Even if she left DooSan’s apartment in the morning, SolHi got home only late in the evening after wandering all day long the Seoul City streets, trying as much as possible to collect her thoughts.

But, no matter how hard didn’t she try this, she couldn’t manage to calm down, feeling how everything was overwhelming her, how the thoughts in her head were spinning like the bees in the hive, making the situation seem even more difficult and dangerous than it was because this was what SolHi was afraid of: to lose someone else dear for her because of her, and the fact that she started to have feelings for DooSan, even stronger than she would have liked to feel, made her want to run away from there, to bury their present and, if possible, to completely hide in that far away and full of ghosts past than to feel that she can lose everything in a second as it happened in her life for so many times already.

„It will be better for him to hate me as he hated me before than to suffer because of me later,” SolHi whispered while sitting on a bench in the park, with her head supported on her palms, as if she was afraid to face the world. And … maybe it was so: she was afraid of everything and of everybody, she considered them enemies and not friends, and at that moment, when her feelings for DooSan were more than a simple necessity of having someone by her side or a method of forgetting her problems, made her feel a simple afraid bunny.

And… there was something else confusing her: the fact that she gave herself away in front of DooSan and she was sure that he found out about her feelings, and this happened when he kissed her in his apartment, tightly holding her to his chest, completely sticking her of his body, and this happened because she had forgotten, for a few moments only, that she must stand against him and against those feelings, and she allowed herself to be wrapped in the scent of those pleasant experiences that were new for both of them and which made them both feel weird and that they were attracting the other one like a magnet.

„I must kill these feelings, to make them vanish until is not too late,” SolHi murmured, sitting on the same bench, but her lost glance was focused this time somewhere at a blind spot in the park, admiring as much as possible the beauty of nature which helped her eventually to calm down and make her see the things while normally thinking. „Yes, I’m more than sure that it’ll be the right decision. DooSan must change his attitude toward me or he’ll suffer as Dja Iun did. And… even if he calls me „coward" or he’ll try to stand against me, I must force him to forget the way to my apartment, and it must be forever. Yes, I’ll do it so,” and, with this thought in her mind, she came back home when it was already night outside.

But… the surprises didn’t end for her that night: arrived at the floor where she was living, SolHi turned right after climbing the stairs and froze, and her heart started to madly beat in her chest - she saw DooSan at her apartment door, sitting on a big suitcase, with the crooks next to the suitcase, waiting for her.

„Roommate, you’re finally home!” DooSan happily shouted, seeing her and waving at her. „Come on, girl, don’t stay frozen! I already numbed sitting on this suitcase when I should have normally laid on a comfortable sofa, at the warmth.

SolHi hardly swallowed, deeply breathed in to pluck up her heart, and she finally headed toward the apartment, trying to seem as calmer as possible. „No one called you here,” she hissed through her teeth, getting in front of the apartment and forming the door code.

DooSan instead didn’t get his tail down due to her commentary, knowing that it was only a way for her to stand against him. „I missed you,” he said in a whisper, making SolHi watch him furiously, even if those words made her heart wince. „I’m not lying. I swear! It's the honest truth!”

„And I’m Peter-Pan,” SolHi snarled, pulling the doorknob to open the door. „And, poor guy, before accusing me of suffering because of your leg, you could have opened the door and entered. Nobody changed the code.”

„Well, I know that because I still remember that I’ve changed the code in such a way to not be possible to change it back, without my permission, but…”

„But…?”

„I couldn’t have just broken into your house when the owner wasn’t present. Not for nothing, but as you threatened me, in my own home actually, that you’ll break my legs and my arms, plus the neck… I thought not to run a risk doing this,” DooSan whispered, grinning.

„As if someone would stop me from doing this now,” SolHi told him, feisty, and entered the apartment, dragging the big suitcase after her and forcing DooSan to jump aside, in his healthy leg, avoiding the wheels of the suitcase to pass over his legs.

„What kind of woman is she to… another woman in her place would have been glad to know her man home, but this one…”

„Actually, I’m hearing you,” SolHi shouted at him from the apartment, forcing DooSan to keep silent because he knew very well what she was capable of when she was really mad. So, he preferred not to take a dare and he entered noiselessly the home, behind her.

But he enraged her eventually even more and she has been about to hit a few mops on his back because, after entering the apartment, he „kindly” asked her to bring him the „few things he brought with him from his apartment,” things that he left in his car and which resulted not to be as few as he mentioned.

„Han DooSan, are you looking for your death lately?” SolHi hissed so loud through the teeth that she made him wince, after throwing on the floor the last stack of books that she brought from the car. „A few only! He brought only a few things with him… and I’m bringing them for half an hour already, but they're still a lot of things there. And… to be honest, I have the feeling that I won’t finish bringing them soon. Or what… have you decided to raid into my house like the grasshoppers on a greenfield?”

DooSan took a few steps back and sat down on the bed, pretending to be „intimidated” by her shouts, even if he felt cold drops running on his back and this was not because he couldn’t stand against SolHi or to defend himself from an eventual attack with the broom, but yet: he considered that, at least that way, he can make her approach him, even if he was doing this through „violence."

„I just… took what I need,” DooSan murmured with the voice of a child that has just been scolded for laying an egg. „There aren’t that many things in that car.”

„There aren’t that many?!” SolHi shouted. „You occupied 3 quarters of the house and there still aren’t many? Ia, Han DooSan, this apartment has only 50 square meters while yours is 50 times bigger than mine. You could have stayed there if you need so much place. Why exactly have you come namely here?”

„I was bored,” DooSan said unawares.

SolHi stared thunderstruck at him and, for a few moments, nothing happened, a period of time DooSan has considered as being damn quiet and suspect. „SolHi?” he finally managed to murmur.

Suddenly, SolHi breathed out the air she had in her chest. „You could have hired clowns or entertainers from a circus if you wanted to have some fun. If one’s bored, he can…”

„Why spend money if I have you?! Because…”

All of sudden, SolHi threw herself on him, and to defend himself DooSan put a pillow between them. But even so, SolHi managed to scrape his arm, unwillingly.

„Aaa,” DooSan shouted. „I didn’t know that you are from the cats'tribe. Just look at me! I’m all scratched and this is only your fault.”

„Better to be a cat than a clown who does everything to animate you,” SolHi hissed through the teeth and she turned her back to him, heading toward the door.

„Where are you going?” DooSan asked in an innocent voice.

„At the circus! Maybe I’ll get rid of you this way!”

„At least feed me before going! Not for nothing, but, for so long time of standing outside, in cold, I feel as if my stomach has stuck to my back. No?” At least answer me, what do we have for dinner?”

„A big doughnut hole! Your favorite!” SolHi shouted before exiting the apartment and the door has been slammed behind her.

„I got off with a scratch only this time too,” DooSan murmured. „I thought that she’ll at least punch me and… how strong I know her fist, it’s a miracle that I’m still alive and… in one single piece … yet. Almost!” he added, blowing the scratch on his arm which suddenly started to sting.

Then, he stared at the door, remembering the conversation he had with GhiYon during the day, a conversation that actually convinced him to turn to SolHi’s apartment even if before that he had decided to wait a few days till SolHi will calm down and after that to ask her to turn back to his apartment.

„Did you lose your mind?” GhiYon shouted, finding out the reason why SolHi left DooSan’s apartment. „How the hell could you kiss detective Ian, idiot? Or… are you asking for trouble? Do you want to end as YuSan did or to die falling off a moto like the other guy? Actually, you’ve been already only one step from death!”

„Don’t exaggerate, ok?! It’s not that bad!” DooSan tried to calm his friend down, bringing two beers from the refrigerator.

„To not exaggerate?! How the hell shouldn't I do that when I see that you are losing your head because of love, DooSan? You love this woman, the same you should have only kept near you only to investigate the circumstances of what happened to YuSan. Nothing more, nothing less. You can’t fall in love with your brother’s woman!”

„I see my mother told you about this already,” DooSan murmured unhappy, sitting down on the sofa. „And… I’m not in love, ok?! It’s only a strategy… all this,” DooSan lied to his friend even if he knew this very well.

„And I’ve just been born, old chap,” GhiYon reproachfully told him. „Or … maybe you're just out of your gourd! I can’t find another explanation for your „the prince on the motto” adventure. Is this a gentle behavior or a proof of your stupidity?” and GhiYon fixed his eyes on DooSan’s face, who was doing everything to avoid his friend’s piercing glance.

„Neither one nor the other,” DooSan eventually murmured, barely heard. „I just … had to be there because I thought that I could find out something about what happened 7-years-ago.”

„About what happened 7-years-ago? And… what could you have found out from the man that you said Ian SolHi met him again only 2-years-ago, DooSan?” GhiYon said ironically.

„I also don’t know, but I was sure that he knows at least something of what happened then. Especially I was interested to know why he was following Min SinJu everywhere like a puppy.”

„What? Min SinJu and that guy, Iun Dja Iun were friends?” GhiYon shouted again, after drowning with beer „And… does SolHi know about this?”

„I don’t think so. At least she didn’t know this while Dja Iun was alive. And… I also found out accidentally about this: I was around Min SinJu’s club, a few days before the operative, and I saw Dja Iun and Min SinJu talking in front of the club. I didn’t pay attention to this at first, thinking that Dja Iun was just looking for the answers SolHi asked him to find out … you know, related to the young lady we were looking for. Now instead, after many weeks of being in the hospital and having a lot of time to think about this, I concluded that between those two was something more than just a simple talk between two people that knew each other.”

„I don’t see the link between the Min SinJu, his connection with Iun Dja Iun, what happened to detective Ian in the past, and that you eventually brought her here and … kissed her.”

„We came here because of my leg, idiot! There’s no elevator in SolHi’s building, that’s why we came here. But … I won’t deny that I played the in-love guy with her to win her trust and to find out everything I could from her because … I don’t know how to explain this, but my heart tells me that Dja Iun approached Min SinJu to find out what happened to SolHi that night.”

„But the guy is dead, DooSan. How will you find this out?”

„Maybe he’s dead, but not stupid. I’m sure that if he had found out something, he hid that info for SolHi, in someplace only known by the two of them. That’s why I must be close to her, in case she finds those evidence.”

„Yeah, but … from what you said, it will be difficult to find this out now: SolHi left this apartment, hating you more than before, and this happened only because of your stupid idea of kissing her.”

„Maybe, but yet: she didn’t leave this apartment with the idea of killing me, in her mind. I think she was calm instead. You know… that idea: should we stay friends now?! Thus, she gives me the opportunity to approach her again. Otherwise, she would have broken my head for sure, or… I would have flown through that window.”

„And … aren’t you afraid? That she’ll do this, eventually?”

„No, because her aggressivity is only a mask, GhiYon. A way to defend herself from the whole world, and I intend to take that mask off her face.”

„For whom?” GhiYon asked, sadly smiling.

„What do you mean with - for whom?”

„I mean, for whom are you doing this?! Who will benefit by making that mask vanish off her face: for you, finally managing to solve this case, or… to make her accept you as her man when all this ends?”

And … GhiYon’s words set DooSan wondering and for the first time, he felt that he was afraid. More than this: the idea that „what if she doesn’t accept me back? What will happen to us then?!” started to spin in his head. But DooSan’s stubbornness and the feelings that were boiling inside him made him pack his things in a rush and he had decided to turn back to her as soon as possible before SolHi decides to forget him.

But… there was still the question of how to do that?! Simply to turn back to her apartment and just open the door… it was too much after he did in the morning, even if he considered that feeling as being a natural impulse of two people that got to have beautiful feelings for each other. But… staying away from her was another idea that DooSan considered unacceptable. So, before leaving his apartment, he said to himself: „Be as it may be! When I see her, if she asks me what the hell I’m doing there, I’ll just answer her normally: knock-knock, it’s me! Did you miss me? Because I’ve missed you! A lot!”

***

Approaching the car parked not that far from SinJu’s club while pulling his cap over his ears to cover his face, Yoon Suk suddenly stop on the right part of the vehicle and, after looking left-right to make sure that nobody was following him, he got in the car, on the passenger's front side.

„Tell me that you find out what I’ve asked you!” Kan, who was on the driver’s side, asked the young detective while chewing a Sandwich.

„First, allow him to breathe and to eat something, you, old and impatient ogre,” Yu, who was on the rear sit, told Kan reproachfully. „Detective Oh, don’t pay attention to him! He’s just envious that he can’t go home tonight. First, eat! Later, you’ll tell us what you’ve found out,” and he gave Yoon Suk a Sandwich from a bag that was next to him.

Kan furiously stared both at Yu and Yoon Suk, but he didn’t say anything. But Yoon Suk neither wasted his nor the others’time: while biting from his Sandwich and drinking from a juice he also received from Yu, he told them: „those two friends of ours have known each other for a long time already. Min SinJu and Ian Hion Uk. Since childhood. They are maternal cousins.”

„What?” Kan shouted, sprinkling with crumbs of bread and of salad all around. „Cousins? Where the hell did this kinship come from? From hell? Wow, it hasn’t been enough that they have stinky businesses together, but they have also a blood link. Drop-dead no other one!”

„Niffy-niffy, but those businesses bring them a lot of money,” Yu added. „About the kinship: let’s just name it an insurance against the betrayal.”

„Do you think that because of this Ian Hion Uk hovers around Min SinJu, inspector?” Yoon Suk asked.

„Not only. I’m pretty sure that it should be another reason for all this.”

„It sounds me to be a plot,” Kan said pettishly.

„I’m not even surprised!” Yu mumbled. „You all the time smell gasoline where it shouldn’t be felt either. But… forget about it! I’m sure that you won’t ever trust your instinct.”

„If I would have trusted only my sixth sense, I would have been three meters underground since long ago already. And… damn situation! Why did he come namely here?! He should have asked Min SinJu to come to his office! At least we would have listened to what they are talking about.”

„Don’t tell me we have a mic there, Kan?!” Yu told Kan frightened. „We don’t have a judicial order, man! You know very well that we can’t use that registration in a trial.”

„Yeah, I know, but… I had to do at least something to have a clue or something useful for this investigation. But now… I’m sure that even if trying, we won’t get inside of that club,” Kan said upset. „Eh, I would have liked to also have blood linking, even distant, with this Min SinJu. Thus, I would have also entered that club like a boss.”

„Do you have a camera?” Yoon Suk asked after a few moments of silence. Kan instead only pierced him with his glance in response to Yoon Suk’s question. „Aaa, what for, do you need to know?!” Yoon Suk asked in amazement because he hadn’t expected such a reaction from his colleagues, and Kan and Yu quickly nodded yes. „Well, maybe you can’t get in that club because they know your snoots, but … I can.”

„And… may I know how you’ll get inside there? In midair?” Kan asked with irony.

„No… on me feet,” and Yoon Suk grinned satisfied. „Ok, ok, don’t make that face, sombe! It was only a joke,” murmured the young detective seeing Kan’s unhappy face. „A bad one, actually, but… it’s not the point. I meant that as they don’t know my face, I can enter like any other normal client. More with an entry permit,” Yoon Suk murmured triumphantly, showing an entry permit from the club.

„A golden card?!” Yu shouted. „You what? Are you a rich guy or something?”

„Me? No! My parents worked all their lives as teachers in a faraway village in Jeollanam-do while I'm just a simple detective like you two.”

„Then? Wherefrom do you have this… little thing?”

„Let’s say that I just gave a good shake to the right person. So? Should I go into the lions’paradise or not?” Yoon Suk asked happy, feeling that at least that time he could really serve his group.

Kan grimaced: he wouldn’t have wanted to expose Yoon Suk, but he also had no other choice. „Yu, when did you say prosecutor Han will be back to work?”

„In about a week. After taking out the cast. Why?”

„I was just thinking to get in that club with a judicial order, but … it’s improbable that San DuSik will sign one for us. Right?”

„I also think so. That’s why I consider that Yoon Suk’s idea is the best for us now.”

„To be honest, I don’t know!” Kan said still undecided.

„Sombe, just… have some trust in me! Anyway, I won’t do anything dangerous there. I only go inside, go around, see how things go on, the camera maybe shoots something important meanwhile and… I’m back!”

„And if those gorillas catch you with the camera, we won’t find a single bone unbroken in your body, numb nuts. Didn’t you think about this?”

„Of course, I thought, sombe! But… we don’t have any other choice. Or… do we have one?”

„Damn you, little rat! All right, be as you wish, but … if you go out of there on pieces, I’ll break you even more. Did you understand me?” Kan hissed through the teeth; a fact that made Yoon Suk happily smile.

„Yes, sombe Kan. Very well I heard you.”

„Good then, and now… get lost from here till I didn’t change my mind! And… Yu, give him a camera! At least to have it for shooting when those will break his head. Let it be as a record for future generations.”

Yu only smiled because he knew that Kan’s talkathon was just a sign that he was afraid for Yoon Suk’s safety. But… even if Yu wanted to tease Kan for his „chicken heart," he preferred eventually to keep silent, feeling that the situation wasn’t a proper one for jokes. So, he quickly prepared the mini-camera, hiding it under one of the cap’s adornments, so as not to be visible. After that, he slowly tapped Yoon Suk’s shoulder, whispering „good luck” to him.

Yoon Suk just nodded yes and got out of the car. But… before backing away from the car, he once again made sure that there wasn’t anybody to spot him. Then, he crossed the street, coming around the rear side of the car, and, after showing his permission ID to the bodyguards, he entered the club without additional checking.

„This is what I call being young,” Kan murmured with envy. „If we would have tried to enter, I’m sure that those gorillas would have checked even our underclothes. But… this one only greeted them and entered. To die of envy is no other.”

„Years never are the same, old chap. Just as fast as our youth passed, it will happen to Yoon Suk too.”

„I only hope he’ll see what means old age, but … as I know him, sticking his nose in every single pocket, I’m so afraid that the Grim Reaper will greet him first, then us.”

„Don't blaspheme, hoodoo!” Yu said, smiling. „Just trust our younger colleagues. I’m sure they’ll make it better than we did.”

„I’m also sure about this. More than this: I’m glad that prosecutor Han did something good tonight too.”

„Do you mean that he kept SolHi in the house?”

„What else?! Otherwise, she would have been here for sure, blowing us down the neck and God knows if she didn’t enter after Yoon Suk in that club. You also know how much she loves Min SinJu: like the cat loves the water.”

„Shh, it’s about to start!” Yu said, turning the tablet’s screen toward Kan to see the registration of Yoon Suk’s camera.

„Is that one Min SinJu?” Kan asked, pointing to the right of Yoon Suk.

„Yes, he is. Detective Oh, to your right! At the table with a lot of people around it! Yes, there!” Yu to Yoon Suk when he looked toward SinJu’s table and he also saw Hion Uk there. „Can you zoom in a little? Maybe we’ll also listen to what they are talking about.”

Yoon Suk instead said nothing: he only slowly nodded yes, and after the movement of the camera, Yu and Kan understood that he’ll do everything possible to approach more to the target.

Then, Yoon Suk approached one of the waiters, who was passing by him, and told him something in his ear while showing toward a little table, seen not that far from his two targets, a table that actually was already free after the clients, who had been standing there, just left the club.

The waiter answered him: „no problem, sir. Just allow me to clean it.” After this, he rushed to bring Yoon Suk’s order and a wet cloth to clean the table.

Meanwhile, Yoon Suk approached the table and told the two young men that were about to occupy it: „it’s already taken!” and when those two stared unhappily at him, Yoon Suk just showed them the golden card that automatically transformed him into a loyal client, and they had eventually to sit down elsewhere.

The waiter turned back two minutes later after talking to Yoon Suk, bringing a whisky and snacks, but he cleaned the table first. After this, he told Yoon Suk „Enjoy your stay, sir!” and he again rushed away from that table because the club was full while the waiters were only a few.

But… the chosen place by Yoon Suk resulted not to be as auspicious as he wished it to be because even if he had good visibility of the table and of the two targets, he couldn’t hear what the two were talking about.

„Let it be at least so! Maybe we’ll read later something on their lips,” Kan said edgy, but at all upset, with Yoon Suk, because he was aware that if he approached SinJu more he could have been in danger.

Yet, Yoon Suk noticed the moment when the other guests and the girls from SinJu’s table suddenly stood up and moved away, at SinJu’s command while he lodged to talk to Hion Uk alone. Then, Hion Uk gave him a file, and when SinJu opened it, SolHi’s photo fell on the floor.

Yoon Suk stared at it right away, allowing Yu to zoom in on the image on the tablet to see it better. „That’s Ian SolHi’s photo. What the hell does Ian Hion Uk with that?”

„I’m sure that nothing good for us. Ia, Oh Yoon Suk, get gone! Now!” Kan shouted in Yoon Suk’s earphones, seeing that SinJu stood up to pick up the photo, and, for some unknown reason, he looked at the young detective.

But… Yoon Suk wasn’t also stupid: seeing SinJu staring at him, not to be seen, he hid his face with his arm by grabbing the right visor trim. After that, he left the glass of whisky on the table and „simply” passed by SinJu’s table, heading toward the toilet.

„I told him to get lost, not to pass by from in front of the wolf’s nose,” Kan snarled upset.

„Shh,” Yu hopped on him to shut his mouth and he increased the volume to hear at least a short part of Hion Uk and SinJu’s talk:

„And that’s all that you could find out about that busy body rat, named Ian SolHi?”

„Yeah, because the majority of her personal data are secret and…,” the rest was history because Yoon Suk was already too far from the table to listen to something else.

„Damn him!” Kan shouted. „What those two are planning to do to SolHi now? It hasn't been enough with the accident, huh? What the hell want they to do to her this time?”

„Don’t rush with the hysteria, Kan! Maybe they just gather some information about her, but … as SolHi’s information is secret, they won’t be capable of finding out anything. Meanwhile, we’ll investigate this and, if something, we can impede them to act!”

„I hope so, Yu. Otherwise, I’ll become a criminal. For sure, and the first one to fall will be that stinky rat, Ian Hion Uk.”

***

„Little did you find out about that annoying bug,” SinJu gnarled, staring at SolHi and her mother’s photo. Then, he just took a slant at the little information about her.

His cousin’s remark made Hion Uk ironically grin. „Not everybody can brag with your relationships and with your experience of life, cousin,” Hion Uk said while sipping some whisky. „Anyway, there’s not that much to find out about her - with a father that abandoned her while still being a baby and a schizophrenic mother, I can assure you that her life hasn’t been sugar for sure. More, after killing Han YuSan.”

„What? Ian SolHi has been the one accused of Han YuSan’s murder?”

„At least this is what I found out!”

„Then? Then, what the hell is she doing with Han DooSan? Productive or reproductive alliance, huh?!” SinJu said in mockery.

„I don’t know! To be honest, it hasn’t been something of my interest. But… are others interested in me… and your new interest.”

SinJu stared at him in amazement. „What? Someone asked you about Ian SolHi and Han DooSan’s relationship?”

„No, it’s not that. I’ve been asked about Iun Dja Iun and the truck’s driver, who died last night. Two detectives from Han DooSan’s team came to my office in the morning.”

„And? Did you tell them something?”

„I’m not stupid, ok?! I managed eventually to chase them out of my office, but … they aren’t also stupid: before leaving, one of them gave me a present.” Hion Uk showed SinJu a photo he had on his mobile phone with the mic left by Kan under the table.

„They are hanging around us worse than rats,” SinJu growled unhappily, squeezing the glass of whisky he had in his hand.

„And? What do you want to do? Attacking one of those two can be risky now.”

„I know, but … I won’t stay calm either while feeling the blowing of their stinky breathing down my neck! First, take care of Ian SolHi! I don’t know why, but I feel that she must be the first one we must get rid of. And … as soon as possible,” SinJu gave the command and, after finishing his drink, he took the file and left the table.

When Yoon Suk came back from the bathroom, he saw only Hion Uk at the table, accompanied by a few young ladies, but as it wasn’t something important for their investigation and, at Kan’s insistence that it might be dangerous, he left the club.