The bullet hadn’t punctured his lung, it was the only reason that Min Ho survived for this long. It had struck his right side and been deflected around and out his back. He was pinning his hopes on it.

But this hope was quickly diminished by the fact that the wound was still bleeding. Ironic it was that he would bleed to death at this killer’s hand. He had to stop the bleeding and get to the black medical bag Joon had left on the table, intended for use on his victims. Plugging their heels, fixing their wounds… At the moment, Joon’s sickness was Min Ho’s greatest hope.

Then again, all of these hopes were dashed if he couldn’t break the support post he’d been tied to.

He pushed himself back to his feet, alarmed by the dizziness spinning his world. He couldn’t pass out. The whole case had changed shape in these last twenty-four hours, and the stakes were now both personal and terrifying.

Shin Hye. Everything had always been about her.

The thought made him sick with rage.

He leaned forward, stretching his restraints and arms as far as he could, took a deep breath, and then threw himself backward into the post.

The beam shook with a dull thud. Debilitating pain ran down his side and he shuddered. Dust and debris from the ceiling rained down on him.

Thirty-two.

With any luck at all, age had rotted the wood. Min Ho clenched his jaw against the pain, straightened, leaned forward again, and threw himself back. Another deep slice of pain. Another rain of debris. Another groan.

Thirty-three.

He repeated the procedure twice more before sagging back to his rump to rest.

The killer’s name was Lee Joon and he had become the demon. Min Ho was responsible for the transformation.

His success was now his greatest problem. With no more need for the bleeding ritual designed to deliver the most beautiful to God without blemish, Joon was now playing the part of killer. Rather than bring Shin Hye here, he might kill her where he finds her.

In any other situation, Min Ho might have reacted with a renewed urgency to find the killer before he could strike again. Instead he reacted with raw outrage. He couldn’t seem to stop the desperation. Not for his own life.

For her life. For Shin Hye.

He didn’t know what to call the feelings he had for her, but staring his own death in the face had made the emotions razor-sharp. He knew they were the most powerful he’d felt since he first learned that Min Young had taken her life.

He grunted, fought off nausea, and struggled back to his feet. The pole didn’t seem to be weakening, but he had to keep trying. Even if he did manage to break it, the whole roof might cave in and end his life.

For some reason, that possibility meant nothing to him.

He held his breath and threw himself back into the pole.

Thirty-four.

--------------------------------

The game had changed once again, but as Joon slowly worked his mind around that change, he came to realize that there was no change at all. Seven years of planning and growing and learning had delivered him to the final and greatest understanding.

Romeo had showered the truth upon him and then died, having satisfied the purpose of his life. Joon was not an angel of mercy sent by God to find and deliver his favourites to him, bloodless and pure. Rather he was an angel of death, sent to kill those very same brides.

The realization had disturbed him at first. As Krystal had said even demons know the truth and tremble. So he’d spent half of the last two hours trembling.

Once he’d taken firm hold of this new realization, he’d quickly brought his superior intelligence to bear. He was who he was, and he must do what he was meant to do.

Humans were still mostly stupid, particularly the ones who thought they were not. Despite this fact, God did indeed love them with an unfathomable love. They were all his favourites.

And Joon, in service of the other master, hated them with more steel and fire than he’d ever loved them. In hindsight, he’d always hated the females. They were sick and weak and deserved a far more brutal slaying than he’d ever administered. The fact that he’d been led by his master to think he was in the service of the Almighty was a useful deception that he couldn’t help but respect.

He had evolved, however, and rather than fume with bitterness, he embraced his new knowledge and committed to carrying out his mission with ruthless haste and purpose.

Who was this Park Shin Hye but a worm who deserved to be tramped underfoot and pissed upon? Thinking clearly now, he realized that he’d never before met a woman as sick and infuriating as her.

He’d received the picture she’d taken of herself. He was surprised at how transformed she looked. The sight of her looking frightened but undeniably beautiful had frozen him for a moment.

And then his hatred for her had reared so large and so terrible that he’d broken from his usual calm and ended up weeping with bitter fury. Today he was finally mature enough to put an end to her life.

He’d called her then. But she hadn’t answered his call.

He placed his phone under the tires of his truck and squished it flat just in case if her phone had been compromised.

Joon finished filling up the gas tank with petrol and decided to leave his urine in the bathroom there. He strode toward the sign of the stick figures that indicated outdoor bathrooms.

He would go to the park. If she wasn’t there, he would pay the beauty salon a visit. Then he would find her, haul her out by her hair, and, rather than kill her with a bullet to her face as he’d fantasized, he would drill her full of holes and let her bleed all over the ground.

He stepped onto the sidewalk in front of the store and glanced up at the television over the counter inside. What he saw made him stop.

A news anchor was speaking silently over words that read: MISSING PERSON. And there, next to the words was a large photograph of a skinny, twenty something girl with dark, stringy hair.

Park Shin Hye

In the space of a single breath Joon knew what this meant: The centre had reported her missing, which meant that the authorities didn’t know her whereabouts, unless this was a ploy to draw him back to the park. That was unlikely—they wouldn’t go to such lengths to draw him to a location they already expected him at.

Shin Hye was likely still at the park, cowering beneath the tree. This was very good news.

The picture changed. The words now read, ARMED AND DANGEROUS. Beside the words was a photograph of a man named Lee Joon. An old picture of him from his employment file at CWI. He remembered having the picture taken when he was first hired.

This was alarming news. He’d worn glasses then. He’d forgotten how homely he’d looked seven years ago. Once he’d learned about his important role in attracting the world’s most beautiful women, he’d changed his habits to reveal the true beauty in himself. The result had been a smashing success. He now looked nothing like the ugly toad in the photograph.

But the authorities knew his identity. How? His mind flipped through a dozen possibilities and settled on the truck, which was registered to him. It had always been his weakest link; some camera somewhere had likely snapped a picture of his vehicle coming out of the garage at Romeo’s residence. Together with other bits and pieces, they’d deduced his identity.

This made his mission even more critical. He would have to swap the truck out for the green pickup truck parked at his apartment. He’d rented the apartment and registered the vehicle under an alias—neither could be tracked to the man who had once been Lee Joon,  now Ghost Joon. But an astute observer might connect his face to the one on the screen.

To be sure he wasn’t overestimating his improved appearance; he walked into the mini-market and approached the cashier, who was counting the change in her drawer.

“Another freak,” he said, nodding at the television.

She followed his eyes. “Eo? De, he’s been on for the last half hour. Aish, these people. Anyway can I help you?”

Joon asked and paid for the cigarettes, threw them in the trash on his way back to the truck, and climbed behind the wheel.

His need to urinate had passed. Instead he felt a terrible urge to find the deceptively named Shin Hye before some other lucky soul found her.

-----------------------------

Sister Mi Kyung pushed the door to Jae Suk’s office open and sighed a silent prayer of relief. He was pacing in front of his desk, lecturing Hyun Sik and Yoo Bi about the finer points of police sketching, which he’d demonstrated in rather horrible fashion on the whiteboard behind him. Seeing her, he pushed his point with a burst of intensity.

“It’s in the details, I’m telling you, much finer than even most trained eyes can see. This is why they come to me.” He pointed to his eyes. “I have that sight. I can tell if a single hair is out of place.” He nodded at Sister Mi Kyung. “Aneyasayo.”

Yoo Bi jumped up from her position on the couch next to Hyun Sik. “Did you find her?”

 “Ani. I need your help, Jae Suk.”

“I’ll have to check my schedule.”

“I need all of you again. Yoo Bi and Hyun sik, I need you to stay here and keep an eye on things for me in case Shin Hye returns on her own. She knows and trusts you, and I need you to be here when she comes back.”

“What about Jae Suk oppa?”

“Jae Suk, I need you to come with me. I need those eyes of yours.”

“My eyes?”

“De, your eyes. We’re going out to look for Shin Hye. And for Joon.”

The announcement caught them flat-footed. Jae Suk was still dressed in his pyjamas and slippers. It would have to do.

“Out?” Jae Suk said.

“DE. Out. Palli.”

“I don’t drive.”

“I do,” she said.

“And you need me because they are looking for the wrong person.”

“What do you mean?”

“This serial killer has demonstrated superior intelligence at every turn,” Jae Suk explained. “And no wonder, with his background. After all, you hired him. But anyone with those kind of smarts isn’t going to walk around looking like his old self. The photograph of Lee Joon won’t help them. I assume you’ve informed them of this?”

Bingo. This was on his mind already?

“Kure. And that’s why I need your eyes. You better than anyone may be able to recognize him. Or her.”

“Where?”

“Hospitals.”

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