Taekwoon stared in shock, his arms going limp in the two remaining chains holding them up. 

"Hm," Sanghyuk broke the silence. "It seems we were right."

She took a deep breath, straightening up. She looked around at the ghosts. 

Hongbin's eyes had gone wider than ever, looking like dish plates. Wonshik seemed to want to say something, but then kept silent, remembering that he'd been mute for the last fifty years. Hakyeon...was now on the floor, leaning against the chamber wall, his expression crestfallen.

She turned back to Taekwoon, whose facial expression slowly changed from shock. His head fell and he tightly closed his eyes, biting his lip as if he wanted to swear and curse, to relieve all the feelings he'd bottled up inside all these decades. 

She sighed deeply. "It hurts, doesn't it?" she asked him. 

He opened his eyes, dark pools of sadness and anger swirling, threatening to her in. "The next part is going to hurt even more," she slowly told him. "You're still not free. You've still got two chains remaining to break, and then you can pass onto the afterlife.

"Are you sure you want to know the truth more?"

Taekwoon bit his lip before nodding. Yes.

She stood up. "I just got close to solving this case," she told the ghosts. "Now that I know that Bora was the one who killed Jaehwan originally, everything, and I mean, everything, now falls into place."

She pointed to Taekwoon. "It's no secret that Taekwoon wasn't entirely right, with his mental health issues. Yet, he managed to remain at the top of the class, securing the highest scores all times and playing sports. For a while, he romanced Kim Bora, who was the only other person who could accept him with his flaws, apart from his friends. But then Lee Jaehwan came along.

"Lee Jaehwan was as affluent as Taekwoon being the heir to a massive realty firm, as studious as him. However, he lacked the emotional issues Taekwoon had, instead being extremely charismatic and joyful, quickly becoming the new 'prince' of the school. Needless to say, he had all the girls charmed...including Kim Bora.

"Whether she wanted to or not, Kim Bora slowly became enamored with Jaehwan, probably because he lacked the baggage her boyfriend had. She slowly shifted her attention to Jaehwan, but found herself unable to leave Taekwoon as they'd been together for so long, and she didn't want to hurt him. 

"However, Taekwoon slowly got worse, to the point only his friends could help him. This was probably the final nail in the coffin, and Kim Bora fell out of love with Taekwoon."

"So...she cheated..." Sanghyuk surmised.

Yoohyeon nodded. "Probably had been, for a while," she said. "She never could bring herself to break up with Taekwoon though, considering how he seemed normal around her. But even he began to notice that he was losing her."

She counted on her fingers. "June 1968," she said. "The second year class had a picture day before summer vacations. Bora and Jaehwan agreed to meet up during summer vacations without Taekwoon and his friends knowing. So one night, during late July 1968, Jaehwan invited Bora over one of his family newer projects. The project being so new, had only a handful of occupants, all of whom had left for the holidays, hence the building was actually deserted.

"Jaehwan took the chance to force himself on Bora, much to her surprise, and she resisted. However, him being physically stronger didn't help her. In order to save herself, she found a butterknife lying on a counter nearby."

"So she grabbed it," Sanghyuk completed.

Yoohyeon nodded. "It was purely self defense, but nevertheless, she ended up plunging the knife into Jaehwan's stomach."

Sanghyuk hissed lightly. "That must hurt, being stabbed by such a blunt knife."

She nodded. "He died slowly, and in agony, screaming. The shock of the entire thing, along with the painful stabbing was enough to kill him."

"Didn't he die from blood loss first?" Sanghyuk wondered.

"There definitely was blood loss," Yoohyeon agreed. "But many times pain and shock kill the organism quicker. You see this with wild dogs and hyenas and the like, the kind of animals who eat their prey alive. The prey dies quickly from pain and shock, rather than blood loss itself." 

"So Bora ended up killing Jaehwan because he forced himself on her," Sanghyuk mused.

"It must have been quite a shock for her, to see someone die, and by her own hands. As the panic sets in, she suddenly sees the door open." She gestured to the cage.

"Taekwoon arrives," Sanghyuk said.

Yoohyeon hummed. "She panicked, thinking that he'd seen what she had done. However, she quickly realized that he wasn't in his natural state."

"He was sleep-walking, wasn't he?"

"Whatever it was, something led him to that building that night. Perhaps he'd heard the name from Jaehwan, and his subconscious led him there as he had already been suspecting that he was being cheated on. Perhaps his subconscious wanted him to valiantly arrive and claim her for himself.

"However, he ended up showing up at the scene of a crime. Bora, noticing that Taekwoon wasn't in his natural state, thought to pin the blame on him. She sat him down next to Jaehwan's body and placed the knife in his hand, before quickly making her escape.

"When Taekwoon came to, he found himself in front of a dead Jaehwan, with a bloody knife in his hands and blood on his clothes. The police arrived soon after, after hearing reports of screaming, and apprehended Taekwoon, believing him to be the murderer. He was tried in court, where he admitted his own guilt, but was proved mentally ill, and sent to an asylum, where he was supposed to receive treatment.

"However, he stored his medications, not taking them on time. Except on one fateful day, when he took them all at once, and overdosed. Why he did so remains unknown." 

Yoohyeon took a deep breath. "That's the truth, isn't it?" she asked into the air. "Kim Bora killed Lee Jaehwan out of pure self defense, and framed Taekwoon out of pure panic. Still in her panic, she refused to testify and prove him innocent, lest she admit to her own crime." 

"Hm," Sanghyuk hummed. "It was actually simple all along, huh?" 

Crack!

They immediately turned back to the cage as the sound of cracking filled the room. 

The remaining chain on Taekwoon's right hand snapped, shattering into little glimmering pieces, catching the light and shining and they fell to the ground. His hand fell to the ground, his posture slumped forward, only being held up by his other hand still in the chain.

"Almost free..."

She turned around to see Sanghyuk who was watching Taekwoon intently. 

"So, we solved the case," she said. "So what's the last chain."

"I think it's justice," he said. "Even if we now know what happened, the court record states that he was the perpetrator, and we still don't have any decisive evidence. We've only reached this conclusion with circumstantial evidence and triple guessing."

"The case is fifty years old," she murmured to herself. "There wouldn't be any evidence left to find. Anyway, there's overwhelming evidence against Taekwoon, so nothing new we find can be used in court to clear his name. In case of a lack of evidence, the only thing left is a confession, right from the mouth of the killer." 

"So..."

She put her hand down as Taekwoon raised his head to meet her eyes. "We're going to have to track down Kim Bora and make her confess."