Warning: Some content might cause discomfort.

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The smile was still the same. He still had his trademark smile even though things were against him. Moonbyul looked at the man in front of her and marveled at his confidence. "Mr Jung," Moonbyul called for his attention.

"Yes?" Jung Ha asked. 

"Let me ask you one more time," Moonbyul said, leaning forward with her hands held together. "Do you know who stole the car?" 

Jung Ha did not reply. As expected, he only smiled, but Moonbyul could see him formulating an answer in his head. The tapping of his fingers gave it away. Moonbyul smiled a little to herself as she waited for his answer.

"No, I don't," he said. As usual, he was calm, nothing in his voice gave it away. "Someone broke into my house. Didn't we establish that previously?"

"Oh? Did we?" Moonbyul asked in return, her voice raised louder than usual. "You know, Mr Jung. I don't like liars."

Jung Ha sat there, unmoved, but she could see finally see cracks forming on his mask. His eyes wandered around the room, from the door to the light above then and back at Moonbyul. The smile still remained. "I'm afraid I don't know what you're implying, inspector. In my field, we don't beat around the bushes."

Moonbyul smiled, trying to mimic him best to her ability. "Since you've so kindly mentioned," Moonbyul said, pushing a tablet towards him. "Would you mind explaining this?"

Jung Ha played the video while giving Moonbyul a questioning look, but that did not last. His smile faded to a frown, and his eyes widened slightly with his mouth doing the same. His hands shook but he steadied them as soon as he realised it. 

"Since you don't like to beat around the bushes, Mr Jung, let me get straight to the point," Moonbyul said. "He's your son, Jung Won Il. Am I right?" 

As much as he wanted to deny it, he could not. "Yes," he said. 

"Did he steal the car?" Moonbyul asked.

Jung Ha sighed in defeat and shook his head. "I lent it to him. He came home one night and asked for the car because he didn't have one since he just came back," he told the truth.

Outside the room, Wheein watched on as her father revealed the truth and her heart just sank lower, and lower. 

"Why did you lie then?" Moonbyul asked. "Were you trying to cover up for him?"

Jung Ha kept mum. He looked over to where he thought Wheein would be standing. He never wanted to be in this mess. He did not care what his children were doing as long as it did not interfere with his life, but things did not end up the way he wanted. "What is there to cover up?" He asked in his last struggle. 

"Serial murder," Moonbyul said, dropping the bomb. "Five women were killed, brutally murdered by him."

Wheein closed her eyes as she heard the truth echoed through the room. Finally, someone said it. She felt a hand on her back and turned around to see Hwasa standing behind her. Her friend pulled her closer in an attempt to comfort her. 

"He wouldn't do such a thing," Jung Ha insisted. 

Moonbyul pointed to the tablet and he knew what she was trying to say. The evidence was right there, there was no point in denying. 

He brought his hands to his face and took a deep breath. It was always difficult for him to pretend but as years passed by, he got better at it. It became easy for him. Saying lies after lies behind a rehearsed smile became his second nature. 

"I didn't know it was serial murder," he said. It was not a lie. "When I picked him up, he was in a mess. Blood was all over him and I was so shocked. He's my son but I'm always afraid of him."

Wheein thought she was prepared to hear it but it hit her harder than she thought because it came out from her father's mouth. Questions were running through her mind and she found herself clenching her hands really tightly such that her nails left white marks against her palms. 

"Afraid of him?" Moonbyul asked. This was surprising, coming from a man who looked like nothing could move him. "Did he have anything against you?"

Jung Ha looked in Wheein's direction again, but with an apologetic smile. He knew Wheein would be there and she deserved to know. 

"I owe him. I owe him a lot," Jung Ha said. "His mother, I killed her." 

No one expected that confession, and silence followed. 

Hwasa could feel Wheein shaking uncontrollably as she tried to steady herself against the table. "Wheein? You don't have to listen. We can leave now," Hwasa said softly, rubbing her shoulder to calm her down. 

Wheein shook her head and bit her lower lip. "No, it's okay," she said. She just realised how much she did not know about her father. What had he been hiding from her all these years? "I have to know."

"I was greedy. My business was doing well, but it wasn't enough. I wanted more," he said as he rubbed his hands furiously. He did not know how to put the secret that he had been hiding for years into words, and Wheein was watching. This was one of the few times he actually felt scared. He was going to lose everything. "And then I met Wheein's mother. I didn't love her at first, I was more attracted to the wealth her family had, but I... I do love her eventually." 

As her father revealed the past, Wheein laughed as she slumped down into the chair beside her. Her head hung low, and her shoulders shook violently from her fits of laughter. Ridiculous. Everything she heard was ridiculous. Hwasa looked at her friend helplessly as her laughter became tears. Even though she did not show it, she knew Wheein was going through a lot of stress recently, especially after being dropped off the case. She would not understand the emotional turmoil unless she was going through it herself. She knelt down and pulled her friend into a tight hug. It was a familiar embrace and Wheein could not hold it in anymore. She wished it was a nightmare that she could wake up from when someone called her name, but the voice of her father ringing throughout the room told her it was not. 

"When Won Il's mother found out, Wheein's mother was pregnant. I asked for a divorce but she didn't want to because Won Il was still young. I was blinded by ambition. All I could think of was expanding the empire I painstakingly built, and no one was going to stop me, not even the woman I once loved. I tried everything I could to get her to agree, but the more I tried, the more she resisted. It was until one day, I poisoned her," he said, his voice disappearing towards the end. How silly it was, looking back. 

Moonbyul listened in silence as Jung Ha confessed his crime, still recovering from the shock.

"Your father was on the case, which was why I knew him," Jung Ha said. He made sure there was no loophole in his plan by making it looked like she committed suicide, and with Wheein's mother sending the best lawyer she could find, he won the case eventually. "He is one determined man. Needless to say, you're just like him." 

"What happened to your son?" Moonbyul asked, disregarding his comment about her father.

He had a small smile on his face but it disappeared as soon as the inspector mentioned his son. "He learnt the truth a few years later through a maid in our house," he said. Won Il confronted him and his guilt gave him away. He admitted to killing his mother, but sugar-coated it by saying it was to give him a better life with the wealth that he gained from Wheein's mother. It was an act of cowardice, and he realised how pathetic he looked then. "He's a smart boy. This is my weakness and he held it against me. He threatened to turn me in if I ever report him to the station after that faithful day. Maybe it was the guilt, or maybe I was just too afraid to lose everything."

"Thank you for your honesty, Mr Jung," Moonbyul said and placed the picture of Kang Taeyoung in front of him. "One more thing, do you know her?" 

He took a closer look and nodded. "Taeyoung, of course I know her," he said. "She's a nice girl." 

"Have you seen her?" Moonbyul asked.

"No. Ever since Won Il left, I've never seen her," Jung Ha said. 

Moonbyul nodded and tidied up the case file. She could finally see the end. "Thank you for your cooperation," she said and motioned for an officer to come in.

She left the room to see Wheein spacing out with Hwasa kneeling beside her. Her tear-stained cheeks were obvious even in the dimly-lit room. Moonbyul sighed softly and went over to give her a hug. It pained her to see her friend like this. 

"Wheein," Jung Ha called out to her daughter. He had so many things to say to her but he could only say, "I'm sorry." 

-

"The number you have dialed is busy at the moment, please try again later." It was the tenth time she was hearing this and Moonbyul was getting worried. She paced around the room and dialed the number again. She had been trying to get through to Solar for the past few minutes but the outcome was the same. The number was busy. Right before Ahn Hun Sang came to the station, Solar gave her a call saying that she would be heading back to Korea because of a last-minute change in flight schedule. The plane should have landed. 

"Byul," Hwasa called out from the other side of the room. "Take a look at this, quick!" 

Moonbyul walked over with her phone still against her ears. "What is it?" She asked.

Hwasa noticed that Moonbyul was not her usual self the moment they arrived at the apartment. "Is everything alright?"

"She's not picking up," Moonbyul said, putting her phone in her pocket. She took the book that Hwasa was showing her and the first thing she saw made her hands and feet cold. She was holding on to Jung Won Il's diary, and three words stared back at her. I killed her. 

Red... That was all I see. That was all I see when I killed her. Yes, I killed her. From the moment I saw her with that filthy rat, I've always wanted to kill her. I still love her though, so I gave her chances to tell me, to come clean, but she acted like nothing happened. I gave her three chances. I'm so tired of seeing those fake expressions when she's with me, saying "I love you" when clearly she doesn't. It's okay. It ended. It all ended with a slit. 

"You're not good enough," she said. "You'll never be good enough for me." She said that rat was better looking than me, better in terms of everything. 
"I would even choose Wheein over you," she said. She hasn't been thinking with her head, but she doesn't need it anymore, that stupid little thing. You should have seen her struggle when I cut her. Hahahahahahahaha. Oh, the beauty. 

She left me a scar. She wouldn't even leave me in peace. Kang Taeyoung. Ahn Hun Sang.  I'll show you. I'll show you. Every woman will want me. I'll show you. I'll show you. I'll show you...

Kang  Taeyoung was dead five years ago. Jung Won Il killed her, the same way he killed the other women. She reached for her phone and dialed Solar's number again. "Pick up. Please pick up. Come on," she mumbled repeatedly, but it was still the same robotic voice. 

Bang! She heard a loud noise from the next room followed by a call from an officer. "Boss, come here!" 

She rushed over with the diary in her hand and she would do anything to erase that scene in front of her eyes. It was dark, with a single light bulb hanging in the middle of the room, and it smelled like bleach. The walls were covered with photographs, photographs of the victims. She tightened the grip on her phone as she scanned the four walls. Goosebumps appeared when the reality sank in. The killer that they were looking for this whole time was Jung Won Il all along, not Ahn Hun Sang. He was a victim too. 

She went to the wall that had photographs of the first victim. They were mostly close up shots of her eyes, some beautiful ones as she was smiling, some wide with fear, and others lifeless. 

What's her name? I don't even know her name but her eyes... I've seen those eyes before. Yes, they're just like Kang Taeyoung's, beautiful and shining so brightly. After she saw the scar that the left me, I could only see disgust. No one should look at me that way. No one.

I killed her. She won't look at me that way anymore. She's dead. Dead. Dead...

The second wall and third wall was filled with photographs of two other victims. Moonbyul shuddered when she realised that this time, they were close up shots of their mouths. 

"This man is sick," Hwasa said in disbelief as she looked around the room. "The parts of the face... They all had similarities to Kang Taeyoung."

Moonbyul nodded. "And all of them offended him in one way or another, at least that's what he thought."

The fourth wall showcased the photographs of the fourth victim. Unlike the others, they were close up shots of her face. Out of all the victims, she shared the most similarities with the woman who was murdered five years ago. 

She had to leave the room. The thought of these women being murdered in the very room she was standing in made it difficult for her to breathe. She flipped to the last diary entry and her hands trembled. Her phone slipped out of her hand and hit the marble floor with a loud crash. 

I met her and I thought I saw Taeyoung again. The Taeyoung that I first met, the Taeyoung that was so good to me. Her name is Solar. What a beautiful name, as beautiful as her. The way she smiles, it's so bright that I thought the sun was shining into my eyes. Maybe she could save me from this pit, maybe I could feel loved and wanted again, maybe Taeyoung could mine again. 

That's what I thought, but why? God, why? Why give me something and then take it away from me? Why does that bloody rat have to appear every single time? Is it funny? Is it funny to toy with me? And that inspector. No. No no no no no no. She's not going to take Solar away from me, she's not going to take Taeyoung away from me. No one can take them away from me. No one. NO ONE. 

She could not follow his thoughts. It felt as if he was going back and forth from his illusion that Taeyoung did not die. His irrationality was progressively evident in the way he wrote in his diary, and she could see his sanity slipping away. 

Her hands dropped to her sides in  despair when it occurred to her that Solar might be in danger. She ruffled her hair in frustration and shouted for Hwasa. She bent down to pick up her phone, but right when she reached out for it, a call came in.

Solar.