Dawn the next day, as soon as he’d been left alone and had the chance to cool his soul, Park GhiYon made a phone call. Whom did he call? Han DooSan, whom he told what happened to him the night before, about his fears and suspicions.

When he called DooSan, GhiYon hoped to be understood and supported. Instead of that, he heard from DooSan just a simple but clear „Are you sure?”

„If I’m sure?” GhiYon growled in the receiver when he heard his friend’s question. „Of course, I’m sure. More than sure, better said. Do you know why? I have clear evidence of the hot night I’ve been through. What kind of evidence? Blood, which I’m cleaning from off the floor of my living room, trying to make sure my wife doesn’t see it. You know very well what will happen to me if she sees that, right?”

„Of course, I know,” replied DooSan drily. „She’ll leave you headless!”

„Worse than that: she’ll definitely send me next to your beloved ghost, and if this happens, I’m sure you won’t cry for me as you’ve cried for her. Or… am I wrong now?”

DooSan burst into laughter. „Are we dating or something to cry for you? If this happens and you remain headless, what I’ll do is light a candle and say a prayer for your soul to rest in peace. Maybe I’ll also buy some white flowers and stop by your grave to ask you how you are doing.”

„Ia, Han DooSan!” GhiYon yelled again over the loudspeaker that poor DooSan thought he’d go deaf. Yet, this didn’t scare him. All he did was to tap his ear slowly, somehow bored, calmly saying eventually:

„I could have lived without your shouts right from the morning. Yet, once you love tougher, I accept that you are right: yes, bro, I’ve crossed the line. Yet, what to do? It’s who I am, right?”

„Of course, it’s who you are,” GhiYon growled, throwing the cloth into the bucket of water. „I also know from whom you’ve learned to be that shameless. From Ian SolHi, isn’t it?”

„Maybe she learned that from me, don’t you think so?”

„Nea. Why? I know you too well, my friend. I know what you can do. Even so, you’ve been kinder with your friends before. I can’t say the same about you after you messed with certain ghosts. Yet, why am I complaining now? I’m the one who pushed you toward her, thinking you’ll be wiser and safer this way. Yeah, right! Since you two have started walking hand in hand, I’m not calm anymore.”

DooSan smiled. „Hand in hand? Where did you take that from? I don’t remember that this has ever happened.”

„Yet, I’m sure of that. Why? I feel it!”

„And? What else do you feel if it’s not a secret, of course?” DooSan teased him, comfortably sitting on the hood of his car, which he parked in front of the prison.

„That… you are looking for problems again, for example?” GhiYon asked. The silence that followed his question made him think and furiously growled after that, „Don’t tell me that I’ve been right and you look for problems again?”

„Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you but you’ve been right, Park GhiYon. I’m looking for problems again. Where? In front of the prison.”

GhiYon suddenly winced, standing up after he’d been squatting in front of the bucket with water by then. „In front of prison?” He asked DooSan, confused. „What have you lost there? Memories or maybe the day of yesterday that you spent in jail and convinced yourself that you belong to that place?”

„No. I’m here because of certain suppositions, which I try to convince myself that are real. Which ones? I’ll tell you if they are true. Now, tell me: what exactly happened last night?”

„Honestly? I also don’t know too much about that,” answered GhiYon, calmly this time. „All I know is that they’ve been attacked.”

DooSan winced this time, frightenedly looking around. „They’ve been attacked? By whom? Is SolHi fine? Is she still with you?” He asked, barely breathing, making GhiYon squint at his phone.

When there was quiet again at the other end of the wire, GhiYon put the phone to his ear and said, „I answer yes to all of your questions. Except for one: not SolHi was injured but the other one. Min Ha Rin, I think is her name. She had a beautiful bullet hole in the right side of her belly. Pretty deep, by the way. Even so, it wasn’t deadly. Also, they didn’t stay long in my house. As soon as Ha Rin could stand up, they left, afraid that someone could have seen them entering my house and calling the cops.”

DooSan frowned. „Not that there was a yes to all of my questions? Including „Are they still with you?”

GhiYon grinned. „Did I say that?”

„Yes, as clear as possible. Should I send you the record of our conversation to convince yourself?”

„Not necessary, I believe you. Anyway, not this is important but the fact they’ve been attacked, which means…”

„…that SolHi’s cover might have been compromised.”

„Most likely yes. Anyway, as I said, they didn’t tell me too much about the attack. All SolHi said was that they’d been hunting.”

DooSan slapped his forehead. „You and your bad jokes. Better tell me where they went!”

„Should I know that too?”

„Yeah. Why? You’d been the last one who’d seen them. Or… should I know that even if I don’t use telepathy?”

„You could have tried that though. How? By giving a phone call to her, I mean. You don’t need supernatural powers for that. Anyway, forget it: I won’t win this battle with you. Better tell me what you intend to do by stopping by the jail.”

„I’m just trying to satisfy an old curiosity,” DooSan airily replied.

„Should I swallow that too?”

„Undoubtedly. Why? It’s the only breakfast I can buy for you. Or… maybe they did that in my place?”

„Nea. They only hit the pike around 4.3 in the morning. They said something about being followed. Do you think that’s Min SinJu?”

„I have no idea, but it might be so because he’s the only one who cannot swallow SolHi.”

„Don’t forget your beloved San DuSik. As far as I remember, he’d shown his „love” for her not only once.”

„Even so, San DuSik doesn’t have the courage or economic resources to hurt SolHi. And, once he’s a coward, I don’t think he’ll take that risk, not after SolHi had threatened him with leaving him headless.”

„Sounds logical. Particularly now when he’s not working for the Prosecution anymore. Yet, if it’s true and he’s still waving his tail in front of Min SinJu, he might have done something against her at his boss’s order.”

„I don’t think that this is the case,” said DooSan confidently. „Why am I so sure? Because everybody thinks that SolHi is „dead,” including Min SinJu. Thus, he couldn’t suspect that she was behind him.”

„Not the same we can say about Min Ha Rin, who is a fugitive and hates Jackal. They might have suspected her.”

„I also think so. Anyway, it’s still dangerous because… while SolHi and Min Ha Rin work together…”

„…it’s only a matter of time until others find out that SolHi is alive.”

„This too. For the moment, I say to do our work because it’s the only thing we can do now.”

„What do you intend to do anyway?”

„To find out all I can about that stinky rat - Min SinJu. What exactly? I’ll tell you as soon as I finish my job here.” After that, not waiting for GhiYon’s answer, DooSan hung up the phone and headed toward the gate of the jail. Not silently but growling to himself, „Ah, Min SinJu, ah: if you hurt SolHi again, I swear I’ll skin you alive.” After that, hiding his phone in his pocket, he approached the guard who was next to the gate and showed him his ID to be left inside the jail.

When the gate of the jail closed behind DooSan, a shadow was seen sneaking behind the cars and heading away from DooSan’s vehicle, close to which he’d been while the two friends had conversed. Who was the shadow? One that wore black clothes and had always stepped in Han DooSan’s footsteps. Yet, too immersed in thoughts or maybe worried because of the problems they had to face day by day, DooSan hadn’t ever noticed him, although he should have done that. Why? The one who was following him wasn’t a friend, although DooSan hadn’t ever done something against him.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

***

SolHi thought that that day was against her. The reason? First - Moon Joon Won followed her and then Ha Rin was attacked, followed by the fact she had to appear in front of Park GhiYon, adding one more name to the long list of those who knew she was an alive ghost. Even so, she didn’t regret that because she helped Ha Rin, aware that Park GhiYon was the only one who could have helped her selflessly and who would have kept his mouth shut after that no matter what would have happened to him.

„Yet… will he keep his mouth shut in front of DooSan too?” She wondered, frowning and closing her eyes for a few moments when tiredness and disappointment took over her. Then, realizing that her whisper could have awakened Ha Rin, she looked at the two beds that were in the motel room they rented after leaving Park GhiYon’s house at dawn.

Looking over there, SolHi saw Ha Rin tightly sleeping. She had already a little bit of color in her cheeks, something that made SolHi happy because it was a clear hint that her new friend was recovering her strength. Yet, this didn’t calm her down but worried her more than ever. Why? The same reason as last night: if Ha Rin was seen following Jackal, it might have happened that she’d also been seen around SinJu’s club. „If it’s true and he finds out that I’m alive, we are all screwed!”

Such a thought made SolHi sigh. She even felt a painful twinge in her chest when she deeply breathed in, a hint that she’d been too worried after everything that happened to them and she couldn’t relax. Even so, SolHi couldn’t do anything against the pain and the feeling that took over her. „At least I can’t do anything now when danger is closer to us than ever, lurking on us from the shadows and barely waiting to find us alone and pounce on us, breaking us into pieces.”

Honestly, she left Park GhiYon’s house also because of this: she’d seen someone rounding the forensic doctor’s house. This happened around 3.3 in the morning when she approached the window and looked in the street, feeling that she was anxious. She was in the living room at that moment, watching Ha Rin’s sleep, after GhiYon and she lay Ha Rin on the sofa, waiting for her to wake after the injection GhiYon made her before sewing the wound.

Looking through the window, it seemed to her that the street was empty. Besides the cars that were parked on both sides of the road and in front of the houses of GhiYon’s neighbors and of those vagabond cats that were seen crossing the street, no other alive soul was seen around the house. Then, suddenly, SolHi spotted a black silhouette appearing from behind of one of the houses.

Better said, she saw that silhouette jumping over the fence of the yard that was right in front of Park GhiYon’s house. No, wait, it was the fence of the yard that was three buildings to the left of the house that was in front of the forensic doctor’s one. After jumping over the fence, the shadow tried to seem as relaxed as possible and act as usual, as though trying to tell others that he was simply bored to open the gate and exit the yard. And… it was also funnier this way: jumping over the fence, that’s why he also did the same.

The shadow’s calmness didn’t calm SolHi though. On the contrary, all this seemed damn suspicious to her. Particularly, she found suspicious the fact that the individual kept covering his eyes with the visor of his cap. He even put the hood on at one point, „To make sure nobody would see his face.”

„Do you know him?” SolHi asked GhiYon, at all surprised to hear him whispering those words. GhiYon shook his head. „Are you sure? It seems to be one of your neighbors. And… he jumped over the fence of the third house from the right side of the road.”

„Maybe, but he’s not one of us,” replied GhiYon, frowning. „Why am I so sure? Because, in that house, only an old couple lives.”

„A son maybe? Or… someone they might know and spend a few days in their house?”

„Less probably! If this was the case, he would have left the yard using the gate and not the back door. He even jumped over the fence when he simply could have opened the gate.”

„Maybe he was bored, don’t you think so?”

The forensic doctor smiled. „He was bored to open the gate and not jump over the fence?”

SolHi shrugged, bored. „What do I know?! Someone can love to do things this way.”

„What I think is that he’s a thief.”

„I think that he’s more than that,” SolHi said, making GhiYon attentive. Without watching him but at the shadow that kept rounding the cars, whose eyes were still focused on GhiYon’s house, SolHi said, „Rather, he’s here for you.”

Park GhiYon winced. „For me? What you try to say is that your enemies already know that I helped you and sent someone to get rid of me?”

SolHi frowned. „That’s already too much even for you, Doctor Park. We ain’t living in a world where we meet serial killers everywhere. I rather think that he’s here fulfilling someone else’s order and not the order of the idiot who injured Ha Rin.”

„San DuSik,” the forensic doctor hissed through his teeth, glaring at the one that spied on them.

„It might be that idiot. Yet, once we don’t have evidence about this, I think that it’ll be a good idea to be cautious. I also think that it’s a good idea if Ha Rin and I vanish as soon as she’s able to leave.”

„Until this happens, she needs more time to rest. She lost a lot of blood tonight.”

„I know. I also know that she’s a strong woman and she’ll handle this. Anyway, we should leave this house as soon as possible. If not, we can endanger you too, and this is the last thing I want because… if Han DooSan finds out about this, that I’ve stopped by here and you might suffer because of that, he’ll leave me headless for sure.”

„Or the first head that falls off the shoulders is mine. Why? Because I’ve left you to go, although that crow keeps an eye on us.”

„This is a reasonable reason to leave this place quicker, don’t you think so?”

GhiYon frowned. „A reason for what? To endanger my head?”

„Something like that. It’ll be funnier this way. Also, it’ll be a good lesson for you not to open the door for God knows whom at night. It could have been Death in our place. The same Death who is over there.”

Doctor Park cooked his nose. „Nea, I won’t give you this satisfaction, to any of you. I mean… neither Han DooSan will see my head falling off my shoulders nor that one will kill me.” After that, to show SolHi that he was ready to defend himself, GhiYon took the scalpel out of his pocket, which he wrapped in a piece of cloth to make sure he wouldn’t accidentally hurt himself.

When she remembered this scene, SolHi smiled. After that, getting off the windowsill, where she sat down right after entering the motel room, she trotted the curtains and headed towards Ha Rin’s bed. She did that when she finally felt that tiredness overwhelmed her. Yes, she definitely felt powerless and that she wanted to sleep, although she knew that it would have been better for both of them if she had watched that door until Ha Rin had awakened. „Yet, until this happens, she needs more time to rest, just as the lover of dolls said. He’s also right when he says that I need sleep and strength to defend both of us. For this to happen, I need sleep. I have to close my eyes at least for a few minutes. After that, with new power inside, I can defend a whole army and not only the two of us.”

SolHi thought about all this while she checked Ha Rin’s temperature. Then, she made sure this one was well covered. After that, she dragged the small nightstand from its place to in front of the door, blocking it. She did that, although she knew that the furniture wouldn’t have helped them too much in case someone strong would have decided to enter the room by force. Even so, „This would at least alert us until that one enters the room. Thus, until he’s in, I’ll manage to grab the gun and protect ourselves.” Then, making sure that nobody suspicious was in front of the motel, SolHi went to bed, which she hadn’t had a chance to try that night yet.

Laying on the bed didn’t help her too much. The reason? Too many weird thoughts spinning in her head that didn’t let her normally breathe. What kind of thoughts? Related to a sudden hunch: „That… we won’t be lucky to solve this case without facing the danger or getting into problems. And… why do I feel that something bad will happen soon? Yes, something will happen. Yet… who will suffer this time? Who is in danger? Who?”

She couldn’t find an answer to such questions, although she turned and tossed in bed for hours. By doing this, she hoped that she’d get even more tired than she was already. Thus, exhausted, she would have finally fallen asleep and had some rest, hoping to recover the powers she lost that night. Yet, she hadn’t been that lucky that night.

Around ten o’clock in the morning when she was about to fall asleep, she’d been awakened by a moan. It was Ha Rin. She felt that pain when, still asleep, she turned on her stomach as she used to sleep. The pain didn’t wake only SolHi but also her. Eventually, gnashing her teeth, she sat on the bed and, looking at SolHi, asked her, „What do you say, can I have those pills now?”

„What I say is that I have something better than pills,” SolHi said, taking a small bottle of cognac out of her bag, which GhiYon gave her for „Washing the blood,” as he joked.

Ha Rin didn’t taste the joke though. „If I taste your source of disinfection, we’ll be here forever.”

„I think differently: that’s exactly what you need,” SolHi assured her, confident. The confidence felt in SolHi’s voice made Ha Rin confused. Seeing that one squinting at her, SolHi burst into laughter.

„I was talking about the fact that the alcohol will help you recover the lost blood and powers.” Then, grabbing the backpack she had on the floor next to the bed, SolHi took some food out of it, „food” she took from Park GhiYon’s fridge, forcing him to agree with that too.

Seeing the food, Ha Rin smiled. Then, drinking the cup SolHi prepared for her, she asked, „Do you have all this also from your lover of dolls?”

„Who else if not from him?” SolHi replied, shrugging. „He had no other choice than giving all this to me! If he hadn’t given me this willingly, I would have taken all this anyway.”

„Robbery” which he would have rewarded you with a scalpel touching your throat.” SolHi frowned, although her first intention was to drink the cognac she served for her. „How do I know all this?” SolHi approvingly nodded. „Simply: I saw it in his hand when we entered his house.”

„Is this something in this world you don’t notice?”

„Of course: Death, who blew down my neck several times by now. Yet, once I have enough experience with that, who knows?! I might see her too, sooner or later.”

Ha Rin’s joke made SolHi smile. Then she frowned. She did that when she received a text message from DooSan. In that message, DooSan wrote to her, „I need to see you today at the usual place!”

„Urgently?” Ha Rin asked when SolHi showed her the message. „It’s bad then… what happened,” she added when SolHi approvingly nodded.

„Most likely yes. What exactly? I’ll find out as soon as I see him.”

„I’ll go with you then!”

„No, Ha Rin: you’ll stay here, hidden and recovering. Why? I have the feeling that Jackal and his people are somewhere around.”

„One more reason to leave this place, don’t you think so?”

„No, you’ll be safe here.”

Ha Rin frowned. „Safe? Do you really think that there is a safe place for us in this life?”

„Yes, this place is exactly the safe place we need. Why? Dja Iun’s gang controls this motel, a territory Jackal won’t risk to check. Only if he wants to lose his head, something I doubt.”

Saying this, SolHi drank from the bottle of cognac. She did that involuntarily, although she held the bottle intending to pour more alcohol into Ha Rin’s cup. This didn’t calm her down though, and that’s why she drank one more time from the bottle, understanding that not the sleep would help her chase tiredness away but the expensive drink GhiYon gave them. „A man who had been my enemy once, but who got to be a trustful friend eventually.”