“I didn’t kill him! They both work together to clean their hands and put the blame on me. They want to make me their scapegoat!”

He smashed the table as hard as he could, Yoon Sik was screaming at Daehwan’s face. He threw a tantrum as he’d like the whole building to hear him out.

A week ago, when Daehwan was having cross examination with the three kids, Woo Pilsu, Rim Yoo Hee and Sang Yoon Sik, he kind of had a hunch that the statements they’ll make would be unaligned.

An officer caught Yoon Sik and Pilsu almost breaking up a fight at the alley when they met. Clearly he still thinks he could dominate the eye witness when it’s clear where they were.

“Fucking traitor! I’m gonna get you outside. Just you wait.” Yoon Sik whispered to Woo Pilsu right before the other officers separated them into different rooms.

“Boy, I can’t go to the judge telling stories that a friend who’s also helped abuse a victim saw one of his friends kill the kid. Am I?”

Woo Pilsu huddled down, fidgeting his fingers. He was in the interrogation room for almost thirty minutes. Going in and out several times in about almost a whole day. He knew he was doing a cross examination, but he didn’t know who he was with at the same time.  Pilsu said it multiple times, persisting that everything he knew he already told Daehwan.

Of course Daehwan is aware too but he’d like to do multiple checks before making decisions, so that’s why he’s done another interview with Rim Yoo Hee. That girl was all high and proud when she got called into the police station for the first time, she was even coming with Yoon Sik’s parents and lawyer along with all the kids. Out of that, she’s actually just a normal teenager. Bailing at little pull on her faint heart, she soon had a guilt trip over her hills.

Daehwan sighed, looking intensely into her who’s giving him poker face.

“I can’t promise you’ll get out of your jail time, girl. But if you help me, I would try to do my best to reduce your years in prison. You could still probably out at the age around twenty, get a new life somewhere quiet and even find a new man. Getting married and having kids like other normal people.”

“My life wasn’t even normal to begin with…”

“So you want to repeat what your parents have done to you? Are you saying you want your husband to leave you with debts so you can abandon your kid and live your problems away by chugging booze everyday?”

"You can be better than your mom. Aren't you?"

Yoo Hee was tickled by his words. Reminding her of the physical wounds she had might be immoral, but morality doesn’t apply to a criminal. That clearly attacked her fearness of being alone, outcast by her own parents. Typically rebellious teenager, making havoc outside as an extrication of feelings she is unable to experience from the family members. Of course, if Daehwan could persuade her. The idea of not repeating the mistake her parents made her suffer would be a great threatening choice if she chooses to save the future. If it was still being.

Yoo Hee wavers. She sniffled and was starting to cry a lot that it’s difficult for Daehwan to ask her questions. Yoo Hee asked Daehwan if she could make a call to her mother before being interrogated. Sadly her drunkard mother did not even care what her daughter caught up into and decided to leave her out and disown the poor kid. She hung up right a few moments after Yoo Hee explained what was going on.

“I will tell you everything sir…”

She paused, brushed away her tears.

“But please grant me a wish.”

Still sniffling in her tears.

“Can you give me a witness protection programme?”

Even a sinner, if she has a heart, will feel remorse for what she has done. Because behind the evil flesh, a human's heart is miraculously fickle. So you don't have to wonder why someone who has done a bad deed never sleeps well at night and is always worried. Because they were afraid that other people would do the same to them as they did to others.

Would they feel the remorse of killing their own friend? No, they’re not even friends to begin with. But sharing memories in the same school, where they should become senior-junior, living their best memories of falling in first love, skipping classes, even doing supportive matches at school break. Would they even remember the face of Kang Dong Il when he was suffering from the beating they’d given him. Would they even look back at him who was drowning in the saltwater after they dumped his unconscious body and left it cold by the night alone?

“So, Rim Yoo Hee. You’re telling me that you accomplished the suspect Sang Yoon Sik into beating Kang Dong Il?”

She nodded, that surprised the whole courtroom. Everyone’s gasping. Even the father of the suspect, Sang Yoon Sik, who was sitting behind his son and their lawyer.  He didn’t see that coming, clearly there is a big issue he still has no idea how serious it is.

“You can elaborate on how you’re doing it? Beating Kang Dong Il and leaving him by the seashore?”

“He…He was beating Dong Il, with me…”

“Then Dong Il wasn’t moved anymore. So I told him to stop. But he didn’t listen. We were silent for a moment. Then we knew he wasn’t alive anymore.”

“Yoon Sik told me to remove his clothes so he can dump his body into the sea. But I didn’t do it and only removed his vest. Yoon Sik got impatient. He dragged Dong Il into the water. One of his shoes was removed, so I put it beside his vest in the bushes.”

“Did you help him to drag the body?”

She shook her head, and told the crown judge that she was standing by the seashore watching Yoon Sik dragged Dong Il’s rigid body along the muddy shore. When the body was into the water, she told them there was red fluid smear the water. But she couldn’t be sure since it was getting dark and she saw from afar.

The crown judges took a silent moment. He was matching Yoo Hee’s statements with the interrogation’s result. It was similar and precise. So he is sure she’s telling him the truth.

Yoon Sik can’t hold his emotions. He knows it’s already over for him. But that’s not what his lawyer thinks. He stands up after his request for objection granted by the judges.

“We can’t merely believe the kids who've backstabbed their friends. This is clearly an attempt to make my client, Sang Yoon Sik, their scapegoat, Your Honor…”

The prosecutor who’s helping Daehwan interviewing the kids stands up. She’s walking onwards to the lawyer. Confidence shows on her face.

“Of course, we have to prove it with solid evidence, don't we?”

Those cynical words she’s spoken of were to quote the lawyer's on an interview aired by a national TV station after the officials arrested the kids for the first time.

“Have you seen these trousers, Sang Yoon Sik?”

The prosecutor brought up a transparent bag with a pair of autumn school uniforms the police got from the suspect's houses searching.

The suspect’s party dropped their jaws. Unbelieving what they saw.

“You took things in our house without permission, you didn't even show us what you had. How are you doing this to us?”

The father of Sang Yoon Sik finally expressed his surprise, he's unable to keep his calm anymore. But the crown judge gave a signal to the prosecutor to continue and ask the father to speak his objection through their lawyer.

***

“There seems to be some misinformation. This case has been going on for more than a year but many people don't even know the fact that the body of student Kang Dong Il was not found on the famous bridge but in a water filter in the XX-ro area.”

“True, since they thought that his body was found in a named bridge. This creates a negative image of the place. Previously many people walked there in the morning to do exercise, but now they avoid crossing the spot purposely.”

“Really? Wow, the impression got really bad huh?”

“Even though these things are unrelated, they are traumatized after seeing something unexpected like that.”

The source as a sociologist nodded in tandem with the news anchor. The show is an interview program with an expert for environmental post effect of the judge sentence for the murdering case involving minors bully.

What people know only the victim's name is a poor student who was bullied by his school friend, Kang Dong Il. The names of the suspects and eye witnesses are mentioned as initials. Even the parents and lawyers of the suspects who were interviewed by reporters were also blurred out to avoid direct personal attacks on them considering the anger of citizens over the uproar for this case.

“OK, back to the main topic. We had the final sentence read today and this is the first hearing for the case. Do you think the punishment received by bullies is worth taking someone's life?”

“So a Pathologist found inside student Kang Dong Il’s lungs there are also severed internal wounds caused by instant beating….”

There is no other voice besides the sound of people in the TV show about the long-running case, of course many think it’s unfair to the victims who have gone. In a year or two, maybe even ten years, maybe most people will forget who did it. Maybe those names don't stick in people's minds anymore. Just like the dim starlight lost to the city lights. People will start to forget things that make them feel sad, because the complicated things of dealing with daily survival are more important to think about than thinking about other people's problems.

TV's turned off, the room went deep silent. Cold concurrently entered the living room by the balcony door in the dining room. There were no lights on, the city lights irradiate into the room. The sound of stiff and steady footsteps walked towards the door. Not closing it, she stands by the glass railing looking down on the building. Seeing the crowds of vehicles crossing to another area at the end of the bridge. Beneath it was a big river, where many secrets might be hidden and one day waiting for it to be revealed.