Dowoon peeks at the clock, yawning. His eyes are red from staring at the board for too long, his mind running around in circles. Younghyun had left him, claiming that he is off to find more information regarding all the victims and suspects. The hacker or their team's 'information-finder', has always preferred to do his job alone in a locked dark room, where he can concentrate and not have anyone bothering him. He will always come back maybe one or a few hours later with a bunch of new information, some with acceptable methods and some with questionable ones. Nevertheless, he always comes up with something new to the cases they work on.

Of course there is an unsettling feeling, knowing that the suspects could strike anytime, and that they are possibly holding Song Mingi hostage. They are untraceable for almost two days now; phones off and- how do you even track down a ghost? He is still slightly disturbed by the fact that they are dealing with three peculiar suspects - one a director that has managed to fool his employees, one a missing person that turned up after four years and one, a freaking ghost. This case definitely tops the list of the most bizzare cases he has ever worked on.

If Younghyun's theory is correct and that the victims are all linked to Choi San's suicide, they need to find the missing gamepieces. Who will be the gamepieces? Will it be the same victims again? It's always the same question that has been bothering him, and it further annoys him that he still cannot arrive at an answer for that.

"If they are indeed aiming for the same victims, why would they let them go and then try to attack again? For the thrill of it? Or to catch them when they're off-guard? If that's the case, they're too confident that we won't get to them first before they're able to strike," he says to himself, his voice bouncing off the walls in the meeting room. "Choi San's suicide... what made him do it?"

He picks up the paper containing the information regarding the suspect - if he can even call a ghost that - again, and studies. It was said that before he decided to take his life away, he was already mentally unstable. However no details were stated on how or when he became mentally unstable.

"So maybe instead of them becoming the direct cause of his suicide, the link between all the five victims was that they were somehow the cause of San's mental unstability? So they blame the victims which caused this and which eventually lead to his death. That is why they are trying to get revenge." He knocks a fist on the table, frustrated. "But when? When it happened could be the definite link between all five. The problem is, not even one is connected with each other. Different hometowns, different high schools and universities. They don't even share the same hobbies, or frequent the same shops and restaurants. Their lifestyles are completely different. They seem like parallel lines that do not meet, yet at some point they happened to intersect."

Preoccupied with his own theories, he gets startled when there is a hurried knock on the half-frosted glass door. He sees one of the younger officers, his right hand banging on the door like it could not wait while his left is gesturing towards somewhere behind him. His mouth is moving impatiently, urging the detective in the room to give him permission to enter. Dowoon nods slightly, eyebrows lifted as the officer stumbles into the room, face eager to deliver the news.

"Sir, the final victim is here at the station."

He stares at him for a second before replying, "Final victim? Who are you talking about?"

"Song Mingi! The one that has been missing and you have been looking for. He showed up at the station just a few minutes ago. He arrived here after hitching a ride from someone at the highway."

He gives a good look at the clock again. It's nearing 5 p.m. "Where is he right now? How does he look?" He immediately stands up before putting up a hand. "Wait, no, don't answer. I'll go meet him myself."

He leaves the officer alone in the room, running like his life depended on it. His footsteps hit the floor hard, and he feels like he is barely breathing. Pushing himself through the sea of petty criminals and officers apprehending them, he looks for the face of the final victim in the room. He has never met him before, but he knows whom he should be looking for. There, he spots the tall, lean man with thin-rimmed glasses, hands clasped around a warm cup of coffee and legs bouncing up and down, looking nervous.

Even before he approaches the man, Dowoon sizes him up, taking in every detail of his appearance that could give away where he had been before. He is wearing a long-sleeved blue shirt underneath a black winter coat, which is now resting on the arm of the sofa. His hair is brushed to the side, and his eyes are wide as he sees the detective approaching. He doesn't look like someone who was held captive - he looks like someone who is ready to go to work. The only sign he was ever held captive is the wounds from the stitches near his lips, but even that is barely noticeable. He doesn't look unkempt, in fact, he looks well-cared for.

Dowoon has a thousand questions for him, and he better gets them all answered by him.

"Mr. Song, am I right?"

He puts down the cup of coffee, pushes his glasses up and nods. "Yes. I... was told that you were the detective that is in charge of my colleagues- ah, our case." There is a tremor in his voice, but Dowoon doesn't know what is the cause. Was it because of the events that happened at the villa, or the events that happened after he went missing? Or maybe it's not even one of the two?

"I would like to skip all the formalities because we're running short of time. I do hope that you're able to tell us about whatever happened to you; information from you will definitely help us in solving this case."

"I would share everything with you, but..." he clasps his hands, "is it possible if we can talk somewhere quieter? The atmosphere here kind of makes me nervous."

Dowoon looks around. There is a huge, burly man slamming his fist onto the officer's table, claiming that he only punched the man as an act of self-defense. In front of another officer's table, two women are pulling each other's hair, seemingly fighting over the same guy. At one corner, a woman is wailing because she lost her purse to a pickpocket. At the center, one officer is trying to separate two men going at each other, with them threatening to kill each other off.

"Well, the atmosphere here does sucks. I'll bring you to another room, we can talk there in private."

Dowoon leads the way, nodding at other unoccupied officers that he passes by. They look at the pair with interest; news about the strange case has been passed around the station quietly, and the sudden appearance of Song Mingi adds another question to the unanswered pile. He knows that the other officers want to stick their noses in this case too, because it's fascinating to them. He would give the case to them if he could, since the others have enough dealing with petty crimes such as shoplifting or speeding, but it's his division and he has no choice but to take up the case.

Sure, it's interesting but draining. And seems to be going towards a dead end. Contrary to Younghyun, he hates puzzles, and the suspects are going at them with cryptic messages that he's tired of deciphering. Maybe I should have not become a detective in the first place, he can't help but think as he peeks through the small window of the door, checking to see if it is empty. It is. He pushes down the door handle and ushers Mingi inside.

Throughout the whole journey to the room, Mingi is jumpy - his eyes dart all over the place and he flinches whenever someone walks near him in the hallways. As he enters the room, he sinks into the chair, looking like he would rather be swallowed up whole rather than being here. He looks expectantly at the detective, as if asking him to quickly lock the door, in case anyone would burst into the room and attack him. He licks and bites his lips, and for a moment Dowoon pities him for getting involuntarily stuck in this crime.

They were only normal office workers, looking for a weekend getaway proposed by the director that they trusted, but everything turned sour after their colleague turned up dead. And now, they have yet to find his body. The criminals are on the loose, the victims are losing their minds, yet he, a detective can barely do anything. He suddenly feels incompetent, that he would decide to take of his badge this instant.

"I was told that my colleagues are all safe," Mingi says, halting the detective's train of thoughts.

Dowoon mulls over how much details he should be releasing to him. When he decides that Mingi is able to at least handle the news, he relays them, "Your colleagues are all safe at a nearby hospital, but um..." he exhales, "some are heavily affected, but they are healing." I hope. "Their rooms are heavily guarded and we are making sure that they stay protected at all times."

He creases his forehead. "You mean that you still haven't caught them? The two owners?"

The detective finds his question a bit strange, then he reminds himself that Mingi must still not know about what's real - that the ex-director of his division is one of the masterminds behind the cruel game. But he still feels that there is something wrong, that whatever theories they had laid down may need to be chucked out the window. He needs to hear what he has to say.

As he lets his question remains unanswered, he continues, "This... is slightly embarrassing. When I showed up at the station I heard the officers saying among themselves that I was the only one being caught again by them. But that's not what happened at all."

He looks at him, mind still not cooperating. "So it wasn't them who kidnapped you again?"

"I wasn't kidnapped," he explains. "Well, at first I thought I was but it was just a resident from a nearby village, who brought me to his house. He found me when I was unconscious near the ravine."

"Wait, wait, wait," the detective holds up a hand, pausing him. "I don't understand. Your captor told you to run away, and all four of you did. Hongjoong was sleeping, the other two were unconscious and supposedly, you were the only one who was awake. But when we found you in the forest, only three of you were there. What happened within the time frame of you stopping to rest until the police found the rest?"

"When Hongjoong was sleeping, I heard some footsteps coming towards us and at first, I really did think it was the two owners of the villa. But then a head suddenly appeared over Hongjoong's shoulder, saying it's my turn to play the game." He demonstrates. "I'm not the bravest of souls so I ran away and I slipped down a steep hill. I hit my head against a rock and apparently the villager found me when he was out looking for wood. He brought me back to his house and nursed me. I only woke up this morning. He said he didn't tell anyone or call the police because he wasn't sure of how I was there in the first place and I had no identification with me. So when I woke up I decided to come here immediately. I was hoping that I could hear the news about my other colleagues and I'm glad to know that they're safe now."

"So... you saw... a ghost?" the detective asks, dubious. But then again, this case has presented him with nothing less than weird tropes. So dealing with ghosts... he has come to terms with it.

Mingi nods full of vigour. "Yes."

"So you saw Choi San appearing out of nowhere asking you for another round of the game?"

"Eh?" he scratches his head. "I told you it wasn't one of the owners. You see," he starts whispering, "I do believe in ghosts and stuff like that, but I'm scared of them. I told the villager who saved me about how I got injured because I was running away from the ghost I saw. I expected him to laugh at me but he didn't. Instead, he only calmly nodded and said that it's not something unheard of. Apparently, the forest is haunted."

"By whom or... what?" Dowoon asks, feeling increasingly stupid every time Mingi opens his mouth. Just whatever direction is this case taking?

"There is the story of the forest being haunted by a child who died years ago. He died while playing hide and seek with his sister in the forest because he slipped and fell into one of the deep pits in the forest floor. They recovered his body but they said that his soul never rested in peace, so he roams around the forest. Whenever he meets people he will say that he has managed to find them in the game of hide and seek, and then asks the person to play with him. According to the legend he's pretty harmless, but people have been hurt because they try to escape from him."

Dowoon's jaw drops open, unable to hide how he's currently feeling like he's the dumbest detective in the world. He just got fooled by a ghost, and he didn't even see it. Mingi remains cool while he's relaying the story, as if he hasn't just bulldozed every single theory the detectives came up with. So that was why he didn't look disheveled; he wasn't kidnapped, but he was rescued.

"So when you went missing two days ago, it wasn't connected with the case of the psychopaths that trapped you in the villa?"

Mingi shakes his head. "No. Ever since they let us go, I haven't come across them. Are you saying that the police still haven't caught the two of them? What about Seonghwa and Yunho? Did you... find them?"

The detective lets out a heavy sigh, suddenly conscious of the ticking clock in the room. Every second passes with a heavy thud that he's unsure whether it's his heart beating or the mechanical tick of the clock's hand.

He leans forward, wetting his lips before talking again. "It's not only the two of them. There are three suspects to your case."

The bespectacled man's face drops, but before the detective could continue, he quickly adds. "It's Jeong Yunho, isn't it? He's part of the plan. We weren't trapped there by chance, but he was the one who lead us intentionally into the firepit, wasn't it?"

Dowoon doesn't let his surprise show, as he's more interested in how Mingi could have figured it out. The rest of his colleagues were in the dark, so it's a breath of fresh air for him to hear that one of them has caught on. Maybe he could be the one to break the boulder that has been in their way since two days ago. He doesn't verbally confirm it, but Mingi has already decided that it's the truth.

"When we escaped the villa I saw someone at the window on the second floor, looking at us. I thought I was only imagining it because heck, we were tortured then released like nothing happened. But the further we got from the villa, the more I started to realize how he must had been a part of it too. I never shared my thoughts with Hongjoong because I still wanted to believe that our boss was exactly the person we thought he was. Then I saw him smiling mockingly, when we were desperate to escape, and it hit me that Jeong Yunho was hiding something. He wasn't dead; he was behind the game."

"You are right; he's the owner of the villa."

Mingi doesn't show any reaction, as if he was just waiting for the detective to reveal it.

"I know this is too much to ask for, but could you possibly think of a reason on how all of you are linked together? On why you were the targets? We are trying to establish a link so that we will be able to pinpoint their next targets because we believe that they are still not done in this pursuit for a game."

He shakes his head slowly, while watching the clock's hands aligning, showing that it's currently 6 p.m. "I'm sorry, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't find a reason on why we were the particular targets. And I don't think I have ever met the other two before the villa."

"Very well then, thank you for-" he stops talking when his phone buzzes in his pocket, signalling an incoming call.

He excuses himself out of the room when he sees the caller ID; it's Younghyun, and if he's calling that mean he's done with his research. That means fresh information. He puts the phone to his ear. He distances it slightly when Younghyun is practically shouting at him from the other end of the line.

"I found it! The link between the victims- well, some of them. I still can't find the link between Song Mingi and Kim Hongjoong, but I found how the other three are connected. I need to talk to you face-to-face."

He spins around when he hears the voice of Younghyun becoming closer and sure enough, the hacker is already behind him, already putting an end to the call. Under his arm is an envelope, made thick by the papers inside. He invites the detective to a nearby table in front of the vending machine, carefully setting down the envelope on it to avoid the coffee stains. He takes out the papers immediately, spreading them out. He points to one.

"They don't have a direct link with each other; none of the victims have come across each other before they were recruited to the company."

"And that we know, next."

Younghyun rolls his eyes but proceeds to explain his findings. "But, listen, this is where they have connections to each other. All three of them have older brothers who were in the same university as the suspects - Yunho, Wooyoung and San. Even better," he displays another paper and points to a particular segment, "they were all enrolled in the same course, same class. All of them, excluding Jeong Yunho, were studying to obtain a degree in biomedical science."

Dowoon stares at a specific paper the longest, the pieces slowly coming together to him. "The murderer lacerated Seonghwa's face, not because he hated him."

Younghyun points at the picture on top of the biodata. "Correct. The murderer was trying to destroy his face because he was reminded of someone with the same face. He has an identical twin, Park Seongjin. In his mind, the murderer was killing Park Seongjin, not Park Seonghwa."

"This is... wicked."

"After finding out all about this, I realized that we've made a mistake. It wasn't an invitation to another round of game for us; it was a distraction and a warning. A distraction from the real targets. A warning that they will strike again, but we are not the players. They are telling us that we are only the audience who can sit back and watch."