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....

*A Few Weeks Ago*

Hyojin was really annoyed. It was the hundredth time that week Rachel called him and he was in no mood to listen to her excuses. After he caught her with the other guy at the college frat party, Hyojin lost all his faith. She tried to tell him that it was just a mistake but Hyojin was too distraught to listen to her.

He ignored the call and concentrated on his school work. There was a test the next day and he was at the library, cramming for the quiz. Hyojin was so busy with his work that he did not notice a shadow walking towards him.

"You're not picking up my phones now?"

He looked up to see a blonde beauty with porcelain colored skin and a beach body. Her long locks were hanging loose around her hair and she was looking at him with her hazel eyes.

"Leave me alone, Rach," he groaned. Hyojin was about to pack up his stuff but Rachel stopped him.

"Look, please just talk to me!" she begged. "I swear, it was a mistake! I was drunk and-"

"Rachel, I can't get that image out of my head!" he said hotly. "I'm hurt and angry at your behavior! How can you throw away our relationship so easily? You slept with another guy!"

He spoke in a hushed tone. Even though he was angry at her, he did not want to tarnish her reputation at the school. They were the golden couple, perfect in every way. The kids at school loved them together and the news of their breakup was not public yet. Rachel, however, was not going to give up. She kept on pestering him with their relationship and kept on following him everywhere.

"Baby, you don't understand!" Rachel pleaded. "I...I haven't been in the right mind! I don't know what I did that day! I'm...I'm just so angry and betrayed that I'm pushing everyone away!"

Her hazel eyes were brimming with tears and she looked away to wipe them off. Hyojin exhaled warily and said, "Look, I can't forget the fact that you slept with someone else. Am I not good enough for you? If you liked someone else then why didn't you just break up with me and then get together with him? I can't believe that you'd do this to me!"

"Hoyjin, you don't know anything!" she claimed. "You…Please, can we just go elsewhere? At my house perhaps? I really need to tell you something. Just come with me and let me explain only once. Just once!"

She looked as if she was on the verge of a breakdown. Hyojin sighed, feeling conflicted over what to do.

"Fine," he agreed. "Let's go."

Rachel gave him a small smile and they walked out of the library, heading towards Hyojin's bike. They get onto it and Hyojin speeds off towards Rachel's mansion. All throughout the journey, Rachel was quietly crying which made Hyojin feel very uncomfortable.

He would be lying if he claimed that he no longer felt anything for her. Despite her betrayal, he loved her deeply. He was in love with her for many years but due to the vast difference in their status, he had hidden his feelings away. But when he got the chance to ask her out in their senior year, she immediately said yes and also claimed that she also felt the same way.

Hyojin stopped in front of the mansion. They got off and Rachel pulled him towards her room. They hurried through the front door and were climbing up the stairs when she almost crashed into a servant.

"Can't you see where you're going?" she snapped at him.

"S-sorry, young miss," he apologized. Rachel glared at him before heading towards her room with Hyojin.

"You're still being mean to others!" Hyojin told her as soon as they were in her bedroom.

"I'm sorry, I'm just so stressed!" Rachel said. She slumped on the bed and motioned him to sit with her.

"Rachel, what's going on with you?" he asked. "You're pushing everyone away from you! This...this isn't good at all! And that night at the party…"

He trailed off, not willing to recall those painful memories. His mind was still torturing him as the image of a naked Rachel pinned underneath that frat boy was replaying in his head.

"I…" Rachel sobbed. "I'm so sorry! I was wrong! I shouldn't have done that at all but I was drunk and angry. I was just so angry!"

She was now crying hard and leaned forward to cry on his shoulder. "It's my mom!" she exclaimed. "She's having an affair!"

Hyojin froze in shock. "What?" he hissed. "How do you know?"

Rachel hesitated before taking out a diary from underneath her bed. She flipped through the pages and stopped at one page in particular. It had a picture of her mother, Seohyun, kissing another man.

"I saw them kissing outside a cafe," Rachel revealed. "I even followed them and found out that they have been sleeping with each other. I was so angry and hurt but I couldn't tell anyone out of fear for my mother's reputation. But the secret was driving me nuts! I was binge drinking at clubs and also started to go wild. I couldn't tell anyone at all and it affected me mentally so much that I didn't know what I was doing!"

She was crying harder, her eyes and nose gone all red. Hyojin instantly held her hand and comforted her, feeling a little guilty for not noticing her pain.

"That night at the party, I lost myself again," she admitted. "I drank a lot and when that boy hit on me, I just didn't know what was right or wrong! I just wanted to get away! So I went with him and one thing led to another. He made me drink more until I had no idea what I was doing…"

She sniffed, while Hyojin was conflicted.

"I know I hurt you," she went on. "But I just didn't know how to deal with this stress! And it affected my judgement-"

"I'm sorry too," Hyojin said. "I should have been more attentive towards you. But I was too focused on the football team and school! I'm a terrible boyfriend-"

"It's okay!" Rachel said quickly. "I understand that you were angry. You love me a lot and you were hurt by what I did. But can't we get over all that? Let's start over! I really missed you!"

With that, she leaned over and kissed him. Hyojin was taken aback by her sudden kiss but soon, it turned urgent and demanding. Before he knew it, their clothes were flying everyone and they began to make love as if nothing happened at all.

….

*Present*

"We got back that day," Hyojin went on. "She told me everything about her mother. On the night of the murder, I went to her mansion with a bottle of wine. But it was for the two of us only! I snuck in through the basement and then towards her house. However, it was unnecessary for me to sneak in through there."

"Why do you think so?" Jina asked.

"Have you seen that house?" Hyojin asked. "It's huge! Rachel used to tell me how she didn't meet up with her parents for days despite living in the same house. In fact, her parents lived in the opposite end of the house and had no idea what happened in Rachel's part of the house. Which is why on the night of the party, I might have snuck in through the basement but I left from the front door. No one even noticed me."

Jina leaned back, studying the new information.

"You two had sex that night?" she asked.

"Yes," Hyojin admitted. "We did. I left after my mom called me up and told me that Tommy was sick and needed to be taken to a vet. So I left in a hurry."

"Wait, Tommy was at the vets that night?" Jina frowned.

"Yes," Hyojin replied. "He had food poisoning and was really sick so I took him to the vet and he was there overnight."

"And the bottle of wine?" Jina asked. "What happened to it?"

"Rachel had it," Hyojin replied. "She liked to collect wine bottles as a hobby. There are several such wine bottles in the basement."

"And you entered the house through the basement? There's a secret passageway there?"

"There's a door in the basement which is really old," Hyojin recalled. "It's actually easy to open it if you know how to twist the knob correctly. Rachel used that route quite a few times to sneak out of the house and attend club parties. She said that no one else knew about that door's flaw."

Back to square one, Jina groaned. If the vet part stands true, then Hyojin was not the murderer.

I hope Jiwoon has better luck than I did, Jina wished.