Pain sings, betrayal sinks, and bitterness screams.

The interrogation room seemed fuller, even though there was just one extra person, sitting opposite to us, beside Lee Taemin. He had an impressive physique – tall, broad shoulders. Decked in a fitted suit and a red tie, he was sitting very straight, his back not touching the hardback of his chair. His hair was combed back, his tall face and sharp features complimented this. Even as I watched him, he didn’t blink, his long eyelashes never meeting his cheek. He spoke first.

“What charges do you have against my client?” His voice was crisp and professional. Lee Taemin was in good hands, and he knew it. He was leaning against his chair, a small smile playing on his face. He didn’t look troubled at all, almost teasingly relaxed.

I tried to shake off the irritation I felt at the smug look on his face.

Ignoring the lawyer, Park Jungmin, I addressed Taemin, “You are smart, so I hope you won’t play dumb, it doesn’t suit you.”

Taemin didn’t answer, he didn’t look like he had even listened to me. I felt annoyance flare inside me.

Woohyun opened the file in front of him menacingly.

“You’d been seen carrying Kris’ duffel bag away, which we can prove was used to carry drugs. We also have video footage showing you passing Kris a paper, which contained information regarding the drug missions you had set him up with.”

Taemin laughed airily – he had the gall to laugh – and exchanged glances with his lawyer.

“Should I go to jail for carrying a bag, or handing one of my employees a paper?” he asked cockily, the carefree lilt in his voice enraging me.

The man sitting in front of me was a drug lord, and yet he was treating us, this precinct, as a joke. He had no fear of the law – I was sure he was well protected. But that wouldn’t stop us; lawyer or no lawyer, we would get him to talk.

The anger probably showed on my face as Taemin turned to me and said, “You have nothing on me, and you won’t. Stop wasting my time.”

I had an urge to look at Woohyun’s face, to interpret what he was thinking. We had had difficult suspects, but unless we couldn’t make Taemin lose his cool, we would have nothing. The lawyer only complicated the matter.

“Can you please repeat what you were doing on the night of the 23rd?”

Park Jungmin wrinkled his face.

“My client has already answered that -”

Taemin raised a hand, stopping him.

“I’ll say it again, detectives, so listen close. I left the party around 4 am, you can ask the manager of the hotel, he was there with me. Then I went straight home. So as you can see, I could have nothing to do with the murder since Kris was killed at 4, when I was at the hotel, still.”

“And how did you know Kris was killed at 4 am?” Woohyun’s voice was stern as he glared at Taemin, whose smile faltered, but only for a second. His lawyer was about to tell him something, but he stalled him again, getting back his composure.

It was a tiny break, but still a break. It proved that Lee Taemin wasn’t impenetrable.

“I didn’t murder him,” he maintained coolly. “I have an alibi.”

“You could have easily paid off the manager,” I observed.

“You,” he pointed at me with a smirk, “have nothing against me,” he repeated.

There was a knock at the door. Not breaking the eye contact with Taemin, I rose from my seat, then walked to the door. It was Minji.

“Sir, you told me to read the files and see if Lee Taemin’s name was mentioned -”

“Yes , yes,” I said eagerly, “did you get anything?”

Minji bit her lips.

“Not really. Most of the people in there have codenames, like Scream, Darkar, Watch, Prod etc., only a few real names and Lee Taemin isn’t one of them. But,” she paused, frowning, “according to Sunggyu-ssi, the one in charge, the one behind it all, the boss, is Blood Lily. And Blood Lily is the one he wanted to arrest the day – the day…” Minji stopped abruptly, but I had heard enough.

The shadowy Scream was just another pawn in the game, we were far away from capturing the main player, the strategist. It was stupid to think that the drug lord himself would murder one of the cartel’s workers, or threaten him. It was the job of a lowly leader, not for the Captain. He was hidden in even more shadows and mysteries, like his name he was draped in blood, but was still white like a lily because he never shed blood, he only caused it to be shed.

“Oh and Sir, Taemin might not be Scream after all because Dr. Ok -”

“Thanks,” I said, not willing to listen to anything she had to say anymore. She had spoken about that day, the arrest hyung had wanted to make, and for some reason it disturbed me.

I entered the interrogation room again, leaving Minji behind me. No one was talking. Taemin was still smiling defiantly and the lawyer was still upright. Woohyun looked up, for a good sign. Suddenly, an idea struck me. If we wanted to make Taemin talk, we’d have to unravel him, and for that we had to bluff, because in all honesty, we didn’t have anything on him. However, we got only one chance at this. If Taemin realized that we had to resort to bluffing because we didn’t have anything on him, he’d get the upperhand. That couldn’t happen, not now when we were getting closer.

“Minji has the file,” I told Woohyun loudly, smiling victoriously at him. “So Mr. Lee,” I concentrated on Taemin, “We have got our hands on this file, this very important file, a file classified as top-secret and restricted only to the hands of the Intelligence.”

I was building up suspense, noticing that Taemin was touched by it. His eyes became sharper and I knew he was hanging onto my every word. The existence of such a file was not apparently foreign to him.

“It’s a file from the Narcotics Department – it had been closed but has been reopened by the Intelligence, who are investigating the drug gangs in Seoul.”

I used to be a bad liar but I had to learn the art for the job. It was difficult at first, but later, as I got used to it, the lies came naturally. It was now a part of me and I was so convincing that sometimes Woohyun teased me, saying that my lying ability was my dormant power, which had been awakened.

Right now, I hoped that I sounded and looked convincing enough. Taemin was sly; he’d be used to people lying to him. It was the ultimate battle – one that could very well decide the winner between the detective and the drug lord, both experienced enough to face each other off. This is the time when I couldn’t rely on Woohyun, I had to depend on myself. I was ready.

Taemin still wasn’t talking. That was smart of him – he was using his intuition to decide whether to believe me or not.

“And guess whose name happens to be on the suspect list?” This time Taemin betrayed an emotion. There was a flash of fear in his eyes, replaced by calmness, but not as calm as before. It was certain that he wasn’t as completely at ease as before.

“They’re going to tear your everything apart, Taemin-ssi, the Intelligence has a bad reputation, even among the police,” I continued, watching his every reaction carefully.

Taemin scoffed, still no sign of breaking down. It would happen slowly, I couldn’t expect a miracle, but I had faith in myself.

“We on the other hand,” I chanced a glance at my partner, who was nodding, enforcing what I was saying. His face showed no signs of giving away what I was painstakingly building. “We don’t have any interest in your drug business, we’re after the murderer. And if you’re not the murderer, we don’t care about you, we just need the information to catch the killer.” Leaning toward the front, I said, almost in a whisper, “We can clear your name.”

That was the first bait I was throwing in there, in order to get Taemin interested. If he really thought he’d be able to clear his name, he’d become unguarded, and let something slip that would incriminate him. That was the plan – whether he reacted as I would expect him to was another matter entirely. But I was hopeful. His eyebrows were twitching.

Finally, he leaned forward as well, his shoulders a little higher than they had been all this time. Park Jungmin placed a warning hand on the back of his palm but he disregarded it.

“This file that you speak of,” he said, raising one eyebrow, “doesn’t exist.” It was a statement, not even a question. But I could feel his resolution shaking, even if only by a tiny amount.

I smirked.

“Oh it does exist. I have seen it with my own eyes.”

I didn’t offer any proof, because that would seem like I was trying to convince him hard. Taemin narrowed his eyes.

“Really?” he simply asked, his tone provoking.

“Hmm. Just one copy, after all it’s a highly classified file. We brought it out to help our investigation, but like I said before, we’re not interested in the drugs, just the murder.”

Taemin didn’t reply straight away. Instead, he leaned back on his chair, averting his eyes from me to Woohyun.

“Your partner’s keeping quiet,” he nodded toward Woohyun. “He doesn’t seem to have any knowledge about this special file.”

A shiver ran down my spine. I understood Taemin – he wasn’t just calm and meticulous, he was also observant, the kind of man who could keep himself out of jail even after committing a hundred murders.

“Oh yes, he knows. He knows about Scream, Darkar and of course, Blood Lily too.”

The change in Taemin’s face was too obvious. Paleness settled on his cheeks, his eyes became wider. Even his finger shook. For ten seconds, everyone was still, as if affected by the change in Taemin’s mood.

I’ve got you now, I said to myself. The feeling of victory was threatening to burst forth from within me, but I had to control myself, the game was not yet over.

After a minute, I spoke again.

“I just want to know who Scream is, that’s all. Nothing more, nothing less. Who is he, where is he?”

Taemin seemed to be recovering. The color was back in his face. He crossed his arms over his chest, all businesslike.

“Why?” he asked.

“Because Scream murdered Kris. We want our murderer,” I broke it down for him. I wasn’t expecting him to come right out and claim to be Scream anyway; he was too smart for that. But at least it would get him talking. The rest would follow.

However, his reaction was completely opposite to what I had been expecting. He laughed loudly, throwing his head back.

“That’s impossible!” he exclaimed, with apparent glee.

It was my turn to ask why.

“Because,” he said, amidst his laughter, “because then it would be suicide, not murder.”

“What?” Woohyun and I both asked at the same time. There was no sign Lee Taemin was lying, and even if he did, why would he say something so ridiculous?

“What nonsense is this?” I asked sharply.

His smile widened. Leaning forward, he enunciated clearly, “Kris is the Scream you’re looking for.” With another smirk, he straightened up. “Now, I answered the only thing you wanted to know. I’ll take my leave now. If you need me again, contact my lawyer.”

With that, he got up from his seat, followed by his lawyer, and walked right out in front of our eyes.

I turned to Woohyun.

“Do you believe him?” I asked. I had lost faith in myself, I needed to consult my partner, my mentor, about whether or not I should believe what Lee Taemin had just said.

Woohyun pressed his lips together, thinking hard. It was mere seconds, but I felt like I had been sitting there for hours, waiting for him to reach a conclusion. I had given up thinking about it, because the consequences if Taemin had spoken the truth were too frightening.

Finally, the look in his eyes changed as comprehension dawned, and he said, “We made a huge mistake Myungsoo. The schedules he labeled as Scream - he wasn’t going to do something for Scream, he was going to do something as Scream. Scream is Kris’ code name. Those texts he received, the threats – you can’t deny your past, Scream. Scream wasn’t the sender’s name, it was Kris’ name.”

I gulped down my saliva.

“Which means…”

“Which means we’re back to square one.”