“What, you think I just appeared out of nowhere? Of course, I’ve never come out of his mind until the murders. But that kid’s girlfriend, DongHae’s… If I didn’t come out, YunHo probably would have lost his mind on his own.”

JaeJoong narrowed his eyes. “What are you talking about?”

“You never heard? I’ll share the story with you.

“Once upon a time, when YunHo went to see his high school girlfriend, he arrived only to see her chair kicked out from beneath her. Ah, but why would a pretty girl like her who’s going out with a handsome guy like him decide to hang herself?

“When she looked back, she was much prettier when the little couple started dating in their days of middle school. As she got older, she looked older, plainer, nothing like her breath-taking sunbaes. She couldn’t stand to see her YunHo look at another beautiful girl. She’d rather die before that happened.”

The acidic smile was back. “And I was born. I sat with him in his depression, telling him how these poor girls shouldn’t have to cry at their ugly selves in the mirror. For a long time, he ignored my words. And he went on with life and debuted in his band.

“Now… When we came here however long ago, that’s when I made my debut. DongHae was stressing out over his girlfriend. Apparently, she was being ridiculed by her classmates, and she thought about killing herself. That set off the dark memories in YunHo’s mind. They would have overwhelmed him, so I came out for the first time.”

JaeJoong interrupted him. “That was when you started killing?”

Lightly cocking his head to the side, YunHo replied, “Well, to be accurate, that was when I grabbed you in the alleyway. At the time, though, YunHo was still vaguely aware of what he was doing. I didn’t completely take control then.”

Pausing slightly, JaeJoong spoke again. “Does YunHo know of your existence?”

A smirk emerged. “Of course not. He just thinks he has abnormal memory problems.”

“And he never thought of going to the doctor if his memory was so abnormal?”

The person in the chair didn’t respond. The smirk was there, and in one second, it wore away, replaced with an expression mixed with thought and confusion.

“He was there,” YunHo said cautiously.

JaeJoong blinked. “Eh? Where?”

“JunSu. He was in the studio when I got there. I’m pretty sure he was already there…” YunHo trailed off, confusion becoming more pronounced as he stared at JaeJoong.

They remained silent for a bit. JaeJoong’s brow furrowed, and his eyes narrowed slightly. Slowly, he sat back down in his chair, carefully analyzing the person across from him.

“…Jung YunHo?” JaeJoong said, tentatively.

“Eh?”

JaeJoong mentally rolled his eyes at himself. It wouldn’t matter whose name he called for; the other person was using YunHo’s name. He shook his head and started again.

“I’m sure you realize why you’re here,” he said.

YunHo grimaced, and his gaze fell to the table. He didn’t say anything but twitched his head to a jerky nod.

“Anything to say in your defense?”

“I… don’t even know what I was thinking,” he admitted. “Things just happened so quickly my brain couldn’t catch up by the time…”

“You do realize you’re looking at twenty-two life sentences, right? You really have nothing else to say in your defense?”

YunHo’s eyes flew wide as he shot his attention to JaeJoong. “Twenty two?! What for?!”

One of JaeJoong’s eyebrows arched up. “Twenty-two murders in cold blood. Twenty-one fans and then JunSu. What else?”

“I didn’t kill twenty-one fans!”

“But you did kill JunSu,” JaeJoong added.

“I admit that I killed JunSu,” he retorted, wincing as he spoke. “I saw as he died under my hands, but I wasn’t the one killing all of those girls!”

“Oh, really? All of the evidence seems to be pointing at you, though.”

“What evidence?!”

“Well, let’s start with SooYoung. Oh, off topic but, did you know SooYoung personally, by any chance?”

“I don’t know anyone named SooYoung…”

“Ah. Well, her father is a detective at this station, so obviously he’d look out for the well being of his family, you know? His security cameras were all over you.”

YunHo glared. “You’re bluffing. I bet you’re trying to make me say something.”

“Who’s bluffing? I’m just stating facts. And then when you snapped JiWon’s phone in half, her camera got your face completely.”

“You’re still bluffing.”

“And the girl you shoved out of the parking garage? She said your name.”

His temper was rising. “I don’t believe you.”

“Though I do wonder what the case was with SoHee,” JaeJoong muttered. “We managed to deduce that she was either sitting or standing on the railing when you pushed her over. That, and we’re curious about why you went from strangling to – ”

YunHo cut through JaeJoong, bellowing, “She was pissing me off with her conceited attitude, alright?!”

Silence was crushing.

Crossing his arms, JaeJoong leaned back in his chair. “What’s this? Is the Dark YunHo back? Or do we have a case of a fabricated multiple personality?”

YunHo clenched his jaw but didn’t respond. JaeJoong stared him down, propping his chin with one hand and drumming the table with the other. Eventually, YunHo slouched and gave a lazy expression.

“Are you proud?” he asked coolly. “Are you proud of yourself now for figuring it out?”

“I guess you could say that. So tell me,” JaeJoong said, “what stories were real and what stories weren’t.”

“For instance?”

“For instance, the supposed birth of Dark YunHo. Did some poor girl die for you to make up that lie?”

YunHo’s forehead creased and he responded loudly, sardonically, “Yeah, some poor girl died. Must have been suicide. Too bad she was going out with that sneaky-looking rascal. I bet he’s the reason she killed herself.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Would you believe her own relatives were saying that about her at her own wake? Now I wished I could have gone in there and throttled them, but I didn’t think of it back then. How would they feel if their own daughters died, still young and vital to those close to her? How could they possibly know what it was like?”

“And you used all your pent-up anger to kill random girls.”

“What else could I do? They won’t learn if they sit back and cluck at the news every night.”

“So you became a superhero… Then what’s the point of making Dark YunHo? Was he supposed to be your scapegoat?”

“In a sense.”

“Why? So you could be tried for insanity and sent to some mental hospital?” But JaeJoong seemed to come to a conclusion without hearing a word. “Ahh, I see. They’d let you out after your ‘alter ego’ disappeared. As opposed to sitting in jail for three-hundred years. I see.”

Again, YunHo flexed his jaw, pressing his lips into a thin line. JaeJoong only saw it as a sign of affirmation. He leaned over the table.

“Well, now that the secret’s out, I don’t think you have a chance at having a sleepover at the mental hospital. As far as I’m concerned, you’ll be scratching your three-hundred years off in a jail cell. Better give your fans your address; you know, the ones you didn’t get to kill.”