I didn’t look at Woohyun but I knew what he was thinking – it was common for murders to deny that they had committed the crime but not every day did they back the claim up with proclamations of love.

It was too soon to tell anything, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Chanyeol was blatantly lying, but a part of me wanted to believe he was innocent. There was something about the desperation on his face, or the genuine angst, that told me that the story could be different to what we were thinking. However, even if he loved Kris, it didn’t mean anything – not all murders are born out of hatred.

“Mr. Chanyeol, why did you resist arrest?” Woohyun asked calmly. There was no sympathy in his voice. We usually took turns to play ‘good cop, bad cop’. Today, his cold demeanor meant I got to play the sympathetic one. “Do you know we can press charges against you?”

I waited for Chanyeol’s reaction. He looked genuinely terrified. His eyes flitted between the two of us.

“But we might not, if you tell us the truth,” I said gently, mustering as much empathy as I could. “We just want to know what happened, Chanyeol. If you really loved him, you need to tell us everything you know.”

I leaned forward, capturing his eyes. Eye contact was vital – Chanyeol needed to talk and if he wasn’t guilty, he would be wanting to trust someone. He gave a tiny nod.

“How do you know Kris?”

Chanyeol his dry lips.

“I –we – we were in a relation– we were engaged.”

He held up his hand - I had noticed the gleaming stone set on the ring he had on his ring finger the moment I had entered the room. Something about it seemed really familiar and now I knew what. It was identical to the one Kris was wearing.

But what Chanyeol actually said threw me. A model dating a guy? That seemed a bit far-fetched, given the harsh entertainment industry that was quick to judge. News like this would have been a glorious scandal for the media to play with but nothing of that sort had come up when we had dug up about Kris.

“Really?” Woohyun asked sarcastically. He probably wasn’t buying it as well.

“Yes I swear,” Chanyeol said desperately. I had a feeling that he was indeed speaking the truth. “We kept it a secret, because – well of course, with Kris’ career and all…but he loved me, I loved him. We were together for two years.”

Woohyun cocked his head to one side, observing our suspect. He was having a hard time believing him, but I found him to be genuine. There was no way to communicate with Woohyun now, but I knew that he would figure it out eventually. In this job, I had learned to trust my gut feelings.

“How did you guys meet, Chanyeol?”

Chanyeol’s gaze fell to his lap. Fidgeting with the hem of his jacket, he said, “I –er, I used to be a volunteer at the rehab where he had been admitted.”

“Have you ever used?”

He shook his head.

“No, I just liked helping out at the rehab.”

We went through his personal life, and the story he said matched with that in the file Sungyeol had handed us on his records. His mother was an addict and he got taken away when he was very young. He grew up in a foster family, went to college, and was currently working at a small company. I noticed a letter of gratitude in the file from the rehab center he had been talking about, for the voluntary services he had provided. That was a good sign – he had been speaking the truth.

“When did you get engaged?” Woohyun asked. This was an important question. Dongwoo had said that the ring hadn’t been on Kris’ finger for long. If Chanyeol tried to lie to us about this, we would know.

“I – the day before yesterday,” he muttered, his eyes filling with tears. Woohyun and I exchanged a glance.

“You mean the night he died?” I asked.

He nodded.

That was strange. Kris decided to get married to Chanyeol and ended up dead right after?

“When exactly?” Woohyun prompted.

Chanyeol, however, was now in tears. He pressed his face into his hands while his shoulders, now hunched, shook. I glanced sideways at Woohyun, silently telling him to give him some time. When Chanyeol had sat up straight again, Woohyun repeated the question coldly.

“It was around 3.15 am. He had called me around 2 am and told me to meet him in front of the Chinese restaurant he used to frequent. That’s where he – he proposed. He told me that after that night, everything will be alright again.”

Chanyeol relapsed into tears again. Woohyun made an impatient noise but I placed a warning hand on his arm. It was important to not break this atmosphere. I believed that we were getting through to Chanyeol.

“What do you mean by that? Wasn’t everything alright between the two of you?” I asked kindly. Woohyun leaned back on his chair, giving me the floor. Chanyeol was now emotionally vulnerable and thus needed a gentler touch.

He shook his head, wiping the tears from his eyes.

“He – he was having trouble at work because of me. We – we hid our relationship because it would affect Kris’ career. But I argued about it with him. He had told me that he was going to tell everyone about us, but he kept stalling.” He blew his nose loudly. “He kept on stalling and I thought – I thought he didn’t love me anymore. We had a fight about a week ago. I told him if he didn’t – if he was ashamed of me then it’d be better for us to break up. And finally he – he proposed to me and…”

Woohyun’s gaze was sharp as he observed Chanyeol carefully. No doubt he was trying to determine if he was saying the truth.

“So you went to Kris’ company and argued with him?”

He nodded, then stiffened.

“How did you know? Did he tell you?”

“Who?”

Chanyeol’s features hardened and disgust erupted on his face. His voice became steady.

“Kris’ manager – he hated me. He couldn’t stand the idea of me in Kris’ life. He wanted to make Kris a star, because he’s greedy. He just wanted the money Kris would bring in; he had no interest in making Kris happy.” He ended harshly, anger flickering in his eyes.

The argument they had previously and then Junho’s interference became clearer. Chanyeol added that Kris had told his manager about them, which had caused Junho to forbid Kris to see Chanyeol again.

“We didn’t for about a month,” Chanyeol said earnestly. “Kris told me he’d convince his manager. But then when I went to see him at his agency, the man just barged in and told me to get out. He accused me of ruining Kris’ life, he told me Kris didn’t need me…and Kris just stood there…”

Maybe the reason Kris and the manager had fought during the dinner was because Kris had told him he was going to get engaged to Chanyeol. He had definitely come prepared; he had bought the rings earlier. Junho, who was trying to get Kris a deal with a famous fashion designer, would definitely be furious to hear that Kris was going to commit career suicide by coming out to the public. A gay model, dating another man – it would unquestionably be the end of his career. And if that happened, Junho had a lot to lose.

Suddenly, an idea occurred to me. What if these threats were not from drug dealers or anyone from the drug gang, but from Junho. Maybe Junho was threatening him not to continue his relationship with Chanyeol. Though that didn’t explain why he would go to Jinwoon, accusing him of threatening him, it explained everything else.

“You know everything about Kris, don’t you Chanyeol?”

Chanyeol hesitated, before nodding. He didn’t seem completely confident.

“Do you know that he was back in the drug business again?”

Chanyeol jumped, as if he had just been electrocuted. The reaction was honest, as far as I could tell. His eyes clouded with worry.

“N-no, that can’t be, that’s not possible. He gave it all up – he’d never go back to that life willingly -”

I frowned.

“Are you sure Kris didn’t tell you anything about this? Or you didn’t notice anything odd about him?”

He shook his head vehemently.

“He was stressed out of course, with his job and his manager pressuring him to break up with me. And -” Suddenly his expression changed. When he raised his head, there was hatred in his eyes. His next words came out in screams. “I know who killed him, I know! It was him. He always told me – he always did – he said Scream ruined his life! He told me he won’t be able to live his life until Scream was gone. Gone from his life! He said - he said that night…” At this point the fire in his eyes was gone, replaced by a fresh bout of tears, but he didn’t stop talking. “He told me he was going to make Scream go away forever, that he knew the way and then we could be together. He said he’d quit his job, that he didn’t care anymore…”

Hiding his face in his hand, Chanyeol continued to utter incomprehensible words. We waited patiently for him to gather himself.

All the while, my mind was racing. Scream had appeared in Kris’ calendar – the appointments that were labeled Scream were actually meetings with Kris’ drug gang boss, or whoever he was in contact with in the gang. This man was probably the one who had introduced him to the drug world, which was why he had said that Scream had ruined his life. Maybe this was the man who had approached him again, and forced him to go back to his old life. He also had an appointment with Scream on the night he died. It all made sense.

Except, who was Scream?

Kris looked like he had planned ahead. He probably was going to cut off all ties with the gang – but would it have been so easy? Would Scream just let him walk away? And what about Junho? Did he just give up on Kris after the argument?

“His gun – Kris had his gun with him! Oh God, why am I so stupid, why didn’t I see it then? Kris was carrying his gun!” Chanyeol wailed loudly.

I almost reacted, extending an arm to pat him on the back but remembered myself at the last moment. Chanyeol was still a murder suspect, despite his tale. And he was one of the last people to see Kris alive. In fact, he had seen Kris during the murder window. Who was to tell that he hadn’t murdered Kris, that he wasn’t Scream?

“There was a bulge in his jacket, but I was too happy to care. He took his gun out with him, why? Why?”

“So Kris had a gun, was it licensed?” Woohyun asked.

“Umm, no – it was for, well for his protection. People from the gang could come back, so he wanted to be safe,” Chanyeol mumbled, his eyes fixed on the ground.

“Then he could have gotten a licensed weapon. Didn’t he know carrying an illegal weapon could land him in jail?” Woohyun was being too harsh, but I couldn’t interfere. The main issue here was to keep Chanyeol talking.

“He – he didn’t know rules were so strict in Korea. Back in China…well he said he would get rid of it. He promised me, he said he won’t need it anymore and he was going to throw it away then.”

Had Kris been planning a murder? Maybe he wanted out of the drug business, and the only way out was to finish off the leader. Was that what he was going to do the night he died – kill off Scream so that he could start anew? Everything he had told Chanyeol sounded like he was planning to make a fresh new start but that was impossible as long as Scream was alive.

“Chanyeol, what did you do after the proposal? Did Kris tell you where he was going?”

“No. I was just too happy and too stupid. He said he had to finish something and he would come and meet me in the morning. He said he would stay over at my place for some time. And he – he called me a cab and – and that’s the last I saw of him.”

“And why didn’t you come forward to the police when he died? Why did you resist arrest?” Woohyun was glaring at the man in front of us, who shrank in his chair.

“I was afraid – I thought the manager would try to frame me or something – I just needed time to – to come to terms with -”

He couldn’t continue anymore. Chanyeol’s grief to me seemed genuine. There was a limit to how much you could act, especially under pressure, in an interrogation room. There was no mistaking the hurt Chanyeol had received at Kris’ passing away.

I thought about Sungjong for a moment, and shivered involuntarily. If something happened to Sungjong…I couldn’t imagine it.

“Things don’t really look good for you, Chanyeol-ssi. You were with the victim during the time when he could have been murdered and you have no witnesses to say you didn’t murder him. But for now you can -”

There was a knock on the door, and Youngjae poked his head in.

“Just a sec,” he muttered and sighing, Woohyun got up. He had his hand on the doorknob while he spoke to Youngjae in a hushed voice. I took the opportunity to send Chanyeol a reassuring glance.

Finally, Woohyun came back, carrying two plastic bags and a new file.

He resumed his seat and said, in a grave voice, “I’m sorry Mr. Chanyeol but you haven’t been speaking the truth.”