It had been a long day, a very long day, and all Kim Yoohyeon wanted to do was to take a nice long shower and relax. 

But just as she had her nice long shower and had settled on her bed with her laptop, a chill went down her spine.

She'd gotten used to the feeling. It was the feeling she'd get whenever any of the ghosts were nearby.

Come to the graveyard...

A message? 

It was only then that she remembered that she had entirely forgotten to check in on the ghosts to see if her little epiphany had worked and the last chain had broken.

Honestly, if even after all that, it hadn't broken yet, she had half a mind to take a pair of pliers to it herself.

She pulled herself out of bed, dressed warmly considering the chill and cold outside, and made her way to the graveyard. 

A normal person would have been scared, but she'd been here so many times it was like second nature to her now. 

And she knew exactly where to go as well. 

As she stood in front of a familiar gravestone, she saw the five ghosts standing in front of her, happy expressions on their faces, and definitely devoid of any hidden chambers or chains.

"Well," Sanghyuk was the first to break the silence. "You were right. An apology from Sua was the final trigger." He chuckled lightly. "I guess their idea of justice and our idea of justice differs, huh?" 

She grinned. "So it worked?"

He nodded. "Why don't you ask them yourself?"

Taekwoon then stepped forward, and for the first time, Yoohyeon saw him in his entirety, when he wasn't being pushed to the ground by chains. 

While he still wore the loose black shirt and pants as the other three ghosts, the rips and tears that had adorned the fabric were now nowhere to be seen, leaving the fabric to hang limply onto his lean form. The cuts and scrapes on the visible parts of his skin had healed, leaving behind soft skin. 

He came up to stand in front of her, and then wrapped his arms around her, surprising her. 

"Thank you," a slight whisper sounded in her ears, like a soft breeze.

He felt incredibly light, as if he was made of air, and his embrace was cool, like a winter breeze. He then stepped back, his eyes filling with moisture.

She turned to Hongbin, who had been calmly standing by watching the proceedings with a happy and relieved smile on his face. She could almost swear that the handsome guy from the photo she had seen at Yoobin's house was standing right in front of her, with the twinkle in his eyes and color returning to his face.

"You too," she told him. "If you're wondering, your sister is doing really well for herself."

His gaze shot up and the smile dropped for just a moment as he processed what she had told him. 

Even after death he still cared for her...

She'd do the same.

"She's married," she told him. "A couple of kids and a few grandkids. She did really well in life, very successful. She's living out her retirement comfortably with the man she loves."

As his eyes fell back to the leaf-strewn ground, the mischievous twinkle replaced with a loving gaze and a soft smile. 

"She's happy."

He looked up at her and raised his hands up, beginning to sign. I'm glad. he signed. Thank you for telling me. And...for setting us free... 

She smiled and she caught sight of Wonshik and Hakyeon standing quietly, fiddling with their thumbs, not really knowing how to join the conversation. 

"You two as well," she called out, making them snap their heads up. 

She took a step forward so that she was facing the both of them. "The two of you suffered a lot," she said. "Even after death you couldn't find peace. I hope now that you guys will." 

Hakyeon then stepped forward, seemingly having gathered some courage. Standing in front of her, he reached his hand out, placing it on her shoulder. 

At once, a slew of voices ran through her head.

I can't believe he could do something like that. Wasn't he the captain of the soccer team?

Yeah, who could believe he was so messed up?

His friend too, you know him, right? 

He was friends with a murderer. There's no telling what he can do to you as well. Keep your distance. 

Hakyeon? Oh my God, Hakyeon! What happened!?

He's not breathing! 

We're the only two people in the entire world who still believe him!

Ever wondered why?! 

What are you saying? 

Perhaps the court was correct in its judgement?

You'd let Taekwoon die like that? Forget him, you'd let Hakyeon die like that?

What's the point of struggling? Nobody's going to believe us.

You can't give up! You're the only one who's even on my side!

Wonshik...he's...dead...too...?

She opened her eyes and looked at them, gulping slightly. 

She knew that the three friends had suffered a lot, but she knew that what she'd just heard was nothing but a tiny taste of what they'd experienced.

Hakyeon, who had experienced the brunt of judgement by his classmates due to being Taekwoon's closest friend, and who had succumbed to the pressure in a way very similar to his friend.

Wonshik, who had fought long and hard, but had given up and turned to substance abuse, which had eventually taken his life at a very young age.

And finally Hongbin, who was the last one to hold onto hope till the very last minute when he was killed in a car accident, a complete accident of fate. 

As she looked over the four of them, she began to notice something. 

They seemed to be fading one after another, with Hakyeon and Wonshik being the first ones to fade. 

Thank you, they both mouthed as they slowly disappeared. 

Hongbin was the next to fade. He held up his hands for one final sign.

Goodbye, he signed before he vanished as well.

She closed her eyes for a quick minute, sending a quiet prayer to them to finally rest after fifty long years as she attempted to swallow the massive lump that had formed in . 

And finally, Taekwoon was the last to fade when she opened her eyes again.

The entire time, he didn't break eye contact with her, trying to convey a world of emotions and gratitude without words.

And finally, he was gone too.

"W-what's going to happen to them?" she finally asked.

Sanghyuk shrugged. "Who knows?" he wondered. "Perhaps they'll get rebirth, perhaps they'll go to heaven. Do we really know what exists beyond the threshold for us?" 

She took a deep, shaky breath. "Which brings me to my final piece."

She turned to face Sanghyuk, who faced her with a smile, as if he knew what she was going to say.

"You know what I've noticed this journey, Sanghyuk?" she asked. "The entire time I've been investigating every single person in that class, but I seemed to miss mention of a particular someone."

"Oh, do tell," Sanghyuk urged in a teasing way. 

"You, Han Sanghyuk."

He raised an eyebrow in amusement. 

"I've looked everywhere, Sanghyuk," she said. "But there's not a single mention of you anywhere. Not to mention how different you are from the other ghosts."

"Different how?" Sanghyuk really seemed to be enjoying this. 

"Well, for starters, you can talk," Yoohyeon counted on her fingers. "You follow me around while the others are always stuck in that chamber, save for when they were "recruiting" me, kind of. You're dressed in normal, human clothes. And finally, I can touch you, and you feel real."

"I feel real?" he teased. "You want to continue to touch me?"

She ignored him. "I want to know one thing and one thing only," she said. "Just who are you, Han Sanghyuk?"

The playful smirk on his face changed to a genuine smile. "Do you really need me to spell it out for you?" he asked. "You're smarter than that, you know."

She nodded. "It has been an extremely strange experience, especially your change."

"My change?"

"When you first urged me to take up this case, you were pushing it like anything. It was like your life mission was to get me to take the case. But then...as the months passed, you began to tell me to relax and take it easy, pull myself away from the case for a moment or so. You began to help me, weirdly as well."

"How?"

"It was almost like...the things you said...were my running thoughts," she said. "Second guessing, questioning, thinking. You did that for me."

She took a deep breath, pressing her palms against the sides of her body. "Then that just leaves one possibility, doesn't it?" he grinned at her.

"You're me, aren't you?" 

He released a light chuckle before nodding. "Took you long enough to say it," he said. "I know for a fact you've suspected it for weeks." 

"I'm still curious about one thing," she said. "How did the other ghosts manage to communicate their stories through you?" 

He pursed his lips. "Well, I can't say that no influencing from their side wasn't involved," he admitted sheepishly. "But you don't really remember what you saw that day, do you?"

"What day?" she asked.

"The day we first met," he clarified. "In this very graveyard. By this very gravestone." 

She turned her head to her side as she caught a glimpse of another stone beside her, one that said "Si Kwang Eop." 

She closed her eyes, going back to her memories of that day. They were hazy, incredibly hazy, and the only thing that stood out was Sanghyuk, like a red light.

She'd always thought that was odd, but now she wondered. 

She focused on her hazy memories, trying to pull a picture from them. As she focused, a fuzzy picture began to appear. She strained, trying to focus harder, and a clearer picture began to form.

At once, a picture entered her mind that made her snap her eyes open.

Sanghyuk stood in front of her, his arms folded across his chest. "You remembered, didn't you?"

She nodded. "A-at the graveyard," she stammered. "D-did I-?"

He nodded somberly. "You saw the ghosts."

Her heart stopped for a moment. She'd glimpsed the ghosts? What had actually happened that night?

"Somehow, you managed to see the four of them here when you arrived that night," Sanghyuk explained. "Your mind, however, kind of blew with the realization that ghosts existed. They took their chance and reached into your mind, altering your memories and giving shape to a kind-of "ambassador" so to say, who could get close to you."

"You..."

He nodded. "However, once you took the case, I was supposed to disappear, but I didn't because you kept me around," he clarified. "I'm essentially the part of you that acts as the devil's advocate, the part that drives the investigation forward, the part that focuses the thoughts in a particular direction." 

She moistened her incredibly dry lips. "So...does this mean I'm essentially crazy?" she asked.

He shrugged. "You tell me," he said. "But I think we both know the answer to that as well, don't we?"

"Who are you?" she asked.

"I don't know," he answered. "Probably someone you glimpsed or saw somewhere. I was made from your memories." 

"So you were never a ghost."

"No, no I wasn't. At first I was just a tool to convey the ghosts' feelings and emotions to you, and also partly a safety mechanism generated by your mind to keep it from going crazy with what you witnessed that night." 

She looked down. He stepped forward. "Hey, don't be sad," he told her. "Nothing I ever told you has been a lie."

Her mind went back to what he'd told her before. 

I'm practically a figment of your imagination.

Her mind had probably begun to piece together things and was trying to tell her, through him, about his true nature.

But...if all he'd said was true, then...

You don't need me around anymore.

She looked up. "You're going to disappear too, aren't you?" she said. "Now that the case is over?"

He nodded. "You've got a good handle on things now. You don't need another personality to help you out."

"What will happen to you?" she asked. "Will I never see you again?"

He grinned, stepping toward her. He then raised his hand to caress her cheek.

Despite knowing now that he was nothing but a figment of her imagination, her body reacted to his warmth, unlike the other ghosts. He felt like a spring breeze, while the ghosts had felt like a winter wind. 

Her hand flew to his that rested on her cheek, holding it as her eyes pooled with tears. "What if I don't want you to go?" she softly asked.

"What are you, a child?" he teased. "Come on, don't be sad."

He lifted her face up with his hand under her chin, allowing a tear to escape from her right eye. "I'm you, remember," he said. "I'll always be there for you. Besides, you don't want to get treated for schizophrenia now, do you?"

She bit her lip and shook her head.

"That's a good girl," he chuckled. "You'll be fine, you know that, right? You have much better people here in reality to help you than me." 

She nodded silently, finding her voice disappearing as clogged. 

"Perhaps...one day...you can meet the real life me," he suggested. "I'm curious to know what he's like." 

He leaned forward. "Goodbye, Yoohyeon."

Saying so, he pressed his lips to hers, causing her breath to hitch in .

His lips felt warm and nice, like a real human's, except for the fact that the feeling was slowly disappearing. The warm feeling soon gave way to the cold of the night, and she opened her eyes to find herself alone, in the middle of the graveyard. 

As her gaze fell from the sky down at the gravestone she stood in front of, she saw the familiar scratching on its surface.

JTW

Only now, there seemed to be something scribbled underneath that she hadn't noticed earlier. Perhaps Sua had written it without her knowing? It was pretty small so it would have been easy for her to miss it.

She crouched low to the ground, running her fingers on the inscription under the makeshift name.

10 November 1950 - 17 December 1968

She snuck a glance at her phone.

00:35 AM

17 December 2018

Exactly fifty years since his death...

She placed her hand over to stifle her sobs as she fell to her knees, pressing her head into the crook of her arms wrapped around her legs. 

That was where she spent the next half an hour, before she could take out her phone and dial a number.

"Hello?"

"Ken? Can you come pick me up? I don't want to go home alone tonight."

"Yoohyeon? What's wrong?"

"Nothing...I'm just feeling a little lonely tonight. I lost someone I cared for."

"Where are you? Stay there, I'll come and get you."