“It’s strange though,” Hyunseung tapped on his chin as he tried to piece all the information together and make sense out of it. It wasn’t that he had no faith or trust in Yoseob, but there were still some gaps in between that he knew they needed to figure out. “How exactly did Junhyung discover about Hongki being the murderer before you even did? You were with him most of the time and it just doesn’t make sense how he could figure it out before you. Sure, he’s not dumb and all but you’re definitely smarter and more alert than him.”


The smaller male nodded his head, frowning as he replied, “I know. It does seem impossible to have Junhyung knowing about Hongki before me. That is something we would have to find out but for now, we have to continue pretending to have fallen into Junhyung’s trap. The only good thing I can gather out of this situation is that Hongki has not went nuts. He wouldn’t harm Junhyung, yet.”


“If he catch wind of what Junhyung is planning—“


“We would have arrested him by then”, Yoseob interrupted determinedly. He wasn’t going to sit around and let that silly man of his be placed in any danger for long. Just as he was about to discuss with Hyunseung on what would be the next best step, the older male’s phone rang and was readily picked up.


“Mir’s awake.”


They wasted no time and were out of the apartment in a matter of seconds, rushing to the car and drove quickly to the hospital. As soon as they arrived, they sprinted down hallways and finally reached the well-guarded ward of Mir. Hyunseung was about to open the door when Yoseob held his hand and pulled him back, shaking his head and mouthing something as he did so.


“Let me talk to him alone.”


“Yoseob…”


“Trust me on this.”


The senior inspector could only nod his head in resignation and motioned for the other two of Yoseob’s ‘bodyguards’ to remain outside the room as the smaller male entered and closed the door behind him.


“Mir…”


“Hey...”


“You don’t look too good.”


“You don’t say…”


Silence engulfed the whole room as Yoseob took a few tentative steps forward before sitting at the edge of the bed, by the feet of Mir. He wanted to start questioning him as a police officer would but he was still known as the ‘secretary’ to Mir, therefore, he had to phrase his questions properly so as to not give himself away.


“You’re still a police officer, aren’t you?” Mir’s sudden question pierced through the silence, snapping Yoseob back into reality as he stared at him wide-eyed. “You don’t have to lie to me. I figured it out. He told me.”


The smaller male turned abruptly and was about to give a yell of surprise when a palm covered his mouth, shutting him up. His eyes grew even wider and he pushed the hand away, hissing softly, “What are you doing here?!”


“To apologize,” Woohyun stated simply as he walked over to check that the room’s door was locked and returned to sit on a chair by Mir’s bedside, facing both Mir and Yoseob at the same time.


“Someone explain to me what the hell is going on right now or I am going to punch the daylights out of you guys.”


Mir chucked softly at the smaller male and sat up straight on his bed, scooting closer to Yoseob and hugging him tightly, “You’re as feisty as ever, little police man.” The smaller male gave him an uninterested look and pushed him away lightly before glaring at Woohyun, obviously waiting for a reply from him. The last he knew, Woohyun and Mir didn’t even really talked to or worked with one another. Therefore, he has no idea why Woohyun managed to enter this high security room when he is in no way related to Mir.


“I was the one who strangled Mir”, Woohyun confessed, waiting for Yoseob’s reaction. The smaller male merely scoffed and continued glaring, waiting for more. “You’re not surprised?” Yoseob shrugged and answered the question casually, “As much as I thought that it was the murderer, I had the feeling it could be someone else because the murderer never strangles. He always uses his knife so well, now at least I have one doubt that is clarified. So tell me, why did you do that? And why does Mir looks completely calm to meet the person who almost killed him here?”


“Mir caught Hongki… well…”


“Wanking off at secretly taped video of Junhyung”, Mir finished the sentence with an unamused look that held a trace of disgust. Woohyun inhaled deeply and closed his eyes, ruffling his own hair in frustration. “Yes, Hongki loves to tape Junhyung in secrecy and would get off from those videos. I brought him to a psychiatrist, a psychologist, any medical help I could give him, I gave. But it was no use. The day Hongki told me about it, he sounded so upset and fearful. He broke down in front of me and as a brother, I thought that I should help by silencing Mir.”


Mir rolled his eyes and reached out to hug Yoseob again, only to receive a smack on his hands before retracting them back to his sides dejectedly. “That night, Woohyun hid in my office and strangled me but I guess guilt overtook him and he released me, although I was already unconscious by then.” “I ran away from the office room and up the stairs to my own office. Just as I was feeling terrible and guilty about what I had done, thinking if I had really killed someone with my bare hands, someone unexpected came into my office.”


Yoseob narrowed his eyes and sighed, “Junhyung.” Looking at Mir and Woohyun’s surprised face, he rolled his eyes and shrugged coolly, “Only two people ran in and found the unconscious Mir. That’s Doojoon and Junhyung. The murderer and I were having our own cat and mouse chase down the stairs. Amongst the two, Junhyung had a higher possibility of looking for you. But I need to know, why did he look for you?”


“While being strangled, I had grabbed Woohyun’s key chain out of his pocket, holding it tightly. At that point of time, I thought I was dying and I believed that if I held on to the key chain, there was a chance that Woohyun would be discovered to be the murderer. So while I was unconscious--”


“Junhyung saw and recognised the key chain,” Yoseob continued, his head starting to spin as he started to process the information and come to a newer realisation. It can’t be…


“Yes, and he came to look for me, knowing that the one who strangled Mir was me. He came shouting at me, asking where you were and I was utterly confused. I had not seen you at all when I was in Mir’s office room and that’s when Junhyung’s phone finally connected to yours. He asked where you were and left me alone as he ran down to find you, with me following behind but hiding from everyone. I saw how you were bleeding and I started wondering what exactly was going on, that there must be a reason why you are slashed. I saw how Junhyung freaked out and broke down as he gathered you in his arms, asking you to wake up and screaming for others to call for an ambulance.”


He shuddered momentarily as he recounted the day’s event. “The strangest thing was, I heard that he fired you the very next day. It just didn’t make sense and just as I was pondering hard, he approached me at a quiet corner of the office unexpectedly. asking me who I was trying to kill Mir for since I obviously gave up at the last minute and since I was in my office, I couldn't have slashed you. Then he stated that he can only think of hongki as the person I would do such a thing for. Of course I didn’t believe him and I even fought with him, saying that I would face up to my actions but Hongki had nothing to do with it. He then told me that there was possibility that Hongki was the murderer of his parents and although there was no concrete evidence, I had a sickening memory of Junhyung’s parents talking to Hongki right before their vacation.


Mr and Mrs Yong had told Hongki that they knew he filmed Junhyung secretly in dark corners of the office and commented that since he was a childhood friend, they would not arrest him but it really wasn’t an appropriate act. Hongki had begged them to let him continuing doing it as he was in love with Junhyung and he loved every single action and move that man does. Mr and Mrs Yong obviously didn’t agree and had told Hongki to stay away from Junhyung.”


The small police officer shifted uncomfortably as this new piece of information was being revealed to him, his heart pounding hard as he thought to himself again, ‘It can’t be…’


“Hongki came to me and said that those two were complete idiots for thinking that they could separate him from Junhyung. He begged me to do something against them but there really was no reason for me to do so. As much as I disliked the family, they had indeed been helpful to generations of my own family. I thought that was the end of it and I never suspected Hongki to be involved with the murder of them. Until Junhyung told me about his suspicions…


I love my brother but I can’t let him continue in his heinous crimes and his crazy obsession for Junhyung. It’s doing harm to him. So I agreed to help Junhyung and we staged that stairs’ scene for mainly Hongki who we knew could be on a lookout everywhwere to see.”


Yoseob shook his head, his hand clutching his heart now, ‘It really can’t be…’


Mir nodded and squeezed Yoseob’s shoulders, “He came to look for me and was allowed in because I told the guards that he was my cousin. It isn’t just to apologise. It’s also to tell me about your involvement in this case and how I can assist.”


‘It really can’t be…’ Tears started falling out of Yoseob’s eyes as he choked on his words. “Just now, I thought I made a realization that Junhyung was doing this to arrest Hongki on his own so as to protect me. Now… I just…”


“I wished he really did though,” Mir mumbled bitterly as Woohyun reached out to place his hand over Yoseob’s. “I know I’ve always been hitting on you, and yes, I would love to win Junhyung in claiming your heart. But Yoseob ah, all these trouble that Junhyung had gone through… Even I can see how much he loves you and understands you. I’ll help both you of in bringing Hongki to justice. My keychain that Junhyung purposely left in the apartment. He really meant for you to find it. Open it.”


Yoseob drew the keychain out of his pocket and stared at in confused, not knowing how to open it. Woohyun smiled and did a few twisting, pulling and fidgeting before it finally opened. The police officer read the message and knew at once that it really was written by Junhyung and that placing it in Woohyun’s keychain that can only be opened by him was to tell him that Woohyun was definitely on their side.


‘We will love if we want to love.’


It was the exact same words that Yoseob had said to Junhyung when the CEO first started speaking again, the words that Yoseob used to convince Junhyung to not fear t