It was not daylight yet but Hyesung had jostled up from his nightmare.

Those stone statutes in the woods appeared in his dream, laughing, crying, screaming or baring their teeth and fangs which were horrifying. They were circling in the woods as if they were eyeing their prey and Hyesung was the prey.

Hyesung wiped off the sweat on his forehead and he decided to wake up, walking over to the windows. The images from his dream were so real that he was still shivering. He lifted the curtain apart and looked out of the windows. About 1 to 2 seconds later, Hyesung saw a figure walking across the lawn and into the woods. Hyesung had momentarily forgotten to breathe and instinctively, he turned and grabbed the jacket on one of the post of the bed. Hyesung flung the jacket over himself and rushed out of his bedroom, running over to Eric's room.

"Sungie, what happen?" Eric had apparently just woke up and he opened the door after a few knocks. He was surprised to see Hyesung outside his bedroom.

"Leave the questions for later. Follow me out now!" Hyesung grabbed Eric's wrist and dragged him down the staircase, " Sshhh, be quiet." Hyesung turned and reminded Eric.

 Eric was confused but he followed Hyesung obediently. Swiftly, they descended to ground floor, through the back door from the kitchen, down a small flight of stairs, cut across the green lawn and into the woods.

A gust of morning breeze waved through and the temperature in the woods dropped by a few degree celsius. The sounds from the fluttering leaves and branches resembled the sea waves hitting the sandy shores.

"Earlier on, I saw someone entering into the woods." Hyesung lowered his voice to talk to Eric.

"Someone went into the woods? Are you sure?" Eric's facial expressions tensed up.

The Mun mansion had been passed down for a few generations and this type of old residence had numerous taboos. One of which was pertaining to the woods. In the daytime, the thick foliage resulted in a cool and shady place inside the woods. As the times went by, probably some germs or bacteria strive in the damp and dark environment, hence it was advisable for the physical weak to refrain from entering into the woods. For the night time, it was needless to caution for entering inside due the unknown lurking dangers.

"Yes, I am absolutely sure!" While Hyesung replied to Eric, he had dragged Eric around some short bushes. Technically, the bushes could not be considered short as they were slightly above 1 meter.

"Sungie, it can't be. You must have make a mistake." Eric frowned and muttered.

No matter be it a member of the Mun or any servant working for the Mun, all had been warned to avoid entering into the woods. Bevause one could lost their way in the dark and misty woods. 

"Sshhh." While Eric was muttering, Hyesung tugged at him and motioned him to remain quiet.

Based on his memories from a few days ago, Hyesung pulled Eric over a few large trees whereby their trunks could only be held by 3 adult persons. Looking ahead, about 100 to 200 meters; there was some lights flickering. 

Judging by the sight of it, it was not from torchlight. The flickering orange glow swayed sway and resembled more of candle light or oil lamp light. But this was a modern era and why would anyone use candle light or oil lamp?

"Be careful!" Eric gestured with his chin.

"I know." Hyesung had his gut feeling that this woods held hidden secrets," Who do you think it was?"  Hyesung was referring to the identity of the person holding a candle or oil lamp wandering in the woods at dawn.

Eric shrugged his shoulders and indicated that he was clueless.

"Let's get closer." Hyesung grabbed Eric's hand. They hid behind the thick tree trunk and sneaked their way closer to the source of light.

To prevent themselves from being discovered, Hyesung and Eric maintained a distance of about 40 to 50 meters from the light. They followed by circling round the trees in the woods and eventually, they got out of the woods. From a glance, Hyesung recognized the vast undergrowth to be the place where he had crawled his way through then.

A sudden gust of wind hit their back and both Eric and Hyesung shivered.

The light flickered from the inner depth of the undergrowth. Whether to follow up or gave up, Hyesung had already made up his mind. In order to exonerate the fear in the heart, the best way would be to find out the truth.

"I recalled that there was something like a path inside." Hyesung pointed to the undergrowth 

Hyesung still remembered that after going through the undergrowth, the weird stone statute could be seen. Not only was it weird but scary too. 

"How did you...." Eric could not finish his sentence because he was dragged down by Hyesung into the undergrowth. Eric saw Hyesung crawling away and parted some of the stems. Sure enough, a stone statute appeared before them. 

The statute was weird and especially the eyes strike fear in the heart.

"Take a look at this." Hyesung pointed at the ground. The small white bones scattered in the damp and smelly soil.

"What... is this?" Eric's face turned pale.

"I believe that it could the bones of rats or rodents?" Hyesung looked at Eric's gaze. Quickly, Hyesung stoop down and prepared to crawl again. Eric quickly followed when he saw that.

As the space in the undergrowth was so narrow and allowed for 1 person to go through, Eric and Hyesung were crawling behind one another. Hyesung was in front of Eric. Similar to the last experience, Hyesung sustained scratches on his hands and legs. As for Eric, he was in a worse state due to his bigger build. Not only was his hands and legs being scratched, his face and body was not spared. After crawling for sometime,  they sustained a lot of scratches.

"Sshhh." Hyesung stopped as light was seen in front of him. With his sudden stop, Eric almost bumped into him from behind.

"What?"

"Don't talk." Hyesung hissed in a low tone while staring in front.  The orange glow was near and it casted an orange glow all over. While lowering his head, Hyesung discovered something queer.

The last time, Hyesung followed the bones and found the undergrowth. He found the second stone statute in the undergrowth and the bones were scattered a long way inside the undergrowth. It even continued till the end of the undergrowth and towards the fourth stone statute, and to the old well. 

But! Hyesung realized that the bones were no longer in the same swamp soil. 

Did he missed out anything?

Could there be another divergence in the undergrowth?

Thinking of the second option, Hyesung was unable to retract as Eric was behind him.

"What? What happen in front, Sungie?" Eric continued asking as he saw that Hyesung did not move for a long time.

Hyesung thought for a while and turned his head over his shoulder, " Nothing. "

After he answered that,  Hyesung saw that the light was gone. As the mist around the undergrowth started to dispersed, the skies started to brighten up.

"Let's get out?" Hyesung spoke.

Seeing that the orange light was gone, there was no way that they could follow it anymore to trace the person. It seemed that Hyesung lost the person this time. Hyesung continued to crawl out of the undergrowth and just as he anticipated,  he did not see the stone statute.

"This is.... the  ancestral hall?" Eric came up from behind Hyesung and he was surprised after he scanned the surroundings. 

Till now, after hearing Eric's comments, did Hyesung woke up from his thoughts. It was the Mun ' s family ancestral hall, the place behind the green doors.

This was the same position that Hyesung was at after he followed the sleep walking Eric. Hyesung was 100% sure that there was more than one path in the undergrowth to reach to the Mun ' s ancestral hall and probably he could find the old well which he seen that day. If he missed a turn or what along the way, Hyesung would miss the old well too.

"Er. Young master. Why are you here?" While Eric and Hyesung were deep in their thoughts, Halmeoni's voice came from inside of the ancestral hall.

"Oh. Sungie and me are strolling about before breakfast time." Eric coughed to mask his embarassment.

Compared to Eric, Hyesung was focusing on Halmeoni, especially so at the kerosene lamp in her hand. Hyesung could see a faint smoke on the extinguished wick of the lamp.

"I heard some movement in the mansion and so I came to check it out. I could not find the torchlight and so I just took this lamp to use." Halmeoni quickly explained as she saw Hyesung's gaze focusing on the lamp.

Halmeoni was lying because Hyesung could see the water droplet evaporating from Halmeoni's hair. Hyesung saw through her lie. If the person that Hyesung saw from his window was Halmeoni and so she was definitely the one inside the woods with the lamp. However, Hyesung could not explain why halmeoni did not have a single scratch on her. Unless Halmeoni did not enter into the ancestral hall via the undergrowth.

"Oh I see. Oh right halmeoni, why are you inside the ancestral hall?" Eric seemed to ask a question that was bugging in Hyesung's mind.

"I heard movement in the mansion,  and thought that you......" Halmeoni stopped abruptly after looking at Eric.

Eric was aware that Halmeoni assumed that he was sleepwalking again and so she woke up and ran to the ancestral hall.

Eric believed halmeoni but not Hyesung. From the bottom of his heart, Hyesung found the mansion was strange since the day he first came here and without a doubt, Halmeoni was even more strange.

A servant whom knew more about the mansion than the owner plus being the third generation working as the head housekeeper in the family, what was the relationship with the mansion? 

As Halmeoni mentioned, if she was worried about Eric being sleepwalking; she could have open the green door to the ancestral hall like the last time? And not entered into the woods, wandered around without knowing how she came here. The lies might have deceived a kid but definitely not Hyesung.

                                    *************************

Dongwan was surprised when Hyesung called him.

There was a cafe next to the hospital which was about 5 minutes walk away. Due to it's convenient location, many doctors and nurses came here for meal or breaks.

Pushing the door of the cafe, the bells jingled and he rapidly found Hyesung at a corner, next to a window.

"Is there anything urgent that you look for me?" Dongwan came close without making much noise.

Hyesung was scared by his sudden speech and knocked his knees under the table.

"Did I scare you?" Dongwan smirked and he did not seem apologetic for his action.

Hyesung glared at him and rolled his eyes," Are you dumb? What would I be looking for you if I do not have nothing."

"Well, maybe you think that I am a nice guy and you had special feeling for me. Thus, you used this as an excuse to ask me out on a date?" Dongwan had been very stressed in his investigations and so he wanted to play a prank on Hyesung.

"Dream on!" Hyesung continued to roll his eyes. He really wanted to smack Dongwan onto the wall.

Dongwan chuckled," Alright. So why are you looking for me?"

At this time, the waiter with a menu came up towards their table. To prevent their conversation from being interrupted, he waved his hand," Give me a cup of Americano."

The waiter nodded, wrote on his notepad and left.  Dongwan pulled the chair and just when he sat down, Hyesung spoke," Can you help me check on someone?"

"Who on earth made our great Dr Shin to be so interested to beg me to do a check?"

"I did not beg you!"

"Fine. Who on earth is that person that made Dr Shin trouble me to check?" Dongwan supported his chin with his left hand.

Hyesung had never knew that he had the habit to glare at people except for the person in front of him. "Jung Yoonmi ."

"Huh?"

"She is an old housekeeper with the Mun family and everyone calls her Halmeoni." Hyesung was still unsure of the answers that he could get from checking on Halmeoni but he found her suspicious.

Especially what Hyesung been through this morning, his gut feeling told him so. If Dongwan's deduction was that Eric was the murderer of the series murder cases, it could be highly possible that the murderer was someone close to Eric, someone who knew well about the Mun family.

Was the aim to frame someone? Or some other ulterior motive?

Imagine,  placing Eric as the centre point of a mindmap; Jihoon hyung was Eric's psychiatric doctor. As for the deceased, apart from Jihoon hyung's wife, they were similar to Eric for being Jihoon hyung's patients.

Professor Yoon ever mentioned that the victims were used as a vessel to breed the Snow worm.

Everything seemed clearer: the murderer made use of Eric to befriend Jihoon hyung and in turn knew the deceased. Thereafter,  the murderer framed Eric for everything.

And for someone capable to pull through all these, that person definitely knew Eric well. So the murderer could be someone in the Mun family and stayed in the mansion!

"Huh?  You want me to check on an old housekeeper?" Dongwan would not do anything till he knew the purpose.

"I had my suspicion but I can't tell you now." To Hyesung, the prime suspect in the Mun family was Halmeoni," Oh her age would be around late 60s."

"Why can't you tell me?" Despite Dongwan questioning,  he fished out his notebook and scribbled the details," You are saying her name....."

"Jung Yoonmi." Hyesung took Dongwan's pen and wrote in the notebook.

Dongwan eyed the name," You have yet to reveal why you want me to check on her?"

Hyesung rubbed his temple," You are so persistent." It seemed that Dongwan would not help if Hyesung refused to reveal his thinking.

"You mean you only realize this now?" Dongwan chuckled.

Hyesung gave up and he let out a sigh," You suspected Eric to be the murderer."

"Correct! Not only suspect but it's highly suspect."

"But I beg to differ. I am the alibi for Eric. When the cases happened, Eric is with me. If you insist that he is the murderer then I am his accomplice. Or unless Eric is able to split himself into 2 persons. One Eric with me and the other Eric commit the crime."

Dongwan burst out laughing as if he heard the most hilarious thing." Are you serious?"

"Yah. The problem lies here. Splitting into 2 persons is ridiculous right?  If Eric is not the murderer and the murderer happens to kill several people who are related to Eric, the only explanation will be: the murderer knew everythibg about Eric. His family background,  his circle of friends, his workplace and etc. And the housekeeper fulfilled those criteria."

"Can we not repeat this issue?" The 2 of them had argued several times over Eric was or was not the murderer.

"We are not." Hyesung took a deep breathe and his eyes burnt with fiery for wanting to defend Eric," Let change to another point of view. If Eric is not the culprit, the murderer will definitely be someone who knows Eric well. And the murderer kill all those victims to conceal the truth of something."

Dongwan wiped off the smiles on his face as he was unable to shot back at Hyesung's reasoning," From your view.... the housekeeper aka halmeoni is the prime suspect? "

Hyesung nodded vigorously. 

"You said that she is in her 60s?" Dongwan frowned.

"Yes." Did age matter if Halmeoni was the culprit?

"You still recall Dr Jihoon's body in the basement carpark?" Dongwan questioned.

Hyesung nodded again.

Of course.  Hyesung remembered and he believed that he would never forget Jihoon hyung's body being hung from the beam while his blood dripped down. His empty eye socket with the eye ball being and coupled with the charred face.

"So, what is it with her age? You mean she is too old to be the culprit?" Hyesung brushed through his hair in frustration as he wanted to erase that scene from his memories.

"Do you think its possible for a 60 plus years old woman to possess the strength to hoist Dr Jihoon up to hang there?" In Dongwan ' s knowledge, it seemed impossible. 

"......." it's Hyesung's turn to become speechless. " What you just pointed out is sound. Maybe the murderer uses a method that we didn't think of. To hang up a heavy object doesn't necessary require pure strength."

"You are also right in some way." Dongwan was contemplating to revisit the scene.

"Are you going to help or not?" If Halmeoni was the culprit then Hyesung had to find the evidence to bring her to justice.

"To check on Jung Yoonmi?" Dongwan snorted.

Dongwan would definitely help as he also wanted to solve the cases soon. It was not only his job but his duty to do so. However, Dongwan still suspect Eric.

"I will do a thorough background check on Jung Yoonmi but you have to render your help to me too."

"What do you need my help in?" Hyesung rolled his eyes and started rubbing his 'soon-to-appear' headache. Why was it that Dongwan had so much terms and conditions in his investigation?

"I want to get into Eric's office to check on something. Are you able to do that?" Dongwan still believed his instinct on Eric being suspicious. 

"What....." So Hyesung learnt that Dongwan was still suspecting Eric," Aishi, fine. I will help." Hyesung gritted his teeth and was determined to prove Eric's innocence. Maybe this was not such a bad idea afterall.