„Captain Lee,” DooSan’s weak voice was heard behind the Captain, a voice that made Lee stop right in the middle of the lobby. He was heading toward the exit door when he heard DooSan calling him.

Listening to DooSan calling his name, Lee stopped. Yet, he did that not because he wanted to see him, but because he didn’t expect that DooSan was there. At the same time, he didn’t want to see DooSan because he felt guilty for everything he did to him. Yes, Lee felt guilty and that something was asphyxiating him. He actually felt that each time he saw DooSan, to whom he destroyed his life because of a failed attempt to solve a case that was ruining his life too. That’s why he avoided DooSan all that time. At that moment, however, he had no choice: he had to face him. Thus, reluctantly, he turned toward DooSan, who was about 10 meters from him, and Lee said nothing, staring with empty and sad eyes at him.

Seconds after he started watching DooSan and DooSan staring at him, Lee smiled. Then, sadly and with teary eyes, Lee said, „What’s up, Doosan? Are you alright?”

Hearing that question, DooSan gnashed his teeth. He felt pain in his chest listening to the dry words said by Lee, even though the Captain tried to say them kindly. Yet, by saying what he said, Lee managed only to disappoint DooSan more. He felt betrayed by Lee because, after his father’s death, and more, after YuSan’s death, he trusted the Captain, he told him secrets, and talked to him about his plans, thinking that Lee was also sincere. He had been wrong, however, because, since what happened to SolHi, since Captain Lee sent her to a maximum-security prison, Lee avoided him. This hurt him more than the betrayal. He felt pain in his heart understanding that the Captain didn’t dare to look into his eyes and explain to him why he did that. DooSan would have liked to hear an explanation because he was sure that there was a „because” behind SolHi’s confession, who had always said that she didn’t kill YuSan. She actually swore to throw herself off a building if she had found out that she killed his beloved brother. Yet, eventually, she accepted that everything had been a lie, including her amnesia.

That’s why DooSan asked, „Why?” when he felt capable of controlling his anger.

Lee, even though he understood that the right question was, „Why did you betray me, Captain?” preferred to play the fool. Then, smiling, he asked, „About?”

„About everything, Captain,” DooSan yelled, angry. After that, he approached Lee, intending to grab him by the collar and beat him. At one-step from Lee, he stopped and just stared into his eyes. Lee looked elsewhere. Yet, this didn’t make DooSan give up and asked again, yelling, „Why, I asked! Why?”

Lee, however, pretending to be calm, stuck his hands into his pockets and, taking a few steps in front of DooSan, murmured, „If you had clearly asked that question, DooSan, I would have answered it. Yet… I can only guess what your question is, because…”

„Let’s not play the fools, Captain,” hissed DooSan through his teeth eventually. „You know very well what I mean.”

„No, I don’t know that, DooSan, because there are so many things that are so confusing now.” Lee stuttered all this while trying to confuse DooSan and escape that interrogation. Something that didn’t work for him because DooSan suddenly stepped in front of him, forcing him to stop that chaotic movement. Thus, he forced Lee to look into his eyes again, with a glance in which sparkles of anger were seen. Yes, all those were sparkles that demonstrate that DooSan felt injustice, for everything that happened a year ago and eight years ago too. That’s why he was trying to obtain answers from Lee. The Captain, however, couldn’t give him those answers. He couldn’t accept that he had been wrong. Not for the moment. At first, Lee had to find out what was the truth, to take revenge on his soul, and, only after that, to make justice for others too. That’s why Lee only murmured eventually, „DooSan, please, be patient! I promise I’ll solve everything. I’ll turn everything back to how it was a year ago.”

This answer confused DooSan more than he was before. That’s why he stepped back while asking, „What the hell are you talking about? What justice? What should you turn back? What?” He yelled.

„Everything. I’ll turn everything back to what it was. I promise. I’ll do it, but I need time.” After that, Lee put a palm on DooSan’s shoulder and, deeply looking into his eyes, he forced a smile. „You know, I lost a good friend today. I can’t bear up with more. Let’s talk about this later, okay?!”

After saying this, Lee intended to go. He couldn’t do that though because DooSan grabbed him by the arm again. And, tugging him, DooSan pushed Lee back to the previous place. Then, staying right in front of the Captain, staring at him with the eyes of a mad pitbull, he asked, „Later? When exactly, Captain? Or what, do you think that I’ll wait for another year to see you and find out the truths I have to know about?”

„I… just tried to do things right,” stuttered Lee, trying to explain his decision of having avoided DooSan all that time, even though he, secretly, sent one of his agents to follow Doosan and impede him from doing crazy things. Lee did that when he saw DooSan knelt because of the pain.

„To do things right?” DooSan gnashed his teeth. „For who? For you?”

„For all of us,” shouted Lee this time, pushing DooSan away from him. Thus, he managed to release his arms because DooSan grabbed him by the injured arm, making it bleed again. „Or what, did you think I did what I did to get a promotion? Of course not. I did this for all of us.”

DooSan felt confused again. Lee, however, at all impressed, kept yelling, „Yes, DooSan, I did this for all of us, because… someone should pay for everything and… who else if not an assassin like Ian SolHi should pay for this? She, who did everything to…”

A punch threw Lee to the ground. Then, outraged, DooSan yelled, „Go to hell! Did you hear me?” After that, ready to break Lee into pieces, he was about to pounce on him again. He couldn’t do that eventually because someone took him into his arms and forced him to stay in place. Yet, seeing and hearing nothing, DooSan kept yelling, „Let me go! Just let me go, I said! I must show him what his words can bring! I must do that.”

„Who will you do a favor then?” DooSan heard Min Hiok’s words, something that made him compose himself. He didn’t look back at Min Hiok though. He just listened to what that one said after this, „Or what, do you think that beating him, it’ll make you feel better? Will it turn you back to what it was a year ago? Will a crime bring her back to you again? Don’t be stupid! Not beating him will turn back time, but time will turn everything back to its place.”

DooSan, confused, looked at his friend. „What… what the hell are you talking about?” He stuttered.

Min Hiok didn’t answer right away. He only looked at Lee, who was struggling to stand up and making a wry face while feeling the pain because, when he fell, the wound started to bleed more. At the same time, Lee’s expression let Min Hiok know that the Captain was struggling with himself at that moment. That’s why he preferred to tell DooSan only, „Just… trust me, DooSan! That’s all I ask you. I promise that I’ll tell you everything I know. Yet, not now.”

His words made DooSan roar, as a mad lion closed inside a cage. After that, twice punching the pylon from the middle of the lobby, he pounced on Min Hiok. He didn’t hurt Prosecutor Iun eventually. DooSan only grabbed the cloth of his vestment and squeezed it. Then, with his eyes bathed in tears, he asked Min Hiok, „What exactly do you also hide from me, Iun Min Hiok? What the hell are you all hiding from me?”

Min Hiok, who was at all impressed by his friend’s reaction, even if he knew him overwhelmed by pain, doubt, and remorse about everything that happened, grabbed him by the hands, trying to give DooSan some comfort. After that, he said, „Don’t rush, DooSan. There is a golden minute for everything in this world. All I ask you is to trust what I say. Thus, we’ll find out the truth and I promise that… one by one… they will pay for what they’ve done to both of you.”

„To both of us?” DooSan stuttered.

„Yes, for what they’ve done to you and… her because you aren’t the only one who suffered having no guilt. However, as I don’t have all the parts of this puzzle yet, I can’t tell you more about this. All I can do is ask you to trust me. What do you think, can you trust me?”

„Iun Min Hiok!” DooSan shouted. „Don’t fuck with me and tell me what you know!”

„I’ll tell you, I promise, but not now!” Min Hiok pushed DooSan away from him. Then, in a demanding voice, he told Kan and Yu, „Take him away from here!”

Only then did DooSan notice Kan and Yu next to him. He didn’t even have time to react when the two of them grabbed him by the arms, immobilizing him. Even so, DooSan tried to release himself by pushing them away from him, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t get free, not even by shouting to them, „Release me, idiots! I’m your boss! Don’t you hear me?”

„I’m sorry… boss… but you must follow us!” Kan told him confidently. After that, pointing with his head to Yu, the two of them forced DooSan to follow them. A difficult mission, in fact, because DooSan was outraged and wanted to release himself at any cost from that trap and pounce on Lee again, letting him know how much he suffered with the Captain’s abandonment all that year. A long year in fact when he felt his soul burning in flames and slowly turning to ashes. Nevertheless, he couldn’t release himself, and, soon after this, the elevator’s door closed behind them.

Next to Lee, with a lot of witnesses around them who were so curious to find out how that show would end, Min Hiok stretched his arm toward Lee eventually, to help him to stand up. A help Lee refused. After that, still staggering to his feet, the Captain managed to stay on his feet and, at a slow step, he headed toward the exit door. About 30 meters from the door, he stopped and, slowly turning toward Min Hiok, who was still in the same place, he told him in a low voice, „If something happens to me, Prosecutor Iun, prove my innocence.”

„Are you sure you are innocent, Captain?” Min Hiok asked while hatred was felt in his voice.

„Yes, because everything I did was for love.” After that, he turned his back to Min Hiok and left. While leaving, he had his head bowed, his arms hanging next to his body, his heart in flames, and his soul cut in pieces because he would have liked to tell the truth. Yet, he was bound by hands and feet. At the same time, he felt that he was fighting on two battlefields at the same time. On one hand - he was a father who wanted to make justice for his kid while, on the other hand… he was someone’s friend, who made mistakes while trying to make justice for him too. More than that, he felt all that because he understood that he couldn’t understand himself anymore because he got to do things not as he used to do them. Thus, he made someone suffer, he forced him to kneel in front of the entire world just to be sure of his success. A triumph he didn’t achieve eventually. All he got was a broken heart that was dead inside, the result of his betrayal because… it’s impossible to save the roses without wetting them. The same happens to friends and allies - if you betray them, they turn their back on you eventually, giving you not roses as a reward for what you do, but thorns - the thorns of betrayal, which he has willingly accepted in his soul.

***

„Forget her, prosecutor Han!” Kan told DooSan in a low voice. Both of them were sitting at that moment on the edge of the roof as SolHi used to stay each time she felt alone, sad, or overwhelmed.

Listening to the detective’s words, DooSan stared at him. DooSan did that because he really couldn’t understand what Kan meant. That’s why he suddenly asked, „To forget? What exactly?”

Kan, without watching DooSan, drily answered, „Not what, but who! I meant SolHi. I think it’s time to forget her and move on, Prosecutor Han!”

„Have you lost your mind?” DooSan hissed through his teeth. Yet, not the hatred was felt in his voice, but the decision because DooSan swore something, a year ago, right after SolHi had been locked inside a maximum security jail and refused to see him each time he went to see her. Yes, DooSan went to see her many times, but the guards told him each time he went there, „Ian SolHi refused the visit. Especially, she doesn’t want to see you, Prosecutor Han. We are sorry.” Yet… did the guards really feel sorry for him or were they just pretending to feel so? This is what DooSan couldn’t understand, just as he couldn’t understand why SolHi refused to see him. At the same time, he couldn’t understand why Kan told him to forget her. That’s why DooSan said eventually, „I won’t forget her!” He was confident in what he said and the same confidence was seen in his glance while looking at the lights of the city that were blinking in the distance, of the crowded city, on whose streets the cars were running in a chaotic movement. „You know very well why.”

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„Is it because of what SolHi said while she was still free? That… if she finds out that she killed Han YuSan, she’ll take her life?”

„Not only because of this.”

„Then?”

„Her amnesia. I want to find out why she lied to me that she didn’t remember anything.”

„Isn’t this obvious? She wanted to escape. Something that she didn’t manage to do eventually: be free forever.”

DooSan sadly looked at the man and asked, „Detective Kan, do you also think that SolHi lied all these years? That she lied to us that she didn’t remember anything?”

„Honestly, prosecutor Han, I’m not sure of anything. I don’t know if… she lied or not, just as I’m not sure anymore that I knew her. Yes, I thought I came to know her in those seven years since I met her for the first time and she started to work in my team. Yet, it seems to me that I’ve been wrong and that she has been able to cheat on all of us.”

„What if she lied to us?” DooSan’s eyes fixed on Kan’s eyes, who was staring at him, confused. „I mean, what if what happened a year ago is a lie and not all that we knew before that?”

Kan distrustfully smiled. „Prosecutor Han, I think it is wrong to let our emotions lead us because… we are talking about a crime. This can’t be a lie.”

DooSan squeezed his fists and gnashed his teeth. After that, he stared in front… with cold eyes… with empty eyes, to say later, „Not random emotions talk in my place now, Kan, but the pain.”

„For who?” Kan asked, still staring at DooSan.

„For myself because… I’ve lost another dear person again. Close friends lied to me and kept things away from me.”

„Are you talking about Captain Lee?”

„Not only about him. I talk about everything right now. Including Iun Min Hiok.”

„Prosecutor Iun? What has he to do with SolHi’s case?”

„I’m not sure, but… I think he knows something. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have talked to me as he did before, in the lobby. You also heard him, didn’t you?”

„Yes, I heard what he said, but I didn’t understand a great thing, to be honest.”

„That’s why I say that’s weird because… Min Hiok is not the type of man who says something without being sure of this.”

„Yet, I don’t understand why you think he has to do with SolHi’s case.”

„Just a feeling I have, and I think that we can find out if it’s true or not in two ways: talking to him or SolHi.”

„Something damn difficult in my opinion because… honestly, Prosecutor Iun won’t say a word, I’m sure of this. At least he won’t say anything to you until he is sure of the result. Talking to SolHi? Well, if she refused to see us last year, I don’t see why she’d accept this now.”

„I’ll find a way to make her accept to see me. I must do that, Kan. Otherwise, I’ll lose my mind.”

Kan deeply breathed in. Then, he sighed while releasing the inhaled air and said, „I understand what you want to say. I also understand that I didn’t understand anything and… Oh Yoon Suk, that stubborn donkey, he’s still not back.”

„He’ll turn back. He must do that. Otherwise, I’ll bring him back here by grabbing him by the ear.”

Detective Kan laughed. This amazed DooSan a lot. Thus, seeing the amazement in DooSan’s eyes, Kan said while looking in front, „Let’s not forget who Yoon Suk hates, prosecutor Han. You, to be more precise, the one who he wants dead, by the way. That’s why I don’t think it’ll be a good idea to turn him back here and force him to work for you.”

„I’m not as sure as you are,” said DooSan, managing to amaze Kan this time. After that, DooSan laughed and said, „You don’t understand what I want to say, do you?”

„Yeah, at all,” mumbled the detective, shaking his head.

„I am talking about keeping your friends close, but your enemies closer, Detective.”

„You mean to keep your rivals closer,” said Kan, laughing. Listening to Kan’s laughter, DooSan, who still felt that was burning inside, laughed too. Then, Kan said, „Anyway, one or another, I think you are right. That’s why, prosecutor Han, don’t give up because… if something stinks here, we’ll find it out for sure! Be sure of that!”

„Let’s find Oh Yoon Suk first, Detective! We’ll need him for our plans.”

„Plans?” Kan asked, confused, looking askance at DooSan.

„Yeah, plans, or what? Do you think I’ve been sleeping for the last year? No, I didn’t sleep or give up. Neither I’m stupid enough to allow others to fool me. No, if there is a lie there, I’ll find it out. Then, I’ll make them pay for trying to fool me.”

„Including SolHi?” Asked Kan, staring at DooSan, who avoided the detective’s glance by looking into the distance.

Yet, even though DooSan seemed absent, a single thought was spinning in his mind, „SolHi is the first one who should pay for my suffering. Yes, she’ll pay more for her betrayal.” At this thought, tears appeared in his eyes, because he wanted to take revenge on all those who made him suffer, including her, the one whom he considered the main culprit for everything that happened. Even so, each time he thought about punishing her, he felt a big pressure over his chest: it was the longing, something that was bathing his eyes in tears each time he felt it.

DooSan right away wiped his tears when Kan stood up, gasping, a hint that old age was approaching him at a fast pace. Well, more than old age, what made Kan gasp was the extra pounds he gained in the last year, something that hindered his movement. Even so, Kan didn’t seem bothered by this. He only moved away, whistling, while DooSan followed him by a glance, convinced that Kan’s whistle was just a way to hide his thoughts, preoccupations, and the pain felt in his chest.

Eventually, even if his first thought was to follow Kan, DooSan remained on the edge of the roof, so close to falling in case something had gone wrong. He, however, didn’t look scared or preoccupied, just as he forgot about his fear of heights during the last year. To be more precise, DooSan started to love that place because, since she wasn’t next to him anymore, he started to go there, to the roof, where she loved to spend her time because this gave him the feeling that she was still there. Thus, in such moments, alone on the roof, he allowed dreaming to take over him while sitting on the edge of the roof - the abyss of his own life as he got to call it because… this threatened him with swallowing him in its always hungry and bottomless belly.

***

It had been a long and agitated night for Lee. A black-like pitch night, in fact. One when he tossed and turned on the sofa in his office, where he locked himself right after coming home. An office that served him as a hideout in the last year and from where no one could take him out, not even threatening him with death because he felt that he was safe only there. Lee felt that he was capable of chewing his plans in silence only there. He did that while trying to find a way to escape from that hell, one in which he closed himself alone a year ago, right after he closed SolHi in the maximum-security prison.

Why did he feel all this? He had no idea because he always thought he was unscrupulous, capable of stepping on bodies if it was necessary to reach his goals. Yet, something changed inside him in the last year and this made him weak. Yes, he started to hate it: to feel that he was weak in front of the world and of his enemies.

Talking about his enemies… he had a lot, a large number of enemies who started to surround him more after he started to lead the Operative Group 25 of the Organized Crime Department. His enemies were everywhere, bothering him like a swarm of flies while he was a jar with honey. Yet, those enemies, even if they were dangerous, never threatened him directly. At least this was what he thought until a year ago. Then, he found out the truth and that the one who suffered because of his stubbornness and work had been SoRan, his beloved daughter, his only child. That’s why he chose betrayal instead of friendship… to make her justice. Instead of this, what he got was more loneliness and fear, something that closed him inside a vicious circle, from which he couldn’t escape anymore. Thus, he saw how his perfect world started to fall apart, slowly-slowly, especially in the last months.

Nevertheless, he felt that he was still capable of confronting the hyenas that were surrounding him. He felt that until last night when he saw DooSan. This reminded him about his guilt, about the choices he made, about the decisions that he thought were correct, but which resulted in being the worst things he did in his life. Why did all this happen? Not even he knew that. All he knew was that it was absolutely necessary to find a way to escape, to turn back time, to solve things, and to move on. Yet, what he didn’t know was how to do all that.

Lee winced eventually hearing the door opening. That’s why he closed his eyes, pretending to be asleep. Yet, feeling nothing around him for minutes in a row, he thought he had been wrong and it wasn’t his office door that opened and raised his head, carefully looking around. Thus, he saw SoRan, who was a few meters from the sofa only, insistently staring at him, to tell him ironically in the end, „I thought that Sleeping Beauty was a woman. It seems that I’ve been wrong.”

Lee cleared his voice and sat up on the sofa, scratching the back of his head and tangling his hair more. Then, he said, confused, „Well, maybe you are right, but… anyway, why are you here?” A question that sounded dry even if he tried to say it in a sweet voice.

„Mother calls you for breakfast,” the young lady, about 27, told him. After that, struggling with the wheels of the chair in which she was, SoRan turned it toward the door. Yet, she couldn’t advance because of one of the wheels that stuck in the edge of the sofa and she had to struggle more to move it back, something difficult because of the carpet that had lifted a little and was blocking the rear wheel.

Lee looked at the struggle of his daughter with the wheels for a while but didn’t intervene. He did that not because he didn’t want to do that, but because he knew his daughter: she was tough, touchy, just as he was. At the same time, just like her father, SoRan loved to do everything alone. Especially, she hated to be helped after the car accident she had 10 years ago, an unhappy event that forced her to spend her life in a wheelchair, leaving deep wounds on her soul too.

Eventually, when Lee stood up and tried to help her, SoRan yelled at him, „I said not touch it!” Then, looking at his daughter, Lee saw her sparkling eyes because of anger. That’s why he took his hands off the chair and let her fend for herself. Something she managed to do in the end, heading toward the door later. A few meters from the door, she stopped when Lee told her in a low voice:

„You know better than me that’s not my fault, SoRan. Ten years ago… if…”

SoRan gnashed her teeth. „If you had answered the phone, I wouldn’t have been here and others in jail for this.”

Lee winced. „What the hell are you talking about?”

Managing to turn the chair and look with hatred at her father, SoRan told him, „I know what you’ve done a year ago, Dad.”

Captain Lee swallowed hard, then murmured, „I did that for you.”

„I didn’t ask you to do that. You could have pretended that you didn’t care. Thus, we would have been all happier.”

„SoRan,” shouted Lee. „I know you are hurt. I know you blame me for what has happened. Yet… 10 years have passed since then. Why can’t you forget what happened?”

„What about you, papa? Can you forget? I don’t think so, because if it had been so, you wouldn’t have chosen the path of perdition a year ago. You wouldn’t have destroyed others’life. You wouldn’t have betrayed your friends and Colonel Kim would have been alive now.”

Lee gnashed his teeth again. Then, he looked elsewhere while SoRa continued her thought, „If you don’t dare to look into my eyes, it means guilt talks in your place.”

Her words irritated Lee, who finally looked at her, confident, and said, „You can blame me if you want. I don’t regret what I’ve done because I’ve done that for you.”

„Something I didn’t ask for,” shouted SoRan. „I didn’t ask you to destroy lives to make me justice. A justice that isn’t important anymore.”

„It’s important for me,” Lee also shouted. „Why? Because I don’t intend to let that bastard go unpunished. Not after what he did to you.”

Their shouts brought Lee’s wife into the office. „What’s this madness right from the morning?” She yelled at them. „Can we have at least one silent morning? Can we eat calmly at least once?”

SoRan, of an enviable calmness, even though she’s been in arms against her father until that moment, looked at her mother and told her in half a voice, „If you want to know this, ask your husband! It’s not my fault that we are fighting each time we see each other and… I’m going to my room.” After that, she exited the office.

„SoRan!” Her mother tried to stop her.

„Leave her!” Said Lee severely. „If she wants to act like a child, it’s up to her! I’m not in the mood to waste my time with her.”

„Yet, Lee, what about this time? Why did you argue now?”

„Old sorrows. New ones,” said Lee randomly. „I go!”

„Where do you go this time?” His wife tried to stop him too.

„As far as possible from this house,” Lee gnashed his teeth, feeling a deep pain in his chest… He felt that neither in his house he could find peace anymore, that not even his daughter, the one whom he raised like a princess and loved more than his life, the one for whom he stepped on his ego and forgot about principles, could understand him. At the same time, he understood that he’d been wrong because… he understood too late what SoRan really wanted. Yet, what she wanted exactly… he didn’t know, just as he didn’t know what his daughter thought and felt eventually…

***

One-step in front… and one more… The sound of the unlocked car… Lee’s hand on the door handle… and a deafening sound. All these have been heard when Lee’s car, which was parked in front of the house, blew up… leaving a lot of pain behind…