dysthymia | zhong chenle

삼십사

90% slightly political chapter

bit long and draggy with boring paragraphs but please bare with me, most of this is important to the plot

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❝ it all starts, from home ❞

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taeil flickered his eyes to jisung, sensing him emotions as he stood up, palm against the counter "there is no evidence that our witness has been involved in the issue at hand, and this trial is focussed on defendant wu inho. please do not sway away from the topic; if you must, we can file a warrant for further investigation"

the starship member scoffed, and moved away from jisung. jisung internally thanked taeil as he shifted himself against the seat.

"the witness, the defendant and the plaintiff were the only people at the sight and conveniently the witness knows the plaintiff" the starship member paced around, playing an audio file of inho talking "doesn't this all seem a bit too convenient?"

"witness, please describe the scene you saw" taeil cut in, lifting his body off his seat again

"i arrived at the place, and then i heard grunts and yells and endless calls for help. i didn't want to look too far in in fear of involving myself, so i stood a distance away. despite that, i could clearly see a male holding a female by the throat" he recited the words he had practiced before the trial

"judge, this is attempted murder, and by section 135.4(3) of the Criminal Code 1995 (Cth), the maximum punishment is 25 years in prison"

"if i may" the opposing prosecutor nodding his head "you claim the defendant was being held at gun point, but for who? there must've been someone else on the sight for the girl to be threatened and held hostage. which leads me to the fact, how did your witness not see anyone else on sight besides the girl and wu inho?"

jisung rose his eyebrows, shooting his gaze to hyejin who looked at him with just as much cluelessness. there was a silence that drilled along the atmosphere, until the starship member smirked and bowed at the judge "that is it for my cross-examination"

"i call on the prosecution to begin defendant questioning" the judges monotone voice made it hard to read which side he was currently siding with

taeil walked towards inho, and the tension between their gazes broke out

"the whole issue is a lot more complicated than what comes to the eye. someone, or some people, were sent a request to kill a certain person in another 'team', now that team just so happened to be the team inho works with. first things first, any type of mafia gang is considered as an 'organised crime' and is highly illegal and involves many charges of both serious and complex fraud. which leads me to the point that not only had inho attempted to assassinate and murder the innocent, but also is involved in illegal corporations. from the evidence we had gathered, the two groups involved in this treaty is a gang called starship and a similar gang called stone" there were several pieces of documents passed around to the jury and the judge "there is proof that inho has involved himself in this, if not, even lead these actions. our-"

"but why don't you ask who sent the request in the first place? surely you're research has been prepared well enough to answer a question like that" the lawyer stood up, and taeil stopped shuffling with his sheets. the silence came back, and seemed to drown them little by little. silence was the one untouchable substance, so transparent some don't even realise, but at the same time, it was the most dangerous aspect in the universe