"That is why she died – and why I am responsible." Seungri continued to read from the sheet – his eyes alternating between the paper and the camera. Now he knew of its presence, he couldn't stop glancing at it.

A pen was suddenly at him and he started. For the past few minutes all that existed was his confession. As he spoke the words aloud, they began to ring ever more truly; weighing him down with guilt.

He still had no memory of the accident – but he believed everything he had read. Even down to the way his mom had died.

He wanted to collapse to his knees; to find amends; to willingly accept whatever punishment was meted out to him – by the law, or whoever else decided his fate.

He just needed for it to stop.

"Sign the bottom of the page and then read the next one." The instruction was hissed at him in a stage-whisper and Seungri complied with shaking hands.

The damning signature in place, Seungri turned the page and continued to read – still without giving pause to consider the words that he said:

"A murderer needs to face justice and that is the purpose of my confession." Again, his eyes flickered involuntarily towards the camera. "I need to be punished for what I did. She must have justice.…" A sob restricted his words and his vision blurred again. "She…" He couldn't say his mother’s name. "She needs to have her killer punished. I need to be punished – and that would be the Death Penalty."

"He's demand to see Mr. Yang; says he'll kill his son otherwise."

Police Chief Jin inwardly cursed. The threat had been made and now he had to act on it.

"Have you contact the special unit? Is there an opening? Any chance..?" Police Chief Jin ask through his radio receiver.

"The special unit can't get close. He's in the basement, backed up in a corner and with a gun to the kid's head." No. "He's just started a countdown… got three minutes before he pulls the trigger."

"JIN!" Hyunsuk bark from the back seat. In matter of seconds he and Seunghyun was already moving – racing towards the house.

As they ran, the fleeting thought crossed Hyunsuk's minds: that he should be keeping his elder son away from this.

But he couldn't pause to argue; couldn't spare even a breath for an objection.

Three minutes is not enough. Not when you had no way of tracking the passage of time; not when a second too late would result in a trigger being pulled; not when every instinct was screaming that giving into Arashi's demand was a bad idea.

Not when the next sound they heard might be a gunshot.

Seungri flinched when he was suddenly grabbed around the shoulders and dragged back into the corner of the room – but that was only because the action was so totally unexpected. He had done what was demanded of him; now he was waiting for a promise to be fulfilled. He was awaiting release.

There was a noise – a sudden rush of movement – and instinct alone had him jerking away. The reaction of his captor was to shift his grasp away from his shoulders to his throat.

He could see guns and dark uniforms – and he didn't understand what was happening – but his captor was clearly calm. Arashi merely discharged his gun – the report deafeningly loud in the confined space – and shouted:

"The next face I want to see is Yang Hyunsuk. Or the next bullet will be going through his brain."

Another gunshot accompanied the words: "Tell him he's got three minutes, or his son dies!" There was a third gunshot and that was followed by a frantic rush of movement around the door.

Seungri closed his eyes.

He had just confessed to murdering his own mother – and his father was on his way to them. How would his father react to the blatant truth that his son had killed his beloved wife?

Seungri didn't want to find out. It would be overwhelmingly and cripplingly painful. He knew how much he hurt with the knowledge – and his dad had loved his mom very much.

He couldn't take it anymore. He had signed his confession and had been promised freedom. Seungri needed to be free. But freedom – in his mind – no longer meant a simple release from his captivity.

It meant a release from the agony brought about by guilt; by the blame that he knew was bound to follow.

He was guilty. He had killed his mom. And now his dad – and most likely his hyung – were racing into danger to try and save his life. He didn't deserve to live. He deserved the fate that inevitably awaited him: the death penalty.

"Kill me," he rasped. He needed his captor to do it now – before his dad and hyung got there. He didn't want them to witness his death.

"Please!" He begged. He craved an end to his suffering. "Kill me, please…" Tears streamed down his cheeks. "Kill me!"

And those were the words Yang Hyunsuk heard when he emerged into the basement where Arashi was holding his younger son.