I slammed my fist on my desk. Many days have already passed. Eunkyung was discharged from the hospital that night and I never got to apologize to her. She was already discharged. My notebook was empty, despite the weeks that flew by. Tomorrow morning, I will be discharged as well.

I sighed. It’s already 23:53. Despite being the summer, the sun was already long gone. I rubbed my eyes from exhaustion. Things weren't going well for me. During the past week, I’ve been working hard to find data about BHK. The news reporter wasn’t lying when she said there was no data about BHK; I couldn’t find a single piece of information other than the basic information. His height changes every case, the DNA left behind was different every time and has no match, and even his footprints change every case. It’s as if he was playing with us, knowing we can’t even come close to finding him. No wonder why An Won-Shik can’t get anywhere; he has nothing to even use.

Frustration boiled in my gut. If this keeps up, who knows how much longer it’ll take to find him. Maybe even another decade. There’s only one way to gather more information: encounter him directly. Whenever I think of that, I can’t help myself but think of Eunkyung. She warned me not to go on the front lines because it’s dangerous. Although I tried to ignore it, my parent’s death at the hands of BHK memories keeps coming to me. They sacrificed their own lives to save me from BHK. It’s indeed dangerous to be on the front lines.

But without that risk, it would be impossible to get information. What do people call this situation, a no-win situation? The only choices available lead to dead ends. 

I stared bleakly at the clock near my desk, watching as the time passed. Eventually, 0:00 hit, and a new day started. I decided to get some sleep because today should be an exciting day; I’m getting discharged. Yet, for some reason, I’m feeling super gloomy. 

As soon as I hit the bed, my eyes closed and I fell asleep. I must’ve been really tired. Pretty much expected since I pulled many all-nighters that week.

My eyes opened. The sun has already risen. My clock read 9:01. A yawn escaped my mouth as I stretched. I threw off the blankets and tidied up my room. Today was the day I got discharged. Although my official discharge time is noon, I’m likely going to get discharged earlier. 

I changed out of my hospital gown and into my normal clothes. I glanced in the mirror to make sure I looked proper. The light, orange t-shirt had no visible creases. My dark blue jeans were unstained. 

The majority of my stuff has already been sent back to my apartment. I still have a small bag with me, containing everything I needed such as my toothpaste and hairbrush. My bandages for the wound were off, it was just a mere scab now. Even if I picked it off, it would barely bleed and act like a normal cut or scrape. A whole 30 days have passed since the day I got injured. I missed school for quite a long time. It feels like a century since I last returned to school.

The patients I knew from the time I stayed said goodbye and wished me to be healthy. I told them to recover soon and said goodbye. After all this time in the hospital, it kind of feels like my home. After I walked out of the hospital’s entrance, it felt as if I was leaving a part of me behind. 

As I crossed the crosswalk, something fell out of my bag. I glanced behind me and realized my bag was unzipped. I zipped up the backpack and reached for what fell out. The notebook of my notes for BHK fell out and landed open, with each white page facing me. Blank pages. That represents how close we are to finding BHK. My body stopped moving. I tried to move, but it wouldn’t. Even when a truck started to fly across the road, coming straight at me while everyone got out of the way, I couldn’t move. 

“Look out!” a familiar voice cried behind me. 

Someone clutched my arm and dragged me away, barely avoiding the car. 

When my vision cleared Eunkyung was kneeling right next to me while I was laying on the walkway across the road.

“Are you stupid? Are you deaf? Are you blind? You could’ve been hit by the car!” she said, panting.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized, wheezing.

“You dumbass, you didn’t have to scare me like that,” she said, her voice shaking.

“Eun Kyung,” I muttered, deciding to call her by just her first name, “what brings you here?”

“I was trying to find you. The doctors told me before I left that you were being discharged today at noon. I need to talk to you about something.”

I sat up, noticing that she was holding my notebook that only had blank pages. I’m pretty sure she could piece together what happened. 

“You can search for him. That’s what I was going to tell you. I know I told you it’s dangerous but… I just wanted to make sure what I told you earlier wasn’t going to make you feel guilty or anything like that.”

“It’s fine. It’s not like I was going to chase him or anything.”

She caught her breath. 

Her black hair swayed across her face as a breeze blew by. 

That’s when I realized how much I’ve been wanting to talk to her again. A moment to resolve the conflict that we had earlier. A moment to explain how I feel about the situation. When I returned that night, she was already gone.

She brushed her hair aside.

“BHK is quite strong. I’m not sure if you can stop him alone. Maybe if you had more help…” 

She extended her hand. I grabbed her hand and she pulled me up. 

“Alone… maybe not be the best idea. Can you come with me?” I asked.

“What?!” she replied, startled by my offer. She stared at me for a bit, before looking at her feet.

“I guess I could,” she mumbled.

I smiled. We were more similar than I thought. 

There was a moment there when I realized my heart was beating faster. Weird, it’s probably from the fright of nearly being hit by a car. Still though, the sharp feeling of hopelessness that almost cut my heart and nearly killed me disappeared. Maybe there is hope in this world to take down BHK after all.