My eyes opened. Sunlight was pouring into our room in the hotel. 

“Morning’s came…” I muttered.

Eunkyung was still asleep next to me. I watched her turn from her back to her side. 

We returned to the hotel room at 22 last night. Hwan hadn’t returned yet so we just spent an hour doing nothing. For some reason, last night seemed to be a mere couple of seconds in my mind.

I smiled and chuckled as I thought about what happened last night. It was one of the best moments in my life. 

I tossed the blankets off of me. I glanced at the other bed. Hwan already woke up and judging by his absence in our room, he probably already headed down to the breakfast area. I considered waking Eunkyung but decided not to, as I don’t want to be disturbing her sleep. 

I brushed my teeth and changed from my PJs to a black t-shirt and shorts. I left the room and quietly closed the door behind me.

I took the elevator down and approached the breakfast area. 

It was pretty large, maybe the size of two living rooms. The entrance was on one edge of the room, the breakfast bar was to the left and was maybe half the size of a bedroom, while the dining area was to the right and took up the rest of the space. 

I approached the breakfast area. It had a large variety of food. I grabbed joomukbap and odeng and left to find a seat.

They had many rectangular tables with two chairs on opposite sides. A lot of the tables were full. As I glanced around, I noticed Hwan was sitting by himself at a table to the right. I walked over to him.

“Good morning Hwan,” I said, as I took a seat across from him. 

“Good morning Youngjae,” he said, with a full mouth. 

He finished what he was chewing on and swallowed, then reached for his napkin and wiped his mouth.

He looked at me, before chuckling a bit.

“What?” I asked, confused.

“Why do you have a dorky grin on your face right now? Did you watch some romance k-dramas or animes before you came down here?”

I realized I was subconsciously grinning. Oh my, I quickly diminished my grin. 

“Better now?” I asked.

“Yeah, you got rid of it,” he said, observing my face.

I took a bite of my joomukbap.

“Things seem to be changing so fast,” Hwan muttered, seeming to be thinking about something.

“What do you mean,” I asked.

“Nothing, focus on eating your food.”

Why would he bring up something random like that but not tell me? I can’t understand this guy. 

I swallowed the rest of my food. 

“It’s 9:08 right now, we’ll probably be staying at the hotel for a bit before we can find an apartment for a month or so. I mean, or we could stay in the hotel. I can pay for it you know. I’m fine with either so you guys can choose.”

“Alright, I think we should just get an apartment. It’ll be way cheaper and hotels weren’t made for long-term stays.”

Hwan nodded. “Alright then, it’s settled.”

“Good morning guys. Where do I sit?” a voice that I could easily recognize as Eunkyung said behind me.

“Good morning Eunkyung,” Hwan said. “You can pull up a chair. Just remember to put it back.”

I turned around. Eunkyung pulled a chair to the side of the table and sat down, putting down her plate of food on the table.

“Youngjae and I were discussing staying in an apartment for a month. Are you fine with that?”

“Yeah, that sounds good to me.”

“Alright then. An apartment it is.”

We finished our breakfast and returned to our room. Hwan decided to start looking for the apartment, while he sent us off to do whatever we want, though he said to leave the analyzing crime part for tomorrow because it’s better if he did it with us.

Eunkyung suggested that we go on a date. I agreed because I’ve never been on a date before, so maybe she’ll be able to guide me. It turns out though that Eunkyung also never has been on a date before so…

We took a bus to downtown Busan. It wasn’t that long of a trip, less than 30 minutes. 

Busan was a really large place. Without google maps or any navigating tools and when you’re new, it’s so easy to get lost.

She pointed to a cupcake shop. 

“Let’s get some cupcakes,” she suggested.

We entered the store. The cashier was in the middle of the store, while the cupcakes were behind the counter and the dining area was in front of the cashier podium. The entrance was on the same side as the dining area. 

We went to the cupcake picking area. There were many cool cupcakes, some were pretty, and some looked very delicious.

Though it was hard to pick which one, we settled on one that was red-colored with hearts on it. We bought two of them.

Instead of eating it inside the store, we decided to eat outside of the store and on the closest non-full bench nearby.

I took a bit of it. The chocolate cake filled my mouth.

“My, this is delicious,” I exclaimed. 

“I agree,” Eunkyung said while staring at the cupcake. “It really reminds me of something I ate when I was younger. Back in the day, I liked to cook cupcakes.”

I glanced at her. 

“Amazing food, you know how to pick stores for a date. You act like you’re a professional at dates.”

“Trust me, I just know how to pick stores,” she murmured, a bit flustered by my comment. 

We finished our cupcakes and decided to rest for a bit.

“Youngjae, can you answer some questions for me honestly? Some might be a bit sensitive, but I want to confirm something.” Eunkyung said. 

“Ummm, sure. I’ll try my best.”

“So, in the past, did you ever go by the alias of Byeog? Did you ever have a nickname Byeong?”

Byeog... I did have that nickname at some point. That was like… 8 years ago though. How did she know?

“Uh, yeah. How did you know?” I asked a bit shocked.

She ignored my question. 

“Did you ever live in Gimhae?”

“Wait, how do you know this?” I asked, confused at how she knows where I lived before my father died aka my birthplace.

“When I met you in the hospital, it wasn’t your first BHK case, right? You had one earlier right?”

Though not wanting to get mad at her, it was frustrating to me how she wouldn’t answer how she knew.

“How do you know?” I asked her. 

“I know you! We met before. After my first BHK case. I was Chin!”

Chin… the person in my dream? That was her? Eunkyung? As I thought about it, it did make a lot of pieces fit together, like why Eunkyung wanted to stop BHK so bad. Still, I have no recollection of knowing Chin. 

“Wasn’t Chin a boy?” I asked her confused. “Are you secretly a boy?”

She looked at me, a bit surprised.

“You don’t remember? I thought I told you I cut my hair short…”

She stared at me like she was hoping that I’d remember. I searched my memories, trying to recall when I met Chin. As much as I know, I don’t remember.

“I… don’t remember Chin,” I said.

“Nothing? You don’t remember anything? What about all of the things you said to me? Like, ‘Out here, we can keep running away from our problems.’, ‘Stay strong. It’s like a bad storm. Once the storm leaves, you’ll be happy you didn’t give up.’”

“I’m sorry… I don’t remember saying those…” I said, a bit shocked.

What she’s describing seems too real, but…

“Maybe you’ve got the wrong person…” I said.

“You’re the one whose parents were killed by BHK right? You told me your story. You even look like him, act like him, and have the same personality. How could it not be you?”

“I-”

“‘Let’s part ways, Chin. You’ve got your things and I’ve got mine. Running away doesn’t solve problems. Let’s meet up in the future and if fate lets us, we’ll become friends again and actually live life. Let’s never forget each other, Chin. ’ That’s what Byeog told me. ”

Her eyes seemed to tear up.

“Nevermind, forgive me, please. I need to move on. Tell Hwan I’ll be back in a bit. Go home without me.”

She got up and ran away from the bench.

Dammit, life, what did I screw up on? I didn’t do anything wrong and I broke a relationship. 

I sat on the bench still thinking about what I did. I sighed. Life is so hard. As I glanced around me, I noticed that it was pretty dark for the middle of the day and that nobody was around me.

I checked the weather. Oh gosh, it was predicted to start raining now. I wondered if I should search for Eunkyung, but she didn’t bring her phone and I have no idea where she is at. 

I rode the bus back to the hotel. By the time I returned to the hotel, the rain outside was pouring, making me drenched just from the bus stop to the hotel, about a 5 min walk, or a 1 min run. Even with an umbrella covering me 90% of the time. 

“Where’s Eunkyung?” Hwan asked.

“She went off to do her own thing,” I replied, still a bit heartbroken. I tried to keep my voice steady to hide it.

Hwan stared at me for a bit, before glancing at the downpouring rain through a window. 

“Well, I hope she didn’t get caught in the rain…”

I took a seat on the couch.  

“How did finding an apartment go?”

“Excellent, I found a two-room apartment for 1,500,000 ₩ per month. We’ll be moving into it the day tomorrow.

“Alright, that’s good. Tomorrow we can move in and discuss the investigation.”

Hwan lay down on the bed. 

“Working as a police officer, you get to see many horrors. You wonder… what am I doing here? It’s not about your life in danger, but rather that some horrors you see stay with you. Although you see many horrors, there are also warm, emotional moments that you see. Although it is still memorable, it isn’t as easy to remember as the horrors. It’s why people with PTSD suffer so much, they remember all the horrors of what happened, but while they focus on that, they forget to focus on the good things of life. It’s kind of similar to the saying that people remember people for doing bad things, but not so much for doing good things. The bad is more memorable than the good.”

I nodded. “I’d definitely agree.”

“Well, I’ll be taking a nap now.”

“Okay, I’ll leave the room.”

“I mean you don’t have to. If you are though, take my car keys in case you want to get anything from the car.”

“It’s fine,” I assured him, before getting his keys and leaving the room, gently closing the door behind me.

I decided to head to Hwan’s car, to grab a change of clothes from it. I went to the car despite the pouring rain. I got into the backseat and closed the door behind me. 

As I searched for my suitcase, I noticed the dusty, brown chest that I brought with me. In the chest, is my past. It holds the past that I’ve locked up and tried so hard to forget about.

They remember all the horrors of what happened, but while they focus on that, they forget to focus on the good things of life.

What if… I really did forget who Chin was. I might’ve focused so much on my parent’s death that I forgot while trying to bury everything.

Time to embrace my past, I won’t run. 

I grabbed the lock, which was one symbol, a three hangul letter password. 

“What was the password,” I muttered to myself, trying to figure out. I really did forget a lot from that day.

I tried every word I could think of, but none worked. 

Crap, what could it be? Maybe I’m not thinking of enough words.

Could it be Chin? If what Eunkyung said was true then maybe…

I scrolled to Chin and then click, the lock opened.

I gulped. I really did know who Chin was…

I opened the chest and coughed as a stream of dust flew out. I glanced inside and saw a photo album, a journal, a knife with dried blood on it, and my parent’s wedding photo. A rush of memories hit my brain. 

That day, that place, and BHK. I resisted the urge to throw up and wiped my tearing eyes. 

I believe my journal ends on April 9th, 6 years ago. The day of my parent’s murder, but nothing else. I don’t really remember by photo album though…

I reached into the chest and took out the photo album. As I opened the first page, I saw my 12-old self standing in a forest playing with… Chin. No way… I flipped the page and saw myself fishing with Chin near a pond. As I flipped through the pages, the memories came flooding back.