when kihwan walks into the building that day, he has no idea about what's waiting for him. the building is very familiar to him after all, almost a decade of having entered and left that building day and night, it's part of his routine. most of the faces that are seated around are utterly familiar as well, save for some interns running from one place to another. it's such a familiar sight that kihwan has no reason to doubt any kind of change, but everything takes a turn the moment he swipes his card and enters the section designated for employees only. a couple of police officers who had been sitting down make their way towards him, people he knows, people who have worked under him before — kihwan still has no idea it's about him, so he simply raises an eyebrow, meaning to ask what is going on that makes them stare at their chief like that.
apparently — they do have a reason to surround them at such an early time in the day. it takes a few minutes more for kihwan to realize that this is the behavior they showcase to suspects; and he only realizes why exactly when they begin to speak. even though they don't put him in cuffs ( maybe they don't dare to, not when he hasn't been convicted yet ), the implications are clear, their voices strict, though their eyes hold something different. some of them seem to be apprehensive about pulling him in for questioning, a few seem disappointed, and kihwan would even bet on it that some of them are happy to see their mighty chief humiliated like this. in response, of course, kihwan is affronted, teeth gritted at this nonsense. the reality ebbs in slowly, but when it does, he doesn't hesitate to show how surprised he is — and offended at the same time.
now, at that, some of the younger officers almost cower in fear, but the senior officers pull him into an interrogation room. kihwan doesn't fight back, at least not physically. he has been on the other side of this equation before, and fighting back is usually seen as a sign that the person is guilty, and simply trying to deflect their crimes. so, he walks with them, though he can't help the glare as he sits down on the opposite side of the desk, yet another familiar face staring at him.
"this better be a joke —" he lets out, arms folded in front of him, holding back a sigh. it's so — stupid. what the hell do they think they are doing, once this is all over, kihwan makes a note to show them less mercy when it comes to work. he knows they are all given orders, but the smug undertone in their faces are more than enough to infuriate him. if it were anyone but him sitting there, wrongly blamed, they would possibly be freaking out quite visibly, but kihwan knows the signs of a guilty suspect, knows the red flags, has it all written down. this is not his first interrogation, and even though he is on the wrong side of the table, he knows what to do.
as aspected, the voice doesn't answer his question but tells him that they will begin questioning, and that's the only warning he gets before the voice speaks again. "where have you been the night of the 26th of february?"
a huff of breath leaves his mouth at that, he knows what this is about, and the more ironic part is that kihwan himself has been looking into this file only a few days ago. however, he pointedly doesn't mention that fact but decides to answer the question instead. it takes a bit of thinking, but it isn't a difficult one either. "i was at my girlfriend's house. ahn ahreum. we had dinner earlier in the evening, had a few drinks and went to her place. i was there until the afternoon of the 27th." he speaks with conviction of a man telling the truth. kihwan has nothing to hide — well, when it comes to the murder of go jeon, that is. when it comes to the side of nightbane, he has done his best to make sure no one suspects the chief's motives.
the second question isn't particularly surprising either, and after the face in front of him has taken some notes, they move on to ask his relations to the victim. "did you know go jeon or anyone close to him?"
kihwan shakes his head easily, doing his best not to show his hatred for the vampire. as it stands, he is being interrogated for his murder, so he knows swearing at him won't do any good. "i didn't know him personally, no. but i did know of him. as a police officer who has been working for nine years, it's impossible not to know the noctis clan. or the crimes they commit." he pauses for a second, and shakes his head at the second question as well. "i don't know anyone close to him either, he wasn't a man i wanted to be acquainted with. i wouldn't want to be acquaintances with any of his friends. i don't condone what they do." he doesn't go into details, but it shouldn't be too difficult to pick up either.
then the person in front of him takes more notes, shuffles the papers in front of them before asking another question, the expression on their face showing conviction that kihwan despises. “what did you do at the noctis’ headquarters? why were you there?”
the third question, however, is the one that gets a visible reaction out of him — one that of shock and surprise. where the hell are they pulling this information from; he has never been there to begin with, doesn't even know where it is, even though he had tried to find it many times in the past. so, unable to hide his surprise, he speaks again. "i have no idea what you are talking about — i have never been there. i don't know where it is either — it's not in any database i have ever reached." he points out, nervousness begins to sweep into his mind, but he pushes it away, and regains his calm composure. “i was with my girlfriend that night — i don’t know what you are talking about.”
The federal bureau of investigations has confirmed to the media this morning that the current chief of police might be involved in the poisoning of the Noctis Clan’s infamous leader Go Jeon.
Choi Kihwan (29) has been named as a suspect of the murder case. His DNA has been confirmed to have been found at the Noctis Clan’s headquarters.
The circumstances are still unclear to the investigators, but Choi Kihwan has been taken into questioning at the moment.
the silence stretches on, feeling like an eternity instead of a minute as they take notes and raise their heads to look at him. “so, you are saying you spent the night at your girlfriend's house - who you say is called ahn ahreum?”
there is little do deliberate on that, so kihwan simply nods. "yes, that's exactly what i said." the evening had begun with a nice little date with the wonderful woman in his life, and kihwan didn't have a hard time remembering the great time they had together. as the night went on, they had a few drinks, cheeks red and laughter louder than at the beginning of the night, but his head was clear enough to remember the steps they took afterwards. they went to ahreum's place, and that much he is sure. so he speaks with finality, confusion easy to see on his face even though he tries to hide parts of it.
investigators look at each other, a slight sign of confusion on their faces - probably wondering what the police chief was on about. after whispering to each other, they decide to show him a photograph of the noctis headquarters. a simple picture showing the outside of the building. they then show him another few pictures of the inside.
the prolonged silence and the whispers aren't welcomed at all, and kihwan's left feeling lost and more humiliated than this had begun. why are they acting like he is missing the bigger picture ? whenever he had whispered to a partner on that side of the desk, it wasn’t a sign for anything good, and it's clear that it's not a good silence this time either. for the lack of doing anything better, kihwan focuses on the files in front of them as they shuffle through the papers, and after a few seconds, they slide a picture towards him.
they spoke soon after that, looking up at him, eyes gauging for a reaction. "you have been to this building, yes? you have not seen go jeon in this building?”
at first, kihwan leans forward with confidence that it's going to be a place he has never visited or even seen — yet it unfolds to be the complete opposite. he freezes at the sight, eyes widening only slightly as he takes in the familiar image of the building. he has... been there before. and if they had shown him that picture without the preceding questions, he would simply ask why the hell do they have a picture of his girlfriend's flat, followed by a very threatening string of statements. however, that's not the case at all and his colleagues are simply stating that it's the noctis... headquarters ? how could that be ? it makes such little sense that kihwan doesn't know what to think, or what to do. it takes him a moment to compose himself again, but he decides to answer truthfully. it shouldn't be hard to deduce that either from the investigators' standpoint. "i... yes, i have been there. i haven't seen anyone else there — not go jeon, or anyone else. only ahreum. it's — it's her flat." it feels like a puzzle slowly unravelling itself, and it makes kihwan unbelievably uneasy. he fights of the question of why would go jeon be there? — the place where ahreum took him almost a month ago. it's not hard to guess that the answer is soon to come, yet kihwan doesn't know if he is ready for it.
they wonder a bit, after all, kihwan is the chief of police and they have known him for a while now. “are you not aware that ahn ahreum is a member of the noctis clan?”
"what ?" that's an involuntary reaction, the question falls from his lips, so affronted and shocked that kihwan doesn't know what to do when it’s out. ahreum, wonderful, kind, lovely ahreum who he has been dating for a long time now — she doesn't belong to noctis —- he knows she doesn't. he has visited her at her work multiple times before, visited the library having brought lunch and seen her work with his own two eyes. he has spent so much time with her in the past few months that kihwan can't — doesn't want to believe what they are saying to him is true. "i — i don't —-" he begins, his composure slowly dissipating, sadness and betrayal beginning to etch into his façade and deeper down. he doesn't want to believe that ahreum has been lying to him all along — he can't —- after everything he has shared with her, confined in her — the lovely times they spent together, it can't possibly be a lie. the implication of her being in the noctis clan brings a lot more harrowing thoughts in its wake. and associating the woman he loves with the clan he hates so much — kihwan feels it like a knife in his chest, one that leaves him breathless.
he isn't sure how much of his inner dilemma he shows outside, but he knows that he must be looking a lot more affected than he walked into the room fifteen minutes ago. a part of himself feels broken, betrayed, and the confidence he had at the beginning seems to have left him with that punch to the stomach. after realizing that it has been a while too long without an answer, kihwan simply shakes his head, slow, eyes looking down. "she... she can't be." a mix of denial and pure hurt has taken over him, and he searches for answers in his head, yet finds none. he needs to speak to her — he needs to hear this from her, because he doesn't believe these two men in front of him. they must have been making fun of him in their heads, but kihwan can't let go of the mix of emotions swirling in his mind. "i... didn't know. i don't know." the back of his eyes sting, but he wouldn't dare show more emotion than he has shown so far. in his mind, he is more lost than he has ever felt in a very long time. ahn ahreum, the woman he loves with the entirety of his heart — she cannot be a part of the noctis clan, she cannot be one of those mindless vampires who spread evil and hurt to everyone they can touch. yet, as it stands, kihwan doesn't know what to do or what to believe. all he knows is that he needs to speak to ahreum.
We are announcing our first “event”! This event might be a little different from usual events, so I will go ahead and explain what this is all about!
The ‘CHARACTER SPOTLIGHT’ is a chance for every muse to step into the spotlight and let everyone do as they wish (in a sort of way). What do I mean by that and how will this work?
EVERY WEEK one muse will be picked and they will get a graphic and a post on the HQ (this account).
What’s in that post? It is something that the muse will request of others.
Now, what could that be? FOR EXAMPLE, if we would have a DETECTIVE, they would be able to choose to ask everyone 5 questions that everyone needs to answer in a post - like an interrogation of some sorts. Of course, if your character is a curious one they are allowed to ask questions as well, the amount and what kind of questions you’d like to ask depends on you.
But it doesn’t just need to be questions! You can also request muses to, for example, remember the best day of their lives and share with us how that day looked like for them.
You want everyone to answer to embarrassing / personal / funny memes that you found somewhere? Go ahead.
In the week in which it is your turn you’re free to think about anything you’d like. You’ll just have to tell us what you’d like to do and we will make the post for you.
As for who goes first we will see if we can find someone who’d like to start and if not it I will just randomize a list.
If you have any questions or I didn’t explain myself well enough feel free to ask me. - Z L
She walks into the small room with tears in her eyes, the conversation she had just had with the man she loves more than anything else left deep wounds in her heart. Her arms are wrapped tight around herself as if she’s trying to protect herself from what is about to happen, she feels small and she looks small now that her secret is out for everybody around her --- people she doesn’t know, people she doesn’t trust, people she doesn’t want to come closer to her.
She’s told to take a sit on a chair before the officer that is supposed to lead the questioning, and so she does, but she doesn’t look at him. She wipes her eyes and keeps her head low, hands held tight together on her lap as she tries to handle the situation and tries to stop thinking about what had just happened, she wants to stop thinking about his reaction.
“Ahn Ahreum, you have been hiding the fact that you’re a part of Noctis clan from your boyfriend Choi Kihwan. Why exactly is that?”
The officer asks, and she feels a warm tear run down her cheek again despite her attempts to keep her face dry. She takes a deep breath and finally looks at the male, her eyes are red and puffy due to all the tears she has already shed.
“Yes, I have.” She says after a second, her voice sounds quiet and shaky, but she tries to make it better by taking in some deep breath before she speaks again. “Kihwan has always been very open about... his strong opinions about vampires. He despises them, and I didn’t want him to despise me. I didn’t want to lose what we already had... I didn’t want him to leave me just because of my species. I---- I don’t want him to leave me.”
And at this point, she doesn’t even attempt to wipe her face anymore. The tears keep falling and falling and she couldn't worry about it anymore, the things she has to say are more important than her feelings at the moment. They don’t care if she’s sad or not, they want their questions answered. And she just wants to leave the place, she wants to go back home and hide.
She wants to disappear.
“Now that we know that you two have been together the night of the murder, have you seen Go Jeon at all that night? When was the last time you have seen him?”
She breathes deeply again, her chest hurts from all the crying and she tugs her hair behind her ear before the officer can hear her next answer, she sounds a lot calmer already. “I had seen him earlier that night before I met with Kihwan for dinner, we had a short conversation about supplies for the Clan and that was everything. Then I left to see my boyfriend---- Kihwan and didn’t see Jeon again. I only had news about his death after Kihwan left the day after, in the afternoon.”
“Did you ever have a fight with Go Jeon? Any disagreements?”
“No, I didn’t. Jeon and I had a very professional relationship, we didn’t have any disagreements once we basically had the same thoughts and ideas about the management of the Clan and there was a lot of respect involved from both parts. I had no reason to fight Jeon or have any disagreement with him, he knew what was best for our species.” And she nods, her voice a lot firmer as if she has put on her armor again --- the tough image she has been leaving behind ever since she met and got into a relationship with Kihwan suddenly getting back to her, as her protection mechanism.
“How is the atmosphere within Noctis? Tense?”
She breathes deep once again and brushes her fingers through her dark hair, pulling the dark and long strands over her shoulder. “Of course it is tense! Our leader was murdered and the sudden news from the investigation caused a big commotion in the Clan. We still don’t have any information about who did this to Go Jeon and it scares every single vampire living in our community. We trust Ara, but we can’t but be scared that this could happen again. So please, all I’m asking of you now is to intensify the investigations... Find the murderer, do justice for our people.”
