My eyes opened to white walls. My ribs still felt bruised from the fight, so I doubt it if I was passed out for a long time. I sat up, throwing the light blue and white striped blanket off as I glanced around. It was difficult to determine where I was, as the couch I was laying on and the TV in front of me didn’t reveal much. I was able to conclude that I was located in the living room after seeing the kitchen in front of me and the hallway behind me that branched off into closed bedroom doors. Judging from what happened before I fell asleep, I am probably in Hwan’s house right now. 

As I tried to recall what happened last night, Hwan opened the front door and came in carrying grocery bags in his hands. 

“Youngjae, you're awake now, “ he noted, walking towards the fridge to put in what he bought. “How are you feeling right now?”

“I’m feeling pretty good. I’m just a little dazed about what happened last night.”

“I see,” An Hwan remarked as he threw away the plastic bags he received from shopping.

I watched him in silence as he shoved the food into his refrigerator. He turned around and walked to me, sitting next to me on the couch.

“It’s been a couple of hours since I rescued you. Eunkyung is asleep right now, I didn’t inform anyone. I did have to do a check-up on her, to make sure she was fine. ”

I raised my eyebrow. “You’re also a doctor?”

He let out a laugh. “That was my old dream. Back in high school, I used to study a lot of subjects on my own. That’s how I learned a lot about my medical knowledge. I changed my career though, after realizing how bad BHK’s cases were becoming.”

Back in high school…

“Hwan, how old are you?” I asked, the question nagging my mind.

“I’m 27,” he replied.

I glanced at his face, trying to read his expression, but to no avail. “Anyways, so how was Eunkyung doing?” I asked, after a moment of silence.

“She’s doing fine. I just managed to sedate her, since she was having like, these aftershock moments of what happened. She’ll be fine after she wakes up in a couple of hours. Hopefully, she doesn’t have any trauma from this, or else this situation will become much more difficult to treat. She shouldn't though.”

I nodded, but a cough etched its way into my throat, making me cough.

He stood up. “You must be thirsty, I’ll get you some water.”

He left, but within a couple of seconds, he returned with a glass full of water.

“Here, drink up.”

I grabbed the drink and gulped the water down my throat. I wiped my mouth with the sleeve of my shirt.

“Though, I would like to know what exactly happened last night. Would you mind telling me?”

“Alright, but it is a long story, so it’d be better if you sat down first.”

“So, it all began 2 nights ago. Eunkyung texted me that she would be going to run some errands. She always replies within a couple of hours, but throughout the night, she never replied, nor did she reply during the day,” I started, trying to establish the scenery for Hwan. Hwan nodded, signaling for me to go on.

“I went to school as if was a regular day, which assumed that Eunkyung was just doing her own thing and forgot to contact me. Later on that day, I became much more anxious about her and finally decided to find her. Using find my phone, I was able to locate her but she was underground.” I paused because this part was a bit confusing. It may be hard to understand how this could be possible.

An Hwan nodded again as if he was piecing things together. 

“I traveled through a tunnel and found her in a bedroom. She told me her story, but we were then ambushed by BHK and probably nearly killed.”

“I see. I’m starting to understand the situation now. That explains why there was a hole in the ground. You’d think he sealed it…”

“What?” I asked, confused. “The hole in the ground was still open?”

Hwan squinted his eyes at me. “You didn’t know? It lead to a closed corridor and the tunnel went upwards. I went into the hole and after going to the end, found the situation you two were in.”

I scratched the back of my head, thinking about why he would let the hole open. Would someone that smart really make such a mistake?

“Why do you think he would leave the hole open?” I asked, jumping to the conclusion that it wasn’t a mistake.

“Hmm, probably because he didn’t actually want to kill you two. He must’ve expected someone to come in and save you two.”

“That sounds reasonable,” I mumbled.

“Why did he target you two in the first place? Since I’m a police officer who chases his tail, I know what types of people he looks for. He looks for rich and not well-secured people to kill and rob. Usually 30-40-year-olds, and like to travel alone. He also attacks them alone. It doesn’t make sense why he would target you two. Did you provoke him or something?”

“Provoke him? How could a regular human provoke him?” I asked, unclear what he was asking.

Hwan sat motionless, thinking about something, before suddenly glancing up.

“Did you two investigate him and find something about him?” 

I shifted uneasily. Hwan hit the mark so accurately.

“Kind of… how did you know?”

Hwan shook his head.

“There was a friend of mine. He told me once secretly that he’s found a good place to find information about BHK. A few weeks after that, the police found him dead, killed by a gunshot wound in his chest. It’s no wonder…”

What Hwan just said put me on my heels. A couple of weeks after, he was dead? It must be very dangerous to go after BHK. Maybe Eunkyung and I severely underestimated BHK’s strength.

“Next time you go on any more investigations, I’m going with you,” Hwan said. “It’s pretty unreasonable for you two who haven’t even gone through weapon training to go against BHK. Your brain alone can’t defeat him, no matter how smart you are.”

Although not wanting to put him in danger, it honestly did seem extremely unreasonable for Eunkyung and I, who both can’t fight, to be trying to take BHK down. 

 Yet, all those people working together for 8 years still haven’t come a millimeter closer to stopping me.

I flinched. It was easy to tell it was just an illusion, yet, it just felt so real. 

“What’s wrong?” An Hwan asked.

“What if… what if it’s not possible to catch BHK?” I muttered, staring at the ground.

“Why wouldn’t it be possible to catch BHK?”

“Well, I mean, for the past 8 years, even with everyone’s smartness and powerful machines, BHK is still nowhere near being stopped.”

An arm wrapped around me.

“Well, of course, it may be easy to believe that. After all, it seems that over the 8 years, no data has been found. That’s enough to make one believe that he’ll never be caught. But, 8 years is very different than forever. If we keep telling ourselves that he’s impossible to catch, then we, the people who believe in justice, are failing our duty ourselves. I’d rather be optimistic and wrong, than pessimistic and right. It always seems impossible until it’s done. If you can dream it-”

I laughed, surprisingly feeling motivated by the quotes.

“You’re just ripping off famous people!”

He laughed with me, seeming relieved that he restored my hope.

“You can do it!” I said, finishing the quote.

We looked at each other. As I stared into his eyes, I noticed that his eyes were always sparkling. It reminds me of something, a memory. Yet, I can’t remember what exactly happened. Interesting… why might I have this, memory gap?