"He's such a jerk! How did you become friends with him in the first place?" Minho exclaimed. Krystal kept quiet and only walked faster. She rubbed her hands against her bare arms, but held back her chattering as she began to run faster. Minho caught up with her easily, and grabbed her by her shoulder. She stopped, and was forced to turn around by Minho's forcefully jerk. He frowned, and searched in her eyes for any signs of tears or fear. 

To his surprised, there were none. 

"Let go, Minho," Krystal whispered, avoiding Minho's large eyes. "Please let go."

"No, I won't. Not until I understand," Minho responded. "Why is he messing up with you? He's a crazy guy!"

Krystal shook her head. "No. No, you wouldn't understand. Kai might scare me and L, but to us, he's absolutely kind."

Minho stared at her in disbelief. "Kind? Did you see how cold L was towards Kai? Did you see how he hates Kai to the core? Did you? How is he, as you quote, 'kind?'"

He was obviously horrified with Krystal's choice of words. Krystal bit her tongue and brushed away Minho's hand. She turned to walk, but Minho stopped her by standing in front of her. He extended his arms to the side, preventing Krystal from escaping. Finally, the woman narrowed her eyes and bitterly looked up to Minho, who continued to keep the stern frown on his face.

"Tell me, Krystal. Please." 

Krystal took a deep, shaky breath. "You… You know when I stopped bugging you before?" Minho shook his head. "Remember during the time when I stopped messing around with you there was this whole chaos between a boy losing both of his parents?"

Minho blinked his eyes. Was there such an event? He couldn't remember. He slowly shook his head, but stopped when memories banged against his head. Memories of a fire happening at a house flashed in his mind, with a younger boy sobbing in front of his home and two of what seemed to be his closest friends were next to him. Minho slowly shook his head. Can't be…

"That orphan was Kai?" Minho exclaimed. Krystal paled and covered with her hands.

"Stop it! Stop it, lower your volume!" she hissed.

"Wait, if that was Kai, then the two friends were…" Minho slightly stumbled back. "It was you and L?"

"Yes, yes! Yes, it was me and L! Quiet!" Krystal whimpered, begging Minho to lower his volume. Minho frowned and shook his head.

"I don't get it. Why are you bringing this topic up?" he asked.

"…You know how the fire started?" the young female asked. Minho shook his head. Now that he had remembered, the cause of the fire was quite mysterious, too. Krystal bit her bottom lip, then clenched her fingers into a fist. "You know who knows how it really started?"

Minho stopped. "No," he responded quickly.

At that very moment, he saw it; the fear in her tiny eyes shimmered brightly under the moonlight, her lips quivering until they seemed to have turned purple instead of cherry red. Krystal gulped nervously and stared down at her shoes.

"Kai… The three of us were playing around, but a huge accident happened. We kind of left the gas on the stove on, and… well, things began to explode. Kai… He left to live with his grandfather. He was too young to live on his own." Krystal paused, then broke into a small smile. "I guess how I treated Kai was the same way L is treating me. Kai… He is a man who loves revenge."

"So you're saying that he's aiming to kill your parents?" Minho asked quietly.

"Nope. He already burned my dress. That was his revenge against me. He's going to avenge his parents with flames or some kind of flammable use. Something that will hurt. I don't think it has to do anything with flames. As long as it hurts and it's quick. I think… his next target is L."

L and Suzy walked along the snowy roads. The young gentleman had lent her his jacket, but she had refused for a cause both did not want to hear. L already knew what would happen to their relationship. However, he continued to pretend that he didn't know. He smiled gently at Suzy, trying to charm her for their last moments.

Suzy refused to meet his eyes. Instead, she parted her lips to speak. "L." Her voice was more forceful and demanding, as if she needed his attention desperately.

L turned around and heaved a sigh. "Yes, sweetie?"

"Stop with the sweet-talk. You're making this harder than it already is," she snapped.

"Making what harder?" L asked innocently. They were at her house, ready to part. Suzy glanced around the dark neighborhood, seeing if there was anyone near them or able to see them. Then, she raised her delicate hand high in the air near her head.

Slap! L's cheeks were bright red, stinging with pain just when Suzy ran her hand across his cheek. The man shamefully stared down at his shoes, and slowly rubbed his sore cheeks. He saw drops of water fall to the ground, melting the snow during the process. However, these weren't his tears. They were Suzy's.

"I'm breaking up with you," Suzy sobbed. "I… I want to be loved by someone who won't use me as an escape rope."

L stood still in silence. "I understand."

"I… I hope you understand w-why I'm doing this," Suzy whimpered. She began to cover her hand with her lips, trying to hold back her sobs. L, knowing that Suzy wouldn't want him to see her teary expression, continued to stare down.

"To be honest, Suzy, I don't," he confessed. "I don't see why you want to break up with me. Aren't I good enough for you? I apologized and got your phone back."

"That's not it. That's definitely not it," she breathed. "You… You looked at me straight into my eyes and said that you loved me, but you never meant a single word, did you? You looked at me into my eyes, and you lied."

L kept quiet. All he could think of was one word: Oh. He finally gathered the courage to look up into Suzy's watery eyes. Pain stabbed his chest, but all he did was stare and nod his head. If he could, he could've kissed her and win her heart back. However, what mattered to him now was comforting the poor girl who he never meant to harm. His large arms wrapped themselves around the sobbing woman, squeezing her with warmth and apology. 

"Suzy," L whispered. "I might've lied to you, and I might've used you, but every time I said that I love you, I sincerely meant it."

At that moment of time, Suzy began to cry harder. Although his final words were sweet and awing, she began to cry because she could no longer trust the man who had lied to indirectly hurt her.

"He's late."

"Sweetie, maybe he's just hanging around with his friends. Give him a break. He's still a high school student."

"But he's my son. He's my perfect son. A perfect son knows his mother very well, and he also knows that his mother would worry if he doesn't come home by his curfew."

"What curfew? You gave a curfew for a high school student?" L's father laughed and flipped a page of his book. "You're too worried over your own son."

"No, sweetie. What is he's hanging around with… you know, that rat?" L's mother pointed out. In seconds, the father's face frowned and was darkened with worry and disappointment. 

"Oh. Yes, it's possible that he can be around her." He paused, then laughed again. "But that's impossible. According to one of the students attending at his school, he's currently dating the smartest and most popular girl. I think her name is Suzy? We don't have to worry about her if Suzy is there for him."

"Still. I don't like it when I see him near or even a few miles away from her."

"So you still hold a grudge against that child? Even if her parents were the one who began to beat Myungsoo up with a stick?"

"You don't understand! He was just a child! If that rat hadn't been so spoiled, this would've never happened!" The mother narrowed her eyes at her husband and glared at him. "I bet you never knew that when he was younger, he would take off his shirt and looked through his bruises and scars. Sweetie, if we hadn't blocked connection between the two, he could've committed suicide. I don't want my child to die! Any reasonable mother wouldn't want their child to do such a thing!"

Ding Dong! Not wasting a second, L's mother shot up from her seat and ran straight to the door. L's father continued to read his book, sitting at the same comfy couch. Suddenly, he arched his eyebrows and looked up from his book.

Wait. L has the keys. Why would he ring the doorbell…

The next sound the father heard was a woman's scream.