letters.
An initial Sehun gave a name to, but only to Jisoo , after talking about the case they started putting together in high school, six months after the incident that ended in Lisa being in a comatose.
Initials that led them to a name that Lisa shouldn't have known then, a name that wouldn't pop up until years later. But for now, Jisoo and Sehun were keeping their suspicions to themselves. If word gets out, well, it could cause a lot of hiccups for them along the way.
They had to be ready with an ironclad case before they do.
Sadly, the key to putting it all together happened to lie in a girl who's been in a coma for nine years.
She first heard the news from an inconsolable Jennie, who told her the truth about Lisa 's suspicions and her insistence to reach out to her if only to save her from some ill fate, something she didn't exactly know from the start with her then new friends trying to be vague about things. Jisoo would have scoffed at the idea, but the fact that Lisa was almost killed only proved the point that there really was someone out there with ill intent.
If anything, the whole incident made her see Lisa in a new light. And as the months progressed, as the police's futile efforts revealed no suspect, no killer, as Sehun's testimony got laughed out for insubstantial evidence, Jisoo felt the need to do something herself.
That's when she first gathered her friends and hatched the idea of looking for the killer themselves.
That's when they first started working towards the direction their lives had taken them now.
Jisoo closed her eyes, like a mantra she would go over the details of Lisa 's case for the odd chance that she missed something the first few times she went over them. She knew the details by heart now, always repeating it in her head when she could, when she needed to focus, when she's trying to look for something, a clue perhaps that would be similar to the other cases they found.
Lisa was last seen before six in the evening at the skating rink where the away game for their school's team was happening. At some point, she left. No one was really able to pay that close attention as the game had just about started and they only noticed she was gone after the game was over. At that point, a few students had already snuck off doing God knows what, or so she heard form Momo. Some of the teachers weren't really that interested in knowing either. Only Mr. Lee Seungri , who happened to be Jisoo 's tutor at the study center she goes to, realized that Lisa had gone and disappeared. But by then, it was too late.
Lisa was found close ten in the evening. A married couple who was just leaving the state park noticed a car submerged two thirds of the way in a frozen lake. The husband rushed to check if anyone needed any help, wadding through the freezing cold water as best he could. Using a pocket flashlight, he saw the slight movements of a head submerged deep in the water. He swam closer to where the opened passenger door was and tried to set an unconscious Lisa free but the seatbelt won't budge, a major clue the authorities later found that indicated that the whole thing wasn't an accident. It was attempted murder. The assumption was only confirmed after studying the contents of a thermos they found in the car later on. It matched the results of Lisa 's tox screening which had traces of some unknown substance in her system suggesting she was drugged.
The husband rushed back to the car when he couldn't get Lisa out and came back with his wife. Using a Swiss army knife they had with them, he cut through the belt and got Lisa free. By the time they found her, Lisa was in a state of cardiopulmonary arrest, with a body temperature of less than 84 ⁰F, way below the normal range between 97-99 °F. She was on the fence between life and death. The wife, who was a veterinarian, immediately performed life-saving techniques while the husband called 911.
It took twenty five minutes for the ambulance to come with the police in tow, a rapid response considering the area they were in. Lisa was immediately rushed to the nearest hospital, with the doctors working hard to save her life. Her father was contacted around eleven in the evening. Upon her insistence, Chaeyoung came with him to the hospital where they arrived close to midnight and heard the full details of what had happened to Lisa .
A day later, they heard that the car had stolen plates, registration completely lost.
Any clues that could have implicated anyone, whether intentionally set-up by the criminal to look guilty or not, was easily refuted by testimonies that Sehun and their friends gave and by contradicting clues the authorities found.
Moreover, the clues back in the bus disappeared without a trace too, and in the end, no one was found to be responsible for what had happened.
If anything, Lisa 's case stood out from all the rest. That was the one thought Jisoo always ended up with. It was different from all the rest for three reasons.
One, no one was implicated for it. In a way, Lisa most definitely threw her would be killers plans for a loop, because there was still a chance that tangled mess of a thread he left behind with the case could still be traced back to him.
Two, she survived, somewhat. And Jisoo had always been worried about this. She was always very much stressed out by the one thought that if the killer knew, he'd try to find Lisa again to finish what he started.
But so far, he hasn't made a move, making Jisoo beg the question of why?
Was he waiting for Lisa to wake up again just to kill her?
Or did he not know that she survived?
But if her and Sehun's suspicions were correct, he should know she's still alive.
Or did he think it wasn't worth his attention anymore? That Lisa was as good as dead?
Jisoo wasn't sure about that, but she was sure of one thing. The third thing that tied everything together.
It was still an open, albeit cold, case. And many investigators had tried to pick it up again but failed since then.
Despite their incompetence, it was enough for Jisoo to hope.
Because it meant that someone out there was still looking for answers other than them, people who she could eventually tap into and help them.
And if anything, Jisoo swore, she and her friends were the ones who were going to solve it.
Dahyun thought that the best thing she could do that evening was leave the base, take a walk and take a bit of a breather. Maybe buy a few boxes of pizza for dinner too.
They could always just call for delivery from their usual place but the screaming match between Jisoo and Sehun was a bit unbearable at the moment. Sehun was insisting that the 'car clue' – whatever the hell he meant by that, those two kept talking to themselves somedays – was still essential during their re-discussion of Lisa 's case and Jisoo kept insisting that they need something more ironclad than a very common car model and make.
Pretty much most of them were lost with whatever it was that they were really arguing about, Dahyun thought that there was most definitely something more to it, but she figured all will be revealed in due time.
At the very least, she knew both Sehun and Jisoo pretty well. Sehun hated building anyone's hopes up, and Jisoo hated making a move when she didn't have everything she needed to know.
Although, Dahyun does have to admit, that they already had an uphill battle ahead of them. Not sharing their hunch, no matter how farfetched it might have been, wasn't exactly going to help them.
It's been nine years since Lisa 's attempted murder. The battle ahead of them still felt long and never ending, but Dahyun knew they've also gone a long way. It started at their old hang out place in town. As soon as Jisoo found out what happened to Lisa , her own guilt didn't seat to well for her. Guilt for being standoffish, for not helping, for not even showing any bit of appreciation for the efforts Lisa put into just so she could keep her safe.
Lisa who back then was just a stranger to her.
It wasn't much of a question then. Of course they all worked hard and contributed what they could. For a good few months, all of them were also in Chaeyoung duty, the blonde being a complete wreck – not that they all were, but she was pretty much inconsolable.
Dahyun focused on trying to get the case reopened and examined, from what they knew then, the officials definitely dismissed a lot of potential clues. Especially clues that their group raised because of their age and so-called "wild imagination".
That's why Dahyun pursued the dangerous path she took. To become a police detective just like Ji hyo's father. Ji hyo would have done the same, had it not been for the terrible experience she had after her father's death, the precinct he called in mocking his abilities as a detective with trying to solve cold cases that they considered closed.
It's how Dahyun managed to retrieve information they really didn't know much about before.
For one thing, they already knew that the seatbelt in the car Lisa was in was tampered with. Any evidence that could lead to the owner of the vehicle was cunningly erased by the perpetrator.
No substantial DNA evidence was found in the car either, although somehow Dahyun thinks that it was mostly due to incompetence in handling evidence resulted in that outcome. They've never experienced a case like that before in their town.
The most crucial and confusing of all the clues perhaps was the tests they ran with Lisa at the hospital.
From those tests, they discovered traces of some kind of substance in her system that she seemed to have ingested. It matched some kind of new drug found in the streets, highly illegal. It was some kind of experimental drug being developed as a sleeping aid, however, pre-clinical trials resulted in highly dangerous side effects, particularly reports indicating temporary loss in muscle control. No one knew how, but a few dealers got their hands on it and the police was in active pursuit of the case when Lisa 's so-called accident happened. Based on the concentration in her system, she would have had consumed more than what was in the tea that the officials found. It was rather puzzling as the concentrations didn't match, the tea having a more dilute concoction. It led officials to believe that it was an effort to throw them off, and that Lisa was most definitely given something else with the substance infused prior.
From early results of that study, they found that the drug took time to have any effect. Because of this, they believe she ingested something around the time she was in the skating rink but people were to shaken by the events that they gave contradictory statements, not being entirely sure if they saw Lisa eat or drink anything other than the hot chocolate she had, something that a lot of them had as well. The police had been torn between thinking that the victim had then been randomly selected – if any of the similar drinks were the cause of it – or if Lisa was directly targeted. Either way, because of the clear efforts taken to specifically kill her, it looked to be premeditated and many believed she was isolated as the target. Confusion arose when they ruled out the drinks the faculty ordered as a possible link because of it, with an argument that if Lisa was specifically targeted, the killer wouldn't risk having someone else take the drink intended for her, and because only one person had something else to drink, it would have made more sense if she was the intended target.
The clues blurred together, and the case became more complex because of it. The authorities argued it was the tea in the car after all and Lisa was the sole targeted victim, with the justification that she was specifically lured out – her paranoia of thinking there was a killer or kidnapper on the lose might have been some manifestation coming from the fear that someone was watching over her – the thermos was slightly opened after being submerged in the water, therefore, testing the sample led to inconclusive results.
When Dahyun got her hands on that report and informed her friends, Tzuyu and Jennie basically called them idiots.
And Dahyun most definitely concurs.
But while so many other confounding variables muddled the evidences they collected, Dahyun was currently stuck on the clue about the car.
What did Sehun pick up from it?
The car was a black sedan, a common and popular make and model too. Many people around town and in nearby towns and cities also had it.
So, what was it? What was Dahyun completely missing?
Her personal connection from the case made it so much harder for them to take an outsider's view of things that it's frustrating her so much. Or perhaps it was just the overthinking that's gotten her stuck?