december 09; 10:44 hrs

"case 2837, criminal cause pleading, the state versus jeon aera."

jungkook glances at the old man of law, smiling briefly as he motions his hand for the prosecution to go first and explain the case. the opponent lawyer stands up on his place dressed in the same attire as jungkook– black pants, white dress shirt, a white neckband and a black coat, representative of law too.

the man stands up, bowing to the judge first and speaks, "your honor, my client park ransom's brother– park noah, was brutally murdered on december 2nd. we seek justice for him and plead jeon aera guilty for the cause since she was present at the spot and the murder weapon has her fingerprints."

the judge nods briefly before turning to jungkook, "defence may proceed,"

"thank you my lord," jungkook bows to the man, "my client, who is also a juvenile, is being framed into this. i demand a clear investigation and rights for the wrongly accused from the honourable court."

the judge nods again, writing down something then looks at the child with a gaze full of mistrust and confusion. he gulps down the lump like the rest of the people knowing and following the case online or through newspapers since it's already the biggest headline in korea now.

"jeon aera, please come to the witness stand."

jungkook glances at the sister, patting her back encouragingly for her to go to the front and stand in the witness box. aera shakes her head, holding onto his hand tightly as tears pool her eyes again making the elders sigh with sympathy. the officials exchange glances with the policemen and taehyung nods, stepping forward when kang gestures him to bring the girl forward.

"ri, come on, we're all here. you don't have to be scared." he whispers, taking her hand and makes her stand up. aera whines, pulling herself back and hugs jimin tightly, shaking her head that says she doesn't want to go there.

"you have to go, princess. i'm right here, you can tell me when you wanna stop okay?" jungkook cups her face and smiles softly.

jimin nods, kissing her forehead and pats her back, "go," his voice whispers tenderly. aera stands up, rubbing her eyes and looks at the old judge who looks a bit scary with his front hair gone and skin wrinkled unevenly on his face and hands. his sunken eyes stare at the kid with an expression that is mirrored from the others present in the courtroom, having difficulty seeing the kid so scared and not wanting to leave her brothers.

nonetheless taehyung brings her to the witness stand, positioning himself on the side back in his place near yoongi and kang leo.

"do you wanna say something?"

aera shakes her head looking at jungkook who gives an assuring look telling her to relax. the prosecutor seeks permission for the questioning and heads to aera on getting a positive command from the court.

"how long have you known noah?" he anticipates an answer which never comes from the girl for she keeps her head low, visibly shaking in fear which everyone except for the prosecutor notices. "can you not hear me, aera?"

she hums softly, nodding once and steps back, glancing at jungkook again, "i'm standing here, aera. look at me and answer, how long have you known noah?"

"i-in school..."

"so i assume you've known him for a long time," he states, "so why did you plan all this? i'm sure he didn't do anything that bad considering his working record till now."

"i object your honor," jungkook pipes up, "he's tampering the witness."

"sustained," the judge nods.

"i'm sorry, my lord," the prosecutor says before focusing on the girl, "i'll be very straight forward and i want an answer– the truth for this, aera. what were you doing with noah before the accident happened?"

aera shakes her head slowly, earning an annoyed sigh from the lawyer, "you need to speak," he hisses and turns to jungkook with a what-the-fuck-is-this look, "you didn't teach her all that on purpose, did you? i hope not, advocate jeon."

"of course not, sir," jungkook smiles bitterly, "the only thing you're missing right now is that she's not just any of your witnesses, she's a child. and i don't have to remind you of the juvenile justice system, do i have to, advocate han?"

the man restrains from saying anything further, looking away and jungkook appreciates the action. he looks over at the judge, "i request the court to please exempt aera for now, she's not in the position for an interrogation." he pleads, glancing at his sister who is already crying silently. taehyung helps her down once the judge nods, hammering twice and writes something on the paper he's given.

____

december 10; 18:27 hrs

"no, hyung she has to tell me what exactly happened! i cannot fight the case having zero knowledge about what happened. yesterday was the just the first day, so it wasn't that big of a deal but it won't be the same now."

jimin stares at the sleeping girl, cuddled against her big teddy bear on the couch while jungkook is gaping out of the window at the big seoul city. chelsea's eyes never leave his figure ever since he returned home today, raging and annoyed as he didn't even know what to look for.

jimin's phone rings after a bunch of notifications which he has been ignoring for the last half an hour. chelsea glances at him, nodding for him to take it and she's here with jungkook if aera wakes up. he sighs, smiling a little at her for they'd gotten closer and almost like friends at this point. but one thing jimin also came to know about her and his brother was that they're exes. they dated for two months then suddenly things weren't going well and chelsea decided to end the relationship.

"jungkook," she calls softly, "you can talk to her later when she's up, but please don't be mad. you've do it carefully and not raise your voice at her."

jungkook hisses, turning to face her with a glare, "done? you're the one making it harder for me, you know that right?" he steps forward, "how much did kang pay you for this?"

"what are you saying?" she frowns, pushing him away and steps back but jungkook scoffs amusedly, grabbing her hand. he turns her around swiftly, pressing her against the wall with his own body caging hers. "ow, jungkook, let go." she glares at him.

"how much did he pay you?"

chelsea's jaw clenches in anger, kicking her foot to hit his knee and flips their position, to have him pinned against the wall now. "i've told you enough times, i'm not someone you can play with. it's done, i'm over you and you need to get that in your head."

jungkook smirks, glancing down and nods, "so he paid you," he chuckles, pushing himself to stand straight and laces his fingers with the girl's, turning slowly to have her between him and the wall, "better," he whispers, "now tell me the truth, what's wrong with you? you don't let me speak to aera, you meet kang, and then you act like you're on our side. what are you trying to do?"

"nothing," she hisses, "my job is to make sure aera is okay. i'm doing just that."

"by not letting me speak to her? or by meeting kang?" he leans closer, "i've heard about your promotion too,"

"get away,"

"answer me,"

"i said get away, jungkook."

"and i said answer me," he hushes out, "why are you doing this? are you really that selfish to bring a child into our mess? my sister's whole life is at stake, and i won't let you take anything for granted, chelsea. i'll make your life a living hell if you get in my way mark my words."

"you're audacious,"

jungkook chuckles darkly, pressing himself closer and nods, "i'm way more," he whispers in her ear, "you know me too well, sweetheart. so you better not mess with a man like me. lawyers are obscure and relentless, too bad for you that i am one."

chelsea stares at him, not saying anything as he nods once she's given in and steps back, hearing a pair of panicking footsteps into the room. chelsea stares at her feet, staying where jungkook left her as tears pool her eyes. meanwhile jungkook notices the distressed expression of his brother.

"what happened hyung? who was it?"

"jin hyung," jimin breathes out, grabbing his hair as he chews on his lower lip, looking too shocked about something. "there's money missing from the comapny's acounts."

"what?" jungkook frowns, "how much?"

"500 million dollars,"

jungkook gasps and chelsea's head snaps in the direction of the elder male, wanting confirm she's not hearing things. "500 million...?"

jungkook ignores her presence, walking to the brother, "how? out of nowhere?"

"yeah, i don't know... nobody noticed anything wrong until now when there's suddenly a hefty amount of money is missing from the accounts."

"but–"

"i know!" jimin exasperates, "how is that possible?"

"who has the access?"

"just me and jin hyung,"

"anyone else? manager lee, your assistant who looks into the balance sheets, profits and losses?"

"no... namjoon hyung takes care of that," jimin shakes his head, sitting on the couch as he stares at the floor, forcing his brain to think of every possible way to understand what is happening. first his sister is framed into a murder case and now his company and wealth is being targetted. "god! jungkook what is going on..."

jungkook hesitates with the consolation but pats the elder's shoulder, "don't worry, i'll look into it." he says, "everything will be okay."

"i don't know..." the elder buries his face in his hands, inhaling deeply before snapping his head up hastily searching for jungkook, "i don't know, kook... do anything– literally anything, just get our aera out of this. i have feeling it's all related..."

the younger nods, patting jimin's shoulder, "i'll get you everything back– i'll prove aera innocent, find the real culprit and also the one who stole the money. you'll have everything back, hyung, i promise."

____

december 11; 00:00 hrs

jungkook leans back on the couch, staring at the bunch of photographs scattered on the coffee table, one of them being a smiling face of his sister from a few days before the incident and her sports teacher– park noah. it was the annual sports week going on in the school then, that was also the first time jungkook met him.

the glass of beer is half empty in the lawyer's hand, swirling it in a slow motion, playing with the liquid while his eyes run along the table top, scanning all the pictures briefly again. he sighs softly, keeping the glass aside for a moment and takes the medical file which has the post mortem report of park noah, stating the cause of death and information like his medical history. apparantly he wasn't drugged or anything, and everything looked pretty normal other than the fact that he suffered from emphysema.

he frowns, hands tumbling on the table and searches for the picture that showed the stuff that the police found near the crime scene. there's one in which his glasses are laid on the floor broken and a small part of some white box is half visible in the picture. in another picture of the same spot, marked the very next minute, has been captured a bit from above making the frame appear wide enough to cover that little white box in the previous picture. however to jungkook's surprise, the box is completely missing as though someone took it in between the two pictures.

"dammit!" jungkook curses, grabbing his phone and dials taehyung's number. "hello, tae?"

"yeah, what happened?"

"i wanna ask something about the case, where are you?"

"in the police station, but what happened?"

"i think i found something," he breathes, "who else was there other than your police staff in the crime scene?"

"no one, just us and aera."

"where was she? can you tell me exactly what she was doing and where she was?"

"uh noah was dead near the staircase. and i made riri sit on the couch away from him."

"on the couch," he nods, "alright, listen. so noah suffered from emphysema, he used to smoke and probably on drugs too. a middle school teacher with no major family history cannot create a property worth millions."

"millions?" taehyung sounds shocked.

"yeah, i was looking into the matter and searched everything. there's an old p.i.l. against him claiming illegal assets and a drug dealing case back when he was in japan."

"wow... i didn't know all that,"

"i came to know about it yesterday after coming back from the court," jungkook says, "also if you could help me a little it would be great, y'know–"

"of course, what do i have to do?" jungkook goes quiet for a moment, smirking when he feels taehyung smirking as well through a low airy chuckle that sound sinister to his ears.

"keep an eye on kang," he tells him, "i think he's involved."

"sure, i had a doubt too. he's acting strange."

jungkook nods, standing up from the couch and takes a deep breath, "eh were there any kind of marks on noah's body? of allergies or steroid intakes or maybe a symptom of some drug?"

"kang didn't let anyone see the body," taehyung says, "he wasn't even ready to leave aera on bail earlier until you came."

"fuck that man dead," jungkook hisses, shaking his head and hears taehyung scoff mockingly at the thought of his senior, "do you think you know if there's anything going on between chelsea and kang?"

"no? why?"

"she's visiting him."

"for a promotion? but they're from different places."

"connections tae,"

"hm right, i don't know man. i don't think i saw– wait no, yeah! he was talking about her to someone. they're messing with that girl, kook, it has something to do with her promotion."

"she's selling herself for a promotion?" jungkook scoffs, "filthy,"

"she sold herself to you too," taehyung says, making jungkook smirk and almost laugh. "what? didn't you pay her to sleep with you?"

"never, ours was different. she wanted me, i wanted her, that's it. once we were done, we were done."

"so you never paid her?"

"i never paid anyone to sleep with me."

taehyung chuckles, probably shaking his head at the younger as jungkook knows that habit of his, "good for you, such a clean man."

"nobody here is clean, you know it too. not her, not you, not yoongi hyung, not kang and certainly not me. it's messed up and we're all surviving."

"true though–" taehyung's voice is cut off by some external noise making him groan annoyedly, "i'll go, kook. the douche is here. bye."

"as i've said before, fuck him dead god." jungkook fixes his eyes on the table then towards the hallway. cracking his neck, he heads inside stopping by a door and enters right away, too lazy to care if the woman would be disturbed in her personal space.

after locking the door, he sits on the bed, glancing at chelsea's sleeping figure. she's still the same, long, brown hair, red lips, and a doll like face. the only thing changed is her attitude towards him. instead of kissing him, her hand most likely moves to punch the shit out of the same pair of lips.

"chelsea," he shakes her lightly, "get up stupid, how much do you legit sleep?" 

"mm..." she stirs in her place and jungkook gulps, averting his gaze from her body.

"get up, i have something really important to–"

"ahhh!" the girl screams, sitting up hastily sending a wave of panic to jungkook. he hisses in reflex, covering her mouth with his hand and pushes her back to the laying position. "mmmh! you crazymifagggshjff!"

"hey shh! quiet!" he glares at her, "shut up, or i'll actually make you scream for real."

chelsea hushes quiet, laying under him without any movements other than her eyes struggling to read his face. however the intention is far away from what she perceives, releasing a deep sigh into his hand when loosens his grip on her, letting her fall into thinking he'll let her go. and once she does, his smirk returns, holding her hand above her head to lock her how she is, "stop moving," his voice commands.

"mmh!" she groans, glaring at him.

"i know, i know," he shakes his head, "such a douche, i know that sweetheart. it's just that i want something from you, and you're gonna have to do it for me."

cheslea shakes her head slowly, earning an amused raise of his brow and he leans closer, staring at her lips, "come on, didn't you miss me?" his warm breath sends shivers tingling her sensory nerves, almost numbing a part of her brain that she thought jungkook lost control over. "i want you, chelsea, to sleep with kang."

he releases her mouth and she instantly curses his mother, father and the whole family, only leaving kind souls like jimin and aera alone. jungkook doesn't mind keeps himself steady above her, "please, i mean it. i think he's leading this case and i don't want my sister to be sentenced for no reason. her whole life will be ruined. and you're the one who can help me."

"no," she lets out firmly, "get off me."

"no, you say you'll help me."

"i won't, leave me."

"chelsea, i know they're forcing you into it anyway. i'll pay you whatever amount you say and make sure nobody stops your promotion." he promises.

"w-what?" she blinks a few times, staring at him sith a hurt gaze, "you've really changed a lot jungkook... do you really think you can buy me like that? you wanna win this case, i know, but you're using me for that? think about me at least... you're asking me to sleep with a random man and probably more– i don't even know."

"yes, i'm asking you to do exactly that." he nods, "for yourself, for my sister, for my brother and for me. i have no other way of getting information against kang, and i can't win this case without that. they'll prove our aera guilty, my brother will lose everything he ever made in life, i'll be dying because i can't see them hurt, and you– chelsea, will be dying too, because i won't let you live after all this. so choose wisely."

"you're a psychopath," she voices out, gulping in fear.

"i don't fucking care what your opinion is about me. i just wanna get my sister out of this, believe me or not nothing matters to me more than my family. jimin hyung is my heart and aera is the heartbeat, and i need both to live. i'm not giving up."

"...i- i don't know kang," chelsea hushes out, pondering over his words she knew were true. this man cared about nothing other than his siblings– one who raised him with love and the other who added more smiles and happiness in his life. for that sake, she found herself nodding slowly, "i'll do it... but it's not for you. i'll help you because i don't want aera to suffer here, and your brother didn't deserve this either. but you're still a psychotic asshole."

"thanks," jungkook breaks into a smile, hugging her tightly, "thank you so much,"

she nods slowly, patting her back as he's now laying on top of her and it feels uncomfortable and heavy, "can you get off now?"

"yeah, sure," he nods, rolling to the side and lays next to her, "so here's the plan. you continue doing whatever the fuck he's telling you and act like no one knows anything about it. try to talk to him or maybe look around a little and get some information if he's hiding something about the case or not. you can't tell anyone about this, taehyung knows though. you can ask him for help if ever there's an emergency."

chelsea sighs deeply, nodding her head and glances at jungkook, "why do you hate me?"

"i don't know, it's natural. like you hate me,"

"you made me hate you, jungkook. i loved you first–"

"exactly, i don't want your love. past is past, i'm not courting you or trying to get you back. please don't think that, i'm doing this for my family." he gets up, staring at her, "anyway, i'll go now, thanks again for agreeing to help me out."

"will you leave me alone if i do this and you win the case?"

"one-hundred percent,"

"deal," chelsea nods, "i'll be waiting for the day you actually walk out of my life and never return."

"me too,"

_____________

a/n- aahhhhhhhh any special words for the chapter or maybe for the characters? jungkook?

anyway, ykwwww i studied for like 4 hrs straight today!!!! i can't tell you how happy my parents were 😓 now i'm going to take a shower and then i'll eat (yaaassss my favourite thing 😭) by that time i hoping for a lot of votes and comments 😭😭😭😭 ❤️

[yk i noticed it, in the first part of this series the votes have reached about 60 smth, and the second part just crossed 40... and same is with the comments... why? is it becoming less interesting?]

love you byeee!❤️ take care, it's getting hit these days right?