"Where did you hide the bodies?"

Yunho looks at the detective, whose nametag read 'YOON DOWOON' for one second before looking at his reflection on the one-way mirror, licking his lips. "How many people are behind the mirror?" he asks, completely ignoring the question he was given. He looks down at his new uniform, then to his handcuffs. When the detective gives him the same treatment, refusing to answer his question, he asks another one, "Can I at least have a cup of water? My throat feels so dry that I don't feel like I can talk about this." He makes a point to lift his hands and points to his throat. There are only two of them in the interrogation room; the detective and the suspect.

The detective sighs before gesturing to the mirror behind him. A few seconds later, another officer comes in while bringing in a paper cup full of plain water. He juts his chin out, inviting Yunho to down the drink until its finished. He clasps his hands, intending to take a new direction with the interrogation, now that he seems reluctant to answer his questions. "Fine, we'll start from the beginning. Let's see if you're willing to help me out here." He closes the file in front of him, every detail of the case perfectly drilled into his mind, for it's the only thing he has been working on without getting any sleep. He can literally hear the nervous shuffling of his colleagues and superiors in the room behind the mirror; it's an atypical case that has everyone on their toes.

Everyone wants answers; everyone wants closure. The case could be closed once they captured the two of them, but there are still loose ends. The game still continues, and although reluctant, they need to see the end. They fear that the end will give them more dead bodies; another death count on their chart. The two are safely locked up, but they are still sputtering to get to the finish line. The gory details of the case have not been released to the public; not until they can get their hands on the last two victims: alive or dead.

However from the looks of it, they are very much dead.

They have found the connection between three of the victims; Seonghwa, Jongho and Yeosang. They are the younger brothers of the three friends who tortured and eventually lead to the death of Choi San; the suspects' close friend. But the connection between Hongjoong and Mingi to them remains vague. They know that both Hongjoong and Mingi are not the prime targets, but, as collected from a frantic call delivered to the police station, it seems that Hongjoong's father and Mingi's fiancee are the real ones being targeted. They were reported missing on the very same day the three - Jinhan, Seongjin and Yoochan were kidnapped and tortured by them.

He asks for confirmation for every single detail of the trip; from when he invited his employees to the part when they were released, and surprisingly, Yunho agrees to them all. He doesn't even try to deny, even when Dowoon points him as Park Seonghwa's murderer. Up until the part where they were let go, he serves no objection. He starts to get restless when they come to the part of the real targets, the three older brothers, plus Hongjoong's father and Mingi's fiancee. In which the lines are still unclear, on how they were related to the death of San four years ago.

"I thought detectives are supposed to be smart," Yunho comments. "You failed to connect the dots before we got to them. You failed to save them, allowing us to give you the nice little presents. Say, did you enjoy them?"

"Listen here, you bastard," Dowoon says under his breath, carefully looking over his shoulder, aware that there are others who are watching. "You are toying with people's lives here, people's family. Why don't you be a good boy and tell where both of you hid them, so that all of us can go back home and have a nice, long sleep?"

"So did they; we are only giving back what they gave to us. We don't settle for less, and we made sure that they're going to remember that for the rest of their lives," his voice is hard. The metal cuffs clang against the table as he brings his hands up. "They are only living the lives they're supposed to. They ruined our lives and we were only giving them a taste of their own medicine."

"They are innocent people!" the detective screeches, slamming the table with his fists. "Their younger brothers are all innocent yet you pulled them into this game. Park Seonghwa, he was your employee. Do you have no remorse at all, killing him when he wasn't supposed to be involved at all? Now you won't even tell us where you buried him, or where you kept him. Let the poor kid rest in peace for once!"

"So was San, but where were the people who said they would protect him, who said they would bring the three bastards to justice? Poor people are slaves to the law while those rich flout the law easily. We trusted the law, thinking that it would bring justice to him! Even when he was no longer there to sit at the victim's place, we went in and out of court like it was our home, hoping that one day his soul would finally rest in peace. But you know what happened? The bastards smiled and laughed even when they were sitting in the defendants' seats. They weren't scared because they know that they could use money to buy their way out of court. Why was it that we were the ones who were scared, as if we were the criminals? Not even one person in the court was on our side and everything was in their favour. When the law failed us, we decided that we will make it ourselves. Because animals like them will never learn."

---

Flashback begins

After being rescued from the villa, Wooyoung had woken up at a hospital, agitated as he made a scene in trying to locate San. He was told that San was safe, but his physical and mental conditions weren't satisfactory. Visitors weren't allowed inside his ward because he was 'dangerous', as they told him. He threw tantrums, muttered unintelligible words, shut himself out and sobbed loudly. Most of the time he needed to be sedated and tied to the bed, or else he would injure anyone else and also himself. Wooyoung, after becoming better and discharged from the hospital, could only observe him from the small window on the door of his ward, his heart feeling like it's physically breaking as he looked at the condition of his friend. He felt that he was losing his close friend, and he truly was.

He never got him back.

Yunho came to the hospital the moment he heard the news, Wooyoung hitting him on the chest repeatedly but soon his legs buckled and he broke down, making himself a crying mess as Yunho tried to comfort him. More than a million apologies came out of the taller guy's mouth; he said that when the calls were put through he was on the airplane and his handphone was switched off. Wooyoung had wanted to get angry at him, but he knew that he wasn't lying. Yunho did tell them that he was going out of the country for a holiday with his family, and during the disastrous night he was on the plane, making his way back.

Wooyoung had simply wanted to shift the blame to someone else, so he wouldn't feel as if he was the only one responsible for San's misfortune. They fought, spitting sharp words that tore their friendship apart, with Wooyoung threatening Yunho to stay away from San, as he didn't have the right to go and visit him. It seemed that Yunho respected his request, for not even once did he appear to visit them again.

San was transferred to a mental facility, his mental capacity degrading as days passed and got warmer.

He has little to no hope of returning to a normal state, the doctor had told them. His brain is forcefully shutting out those memories, and it's a way of him coping with the stress. His body is healing, but it might not be the same for his brain. The brain is a complex organ, that we, too are still trying to figure out what's coming for him. It's best that if you don't put too much hope, because you might be disappointed and you should also prepare for the worst.

Wooyoung visited him everyday, struggling to accept the fact that his friend was no longer the same. San was lost in a sea of nonchalance; completely disregarding the world around him. Even when he looked in the patient's eyes, he found no spark that could tell him that he remembered him.

To him, Wooyoung was just another visitor at the facility.A visitor who would sit beside his bed, teary eyes and trembling lips as he said, Choi San, do you remember me?

San's response would only be a laugh full of mirth, but then he would proceed to mumble about random things, ones that were not related to Wooyoung. It would be about the pretty nurse who always complimented his dimples. The weather outside when it shone and when it rained. The behaviour of other patients around him, the new friend he made. The lovely song they played when they were gathered in a room, clapping and singing along.

San never remembered Wooyoung. The genius that was always on top of their class had finally lost himself, just as how the monsters wanted him to. Jealousy was what tore him apart, leaving him wandering with no real purpose.

Wooyoung returned to university after two months of break, and he felt sick seeing the three moving on like it was nothing, as if they hadn't ruined a person's life. He cursed at them, thrashed about, but only he was pulled away, saying that he shouldn't be behaving like an uncivilized person. He begged, begged and begged for them to understand what had happened. Nobody knew the details of what happened, and even if the details were passed around, they were threatened to plead ignorance. Even when they were affected by Choi San's absence, even when they knew that he had been transferred to a mental facility. They knew; Kang Yoochan was too powerful that nobody ever dared to talk about it. His father was the biggest funder of their department and pointing fingers to Yoochan and his circle of friends meant jeopardizing the contribution.

The rich abusing their power, blinding themselves and the people around them.

When he was only wandering around in the dark, completely helpless, Wooyoung received the news that shattered his heart into pieces, making him lose his balance and faint repeatedly. The only day he didn't visit San because he went for a job interview, was the day he received the news about San's death.

He had jumped off the building when no one was looking, they had told him, relaying the news as if it was something that happens everyday. There wasn't even a hint of an apologetic voice, as if they were subtly telling him, you should have expected him to do that eventually. He is crazy after all, he doesn't even have hopes of recovering, so why bother? They brushed it away, his death a mere blotch of ink on the thick book of patients they had.

After San's death, he stood at the entrance of the facility, silently protesting, rain or shine. People started calling him crazy, a deranged man that escaped from the facility. Returning to the dorms meant remembering San, who was no longer there, so he avoided it altogether. He neglected his studies and himself. His family implored him to get back to himself, but he couldn't. San's demise brought his rationality away, and so he began shutting himself out. He refused to eat, interact with anyone, do anything. He hid himself in his room, the tears from his parents behind the door getting fainter each day. He received a knock on the door one day, and he didn't expect the guest: Jeong Yunho, face grim as he stood in front of the door.

Yunho had expected him to cuss at him again, chase him out, but Wooyoung only left the door ajar, inviting him in. The latter relented, crouching near his feet, crying and asking him for help. Yunho looked down, brought him up and looked him in the eyes; they will let the law handle them.

With the two of them together, they managed to drag them to court, but even then the court turned out to be a playground for them, the proceedings a set of bed stories for them. They went in and out of court, heart aching as the victim seat was empty; San was no longer with them. As opposed to the expressions on the victims' faces, the suspects' faces were bright; they were smiling and laughing. The gavel was brought down onto the hardwood, filling in the palpable silence of the courtroom. Wooyoung and Yunho were hopeful, while the three suspects were relaxed.

Too relaxed, as both of them started to realize, too late, and it was a lesson learnt for a lifetime; they shouldn't have trusted the law. The result was not in their favour, and there was no going against the final say. There was nothing else they could do - the suspects were free of the charges. Yoochan and Jinhan were both smiling as they passed Wooyoung and Yunho, with Seongjin following a step behind, the only one whose face showed a flicker of guilt. They wanted to punch the smiles off their stupid faces, but they couldn't. They stayed in place, drowning in the fact that even the law couldn't protect San.

I have failed him over and over again, Wooyoung thought. I killed him. I killed him. I killed him.

The next day, Wooyoung was gone. Not even a trace of where he could have gone, and even when the police started looking for Yunho, he only shakes his head, claiming that after the final verdict, they hadn't met. Wooyoung had stomped back to his house, devastated. Yunho had brought himself somewhere far to calm himself down, shutting off his phone. No one knows where he went, and his family eventually gave up looking for him. The police respected their decision, closing down the case when there were no probable leads. Hours turned into days, days turned into months. The case was soon forgotten and the suspects, their criminal records clean, finally graduated.

Yunho graduated too, landing a job at his parents' company. People might have forgotten about Choi San's case, but both of them will never be able to. That was why, inconspicuously, Yunho had been visiting a particular village near the sea, where Wooyoung had ran away to. Yunho only feigned ignorance about Wooyoung's whereabouts when the police came looking for him, for that was what Wooyoung wanted. He needed to disappear, make himself forgotten by the others.

One day, Wooyoung told him that he had seen San in his dreams, then he claimed to have started seeing him around the village.

He was crying Yunho, he had told him, desperation raking through his eyes. We need to help him get his revenge or else he won't get to rest in peace.

Yunho tried to wave him away, saying that he was only imagining things, that because he was tired and stressed out that he started seeing him. He visited Wooyoung less and less; both from the fact that he was busy at the company and that he was starting to feel disconnected from Wooyoung. He is starting to turn crazy too, just like how it was with San. He continued helping Wooyoung nevertheless, thinking, I can't lose another friend. The day San died is a day I would never forget. Instead of once a week, his frequency of visiting him turned into once every fortnight, then it was once per month.

That was, until he started seeing him too.

They were at the pier, cool breeze blowing flowing through their hair. Wooyoung grew out his hair, tying it up while Yunho had dyed his hair to brown, both trying to discard the image they had when San was with them, in the hopes that it would finally rid the guilt they had, thinking that maybe it was time to let go. The verdict was never on their side in the first place.

Yunho offered to bring Wooyoung to the pier; intending to catch the tides during dusk, watch the sun disappear behind the mountains and feel the water between their toes. Maybe it was the way the person at the end of the pier standing that struck something, or the way the sun was glowing around his silhouette that brought back their memories. The person had his back to them, hands clasped and looking out into the sea. His gait, the way he stood, the smile, the dimples. His outward appearance was the same, free of any of previous scars.

"Yunho, Wooyoung," he called out to them. He stretched out his hands, beckoning them to come over.

Wooyoung rushed over but Yunho was the opposite; he was hesitant. It wasn't a person, it was a ghost; an apparition. Most importantly, it was Choi San. Not alive, but it was him.

It took him time to wrap his mind around the reality, to convince himself that he wasn't turning crazy too. At first he was wary; he still couldn't believe that it was him. The friend that he had said goodbye to, watched as his body was taken away. Then he warmed up, but San had told them something they never thought would come out from him: he wanted revenge. To the people who had wronged him, up until the point of his death. It seemed ridiculous at first, planning out revenge with an apparition, which could only be their imagination because it seemed that the other villagers could not see him.

"Why can we see you but not the other villagers?" Wooyoung asked, Yunho equally curious.

"Maybe only those who contributed to my death could see me," San offered after he stayed quiet for a while.

This caused both of them to turn mum, a strange sensation coming up to their throats and burning them. Although it went unsaid, deep down they knew; indirectly they somehow contributed to their friend's death.

"But if you wanted to get revenge on their brothers first, instead of-" Wooyoung stops, the names giving off a bitter taste on his tongue, "-Yoochan, Jinhan and Seongjin, what if they couldn't see you?"

"That's why I'm asking help from both of you. If they couldn't see me, I know that both of you can help me. If they do, well," he shrugs, his behaviour slowly turning into something that was out of character for him. "we could always make up something. Acting is easy for the two of you, isn't it?"

"What are you trying to point out, San?" Yunho suddenly lashed out, a bit offended by what he had said. San sounded cryptic, as if he knew something the other two didn't.

San put up his hands, "I'm just saying that both of you can act well, so I'm not worried." He turned away, disappearing at the same time the sun did. What his two friends couldn't see was as soon as he turned away, a sad smile appeared on his face. He thought that maybe once he appeared in front of them, he would hear the apologies he should get. It hurt to learn about the truth after death, when he no longer shared the same world as theirs.

It hurt to know that his close two friends were the ones who had betrayed him.

Flashback ends

---

"So, how do you plan on doing this?" Dowoon leans forward, already sighing multiple times as he tries to take control of the situation again. The suspect is toying with him, face innocent even when he admits to being the murderer of his employee. "Are you going to tell me where you hid Kim Hongjoong's father, Song Mingi's fiancee and Park Seonghwa, or do you want me to make you?"

"Even if you can make me say something, I won't be able to tell you anything," he replies. "Because I don't know."

"Stop playing your games-"

"Have you tried asking Wooyoung? Because he was the one who dealt with them." The corners of his eyes crinkle as he smiles slightly, "I was doing some other task, one that I enjoy, if I may add."

The detective almost grabs the suspect's uniform in a flash, but stops short when the door slams against the wall and Younghyun scurries to Dowoon, whispering something in his ear while stealing glances towards Yunho.

The suspect observes them; their faces contorting, their eyes darting all over the place and the last - the barely audible cursings directed towards him as soon as Younghyun finishes relaying the information he has. Yunho is taken away, his interrogation session for now done. He obeys like a loyal dog, stopping for a moment at the door to say something.

As his arms are held firmly by police officers, he throws a look over his shoulder. "You know, maybe their lives won't end in such misery if they had obeyed the law, became good citizens." He hums and shakes his head, "And no, I'm not talking about Hongjoong's father or even Mingi's fiancee. Ever since I started this..." he gestures with his cuffed hands, "...plan for revenge, I found that I learnt a lot of things."

The police officers want to drag him away, but Dowoon stops him, interested in where he's going with his revelation. "Continue, whatever you want to say."

He turns around, "For example, the law doesn't exist if you have a lot of money. You can literally trample all over the rules if your shoes are made of wads of cash. So I tried doing that, and you would be surprised how easily people obey you once you wave money under their noses. Makes it easy for us to get back at them, even when we are locked up in here." He shakes his cuffs, making clinking sounds. "I also learnt a lot from Wooyoung, because he has a lot of knowledge in this, you know, medical stuff."

Dowoon and Younghyun ball their fists but they don't show any other reaction.

"I learnt that formalin is the fixative they use to preserve organs, destroying cells and proteins. It's colourless that sometimes you can't even tell that apart from a saline solution, so once it gets into your system," he does an injection gesture, "you get fixed like a mummy." He laughs, as if it's something amusing. "Well, at least your body is preserved even after you die."

The detectives faces' changes but Yunho continues on without giving it a break.

"I also learnt that carbon monoxide is a colourless and odourless gas which binds strongly instead of oxygen. Large doses practically mean you cannot breathe at all," his face spreads into a grin, "you die, breathless, but it's not because of something beautiful. You won't even know you breathed it in until you're sputtering for air."

Dowoon lunges at him, punching him and driving him against the wall, "Who is it this time, you sick fuck? WHO IS IT?"

Younghyun struggles to pry his colleague away from the suspect, before things get even messier.

"Aish, you're no fun detective. I already gave you clues enough, shouldn't you work from there? In fact, I'm being generous by telling you all of this. Wooyoung probably won't even tell you anything."

"You better tell me before I lose my patience!" he screams into his face.

"Looks like you lost your patience too late," Yunho eyes the watch on the detective's wrist, "You should go and visit them, pay your respects, hmm, but I don't think they deserve it." He shakes his head, disappointed, "Do you detectives even know how to do anything? You let these people die behind your backs yet we're here, being cuffed obediently. You're too focused on finding one missing puzzle piece you let a lot more slip from your hands."

As if on cue, the detectives' phones simultaneously ring, both from their other colleagues working on the same case. Yunho shrugs himself free of Dowoon's grip, the police officers bringing him out of the room.

The detective puts the phone to his ear, gripping it too hard until his knuckles turn white. On the other end, his colleagues are shouting at him, telling him that two other bodies have turned up, but they aren't the ones they were looking for. They are two new people, but judging from the criminal scene and details, it's obvious that it's connected to the suspect he was interrogating minutes ago. His hand falls limply to his side, ending the call.

The wires connecting every single victim are all jumbled up and knotted but much to his annoyance, the only voice that comes up in his head is the suspect's voice saying, "Looks like we win again this round, detective."

---

[A/N: Another chapter for today; elfinlia1661, HakunaMatataYUh, diabolicdeceiver, Atiny127, atinymatata, you guys are the real MVP <3 without you guys I'll probably drop this story halfway lol]