“So…” Hwan started, “is there anything else to investigate for in Busan? We did just rent out an apartment for a month so it’ll be a waste to just abandon it.”

“I mean, there are older cases that we can check out. How about those?” Eunkyung suggested.

“Alright, just name some when we get home. Just chill guys and maybe enjoy some of Busan while we’re here, though a lot of these you can see back in Seoul. Maybe go for the beaches,” Hwan suggested.

“I’ll think about what to do,” I replied.

Hwan nodded. “So I’ll be back at the apartment taking a nap, cuz I don’t think I got good sleep last night. I’ll see you guys later in the afternoon.”

He left. Now it was just the two of us, standing together again.

Eunkyung tapped my shoulder and gestured for us to walk, pointing in the direction she wanted to walk in. I smiled and grabbed her hand, holding it by my side as we slowly walked in no direction.

“I hope BHK can end soon, “ Eunkyung said.

The looming dangers ahead of us made me kind of scared, and at the same time, make me want to run straight into it.

“It’s so annoying like we’re not at the climax, BHK is still nowhere near ending but we’re still in such a place where it’s so dangerous,” I said. “We’re like trying to be in midair, but without support on the bottom, nor anything to cling up.  When you’re arm is like that, that’s when it’s the sorest.”

“Well, we always have each other to cling to right? Our arms will get sore much slower as long as we keep holding each other.” Eunkyung said, before letting out a giggle.

I felt my lips tug a bit before I let out a tiny laugh.

“Turning my analogies to a pickup line?” I asked her.

“Sorry, that sounded a bit too cheesy.”

I’m not sure how long we walked or what we chatted about, but as hours flew by, I couldn’t even remember time passing. I couldn’t feel my feet hurt. It seems as if someone had pressed a skip button on your life. It really made me wish that every day of my life would be like this, just walking around a city and chatting to my heart's content with Eunkyung.

Later, I realized we’d been walking for four hours. Without a warning, Eunkyung suddenly grabbed my arm, seemingly cling to me. I paused walking.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her.

“Something bad… I have this sensation that somethings going to happen.”

I took a glance around us observing the slowly passing cars and people slowly passing by us, occasionally shooting us glances. Nothing, in particular, to be afraid of. 

I patted her head and stroked her head. Her hair felt like silk as I ran my fingers through it. 

“It could be like you’re six sense you know? Kind of like how dogs can kind of predict when a storm before it comes. But there’s no point in trying to worry about a future we don’t know for sure.”

“Yeah I know but…” she muttered, before trailing off.

“Let’s return home first. Hwan might get worried about us if we return too late.”

Eunkyung nodded before we headed back to the apartment.

 After we got home, we found Hwan on his computer. 

“Welcome back,” he greeted, taking a quick glance at Eunkyung clinging to my arm, before glancing somewhere else.

“How was your sleep?” I asked, as Eunkyung let go of me and I put my stuff onto the floor.

“Meh, meh, maybe got two hours?” Hwan answered.

“Feeling less tired?”

“Yeah, a lot better.”

“That’s good.”

I glanced at Eunkyung who was sitting on a chair, still looking uneasy. Not wanting to worry Hwan, I walked over to her and tugged her arm.

“Let’s go to my room,” I whispered. 

She nodded and we went to my room, gently closing the door behind me.

“So, what’s up?” I asked.

“I don’t know but there’s this feeling in my gut that somebody will get seriously hurt, not physically though. It’s probably just nonsense, so I don’t expect you to believe it. However, I can’t put away the feeling and it keeps bothering me…”

“Do you think the climax is coming up?” I asked her, trying to understand a bit more about her feeling.

“What do you mean?”

“In a story, there is a beginning, a climax, and an end. The wait between the beginning and the climax has been already pretty long don’t you think? Maybe BHK’s climax is approaching.”

“Something in my gut tells me it’s not as simple as that…” Eunkyung muttered, quickly stealing a look at my face before continuing to stare at the ground.

I grabbed her shoulders.

“Don’t worry too much about it. The future is the future you know? As long as the present is okay, the future could barely matter at all.”

She nodded.

“Thanks, Youngjae, for trying to reassure me. It doesn’t get rid of the feeling but it does help. A lot.”

“No problem,” I replied.

I leaned forward and hugged her, catching her by surprise which I could tell because she let out an almost inaudible squeak.

“Sorry, couldn’t help it,” I said as I pulled away. 

“Well…” she trailed off.

“I’m sure that in the end, everything will be fine, even if we end up with millions of cuts and bruises,” I said.

Before she could reply, there was a knock on the door. Immediately, I glanced at the door.

“Eunkyung, Youngjae, come out quick. BHK has made an announcement,” Hwan’s voice called from the other side of the door.

I glanced at Eunkyung. She nodded.

“Alright, Hwan, we’re coming,” I called.

I opened the door and we went to Hwan’s desk.

“Look,” he said, pointing at a large message that appeared on a website. “At 16:02, BHK made a national wide announcement to the nation. It says that there’ll be a very important message he has to deliver, and in order to see the message, you can click a link at 20:00. Since it's so publicized, there’s a host to view in Busan, Seoul, Incheon, Daegu, etc.”

I glanced over the website that held a screenshot of BHK’s post. 

“Did they confirm this is actually BHK?” I asked.

“Well, it could just be a random hacker, but someone hacked onto one of the governments’ accounts on Instagram and left this post. The police considered that it might be a prank, but they definitely cannot take it lightly.”

“Where is it? I mean, where can we watch it?” I asked. 

“Not alone again,” Eunkyung insisted, shuddering a bit.

Hwan glanced at her, before glancing at me.

Watching it alone brings back bad memories of BHK’s death threat. 

“Let’s see it somewhere more publicized,” I suggested.

“Alright then, the view may be a little bit bad, but downtown, there are billboards that they are going to play it on. It’s probably going to be crowded.”

“It’s fine, we just need to hear audio right?”

Hwan nodded. “It’s fine with me. We’ve got about 30 minutes to get there. It’s about 19:30 right now, so quickly get dressed, and let's get going.”

By “get dressed”, I don’t think he meant much because we were already dressed. So in reality, I just kept my blue jeans and dark red shirt, while Eunkyung went back to her room and came out with black leggings and a dark blue sweatshirt. When I asked her why she wore so dark clothing, she told me that she didn’t want to attract attention. 

We ended up leaving the apartment within 5 minutes, but the walk there was 10 minutes. By the time we arrived, the place was swarming with people and super loud chatting. 

If this was a random guy giving a random message, I definitely don’t think that people would care much. However, this is BHK, definitely not a random guy and giving a random message. 

The billboards were seeable, but kind of hard because of the angle. Stores lined up, most of them open, probably trying to take advantage of the people clustered around. We found a spot that was opposite a billboard and waited.

At first, when 20:00 hit, nothing happened. Everyone went silent around 19:58. The chatter started to chat again, but a couple of seconds later, the pictures and ads on the billboard vanished. After that happened, I couldn’t hear an ounce of sound.

The billboard screen lit up, and BHK sat there on a desk, using the same desk he used to talk to us back when we were in Incheon. As usual, he had a black trench coat and a black hat, but this time, he seemed to barely put much effort into concealing his identity.

“Hello, people of South Korea. I hope I’m not taking too much of your time. I’m BHK, or, that’s short for Black-Hat Killer. I know that some people are trying to trace this video, but alas, it won’t work. The first question to be asked is, is it really a video? Or is it a live broadcast? Each option needs to be approached differently.” He glanced right at the camera, as if he was checking if there were errors, before staring straight at the screen.

“Anyways, back to you citizens. All of you are protesting at the government. All of you are mad at the government. Attend protests wanting the government. Trying to start funds to convince the government. Atlas, all you’re efforts are futile. I can guarantee you, it’s not going to work. No matter how much you try to coerce to government.”

Unsettling voices spread like a wave through the crowd. I could hear someone to the right of me mutter, “keep being arrogant. We’ll catch you and you eat your words.”

“What makes me laugh the most is how all of you criticize the government, but sit back in you’re chairs and never do anything. Like a bunch of cowards who laugh at the soldiers for failing to kill the enemy while doing nothing themselves.”

BHK stopped for a moment, before starting to laugh.

His laugh sounded familiar… weird. It never felt this way before. I met someone new recently who had his laugh…

The crowd was starting to stir.

“Please, not yet, let us hear the rest,” I silently begged the crowd.

“Regardless of whether the citizens or the government has failed, there’s one thing prominent in all this. The combined force of all of you can’t come close to catching me. Not even close. So, after 8 years of this facade, I’ve been getting bored. I’m ready to turn up the heat and give you guys a hand to make life a bit fairer for everyone. I’ll tell you something about me that you’ll never find out by yourselves.”

The stir in the crowd instantly dissipated as BHK leaned forward.

“Ready?” he asked, tapping his desk, glancing around the camera a bit, trying to act as if he could see us.

“Here it is, my identity. Guess who is the leading investigator of BHK case? It’s BHK himself!!!” he shouted with a burst of hysterical laughter.

An Won-Shik is… BHK?

He threw off his hat and took off his mask. Just as he said, Won-Shik’s face hid underneath.

I could hear the rumbling of everyone completely surprised at the sudden turn of events. The silent, quiet conversations quickly turned into loud uproars.

BHK…or Won-Shik held up his badge, and showed all angles of it on the camera, trying to rub it in our faces.

“It’s getting quite noisy now, so I'll be going. Do you’re best to hunt me with all, ALL your capacity!”

He laughed historically again before all the billboards returned to black.

At first, my legs and arms wouldn’t respond to me. I was so shocked by An Won-Shik’s betrayal. He didn’t seem to give the slightest hint when we talked to him…

Then, Eunkyung’s warning came to me. Someone will get severely hurt, but not physically. My body instantly unfroze and I spun around, trying to get a look at Hwan to see how he is doing.

And in the first time in my life, I saw a man, who was as strong as an ox, as sturdy and unemotional as a robot, as reliable and always there for you as your parents, cry.