BXBX NOVEL Chapter 134 - It's The Real Painting!
AUTHOR\'S NOTE:
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Junho quickly drove to the school in order to check the crime scene himself. He left Miyoo with Jina\'s landlord, not wanting to expose her to a demon who might be lurking near the school. One of the guards tried to stop him from entering.
"You can\'t enter without an ID, sir," the guard said.
"I\'LL BLOODY HELL SHOVE MY ID UP YOUR ASS IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO MY GRANDCHILDREN!" he yelled at the guards. They were startled by the old man\'s outburst. Junho pushed them away and half ran towards the field where the students were kept.
Many of the parents had arrived and were consoling their kids. Police were swarming the area, taking testimonies from the students. Junho scanned the crowd until he spotted his grandsons and Soobin. Siwan was also there, overseeing Soobin\'s testimony as her guardian.
"We are all at the fair," Soobin was telling a policeman. "Yoonmin and I were at the fair. We hung around here and then at the lake where we…"
She trailed off, not wanting to elaborate too much. Yoonmin stepped in to add, "Where we were talking. That\'s it."
"Where were you?" the cop asked Minyoon.
"I was doing a live stream at that time," Minyoon stated. "You can check my social media page and confirm the timing. And during the day, we were all at our art cafe where Yoonmin and Soobin were helping out at the counter while I was performing. You can check the cameras and also fancams."
"We will," the cop told him. "In the meantime, if you guys hear anything or remember any important clues, do let us know."
"Thank you officer," Siwan said with a nod as the officer left.
"What the hell happened here?" Junho demanded. "Tell me everything!"
"A student was killed," Siwan narrated. "His...his ribs were torn apart and he was pinned to the wall. The police are investigating the crime. They think that he died between 10 AM and 12 PM. The school authorities are helping them but the parents are concerned. Dalton Academy is one of the most secure schools in the country. For a gruesome murder to take place here was an inconceivable notion till today."
"Where\'s Jina?"
"She\'s inside," Yoonmin replied. "Checking the crime scene."
Junho thought for a while. He took out his phone and texted her.
"Everything alright?" he wrote and pressed the send button. The reply came instantly.
"Demon attack. Same one as the one murder-suicide painting. It changed its MO. Found the ghost of the victim and I\'m bringing him to you in a while. Take the twins home and keep them there. School will be closed for a few days."
"If you guys are done with your testimonies, let\'s go home," Junho said. "Jina instructed us to go back."
Siwan nodded in agreement. "Yes," he said. "And also, Soobin has a long explanation to do with regards to her stalker incident."
Soobin gulped. Unfortunately for her, Yoonmin did not waste a second in informing Siwan that she was dealing with a stalker. She shot a deathly glare at her boyfriend who gave her a \'you-reap-what-you-sow\' look.
"Yes Doctor Kang," she said, following Siwan to his car. Junho turned to the twins. Yoonmin was still staring at Soobin, hoping that she would not be scolded too much.
"Let\'s go," Junho said, snapping his fingers at Yoonmin. The twins followed their grandfather. Minyoon also took a last glance at the crowd, searching for the girl in the red hanbok but she was nowhere to be seen.
Who was she? He wondered.
…
Jina and Hobin were back at the crime scene, looking for any clue they could find. It was useless but they still had to follow all protocols.
"Anything on the CCTV footage?" Jina was asking Dahoon over the phone.
"Hyoseop was seen entering the room but after that, no one else went there nor came out of it," Dahoon replied. He was at the security room of the school, going through the footage of that day.
"There\'s no other exit from this room," Jina sighed. It was a windowless room with only one way to enter and exit from. That meant the painting was kept in the room long before Hyoseop entered it. But who brought it here?
"Dahoon, do one thing," she said. "Check the footage for the entire week. Crosscheck the items kept in this room for a week with the list from CSI. See if anything is missing. Let me know even the smallest detail."
"Understood boss."
Jina hung up the phone and turned around to find Hobin staring at a blank wall, not very far from the spot where the body was pinned.
"What are you looking at?" she asked. Hobin did not instantly reply but was observing the wall. There was a thin, rectangular trace on it.
"There was something hung here," he stated. "This must be the spot where the painting was hung."
"But where is it?" Jina wondered. "Whoever brought it might not have known what the painting did but wherever it is now, it\'ll kill again!"
"Or, whoever brought it was trying to get rid of it," Hobin suggested. "Think about it. The painting is strange and even scary. Why would someone just bring it to a school\'s festival?"
"But wait a minute," Jina said. "If someone had a copy of the painting and was trying to get rid of it, doesn\'t that mean they know there\'s something wrong with it? How will they find out about the painting\'s curse and the demon? And the painting kills everyone in the family it ends up with. Then how come there\'s a survivor? I only know of one survivor of this painting and that was the person who was exorcised by my grandfather. And they\'re no longer in this country. I\'ve asked him."
"There\'s only one possible explanation," Hobin said slowly. "The person who brought the painting here knows about the curse. And the only way to know about the curse is either to be inflicted by it, where chances of survival are nearly zero except in one case. Or…"
He finally realized something. Jina, too, was thinking the same thing.
"The original artist\'s family is trying to get rid of the real painting!" both of them said in unison.