Unknown
You're the one who killed Jeongin
Jake immediately broke out in a cold sweat upon reading the new message from 'Unknown'. How could anyone else know about this apart from himself, Sunghoon and Heeseung?
"Could 'Unknown' be one of them? But who, and what's their motive?"
Jake suspected that 'Unknown' might be seeking revenge on him for Jeongin's death, but he'd already checked his friends' backgrounds and none of them had any connection to Jeongin—neither as a friend nor as someone close to him.
"Jeongin was in Chris's circle; should I just ask him? Maybe I've missed something."
Jake closed his book and left the room, heading out onto the terrace, where he met Jay, who looked anxious.
"What's up?" asked Jake.
"Niki's home late; I'm worried the Jungwon incident might happen again," said Jay.
Jake checked his mobile to see the time; it was already seven o'clock in the evening.
"Did Niki say why she was coming home late?" asked Jake.
"He said he was studying with Junghwan at his house, but when I rang him, he didn't pick up," said Jay.
"Right, I'll go and check on him."
Jake walked into the living room to round up his two friends who were there.
"Sunghoon, Heeseung. Come with me out for a bit," said Jake.
"OK," replied Heeseung.
Sunoo glanced at Jake as he took the car keys from the drawer.
"I haven't been invited," he said.
"Nah, you're a burden," joked Jake.
"You're the burden. We were having a nice chat here, just the three of us, and suddenly you're taking Heeseung and Sunghoon off somewhere whilst leaving me behind," said Sunoo, feeling slighted.
"Yeah, sorry. I've got something to sort out with these two. Right, let's go. Don't forget to lock the door," said Jake.
"Yeah," said Sunoo listlessly.
*****
Jake parked his car in front of Junghwan's house. He and his friends got out, knocked on the door, and before long the owner opened it.
"Oh, it's unusual for you lot to come round here. What's going on?" said Junghwan.
"We're here to pick up Niki," said Sunghoon.
"Pick him up? Niki didn't come to my house," said Junghwan.
"Niki said earlier that after school he'd pop round to your place to study together," said Heeseung.
"No, he went home on his own," said Junghwan.
"Seriously, he didn't go to your place first?" said Sunghoon.
"No way, why would I lie?" Junghwan seemed to be thinking.
"But at school earlier, he was seen reading that journal he said belonged to him and Jungwon. As far as I remember, Jungwon is the name of your friend who recently passed away, right? So it's possible Niki went to the grave."
"Oh, I see. Thanks for the info, Junghwan," said Jake.
"Okay."
The three of them quickly said their goodbyes and set off for the grave.
After a few minutes' walk, they finally arrived. There was a bucket of flowers on top of Jungwon's grave.
"Looks like Niki really did come here," said Heeseung.
"So where is he now? I've already asked Jay, and he said Niki hasn't come home yet," said Sunghoon.
Jake looked at the bucket of flowers whilst thinking.
"None of us are connected to Jeongin, but this unknown person is harassing us whilst bringing up Jeongin's death, as if they want revenge for it."
Sunghoon turned to Jake. "I think I know what you're thinking."
"Yeah, let's try looking over there," said Jake.
Heeseung looked at his two friends, confused. "Where exactly? Are you two telepathic or something, that you can just connect like that?"
Sunghoon gave Heeseung a lazy look. "We're going to the house on the edge of the forest—Jeongin's house."
****
It didn't take long to get there; they immediately entered the house.
They walked through the interior of the house, which looked clean and tidy, with various pieces of furniture still in place.
"Is this house empty?" asked Heeseung.
"With it looking like this, and you're still asking if the house is empty?" quipped Sunghoon.
"Well, the owner's dead," said Heeseung.
"It's likely this house has been bought by someone," said Jake.
Not far from where they were standing, they caught a rather pungent smell of burning, so they decided to track down the source.
It turned out to come from the fireplace in the living room; there were remnants of burnt items, leaving behind small fragments, and inside the now-extinguished fireplace lay firewood covered in ash.
Jake looked behind the sofa; there was Niki's bag and some of his other belongings, which had turned black and were almost reduced to ash.
"Jake, amongst the ashes in this fireplace, there's a piece of fabric from our school uniform," said Sunghoon.
"D-don't tell me the victim in this fireplace is Niki…"
The three of them looked at one another in disbelief.