“My son in the hospital had been kept alive for too long, and the doctors said there was no chance he’d ever regain consciousness. The ship decided it wouldn’t carry such patients anymore.”
“……”
“Just when I was drowning in despair, Min Sanghan contacted me. He already knew I was a soldier stationed in the same district as your family.”
“……”
“He said if I eliminated your family, he’d let Sung-hyun stay in the hospital.”
I simply listened to Ji Chanwoo speak.
“I thought I could never do it. How could I possibly… do that to your parents and to you…”
Ji Chanwoo’s voice was thick with fear and remorse.
“I kept telling myself I couldn’t—shouldn’t—but… in the end, I made that choice… just to save my son.”
“Mister… are you feeling sick or something?”
“Hm? Why, Suho?”
“Ah… I don’t know. Maybe you just look tired.”
I remembered the way Ji Chanwoo had forced a smile that day. The anxiety etched across his face, the way he avoided my gaze—it was all still vividly imprinted in my memory.
Thump. Thump. The pounding of my heart echoed in my ears. I couldn’t tell whether it sounded louder because of the silence that filled the house, or if my heart truly was about to burst from my chest.
I slowly tried to steady my breath, which had started to grow erratic. I closed my eyes and then opened them again. The top of Ji Chanwoo’s bowed head entered my vision—he looked completely unable to lift his head and meet my gaze.
Clenching my ice-cold hands into fists and then releasing them, I spoke.
“So what exactly did you do?”
“……”
“My mother and father… what did you do to them?”
Unlike earlier, my voice wouldn’t come out calm. It trembled pathetically, and I wasn’t even sure Ji Chanwoo could understand what I was saying through it.
“That night, while they were asleep…”
His voice had grown small, and his head sank even lower.
“With the gun I had…”
He never finished the sentence, but there was no need to. The meaning was clear.
A gun.
Just that one word alone painted the whole picture of what he had done. I didn’t want to imagine it, but my mind forced the image upon me regardless. The final moments of my parents, as they played out in my head, were far too horrific for words.
I clamped a hand over my mouth, a wave of nausea rising violently.
“Ugh…!”
“Suho.”
The image of Ji Chanwoo adjusting his sling to draw his gun, sneaking into the house in the dead of night, aiming the barrel at my parents as they slept, and then later roaming the house in search of me…
So that was why.
—Grrrrrrr…
That was why Rai, who had been with me, tried to break through the barrier to attack Ji Chanwoo so ferociously.
He had sensed that the intruder who harmed my parents had entered, and from his presence, realized immediately that I would be the next target.
He was trying to protect me from Ji Chanwoo.
That’s how it all began—the building collapsed, I lost even Rai, and everything spiraled into tragedy from there.
That day, I lost my entire family. My mother, my father, and Rai.
Just like any other night, my parents had said they loved me before bed, but I hadn’t replied properly. And even though Rai had protected me despite being battered and bruised, I hadn’t said a single word of gratitude.
“Suho!”
“…Suho.”
As I staggered backward and collapsed onto the living room floor, Ji Chanwoo sprang up and rushed toward me. His present figure overlapped with the image of him back then, gun pointed right at me.
At the time, his hands had trembled and his face was deathly pale—but his target had not been the barrier behind me.
It had been me.
Yes. Back then, he had been aiming for me, no doubt about it.
“Why…”
I asked Ji Chanwoo, who was now hovering nervously over me, face twisted in guilt and concern.
“Why?”
If he was just going to regret it like this, why had he done it?
Why did my parents have to be robbed of their right to live?
Why did he have to take them away from me?
“Ah… uhh…”
Realizing that what I’d known all along had been a lie—realizing the true, hideous shape of that truth—brought up an emotion too overwhelming for words.
I had lived my entire life without knowing a thing, mourning the man who killed my parents, cherishing only fond memories of him.
It wasn’t just regret or injustice—I wanted to hack off my own wrist, carve out my head for having lived like that.
“I’m sorry. I’m really sorry, Suho.”
Ji Chanwoo knelt in front of me, tears falling uncontrollably, not even daring to lay a hand on me.
I didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t even want to look at him.
Gasping for air, I dug my nails deep into my palms. A sharp sting crept up through my skin.
“……”
Suddenly, I remembered the look Lee Minha had given me.
Maybe it was because she already knew everything.
It explained the crushing guilt she carried, why she ignored all my calls and avoided seeing me until we met again at the hospital.
If even my kidnapping was truly orchestrated by Min Sanghan, then maybe that’s why Lee Minha couldn’t take it anymore and tried to confess the truth.
And with Min Yugeon caught up in the incident and hurt, she must have been in an even more fragile state.
She never showed up at the promised place, maybe because she couldn’t muster the courage in the end.
…No.
“Oh no… what do we do? He must’ve completely forgotten. He was already asleep when I got home.”
Maybe Min Sanghan had stopped her. He had silenced her at the hospital when she tried to ramble something to me, after all.
I forced myself to think as rationally as possible and looked at Ji Chanwoo.
“Why did Min Sanghan ask you to do that?”
My voice came out harsh, laced with a metallic edge.
“What did he even stand to gain by doing that…!”
Ah.
I suddenly shut my mouth.
“Heeseo and Jaejin—both of them are probably about to get promoted. You have no idea how much that pissed him off…”
“They’re your friends, right? Why hide it? Everyone knows you’re gunning for the next director seat anyway.”
“Mom and Dad are doing the intermediate trial demonstration.”
“They went to the lab today to discuss it.”
The day my parents came home after discussing the trial demonstration with Min Sanghan at the lab.
It was that very day.
Min Sanghan had always had an insatiable hunger for rank and prestige.
I never thought it was strange. Everyone has some kind of ambition.
But to cross into criminal territory just to feed that desire—that was something a normal person could never do.
“I heard that when the Military Beast Project was scrapped, there weren’t any standout projects or researchers left at the lab. That’s how Min Sanghan became the lab director without much opposition.”
Ji Chanwoo watched my reaction as he spoke.
“I know I have no right to say this… but I think Min Sanghan was eliminating anyone who stood in the way of his ambitions.”
“……”
“Suho.”
It was a call so cautious it barely registered.
“There was someone who ordered your kidnapping. That person was Min Sanghan too. He was planning to get rid of you as well.”
A bitter laugh slipped out before I could stop it.
Ji Chanwoo flinched and looked up at me.
I stared back with ice-cold eyes.
“And how would you know that? You weren’t even there. You didn’t hear anything.”
The man who’d revealed Min Sanghan’s name as the one who’d orchestrated the kidnapping—he showed up after Min Yugeon was stabbed. The assailant had been killed before he could even open his mouth.
So how could Ji Chanwoo speak as if he’d heard it all?
“You’ve been in hiding this whole time. What, did you get all cozy with Min Sanghan while you were at it?”
I made no effort to temper my voice. Raw emotion spilled out with every word.
“Were you helping cover for him, just like the rest of those criminals?”
“No! It’s not like that!”
Ji Chanwoo shook his head desperately, denying it with all he had.
“I found out before the other two were killed. Please, believe me.”
“…The other two?”
I frowned and echoed the words. Sounded like he meant the remaining accomplices.
“Yeah. We moved according to the plan Min Yugeon and I made.”
“……”
My mind went blank. I shot to my feet and lunged at Ji Chanwoo, grabbing him by the collar.
“What the hell are you saying? Why is Yugeon’s name in your mouth?!”
“Ah…”
Ji Chanwoo looked up at me, eyes wide with panic.
His face said it all—hesitation, maybe even regret.
A storm of rage and suspicion surged through my chest.
It came from the thought that Ji Chanwoo might still be hiding something.
After everything—after taking my family, after making me live in a delusional fog for years—
I couldn’t allow him to keep a single thing from me.
Especially not when it involved Min Yugeon.
Never.
“Don’t lie. Don’t even think about lying. Tell me everything. Every single fact.”
“…I’m not trying to lie, Suho.”
Ji Chanwoo replied, his expression dark.
“I just didn’t want to hit you with too much at once…”
What a pathetic excuse. I spat out the words.
“You think there’s anything more shocking you could say to me right now?”
“……”
Ji Chanwoo finally opened his mouth, heavy with dread.
