─────── 𝐂 𝐇 𝐀 𝐏 𝐓 𝐄 𝐑    𝟐𝟔 ───────

[9:48pm]

"And what exactly happened in the woods Miss. Min?"

"Me and my friends, we have this treehouse we built and we were just messing around until we heard some weird noises from outside and when Park Jongseong looked out the window he saw this masked figure. They were dressed all in black," Aera recitate what she practiced in her head, along with the others, a million times.

"Did you see this 'person's' face?" the officer asked her, his pen pausing on the notebook.

"Uhm.. no, I can't remember because I was behind everyone else but I think someone mentioned that they were wearing a mask."

"Ok," everything she said was being written down in note-form. "Explain to me what happened next."

"We thought it might be one of our mates playing, you know, a prank on us, so we all got out and tried to see who it was. The person doesn't say anything to us and we stand there just facing each other from a good distance apart. And then.. they just charged at us. And we just run."

"Why do you run if you think it's one of your friends?"

"Oh uhm.." the question caught her a little off guard. "Like I said, we only thought it was our friend. We didn't know for sure. And whoever this person was- they were carrying something in their hands and they had it pointed towards us."

"And then?"

"We just keep running, until we trip over some tree branch and the next thing we know.. bam. Doyoung's lying dead behind us."

"His cause of death was the bullet and blunt force trauma to his head. He dies within close proximity of you guys, and you didn't hear it?"

"Well, we heard the gunshot. Nothing else."

"No noises of struggling?"

"Kinda, but I think that was just coming from the person chasing us."

The officer sighed, rubbing his face. "Ok Miss. Min. You are free to go."

He pointed towards the door for her to leave. Aera curtly stood up, brushing her skirt down as she did.

She quickly rushed out of the room, glad to have had it finally done with.

[9:56pm]

"You're the only one out of your friends that happen to be severely injured," Detective Ahn said, looking down at his bandaged ankles.

"Uh.. yeah," Sunoo nodded.

"Tell me how it happened."

"We were running and then I fell."

"That's all?"

"Yup."

"Was this injury to your leg sustained when you all fell at the end or was it an individual event?"

"An individual."

"Oh yeah?"

"Hmm," he nodded. "I stumbled on some stump on the floor and some of them helped me run after that."

"You were able to run after that?" Detective Ahn's eyebrows peaked up.

"With the support of the others, yeah, I was just trying not to die."

"And who were those that were helping you."

"Sunghoon. Hari. Yeram."

"Hmm, ok. That's enough for now, you may leave Sunoo," she gave him the green light to proceed making his way out.

Once he shut the door behind him, Detective Ahn turned to her assistant. "Minho, get me Yang Jungwon."

[10:34pm]

"Oh no, what am I going to do now?" Iseul 'cried' into her hands as Sunghoon's mother tried comforting her.

"Shh, Iseul," Mrs. Park cooed. "It's going to be fine. It wasn't that bad."

"No!" Iseul semi-shouted at her sister. "It was supposed to be the perfect night and now it's all ruined. I'm embarrassed!!"

She fake-cried some more, exaggerating the whole situation to the point it was unbearable for everyone in their room.

"And it's all their fault!" Iseul suddenly pointed at Sunghoon and Yeram who were meekly sitted silently on the sofa in front of her.

"We didn't mean it Aunt Iseul- '' Yeram tried to explain herself but was interrupted by Iseul's hysterical sobs.

"No! No!! I don't want to hear it, just get out of my face-" Iseul screamed at them.

"But-"

Mrs. Park looked at the two of them, "Yeram, sweetie. Please go to one of the guest rooms upstairs. Your aunt just needs to calm down."

Yeram bowed her head in shame, "Yes aunt."

She and Sunghoon, who was more than relieved to get out, got up and walked out of the living room.

"Why's she so fucking dramatic for?" Sunghoon complained, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"Tell me about it, acting like it's the end of the world," Yeram rolled her eyes.

The two were escorted to one of the many spare guest rooms upstairs by one of the maids until Yeram's parents came to pick her up.

[04 | 03 | 23 , 7:32am]

Hari strode into her common room, slamming down her books in the middle of the table where all her friend's were seated around.

"Which one of you fuckers is it?" she calmly asked.

They all remained quiet.

"You're seriously suspecting someone in the circle?" Jongseong scoffed.

Heeseung rolled his eyes. "Wouldn't be surprising if one of us actually did it."

Ignoring both their words, Hari continued. "I've been thinking. It just doesn't make sense this whole thing. Doyoung dies behind us- yeah we all heard the gunshot but what about the person who ran away when they killed him? I didn't hear any running, did you guys?"

Mumbles of 'no's went around them and everyone turned back to a smirking Hari. "Exactly that means whoever did it wasn't even there behind us. It- it just has to be one of us."

"But who would do that?" Aera was not so sure as her friend.

"Why don't we ask our ace Lee Heeseung?" she smugly turned to him. "There's nothing he can't do."

"Why are you turning this all against me?" Heeseung asked her. "And why would I kill Doyoung? I don't even know the guy."

"That actually makes sense," Ahyeun added. "Heeseung has no motive."

"And not only that, why was Doyoung even there in the first place?"

Now Riki's question got everyone thinking.

"What if someone lured him?" the jigsaw pieces in Jungwon's head began to connect. "What if the killer used him as bait to make us seem like the bad ones?"

"You know what," Sunghoon began. "The killer does seem to want to tarnish our reputation."

"Before we continue that," Jongseon disrupted. "There's something else you all should know."

"What?" Yeram tried glancing at what he was looking at on his phone.

"Moon Soojin was found dead in the theater hall."

[7:49am]

"Ouch," Yeram grimaced, looking at the pictures of Soojin's mutilated body that were being shared around.

"Let me send this to Sunoo," Ahyeun said. "He's going to be so upset."

"Poor guy," Aera sympathised. "She was his female lead as well."

"They're going to have to replace her now then," Jongseong sarcastically remarked.

"That's two back-to-back killings and 4 altogether now," Jungwon walked around the room. "This killer is fucking insane."

"It's like they're testing us with our lives," Heeseung fidgeted with his ear piercing. "We get scared only for someone else to fall into what we were promised."

"Not only are they playing a killing game but mind games too?" Riki was beyond disbelief.

This killer had a deeply-rooted vendetta against them. And they were smart, fucking genius to have got this far.

"Uhm guys..." Aera hesitantly got everyone's attention towards her.

"Yeah what is it?" Riki asked.

"I actually found something yesterday, by Doyoung's body and thought it was out of place so I picked it up."

"What was it?" Jungwon encouraged for the reveal of her finding.

Aera rummaged through her bag, pulling out a scrunched up piece of tissue. She opened it up, taking out what was inside.

She held out a piece of smooth wood, curved on the top and flat on the bottom. The side that was jaggedly broken was also slightly curved into a hook-like shape.

"Wood?" Jongseong frowned. "Can't that be from a tree or something."

"No Jongseong," Aera shook her head. "It's so smoothened and glazy to be from a tree."

"It kinda looks like..." Ahyeun's words trailed off as she got confused. "Never mind."

Aera quickly wrapped it up again, placing it in her bag. "I'm going to give this to my uncle later today. He should be able to tell what type of wood it is."

The first bell of the morning rang, signaling it was time to start heading to class.

Everyone began packing up their belongings.

"That's a great idea," Yeram said. "Let us know when you find out."

Walking to the doors, Jongseong held it open for them. "After you all."

Aera smiled at him gratefully before turning back to Yeram. "Yeah, I will. Don't worry."

———