I have a good idea where she is right now, I need to find her and apologize for forgetting.

I threw everything in the chest and left the car. The rain was still pouring. At this point, after everything, the rain didn’t seem to be anything. I know where she is at. At that lake. I met Chin again, there’s no way I’m going to give this chance up. I need to apologize for everything.

Plop, Plop, Plop.

Rain heavily poured around me as I sprinted as fast as I could to the nearest transit. I’ll need to have a ride to Gimhae, which would be about 1 and a half hours away. 

During the ride, I could barely feel myself. I was drenched from head to toe. Even my socks were drenched so much, that they make squishing sounds whenever I take a step. 

An hour and a half wait felt like forever, but finally, the transit screeched to a halt. I hopped off the transit and started to head towards Sineo-san, a hiking trail that I was in the past.

I carefully avoided the street that was where my parents were killed and I got to the trail after running for a bit in the rain. As I reached the point in the trail where Chin was, I noticed Eunkyung sitting next to a river with her feet dipped in the water, and like me, drenched in the rain. 

I walked over and sat next to her, also sticking my shoes into the water.

“I’m sorry,” I said, staring at the water. 

She didn’t move.

“Would you believe me if I told you I remembered?”

“Obviously, if you knew where I am.”

I took my eyes off the water and looked at her. 

“You’re going to get sick. How long have you been staring at the water?”

“For a bit now, maybe 40 minutes thinking about my life. You’re going to get sick too. Why’d you come out here?”

“To apologize. I figured that it really was my fault. I’m stupid enough to forget something like that. At first, I was really confused and thought you got the wrong person, but it turns out, it really is my fault. I’m sorry, Chin.”

I think the way I said Chin must’ve been very similar to the past because it made her stop staring at the water and look at me.

“You really are him. It’s hard to imagine that after all this time, I found you.”

“I am Byeong, the nickname you gave me because you thought my spirit was blazing. I remember it as clear as day now.”

Eunkyung stared at me, before returning her gaze to the lake.

“I didn’t know what to do if you didn’t remember. I had so much hope, but you told me you didn’t remember. I couldn’t really process what was happening. I just know that in the past, you supported me when I lost almost everything. I-I-,”

She started sobbing. I almost scared her to death by not remembering. 

I silently watched her, It makes me feel guilty that I forgot. 

“We’re like two trees, with our roots entangled. We both started a new growth by meeting each other. As long as our roots or past are intertwined,  we will forever be in each other’s hearts, no matter how far apart we grow,” I said, reciting one of the quotes I told her before we went our separate ways.

“We’ll always be together in our hearts…” Eunkyung muttered.

Her sobbing slowly halted.

“But here we are, also together physically,” I added.

“We’ll become friends and start actually living life. That’s what we agreed on in the past. We’re already friends. How’ll we actually start living life?”

“Well…” I said, thinking about what I could change. “Actually Eunkyung, I have an idea.”

She looked at me. 

“What idea?”

Although there were butterflies in my stomach, I ignored them. I closed my eyes and leaned forward, putting a hand on Eunkyung’s cheek and pulling her in, kissing her.

At first, nothing changed. Time froze. Then, all at once, a mixture of feelings rushed into my head. Although I can’t describe it, it made me feel as if I was on top of the world. 

A few seconds passed. Maybe even a minute. 

I pulled away, Eunkyung’s face was beet red, while my face was burning hot. 

“Youngjae…” she muttered.

“Let’s get out of the rain now,” I suggested, standing up and offering my hand to help her up.

Eunkyung nodded before grabbing my hand. I pulled her up.

“Thanks, Youngjae, for everything,” Eunkyung muttered while hugging my arm.

We continued walking to the end of the trail. As we approached the exit, there was a suspicious person standing seeming to be waiting for us.

“Youngjae, Eunkyung, I have umbrellas,” the person called, sounding familiar to Hwan for some reason.

He pushed off his hat and Hwan stood there.

“What are you doing here? How did you find us?” I asked, clearly surprised. Eunkyung relieved her grip on my arm a bit.

He walked over to us and handed me an umbrella.

“I’ll explain on the transit back. First of all, you two need to get changed and dry yourselves.”

He glanced around, trying to find anywhere for us to change. To the right, there was a bathroom. 

“There,” he said, pointing to the bathroom. “I brought you guys some clothes. After we get back to the hotel, I want you guys to thoroughly shower and change into your clothes.”

We nodded and went to the bathroom to change. Being in dry clothes after 2 hours in wet clothes feels amazing. Definitely not as amazing as the kiss though. After we came out, we opened our umbrellas and followed Hwan back to the transit.

“So Hwan… how did you um, know we would be in Gimhae?” I asked, after we aboard and sat down.

“It takes me a while back… 6 years ago. It’s going to be a long story but since we’re on the transit, we’ll have the time.”

I nodded.

“I was once a former police officer at Gimhae. It was during that time when BHK was currently rising. In 2012, BHK was still just an unknown murderer who killed 1-2 people. He didn’t have the name he had now.”

He paused and looked out the window, staring at the trees flying by.

“At that time, I was 21. I’ve been working with the police for less than a year. It was at that same time when BHK started to debut and earned his title by causing chaos in Gimhae, murdering over 20 people in the area.”

He narrowed his eyes at us.

“Including both of your parents.”

My hand shivered a little bit in my pocket. Maybe I’m sick, or maybe it’s the fear of reliving that.

“After many BHK cases, I felt as if I should just quit my job. After all, seeing all the horrors he does scar me, and to this day, I won’t be able to forget all the things he’s done.”

“Being a police officer during the BHK period must be very tough…” I muttered.

“There was only one thing that stopped me from quitting my job, after Chin’s case.”

Eunkyung’s head shot up after hearing the name Chin.

“Chin’s case?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Hwan said, “Chin’s case. I witnessed it with my very own eyes. How horrible BHK really was. Leaving kids without parents and sometimes even killing the kid. I wanted to quit my job so much after that. However, much to my surprise, another kid, which was you became friends and you two rose from the ashes  It wasn’t hard to recognize that kid as Youngjae, who yesterday lost his parents.”

He was referencing our past selves. Wait… that can only mean…

“Despite the grief, he was going through, he still helped someone else. Although I knew they were running away from families and legal issues, I didn’t turn them in, but only rather watched them for a bit. It’s amazing how the two of them overcame their grief and became who they are today. That’s when I realized, police officers don’t actually support people. They only eliminate threats. It takes other people to support each other. It warmed my heart, and since then, I’ve been doing everything I can to support people while protecting them. If my life was some kind of plot, I’d be happy being the supporting character.”

Although I couldn’t really hear well since my ears were full of water, I was very moved by his words. 

“I’m curious Hwan, when did you find out we were them?” Eunkyung asked.

He laughed. 

“Well, ever since Youngjae was in the hospital, I was suspicious of him. And ever since you started interacting with Youngjae, I was suspicious of you. Then, I was given enough information to piece together everything.”

“Thanks, Hwan, for supporting me and Eunkyung through everything. I really appreciate it,” I muttered, unsure how to thank him for how much he’s done for us.

Eunkyung nodded. 

“Honestly, I’m not sure what our lives would’ve looked like without you,” she added. “You’ve helped us in so many ways that I’m not sure how to repay you.”

“No problem. Your smiles are all the payment I need,” Hwan said happily. 

“Let’s play some fun games for the rest of the ride guys!” I suggested.

Eunkyung and Hwan laughed, before telling each other jokes.

The rest of the ride was really fun. The rain stopped around halfway through. Although on our way back to our hotel, we noticed that there were protests on the streets. 

“What are they protesting about?” Hwan asked as he squinted his eyes at the crowd. 

“As soon as the rain stopped, people decided to protest?” Eunkyung said. 

We took a couple of glances at what they were protesting about before heading back into our hotel. 

“Let me check the news,” Hwan said as he opened the door to our hotel room.

Hwan went over to his bag and took out his laptop. He sat on the chair at the desk and typed in his password. After a few minutes of looking at his screen, his eyes widened.

“Believe it or not, people are frustrated now that BHK can’t be caught. Their starting to protest and want the government to spend a lot more resources catching him.”

Eunkyung and I gathered around his computer. On his screen was an image of protestors in Seoul, zoomed in on a sign that read “Stop BHK already! Invest more resources! 8 years is too long!”

“Oh my,” Eunkyung muttered.

“Maybe the government should invest more resources though, after all, if they couldn’t catch him for 8 years, maybe they need to change their approach,” I pointed out.

“Well, even if that was true, the citizens protesting probably is only causing more chaos. It’s probably going to hinder the police in some way,” Hwan replied.

“I mean, investing too many resources probably isn’t a good idea. The government is probably determining how much more resources should be invested because if all the police were focused on BHK, then they’re going to be leaving a lot of things open like normal criminal activity, or the investigators can’t investigate any other cases,” Eunkyung noted.

Hwan sat back in his chair and let out a sigh.

“At this point, BHK is kind of getting out of control. 8 years. That’s a lot of time. We should probably intensify our search. I’ll do my best to keep both of you safe. If the entirety of South Korea could help pitch in, I’m sure we’d solve this in a couple of hours.”

I nodded.

Hwan scrolled around the web page for another couple of seconds before shutting down his laptop and putting it back into his backpack.

“Well, it’s around 19:07. You guys should go shower and change into clothes you like to wear. Getting sick wouldn’t be great right now. I’m going to buy dinner,” Hwan said while pointing to the shower.

“Alright,” I replied.

I glanced at Eunkyung.

“Should I shower first or should you?” I asked.

“You’re choice,” she replied.

“Alright, you can shower first.”

She nodded before walking to the left of the bed we shared and grabbing a bundle of clothes from a bag she brought in. 

Hwan left the room while Eunkyung went to shower. I took a seat on the chair Hwan was sitting on. Taking a quick peek outside the window, I couldn’t observe anyone on the streets. They all left. Must’ve gotten bored and left to get dinner or something.

I reached down and tried to stretch my shorts a bit further, but to no avail, they snapped back to place. Of course, Hwan had to grab shorts that was way too small for me. I wore these shorts like a year ago. I just forgot to throw it out and it stayed in my bag up till today.

Eunkyung left the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her head.

“You can go now,” she said.

I searched my bag and pulled out a t-shirt, boxers, and more fitting shorts.

As I entered the bathroom I noticed my reflection. I paused and carefully observed myself. 

“Am I really the same guy 6 years ago?” I asked my mirror.

Of course, the mirror did not respond. After all, it’s not alive. Maybe it would be more useful if it did, I would’ve gotten some answers…

It feels like every time I get used to something, it changes. Six years ago, my first change separated me from my parents. The second time, I had to part ways with Chin. The third time, I had to relive the BHK incident. And now, the fourth time, when I just reunited with Chin, I have to finish this BHK case. What’s harder to adapt to than a super hard situation is an ever-changing situation. Some part of me cries out, please, stop hunting for him. Just step back with Eunkyung and Hwan while the police stop him. Unfortunately, I’m blinded by anger. If I can be part of his downfall in any way, I’ll gladly take it. After all, if I can avenge my parents in any way I can, I’ll take it.  You won’t take anything from my life and you’ll pay for everything you’ve already taken.