VILLAINS.

COFFEE & CRIME.

We walk into the cafe, heading for the corner window booth. It's really cozy, so I prefer sitting here. I've been here a few times when I work on my essays and homework.

"Hi, what can I- Oh, hey Kris!" The male grins widely. His boxy smile is adorable. "You've brought friends? Welcome to our cafe! I'm Youngjae; Kim Youngjae. What can I get you guys?"

"Water." Harper doesn't look up from xyr phone. I suppose xe're looking through their pictures of Noah. I feel terrible for xem, really. "Alright, and you?" He turns to Zuri. "Um, do you guys have like, strawberry milkshakes? I'm craving one." She smiles at him, earning a nod. "And.. the usual for you? Iced Americano?"

"Oh- Yeah. Also, do you mind if we borrowed you for a bit?" I apologetically smile. "Oh, of course, my shift is almost over, so I'll serve a few customers and be right back." He heads back to the kitchen.

"You didn't tell me the dude was THIS hot? It's seriously a crime, Kris." Zuri frowns. "Look, I didn't think you guys would be into him. Besides, I don't think he's the type to date casually."

At this point, I think I'm just making excuses to drive Zuri and Harper away from him. Not sure why, though.

"Alright, I'm here." He waits for me to scoot a little inside, closer to Harper, and sits down. "What's up?" He asks.

"You remember when I told you about my friend, Noah?" He nods. "He.. he was murdered almost a week ago."

Harper flinches.

"Oh. Oh my god, I'm so sorry. May he rest in peace." He purses his lips, Harper looking down at xyr lap now.

"Yeah.. We got a message yesterday. They're claiming to be his killer." I quietly speak to him as Zuri hugs Harper from the side. "They sent us a picture. It's of Noah, but it isn't one the police took. Either it's one the police took and hid from us, which means this person is pranking us and has police contact, or, they really are the killer."

"Yikes. But, uh, what do you need me for?" He tilts his head. "We've been trying to figure out who it might be. I don't trust the police. They've done nothing but loiter around. We have a few ideas, but we're still not sure." I chew on my lower lip. "Hmm. Who do you think it might be?" He pulls my diary closer, leaning in towards me.

"The only one I can think of is Audrey Dawson. That bitch could do anything for fame. I'm sure she did something to Noah because she wanted his role." Harper grits her teeth. Youngjae raises an eyebrow in confusion. "Noah scored the lead role in the school play which we were going to perform at the Spring Festival. She's the only suspect who had something against Noah, at least, something we know of."

Youngjae hums. "I think you're missing something here," He begins, catching my attention. "According to the post mortem report here, he was stabbed around 3 times. That can't be an accident, which means the motive has got to be strong, unless Noah had ties to someone who was mentally.. disturbed. I'm sure this Audrey person's motive has to be more convincing for her to actually kill him. If I were Audrey and I REALLY wanted that role, I would, at most, injure Noah in a way that would not let him act in the play. I wouldn't kill him. Audrey couldn't be the killer, unless there was a proper, hidden motive. You guys need to do a lot more digging to find more suspects." He concludes.

Zuri seems really impressed. He continues. "Usually, the most common motives are envy, wrath, betrayal; that kinda stuff. Look for something around that. The easiest way is to snoop through his stuff. It's wrong, but if you want to find his killer, you've got to do it. If Noah kept a diary, or any sort of memoir, it would make it much more easy. Noah's always sounded like a secretive person to me, so look through every corner of his room, and even other rooms he spends a lot of time in. There has GOT to be something."

"That speech just made you ten times hotter than you already are." Zuri takes a sip of her milkshake. "Huh? Oh- Thank you." He grins, immediately putting on a straight face after. "Anything else?" He turns to me.

"You should help us." Harper finally looks up at him. "You're just the guy we need for something like this. Would you- would you mind helping us find this son of a bitch?"

Youngjae hesitantly nods. I don't think it's because he doesn't care about Noah or anything, but I think it's because he's intimidated. Harper can be scary.

"Thank you." Harper purses xyr lips as xe try to hold back xyr tears. Zuri hugs xem again. "I'm really sorry about your brother." Youngjae tries his best to comfort xem, only making it worse as Harper bursts into tears.

"He didn't deserve this. He wasn't the best person, but he didn't deserve this." Xe bury xyr face in xyr hands.

He looks over to me, whispering, "Sorry." "It's okay." I whisper back.

Harper calms down after a few minutes. The cafe is emptying up now, as the sun goes down. Not a lot of people have coffee after 7.

"So, should we get on the case?"