B O L D N E S S [BTS V FF]

C H A P T E R 4 8

Haneul's POV

After having that question thrown at him, it took the man a few seconds to finally give me a non-verbal response as he slowly craned his neck upwards to look at me straight into the eyes. As he looked at me, I could not help but to notice how he looked so beaten up with his exhausted expression, his messy, tangled black hair which overgrown till his shoulder's length and had a few white strands which pictured his distress here, his slumped over body which had the backrest of the chair to support his posture and his gaze, empty, soulless.

Had I not known that he was the cause, or partially the cause of my accident, I would have an ounce of pity over this man, but unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

The said man didn't say anything, which made me irritated at his lack of response as him not opening up about this issue to me had happened many times, for a year to be exact, ever since I had returned to Seoul to seek for my answers. I was adamant to know why he did what he did as I was confident that he was paid to be involved in the accident, but I wanted him to give me a solid answer which will clear off my doubts to the questions I have.

"Jaehwan, I really hope you understand that the information you would spill to me will help clarify my theory about this situation. I know that you had a reason to do this, and please tell me the reason! I am not pinning the blame on you 100% because I know there was someone behind you who told you to do this."

The man chuckled darkly in front of me as he looked down on his knees, keeping the arrogant smirk on his face, "Young lady, you're still wanting those answers to that time when it happened like, what? Three years ago? Move on, do not let the past hold you back."

I brought my hands down underneath the counter where he could not see them and fisted the hem of my dress as I felt my long nails dug into the skin of my palm as my heart pounded in anger. "I am just doing you justice, Jaehwan. I don't think it would be fair for you to be in jail alone whereas the culprit who paid you to do this is roaming free, enjoying his or her life out there, in the city, right now." I gritted out through my teeth.

"As you can see, Ms. Haneul," He let out a mocking tone as he said my name, "I do not care about that culprit. Or culprits. That's the past, and it stays there."

"You don't underst-." I began but got cut off immediately.

"What do you even get out of this Haneul? It's only a waste of time for you to come here, visit me, ask me irrelevant questions about the incident which I would not answer, and you head home, with those questions not being answered, only to repeat the cycle when you come here again. See? You get nothing out of this. And even I told you everything which I knew, what could be changed? I'm already serving my life here, in prison, not only for your accident but due to other charges held against me. So, what do you really get?" He shrugged as he leaned back on to the chair.

"I know you are tired of me, Jaehwan, even I am tired of running in circles about this matter. But try to be in my shoes for a moment. As a victim of the accident, wouldn't you want to find out more about your perpetrator? Wouldn't you want to know the reason he wants to harm you despite not being linked to you in any sort of way? Friends, family, you name it. One thing's for sure, we did not know each other before the accident, so why would you want to come after me, then? There must be someone out there who knew me and wanted me to, I don't know, get forcibly pushed out from his or her life permanently? And they used you instead to achieve that? Because of that, look at where you are now while you think where they might be right now. Free." I laid my reasons out in the open for the man to try make sense of my persistent questions.

Jaehwan went silent again as he bit his lips with his gaze all over the place except me.

Seeing his hesitant body language, I decided to just give up interrogating him and leave the station as I might lose my temper soon and end up screaming at him if I chose to stay here longer. I sighed loudly and slung my sling bag across my shoulder and stood up, preparing to leave before he abruptly straightened his back and had a hand, palm down on the counter behind the transparent glass, as if signaling me to stop my tracks, which I complied but not sitting down yet.