"I had a really good time tonight, Jennie," Lucas told her. "It was a lot of fun. Did you have fun?"
Jennie Kim, who had been staring out the car window looking at the passing houses, sighed. "Yeah, fun. Definitely." She didn't want to hurt his feelings by saying she didn't, which would have been the truth. It was their first date and destined to be their last.
"Are you busy tomorrow night?" he wanted to know. "We could go on a date again."
'Again. Wasn't tonight humiliating enough?' While Lucas was a perfectly nice guy, Jennie didn't think she could handle one more date with him, especially at the night club, where only an hour earlier he had started break dancing in the middle of the dance floor.
"I don't think so. I promised my little sister we'd do 'the girls' night out' thing tomorrow. Sorry."
He smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "That's okay. Maybe some other time." Lucas caught sight of the flashing lights ahead of them. "What's going on up there?"
Jennie turned her attention to the road and saw four police cars and an ambulance. "I have no idea. But it's really close to my house." As they approached Jennie tensed up. "Oh god, it *is* my house. Lucas, stop the car!"
"But Jennie"
She didn't hear him. The instant his car stopped moving, Jennie jumped out, running to her house. When she reached the front lawn, she found a crowd of people standing there, watching the police officers as they entered and exited the Kim' home.
"This is what happens when teenagers are left to their own devices," one of her neighbours commented.
Filled with both fear and anger, Jennie ran up the walkway to the front porch. Just as she was about to enter, a police officer grabbed her upper arm. "You can't go in there, Miss. This is a crime scene," he told her.
"This is my home!"
"I'm sorry, but..."
Jennie wrenched out of his grasp when she saw her fifteen-year-old sister step outside, holding her arms to her stomach. "Ella!" She sprinted up the steps to the young girl, embracing her tightly. "Are you all right?"
Ella Kim nodded. "Yeah. God, Jennie, I was so scared! I thought..." She couldn't finish the sentence and started crying instead.
"Shh, it'll be okay, Ella. What happened?"
"It...it was Jisoo," she managed to choke out. "She and Jacob had a fight, a bad one this time. Worse than the other ones. He-he hit her and then he grabbed a knife." She stopped, shaking her head. "I don't know what happened after that. Jisoo made me go upstairs, and the next thing I remember, the cops were here. I'm sorry, Jennie."
"No, you did the right thing. Where's Jisoo?"
Ella lifted her head up and gazed into her sister's eyes. "They took her away. They put her in handcuffs, and I saw Jacob on the kitchen floor with a white sheet over him. I think he's dead."
Holding her sister tight, Jennie felt her heart break. The three of them had been through so much in the past year, Jisoo being arrested for murder wasn't going to be easy on Ella, or her. "You said the police took Jisoo?"
"Uh-huh. Right before you got here. Jennie, we have to help her. She has to come home."
"I'm going to do my best to bring her home, I promise. Everything will be fine. You have my word on it," she promised her younger sister. And she hoped it would be.