THE CURSED ONE - THE BOY WHO CHALLENGE DESTINY

Cruel Defamation - 2

Eral standby in their dormitory room while Cha looks a little nervous, they had been waiting for the investigator team to call them because he had predicted that they would be questioned about Jin and he had prepared for the answers.

“Listen, Cha, I predicted that we will be asked separately by the investigator, you should remember to answer their questions according to our practice earlier, don't try to improvise. If you messed this up our plan will fail.” Eral suppressed.

 "Y ... yes, I'll try." Cha answered nervously.

“Smack…” Eral slapped Cha on the cheek.

“Don't get nervous like that, just answer normally. Take a deep breath and calm yourself, you only need to answer all the questions from the investigators, and later when they confront us with that kid, let me the one who answers everything.” Eral tried to calm Cha down.

“Okay, okay…” Cha replied while he inhales deeply and exhales it slowly.

Someone knocking on their room’s door, it’s Seok Man the investigator.

 “This is Seok Man from the Investigator Team, I need to speak with Eral and Cha, please come out now.” Seok Man asked.

Eral whispered to Cha, “They arrived, you have to calm down and make yourself ready. Let’s go out.” He said.

Cha tries hard to remove his nervousness, he knew if he doesn’t have any other option and no way to turn back from this plan. What he needs to do right now is to follow every Eral’s instruction.

“Yes, Sir, we’ll come out.” Eral answered to Seok Man’s words.

Both Eral and Cha stand up and walks outside to meet Seok San.

“Hello, Sir, I am Eral and this is Cha, what can I do for you?” Eral introduced their selves.

“I need both of you to come with me right now, don’t ask too many questions, everything will be explained by master Yong.” Seok Man said.

“Okay, Sir” Eral answered.

Seok Man does not want to waste his time, he immediately goes to the food warehouse with Eral and Cha followed him from behind.

Jung Kook and all of his men waited in front of the yard, they started to get tired even some of them were getting impatient to wait because it would take a long time for the trip back to their homes, and now it’s getting late night. Jung Kook offered to them all to sleep in the warehouse tonight if the interrogation goes on until midnight and all of them couldn’t help but agree.

Seok San with Cha and Eral walked pass Jung Kook with his workers, they didn’t stop at all and entered the warehouse directly. Jung Kook never saw both kids that Seok San brought inside, he hoped this interrogation will be ended soonest and they will catch theft.

Jin who was restless suddenly heard the sound of several footsteps entering the food warehouse, although he could not see who was coming because he was still in Dan's guard but he is sure enough if it was Eral and Cha who came inside. He is eager to meet them to ask their motive for slandering him but when he looked at Dan and saw his serious face he finally understood that he had to wait patiently a little more.

Yong started to interrogate them one by one, the first turn was Eral. Yong asked him many things and include asked if he knew Jin, Eral was pretending not to know Jin at all, even pretending that this was the first time he had heard Jin’s name. Jin who heard the interrogations from the separate room felt very angry at Eral's answer, but this time he could only keep his anger in his heart. Eral's interrogation process is over and now it's Cha's turn to sit on the interrogation chair to answer Yong's questions. Cha looks nervous which is reflected in his broken voice, but Cha's answer is almost the same as Eral's answer. Jin's emotions got even higher after listening to the two of them, now he is sure that they both deliberately set him up even though he didn't know what his motive was.

After the interrogation of the two of them was over, Yong called Jin to come face to face with Eral and Cha to confirm who was lying and who was honest.

"This is Jin, someone you said you didn't know earlier. Now after you see him, are you still sure you don't know this kid?" Yong confirmed to Cha and Eral once again.

Both of them shook their heads as a sign that they confirmed if they did not recognize the kid in front of them. Jin is very angry because of their lies, for the first time in his short life that he wanted to beat up the liars in front of him, he clenched his fists very tightly and his teeth were grinding in anger, but he knew that if he attacked them right now it would only worsen the situation.

"Jin, are you sure that these two kids who you met this afternoon and who made you pass out this afternoon?" Yong now asked Jin, he wanted Eral and Cha to hear himself about Jin’s answer.

"Yes sir, I firmly believe they were the ones who knocked me out in the Blue Hall’s backyard." Jin answered Yong's question with strong conviction.

"Hey, what are you saying? Who knocked out who? Don't you dare to make up a story for your benefit, who are you after all? Anyway, it's no use for us to attack you, " Eral answered Jin's statement with smart questions, he was sure that Jin would not be able to provide evidence or motive at this time, "Teacher Yong, this kid is just looking for a scapegoat for the theft he has committed, please don't believe any of his words, Master, he can't give any evidence or the motive, only empty words that come out of his mouth." Eral continued to attack Jin with scathing and piercing words.

Jin could not hold back his emotions anymore, he immediately ran towards Eral and tried to throw a punch, but Seok San deftly managed to hold Jin's hand before hitting Eral.

"Look, teacher Yong, this insolent kid tried to attack me after making me a scapegoat. Please punish him as hard as possible, teacher." Eral continued to provoke his teacher to punish Jin.

"That’s enough, everyone quiet! Eral and Cha, both of you go back to your rooms, Seok San and Dan, take Jin to the sect's detention room. Put him in a special jail and don't gather him with adult prisoners." Yong said firmly to end up the commotion.

Jin felt hopeless, this time he felt that this will be his last moment in the sect as he was very sure if he would be expelled soon enough. He felt there was nothing he could do at this point apart from accepting and following Yong and the investigator’s orders. Jung Kook and the workers who waiting outside were worried after heard the commotion inside the food warehouse, they were also curious about what was going on inside.

Everyone inside the Food Warehouse has come out and left, only Seok San who stops to explain to them, while the other peoples go to their respective destinations including Jin who was taken to the sect's prison. Jin looked down as he passed Jung Kook and the workers, he could not see their faces, Jin was afraid that they would be very disappointed in him even though he was not the perpetrator of the theft. Jung Kook and all the workers are confused as to why Jin walked following Yong and the investigators.

"We apologize for your lost time," Seok San opens his voice, "at this time all the theft problems have been resolved and we have managed to identify the culprit, also we have managed to find the stolen items. Now you can all leave this place, and if there is anything we need to ask again, tomorrow we will come to meet you all. Thank you." Seok san finished his words to close their interrogation process.

Before he leaves, Jung Kook holds him for a while to ask about Jin and the perpetrator of the theft.

"Wait, sir, what about Jin, that little boy? Why did he come with you? And who is the thief?" Jung Kook asked in confusion.

"That child has to come with us because he is the thief, we will bring him to the sect prison, and by tomorrow there will be an official announcement from the sect Head Master." Seok San left immediately after answering the question without elaborating any further.

Jung Kook feels shocked and limp after heard the answer from Seok San, his workers also feel the same.

 "A mistake, this must be a mistake, that kid is a good boy, he never messed in here and always works hard, there's no way he stole something, right?" Jung Kook said with gloomy eyes. None of the workers answered his question, they all felt shocked and sad to hear the results of the interrogation.

GOLDEN FLAME PRISON

Jin finally languished in the sect's prisons, the prison itself quite dark with only one torch to light all the prison rooms which were quite large, but it doesn't matter to him. What more important to him right now was because he never thought that he would be sent inside the prison because of something he never did. At this point he was still angry with Eral and Cha's slander on him, he tried to remember and find out the possible reasons for them trapping him like this. He starts to remember that Eral and Cha were the friends of Hyul, who approached him a few days ago when he and Youra were alone under the mango tree in the Yellow Hall’s field. He starts to feel as if he was so stupid that he didn't recognize Eral and Cha this morning, maybe it was because he was too focused on his training to unlock the power of Queen Agh'stya which made him couldn't think clear enough on other matters. If only he could think clearer earlier this morning he could be more alerted when they asked him for help.

"Well, the rice has turned into the porridge, it's all too late now and is worthless to regretting what has happened." Jin said it to motivate himself.

For Jin, everything is starting to make sense, he guesses that the mastermind behind all of this was Hyul, even though he still doesn't understand why Hyul did this to him, the possibility is because of the past incident when he was fainted by Hyul. What he didn't understand was because the victim at that time was himself and Hyul was the culprit, but now Hyul is the one who has a grudge against him, no matter he tried to think about this, it just doesn't make any sense for him.

Jin's stopped to think about Hyul and his g**g, his mind is now flying to Youra and Jung Kook, especially to Youra, he worries if she will think badly of him after she finds out that he’s in jail for theft and also worries if Youra and Jung Kook will never trust him and never want to see him again. But right now he is too tired to fight his bad destiny, he frees his mind from all the burdens of his life and lets the hand of destiny take his fate, wherever destiny will lead he won’t fight it, he will just follow it.