ʟᴀ ᴄᴏꜱᴛᴀ | ɴᴄᴛ ✔️

Chapter 13: Curiosity Kills

Within a few days, you and a couple of the boys got your "plan" prepared, moving around the resort like mice in small whispers while doing so. The other guys would talk about what you all were up to, but it was nothing that distracted you from your duties.

While most of the boys helped you set up everything, Yuta also decided to help, but silently.

"Silently" really means that he had his eyes on Taeyong to assure that he wouldn't find out about your secret plan...

Taeyong never did find out.

Now, your plan has three phases. Phase one was gathering equipment like cameras and flashlights, which Sungchan and Renjun quickly sourced from Hendery.

Yangyang and Shotaro enacted the second phase by helping Taeil write out the watch list for the following week. The main reason they did that was that Yuta had told you early on that he'd seen Taeyong go to Jaehyun's old room with a box, presumably to pack up Jaehyun's belongings and either store them or throw them out.

You mostly banked on luck that you'd see Taeyong with that box the following week, and thankfully, fortune proved to be on your side this time,

And you didn't have to wait long to execute phase three either.

That Sunday was when you and Jaemin stood watch in the hotel lobby, with you watching the cameras and Jaemin by your side, slowly but surely dozing off.

You kept yourself busy by reading a novel you snagged from Haechan, engrossing yourself in its pages until you heard a noise – a hushed, barely audible ding from the elevator.

Naturally, you snapped your head to where the noise came from, but you didn't see anyone step off as the elevator doors closed.

So, half confused, you flicked your eyes to your monitor, scanning over each camera angle displayed before freezing on the camera facing the back entrance.

A familiar build of one of the guys presented itself on the screen, cradling a medium-sized crate or box in their hands. Considering that their hands were full, they used their back to push the doors open – that was when you finally caught a glimpse of their face.

Sure enough, it was Taeyong holding that box. Immediately, your eyebrows rose. "Shit..." You were shocked that your plan was going this smoothly.

Grabbing a stray pen, you flipped to the back of the book's cover, writing a short note to Jaemin before grabbing your equipment and following Taeyong out the back doors.

You watched Taeyong breeze right past a set of dumpsters which confused you since you thought he would've been throwing the box out based on what you learned from Yuta.

But stalking the boy from a decent distance led you somewhere you weren't expecting to be again: The boys' designated hunting ground in the middle of the woods. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, but that didn't shake away your confusion.

Taeyong continued walking for what felt like at least an hour to you, and right when you thought about heading back to the resort, you saw him finally stop in his tracks – you, thinking he could've turned around at any second, ducked behind a nearby boulder, sucking in an iota of breath.

He just stood there with the box in his arms, not really doing much of anything for a few moments. Then he set the box down on the dirt and brushed off his hands, swiftly pivoting on his heels to walk back in the direction he came from.

You heard him sigh as he passed your boulder, evidently oblivious to your presence, and you waited another couple of minutes for Taeyong to be out of the vicinity before standing.

The first piece of equipment you pulled out was your flashlight. Since Sungchan told you that Hendery had replaced its batteries, you felt confident in igniting the electric torch and smiled as it provided ample lighting to your path.

You looked ahead of you, spotting the lone box, and you slowly approached the taped container that was simply labeled, "Jae." You didn't have a knife on your person, so you opted not to open the box.

But you soon noticed a suspicious lump of leaves piled behind the box, having it sit crooked on the ground, and your curiosity quickly got the better of you.

You gently kicked the box to the side and began clearing away the leaves without a second thought, and what presented itself to you underneath knocked all the wind out of you and sent you collapsing to the ground in alarm and pure horror.

Underneath the leaves was the now week-old rotted corpse of Jaehyun – eyes wide open and severely bloodshot, his skin yellow and decayed, his shoulder wound browning, and more notably, a single bullet wound smack-dab in the middle of his forehead.

Judging by the putrid stench his body was emitting, you concluded that Jaehyun had been bitten by a walker at some point before you and Taeyong met back up with him and had turned not long after before promptly being shot in the head, killing him altogether.

Wait a minute-

You specifically remembered hearing two gunshots ring out that evening as you headed back. Jaehyun only had one in his head and no other injuries besides his shoulder.

Your eyes almost instantly widened. "Oh my fucking God..."

You couldn't tell what you were feeling at that point, whether it was regret, anger, disgust, or fear, but you only had one thing on your mind:

Capturing photo evidence.

Despite your mini shock-induced paralysis, you rose to your feet, pulling out your camera and snapping a picture of the box, the scattered leaves, and Jaehyun's corpse under that disheveled leaf pile, making sure to get a clear shot of his bullet wound and shoulder no matter how much your body protested.

You had to have gotten over ten photos of the scene from different angles – probably a bit overboard, but if you were going to present your "case" to the rest of the guys, you wanted to come back to the resort armed to the teeth with as much evidence as you could gather.

After you felt satisfied with the photos, you took one last look at Jaehyun's body, slowly leaning down to softly shut his eyelids and wincing away as you did.

"I'm sorry, Jaehyun..." You choked out a sob before straightening your posture and finally walking away.

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