AUTHOR'S LAST REMINDER: THIS IS THE SEQUEL TO "A LOVE TO KILL FOR".

“This marks the sixteenth victim in the past six months. The most recent victim was Jung Seungho, a 17 year old boy who was just finishing up high school. On the way back from school, he had decided to take a dimly lit shortcut where he was met the perpetrator and suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the head. Like the others, he was a 175cm tall boy with relatively short dark brown hair. The culprit has not been caught, but it has been concluded that this crime was committed by the same serial killer who has been out targeting teenager – ”

Click.

A girl sighs as she places the television remote down on the counter. Every single day, the news kept on reporting on the same heinous crimes that was believed to be committed by the same person. However, they never gave out any updates on if the police were any closer to catching the killer. They never released a sketch of a possible suspect. They never even provided any hints as to who could be behind all this criminal activity. As a result, she never understood the relevance of the reports.

What is the point in alarming the residents?

“Anything new?” her co-worker glanced over his shoulder as he finished washing up the dishes. The two of them workers had been left in charge of closing up the café when the day was done.

She shakes her head, “Of course not. The crimes started shortly after I was released from the hospital, but they haven’t reported anything different since then. It’s always the same type of victims. It’s always the same type of crime. It’s been six months since I’ve got out, and there has been no progress. Sometimes, I wonder if they’re even trying.”

“Park Saemi,” the boy chuckles, turning around to continue cleaning up, “you can’t expect their job to be easy. Perhaps the criminal behind the crimes is above average intelligence – nothing short of a genius. If he's truly a genius, then you can be sure that the perpetrator has thought of everything: video surveillence, DNA evidence, or other forensic clues. You can’t expect the police to catch a criminal who vanishes without a trace, someone who is practically a ghost.”

Saemi frowns and gives her co-worker a strange look, “Even if he is smart, he’s still a human. All humans make mistakes, Jaebum.”

“Didn’t I tell you to call me JB?”

She turns her back towards him as well and proceeds to pick up the last customer’s used dishware, “I don’t understand why you want me to call you that. It sounds dumb. Don’t you know the English alphabet? JB is literally composed of two letters. Why do you want to be called by two letters? That’s the same as being called by two numbers. You wouldn’t like that, would you?”

Jaebum just laughs at the girl’s logic.

She is truly one of a kind, and it always puzzled him as to why she chose to work at a café shop like this when it never seemed like she was the type of girl to do so. From what he had heard from the shop owner, Park Saemi was a patient at one of the biggest hospitals in Korea. He heard that she had suffered a severe gunshot wound that miraculously didn’t take her life.

All the luck in the world must have been on her side.

But even though she physically recovered, she never got any of her past memories back. She didn’t know how she ended up in the hospital in the condition she was in. She didn’t remember her name – she only knew that the words Park Saemi brought the feeling of familiarity, and she liked it.

That is the only reason why she chose that temporary name.

Unfortunately for her, she had to have multiple surgeries to completely heal her wounds, and somewhere along the way, she fell into a comatose state for a few months. When she finally woke up, she was placed under several weeks of observation, just in case her condition destabilized. The doctors and nurses hoped that her family would come retrieve her, even if her hospital bills were mysteriously paid in full, every month.

But even then, she must have used up all her luck to survive, because her family never came for her.

So while she recovered physically, she never truly recovered emotionally. Though Jaebum doesn’t know anything about Saemi’s past life, he didn’t believe that she was a blunt, slightly pessimistic girl. Now, there was something about the way she spoke that made her seem different, not in a good way either.

Her outlook on life had changed completely.

Jaebum, on the other hand, tried to reason his way about everything. He didn’t believe that anyone acted without reason, even if the act itself is malicious in every way. He always thought that if someone were to kill like the serial killer on the news, there must be some life-changing reason.

“I don’t understand why the world is created this way,” Saemi begins again, “Why is it so unfair? Why is someone like that serial killer born? Someone who takes lives without a guilty conscience, he doesn’t even deserve to live. If he is ever caught, the authorities shouldn't bring him in. They should kill him on the spot, make him suffer the way his victims did. A single gunshot through the brain, was it? That should do it.”

“Don’t you think that people, even criminals, kill for a purpose?” Jaebum continues, “Sometimes, it may be because the victims themselves wronged the killer. Sometimes, it may be because the victims themselves are taking revenge for the loss of a loved one – ”

Saemi begins to shake her head as the boy tried to come up with reasons why a killer would choose to commit violent, unforgiving crimes, “He may very well just be killing for fun, which I believe is much more likely. You’re being too innocent, Jaebum.”

“JB,” he corrects her almost immediately.

She gives him another strange look, and then hands him the dirty dishes that she had collected from the table, “Here. Tell me if you need help trying to wash and dry these, #19.”

Jaebum raises an eyebrow before giving her an unamused laugh, “Ha. Ha. You’re very funny.”

She grins in a somewhat triumphant manner as she turns around, pulling off the apron that wrapped around her waist, proceeding to hang it up. Ever since she had started working at the café and having met Jaebum, she felt like her life was slowly returning to normal again.

He was like the brother she never had – assuming she really didn’t have one before her accident. Sometimes, they would annoy one another, but sometimes, he felt like her pillar of support. She doesn’t know what she would do without him.

On the other hand, it was also because she relied on him for strength that she realizes that she can’t completely disregard his words. Sure, it was a possibility that there may be a somewhat justified reason for a criminal to commit crimes.

However, she believes the chances of that being the truth were slim.

She is a victim too – even though she doesn’t know who her attacker was. However, when she really thought about it, it could very well be the same person who is still on the loose. It could have been the same person who killed that boy she had seen on the news earlier. She could have been the first victim, a trial run that had failed. She could have suffered for the sole purpose of helping other people die.

Knowing that, she knows she could never forgive the one who hurt her.