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MAKE IT RIGHT
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Taehyung

The moment I stepped out of my room, Jimin took Yi-Seo aside and spoke to her for a bit, after which she stormed out of my home without sparing me a glance, leaving me and Jimin alone. I have no choice now but to go to court with Jimin.

Our journey to the court is shrouded in complete silence, and my mind seems to be so disturbed with a plethora of thoughts that aren’t allowing me to calm down at all. I feel like a mess, and I can’t believe I had put everyone on the edge with my recklessness. Shame on me!

I need to apologize to Yi-Seo first and set things right with her because otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to move on with anything else. She’s understandably furious over my behavior, and telling her that it was beyond my control would be absurd and ridiculous. Of course, I should have had control of the entire situation, but I didn’t, and I feel like trash now.

Take one step at a time, Taehyung.

“We’re here,” Jimin’s voice cuts through the silence in the car, and my bubbling thoughts fizzle away in a flash.

“Okay,” I nod once and climb out of the car, and so does he.

As we ascend the flight of stairs to the main building of the court that houses the courtroom, my eyes find Yi-Seo waiting for us with her arms crossed under her chest. Powerful waves of anger radiate from her, and I can feel the heat of it intensifying with every step that I take closer to her.

My legs feel so weak, and they almost give away when I walk up the last few stairs that take us to where she is waiting, and the moment she sees me, her eyes deliberately avoid mine in a blink and move to Jimin.

Abandoning me, they both talk in hushed voices while standing at a good distance from me. My eyes are stuck on Yi-Seo, hoping to have her eyes on me. She’s fully aware that I’m trying to have her attention and talk to her, but she’s purposely avoiding me like the plague. And I don’t blame her for it. I feel repulsive even to my own self.

A few minutes pass by with the frustration within me building up rapidly, and then the attorney joins us, after which Jimin points towards the courtroom, asking me to enter along with them.

We take our seats with Jimin sitting between Yi-Seo and me, and the attorney walks up to his seat. In a short while, Woo-Bin arrives with Dr Han, and he takes his seat after helping the old man to his place next to the defendant’s stand.

Attorney Seong arranges the papers on his desk and sets everything in place by which time the judge arrives. The entire gathering of people within the court stands up to honor the judge, and then silence falls upon the room when everyone takes their seats once again.

The atmosphere is extremely formal, deeply silent, and the bitter nostalgia of being inside a similar space ten years ago begins to gnaw at my mind. Even though I was here yesterday, somehow it feels so strange to be here today. There’s severe discomfort and a tightening constriction within my chest, and there’s so much negativity and paranoia clouding my thoughts as well. Physically, it feels as if I’ve swallowed a rock which is now stuck midway between my throat and my stomach.

I shift uneasily in my seat, and my eyes turn to look at Yi-Seo. But they look beyond her and spot Sammy sitting in the other aisle. His eyes are burning holes in the air in Dr Han’s direction, and he isn’t seeing me right now, but he definitely knows that I’m here, and his presence is stinging all my elevated senses and contributing to the bitterness and swirling nausea within me. The lump in my throat threatens to choke me, and if this is my mind playing games, then I wish it stops soon because I feel like I might throw up anytime if I continue feeling this way.

Dr Han is seated beside the stand on the defendant’s side with his breathing set-up right beside him, and he isn’t looking at anyone in the courtroom.

My mind isn’t anywhere close to being silent, but the courtroom is observing pin-drop silence as attorney Seong rises from his seat and moves towards the judge’s seat. He hands over a bunch of papers to the clerk who passes it onto the judge, and then he heads back to his seat while the curious crowd is ready to listen to what he has to say.

“As a continuation of the first hearing yesterday, the required statements from the defendant are already presented in court. I want to thank your highness for speeding up the hearing process, given how ill the defendant is, and the case is also nearing its expiry. I would like to be granted permission to question the claimed motivator, Mr Choi Sung-Won,” the attorney speaks calmly into the talkback mic that’s mounted on his table.

“Permission granted, please proceed,” the judge nods her head pensively, and I turn my head to look at Sammy exhaling deeply before fixing the lapels of his jacket and rising from his seat.

All eyes are on him, but he doesn’t bother to look at anyone as he walks with a stern jaw and a confident gait, straight to the defendant’s stand that’s straight opposite our attorney’s desk. Dr Han didn’t have an attorney to appear in court for him yesterday, but I notice just now that there’s another attorney sitting on the defendant’s side, and he was most probably hired by Sammy to appear for him.

Before my mind could process this situation, attorney Seong begins to question Sammy.

“Mr Choi, how long have you known Dr Han?”

“For about seventeen years,” he answers passively, yet truthfully.

“Mr Choi, Dr Han has claimed that the injection drug that was given to my client, Kim Taehyung, on the 28th of June ten years ago was swapped upon your request. What do you have to say about this?” The attorney questions him straight on his face, but he doesn’t react at all. His attorney does instead.

“Honorable court, I object to this. The plaintiff’s attorney is accusing my client without any solid evidence, and this is bound to cause unnecessary mental stress for my client,” Sammy’s attorney rises from his seat and speaks into his mic.

“The objection is overruled. Please proceed,” the judge responds bluntly and motions for attorney Seong to continue, and this time I notice that Sammy looks a little miffed.

The uneasiness that I was feeling earlier hasn’t reduced one bit, and right now I’m sweating bullets even inside this air-conditioned courtroom. All my senses seem to be high, and my mind is finding it extremely hard to focus on one thing. My stomach feels vacant, and there’s a twisting sensation that I feel all over me that’s making me restless. My cold fingers are twitching and trembling too, and if this is what death feels like, then I think I’m dying.

“That’s not true. I had no motive to do that,” Sammy speaks up after a brief pause, confidently defending himself with a big fat lie, raising his chin high.

“Then I believe we have to see what we’ve got here, and it is also the reason you are here today because it is considered inappropriate to put out evidence involving anyone in their absence,” attorney Seong gives him a smug smirk as he motions for Dr Han, who then pulls out a USB stick from the pocket of his coat and holds it up in his hand.

Sammy’s eyes turn to glare at Dr Han, and he should probably try his best not to react now, but it is obvious even to my distracted mind that his whole self embodies so much nervousness right now. He exchanges a heated, brief glance with his attorney while attorney Seong receives the USB drive from Dr Han and passes it on to the judge.

This is the evidence that Dr Han talked about yesterday, and I have no clue what it is. But if attorney Seong seems so confident about it, then I’m pretty sure that it must be some crucial evidence against Sammy, and I’m instantly curious to find out what it is.

“What’s that?” I lean a little towards Jimin and ask him in a whisper that comes out sounding like a terrible croak.

“You’ll know now,” he answers in a slightly malicious tone and laughs softly, hinting that he probably already knows what it is.

The lack of answers along with my extreme anxiety is driving me insane, and I feel so impatient. The evidence that attorney Seong handed over finally begins to play on a large screen that’s mounted atop the clerk’s seat.

There is no picture on the screen, and what starts playing is an audio recording that starts off with some kind of white noise, probably that of a ceiling fan. And then a male voice begins to talk,

“Woo-Seong-ah, everything is set. I’ve taken care of the stage arrangement personally. Taehyung will fall. There will be an injury, but it could be of any kind,” the deep and masculine voice undoubtedly belongs to Sammy, and it makes my skin bristle.

Following this, another male voice talks in response,
“I get it. Just make sure he comes to me, and I’ll take care of the rest,” the slightly raspy voice responds, and I decipher that it belongs to Dr Han.

“I’ll take care of that, and I’ll meet you sharp at 9 am tomorrow to hand over the medicine… you know the super strong one,” Sammy answers in a low voice.

“Are you sure you didn’t leave a trace while procuring that drug? If you get caught, it’ll be a huge threat to your reputation and career,” Dr Han’s voice sounds gloomy and troubled, and Sammy laughs in response to the doctor’s concern.

“Don’t worry at all. There’s no way to trace me,” he reassures slyly with a heavy surge of overconfidence in his tone.

“Are we meeting tonight?” Dr Han asks Sammy, and it is only then that I realize that this is not a voice recording of their conversation during a physical meeting, rather it is a voice recording of a phone call between the two men.

“I wish I could,” Sammy chuckles breathily, his voice resounding inside the quiet courtroom, and my eyes flick to look at him standing in the defendant’s stand with his eyes blazing, and his jaw clenched.

Dr Han on the other hand is keeping his head low, but there’s a smug smirk and a slim look of victory reflecting off his countenance. I, on the other hand, am experiencing a pandemonium of sorts within my brain.

The two of them exchange a few sweet words and end the call, and then the recording stops playing, which is followed by a moment of profound silence.

“Could you explain this, Mr Choi?” Attorney Seong speaks into his mic, the tone of his voice coming out with a loud hint of mockery.

Sammy’s eyes flit wildly between the judge and attorney Seong, and then he twiddles with his fingers, after which his attorney decides to speak up for him.

“This proof is clearly fabricated, your Honor. It’s impossible to conclude that the voice in this recording belongs to my client, and it is most definitely a wicked and vengeful trick by Dr Han to defame my client for reasons unknown,” he says into his mic and settles back down in his seat.

Sammy’s involvement in the matter is evident, and as a person who has worked closely with him for many years, I can confidently state that the voice in this recording belongs to him. But I knew that this kind of an argument would arise because voice imitators exist everywhere, and it isn’t hard at all to reproduce someone’s voice.

Nevertheless, I have no second guesses about the voice in the recording that we just heard.

“Please bear in mind that Dr Han on the defendant’s side is your client as well,” attorney Seong emphasizes calmly, in a mocking tone once again, and the defense attorney’s shoulders tense up at once.

“Do you confess to planning out the events surrounding the plaintiff’s fall on stage? What do you have to say about this call recording?” The judge quizzes Sammy, who looks a little too pale now.

“That voice isn’t mine. I’ve never had such a conversation with Dr Han,” he denies flatly, but his eyes aren’t stable, and his entire demeanor is giving away how utterly scared he is at the moment.

“Oh? Is that so?” Attorney Seong smirks into his mic, and Sammy is losing his cool exponentially; his forehead is flooding with sweat and glistening, and his face looks as if he just witnessed an exorcism.

“Y- yes,” Sammy stammers, making attorney Seong’s smirk grow wider.

“Well, then. I’m afraid the defendant, Dr Han, has submitted a proof that cannot be used against Mr Choi. Is that right, Dr Han?” Attorney Seong’s question hangs in the air for a while before Dr Han raises his head to look at him.

His eyes float over to Sammy and then back to attorney Seong, before they finally fall upon the judge.

“Your Honor,” his voice sounds rusty, “there’s more inside that USB drive. This is just the first of the two main pieces of evidence that I have,” there is so much clarity in his words even though his voice is creaky.

Jimin moves to the edge of his seat, and so does Woo-Bin.

“More?” The judge exclaims as she proceeds to check out the other files inside the USB drive.

Whatever this other evidence is, I’m sure that it must be an even stronger one than the call recording because the confidence radiated by attorney Seong has increased multiple folds, and my blood is rushing in hot anticipation as to what more remains to be unveiled to expose Sammy’s dark and ugly side.

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Don't worry. This time it will surely be revealed.
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Published on : 02/17/2023