*Click*

“??” Nothing happened. The Phantom’s gun just ran out of bullets. Hani was this close to meeting her doom but lady luck was on her side today.

While the Phantom was still realizing the situation, Hani took this chance to disarm the gun from her hand and knocked her face with the side of the gun. This caused the Phantom to stumble back a little. While the Phantom was stumbling back, Hani took out her own gun and started firing.

The Phantom quickly rolled behind a wall and stayed there for a moment until Hani stopped shooting. Apparently, Hani was so furious that she almost lost her life a few seconds ago that she went berserk. She didn’t stop firing at all. She kept on clicking on the trigger again and again. That intimidated the Phantom badly despite hiding behind a wall. Perhaps Hani was clicking on the trigger too violently that her gun got jammed for a moment.

The Phantom took this chance to make a run for it. Hani quickly un-jammed her gun and aimed at the Phantom who was wide open right now.

“You’re not gonna leave this place unscathed…” Hani then released the final shot from her gun.

“!!!” As it happened too fast, the Phantom didn’t manage to get out of the way. The bullet grazed her arm, injuring her. “Argh!!” She grabbed her wound in pain but she didn’t slow down. In the end, she still managed to escape from the alley, leaving Hani laying on the ground in her own pool of blood.

“…” Hani slowly sat up and used her jacket to tie it on her thigh to stop the blood flow. She then grabbed her phone and called someone. As soon as the person picked up the phone, Hani started shouting. “JUNGHWA, WHERE WERE YOU!?!? YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO TRAP THE PHANTOM WITH ME!”

“I’m almost there! There are so many alleys here, it’s like a maze!” Junghwa replied.

“You idiot! I almost died because of you! I will make you suffer when we get back home later! You just watch me!” Hani cursed and switched off her phone.

Junghwa trembled in fear. “Oh dear… This is really bad…”

Hani slowly stood up and leaned against the wall. “It doesn’t matter… You’re still not getting away this time, Phantom… I’ve predicted this already.”

The Phantom grabbed her injured arm as she made her way past a few short cuts in the alleys. As she was about to exit the alley, her route was cut short. LE intercepted her at the end of the lane. She stood there pointing her gun at the Phantom. “Hani really did brought up a good plan this time. It’s over, Hyerin. Put your hands up.”

The Phantom panted heavily and slowly raised her arms. “…”

“Now turn back and face the wall.” LE warned as she walked slowly towards the Phantom with her gun still aiming her target.

The Phantom did what she was told and faced the wall. “…”

“You’ve gone too far.” LE said.

As LE approached the Phantom and took out her handcuffs, the Phantom quickly landed an elbow strike on LE’s face and disarmed her in a split second. The Phantom really shouldn’t be looked down upon. Despite her arm being injured, she still managed to disarm LE. She then attempted a punch on LE but got blocked. LE retaliated with a kick followed by a punch which also got blocked.

The Phantom was already injured so her movements weren’t so swift compared to their previous encounter. She desperately tried to attack LE again and again so that she could escape but failed to land a successful hit. LE continued blocking the Phantom’s attacks and waited for an opportunity to counter her. Finally, LE found an opening. She dodged the Phantom’s punch and landed a successful punch on the Phantom’s face. It was so hard that it caused her to stumble backwards. LE didn’t stop at all. She kept on punching out of anger. Even the Phantom got greatly intimidated by LE’s flurry of punches.

Hani who slowly tottered her way to the scene cheered LE on. “That’s it, LE! Knock her out!”

LE gained the upper hand to the fight and continued punching the Phantom to the point where her mask got knocked right off her face. At the point the mask fell off her face, her hair was let down and she seemed to be very nervous. “!”

“Huh?” Now that the Phantom’s hair was let down, LE felt weird. Was Hyerin’s hair this long? She still shrugged it off. “Time to give up, Hyerin!” LE tried to turn the Phantom around to see Hyerin’s face but to no avail as she desperately shoved LE away and made a run for it in the other direction while covering her face. LE still didn’t manage to see her face.

“...” The unmasked Phantom desperately ran towards the exit without saying another word.

At that time, someone else appeared from the other side of the alley and intercepted the Phantom’s escape route with a kick on her stomach. The Phantom tumbled back a little and held her stomach in pain. “Well well well… The Phantom finally unmasked. I was waiting for this very moment for a long time. I want that foolish cop right there to see your face by herself.” There Hyerin stood, facing the Phantom with a satisfied expression.

“Hyerin!?” LE’s eyes widened. “But that’s impossible!! If you’re not the Phantom… Then who…”

Hyerin chuckled. “So now you will finally see the truth, LE. That you’ve been looking at the wrong direction the whole time. Like I said… You local cops can be so dumb sometimes. You don’t realize that your target had been so close to you the entire time.”

The Phantom had never been Hyerin from the very beginning. Looking back at the Phantom, Hyerin continued. “Well, I guess it’s time for you to stop your top-notch Oscar winning act, Phantom… Or should I just call you by your real name, Solji?”

Solji stood there with the Phantom outfit and wiped some blood off caused by LE’s punches earlier. “Damn… Never in a million years would I have expected to be cornered like this.”

Hani’s eyes widened at the sight of Solji. “No way… Solji was the real Phantom…”

“S-Solji?” LE was still dumbfounded with the Phantom Burglar’s identity. LE never would have guessed that her nerdy and feeble house mate was the Phantom all along. “You…were the Phantom all along?”

“Don’t act surprised now, LE. I may be acting the entire time, but so were you.” Solji said and looked back. “You were on undercover to keep an eye on me from the very day we started living together, didn’t you? I knew this long ago, so I just played along to remove suspicions about me.”

“…” LE was speechless for a moment before she continued. “You’re right. I was supposed to keep an eye on you. But the longer I keep an eye on you, the more I didn’t believe it was true. You acted way too innocent to be doing these kind of things… You mean those times where you were bullied… Those were all acting as well? And I actually believed that I got the wrong info about you…”

Hani was shocked. “Wait… LE was on undercover to keep an eye on Solji? That means…she had info that Solji was the Phantom all along…and she kept it from me…”

Hyerin chuckled. “Life is full of disappointments, LE. Solji had been acting the entire time. I’ve been keeping an eye on her for a long time now. I just wanted to see how long it will take for you to notice that your roommate is actually the Phantom.”

“Solji… Do you realize what you’re doing? Please tell me that you have a good reason for doing this.” LE asked.

“I know what I’m doing and I’m doing this to make the world a better place to live in. This world is filled with people who don’t deserve the freedom they’re having… People who should be in jail but aren’t… People who got away for extensive crimes and yet had the guts to walk around freely as if nothing happened. People who steal riches from other people and use them as if it was theirs. And what did the cops do? Nothing. You never care about anything other than jumping into conclusions just to complete the job quick. I haven’t told you about my dad before, LE… He was wrongly killed by a cop a long time ago.”

“W-What?” This was the first time LE heard of this story from Solji.

“There was a snake in the alley that time and it tried to attack me. My dad had a small machete with him so he took it out to kill the snake. Coincidentally, a cop passed by. From the cop’s angle, it looked as if he was going to attack me instead. And the cop shot him down just like that. The cop was merely fired from his job and didn’t even undergo any punishment. His reasoning was that my dad was holding a machete in a dangerous manner and almost hurt me. How is this fair to my dad? How is this fair to me? That was when I realized that in this world, justice is blind. But ‘somebody’ showed me the way. Which is to get rid of the criminals myself because you can never rely on the cops for that.”

“Not every cop is like that.” LE told.

“I know. Which is why I don’t hate cops in general. You’re an example, LE. You’re a really nice person and you almost swayed me at times. The past few months had been fun.”

“Solji…”

“Well, Solji was right about one thing.” Hyerin tossed a file at LE. “Every single person she took out had been involved in some sort of criminal activity.”

“All the victim’s record?” LE looked confused. “How the hell did you get hold of confidential things like these?”

“I told you before, LE. You don’t know everything about me.” Hyerin then looked at Solji. “You see, Solji… If you were a cop and being able to catch these criminals properly, you’ll be branded as a hero… But torturing and attempting to murder them?” Hyerin shook her head. “That’s the wrong approach. There’s no way to justify your actions at all.”

LE squinted at Hyerin. “Who are you actually?”

Solji answered. “She’s not a part of the mafia for sure…”

Hyerin intercepted Solji’s speech. “You can explain everything on the way to jail.” Hyerin then took out a pair of handcuffs from her back pocket that shocked LE and Hani badly.

“Handcuffs? What the…” LE frowned. “You’re-”

Hyerin finally took out her badge that she had been hiding all along. “Seo Hyerin. Interpol. You are now under arrest, Solji. You got away from me the other day but that’s not going to happen today. You’re completely surrounded.”

“I’m here!” Junghwa suddenly appeared and shouted. That alone caught everybody’s attention.

Noticing everybody’s attention was diverted for a split second, Solji took this chance to run towards Junghwa and headlocked her. Junghwa was most definitely shocked at what was happening. “H-Huh? What is going on!? Solji, what are you doing!?”

“Junghwa!” Hani and LE called out.

“Don’t come near or I will kill her!!” Solji warned and started dragging Junghwa along.

“Solji what are you doing!?” Junghwa asked.

“Quiet.”

Hyerin immediately pursued after Solji and Junghwa without a moment of hesitation with her gun held up. She had tried to shoot Solji a couple of times but failed to do so because Solji was using Junghwa as a cover. “Damn it.”

When LE was about to pursue them as well, Hani turned LE around and punched her on the face hard. “How dare you, LE!?”

LE tumbled onto the ground from Hani’s punch, speechless. “…”

Hani grabbed LE by the collar and slammed her onto the wall. It seems like her anger had overshadowed her gunshot wound on her thigh. “You had information that Solji was the Phantom all along and yet you kept quiet! You even led her into my house!”

“It…was a mistake… I should’ve believed the info that I got.” LE said regretfully.

“I warned you this before, LE. Do not let your personal life get in the way of your job. And you did exactly that… Now look what happened… You literally put Junghwa’s life in danger right now.” Hani was fuming inside but then she calmed down a little. “We need to get Junghwa back. She’s in danger.”

“You’re injured. You stay back and get help. I will pursue Solji. I feel responsible for this.” LE told.

Before LE could leave, Hani grabbed LE’s arm. “I don’t trust you on this, LE. Not after what you did.”

“I don’t you don’t trust me on this, Hani. But Hyerin is there too. She’s from the Interpol. Even if you don’t trust me, you can still trust her…I think.” LE assured.

“I want to see her behind bars by the end of the day, LE. You make sure that happens or our friendship will be over. I’m not joking with you.” Hani warned in a serious tone.

“Don’t worry. I know Solji had done bad things.” LE nodded and immediately left to pursue Solji.

Hyerin was incredibly persistent and finally chased Solji all the way to a cliff side. Hyerin pointed her gun at Solji. “It’s a dead end, Solji. Turn yourself in and you may have reduced sentence.”

Solji held Junghwa in front of her and pointed the gun on her head. “Put the gun down, Hyerin or I’m going to blast her brain out of her head.”

“Go ahead.” Hyerin taunted. She had no intentions of lowering her gun at all. “Either way, you’ll never leave this place unscathed. You know that, right? So you might as well let Junghwa go and you’ll have one less crime count.”

“You think I wouldn’t shoot her?” Solji dared once again.

“I never said that I don’t think you would shoot her. I’m merely giving you an option, Solji.”

At that time, LE finally caught up to them. “No, don’t shoot!”

“LE! Save me!” Junghwa cried out.

“Drop the gun, Solji!!” LE shouted.

“If you want me to drop the gun then you will have to shoot me.” Solji dared.

Hyerin shook her head and immediately pulled her gun hammer down. She didn’t even hesitate. LE then pushed Hyerin’s gun away to break her aim. “No!”

Hyerin pulled LE by the collar. “Listen to me, you little ! I don’t care what connections you have with Solji. She’s a criminal and you’re helping her. That alone is a crime. Stop me again and I’ll take you as well. Trust me, I have a warrant to hurt anybody who obstructs my mission.”

“I can’t let you risk Junghwa’s life like that!” LE raised her voice. “Let me talk to her.”

“You stupid cop! Talking doesn’t work. Why don’t you understand!?” Hyerin argued.

“Just let me talk!” LE pushed Hyerin away and looked back at Solji. “Solji, please listen. You don’t have to do this. Just let Junghwa go and give up.”

Solji shook her head. “You must be crazy if you think I’d actually give up just like that, LE.”

“You’re approaching the end of the cliff, Solji. Stop moving back.”

“I don’t believe you’re completely bad, Solji.” LE started approaching Solji slowly. “I don’t believe that everything we’ve been through together was an act.”

“Don’t come closer, LE. I’m warning you. I will shoot Junghwa. I’m not kidding with you.” Solji warned.

“I had feelings for you. That’s why I chose not to suspect you despite being asked to keep an eye on you.” LE confessed.

“Huh?” Solji seemed to be swayed for a second before she shook it off. “I don’t care, LE!”

“You don’t care? Why did you hesitate for a second just now?”

Solji slowly moved back. “Shut up, LE!”

“I know you have feelings for me too, Solji. But it’s alright. Despite hurting so many people ruthlessly, you’re still a human. You can have feelings too.”

“That’s enough!” Solji shouted.

“I’m not asking for much, Solji. All I’m asking is for you to drop the gun and let Junghwa go. I promise I will appeal to the judge to reduce your sentence.” LE moved closer.

“Stay there. I swear I will shoot her head off, LE!” Solji pushed the tip of her gun on Junghwa’s head.

Hyerin aimed her gun at Solji once again. “This is slowly getting out of hand, LE!”

“No! Please don’t do things that you will regret, Solji!” LE told.

“Regret?” Solji chuckled a little. “Sorry to disappoint you, LE but I have no emotional connections with Junghwa. I will feel nothing if I were to blow her head off.”

LE shook her head. “I don’t believe you’re like this, Solji. I don’t believe you would shoot her.”

As soon as LE said that, Solji opened fire on Junghwa’s thigh, earning a scream of pain from the latter. She then moved the gun back towards Junghwa’s head. “Say that again?”

“Solji!!” LE was incredibly shocked.

Junghwa was crying in pain. “It hurts! It hurts so much!!”

“Can’t you see Junghwa’s in pain!?” LE shouted.

“I told you I don’t care if she’s in pain, LE! I can just kill her off right now if I wanted to!” Solji shouted back.

“Then I’ll just kill you!!” This time, Solji aimed her gun at LE, shocking her. As Solji pulled the hammer down, a shot was fired. “BANG!”

“???” Solji slowly looked down and saw a gunshot wound on her stomach. Hyerin found an opening and fired at Solji successfully. Her hands started to tremble as she covered her wound in pain. Junghwa fell onto the ground and grabbed her wounded thigh. “Ugh…” That shot made her lose all energy on her feet as she tumbled off the cliff.

“Solji!!” Right before Solji could fall off the cliff, LE quickly slide towards her and grabbed her arm tightly.

“H-Huh?” Solji was surprised that LE still tried to save her despite her doing so many bad things and even attempted to shoot her.

“Hyerin, help!!” LE begged.

“I’m sorry to disappoint you, LE but I’m not going to help.” Hyerin looked away.

“Damn it! Solji I know you’re not all that bad! You had a reason to be like this! I understand! Don’t let go!” LE desperately called out.

Solji smiled a little. “You…really understand me?”

“Yes I do. Hold tight.” LE tried to pull Solji up.

Just then, LE got dragged a little because the ground was slippery. That shocked Hyerin a little. “She’s going to pull you down along, LE. If I were you, I’d let her go.”

Solji groaned at her injury a little and told. “She’s right, LE. I don’t deserve your kindness. I’ve done too many bad things. There’s no turning back for me. Let go.”

“I’m not letting go!!” LE desperately tried to pull Solji up but to no avail.

LE hanging onto Solji is literally stretching her gunshot wound open. Solji started sweating profusely from the pain. “I’m hurting a lot as you’re holding onto me, LE. Let go, please.”

That time, Junghwa who just got untied immediately stood up and made her way towards LE and Solji despite being injured on her thigh. “I’ll help you, LE!”

Seeing Junghwa moving towards her, Solji smiled for the last time. “Thank you for all the precious memories, LE. This is where we part ways. Good bye.” Solji took out a hidden gun from her belt and shot LE by the shoulder. That shot caused LE to release Solji from her grip.

“NO!!! Solji!!” LE and Junghwa shouted in horror as she fell down and slammed right into the heavy sea waves. She couldn’t have survived the impact of the fall. Even if she did survive the impact, the strong waves would drown her almost immediately.

“!!” LE cursed while holding onto her shoulder.

Junghwa just lost strength in her legs and fell onto her knees. “No…”

“Case closed.” Hyerin said. “You shouldn’t have been too attached to Solji from the very beginning, LE. That was your mistake. And because of that, my plan almost failed. I wanted you to see the truth for yourself.”

“Solji…”

“You two can stay here and weep all day or you can move on with your life. That’s the only thing I can say.” Hyerin answered.

“Hyerin.” LE called out.

“What?”

“Can we keep today’s matter a secret from the Interpol and everyone else?”

Hyerin raised a brow. “Excuse me?”

“I don’t want Solji to be known as a criminal for all eternity by other people. Just this once. Please don’t report this to anyone. Let’s assume the Phantom had vanished into thin air.” LE explained.

“…” Hyerin then turned her back and walked away without saying another word.

“What do we do now?” Junghwa asked softly.

“I don’t know…” LE said as she looked at Junghwa’s injured thigh. “You’re not angry at Solji for what she did?”

“I don’t. We’re friends. I believe Solji has a good reason for whatever she did.” Junghwa said.

The very next day, there was nothing on the news about Solji as the Phantom and her apparent death. This proved only one thing. Hyerin didn’t contact her headquarters regarding this matter and LE felt grateful about this. LE and Junghwa prepared a funeral for Solji despite not being able to recover her body. The conditions of the sea made it impossible for them to recover anything. Hani was reluctant at first but still did help in the end after some convincing from LE. A lot of friends came to her funeral, including the ones who bullied her. They were told that Solji’s death was an accident. Even Hyerin attended her funeral. After it was over, the four of them stood in front of Solji’s tombstone quietly.

“Thanks for not telling anybody about Solji, Hyerin.” LE thanked.

“Don’t thank me. I just don’t like being pursued by you again. It’s bothersome and annoying.”

“So you’re really from the Interpol? That’s a pretty bizzare contradiction, don’t you think so?” Hani asked.

“What? Because my dad is the mafia boss and I turned out to be a cop? Maybe you should stop judging people using their family background. My dad being a mafia and me being a cop are two completely different matters. I’m her daughter but I’ve never followed his footsteps before. Not once in my life I had approved of what he was doing, and he was completely against me becoming a cop for obvious reasons. In the end, I just ran away from home and pursue my career on my own. And I kept going till today.”

“So… You felt nothing when your dad was arrested?” Hani asked.

“…” Hyerin chuckled a little as she slowly walked away.

“Hey, where are you going?” LE asked.

“Home.” Hyerin replied with only one word and vanished into thin air soon after.

“Always so mysterious…” Hani then broke the silence once again. “A lot of things happened in a short period of time, huh?”

“I’m sorry, Hani. I may have brought you a lot of trouble before this.” LE apologized.

“You sure did. Knowing that Solji was the Phantom and yet bringing her to my house. Wow, you have guts, LE.” Hani chuckled a little. “But it’s all over now. I’ll overlook this one time. Anyway, we really did make the wrong conclusion about Hyerin being the Phantom.” Hani said.

“That’s because Hyerin is more believable as the Phantom compared to Solji. Hyerin did have a mafia background. Solji was right. We really do like jumping into conclusions.” LE sighed. “It’s getting late. Let’s go home.”

“Let’s go.” Hani then looked at Junghwa. “You’ve been silent the entire time, Junghwa. Anything to say before we leave?”

Junghwa merely shook her head. “No. Let’s go home.”

LE then took out the Phantom’s mask she picked up yesterday and looked at it for a while. “All these felt like a dream.”

“Maybe it is.” Hani told.

LE placed the Phantom’s mask on top of Solji’s tombstone and smiled for a bit. “Even though it didn’t end well, I don’t regret having feelings for you, Solji. You’re one of the best things that happened in my life. May you find peace wherever you are. Goodbye, Solji.”

One month later

LE hid behind the wall as her breath got heavier. She took a peek from behind the wall and found her target. But of course her target was observant. She noticed LE and stared back at her without even blinking her eyes. LE slowly approached her target. “Just…calm down and stop running already. I’m not going to hurt you. Okay?”

LE’s target became more alert as she approached. She backed off a little without breaking eye contact with LE. “…”

“Calm down. Don’t go crazy again, alright? I promise you it won’t even tickle one bit.” LE assured as she walked closer and closer. “Now, come over here!” LE made a sudden leap towards her target but missed.

“PAKPAKPAKPAK!!!” LE’s target got freaked out and started running around insanely.

“No!! Come back here, Chiqs!! You need your bath, you dirty fowl!!” LE ran into the kitchen and knocked over some chairs while chasing Chiqs who seemed to be on drugs.

“PAKPAKPAK!!” Chiqs clucked loudly as she flew onto the table top and knocked over some bowl and plates.

“Hey those are expensive!” LE got angry and desperately chased Chiqs around the house once again.

Chiqs was running around crazily until she was picked up by someone who just entered LE’s house. Hani was standing there staring back at LE who was lying flat on the ground. “You look really busy.”

“Not anymore.” LE stood up and dusted herself.

“Your door was open so I just walked myself in and saw this thing running towards me.” Hani held Chiqs up. “I told you before that we should have cooked this chicken for dinner.”

LE took Chiqs from Hani and placed her back into the chicken coop for now. “Chiqs is a pet. Not some poultry made for dinner. What are you doing here anyway?”

“Well, we finally got access to Hyerin’s Interpol file after going through a lot of procedures. I don’t believe it took a month to get this. Those people from Interpol are really something…” Hani held up a file.

“Speaking of Hyerin, where’s she now?”

“She’s back in the US of course.” Hani replied.

LE squinted her eyes. “She left without a word? What a mysterious lady.”

“Did you actually expect a proper goodbye from her? She’s from the Interpol. And we all know just how snobbish those people from Interpol are. They’re literally made to look down on us local cops. But of course she still helped us crack the Phantom’s case. Now that the case is closed, she’s back to her place.”

“…” LE remained silent. The mention of the word ‘Phantom’ really brought back a lot of memories to her.

Hani noticed the despair in LE’s eyes. “Look, LE. It’s been a month. You need to accept the fact that Solji is gone. Just forget about her and move on. Despite being a wanted criminal, I believed that she actually did have some feelings for you and I’m sure she doesn’t want you looking like that. So cheer up.”

LE sighed. “You’re right. I’m going to move on…”

“Just take it slowly.” Hani told.

“Alright.” LE then got back to the topic. “Yeah, what were we talking about Hyerin again?”

“Apparently, she’s the very cop that arrested her own father 7 months ago. That’s dedication right there. But it was stated here that at the time Hyerin caught her father in the alley, he was found beaten up and unconscious along with a few of his bodyguards. Well, there’s no doubt this was the Phantom’s doing.”

LE smiled a little. “So he was Solji’s first victim, huh?”

Hani continued. “Well, I hate to say this but I kinda side with the Phantom on this one. Hyerin’s father really do deserve all the beatings he got. I’d do the same if I was Solji too.”

“I can totally imagine you beating up criminals, Hani. That is so you.” LE chuckled.

Hani shrugged. “That’s how I work.”

LE then realized something. “Oh yeah. Where is Junghwa?”

“Junghwa? She went to visit Solji.”

The wind was blowing stronger than usual and the sky was gloomy. Junghwa stood in front of Solji’s tombstone for a long time. She wasn’t doing anything. She was just staring at it. “What a pity…”

All of a sudden, a female voice called out to Junghwa. “You come here often don’t you?”

Junghwa looked over at the lady and smiled a little. “Can’t I?”

The hooded lady stood beside Junghwa and looked at Solji’s tombstone. “Solji is already gone. There’s no point coming here so often.”

Junghwa looked back at the tombstone. “I can see that. You came up with a pretty slick plan. That’s pretty impressive.

“I learn from the best.” The hooded lady answered.

“What brings you here?”

“I’m here to pay my final respects to Solji before I leave.” The hooded lady replied.

“Where are you leaving to?” Junghwa asked.

“Somewhere far from here. Some place where nobody knows me. I made the mistake of being too attached to someone. I’m getting rid of that once and for all.” The lady then walked towards Solji’s tombstone and picked up the Phantom mask. “Memories…”

“Why are you picking it up? Are you gonna keep that?” Junghwa asked.

“This? Of course not.” The lady chuckled and passed the Phantom mask to Junghwa. “You can keep it. I don’t need it anymore.”

Looking at the mask Junghwa received from the hooded lady, she asked. “Why are you giving this Phantom mask to me?”

“I don’t see what’s wrong with giving this mask back to you, Junghwa. It had always been yours from the very beginning.” The hooded lady continued. “You’re the original Phantom. I’m just someone who followed your footsteps, Junghwa. A lot of things happened recently… I can’t deny the fact that I had developed feelings for LE. It was probably because of these weird feelings for her that I ended up losing focus and being caught in the end. Maybe I’m not suited for this after all. For now, I just wanna start a new life somewhere far from here. You’ll understand, right?”

“Of course.” Junghwa smiled. “You’re always welcomed back here if you ever feel the need to put on the mask again.”

“Who knows? Maybe in the future I will? But I’ll give it a rest…for now.”

Junghwa nodded. “If that’s the case then I wish you all the best.”

“Thanks for enlightening me about life and the justice that this world lacked, Junghwa. I’ll never forget it for as long as I live. Despite you being younger than I am, you’ve been a good mentor to me and I really thank you for that. And one more thing. Make sure to convince LE that I’m at peace now. I don’t need her thinking about me and blaming herself for 24 hours a day.”

“Why don’t you go convince her yourself then?” Junghwa asked.

“I’m already dead. Remember?” The hooded girl winked at Junghwa.

Junghwa smiled and nodded. “Until next time…Solji.”

Solji disappeared with the blink of an eye, never to be seen again. Junghwa stared at the Phantom mask for some time. “Guess I’ll have to do it myself once again.” She then placed the mask back on top of Solji’s tombstone. “But I’ll give it a rest…for now.”

Unlawful Justice

END