Not being certain of what you feel may be one of the hardest situation one can be out in.

Is it better to take it off your chest, to take revenge? Does being a victim excuse wanting someone death? Or am I a sinner? This kind of thoughts often run trought my mind. What kind of thoughts can you have when you lie in bed in the deep silence of the night and know that the one you considered immortal, but proved not to be, could still be around?

The night is a great listener. Dark thoughts hide at the sight of light, but they come alive at night and it is then when you realize what kind of person you are. After all, our thoughts and feelings characterizes us better than our physical features, right?

Am I a sinner? Is my pain a reasoon good enough for my weak moments to be excused?

At first you don't even understand what happenes. But after a while you realize what all that happens means. My father could have been alive. I keep wondering what should I do. Would he want revenge? 

No, of course not. He would not want me to make justice for him. At least not this kind of justice, that can make me live my days with bitterness.

I understood that when he told me about his father.

"Appa would be sad if he knew that I lived the past 7 years in pain and hate."

Appa would be sad too. I guess all parents all alike, after all. They see them in us and they want us to be a better version of themself: a better personality, a stronger character, a bigger house, a happier life, a better job. 

A good job and a happy life... I think they are tied up somehow. I am lucky that my job is my passion and it makes me happy. Writing makes me happy. 

I stretched and yawned. I was alone in the office, finishing my article about the next miss A's Suzy's drama. It was for the "special days" Director Yoon asked for when we talked about improving the paper. Sipping some coffee, I heard steps coming closer. I put the cup on my desk and started packing my things. I recognized the steps.

"You're fast." I said turning around with my prepared bag. 

"One of my many qualities" Woo Bin said smugly. Smug was also the way he walked with his hands in the pocket of his gray suit pants. But the smooth and warmth he exhaled when he kindly pushes my hair aside to kiss my forehead made me close my eyes. 

"Well, modesty surely isn't one of those qualities."

"Modesty is overevaluated."

I smiled. "A great philosophical statement. We can debate on it later. I have to write the article for this week. What case do you got?" 

Woo Bin let me get out first and we headed to the exit. I felt at ease when he didn't reached out for my hand. What would the others say if I held hands with the Director's son in Seoul News building? Since his mother left, I didn't have to talk to her about the current situation, but I was worried Woo Bin may become unwilling to hide, thinking that I am not taking him seriously. 

His face hardened. "I don't know if you want to write about it. It is pretty... tragical."

"Even for you?"

"If by for you , you mean for somebody used with this kind of situations, no. But let me remind you I have a heart too."

"The tragic cases attract the most readers, you know."

"If someone heard you, they'd think you're heartless." he said. This is something people who don't know me well think sometimes. I have the habbit of analyzing my demeanor, something naturally for a writer, I think, so I asked:

"Do you think I am?" We stopped in front of the elevator. No more stairs for me since the last accident. My ankle was still hurting sometimes. 

He sighly smiled "You are passive at your worst. But your worst is most people's best."

"Ya, seems like sweet talking is one of your many qualities."

The elevator came and we made room for an old men to exit. He greeted us with a little bow and a "good day". The man, I know for a fact, is so deaf that you can drop a bomb or two next to him and he won't hear anything, so I just bowed my head to avoind any further conversation. 

"What about the case?" I asked when the elevator doors closed. Woo Bin told me with the naturality of a person for this tragic cases are just a daily routine.

How can this things happen daily?

A girl was found killed in the bathrooms of the highschool where she was studing. Hitten in the head with an unknown object. Devasteted teachers, friends and parents. Ko Ghang Seok and Yoo In-na went to the girl's house to talk with the parents. This time I considered I should go to the place where she has been killed, since the parents said that they don't want to make any statement. 

Kim Woo Bin stopped the car in front of the highschool. It was a building with 3 floors, an old building you could say judging by the small cracks on the walls. The schoolyard was neat, as neat as a pleace where hundreds of kids came daily. As we made our way to the building groups of kids were turning their heads to us, guessing probably why we were there.  We entered, finding ourselves in the hall whose walls were covered with primary's school paintings, which wasn't surprising since Woo Bin told me the primary school is in the opposide building. 

Trough the crowd of kids, a man dressed in a suit and who looked like he was in his early 50's came to us.

"Detective Kim Woo Bin, I suppose? I am the principal of this school, Mr. Go."he said with an uncommon nasal accent.

"Yes, I came-"

"Oh, I know why you came, of course I know! This is horrible, everybody in this school is shocked!" he continued gesticulating as much as his tight suit allowed him. He walked us to the bathrooms, which were obviously closed. The only person there was a young woman with curled hair, dressed in office style.

"Hurry up, open the doors! The police has come, can't you see?" the principal asked. A question bad chosen since the young woman was wearing the biggest glasses I have ever seen. Still, she was beautiful and she gracefully ignored her boss's tone opening the door with the key left there by the police agents.

"They told us to keep this key and only open when you come." he said checking his watch."If you excuse me, I have to attent to a parents meeting. Like I said, they all have been shocked. My secretary is at your service. Have a good day" 

This time it was me who let Woo Bin enter first. I and the secretary remained a step behind while he was looking around. 

"What do you think about this case?" I asked her. I have to get the scholl's pulse for my article.

"It is a trigical fate. No one was expecting for someone to be killed here."

"Do you consider that the school has done enough to protect its students or at least to help the police?"

"If you are talking about principal's demeanor, you do it because you don't know him." she said. I have to admit, she's tenacious. The way her boss talks and the way he acts so freely isn't common for a principal in South Korea.

"He lived in France for 30 years, but he has attached very much of this school since he came." she said. Her eyes would often turn from me to follow Woo Bin's moves. "He is close by the students and the school's employees."

"You count yourself in it too?"

She finally fixed her eyes on me. "I have a job thanks to him."

"Did you know the victim?" Woo Bin asked suddenly, looking under the sinks.

"Not too well. She came to the secretariat a few times, but I don't know her better than I know any other student. I don't look after students, I'm not a teacher."

"I see" he answered careless. "This is all for now. Thank you for your time."

We waited until she closed the door and Woo Bin took her keys. He said that the place still has to be closed until the case is finished. 

"Of course." she agreed, her gaze looking around again. 

"Had the classes begin? The halls are emply now." I asked

"Yes, all the students are in classes."

Woo Bin stopped a step behind us looking into another corridor. "Not all of them." he said "It's alright, you don't have to turn away! Come here!" he said louder. I had to hush him since there were classes our and people could hear him.
A young man came to us. He was dressed in the school uniform and a black coat. His bangs covered his forehead, making his dark eyes looking the way a wolf's eyes look from under a cave.

"Who are you and why aren't you in classes?" Woo Bin questioned. The boy studied for a second my and the secretary's face before answering.

"I'm a student here. It's my last year. I have exams this week so it's no problem if I'm late."

"You should be on time, anyways." the secretary said a little to serious "Let's go." she then looked for an excuse, or so it semmed to me "I want to make sure you go to you class." 

"After all, she does look after students." I said after they dissapeared around the corner

"Maybe just after some particular students." Woo Bin agreed "I'll tell In-na to look for information about her."

We continued our way to the exit, trying to decide whenever I should try to talk to the parents or not. Suddenly we heard a sharp scream. It heard as if it was close by and we found the young secreatary lying down on the floor with the boy standing next to her. He was preparing to hit her with his leg, but Woo Bin stopped him, dragging him by his arms and holding him from behind.

"Take it easy" he said when the boy was trying to excape his grip.

I wanted to help the secretary to get up, but she nervously did before I could do anything. She was trembling and looking around suspiciously and undecided. The boy, on the other hand, ran out of power and was sustained only by Woo Bin.

He didn't answer when we asked what happened, but the woman fastly spoke:

"He is t-the girl's friend. He thinks we didn't do enough to protect her and- and he wanted to go at the principal and probably do to him what he did to me. You... You saw he hit me..."

"Shut up!" the young man suddenly yelled "It's only your fault!" With tears in his eyes, he looked at Woo Bin. "I'll explain everything. I'm sorry it took so long. I loved her and it was all my fault she killed her-" tears made him stop, but it was enough for that woman. She turned around ran as fast as she could. Woo Bin passed the crying boy to me and followed her. I heard hurried steps coming closer and when I recognized the principal's french accent I let the boy there knowing he won't be alone and I tried to find Woo Bin.

At some point I stopped having to choose if I'd go to left or right. I hold my breath trying to catch a sound. In a few seconds I heard the woman's voice from left and runned towards her. At the end of the hall was only one open door. I entered. Then I froze. The woman was standing behind a desk with a gun pointed to Woo Bin, who was one step ahed me. The woman's hand was trembling, so her voice:

"Stop! Stop right there or- or I may kill you!"

"You won't. Didn't you do enough already? I know you feel sorry. Put the gun down." he said

She wasn't convinced yet. She was listenig to Woo Bin, looking at me, then at him, then around the room as if she left another presence there.

"I did... I do, I am sorry.." She started crying and throwed the gun down. She was too agitated for us to come closer.

Suddenly she stopped, looked at us once more and turned around to the open window whose curtains were blowed by the wind. When she was prepared to jump, Woo Bin quikly runned to her and grabbed her waist. She fought him, but he kept holding her until the principal and two security guards came in. 

She gave up fighting and she confessed. Before the young man fell in love with the victim, she and him had an affair. He didn't consider her more than an one night stand and left her when he developed real feeling for his classmate. She shared his feelings and they started going out, infuriating his ex-lover. At some point the woman couldn't take it and went to the bathroom where the girl in love was. They started an argument and...

"...and I didn't meant to kill her her." the killer said facing Yoo In-na at the interrogation. Woo Bin, Ghang Seok and I were watching from behind the glass wall. The woman seemed to try to find the calm she had when I first saw her, when she told me with apparently no regrets about the dead girl who she didn't know too well.

"She said she loves him and she doesn't want to give up on him. She asked me why that's any of my business. I couldn't take it anymore, I hate to be taken as a joke."

"Before the principal hired you, you were on the point of becoming homeless." In-na said  "He gave you a job and helped you coming on the right track. Your life started to be normal, but then that girl came into picture. The detective you saw at school told me he noticed blood stains on the sinks. Did you pushed her?"

The woman only nodded her head.

"Then her boyfriend came to ask for justice to the principal, who he considered guilty for not protecting his school well enough. You didn't want your benefactor to be harmed so you tried to stop him and then was it when the boy realized you killed the girl."

"Isn't it obvious already?" the woman said tormented.

In-na looked to the glass was and throught she couldn't see us she nodded her head. Ghank Seok exited and went to help her take the woman out.

I leaned against the hard wall. "Love may be dangerous, can't it?"

Woo Bin came next to me and leaned against the wall, imitating me. But his voice was serious when he sopke.

"It may be. But this kind of love was sick. She found something in the boy that she didn't have until then, considering her hard past. She consideret it love and she fought for it or maybe she didn't want to be left again and be taken as a joke. She found a job, but she didn't find affection."

"When people find it they should fight for it, shouldn't they?" I asked. Woo Bin didn't answer, not knowing what my question meant. 

"Your mother is coming back from Japan soon, isn't she?"