Chapter 60 - Meeting The Villain-Conclusion

"YES!" Jinhee yelled. "I KILLED HIM! I DID IT!"

Tears streamed down her cheeks as she sniffed hard. Her fair cheeks were reddening up and she was hysterical. Sunye did not react but watched her with cold eyes. There was no consolation for a criminal in her eyes.

Jung threw down his pen in defeat while Yang smirked, feeling victorious. He had taken a chance on Sunye and he was glad that she was able to coax out a confession out of the criminal.

Jinhee was a crying mess. She tried to be smart in covering her tracks but her secret was out. The crime she tried so hard to wiggle out from could not be hidden for long and now, it was time for her to pay. She was a crying mess, breaking down completely as she got cornered. One mistake was all it took for her to finally crack.

"Now tell us why you did it," Sunye pressed. "If you confess, the judge and jury might consider it and reduce your sentence."

Jinhee hiccupped and panted hard, choking back her tears. 

"Heenim had lost all my money in gambling," she admitted. "My bank called me up one day and told me that they would have to freeze my accounts for unpaid credit card bills."

"I was shocked," Jinhee went on. "I didn't use my credit cards other than buying a few clothes and those card bills had been repaid. Moreover, I didn't get any notifications for extra expenses. So how did my account accrue so much debt?"

"I turned out that Heenim forged my signature and had my contact details changed so that I can't get the notifications about his gambling. He went on to empty my account and maxed out my credit card. I had no idea about it until the bank noticed something wrong. That was when I realized my husband had cheated me out of millions."

"I wanted to confront him but then I realized that if he found out that I knew about his activities, he might try to run away. And I would be left with nothing."

"So you hatched a plan to kill him and get his share of the property," Sunye stated.

Jinhee nodded her head. "He still had his money but he dared to misuse my hard earned wealth! So I decided to kill him and get hold of his money. I bought a pair of sneakers using cash and placed the footprint in the garden. Then, I gave those sneakers away to a homeless man outside the mansion and went to the salon to make an alibi. I knew the CCTV was broken so once I returned from the salon, I had ten minutes to kill my husband. I took out an ice prick from our fridge and went to his study. I pretended that I needed some documents."

"Once his back was turned, I grabbed his mouth from behind and stabbed him several times. He was not a particularly strong man so it was easy to overpower him once he was injured. Once he was dead, I had only a few minutes to cover my tracks. I wiped out any footprint and left the ice in the blood to melt on its own. You see, I had it all planned. There was a pipe next to the study room's window which extended up towards my bedroom. I stealthily climbed the pipe and went into my bedroom. I discarded my clothes and put them in the washing machine to get rid of the blood stains on my clothes. All I needed was a concentrated dose of hydrogen peroxide and the fresh blood washed away quickly."

"Then, I changed into a bathrobe and wrapped my towel around my head to pretend I was taking a bath. As per my plan, I went downstairs and waited for a few minutes before going back downstairs using the stairs and pretended to discover my husband's body."

"The police arrested me because they thought I had the most motive but they didn't have any concrete proof," Jinhee continued in a thick tone. "But when the Prosecution found the clue that the servant broke the CCTV camera a few days earlier and they did not reveal it, my plans began to face a roadblock. Meanwhile, the police and defense could not find this clue, so things were starting to look bleak for me. So I-"

"So you hired someone to hack the cellphone from one of our employees and get your hands on that information," Sunye concluded. "You used your lawyer to bring out that day's incident log and you made your case around it."

Jinhee sniffed and nodded.

Sunye turned to the Judge and Jury who were stone faced. 

"I conclude my cross examination," she declared and went back to her seat. The Judge then turned to the Defense.

"Would the Defense like to place any further arguments?" he asked.

Jung stood up and replied, "No, your honor."

Judge Jeon nodded and announced, "Since the defendant has confessed, this court will now take an hour long recess for the jury to make a decision."

Everyone stood up. Jinhee was still crying at the witness box, lamenting her future. Jung went to comfort her but it was of no use.

Her life was over.

Yang patted Sunye on the head and said, "Good job. I'll take it from here."

She smiled and nodded. Even though she did it with SD's help, she was not proud of it. There were many burning questions in her mind which even Yang could guess. He sighed.

"SD is a complicated man," he said. "He can sometimes be your best friend or worst enemy. Depends on which side of his you're on."

"Why would he steal information like that?" Sunye asked. 

"No one knows what's in his head," Yang said. "But if he gave you the information about the hair styling tip, then he must have had a motive."

Sunye was shocked to hear that. "How did you…" she began but Yang only laughed.

"This is SD's most famous move when he doesn't get paid," Yang revealed. "I've worked with him for years. He popped up one day at my office, claiming he had information which could send one of my guilty accused to jail. Imagine my reaction. An eighteen year old, barely out of his teens, had the audacity to stand in front of me and make such a claim. It was a case where grown ups had difficulty in solving and yet, he was saying he could solve it."

"Naturally, I refused at first but when I was almost on the brink of losing, I turned to him. That was when he revealed that the client had a twin who carried out the murder on his behalf. No one knew about the twin since he was given up for adoption at an early age and grew up to be a criminal. As adults, they connected and hatched a plan to kill one of their uncles for his money. They thought it was the perfect plan. Unfortunately, they did not pay SD his due so he came to me with that information and exposed them."

"So when you asked to cross examine the accused today, I immediately knew that SD must have given you some clue," Yang concluded."

He then turned serious. Sunye looked away from him feeling guilty about her inadvertent role in the information leak.

"I know he must have hacked your phone to get the information," Yang sighed. "But I don't hold you responsible for it. People much older and more experienced than you were duped by him. So don't be hard on yourself."

For some reason, Sunye felt that if they had lost the case, Yang would not have been so forgiving. 

The rest of the day went by in a blur. Both the sides gave their concluding arguments. The Defense asked for leniency since Jinhee had confessed out of so-called guilt. The jury gave their verdict of lifelong prison which the Judge commuted to 30 years instead on the basis of her confession. 

Finally, after many hours, it was over. She had won her first case.

Sunye's colleagues wanted to celebrate but she politely declined their offer. She had enough alcohol the night before and she was afraid that if she drank more, she would probably end up making another blunder. 

Entering her dingy flat, she turned on the light. It had been a long, tiring day and she just wanted to sleep. She headed into the bathroom for a quick shower and emerged twenty minutes later with a towel wrapped around her body. Wiping her hair with another towel, she picked up her phone to check for any messages. There was only one.

Opening it, she groaned in annoyance. 

"Congratulations on your first win! Let's bring more victories in your way, shall we? XOXO SD"

I'd rather throw myself into the gutter than take help from him again! She swore, throwing the phone aside.

….

*Present*

DING!

She jumped in shock when the doorbell rang and broke her reverie. Her heart thumped loudly as she walked towards the door. As if in a trance, she was eagerly waiting for the person who stood behind that door. Even though she claimed him to be annoying, he had slowly become an inseparable part of her life.

Now that she looked back at their time together, no matter how many times they bickered, it was hard to imagine a time when she did not work with SD. After Kim San, only his memories were vivid in her mind. Why? Why did he occupy so much space in her head? Why did her heart beat fast whenever he was around? What was wrong with her?

She was suddenly nervous. Why am I scared of seeing him now? She wondered. Was it because of how I was thinking of him? 

Her hands trembled as she grabbed the door's handle and took a deep breath. She closed her eyes and opened the door.

"Hi!"

Her eyes shot open upon hearing a familiar voice. A familiar voice. But not his voice.

"Shall we go?" Jonghyun asked with a smile.