„Tell me that’s a lie!” DooSan shouted, entering Iun Min Hiok’s office. „Tell me that’s not true what I’ve heard listening to that record.”

Min Hiok, hearing the slammed door and DooSan’s shouts, looked at him above his glasses, at all bothered to see his friend acting like that. Eventually, seeing Kan’s phone in DooSan’s hand, he understood why DooSan was outraged. Even so, he didn’t seem too bothered because of this. He only took off the glasses, put them on the desk, and told DooSan in a demanding voice, „Close that door!”

„What?” DooSan shouted. „This is all that you can say?”

„Yeah. That’s why, close that fucking door, Han DooSan! This is an order because… what you have heard in that record is my secret. YuSan’s and mine. So, close the door and sit on the couch! And… make sure first that nobody heard you yelling like a desperate man!”

Reluctantly, DooSan approached the door, looking through it to see if there was someone in the corridor, and when he made sure nobody was there, he closed the door. After that, he looked at Iun Min Hiok, who was already standing and pouring some whisky into two glasses. „Happy now? The door is closed!” DooSan growled.

„Wonderful! Now, take a seat!” Min Hiok calmly said, giving DooSan a glass of whisky.

„Ia, Iun Min Hiok, are you kidding me right now?” DooSan shouted again, bothered by his friend’s calmness.

„Absolutely… not. Yet, I’m relishing the suffering from your soul, I must accept that.”

DooSan squinted at Min Hiok, wondering, „Has he lost his mind or what?” Then, from one sip, he drank the whisky. After that, he looked at Min Hiok again, who was playing with the drink from his glass, which he was slowly moving on the glass’s wall.

„Yes, Han DooSan, I enjoy seeing you suffering,” murmured Min Hiok eventually, drinking from his whisky.

„Why?” Asked DooSan, thunderstruck.

„Because my friend, Han YuSan, suffered because of you.” Min Hiok focused his glance on the confused one of DooSan. „If you had listened to what he tried to tell you then, probably nothing of what happened would have happened and both YuSan and your child would have been alive, and SolHi would have been free now. Yet, you hadn’t listened to him that day. This makes me blame you for everything.”

Squeezing the glass in his hand, DooSan finally sat on that couch. His eyes were focused in front because he understood nothing of what was happening to him at that moment. Damn, he definitely couldn’t understand anything: neither how SolHi resulted to be the girl with whom he spent the night in that motel room, both dead drunk nor how he was her child’s father, the child SolHi lost that night. Because of this, DooSan shook his head and murmured, „It can’t be! This can’t be true! SolHi and I… we never spent the night together. She couldn’t have expected my child, Min Hiok. This can’t be!”

Prosecutor Iun, as calm as always, finished his drink and left the glass on the coffee table that was between the couch on which DooSan was sitting and his couch. After that, he looked at DooSan, whom he saw with his head bowed, confused, and tormented. Then, sitting on the coffee table, Min Hiok rested a hand on DooSan’s shoulder, forcing this one to look at him when Min Hiok said, „I know that it’s hard for you to believe this, DooSan, but it’s the truth!”

Looking into Min Hiok’s eyes, DooSan shook his head. „But it’s impossible! I don’t recognize her! Another girl spent the night with me then. Another girl, Min Hiok.”

„Are you sure of this?”

„No,” murmured DooSan, looking elsewhere.

„YuSan was sure though.” Min Hiok’s answer made DooSan attentive. That’s why he looked at him again. „Why was YuSan so sure of this? Because he saw you two leaving the bar together that night.”

„This doesn’t mean we’ve spent the night together. I could have driven her home and then…”

„Come on, DooSan, let’s be serious now! To drive her home? Another day maybe, but not that night and not how you looked. Why? You were both drunk and not… let’s say not in the mood to sleep only.”

„Not in the mood to sleep only? What the hell are you talking about?”

„I am talking about the fact that you were both… how to say it to sound nice… too hot to sleep alone?”

„Ia!”

„Yeah, I know! I went too far saying this. Yet, it’s the truth!”

„OK, let’s say that it’s true what you say. Then… why SolHi pretend not to know me? Why did she say in Court that the child she was expecting then was YuSan’s and that she killed him because… someone told her to do that?”

„What do I know?! She didn’t want to accept that she knew you or maybe she didn’t remember this? Let’s not forget that the two of you were dead drunk that night. More than that, someone ran like a coward the next morning without seeing her face too. This makes me think that she also doesn’t know with whom she has spent that night. Related to what she said in Court… I have no idea. Yet, Kan and I are suspecting that she…”

„…lied because of Lee?”

„Mmm. Although I don’t know why she has done that.”

„Honestly, I also don’t know anything right now. It’s too confusing… everything. I don’t believe this. I can’t believe this,” murmured DooSan, covering his face with his palms. „It’s too much to believe this.”

„Then, go and see your friend. The forensic doctor. Park or Pack, as it’s his name.”

„Park GhiYon? What has he to do with all this?”

„Of course, he has. He is a forensic doctor, who has access to a lot of evidence. Because of this, I asked him to investigate something for me. And, as I think he has the result already because I asked him for this a few days ago, you can go and see the result alone. You deserve this.”

DooSan deeply looked into Min Hiok’s eyes, where he saw an impressive calmness again because Iun Min Hiok was so: always calm and calculated. Then, DooSan asked, „Why are you doing all this, Min Hiok? More than that, why haven’t you said a word about this all these years?”

„Because I forgot this!” Min Hiok bitterly smiled, looking at the ground. „Yes, I forgot the conversation YuSan and I had that night. We drank a lot that night, and… when I woke up the next morning, he was gone and his phone on the table.”

„YuSan’s phone? This is impossible! We found it in that abandoned warehouse where…”

„That one was probably YuSan’s new phone. I have the old one. I think he left it in my apartment because of the record.”

„But… why did my brother do that?”

„I don’t know, DooSan. Only YuSan can answer this question. Yet, once he’s gone…”

DooSan suddenly rubbed his face, trying to chase the confusion away. Something he didn’t manage to do eventually. On the contrary, he felt even more confused than before. Eventually, he stood up and headed toward the door, saying nothing else. He stopped eventually when Min Hiok told him, „DooSan, wait! I think you should have this!”

Slowly turning toward Min Hiok, DooSan saw his friend heading toward his desk. Then, he saw prosecutor Iun taking the key he always wore at his neck, which he used to open the small seif he had next to his desk, from where he took a phone. After that, he approached DooSan, to whom he gave that phone, saying, „You have the right to have it, more than I have it because… this phone keeps things that belong to you.”

„Things that belong to me?” DooSan asked, confused.

„Mmm, check its content when you are alone. And, if you want to find out the truth, keep this phone secret even from Kan. From everybody, DooSan… even from SolHi.”

„Even from SolHi? Why?”

„Because we don’t know the truth, DooSan. More than that, even if she’s not guilty, she has lied to everybody that she is. This should make us think about her reasons, don’t you think so?”

DooSan said nothing because Min Hiok was right eventually: SolHi lied. She lied so many times before that he wasn’t sure of what was true and what was not. More than that, if Iun Min Hiok and Kan were right, and someone had used her, telling her that he knew her secret could have put her in danger too. It could have put everybody in danger. And… although he wasn’t sure anymore of what he felt for her, DooSan preferred to know that she was safe. For the moment. At least until he would have found the truth and how much she was involved in all that. Thus, understanding prosecutor Iun’s message, DooSan nodded and put the phone into his pocket.

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

„Take care of you!” Min Hiok told him after this, calmly smiling although he hadn’t a reason to smile. The same did DooSan, intending to hide what he felt at that moment. And, to make sure that Iun Min Hiok understood his reasons, DooSan put a hand on the shoulder of his beloved brother’s friend, who became his friend too. After that, DooSan left the office, carefully closing the door behind him.

Alone in the office, Min Hiok took his phone out of his pocket and looked for a photo of him and YuSan. He found it: that photo where both of them were smiling while resting their arms on the other one’s shoulders. And, looking at that photo, Min Hiok said, „It’s time to be revenged, brother! It’s time to make you justice and she to pay for what she has done to you.”

Then, squeezing the phone hard, Min Hiok looked with hatred in front, drinking the whisky from one sip, which he poured after DooSan left. Something was strange about him while Min Hiok did this… his usual calmness was gone. And… Why did he have a scar on his chin???

***

„Are you sure of this?” DooSan asked GhiYon while squeezing an A4 sheet of paper in his hand - the result of some tests while he had the envelope of them in the other hand.

„The result isn’t fake, DooSan. That child was yours.”

„But… how is this possible, GhiYon? Why I don’t remember this?”

„I don’t know my friend, but it’s the truth.”

„Damn you all,” shouted DooSan, throwing a 3D cubic against the wall, which he grabbed from GhiYon’s desk. After hitting the wall, the cube rolled on the floor, hiding under one of the chairs.

„You know that destroying things won’t help you in anything, right?” GhiYon calmly said.

„Tell me something new,” hissed DooSan through his teeth while heading toward the door.

„Where are you going?”

„To hell,” replied DooSan feistily, slamming the door behind him.

GhiYon smiled with no malice. „A hell you will regret tomorrow. Yet, you looked for it, my friend.” After that, shrugging, he sat at the desk again, trying to continue his work. Yet, he couldn’t focus. That’s why, a few minutes later, he stood up and approached the window. Looking through the window, he saw the rear lights of DooSan’s car turned on while prosecutor Han’s black car left the yard of the CNS.

„Ah, DooSan, ah!” Murmured GhiYon, reproachfully shaking his head. „You never listen to anyone! If you had done this, we would have found out the truth a long time ago, and you wouldn’t have tormented yourself so much. Yet, it’s too late to change something. Too late.”

Yet… was it really too late, as everybody tried to convince DooSan that it was? Only God knew this, just as only God knew about the storm from DooSan’s soul while he drove on Seoul’s streets, having millions of questions in his head, questions that had no answer, just as the regrets were crowding at the Gate of his Soul like the sinners at the Gates of Hell.

Understanding this, DooSan murmured, „I said for nothing that I want to go to hell today.” He said that while looking at the envelope of the analysis that was on the passenger’s seat. „Yet, I need so much to pass by there today… to see if that hell looks worse than this one in which I live today.” After that, pressing the gas pedal to the brim and changing gears, DooSan made that car race like a soul in pain while heading toward „hell.”

Seeing hell wasn’t something given to DooSan to see that night because, just as each time he raced on the crowded streets of Seoul city, DooSan calmed down and stopped the car on the highway, far above the city, in a high place where Seoul city could be seen as though having it in your palm. Yet, neither the beauty nor the calmness of the place convinced DooSan to leave his car and fully enjoy the sights. He only looked for a long time at the lights that were blinking in front of him: multicolored lights, powerful lights, like sparkles of hope, which he needed so much. Then, he looked at the analysis envelope again, which kept the result of that test inside, a result that would have made his heart sing with joy at that moment, but which would have made him so unhappy eight years ago.

„Is it because I’ve refused to see something obvious?” DooSan sadly murmured, eyes on the envelope. „Am I really guilty of this hell?”

Yet, there wasn’t anybody to answer these questions because the envelope didn’t have a mouth to do that. Only the result about „what probability was for SolHi’s child to be his” was saying something. A result that was clear at that moment and which informed him, on the right corner of the A4 sheet of paper, that there was a probability of 99.999% for that child to be his.

That result made DooSan feel so confused because he never thought about that probability, although he felt that SolHi was someone he had cared about before, someone he knew. Then… there were the memories of the kisses, the caresses, and the rest, which were desperately asking him to accept reality. Yet, DooSan was stubborn and wasn’t ready to accept the truth.

Something that DooSan regretted eventually, but it was too late: YuSan was dead, SolHi - in prison, and he… well, he had his soul in flames because he lost everything from one shot. At the same time, he felt powerless because he would have liked to turn back time and change something, but it was something impossible, just as it was impossible to solve that complicated puzzle he had in front of him.

Eventually, DooSan murmured, „Why, SolHi? Why should we experience all this?” He said that while shedding bitter tears, with his eyes focused on the phone’s screen where a photo of him and SolHi was seen… a photo of both of them happily smiling. She wore a white dress in that photo and had her hair falling in dark brown waves on her back while he wore a white shirt because he met her for the first time the night he celebrated his birthday.

That phone, which Min Hiok gave him that night, was his and not of YuSan. That phone was the one he thought he had lost that night. Yet, he didn’t lose it. It was only something YuSan took from him for an unknown reason. Yet, DooSan didn’t think about this… that someone took that phone from him but that he lost it, just as he lost his father’s gift that night. Even so, he didn’t remember any of these two things because he considered them unimportant, something that he regretted at that moment. Yes, DooSan regretted that he didn’t at least try to find his phone and find out the truth. If he had done this, he would have remembered SolHi or at least he would have recognized her over the years and wouldn’t have allowed her to leave him, lie to him, and betray him…

***

The door of the roof was suddenly opened and SolHi was pushed in front, forced to advance. Tripping over the threshold, she’d been about to fall. Something she managed to avoid eventually, then looked furiously at the guard, the same woman who had asked her a few days ago what she and Lee SoRan talked about.

Seeing the guardian threatening her with the truncheon, a hint that if she had stopped then, she would have been harshly punished, SolHi frowned. She didn’t turn her back to the guardian as this one expected, and SolHi did that because she wasn’t afraid of pain or blows anymore, just as she wasn’t afraid of problems. Yet, she tried to avoid them as often as possible. That’s why she turned her back to the guard in the end and looked in front, freezing. The reason? She saw a man at the edge of the roof, with his hands in his pockets, and looking in the distance.

„This can’t be,” murmured SolHi. „No, this isn’t fair.” After that, she tried to leave the roof, but the guardian grabbed her by the arm, roughing her up:

„Which way? Only in front!”

The guardian’s demanding voice made DooSan turn and insistently look at them. Not the same thing SolHi did, who looked elsewhere but not at him. Thus, she allowed him to see her messed hair, negligently cut as though someone had tried to unshape her look, just as he saw the wounds on her face, neck, arms, and the bandage on her hand. Yet, although he saw all this, no muscle moved on his face, something that made the guardian attentive, who smiled eventually.

Because of this, the guardian didn’t oppose when DooSan demanded her, „Leave us alone!”

„No problem, Prosecutor Han!” The guardian rushed to answer. Then she pulled back. She did that so fast that it seemed strange to SolHi.

SolHi smiled eventually, understanding that DooSan had paid the guardian to let him see her. Yet, why there? Why not in the Visiting Room? And… why was he so close to the edge of the roof? What was he pretending? What did he intend to do?

With all these questions in her head, SolHi watched DooSan for a long time. At the same time, she was admiring him because… DooSan looked so handsome that day. He wore a suit, an white impeccable shirt, no tie, with two buttons opened at the collar, something that outlined his long white neck. Yet, what made SolHi attentive was his glance: sharp, cold, implacable.

Seeing his glance, SolHi frowned. „I hadn’t ever expected our reunion to be this way,” she murmured, lowering her glance. Then, unwillingly, she ran her hands through her hair, trying to arrange it at least as possible.

„If not this way, how did you expect to see me again, SolHi?” DooSan asked her, taking a few steps toward her, not losing sight of her. His sure voice, which said those harsh words, made SolHi wince because she thought that she had said what she said before only in her head. Yet, she whispered those words and DooSan heard them. He heard them although she didn’t want this. „Mmm?” The man insisted, which made SolHi look elsewhere again when he stared straight at her.

„Nothing,” she murmured eventually, looking randomly at that roof and slowly biting her lips. She was doing this while feeling ashamed because… she felt so insignificant, so dirty, so low in his eyes, wearing that blue prison suit with the 613 number on a red cloth: the symbol of the prisoners sentenced to death.

„Mmm, nothing,” murmured DooSan, disappointed. Then, he smiled. „I thought you would tell me something more than this when you had seen me, but… it seems that I’ve been wrong. Or maybe not? Maybe I had never meant anything to you if you don’t want to say at least something to me, isn’t it so?”

„No,” SolHi suddenly said. „I just…”

„You just…?” Insisted the man, heading at a slow but sure step toward her. One step from her, DooSan stopped and stared into her eyes.

SolHi didn’t avoid looking into his eyes this time. No, she deeply looked into them at that moment because she felt the urge to do that. Yet, while doing this, she tried not to let him know that she had missed them and she wanted to see him, but, being a coward, she had chased him away from her so many times before. At the same time, she had to let him know that she was fine there and that she was where she belonged. Why did she do that? Because SolHi was stubborn and didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing that she regretted what she did, although she knew that he was happy seeing her there. She was seeing this in his cold glance, in the empty glance where she saw no love for her.

Eventually, she smiled. Then, looking at him, she thought, „Everything has been an illusion. There can’t be love between us. There can’t be feelings between us. Just hatred. Isn’t it, DooSan?”

„You are right,” DooSan suddenly said as though reading her mind. „It’s all about hatred, Ian SolHi. It’s all about revenge.” Then, suddenly, he grabbed the collar of her shirt with both hands, squeezed it, and pushed her with all his force toward the edge of the roof. DooSan stopped only when he saw SolHi’s right foot almost stepping into the void, where he planned to throw her in the end too. Their glances, focused on each other, perfectly reflected their hidden feelings, which none of them wanted to show openly: one looked for revenge while the other one was looking for salvation. Yes, SolHi looked for the end of her suffering in the arms of love while being at the edge of that roof…