บท 20: You saw something, didn't you?
Oh Jaehyun woke up to the sound of a doorbell blasting through his house. Once, twice, three times... He finally shot up when he heard the fourth ring.
What the hell... he glanced at the clock and read 3:43 am. Who in their right mind would visit somebody's house this early...?
And then he remembered that he had somebody exactly like that. He stood up lazily and went towards his front door, sans slippers and shirt.
"Yah..." Jaehyun scratched his head as he stared at the girl standing in front of his door. "What are you doing here?"
Ji-Eun rubbed her hands together and smiled lightly at him. "Please invite me in?"
Jaehyun finally noticed that the girl was shivering slightly and he immediately stepped aside to let her in. He closed the door behind her and observed as she struggled to remove her shoes and her coat, his sleepiness completely gone by the time she straightened up.
"Go on," Jaehyun gestured for her to enter the living room as she looked back at him.
Ji-Eun frowned at him before turning away to claim his warm couch.
"Oh Jaehyun," she smirked at him. "Please put on a shirt or something. I'm still a girl, you know. I'm not completely immune to seeing you half-naked."
Surprised, Jaehyun raced back to his room to put on a shirt and his sleeping robe.
"Of all the things to say to a man..." he whispered to himself, shaking his head. On the way out, he grabbed a clean, thick blanket. He got back to the living room just in time to see her browsing through something on her phone.
"Ji-Eun," he handed her the blanket. "Did something happen?"
"I have some questions," she said truthfully. "That's all."
"Okay," he said. "Stay there for a while. I'll get you something."
She smiled at him and nodded. Then went back to scouring her phone. As he turned away, he vaguely registered the girl's expression as she resumed reading. It was something in between confusion and mild annoyance.
He headed for the kitchen and decided to heat up some soup.
It's really cold outside, he thought to himself. Did she drive over or... He spied out of his kitchen window and he only saw his car outside.
"Oh, don't tell me..." he sighed as he angled his head to see a certain custom-made Ninja obediently standing at the edge of his carport. "Chung ji-Eun, you idiot," he mused as he began to gather some ingredients to add to the soup.
He didn't have that many friends even though he was very popular. Maybe a few close ones from college, a handful from his old neighborhood, and some colleagues from work. Even so, his pantry was well-stocked with food and drinks that even he was surprised himself.
A variety of noodles, meat, vegetables, and other snacks filled his kitchen like he's always prepared to have people over. But if one would check carefully, they'd surely notice the oddity since most of the items that were stocked were not the ones he usually eats. For one thing, the vegetables and side dishes present were the ones he kept for his maternal grandmother, who visits him from time to time. The sweets, noodles, beef, and soju, were for Ji-Eun, who for some reason has made herself a part of his household for the last three years.
In fact, the only thing that was truly his in that kitchen was the case of canned beer on the bottom shelf of the fridge.
He sighed. At least, his grandmother had some sense not to visit him at odd times of the night or very early in the morning.
After preparing the soup and some warm soju, he brought them over to Ji-eun, who was still staring at her phone.
He sat on the couch opposite her and stretched.
"You rode your bike all the way here?" He asked the obvious as he observed her hands.
Ji-Eun nodded. "I needed to get here faster."
Jaehyun clicked his tongue. "Your villa is an hour away from here. Your hands and nose must be numb. Drink that now," he pointed to the warm soju.
"Thank you," Ji-Eun put her phone away and drank the soju gratefully.
Jaehyun made himself comfortable on the couch and waited until she was finished with the soup and drink.
Were you so anxious that you hurried to come over? Jaehyun thought as he closed his eyes for a moment.
She's a good rider, to be honest, maybe even better than him. But the weather had been merciless at best and a lot of people on bikes had been involved in accidents. At that thought, he couldn't help but admire her and be frustrated at her at the same time.
When she was done, he stood up to clear away the dishes but stopped when Ji-Eun started speaking.
"I read the file you gave me," she started. "About Bae Yuri."
"Oh?" Jaehyun sat back down and waited for her to ask something.
"Park Min Young," she said. "That's her real name?"
"From what I gathered," Jaehyun answered. "She had been involved with a criminal case before and stood as a witness. After the suspect had been convicted, she changed her name and moved here, to the capital, a few years ago."
"And this wasn't an issue with The Little City?"
"This case wasn't widely known. Under wraps, you might say. Mainly because the other party's family was affluent that they didn't want their reputation ruined."
Ji-Eun scrunched her nose a little. "How much did we pay for this information?"
Jaehyun smiled. "Quite a lot."
"Hmm," Ji-Eun hummed thoughtfully.
"Like I said," he leaned forward to pick up the dishes. "The other party really wanted to keep this hidden."
"A witness, huh?" Ji-Eun closed her eyes.
He gathered the dishes and brought them back to the kitchen. He refilled her glass with warm soju and got himself a beer from the fridge. He returned to find Ji-Eun on her phone again.
"Here," he put the glass down in front of her and seated himself on the couch again.
Ji-Eun put away her phone and stared at him for a few seconds.
"Jaehyun," she started. "Were you able to make any connections between Song Hyun-Shik and Bae Yuri?"
Jaehyun took a swig of his cold beer. Finally, she mentioned the elephant in the room, he thought.
"Yes and no," he phrased his answer carefully.
"What do you mean?"
"Song Hyun-Shik, as far as the public eye is concerned, had been the most eligible bachelor up until the time Song Corp. began its tumultuous period. He had a flurry of girlfriends then."
Ji-Eun listened carefully, nodding at the right places.
"He then watched himself carefully after news got out that Song Corp. was deteriorating," he continued. "It seemed he stopped dating and seeing girls at that time. In other words, he avoided adding to the flame that was already consuming their group."
"Makes sense..." Ji-Eun nodded. "But I don't understand how that relates to Bae Yuri."
"Watching himself act carefully in public doesn't really mean he's not in a relationship of any kind," Jaehyun explained as he took another swig.
Ji-Eun had her doubts, but she heard Jaehyun's words clearly. On any given day, she would choose to trust Jaehyun's words, so she surmised, "You saw something, didn't you?"
Jaehyun smiled. "I didn't have any means of finding out anything about their history, Ji-Eun. I just accidentally stumbled upon this information the day we went to The Little City to close the deal with Madam Song."
Ji-Eun waited for him to continue.
"That day, after dropping you off at The Regal, I returned to The Little City to hand over some documents to Secretary Min. As I was leaving, I saw the both of them leave together secretly in Song Hyun-Shik's car," he said, recalling the events from that day.
"They went to what I assumed was the Song family villa," he said. "And God knows what happened inside because after a few minutes, Bae Yuri came out crying and Song Hyun-Shik had to chase her down the street to try and console her."
Ji-Eun rubbed her temple gingerly, taking in the information.
Jaehyun watched her expression carefully. Never in his life had he felt he was a gossip monger more than that time. But since the chance to disprove their doubts presented itself to him openly, he decided to just take it and put it to good use.
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