"So it's someone seeking revenge for Elise Renard." Jennie breathed with red eyes. The entire story had brought her close to tears. I noticed that Jimin was gulping as well.
"There was a hint right in front of our nose." J-hope slammed the table frustrated. Jin nodded "Someone's really playing with us..."
"Where is that orphanage Edouard Renard died at?" I asked. Edouard Renard even being dead... we had to pursue this line. "A two hours drive from here." Jin answered truthfully.
"Please send me the address." Jimin said taking out his phone and taking pictures of the article Jin had brought.
Since I had no practise this afternoon Jimin, J-hope, and me drove to the orphanage. Jennie and Jungkook wanted to join as well but were occupied by their assignments and training schedule.
"You think this is going to help us?" J-hope asked as he reversed into the parking lot. "I've no idea. This also might be a dead end." I responded honestly. "We still have the location of the hacker. SNA." Jimin whispered mysteriously. "It's someone from Elise Renard's side, it's best we start with her close relatives." J-hope sighed putting on fancy sunglasses. "Is your attire really necessary, hyung?" Jimin asked warily "The kids might confuse you for a rich ajumma who wants to adopt them."
Hearing that J-hope tore his necklace and sun glasses of and put a black bucket hat on his head. I grinned at Jimin. Evil mochi!
Soon the three of us stood in the hallway of the orphanage. It definitely had seen better day. The hallway was painted in a shabby yellow were countless kids fingerprints left their marks. Contrary to my expectations it was rather quiet here. I looked at my watch it was quarter past four. Shouldn't the kids be back by now? The three of us walked up confidently to the senior receptionist who browsed a magazine with a languid expression on her face.
"How may I help you?" she asked eyeing the three of us. When she came to the conclusion that all of us were too young to adopt someone she dropped her fake smile and looked at us rather annoyed.
"We're students from Crane Academy. We're doing a research on our late alumni Elise Renard." J-hope said confidently. Well, hyung had improved his acting skills. We eyed the receptionist when J-hope mentioned her name, however neither me nor Jimin found any change of expression. The woman said flatly "Follow me." before calling another woman to the counter.
"Park, Kyungmi? You called us earlier?" she adressed J-hope. "Uhhh, no that's me!" I smiled at her. "Mhm, actually we are no tourist attraction. I am not allowed to talk about the kid's private information..." she said hesitantly eyeing the bag I was carrying.
Don't tell me she wants bribe???
"Err, I am sorry?" I said irritated. The woman looked at me as if I was an alien. "If you're not really interested in what happened to Edouard Renard, then please excuse me, I have a lot on my plate-"
"Mrs Jennifer, we're here on a school project..." I had taken a look on her shabby name tag on her chest.
"So... it means your school does not value the work of us caretakers, tsk... asking for help but not offering donations really, such a shameless school..." the woman spat.
Excuse me???
Donations? What donations? She obviously wants bribe!!!
"I am sorry for her lack of manners, Jennifer!" J-hope coaxed the "furious" woman.
"Of course, we're willing to give a little donation for your hardwork." J-hope took a fifty dollar bill out of his pocket. I wanted to stop the frivolous act but the senior receptionist snatched the bill out of his hand.
Hah! This woman could make a good martial artist...
Within a second the money disappeared in her pockets and the woman guided us to the upper floor. "Edouard Renard, died at the age of twelve. He had aggression issues and was a problematic child." she sighed. "When his parents lost custody over him and his older sister, she got into a boarding school and Edouard was given up for adoption. However he never stayed longer at an adoptive family than 3 months. We always got complaints from his adoptive families, but he truly had it hard in life." another over dramatic and absolutely fake sigh "Both parents addicts and an abusive childhood. Here he wasn't really famous with the kids. Actually there was probably only one kid he was familiar with." she seemed to think of something. "Well, Edouard and Robert got along well, he was the only one of the boys who could keep up with Edouard's temper. A good kid Robert..." she nodded reminiscing about old times.
"Madam, may you tell us about how Edouard Renard died?" Jimin asked politely. "Mhmmm, I remember that night very well unfortunately. It was one of those rainy cold fall nights. The boy was probably trying to escape... errrr I mean he was trying to run away. He was a troublemaker, Edouard... that boy, he always wanted to run way. But where? That kid had no home no loved ones..." she sighed dramatically again. "He had climbed the house facade that night and most likely slipped." she shrugged her shoulders. "The next morning he wasn't found until the caretakers took their morning tour to the kids rooms to wake them up. He wasn't lying in his bed and all the other kids did not know where he went to. After searching for him in the house the search was expanded to the back yard where he then was found. He broke his neck." she paused. Was it just my imagination or was everything that happened really bothering her? Maybe these caretakers are used to stories like that? I was feeling sorry for Edouard...
"All the help came too late... he was already dead." she looked at us. "Is there anything specific you want to know?" she directed her question at us.
"There were no witnesses that night?" I asked. "You think we are keeping watch on the kids all day all night? Of course not!" the woman sneered. Well, thanks for answering the question. But I don't like you as well. "What about the police? Was there nothing suspicious about his death?" J-hope asked earnestly. "There was nothing suspicious. That boy slipped. We did everything in our power to keep the kids under control." Jennifer raged. "But there are so many of them. With the constant coming and going it's even hard to keep track of the kids. You know how many children we have to feed? Now there only around 100 back then... those times were chaotic I can assure you. Even the police knows that. One boy dying because of recklessness that was not our fault. And the police knew that! They knew!!! The police has nothing on us!!! ..."
The longer the ugly woman rambled the more I hate her.
Jimin nodded patiently listening to the ignorant woman.
"... They couldn't blame us for something so unavoidable! But that troublesome Edouard. It was just a matter of time that he'd end up like that!" the woman continued.
"Who are you to judge him?" I sneered.
The woman eyed me strangely "Young lady, what are you implying?"
"Hehe!" J-hope nudged me "Please don't mind her, she's a little grumpy today... so, can you tell us where Edouard Renard is buried?"
The woman told us that Edouard's grave was found in the town cemetery a 20 minutes walk away from the orphanage. We went to a flowershop to buy a single white rose before we head to the cemetery.
The cemetery was really peaceful except for a few older people watering the flowers on the graves of their beloves and ravens sitting on abondened graves there was just the three of us.
"Edouard... I am afraid he's a dead end." Jimin sighed looking onto the inscriptions of the tombstones we were passing. "Maybe we've missed something..." J-hope thought out loud. "If he'd be alive, he'd be around our age." I murmured. "Life is really unfair. He was way too young to die." Jimin nodded.
Life's always unfair. "One is always too young to die." I said reading the inscriptions on the tombstone of a six year old.
"Here..." J-hope said standing in front of one of those abondened graves where green moss was all over the tombstone.
Edouard Renard, the inscription said.
But we were not paying attention to the grave where weed was almost knee-high. What made us gasp were the fresh white lilies that were placed on the tombstone and the note that was attached to them: Tu vas avoir d'accompagnement bientôt, je promets. (You'll have company soon, I promise.)
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Author's note:
Having Jimin and J-hope as your besties must be great! What do you think?