☆35. 希望 (kibō — hope)
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[ACT. 3]
♪ pathetic - escalator
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EVERY NEW INTERNET search was a pain for Nana. Her heart beat a little faster. There was nothing convincing every time, but she was hopeful enough to find something.
She and Heeseung had been in the school library for nearly an hour. They were determined to find any information or archives on the main suspect, Jay Park.
She was afraid of making no progress. Now that there were two killers, the risks for her and the other students were multiplied. She had pinned her hopes on Jay.
"Search this instead."
She pointed the keyboard at herself and typed another thing.
It was even more useless than what they had searched just before. Heeseung was beginning to lose patience. There was nothing about Jay Park's potential involvement in a murder.
"You think the police kept it a secret?"
He asked, puzzled.
"It's a possibility. None of the local papers are talking about it, that's strange."
It reinforced the fact that Jay was only a suspect and cleared from Sunghoon's murder. It wouldn't be surprising if the police had asked the media not to talk about it. This would have tarnished their image even more.
"No choice then, we'll have to arrange a nice little meeting with him."
"I don't know if that's a good idea—"
She ignored him and typed again. This time, if you just searched for his name, you'd find Jay's profile on a social network. The account was obviously private and had only about thirty followers.
"What are you doing? Look, it's dangerous and then... Do you really think after being falsely accused he's going to want to talk about this again?"
"I just want to ask him some questions."
"I know but..."
He looked around then whispered, "He certainly won't want to talk about Sunghoon. When the police falsely accuse you, usually you want to get back to a normal life and never have to deal with this again."
The young man was kind of right, Jay certainly wanted anything but to see teenagers who can see a ghost. His life must have been turned upside down, but we can't make him relive painful memories.
Nana just sighed and turned off the computer. Could they really manage without him? Despite her empathy, it had to go all the way.
If her friend wouldn't help her, then she was going to meet Jay on her own. No matter how dangerous it was, she knew he wasn't a killer anyway.
She was a little frustrated, but Heeseung was rather relieved. They left the library, but before leaving the school, the girl wanted to go to the spiritism club. It had been a while since she'd done any research there.
What's more, she felt as if she were drifting away from Rachel, even though the reason she'd managed to put all this together was partly thanks to her.
"Nana? Hi, what are you doing here?"
The president had risen from her chair.
As usual, the club was quite empty. After all, it was just a cover to do some research, but it was always sad to see Rachel alone.
The young woman also greeted Heeseung, who was not at all at ease. He swallowed with difficulty and waved at her.
"Sorry guys... Jungwon is sick so there are no activities after class."
"No problem. What are you doing tho?"
"Reading How about it?"
She smiled tenderly.
The boy clenched his fists; if his theory was right, it meant that Rachel was hiding her true self very well.
He couldn't tell Nana anything at the moment and that bothered him. He lacked proof, but he couldn't bear to leave his friend in danger.
"That's cool."
As the girls stood outside the library picking up a book. Heeseung watched Rachel from a distance, with a rather worried look on his face.
The president pretended to reach for a book, then lightly tapped her friend's arm with her elbow.
"Are you okay with the ghost? You still seeing him?"
The red girl was a little confused, it had been so long since they'd talked about it... She nodded, not ready to tell him that now she was in love with this same ghost.
"Since what happened last time I've intensified my research. I have to show you."
She picked up a small, dusty box from a shelf.
The student was clearly referring to the invocation. Sometimes, Nana thought back and realized how badly that story could have ended. She even felt that she no longer had the ability to reproduce the ritual.
It's a shame, because it would have added an extra layer of security if Sunghoon could transform back into a human.
In the box that Rachel was carrying, there were lots of books with scary titles. They always had something to do with spirits, the third eye...
"Jungwon picked this up from the old club. If you need it, you can help yourself."
She winked at her.
"Thank you."
The protagonist took the box and placed it on the table. Heeseung's eyes were still riveted on Rachel, almost forgetting to be discreet.
"What's this?"
She picked up a book that wasn't really a book actually.
The brunette came over to her and exclaimed slightly before taking it. It looked like a small notepad or diary. Yet it was entitled "Occult club."
"That's my old notebook. I wrote down everything that interested me and invocation that I wanted to realize. It's good thing to throw away."
She tossed it on the table.
Rachel and Nana were still talking amongst themselves and the boy was as uncomfortable as ever. He stared out of the corner of his eye at the notebook.
No one was paying too much attention to him so he picked it up and leafed through it.
Maybe he could find out something about the person he suspected but... There was nothing interesting, just some scary sentences about invocation, ghosts and demons.
Heeseung returned to the first page, disappointed and saw a small photo. Underneath was the club's creation date.
Judging by this, it had been created in junior high school, and he thought it was almost cute.
Above the photo this time, it read "South Park Middle School RJJJ". As he was about to close the book, his attention returned to the small photo.
He could see 4 people, but recognized only Rachel and Jungwon. There was also another boy and a person with a completely scrawled face, as if Rachel had wanted to erase them from the photo.
"Nana, can we talk for a second?"
His voice was quite alarming.
She didn't know what he wanted to talk about exactly, but it sounded important. She nodded, picked up her things and hugged Rachel before leaving.
In the corridor, Heeseung looked stressed, as if he'd realized something. In reality, he just realized that the president was just a normal girl and maybe he was wrong.
"You have 5 seconds to tell me this is a fucking joke."
She was furious, her arms crossed and jaw contracted. Sunghoon and Heeseung were sitting in front of her like 2 children being scolded by their mother.
The black-haired man had confessed everything about Rachel and the list. Sunghoon had added that he was spying her to get additional information.
She thought she was dreaming and had the impression that they were all having fun instead of concentrating on what was important.
"You guys didn't have the intelligence to tell me? Damn it, Heeseung we're a team."
"I know. I'm sorry, I was just trying to move things along."
"You prevent me from talking to Jay but on the other hand you suspect my friend? I feel like the world is upside down."
"It's not the same! Nana, you have to understand that even your friends are concerned."
He had risen from the bench to assert himself.
The skater watched the scene, perplexed. He had nothing to say and above all felt ashamed of having lied and worried his girlfriend.
"Rachel knows that I can see a ghost. She may not know everything, but if I have all this knowledge today it's because of her."
Furious, she'd punched him in the arm.
He didn't retaliate because it was simply something he didn't know. The protagonist had noticed his frozen expression and blinked several times.
"...You didn't know."
It was the calm before the storm, because a few seconds later she'd gone back to arguing with him even more. It felt like a betrayal, a waste of time, simply pointless things.
"You never told me it was her."
"I told you someone in the club knew about this."
"You didn't say any names!"
Heeseung raised his hands in the air, as if to absolve himself of any problems.
Maybe it was funny for them, but Nana regretted the precious time they could have used. It would also have avoided tensions in their little group, because she was really disappointed in them.
Her gaze fell on Sunghoon, who still had his mouth sewn shut and his gaze running away from her. She sighed and rolled her eyes, delivering another punch to his shoulder.
"What the fuck? Stop, that's hurt!"
"I can't touch Sunghoon so you're going to take for him instead."
"Guys..."
The ghost had finally intercepted himself.
Her sharp breathing frightened them, but they couldn't go on arguing like this forever. This was the worst possible moment to destroy their tight-knit little group.
"And you didn't tell him?"
She glared at her lover, "You knew Rachel helped us a lot. How could you?"
Sadness was beginning to take over from anger and feelings of betrayal. She felt very sorry for this girl who had done so much for her.
Rachel, a killer? This person who may seem cold but is actually soft and helpful on the inside, the same person who would assault a fellow student? It wasn't possible...
"I'm sorry. It was a misunderstanding."
"Misunderstanding... You seriously think this is the time for this..? There are two killers behind us right now, are you kidding?"
She had a sudden urge to punch them in the face, but there was no point in going to war. This time, she had to give attention to the most important things that could move them forward.
For Nana, the most important thing right now was Jay Park.
"It won't happen again."
Heeseung had said in a small voice.
"Yeah... It's stupid, but I'm telling you, we really thought we had something."
"...Well, let's focus on what's important."
She sighed.
"What do you suggest then?"
She stared at Heeseung out of the corner of her eye, with a nervous little smile.
"You're not going to like this."
They waited for classes to start again before rushing back into the school library. Heeseung turned on a computer and the ghost sat in front of the screen, ready to find out as much as he could.
"Have you ever stalked someone on the net?
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Whatever..."
Sunghoon sighed and got to work. Meanwhile, the other guy was a bit on the side, probably stressed by what they were about to do.
The protagonist was right, he wasn't going to like her idea, but she was hopeful about the idea. She approached him and nudged him gently.
"Hey, it's going to be okay."
"Probably but, I don't know... I can't feel it."
"Trust me for once. If it goes wrong I'll take the—"
"Finish, I've got it."
They exchanged surprised glances before rushing to the computer. Sunghoon let out a small, satisfied laugh before standing up and Nana took her place in the chair, her eyes glued to the screen.
"How? Oh my god! You even found his mother's Facebook page."
"Yeah... And that's nothing."
"How did you do it?"
Heeseung was impressed.
"Heather used to stalk me a lot so... I guess you could say she taught me some tips."
He felt his spine tingle as Nana set her hard gaze on him. He coughed and pretended to look at the ceiling.
"Who's Heather?"
"No one."
Nana replied curtly.
"Okay so... Do we have enough to contact Jay then?"
"Largely, that's pretty cool. I think we'll go through his mom to meet him. It seems more serious and less stressful for him."
"Like you want."
He looked at the Facebook page, "Wait, is that a picture of him?"
Heeseung caught his friends' attention and pointed to Mrs. Park's cover photo. They squinted and saw a family photo.
"Maybe..."
The skater retorted, "Moms usually put their kids on Facebook covers."
"Is that what he looks like?"
Nana clicked on the image, enlarging it.
They now had a better quality photo and Heeseung couldn't help noticing something. Just as she was about to turn back, he intercepted her.
"Wait, wait. I think I've seen him somewhere before."
"Jay? You're sure?"
"You shake a tree in town, there are 10 guys like him... He's basic."
"Be more serious!"
As the couple bickered, Heeseung tried to go back in his memories. He was sure he'd seen those facial features somewhere but...
"Oh shit... Holy shit."
The protagonist raised her eyebrows when she saw that he was white as a sheet. He turned to her, his eyes glazed over.
"What's wrong with him?"
"I saw him in Rachel's notebook. There was a group picture in it."
He looked at the cover again. "Guys, Jay created the occult club with Rachel and Jungwon."