“It’s this guy? Are you sure?”

JaeJoong nodded slowly. “He was fleeing the scene. That by itself is suspicious enough.”

YoungWoon crossed his arms. “But what if he had just come along and he found JunSu? And he didn’t want to get blamed?”

“He still shouldn’t have run away. But when I felt for a pulse on JunSu, his neck was still warm; hot even. So JunSu had only just…”

JaeJoong didn’t finish the sentence. The two stood in the dim room adjacent to the interrogation room YunHo sat in. Ever since they had first left him in the room, he hadn’t moved. He barely spoke even though JunJin had tried interrogating him.

JunJin entered the dim room. He sighed and tossed a blank legal pad on the table. “That’s all I got,” he said, annoyed. “That guy isn’t saying a thing.”

“Let me talk to him,” JaeJoong said.

YoungWoon looked at him, eyebrow cocked. “You wanna try? Yah, JaeJoong-ah! What if he strangles you, too?!”

“How do we know you won’t lose it?” JunJin asked.

“I won’t.”

JaeJoong left and walked into the interrogation room. YunHo was slow to look up, but when he saw who it was that entered, he instantly became alert.

JaeJoong sat in a chair across the table from him, but he didn’t say a thing. The two sat tensely in silence for a long time.

“So,” JaeJoong said, breaking the silence, “I thought you all were leaving town. Weren’t you going on tour?”

“Ah…” YunHo seemed surprised at the question. “Yeah…”

“Is the rest of the band here? Or did they leave already?”

“They left ahead of me.”

“Why are you still here?”

YunHo seemed to realize where the questions were going. “We left some CDs in the studio.”

“I heard about that. But wasn’t HyukJae picking them up?”

“He was going to, originally. But DongHae… had some trouble, so I went instead.”

“And JunSu was in the studio when you got there?”

He hesitated. “I… don’t remember.”

“You don’t?” JaeJoong eyed him carefully. “Did he come in after you came?”

“He might have. I don’t remember.”

JaeJoong leaned over the table. “Close your eyes and figure out what it was. Was JunSu there or not when you came in?”

YunHo took a deep breath and closed his eyes as directed. Again, the two sat in silence. When he answered, YunHo spoke with absolute confidence.

“He was already there.”

YunHo opened his eyes suddenly and stared straight into JaeJoong’s. The atmosphere seemed to change completely.

JaeJoong stiffened. “And? What happened?”

“He entered the studio. JunSu was in there, dancing his own routine, but he stopped when he came in. JunSu looked anxious. Usually that kid would bounce around, noisily asking him what’s going on. That was strange to me.”

JaeJoong didn’t respond, and YunHo continued.

“He noticed it too, so he asked JunSu, ‘Yah, what’s wrong with you?’ JunSu said, ‘Hyung, has DongHae left already?’

“ ‘Yeah, him and HyukJae are on their way to the airport. I’m just here to grab those CDs. Why?’

“ ‘Actually, JaeJoong-hyung wanted to talk to you… about DongHae.’

“ ‘What for?’

“ ‘It’s about… the murders. The girls all around Seoul.’ ”

YunHo seemed to get irritated. “I lost it then. The thought of that kid taking my glory? No way would I stand for it.

“I guess I should have waited for you to get there, because it was your stupidity I was mad about. But I didn’t control it, so I just reached out to kill the messenger.

“The feeling was different. With the girls, I felt like I was saving them. They called themselves Cassiopeians, and Cassiopeia is the beautiful goddess. How I could I let them age and lose their beauty? This way, they’ll always be remembered as beautiful.

“But JunSu, I just had a very deep desire to kill him. It was much easier to pull off when I thought of it like that.”

A dark smile spread on YunHo’s face. “It wasn’t the same feeling as the girls, but it was satisfying in its own way. For example, the fear in his eyes, on his face; his hands trying to pull mine from his neck; all the while, he’s gasping for air.

“When he was on the floor, in his last seconds, I suddenly thought that I should share this. I should share this feeling with him.”

JaeJoong, not having said anything for a while, asked in a dry whisper. “With who?”

The person across the table grinned widely.

“Jung YunHo.”

Silence fell again for a long time.

“And… who are you?” JaeJoong asked.

“Oh, I don’t have a name for myself. I figured it would be easy enough just keeping YunHo’s name as my own.”

JaeJoong sat quietly for a while. The person using YunHo’s name sat in his chair, relaxed. After a longer period of silence, JaeJoong stood and paced.

“So what’s the story with DongHae?” he asked.

“DongHae? What about him?”

“Where has he been when your murders occurred? Why did he become so agitated when he overheard me and JunSu talking about it?”

“Oh, that?” YunHo scoffed. “That kid was afraid that I got his girlfriend in Gwangjin. For a while he couldn’t get in contact with her. But when they finally did get to talk, she dumped him and he became depressed. It was shallow.”

“And he just let your murders slide?”

“Ah, no one knew I was doing them. Not even YunHo realized it. Of course he did find it odd that he would be in the dance studio by himself one minute and then walking back to the studio the next, gloves on his hands and arms soaked. And when he watched the news the next morning about the girls that were strangled to death, he worried about why his hands were cramping so much…

“Then he grew suspicious of himself. He threw away the gloves. I bought new ones, though; it’s easier to do my work that way. He threw the new ones away; I bought another pair. He saw blood on those and threw them away. Of course I would buy more. He couldn’t stop me. He didn’t even know when I came out.”

JaeJoong stared down at him, still standing. He rested his hands on the back of the chair he had sat in. “So you killed these girls… just so they could be pretty forever?”

“Basically, yeah.”

“And you killed JunSu because I said it was someone else? Because I thought it was DongHae doing it?”

“What can I say? I lost my mind for a bit.” He smirked. “I guess YunHo lost his mind completely. JaeJoong-sshi, if you grip your chair anymore, your knuckles might break.”

Slowly, JaeJoong released his fingers one by one, slowly flexing some feeling back into them. He continued glaring at YunHo, but YunHo returned the glare with an acidic smile.

“What? Are you mad that I killed your friend?”

“That would be an understatement all over the place. I’m more than mad, and JunSu isn’t just a mere friend. If I could, I would kill you myself.”

“Ohhh? Is that so?” He leaned over the table. “Then what will you do?”

JaeJoong leaned over the table as well, coming eye to eye with YunHo. “I’m gonna convict the hell out of you, is what I’m gonna do. You and YunHo can share stories in jail.”

“Perfect. We have good stories to talk about.” The dark smile resurfaced. “I especially love the one about how I came about.”

“How you came about?”