part ten

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the one where she starts looking suspicious.

part ten

Hell. Pure hell.

Juno had woken up in Chenle and Jisung's dorm, where they had ended up all falling asleep after a long evening of movie-binging; turns out Chenle's (incredibly wealthy) parents had pulled some strings to allow him a huge flat-screen in his (larger than normal) room - meaning most meet-ups between the friends happened there.

Juno is surprised by the ease with which their energies match her own; she had ended up thoroughly enjoying herself, while ignoring Jaemin and squabbling with Haechan, of course. Otherwise, she finds the others very likeable. That's probably why she'd been comfortable enough to fall asleep on the couch in the first place, with the rest of them knocked out in other areas of the room. According to Jeno, they were lucky a surprise dorm inspection hadn't happened - if none of them had been found in their rooms, there would've been severe consequences.

Breakfast is uneventful. Juno eats with the boys as per usual, doing her best to stay under the radar despite the poisonous glares Livi keeps throwing her way.

Anyway, Juno is sitting in math class that morning (intensely struggling to pay attention) when the guidance counselor enters the classroom. Juno's used to it by now - Mrs. Yu will come in to take yet another student in for questioning for the investigation, and the person would come back later looking more than a little shaken.

Juno rests her chin in her hands, curious as to who is being summoned this time. Her eyes blink sleepily. That's probably why, even when the name that comes forth from the woman's lips is her own, Juno doesn't realize.

"Baek Juno?" Mrs. Yu repeats once more, and the girl snaps to attention. The entire class in staring at her. She gulps. "I'm going to need you to come talk with us for a bit, sweetheart."

Juno blinks again. Why is she being called in? She wasn't connected to the dead girl in any way.

Weird.

Nevertheless, she rises and follows the woman out of the room. Juno is definitely feeling much more awake by now; posture straight and brisk steps. As they move past a hallway, she sees Mark sitting in a desk outside, presumably making up a test he missed. He shoots her a puzzled look, to which she responds with an equally confused shrug.

Once they've entered the room, Juno is directed to take a seat in a hard chair opposite the table from behind which another woman sits. Juno immediately recognizes her as the teacher Haechan called after they discovered the body, the one who shooed her off the fifth floor.

"You're here because we've found that you have a sort of connection to the recent death of one of our students," the teacher begins - Juno can't remember her name. The girl blinks at the abrupt introduction, wondering not for the first time why it is a teacher conducting this investigation and not a professional like a police or detective.

"How so?" Juno inquires. "I'm new here; I never knew the girl, much less spoke to her."

The stern teacher levels a steady gaze at her. "Yet you were the very first one on the scene, were you not?" She pauses for emphasis. "You discovered the body."

Juno's blood runs cold. How on earth did this woman even know that?

As if reading her mind, the teacher continues, "We received a testimony from another student who recalls seeing you - alone - in the passageway shortly before the corpse was reported. They didn't know what had happened at the time." At Juno's expression, she says, "Of course, we cannot disclose to you who that was."

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