Chapter Text
“Come on,”
Another whine, another hiss as a response.
Minatozaki Sana really didn’t want her rare, precious Friday night to be wasted once again in the office. She almost never had a chance to go home and sleep on Friday nights, so she wouldn’t just willingly say yes to this annoying colleague, Jackson Wang, asking her to finish one more job before she could go home.
Working overnight was nothing new to her, but being able to go home that early, she checked the time, it was a little past 11PM, was too good to waste. She could always work the next day, anyway. There was no new urgent case or situation and everything was under control. So she didn’t understand why Jackson insisted her to do that one more job, whatever it was. She simply said no before he could explain.
“Sana,” He tried again, sitting on her desk, blocking Sana who was trying to reach her purse, “I really need you to do it.”
“You said yourself that this is your case, why don’t you do it?”
“I can’t. Chief wants me to go to Busan with him tonight for that dead body case.”
“Well then, continue working on it after you go back from Busan or something.”
“Can’t, it has to be done tonight.”
Sana groaned, “Then, do it yourself!”
“I already said I can’t!” He held both her shoulders to prevent her from moving around, “Remember that murder case five months ago? It’s that case. I just need you to do something simple about that.”
Sana narrowed her eyes. There were too many murder cases.
“Which one? I can’t remember yours.”
“A middle-aged man found dead in his house. His stepdaughter is the only one to be blamed. Come on, you can’t forget that. It was pretty huge.”
Sana almost rolled her eyes because she actually remembered it despite not being her case to handle, “Are you asking me to do that something simple about that case because the girl is basically Japanese?”
“She’s actually a Korean citizen but has a Japanese name and blood like you, so yeah, partly because of that.”
A sigh as Sana let go of his grip, “You’re unbelievable. That reason isn’t relevant.”
He tugged her arm, “Oh come on--”
“You know what, Momo is also a Japanese-Korean citizen.”
“Momo is probably already drooling on her desk right now.”
“And that’s what I should’ve done on my bed if you weren’t such a bother like this! I have like, five unfinished cases to think about!”
“Momo has seven.” He frowned, “And I’m going to have seven too, adding this Busan dead body case to the list. You only have five. One of those is almost finished too, only one or two trials left. You’re the least busy among us right now.”
“But mine are heavy.”
“I’m not asking you to take over my case, no! It’s just a simple thing. One simple thing you need to do just for tonight. The case is still mine. It’s just… I already planned this but suddenly that Busan case happened and all…”
Sana crossed her arms.
“Please? It’s just for tonight. If in the end it doesn’t work, then it’s okay. At least you’ve tried. It would still relieve me more than not trying at all.”
“Why--”
“I’ll buy you meals! Right after I come back from Busan, I’ll treat you! You like meat, right? Or pork? Or both?”
“Ugh, fine. I’ll do it. But it better be easy or I’ll drop it in like, five minutes after I start.”
“Yeah! Thank you!” He surged forward and hugged, or more like, suffocated her, “You’re my savior!”
Sana could only roll her eyes once more. What a night.
-
“Here,”
Jackson handed her some papers, documents regarding the murder case. It was a pretty easy case, actually. A man found dead, all the evidences pointed to one person, who later was known as his stepdaughter. The girl, despite being a Korean citizen, had a Japanese name, so it kind of confused Sana because she thought Korean citizens with Japanese names were only her and Hirai Momo, her colleague. They had Japanese blood in them and were named that way by their parents. They also had relatives in Japan and visited there a few times.
Myoui Mina, she read the name.
Pretty.
“She looks young.”
“She is.” Jackson nodded, “Nineteen but a second grade in high school. She’s the stepdaughter of the victim. They only lived with each other, that typical middle class family. I heard that she was actually adopted, but I don’t know the details because there's so little information about that plus she’s really, like really, hard to communicate with so… you’ll find out why.”
Sana flipped the papers, “Okay, and what exactly do you want me to do?”
“It’s umm…” He sat down on his desk, “can you… try to make her confess of murdering her stepfather?”
“What?” Sana looked up from the papers, “She hasn’t?”
“She keeps saying she didn’t. But when she was asked who the culprit really was, she couldn’t answer. And all the evidences are pointing at her. But she still hasn’t confessed.”
“Well, she can say no as much as she wants. What’s the problem?”
“Her first trial is tomorrow.” He bit his lip, “I just… want the sentence to be… as it should be. But you know it would be heavier if she insisted not confessing. She’s too young. She can’t be staying behind bars for that long. She has no family either…”
Sana whistled, “I always knew you’re a softie.”
He pursed his lips, “So, please? Can you get a confession before tomorrow? It would reduce her sentence. It’s… the least I can do for her.”
“Okay. So I guess I’ll have to interrogate this girl one more time to get her confession literally because of this softie right here.” She tapped his head slowly, “You better get that money ready because you know how much I eat.”
“Sure do! Meat and pork for you!”
Jackson soon left with the Chief and other team members to Busan. It was pretty urgent because Sana heard the victim was a dude with a name there, whoever he was. She had to sigh when she walked through where Momo’s desk was and saw that Momo really was already drooling all over her desk. She remembered that Momo had seven cases, though. She knew Momo must be tired.
There were two separate rooms in that section, the one where police officers watched, and the one where they interrogated the culprits. Sana knocked the door to where a young detective Choi Youngjae was staying inside, and he bowed when Sana came in.
“You know Jackson told me to do this, right?”
“Yes, Sunbaenim.” Youngjae nodded with a grin, “I’m glad you agree, though.”
“Hmm.” She just told herself to keep imagining meat and pork, “Wait, why didn’t you go with him to Busan? You’re like his partner for life.”
“No, he told me to watch over the girl. He wanted to make sure I record everything when she makes her confession.”
“Okay.” Sana then turned to the glass window, where she could see the girl, but the girl couldn’t, “So, this is Myoui Mina.”
The girl, Myoui Mina, was sitting inside the interrogation room quietly. Both hands were on the table, cuffed. Legs tangled to one another. Breaths were regular. Eyes were rather droopy. She looked relaxed.
“Do you think this will take long?” Sana asked Youngjae.
Youngjae just awkwardly nodded.
“Yeah, of course. She’s been saying no all this time, how can I make her say yes in a night.” Sana mumbled, “Anyways, I’ll go inside now. You, watch closely.”
“Yes, Sunbaenim.”
Bringing some needed papers, Sana found herself in front of the interrogation room, and after she knocked twice, she opened the door and came inside.
-
Myoui Mina didn’t look so stunned seeing a new detective suddenly came, instead of Jackson Wang. But there was a kind of unfamiliar stare in her eyes. Sana could tell when Myoui Mina stared at her for a good one second when she walked inside.
Sana sat down on the chair across Myoui Mina and put the papers there, in an order where she could understand better. Myoui Mina just kept silent, eyes on the desk, her fingers intertwining to one another. The metal cuffs made that annoying sound every time Myoui Mina moved her hands but Sana tried to bear with it.
It was just for a night.
“Detective Wang has to go to Busan so he told me to talk to you for some time. Is that okay?” She asked, but Myoui Mina didn’t answer, “My name’s Minatozaki Sana.”
And it did in making Myoui Mina lift her head to face Sana. It was most likely because of the Japanese name.
“I promise you this won’t take long if you just go with what I say. When we’re finished you can go back and have some rest. It’s up to you if you want this to end quick or not.”
Myoui Mina’s eyes traveled down to the desk again. Sana ignored it.
“So, your name is Myoui Mina, nineteen years old, and you’re here because of the accusation of murdering Han Sungwoon, your stepfather.” She started, reading the words in the papers, “It happened five months ago in your house in Gangbuk-gu, Seoul. And according to the investigation, all of the evidences pointed at you, making you the alleged culprit in this case. Is that true?”
Myoui Mina didn’t answer.
Sana mentally sighed. This definitely would take time.
“Myoui Mina,” She called, and the girl looked up hesitantly, “did you, or did you not, murder Han Sungwoon, your stepfather?”
And the answer was said so easily, “No, I didn’t kill him.”
It made Sana frown. Deeply. Not just because she said no, but also because how she spoke.
Myoui Mina talked to her informally. She didn’t use a formal language, but instead a very casual one which usually was used in talking with close friends. Sana might’ve had experiences in dealing with criminals, but it was one of the rare times someone spoke to her in that way. And it really irritated her. She wondered how Jackson dealt with this.
“Okay, you said no, but the evidences are clear.” Sana tried to shrug it off and went back to the papers, “In the morning you were in school, a witness confirmed that. At the same time Han Sungwoon was at his office, there were also witnesses. Both of you were home since approximately nine PM and none of you stepped out of the house until the next morning came. And by then, your stepfather was already dead, and you were the only one who was with him the whole night.”
Myoui Mina just quietly listened.
“You were in the crime scene when the police arrived. The knife that was used to stab Han Sungwoon only has your fingerprints on it. The blood all over your hands that time was confirmed to be his. There was no sign of robbery, or marauding. You have literally no alibi. So tell me, why do you keep saying that you didn’t kill him?”
“Because I didn’t.” A shrug, “Why would I say I did, when I never did?”
Sana almost gritted her teeth at the girl’s language. Her tone was annoying too. She jerked her head to the glass window, or a mirror in her point of view so she could only see her reflection, but was sure Youngjae could see how annoyed she was.
“It doesn’t work like that.” Sana started again, “You can deny as much as you want, but there has to be evidences backing that up, or at least an alibi. You have none. Even your lawyer wants you to confess because that’s the only way for your sentence to be reduced. You murdered him, you get a punishment. It’s simple.”
Myoui Mina frowned at her, “But I really didn’t kill that bastard.”
Sana scoffed, she couldn’t stand it anymore, “Do you always talk like that? I mean, I’m much older than you but you don’t even use a formal language--”
“I don’t know how.”
“What?”
“I don’t know how.”
“You don’t know how to speak formally?”
“Yes.”
Wait, what?
Sana leaned her back and frowned at the girl who had her head down after she said she didn’t know how to speak formally. Weird. That didn’t make sense. Was that just another lie she muttered? But why would she lie about not being able to speak formally? It was just for the sake of common courtesy, it had nothing to do with the case.
“How so?”
Myoui Mina rubbed her palms to one another, the metal cuffs making those sounds again, “I never use it.”
Sana frowned even more.
Who in the world never uses a formal language when talking to others?
“Okay, okay.” The language wasn’t the main problem so Sana wanted to let it pass, “But you’re… you have a Japanese name, though. Are you Japanese, somehow?”
“I… maybe…”
“Can you speak Japanese?” She randomly asked, in Japanese.
“Yes, I can.”
Sana was startled once more. Myoui Mina spoke smooth Japanese, in a more proper way than her informal Korean.
“You can speak Japanese?” She repeated, in Japanese.
And Myoui Mina answered again in a polite Japanese, “Yes, Detective.”
Sana crossed her arms as she stared at the girl across her. She couldn’t speak formal Korean, but was able to use the proper and polite Japanese when talking to her. That meant she might have used more Japanese than Korean in communicating with people. But the question was, with whom? She only lived with her stepfather, and he was Korean.
“Is speaking in Japanese more comfortable for you than in Korean?”
She hesitantly nodded, “Yes.”
“Do you speak to your stepfather in Japanese?”
“No. He can’t.”
Sana’s confusion got worse. She was close to ask why but decided to save it for later.
“Okay, umm…” She surged her seat forward a little, “Since it’s easier for you then we’ll talk in Japanese.”
Myoui Mina just nodded.
“It says that you only live with your stepfather in Gangbuk-gu and he worked as a part-timer in an oil shop. He mostly had morning to noon shift and came home by afternoon. And you, Myoui Mina, go to the nearest high school from morning until afternoon and you have no other activities beside that. Am I right?” Sana read the papers.
“Yes.”
“So you mostly spent times in your house with your stepfather. Were you close with him?”
“No.”
“You weren’t?”
“I wasn’t.” Myoui Mina shook her head, “He rarely came home.”
Sana then read the papers more carefully. It didn’t say anything about the relationship between Myoui Mina and Han Sungwoon which was a huge flaw because it should’ve been looked deeper to find the impulse of the murder. It was possible that the investigation didn’t go through that far and it really bothered her. There was a reason why she was chosen to handle heavier homicide cases. Because she really took the investigation process seriously and tried as much as she could not to miss anything.
Jackson only said, and it was stated in the papers too, that it was difficult to dig more information because Myoui Mina was difficult to communicate with and she had no family either so the source was only her. Sana understood that, Myoui Mina had limited Korean. But did Jackson even know that the girl spoke way better Japanese and actually was easier to talk to in that?
There was more to the case than she thought. Sana couldn’t shake off the curiosity boiling in her. She needed to find out more. The thoughts of sleeping on her bed this Friday night was nowhere in her head. And she no longer wanted to hear the girl confessing her crime. She needed to find out more.
“Okay, I think that’s it. I’ll be seeing you more from now on. You can go and get some rest.” She turned to the mirror and spoke to Youngjae in Korean, “Youngjae, I’m done. Get Myoui Mina back to her place.”
She quickly gathered the papers and stood up. She looked at her watch on her left wrist, it was fifteen minutes past 1AM. It means she still had some time before morning. She glanced at Myoui Mina one last time and saw that the girl had that confused expression while staring up at her. She ignored it.
Youngjae ran to her after she left the room, “Sunbaenim! Did she confess to you in Japanese? If she didn’t, we should try again! We still have some time!”
“No, she didn’t, and I won’t make her confess tonight, be it in Japanese or Korean. You get her back and tell Jackson to come back in the morning because I need to talk about Myoui Mina’s case.”
“But--”
Sana glared at him, “Do it. It’s an order.”
Youngjae just sighed, “Yes, Sunbaenim. I’ll do it.”
-
The prosecutor was found dead in his parents’ house in Busan…
It was almost half past 8AM. Jackson hadn’t arrived.
“You should’ve told me you weren’t going home last night.” Momo said, a bit muffled because she was brushing her teeth sloppily, a glass of water in her hand, “We could’ve had dinner together.”
“Can’t, we’re both busy.”
She didn’t even get a time to eat. Her stomach grumbled as she sniffed the smell of the ramen cup Momo gave her. Her desk was no longer organized as she let the papers scattered all over it, too lazy to put it in order.
“You really look like you are.” Momo wiped her mouth after she had rinsed, “Another new case? I didn’t hear anything, though.”
“No, it’s…” Sana gulped the ramen, she was eating so quickly, “Jackson’s case.”
“Jackson’s case? Why are you working on his? Taking over?”
“I really don’t want to but it’s… I don’t know, I just think he didn’t investigate enough.”
Momo bent down grasping one paper and read it, a picture of the victim was shown, “A murder in Gangbuk-gu… Han Sungwoon, forty-seven years old found dead due to huge blood loss… several stab wounds…”
It took Sana less than ten minutes to finish her ramen. She threw the empty cup into the nearest trash can and checked the time. Jackson needed to get there quick, before her drowsiness could get to her because she literally didn’t sleep a blink the night before.
“Have you ever wondered why kids like this are murderers?” Momo asked, sitting down across Sana, pointing at Myoui Mina’s picture.
Sana rubbed her neck tiredly, “It’s different with each individuals.”
“I know, they have their own motives. What I’ve always wondered is; were they born monsters or were they raised to be monsters?”
Sana just looked at her questioningly.
“They’re not the same.” Momo shrugged, “But I guess people would always assume the first one. Criminals are despicable, for sure. It’s just sometimes we just have to look deeper into it and find out why they do such things. Not for justifying their actions, just for the sake of it making some sense to us.”
Sana listened quietly. It left her spacing out for a moment. Momo noticed and chuckled.
“I need to go back to work.” Momo stood up and patted Sana’s head, “Work hard, Minatozaki.”
“Yeah, you too. And thanks for the ramen.”
Momo nodded as she left Sana’s cube to go back to hers. Again, Sana looked at the time. Fifteen minutes to 9AM. She waited impatiently, while tapping her fingers onto the desk. She spent the rest of the night researching about Myoui Mina’s case. She also asked Youngjae if he had more documents and he gave her some, but it was still not enough.
Sana became sure Jackson didn’t investigate enough. Well, he wasn’t a lazy detective, in fact he was pretty smart, but sometimes the cases he handled were seen not important by people above them, so Sana guessed that’s why the investigation was roughly done, or even cut short. His cases weren’t like Sana’s, where important people were involved. In his case, the solving was way easier.
“Minatozaki Sana--”
“Finally!” Sana stood up instantly seeing Jackson was finally there. She quickly gathered all the papers in her hands, “I’ve been waiting. Let’s talk.”
Before Jackson could say more, she already walked away and he had to follow her. She brought him inside the small meeting room that was luckily empty. Both of them sat down across each other and Sana was already busy arranging the papers on the table.
“Sana, really,” Jackson took off his cap, “I was in Busan for like… an hour when Youngjae called and said you wanted me to go back like, this morning. I literally had to beg Chief and he told me to take KTX instead of--”
“It’s about Myoui Mina.”
“Yeah, I know. I also know that you didn’t make her confess.”
“I didn’t.”
Jackson sighed, “Sana, she has to--”
“How far did you investigate?”
“Huh?”
“How far did you investigate this case?” Sana repeated, more seriously, “You didn’t go that far, did you?”
“I… I just went through the obvious and gathered the evidences, did an area scanning, and all. It was the standard investigation method.”
Sana frowned.
“What? It wasn’t like I did nothing and just blamed the girl. She really was the only alleged culprit, there was no one else.”
“Did you seek information about her relationship with her stepfather?”
“I know they weren’t close to each other.”
“And why is that? Isn’t it fishy? They only lived with each other and yet they weren’t close? Does that even make sense?”
“Well, that happens in some family--”
“Jackson, that’s like one of the key to find out what her motive is and you didn’t even bother to look into it?”
“It’s Chief’s order, okay?” Jackson sighed, again, “He told me to just finish it quick and get her to trial because we were going nowhere and she wasn’t even close to cooperate with us. She’s also… rather poor and doesn’t have enough money to pay the lawyer so she basically has no one and nothing to shield her. We have enough evidences and we already made an agreement with the lawyer and prosecutors that her confession could help her sentence to be reduced shorter.”
“How about Myoui Mina herself? What facts about her that could be a backup evidence of her doing the crime?”
“I went to her house and asked some neighbors, they said she didn’t socialize much and hid herself a lot. I also went to her school, asked some of her schoolmates, they all said Myoui Mina was some kind of a bully. Isn’t that enough of a proof that she was capable of murdering people?”
Sana scoffed. She pushed one paper on the table to Jackson, “This high school where she goes, the one nearest to her house in Gangbuk-gu, is basically famous for its students being delinquents. If she’s a bully there, she’s just one of them. Don’t tell me you don’t know about this school’s reputation.”
Jackson just kept mum.
“If you know, why don’t you look further?”
“Sana, if it weren’t for Chief…” Jackson looked at her, “you know how he is. If he said stop, we’d have to stop. I was getting fed up too at how this girl acts. She even talks like a sailor…”
“Oh, yeah, I know how she talks,” Sana smirked, “in Korean. But do you even know that she speaks Japanese?”
Jackson frowned, “She does?”
“Yeah, and guess what, her Japanese is pretty much polite. It’s far from her blabbering Korean. You also didn’t look further at her Japanese name, huh?”
Jackson sighed once more and brought a hand to his forehead, rubbing it slowly. Sana understood, though. Just like what she had guessed, it was the Chief’s order. Something she really didn’t like about him, his views about important and unimportant cases. Sana didn’t think that way. For her, every homicide case was important no matter how unknown or irrelevant the culprit and victim were.
“I talked to her in Japanese. It was obvious she was more comfortable using it. She was easier to communicate with. She also told me she used informal language in Korean because she didn’t know how to speak formally, because she never used it. It makes sense to me, somehow. If you never use a language in daily basis, you won’t be able to convey it. You understand but you can’t convey.”
Sana pointed at the picture of the school again,
“Seeing where she goes to school, with those delinquents as her friends, there’s no way she speaks formally there. It’s most likely she throws curses here and there. She also doesn’t hesitate in using strong language in front of me. Meanwhile, beside the school,” Her finger moved to another paper, a picture of the house, “she spends more time in her house and she might’ve communicated with her stepfather using informal language too. Which is weird.”
Jackson nodded his head, “In Japanese too, maybe?”
“No. She told me her dad couldn’t speak Japanese. And it’s weird too, seeing how fluent she talked in Japanese. It feels like she uses it more than Korean, but with whom?” Sana pushed another paper closer to Jackson, “I couldn’t find her biological parents so let’s just go with her foster parents, assuming she was adopted. Her mother, Han Sungwoon’s wife, Shin Hyemi, was Korean but she worked in Japan for quite long, about five years or so. I assume she was also fluent in Japanese because of that. And she communicated with Myoui Mina in Japanese. But the thing is, she already passed away six years ago.”
“I know. It was a car accident. She said so herself.”
“Isn’t it fishy for you?” Sana crossed her arms, “If a daughter isn’t close with her father, let alone a stepfather, she will use an extreme formal language when talking to him. But Myoui Mina doesn’t even know how.”
“Yeah, it’s weird, I get it, but what are you trying to say? The evidences are clear. She murdered Han Sungwoon--”
“I’m not saying she didn’t. It’s most likely she did. She isn’t close with her stepfather, goes to a school of delinquents, talks informally, it’s obvious what kind of a teenager she is. What I’m trying to do is to find out what made her like that, and it eventually will lead to her exact motivation so that we can get that confession of her murdering Han Sungwoon.”
Jackson looked skeptical, “Just that?”
“What do you mean, ‘just that’? It’s what you should’ve done if you wanted to hear her confession so much.”
A grin, “It looks like it’s my fault for dragging you to this case.”
She hissed, “What exactly can you do right, really…”
But his grin erased instantly when he remembered, “It’s her first trial today.”
“Postpone it.” Sana waved her hand once, “I’ll talk to Chief. Also, I need to meet her lawyer to discuss about this.”
Jackson had his mouth hung open when Sana stood up, “You’re taking over this case?”
“No, I’m just being kind to help you finish this properly. Ditch that Busan dead body one. You’re working with me until Myoui Mina confesses and gets punished for the crime she did, not more.”
With that she left the room, and she didn’t miss Jackson’s loud, and you said I was a softie, before she closed the door behind her. Yeah, right. She really thought Jackson was the softie one in this.
-
“Are we going to do a re-investigation?”
Youngjae, the most clueless one, asked Jackson and Sana, his seniors. The three of them were on their way to the crime scene, Myoui Mina’s house in Gangbuk-gu. Jackson was driving and Sana was sitting on the passenger seat, leaving Youngjae on the backseat with batches of documents both on his left and right sides.
Sana made a face at the question, “No, we’re going to re-enact the scene with you as the victim.”
Youngjae grinned, he already understood Sana’s answers, “How did you get Chief to say yes, Sunbaenim?”
“Chief never says no to Minatozaki Sana.” Jackson patted Sana’s head and the latter slapped his hand away playfully, “Something I have yet to achieve.”
“You were with Jackson all the time during the past investigation, weren’t you?” Sana asked and Youngjae nodded, “Do you bring your notes with you?”
“Yes, Sunbaenim! I do!”
“Good. You’re going to have to take a lot more notes this time.”
Unlike most people who lived in apartments, Myoui Mina and the late Han Sungwoon lived in a small house in Gangbuk-gu, Seoul. It was rather desolated and there weren’t enough neighbors as sources, and none of them witnessed the murder, one of the reasons why Jackson decided to cut the investigation short.
Sana observed the house first when they arrived. There was literally no passerby, and the nearest neighbor was approximately fifteen meters away. People wouldn’t dare to go closer because of the yellow police line surrounding the whole house. Sana sighed. Secluded area wasn’t really her favorite.
“I tracked the past owners of this house, if any.” Jackson said, when the three of them had stepped inside the small house, “Before Han Sungwoon, the house went by the name Jin Taewoo, which was Han Sungwoon’s uncle, from his mother’s side. I tracked further and all of the past owners are related to each other, so I guess this house is kind of… hereditary or something.”
Sana nodded her head, eyeing the crime scene, the kitchen, “Is this where the murder happened?”
“Most likely. He was found dead here, but his blood reached the living room so we assumed they had a fight there too, but you know we can’t prove it since there was no witness and Myoui Mina kept saying no, I didn’t kill that bastard.”
Sana chuckled at the word and at how Jackson imitated the girl’s voice, “She said bastard in front of me too. You know it’s a hint that she hates Han Sungwoon, right?”
“Yeah, at first we supposed that she was being abused.” Jackson crossed his arms, “But we found no physical injury or trauma in Myoui Mina. If Han Sungwoon was abusive, he would’ve hit Myoui Mina probably almost every day, or constantly at least, so if there was nothing wrong in Myoui Mina’s physical condition, we assumed he wasn’t abusive.”
“Okay. Now let’s spread. You, Han Sungwoon’s room. Youngjae, check the bathroom. I’ll go to Myoui Mina’s bedroom. Try to find some more stuff that could lead us further. Whatever it is.”
Myoui Mina’s room was way smaller than Han Sungwoon’s. Sana assumed it’s because Han Sungwoon used to share the room with his late wife, Shin Hyemi. There were a small single bed, an old wooden closet, and a rickety wooden desk that made noises every time Sana touched it. Seeing the books on it, Sana assumed it was where Myoui Mina studied.
She started rummaging through the room. She opened the closet, threw all of the clothes away after examining it one by one to find any suspicious object, and then roamed her hands all over the closet. There was none. She moved to the bed, threw the pillow away, there was nothing she found. Then she lied flat on the floor with a flashlight, trying to find something under the bed. There was also nothing.
She moved to the desk. She opened each and every book. Myoui Mina only had one notebook, where she wrote down notes from what she learned in school. Other than that were textbooks from the school, and she found no written texts from Myoui Mina. The girl probably didn’t study much.
Sighing, Sana stopped what she was doing and wiped her sweat. She realized how hot it was. The room was too small, with no air conditioner, and there wasn’t enough lighting too. On the wall above the desk, she saw a small window covered with a curtain, so she reached it to uncover the window to have more lighting.
Something fell into her hand instead.
Sana was startled for a split second. It was a piece of paper fell from the window.
She looked up anxiously. The window was a head above her so she had to tiptoe. It was small, probably only a head could be seen through it, and so dirty, there was a shade of green on its edges. Her hand reached to find more objects, but she ended up pushing the window open. It wasn’t locked.
She went back to the piece of paper. It was folded messily and she unfolded it in a hurry.
Are you okay? – your friend.
Sana frowned.
A handwriting. The ‘are you okay?’ was written in Japanese. What an awkward Hiragana, Sana thought. And the ‘your friend’ was in Korean. She quickly snatched open Myoui Mina’s notebook to match the handwritings, since Myoui Mina took notes in Korean. She compared both handwritings on the paper and the notebook. They were different.
“Guys, guys, come here for a second!”
Jackson and Youngjae ran in literally a flash to where Sana was, Myoui Mina’s bedroom, and Sana had to hold her eye roll when Youngjae hit the single bed with a bang and ended up clutching his leg with a painful groan. For a moment she was reminded of how clumsy she was back then.
“What? What is it?” Jackson asked, panicked.
“I found this.” Sana showed both of them the piece of paper, “Someone left it on that window. It’s most likely not Myoui Mina’s handwriting. It’s different. Look at her notebook. She doesn’t write like this.”
Jackson nodded his head and Youngjae was busy taking notes.
“And the Hiragana is… kind of awkward too. Myoui Mina is fluent. I assume she writes Hiragana better than this.”
Youngjae’s hand reached the window and he pushed it open, just like Sana did earlier, “It’s not locked.”
“It’s broken. The lock is broken, look.” Jackson pointed at it, “It’s not locked because it can’t be locked anymore.”
“Youngjae, match this handwriting with Han Sungwoon’s.” Sana handed Youngjae the paper, “I’ll go outside.”
The window was on the right side of the small house. Sana and Jackson walked outside and tried to find something, even better someone there, but it was empty. There was nothing and no one there. The window looked even dirtier from outside.
“Sunbaenim!” Youngjae followed them, bringing the paper and some random notes Han Sungwoon left in his room, “It’s not his handwriting either. It’s neater.”
Sana crossed her arms, “Someone’s been in here. Myoui Mina’s friend, maybe?”
“She doesn’t have friends.” Jackson shook his head, “I went to her school, no one admitted to be her friends. They all just said bad things about her and all. According to the neighbors, she doesn’t go out that much too.”
“So it’s possible this friend isn’t from that school.” Sana had the piece of paper in her hand again and showed it to Jackson and Youngjae, “Look, this person wrote in Japanese. They must be at least educated in the language, if not fluent. Do you think those delinquents in her school are educated?”
Youngjae was scribbling on his notes again, “Someone who is educated in Japanese… not from Myoui Mina’s school…”
“The handwriting doesn’t match Myoui Mina’s or Han Sungwoon’s. It must be someone from outside the house. They put it in the window from outside. It’s easy, since the window isn’t locked. They opened it from outside.” Sana continued.
“But how? The window is pretty up high, though. Assuming the friend is around Myoui Mina’s age with that height how could they--”
Jackson was silenced when Sana pointed at a pretty big trash bin on the ground, a little below the window, “They climbed. I’ll try.”
Sana took off her shoes and easily stepped her feet one by one until she was standing on the trash bin. Her hand reached the window and she could open it freely.
Youngjae clapped his hands, “Wow Sunbaenim…”
Jackson stopped him by grabbing the back of his neck, “So, your theory is, someone, might be Myoui Mina’s friend, left a piece of paper in the window from outside the house by climbing or standing on this trash bin.”
Sana jumped back to the ground, “Bingo.”
“Great. But, what should we do now? I mean, we don’t know who they are. I don’t know how to find out either. There’s no CCTV near here.”
“I have an idea. Give me the paper and your pen, Youngjae.”
It might not work, Sana knew. But it was the only thing that crossed her mind at the moment. She wrote down using Youngjae’s pen in the empty space of the paper.
Hi. This is Minatozaki Sana from the homicide division of Seoul Police Station. We are currently investigating Myoui Mina’s case and would like you to cooperate with us. We keep secrets and are going to respect your privacy if you decide to join. You can look up information about us on the internet if you’re having doubts Thank you.
“In Japanese?” Jackson eyed the paper, “Why?”
“To lessen the risk of other people understanding it if it ends up in the wrong hands.” She folded the paper and gave it to Jackson, “Put it inside the window.”
Youngjae did as he told. Sana stared up at the window as Youngjae closed it slowly, being careful so the folded paper wouldn’t fall down.
“Since there’s no CCTV here, we should hire someone to spy on this place from now on. This friend might come back in anytime. We can’t miss it.”
“Right.” Jackson nodded, “Youngjae, call the other boys and ask if they can help. The faster the better.”
“Yes, Sunbaenim.”
Jackson sighed, following where Sana was looking at, the window, “Do you think this will work?”
Sana just smiled lopsidedly as she tapped Jackson’s arm, “I don’t know. At least we tried.”
****