Bad X Bad: My Dear Hana - Chapter 35

“Would I ever joke about this?” She looks at the killer’s unclear photo on her phone. She compares it with the man she met that night. She doesn’t remember much except for the coat. The coat disappeared from her wardrobe around a week later. She thought that Do Sejin took it with him. She was wrong. Very wrong. She was wrong about her parents’ murderer. The killer entered her house when she wasn’t there. He might have visited her when she was asleep or when Do Sejin was there. She had no idea how much she had been watched by him. Did he come here? She doesn’t know.

“I don’t understand.” Jung Kwang-soo can’t absorb her words. “It’s been 10 years since that accident.”

10 years of obsession. Do Sejin’s insides are turned over. His knees become weak. He realizes why she got mad at him earlier. He must have done something. There was a time when he wanted to become her weakness. Now, he regrets it. He doesn’t even know what it is. He doesn’t know what he did, but he must have driven her to a worse situation. He wants to know, but she won’t tell him. She will never speak about her weakness. Not to him.

Do Sejin must find that person before that killer gets her. “Can you make a list of people you suspect?”

“Nobody comes to mind.” The coat was big on him too. He had big hands and a firm grip. A perfume to hide his scent. Magnolia. Yes, he would use that scent. He knew that she would try to recall and link it with Noe Kyung-Hee.

He could have killed her at any time. He could have harmed Jung Kwang-soo and Do Sejin. What stopped him? Right. He wants her to know that she made a mistake when she fought for her parents’ unfair death. He wants her to realize that she had been living on the borrowed time. He wants her to know that she is being watched every second of her life. Nothing is hidden from him.

He knows that she is in a desperate situation. He wants to break her with fear and make a mistake. Before that, he wants her to announce to the world how wrong they have been about the 100th-day murders.

She must change her plans. This person won’t be fooled easily.

***

“He committed the first murder when I was 21.” She writes their names on the board. “Two people on the same day. Six stabs to my father. He slit my mother’s throat. I left university when I received the news. I got into an accident on my way. He probably didn’t see that coming.”

“You don’t have to speak the details about your parents’ death.” Jung Kwang-soo knows that it is hard for her, but she is not showing it to them. She isn’t the type to show emotions unless she is angry or drunk.

Ahn Hana has read about her parents’ death countless times. When she woke up from her coma, their bodies were already cremated. The investigation was half done. She didn’t know what was missing. What did the killer take as his trophy? How did he meet her parents? She knows nothing.

Now, she is being told by the killer himself. She hates herself.

“My parents were fighting a corruption case. Some powerful people were involved. They survived the attempts on their lives. When they searched the house, they found some files missing. I thought that they were killed by the people from the corrupted corporation. The killer took the files intentionally to control the direction of the investigation.” She writes the date of the murder. “He can manipulate evidence. The missing items from the 36 victims… I think that they will soon find it on Baek Han Sol’s properties during the reinvestigation under the new prosecutor.”

“Why did he go for your parents instead of you?” Do Sejin asks her.

“To change me.” She continues to write the date of each victim’s name. “My parents’ death had an effect on me. I was aiming to become a prosecutor, but I chose to be a lawyer instead. I became someone who would do anything for money and power. I won all the cases that I took. He knows that I don’t have long enough to capture him first. If I can bring Baek Han Sol out and tell about his legacy, I will become famous. Then, he will claim me.”

“What did you say?” Do Sejin stands up abruptly. “You don’t have long enough. Why?”

She purses her lips. Damn! This is what happens. The killer. Her illness. Everything else is making her lose calm. She speaks without thinking now. Shit.

“What are you hiding, Hana?” Jung Kwang-soo looks at her back intently.

The cat is out of the bag. She can’t hide it now. She takes a deep breath and turns around to face the two men. “I have a tumor in my brain. So, let’s get back to work now.”

Do Sejin stares hard at her. That day when she told him that she liked him. The test results. She told him that there was nothing to worry about. It’s been two weeks since that day. He slams the table in anger. “You lied to me that day. Why did not you say anything? How come you are doing this when you should be at the hospital?”

“Ahn Hana, you have been a bad girl.” Jung Kwang-soo cracks his knuckles. “I wanted you to fight this case, but I would never want it on the cost of your life. You are more worth to me alive than dead.”

She sighs. They only know half of the deal and they are reacting like this. “I planned to take a break after the next hearing. I was planning to give my body to Ji-Won and let her do whatever she wanted. I don’t plan on dying either.”

“Doctor Bo went on the honeymoon today,” Do Sejin cries out. “You are lying again.”

“Boy, can you complain if I lie to you?” She raises her brow. “Nothing has changed between us. Whether it’s a tumor or a psychopath that is trying to kill me, Whether I die or live, it is unrelated to you.”

Do Sejin looks at her with pain in his eyes. He feels stifled by her gaze. He runs out of that place in one breath. Unable to bear it anymore, he covers his ears.

He is the lowest of the low.