It was past three in the morning by the time they had returned to Jin’s place. As they entered the living room, Yoongi threw his overcoat on the floor and yelled in frustration,

“Is this some sort of a joke?”

Nobody answered him. They were all too confused and tired to think.

“If it is, it’s a horrible one!”

“Do you think anyone would joke about something like this?” Kookie responded to Yoongi as he sat on the floor leaning against the wall. That spot had become his favourite.

“Tell me who did this?” Yoongi asked again,
”tell me right now!”

Tae scoffed in disbelief.
“You think one of us did this?” he asked pointing at himself.

“We are the only ones who knew of this ‘Jung Tae Min’!” Yoongi finger quoted the stranger’s name.

“Can we stop fighting for a second? Please?” hiding his face in his hands, Hoseok pleaded.

While Jin sat on the couch, absentmindedly pulling on a thread on his sweater, Jimin brought him some water. Joon sat on the floor by himself, away from everyone.

He read the note over and over again, searching for a clue that may or may not exist. He rested his forehead on his hand as he let out a breath feeling defeated.

“Hyung, are you okay?” Jimin asked Jin, feeling concerned.

“I need some space,” Jin shook his head as he stood up and walked into the kitchen.

Joon looked at him leave the room. He turned his gaze back to the note.

“He must feel horrible. It’s as if all the bad things are happening at the same time,”
Jimin said to the group.

“Is the Bowl cursed now? Every time we visit, it turns out to be a long night! With unwanted surprises!”
Tae sat by Jimin on the sofa.

Pondering upon the possibility of Tae’s doubt, they were shocked when unexpected words caught their attention.

“Did you do this?”

Joon looked up and saw a very angry Hoseok staring at him.
“What?” he asked surprised.

Tae smacked his head with his hand and mumbled, “Not again.”

“It was your tyre that was found at the scene. For all we know you could have done this,” he shrugged as accused Joon.

“Hyung!” Kookie scolded Hoseok for suggesting this.
Hoseok turned to Kookie,
“A few hours ago you thought so too!”

While Kookie fell silent on this statement, Tae asked Hoseok,
“Aish! would you stop that? Why would Joon hyung do something like this?  You are just hung up on the earlier fight hyung!”

Hoseok’s face heated with rage at being scolded by the younger ones.
“I don’t know how he did it. But he did!”

“There is no way he could have done this hyung,” Jimin tried to speak.
“He was with us the whole day today!”

“Besides, you yourself dug the hole. The ground was hard. It hadn’t been touched in years!” Yoongi supported Jimin and tried to bring Hoseok to his senses.

Kookie took in a long breath and spoke calmly.
“Whoever left the note, “he paused to make sure all were listening and continued, “Why would they sign it as ‘Taemin’?”

As they pondered over this question, Joon’s eyes widened in realisation.
“Someone who knows our secret! It must be someone who knew exactly what happened at the Bowl!”

“You mean they want to blackmail us?” Tae leaned forward with interest.

“Possibly!” Yoongi nodded and continued,
”maybe someone close to Juan who now, maybe wants to hurt Jin hyung.”

“But why him? He can’t be their only target,” Hoseok asked his doubt.

“Technically he is the reason Juan came to the Bowl…” Yoongi paused and looked at the other boys, worried whether he should continue.

But someone else finished his sentence for him.
“...And died?”

All eyes turned to the voice that stood by the door to the kitchen. Jin walked forward and stood beside the couch. Yoongi gulped.

“He didn’t mean it like that hyung,”
Jimin stood up, but didn’t move towards Jin. He wasn’t sure how to deal with this situation. The other boys shifted their eyes between Jin and Jimin.

Feeling watched and judged at the spotlight, Jin panicked.

“But I didn’t do it! I didn’t kill him!” Jin shook his head profusely while his hands shivered.

“We know hyung. We never said you did,” Tae covered two steps between him and his hyung.

Jin’s eyes had started reddening and brimming with tears. Watching his mumbling breaking form, the other boys rose from their seats. While Hoseok ran to be by his side, Yoongi felt guilty of saying anything in the first place.

As Hoseok approached him, Jin put up his hand to keep him away. The boys tried their best to calm him down.
“No! I didn’t kill him! I never pushed him-“

“Of course no, you didn’t. We never-“

“-Taemin did it! TAEMIN PUSHED HIM DOWN!”

As soon as those words left him, Jin immediately covered his mouth with his hands.
No one spoke for a few seconds. The only sound that could be heard was of the crickets chirping outside.

Until Kookie spoke.

“Hyung? What did you say?” Kookie walked two steps towards Jin, his face not hiding his shock.

Jin pushed his glasses up from the tip of his nose. But he didn’t say anything.

“Hyung? It was an accident. He slipped and fell…” looking at his eldest hyung, Yoongi tried to reason with him even though his heart felt heavy, ”There is no Taemin...”

“I…I know…” Jin stuttered. He pulled he neck of his sweater stretching it.
“I think I need to get some sleep,” he said as he turned around to walk to his room,

“You should all rest.”

“I…I’ll go check on him,” Jimin followed the eldest.

Tae slowly turned around to face the others. All of the boys stood agape in shock and confusion.

“What just happened?” Kookie spoke first.

“I have no idea,” Yoongi shook his head.

Hoseok threw his hands in the air as he fell back to the couch. He turned around to look at Joon who had remained silent throughout.

“Do you have nothing to say?”

Joon looked at Hoseok and just sighed. Hoseok felt his temper rising again,
“Do you not care at all?”

Joon sat back on the floor, leaning against the wall. He raised his head to the ceiling and closed his eyes as his mind wandered off to the things that bothered him…