Chapter Eighteen
Star Witness
[Flashback]
“Wait up!” Donghae called out and took several steps forward as soon as Yoona her heels and ran. The junior agent cursed under his breath. There would be no use talking to her if she wasn’t going to listen. At that moment, his temples began to throb and he found it hard to breath. The night had been too eventful – the Moon Festival, the arrest, Yoona…
His emotions were all muddled up inside and he felt tired. He decided to go just home and sleep it all off. Maybe this was all a bad dream. Donghae was heading towards his car when he felt someone grip his elbow.
“Where’s Yoona-sshi?” It was Taecyeon.
“She headed home,” Donghae muttered.
Taecyeon sighed and released Donghae’s elbow. “If only I knew she was going to bail out on me at the end, I shouldn’t have wasted my time with that plain, boring girl.”
Upon hearing this, Donghae grabbed the other man’s collar. “Take back what you said,” the agent hissed.
“Whoa! Calm down, man! She’s all yours. She initially cancelled the meet up with me anyway. Maybe it was because she already got herself a man. I guess that’d be you,” Taecyeon spoke quickly and nervously, but still, Donghae was able to hear every word.
“She cancelled it?” Donghae loosened his grip. “But why did you end up meeting each other anyway?”
Taecyeon shrugged. “I don’t know. She changed her mind the last minute and decided to meet with me. Maybe you guys had a fight or something.”
Donghae was dumbfounded. So that’s what happened. Maybe Yoona cancelled the meet up because of she “already got herself” someone…
Yoona wasn’t playing around with me after all. She stood up for me. Again.
Donghae smacked himself in the head. He suddenly realized that his actions with Jessica probably hurt Yoona.
A lot.
Maybe that was what made her change her mind and decide to continue the arranged marriage.
“Thanks,” Donghae bowed to Taecyeon and proceeded towards his car. I need to apologize to her.
[End of flashback]
~~~
Aunt Hana was busy cleaning up the dinner table when she heard the doorbell ring. Wiping her hands on her apron, the lady rushed towards the front door.
“It has to be Yoona,” she said, looking up at the clock worriedly. It was already thirty minutes past ten and still, the girl hadn’t arrived home. The festival should’ve ended an hour ago and Jeongsan High was just a ten minute walk from school. To make things worse, Yoona wasn’t answering her phone either. Aunt Hana just hoped the girl just got carried away with her friends.
When Aunt Hana opened the door, she was extremely surprised to see Donghae standing on the front steps. He bowed briefly and said, “Good evening, ma’am. Is Yoona-sshi home?”
“As a matter of fact, she isn’t.” Aunt Hana’s eyes widened in fear and her brows narrowed. “I thought she was still at the festival.”
Donghae glanced at his watch. “She left for home some thirty minutes ago.”
Aunt Hana’s hand shot up to . “Oh, please tell me something hasn’t happened to her.”
~~~
The first thing that Yoona felt was an excruciating pain that radiated all throughout her head. It was as if her skull had been pierced with nails, then shattered to pieces. The second thing the girl noticed was that she was leaning against something rough. As soon as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she realized she was surrounded by dark, towering trees, their branches waving threateningly at her.
Groaning, she tried to move but realized that her arms and feet were bound. She felt sore all over. She looked around and noticed a tall figure approaching her. She could see a malicious grin spread across the figure’s face.
“I see you’re awake,” the figure spoke. “Do you know who I am?”
~~~
An inexplicable wave of panic overcame Donghae as he ran back to the car where Amber was waiting in the passenger’s seat.
“How’d it go?” the female agent asked.
“Yoona isn’t home. She isn’t picking up her phone, either. We already contacted NPA and Officer Wu,” Donghae felt as if his heart and lungs were about to explode from his chest. What happened to Yoona? Where is she?
Something is wrong here. Definitely wrong.
“Maybe Taecyeon picked her up while she was walking and took her someplace,” Amber mused.
“No, that can’t be,” Donghae snapped. “He went home in his Benz. Said Yoong wasn’t worth his time.”
There was silence for a while as the two sat there, thinking.
“Do you think…?” Amber began.
“Yes,” Donghae didn’t let the girl finish. “We got the wrong killer. And I think I know exactly where Yoong is.”
Amber hoped Donghae would be right this time. There were several instances in the past when the agent followed his hunch but he ended up wrong. They couldn’t risk that now. Crossing her fingers, Amber nodded. “Let’s go then.”
With that, the red Mazda swerved into the road and out of sight.
~~~
“Do you know who I am?” the killer repeated.
“Jin Youngmin,” Yoona answered.
And that moment, everything became clear to her.
“Afraid that someone might see you killing Chohee, you wore a mask,” Yoona began, remembering the collection of masks displayed in Youngmin’s home. He probably wore the Moon Festival Mask – the one that had a yellowish skin with a curved, pointed nose – because a lot of other people had it. “But you forgot to cover up one detail about yourself. The scar that runs down your neck. That’s why you always wore a turtleneck to hide it, afraid that it might incriminate you.”
A deep laugh emerged from Youngmin. He ran his fingers down the deformed red patch of skin that traveled down his neck. The scar was the one very important detail Yoona forgot about the killer. It was that one very important detail that had haunted her in her dreams but disappeared every time she was about to remember it. It was that very same scar that led her to realize that although she had access to the masks, Park Minhee wasn’t the killer.
“But do you know why I killed Chohee?” Youngmin asked. His voice sounded as if he was playing with a child.
Yoona shook her head. She honestly didn't know.
The killer looked at her with intense, terrifying eyes. “As you know, Chohee and I used to be a couple. I loved her even though she was quirky and a workaholic. I proposed to her repeatedly. And she repeatedly rejected me. We both realized it wasn’t going to work out. I wanted to have a family, but she didn’t want to commit. So we broke up.”
Here, Youngmin paused and gazed at the ground. “A couple of months later, when I was going through her files, I saw a written consent for abortion. Chohee was pregnant with our child but she decided to kill it. She was murderer. So you see? I only did to her what she did to our child.”
Youngmin chuckled to himself.
“You didn’t have to kill her,” was Yoona’s reply. “Sure, she made a mistake in her life. But you didn’t have to kill her. She deserved to live.”
The killer sneered. “I guess I don’t have to kill you too. But see, you know too much. I can’t let you live.”
The girl watched in fear as Youngmin took out a shotgun and aimed it right at her. She saw the gun’s barrel right in front of her. She saw how Youngmin placed his finger on the trigger, a feigned frown forming on his face. She saw his merciless eyes, his hideous scar. The world suddenly froze. There was an icy silence then…
Bang!
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