Silence filled the room. If BHK did orchestrate this whole plan, then it didn’t matter what decisions were made in the beginning. His beautiful plans were impossible to prevent; it’s as if he is always 15 steps ahead of everyone. I realized why the police were not able to find him for 8 years. 8 years is too long to be able to call him lucky. Every step in his plans was calculated very precisely. 

Steps echoed from the corridor I came in through. I watched the entrance.

All the torches grew brighter and a bunch of party confetti launched into the air as a man in a black hat, trenchcoat, and a black mask with BHK written on it stepped into the room.

“Well, I guess you two have had your opportunity to catch me,” he said with a wide grin.

Eunkyung nervously scooted towards me, moving farther away from the entrance.

“What do you want,” I asked, trying to maintain my courage in front of him.

“Me? I haven’t killed that many people recently. I like torturing detectives that think they can catch me. It’s a lot more fun and amusing in their last breaths when they realize they are nothing compared to me.”

“You think you’re that smart?” I asked.

“Well, what do you people call it, IQ? I’m sure there are some detectives or investigators that have over a 150 IQ. Yet, all those people working together for 8 years still haven’t come a millimeter closer to stopping me. Take that statistic and believe what you want. Your opinion couldn’t matter less to me.”
“Why do you even kill people? Do you not feel any remorse for killing all those people? No urge to repent?

“Turn myself in?” he repeated, before bursting out laughing. “Turn myself in? If I did that, I’d be crazy beyond belief.”

“You’re crazy beyond belief right now!” I said, anger filling my stomach. He killed so many people, yet by the way, he talks, it’s pretty clear he feels no remorse at all.

“To you, maybe I am. But like I said, your opinion to me is like a grain of sand.”

Eunkyung must have mustered the courage to shout at him.

“It’s not just him! It’s the whole world! The only thing you’ve done over the past eight years was ruin people’s lives! Yet, you’ve never given a single explanation why, why you do that. If you can’t even answer that question, then you really are a crazy lunatic!”

BHK seemed amused by her outburst. “Why do humans want to eat? Why do humans want to be happy? Why do they want to be rich? Why do they even want to live? Can you answer that? It’s because of Human Nature. There’s no other reason. So why do you call me crazy, but not call humans crazy? My Human Nature is just to kill.”

“Your Human Nature affects others.” I pointed out.

BHK shrugged. “So does wanting to be rich or happy. You make all those workers work for cheap prices.”

“Either way, shouldn’t you at least care for others? What’s your reasoning for that?”

“That has no relevance to me. In my perspective at least. The rest of your perspectives are meaningless to me. Any more questions, before I start the show?” BHK asked. 

Eunkyung sat silently on her bed, her breaths a bit heavier. 

“Well, then, come at me!” BHK exclaimed, making a come here gesture with his hand.

Neither Eunkyung nor I moved an inch. 

“This every single time! Looks like I’ll have to trigger an angry tantrum. “

He glanced at us to confirm that neither of us moved.

“You’re stupid! You’re ugly! Come at me! Cowards!” he shouted.

Of course, since I wasn’t a 7-year-old, none of what he said pissed me off. 

He glanced at me and Eunkyung, frowning at our lack of anger.

“Idiots, dumb people, cowards,” he said as he danced around the room and made faces at us. When he realized it wasn't making either of us budge, he stopped.

BHK let out a sigh. 

“Fine, do I have to do this the hard way then?”

After a bit more looks, he opened his mouth and started to shout things again.

“You know what the thing I find the most fun about killing? It’s seeing the expression of people when I kill their parents. When I kill the parents, they’re like, please no. I want to save my child. He won’t have a family. What’s even better is the child’s expression. They stand there in the rain, using it to cover up their tears, pretending like they’re someone strong. In reality, there are streams of tears flowing down their cheeks while they can’t even process what happened. Then, they continue to act like they are so strong that they think they ‘grew’ from the results and became a different person. Then, they come back a couple of years later and think they can take on the killer and get their revenge. It’s stupid, ridiculously stupid.”

His comment successfully struck a nerve. Talking about my parent’s death and me like that.

“What the hell are you talking about?” I said, getting onto my feet. “You don’t know anything about anyone! You’re just standing there, opening your mouth acting like you know everything!”

Eunkyung tried to get me to calm down, but I brushed her off.

“You’re just a stupid idiot who thinks they’re a god! I don’t give a damn about what your excuses are! If you’re not going to repent, somebody will make you! I don’t care if it’ll be me or not, but I would be proud if I can be part of your downfall!” I shouted at the top of my lungs.

I clustered all my strength and charged at him. His grin told me I fell straight into his trap. I don’t care. I’d rather die than continue to hear him talk like that.

At first, his body angle told me he would step left. I aimed my fist slightly to the left, but he must’ve used that as bait because he stepped right and easily avoided my punch. Since I was charging at full speed, it was hard to slow down. I stumbled and nearly crashed into the wall. My vision blurred for a split second. 

Somehow, BHK got behind me and yanked me by my collar backward. A hard thump hit me in my stomach. My legs felt weak. I attempted to punch him, but he ducked. My legs were kicked out from me underneath, causing me to be sent crashing into the floor. My back hit the floor hard. I groaned.

“Stay down,” he ordered, kicking me in my ribs. There was no crack or snap sounds, so I don’t think they broke. There’s no way they wouldn’t be bruised though.

“Let go of him!” I heard Eunkyung’s voice echoing through the room. I turned my head towards the sound.

Eunkyung, probably acting irrationally, was charging at him.

BHK glanced at her amusingly. If I, with all the muscle I had, couldn’t beat him, there’s no way Eunkyung would be able to.

He easily caught her fist and pulled her into a headlock. She grabbed his arm around her neck, attempting to yank it off but he was too strong.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small cup containing some green liquid. As Eunkyung struggled, he poured the drink down her mouth. He freed her and threw her onto the floor.

“W-What did you give her, “ I asked furiously, attempting to lift my head.

He walked over to me and kneeled by me while pinning my chest to the floor.

“Just some poison that will kill her. Eventually.”

I twisted my torso, attempting to throw him off of me. His foot didn’t move. He smiled and grabbed my hair. 

“You can just lie still and watch her die. I’ll kill you shortly after and maybe bury you two together.”

At some point, I lost track of time. “Not yet”, the inside of me screamed. “You haven’t accomplished anything yet! You haven’t become someone who would help sad people out. Plus, you weren’t able to tell someone you loved, ‘I like you.

At this point, I’m about to be dead. Eunkyung is probably dead. If there’s one thing I regret, it’s not telling Eunkyung earlier that I fell in love with her. In my next life, I’ll be sure t-

My head hit the ground and anything that was restraining me disappeared. I could freely move my arms and legs.

I sat up, confused and dazed. For some reason, BHK was nowhere to be seen and Eunkyung was no longer suffering. I felt a sticky note on the ground next to my hand. I picked it up and read what it said.

A police officer is coming!!! Sadly, I couldn’t enjoy the show any longer. Still, I’ll let you know something. The green liquid wasn’t actually poison; it was just water with food coloring. I don’t like to kill my toys like that. Anyways, it’ll be fun meeting you guys again. See you later!

BHK :)

I reread the sticky note to make sure I didn’t misread anything. If what he said was true, then Eunkyung was never originally in danger in the first place. I glanced at her. She was lying on the floor, unconscious. However, she did keep breathing. He said police are coming, but where are they?

A flashlight shined downward from the roof. 

“Who’s there?” a familiar voice shouted from above.

I glanced up. Don’t tell me that’s…

A familiar figure leaped into the room. An Hwan. He came to rescue us.

“Youngjae?? What are you doing down here?” He sprinted up to me able to tell that I was beaten up badly.

“What happened here?” he asked me.

“Eunkyung,” I weakly croaked. 

He squinted his eyes. “Eunkyung? Someone, you know?” He shined his flashlight around the room and saw her lying unconscious beside the bed. He left me to go check on her. Not wanting to be alone, I weakly crawled to them.

“She’s unconscious, but her heart rate is still there.” He glanced at my face, which did not panic at all.

“So, if you're not shaking your head,  she’s not in any danger right now,” he said, trying to analyze my expression for more information.

I nodded.

He stood up and scratched his head.

“What am I going to do now? Eunkyung and Youngjae are both injured beyond moving. How am I supposed to bring them to safety?” he frustratedly said.

“D-Don’t let others fi-find out. T-There’s no need to-to cause unnecessary panic.”I managed to squeeze from the remaining energy I had left.

He looked at me like I was crazy. I did my best to try to convey to him that I was pleading with him, and I guess he accepted.

“Alright, but that doesn’t solve how I’m going to move both of you up. I’m not going to be moving you guys one at a time.”

My eyelids grew heavy. I’m becoming a little woozy myself. I have to first help An Hwan think of a solution before I fall unconscious myself though. 

An Hwan thought for a while, before running over to the bed and taking two blankets from it. I could hear him mutter under his breath about how dusty the blankets were.

He made his way over to us. He spread the blankets open on the floor and dragged us onto separate blankets. We were rolled up inside the blankets and slugged over his shoulder. It was pretty amazing how he was able to carry both of us on his shoulders. He first slid us up the vent that was on the roof, then climbed up himself.

“Youngjae, I can take you two to my house if that’s okay,” he asked.

“Mmm, sounds like a plan,” I muttered sleepily.

As we walked out of the hole in the ground, I could still see that outside was already night. Everything that happened was only a couple of hours. It felt like an eternity inside that hole. If An Hwan hadn’t come…

“Hwan,” I muttered.

“What is it, Youngjae?”

“Thank you so much for saving us tonight.”

He went silent as he continued to walk. After knowing he wasn’t going to respond to me, I closed my eyes. One may think that it’d be impossible to not be afraid after, but yet, for some reason, I’m not trembling in fear. I’m not even afraid at all. It's true, BHK is definitely strong, maybe stronger than the whole world combined. Is it even possible to catch BHK? But, it’s not about catching BHK. Maybe BHK isn’t crazy.  He said it’s just his Human Desire. In the end, humans are very judging creatures. We call animals like monkeys and zebra dumb, even though it’s their instinct. We sometimes even call each other, dumb.

Tonight, I learned something very critical in our fight against BHK. There’s no point in trying to destroy him from the outside. His strength and wits combined could be even more powerful than the whole world. It’d be pointless to try to take him down through brute force. It's better to learn more about BHK and motives to kill.

Learning more about him may be just as suicidal as engaging as him. But if it’s the only way to take him out, then so be it. After all, the current situation is different than what it was in the past; I’m not alone. That’s all that matters.