Work Text:
Jisoo arrived from school; he quickly went to his own room only bidding his mom a brief greeting. Now, why is he in the rush home? Well, a few months back he discovered chat rooms on the internet were talking to different people; strangers are the main feature. There, he spends most of his time.
For the longest time he's been using the platform, he met a girl from their district named Lee Dabin. They've talked to each other a lot and planned meetups only to be cancelled every time. Dabin shows interest in Jisoo, the latter developing a crush to the lady. Said feelings only developed when Dabin introduced her younger brother, Seokmin to Jisoo. She convinced him to befriend her brother thus the two became close friends after spending time together, through chatrooms of course. But they eventually meet up from time to time, mostly when Jisoo has free time from college so is Seokmin in high school.
Jisoo:
- Hey
- Just got home from school, how bout u?
Seokmin:
- I'm doing my homework.
Jisoo:
- Say, want to go hang out tomorrow
- Movies with us
Seokmin:
- Who is 'us'?
Jisoo:
- you, me, Hansol, and Dabin?
Seokmin:
- Dabin is going to visit our grandparents with mom and dad.
Jisoo:
- Too bad
- Just us three then
They went on to communicate through the end of the day until the break of dawn.
“That show is not to my liking, at all.”
Seokmin could only laugh at Jisoo’s comment right after stepping out of the cinemas. The two of them watched ‘the hunter’ which is part of the newly released movies for the month. Hansol, Jisoo’s cousin did not make it with them when Jisoo tried to ask permission for Hansol to go with them.
‘I shouldn’t have asked.’ Jisoo’s mind whispered going home with his aunt low shouting from the door, ‘Hansol is still too young for films like that, do you hear me Jisoo’, ‘ah, this kid’ and frustrated sighs. He took a glance at the boy wearing an innocent sad face, he gave a thumbs up and a small smile assuring the young one.
“I find it fascinating,” Seokmin could see Jisoo’s churned expression. “Human nature lad, the psychological aspect of humankind.”
Jisoo only gave Seokmin a playful bleh when they turned to the alleyway, a dimly lit place but will take them home faster, in Seokmin’s words.
“A shortcut.” Said the older.
I don’t know why Jisoo doesn’t like the film, I did of course. Humans are an interesting type of creature.
“Ah, we should’ve gone to the ice cream parlor across the street! I heard—”
My words and movement came to a cold stop, a sharp metal poking my side. I swallowed hard and slow. My breath is inconsistent at the sudden contact.
“Move to the wall, steady boy.” A low tone was ordered.
Seokmin could only oblige, he doesn’t know anything about self-defense, there’s no way to protect himself from this. Backed up on the wall, he faced Jisoo.
The knife on his right hand left hand on the wall supports the very close proximity between him and Seokmin. Jisoo whispered, “good boy”. He checked on Seokmin as if printing the moment in his mind forever.
He’s terrified alright, he can’t move a muscle. Blinking seems the only thing Seokmin can do, and at one, tearing pain in his stomach formed. The metal is in deep, stinging Seokmin’s insides.
As if to tease the younger boy to death quite literally, Jisoo slowly pulled the knife from the flesh spot where it descended.
“W-why…” Seokmin covered his wound, a painful attempt.
“Shh, it’s okay.” A little smile appeared on Jisoo’s lips; it was for nothing.
Tears started to fall from Seokmin’s eyes, “Why, you kill me…”
The smile is still plastered on his lips, “now, don’t say that. It’s an ugly word for it to be your last.”
The poor boy could only quietly whimper when a similar pain covered his chest. He’s so terrified of what was happening yet he cannot do anything, as if his energy was drained to the sewers nearby. Cold sweat, cold tears, and hot blood, he was knocked out.
I ran as fast as I could.
“Excuse me, we need help! My friend got stabbed!”
Jisoo ran to a policeman out of breath and lead him to where his friend lies. The officer, quick in his steps, checked for the body’s pulse. He radioed for an ambulance and report a crime. Taking at a glance of the boy standing still beside him, he was in shock of the occurrence.
The enforcement was quick to arrive, an ambulance took the poor stabbed boy for immediate help. The police took Jisoo in as a witness to the crime.
“What did you see?” The investigator flatly asked.
“A… a man in all black, knife, young…” was what he said.”
Everyone then was alerted about the suspect in details described by the only witness, they also looked into CCTV to find clues where the perpetrator might’ve run to. Strangely, no one in Jisoo’s description showed up in any CCTV, and the one in the alleyway entrance captured only them to go in, no one else, plus it ends in a tall brick wall, no escapes for the suspect defined.
With that, Jisoo went from being the only witness to being the prime suspect to the attempted murder of Seokmin.
The officers couldn’t get the motive out of Jisoo so they turned to investigate everything about him.
Yoojung:
- There’s one thing, 46795.
Jisoo:
- What is it?
Yoojung:
- Can you stab someone?
Jisoo:
- I haven’t really thought about it.
Yoojung:
- Well think, please.
Jisoo:
- OK
The police were baffled by what they discovered in Jisoo’s computer. A world of fiction dabbling in reality and vice versa. They found over 58,000 lines of text exchanged within the chat room. They found out that Mark was a college student, a very ordinary teenager it seems. Well at school, never involved in troubles and was close with his family. The only thing that went down for Jisoo was when he got obsessed with chatrooms.
On the day of the murder, Jisoo solicited a knife from their kitchen, went to the alley with Seokmin, and stabbed him. He ran madly to hide the knife somewhere, checks his watch, looks at the alleyway as if waiting for someone.
Although at the brink of death, Seokmin managed to survive the stabbing incident and lived to tell his story.
But what investigators learned turned their world.
Dabin and Yoojung, both people which Jisoo talked to turned out to be of one person. Seokmin.
Everything was plotted by Seokmin, from a person’s name to their behavior and attitude. He urged through Yoojung for Jisoo to kill him. What happened between them can only be ended with his life, or so what Seokmin thinks.
While Jisoo was charged with attempted murder, Seokmin was charged with inciting his own murder.
‘Offences of this kind under normal circumstances would result in an extremely lengthy custodial sentence,’ Judge David Maddison said, ‘but these could not be described as any normal circumstances.’ The two were instead given supervision orders, John three years, Mark two. They were ordered never to meet again.