One Wish

Chapter 11

Jimin watched her go sadly. He missed her already. Sneakily, he decided to follow her, it wasn't like she could get that mad at him.

Silently, he bounded after her towards the outdoor pool.

Bora walked inside the pool entrance after she looked around quickly. Luckily, Jimin had ducked out of sight but his curiosity was even more piqued by her wariness. It wasn't as if she could be meeting one of her friends if she was that shifty.

After a few minutes, he followed through the door and entered the sign-in and equipment room. A clear glass door led to the outdoor pool where he could see Bora and someone else on the far side of the pool. He could also see it was a bulky male.

Jimin's nostrils flared in anger. What was she doing with another guy, especially such a fit one? He eased the door open quietly so that he could hear their conversation.

"You do realise, Daniel, seeing I know how you pass all those tests with flying marks, I could ask for things?" Bora asked in a dangerous and silky tone to, Jimin realised with a start, was Kang Daniel, the rich boy in their class.

He listened harder from the safety of the room and looked out through the glass door.

"I do realise that." Daniel said in a cool voice. "But do you also realise it's my word against yours? The rich kid always wins." He laughed and stepped closer to her.

She stepped back. "What if I have a video?" She held up her phone to him triumphantly, seeming to show him a video.

Daniel's stature changed dramatically. "Give me that, you little bitch!" He stepped forward again, so that Bora unconsciously stepped back closer to the pool.

"It's not gonna be that easy, rich kid!" She teased and put her phone back in her pocket. "Perhaps you could give me 150,000 won to start off? Should be easy for a rich brat like you, right? And next time," She hummed innocently while Daniel's face started to turn red. "Perhaps 200,000 won?"

Abruptly, Daniel shoved her back and she slipped into the shallow end of the pool with a loud and frothing crash.

He jumped in after her and waited silently. Bora spluttered to the surface but as soon as she did, Daniel shoved her face back under the water and held her down. Jimin couldn't see Daniel's face, but he was frozen with fearful adrenaline at the turn in events.

Daniel let Bora's face come to the surface again before he pushed her back down; her small frame was no match for Daniel's well-built one. After not long, the splashing of the water stopped, but Daniel stayed where he was until he let a lifeless Bora surface.

With no emotion visible, he took her phone out of her pocket and pushed the body away. On an afterthought, he smacked her head against the tile wall.

He pulled out his own phone and put it to his ear. "Mr Lee. I've killed someone." He listened briefly. "Okay. I was nowhere near here. Thanks." He hung up and walked out of the pool and into the changing rooms.

Jimin collapsed back against the wall, not quite sure what he'd seen, though headrests knew he wasn't dreaming. How long he sat there, he didn't know, but he looked up in horror as Daniel opened the door beside him.

"Oh. Hey." He greeted with an innocent bunny-toothed smile. "Did you see that?"

He stuttered an intelligible response.

"Could you do something for me?" Daniel pulled him kindly to his feet with the same creepy smile on his face. "Pretend that never happened, okay?" He patted Jimin on the shoulder in a friendly way. "If you want, I can pay you."

***

"So he wasn't questioned by police at all?" Yoobin exclaimed.

"He was, I made sure, but he had a prosecutor who gave him a water-tight alibi. He was the 'Mr Lee' he talked to." Jimin turned the microphone back on. "Hurry up. One of the watchmen is starting to head up the stairs."

"Okay." Jin said in a distracted voice. "I'm almost done."

Minji hummed under her breath and stood up from the computer chair.

"Oh and that reminds me. When I was looking at your phone, I saw an email from a prosecutor, Yoon Jisung." Jimin said to Yoobin.

Yoobin started. "Jisung? Do you know what it said?" She remembered his promise to tell her who the original prosecutor of Woojin's case was.

"It was just a name. Lee Jinki."

Her eyes widened. "Lee Jinki? The CEO of the largest prosecution company in South Korea?"

Jimin also looked as if he'd realised something. "He was Daniel's prosecutor for his interrogation over Bora!"

She looked back at him, astounded by the connection. "Two cases handled by the same prosecutor were botched. And Lee Jinki is an extremely senior prosecutor." Her mind worked quickly.

"Hey, you two, is anyone coming?" Minji snapped from the speakers. "Jin's finished. He's also copied over all the footage with us in and has looped the footage for five minutes so that we can leave."

Jimin paused as he was about to say something and turned back to the screens before he gave a cry of alarm. "There's also guard coming up the right corridor. I think he's going to the office. Get out there now!"

They did not need telling and immediately rushed relatively silently out of the door and ran with light steps down the corridor.

"Stairs to your left in fifty yards."

"Hey! What're you doing?" A gruff voice came through the speakers. "You two, stop!"

Jin and Minji abandoned all attempts at stealthiness and sprinted full-pelt for the stairs. Minji glanced back and cursed. "He's got a walkie-talkie!"

"Probably calling the other watchmen." Jin breathed as they followed Jimin's instructions for the quickest way out of the school.

"I will murder you, Park Jimin!" Minji cursed as they burst out of an emergency exit and bolted through the gardens.

***

"Explain. Now." Minji demanded once she stood in front of Jimin with her hands on her hips threateningly.

"We realised a high-up prosecutor--" Yoobin suddenly clapped her hands in realisation at something, but motioned for him to continue. "Was in charge of two murder cases we know of and wrong conclusions were reached both times."

"Yes, so? What epiphany did you have, Yoobin?" She seemed to be in understandably cranky mood.

"When Siyeon was having her operation, a prosecutor approached me approached me and told me that the 'higher-ups' wanted me to stop working on Woojin's case. He must've been talking about Jinki, who didn't want it to come to light that he got the wrong culprit prosecuted!"

"Woojin, you say?" Jin walked into the room and gave a memory stick to Jimin, who moved back to the three computer screens. "We convinced him to turn himself in. It was one of the assignments the Leader gave us."

"You were the people he said was blackmailing him?" Yoobin shook her head in amazement. "We all seem to be connected in numerous ways."

Minji relaxed her posture and sat down heavily on the chair beside Yoobin. In the CCTV screens behind, the watchmen could be seen looking through CCTV footage in bemusement.

"You okay?" Yoobin questioned in a worried tone.

"I think I need a stress-free sleep away from idiots." She smiled tiredly at Yoobin and she saw none of her previous anger in her eyes.

"You go do that. I can tell you tomorrow what happened while you were asleep."

"You'd do that? Thanks, Yoobin." She stood and exited the room with a glare at Jimin.