"Can I find out the legal and case files for this incident?" Yoohyeon asked, showing the clerk the newspaper article.

The woman on the other end of the desk pushed her glasses up her nose. "Might I know the reason for this inquiry?" she asked.

"Its for an assignment," Yoohyeon explained. "I'm a student of Criminology. I have a leeter from my professor." She reached inside her bag and took out a folded piece of paper which she handed to the older woman.

The older woman scrutinized the letter for a few minutes before pursing her lips. "Professor Yang's student, aren't you?" she asked with a grin.

Yoohyeon politely nodded. "Yes."

The older woman got up. "I may not be able to get you every single file, since some is still held by the state, but I might be able to get you enough," she told the younger. "Please wait here. I'll be right back."

She walked out through the door to the city's files and Yoohyeon was left alone in the room, twiddling her thumbs.

"Hey, didn't expect to see you here."

She turned around to find Ken standing behind her, neatly groomed. He probably just came from meeting Jiu.

"Ken? What're you doing here?"

He grinned. "I finally found a case!" he excitedly said, dropping his bag on the chair next to hers. "Serial killer in the 80s, targeted women, and all of them wore red."

She pursed her lips. That was interesting at once, and in way, seemed a bit more interesting than a case that had already been solved.

"I was wondering how to pitch it to you," Ken continued to babble. "So why are you here? Did you find another case? Oh, I bet it's a good one-"

"Ken."

He paused with just one word in her soft voice. "I-is everything alright?"

She nodded. "Everything's fine," she assured. "And yeah, I did find a case, but..."

"But?" he prompted. 

"I want to do this on my own."

He looked absolutely crestfallen at her words. "B-but why?" he whined softly like a five-year-old. "Did I do something wrong? Did I make you uncomfortable somehow?"

She shook her head, trying to calm him down. "Nothing's wrong," she insisted. "It's just that...this case? I may need to work it on my own."

"Why?"

She sighed. "It's...complicated."

He looked like he wanted to ask more, but after rethinking, hung his head. "It's okay," he said glumly. "I guess I'll just ask Handong then."

"Why don't you ask Jiu?" Yoohyeon asked. She had to admit, part of the reason she decided to do this on her own was so that Ken could pair up with Jiu. 

He shook his head. "She's already doing the assignment with Siyeon," he said, a tinge of sadness in his voice. 

Yoohyeon sighed. "Ken, I'm so sorry."

He grinned, albeit it was missing his classic happiness. "Hey, don't worry about it. It happens sometimes." He leaned over a bit. "So, what did you find?"

She shrugged. "Just some case that's already been solved," she sighed.

He raised an eyebrow. "Already solved?" he repeated. "Why would you take up a case that's already been solved?"

She pushed a couple of strands of hair out of her eyes. "I have no idea."

Ken nodded. "Uh, I guess I'll wait outside then," he said, a bit awkwardly as he grabbed his bag and made his way ti the seating area.

Yoohyeon leaned back in her chair and sighed deeply. She knew she'd hurt Ken, and taking from how he'd talked about this assignment, she'd hurt him a lot. She would have to make it up to him, big time.

"He seemed nice."

She turned to her side to find Sanghyuk occupying the empty chair where Ken had kept his bag. "Friend of yours?" he asked.

She nodded. "A really good friend." felt a bit dry at that. "I'll need to make it up to him soon."

"I'm sorry."

She turned to him, raising an eyebrow. "Why?"

"I kind of blackmailed you into taking this case," Sanghyuk said, running a hand through his hair. "I feel bad that you needed to reject your friend as well."

She breathed deeply. "Then tell me why you made me take the case," she challenged. "The truth, this time."

Sanghyuk echoed her deep sigh. "They've been trying to get help for decades," he explained. "Being stuck as a ghost ; it even more when people run in fear. So when you came to the graveyard the first time, I tried to make contact, and it worked. We hoped that you'd help us at least."

She didn't respond right away. "I'll see after this," she said.

He nodded. "I won't force you." Saying so, he got up and walked out.

The door then opened and the clerk came back with a couple of folders in her hand. "I'm sorry, were you talking to someone?" she asked.

"Just a friend," Yoohyeon quickly said, sitting up in her chair. "Are those the case files?"

The older woman nodded. "You'll need to sign these release forms..."

"Alright, so the victim's name was Lee Jaehwan," Yoohyeon murmured, her eyes scanning the file. "Stabbed in the stomach, victim died of shock and blood loss."

"It was shabby," she said confidently, putting the file down and looking at Sanghyuk, who raised an eyebrow.

They were currently in her room, her on the bed and him occupying the computer chair. He seemed pretty delighted with the fact that it could turn and was currently twirling in circles, although when she put the file down, he stabilized himself. 

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"This job, it was shabby," she said. "It wasn't done by a professional."

"A professional?"

"There are serial killers who are highly intelligent, they can pass as your next door neighbor," she explained. "These guys? They carefully calculate every single one of their kills, and they do it meticulously, often with an incredible knowledge about human anatomy."

"What are you trying to say?" he leaned forward slightly.

"If a serial killer did the job, they'd want it done quickly and effectively. In order to do that, you'd take out one of the major arteries, hit a specific part of the heart to do that. Here?" She pointed to the file. "The stab happened in the stomach, and not even an area that could quickly kill the victim. It is incredibly painful to be stabbed right here." 

She pointed to her stomach area, and even he looked down at his. "Wait," he murmured. "Why am I checking? I'm already dead."

"So the victim would be in terrible, terrible pain, slowly bleeding to death on the floor, probably screaming," Yoohyeon surmised. "Which begs the question, why didn't anybody notice?"

"I think it said that the building was a pretty new one, so the house he was found in was one of the only occupants, and the others had left for the holidays," Sanghyuk offered. "It was summer vacation."

"Convenient..." Yoohyeon narrowed her eyebrow before looking back down on the file. "Either way, this was a very shabby killing, which suggests that the killer wasn't experienced at all. Autopsy reports and crime scene reports suggest a scuffle of some sort, so perhaps a fight happened and your friend accidentally stabbed him in the stomach."

"Except...?" Sanghyuk prompted. Her tone of voice suggested there was something more.

"Except when they found Taekwoon, he had no other injuries, not even bruises. All he had was a knife in his hand and some of Jaehwan's blood on his shirt."

"Which means?"

"It fits together all too well, if you don't look at the finer details," she said. "It also says here that Taekwoon was in a bit of a delirious state when they arrested him, and he was strangely silent during the trial, didn't even try to defend himself. Hm, I wonder why?"

Sanghyuk didn't bother talking, since it was clear she wasn't talking to him anymore. Her eyes were turned away from him, staring into nothingness as she chewed on her lip thoughtfully. She seemed to be figuring something out.

"I'm going to need to make a visit to the asylum he was housed in."

"This place was renovated and transformed in 1986, turned from an asylum to a mental hospital," the worker explained to her as she lead Yoohyeon through the hospital. 

"Any reason for that?"

The worker shrugged. "It works," she said. "Back then, we were just a place to throw the nutjobs in, but now, we actually get to help people get over stuff, return them to families and society." She had a big smile on her face. "We had this one guy, a repeat ual offender, assaulted his own wife and daughter. Turned out, there was a tumor in his brain. We cut it out, even though the cancer had spread to other parts of his body. He was able to go back to his family and make amends before he passed."

Yoohyen hummed in response as the worker lead her to the archive room. The room was massive, filled to the ceiling with shelves, which were in turn stocked full of files and papers. The worker went to a particular shelf and kneeled down.

"Who was the patient whose files you needed again?"

"Jung Taekwoon," Yoohyeon supplied.

The worker nodded, searching through the files before finally pulling out one and giving it to her. "Alright, this is the main patient file," she said, digging through the shelf again, this time pulling out a book, small and hard bound. "And this is his diary."

"His diary?" Yoohyeon asked.

The worker nodded. "Back in the day, they had the inmates keep diaries, vent out their frustrations, see their inner thoughts," she explained. "Sometimes, they'd confess something in the diary that would then be used in court against them, or something else. This guy," she pointed to the diary now in Yoohyeon's hands, "was irregular with his entries. Lots of missing dates, lots of missing information too, but I don't know, it may still be useful for you."

Yoohyeon thanked her and she left, telling her to call her when she was done. Yoohyeon pulled up a chair to the desk kept in the archive room before opening up the file first.

"Why are you looking through the file instead of the diary?"

She turned her head up to see Sanghyuk, leaning on his arm against the table, looking slightly disappointed at the lack of chairs that was forcing him to stand.

"I want to know how he died," she admitted.

"Why?"

"Because there could be something there that would have been easy to miss back in the say," she replied, flipping through the file. "Hm."

"Hm?" Sanghyuk hummed. "Hm, what?"

"He was a pretty good patient, never quarreled, quietly did everything that was asked of him, took his meds," she recited. "But, suddenly he just died of a drug overdose."

"A drug overdose?" Sanghyuk asked. "How the hell-?"

"He overdosed on his own medications," Yoohyeon cut him off. "Apparently, he hadn't been taking them, just saving them up. So one day, he took about ten days worth of meds at once."

Sanghyuk in a breath. "Yeah...I wouldn't go like that."

"It means he was planning for it," she said. "Why, I have no idea? But this points to him having a severe case of depression. I'm not sure whether the depression was pre-existing or came on with Jaehwan's death."

She closed the file and pushed it to the side, opening the diary and reading the first entry. "Hm."

Sanghyuk leaned in closer. "Hm, what?" he asked. "For God's sakes, woman, please let me in!"

Yoohyeon, annoyed, looked up at him, silencing him with a look. "Alright," she grumbled. "You wanna know?

He nodded eagerly. She took a deep breath before pointing at the diary. "Like the worker said, lots of missing entries, and lots of missing data, but the data that we do have, points to something."

"What do you mean?" 

"Taekwoon's first entry talks a bit about the murder," she explained. "He didn't talk explicitly about it, but look at this line. 'I had no idea why I was there.' Now what does this tell you?" She sat back in the chair.

Sanghyuk shrugged. "What does it tell you?"

"He wasn't conscious during the murder," Yoohyeon said. "Which could point to him having blackouts."

"Okay," Sanghyuk dragged it out. "So what does all this mean?"

Yoohyeon sighed.

"I think Taekwoon is innocent."