Chapter 15.1

Yoo-hwa opened the door and stepped out, pressing down her faintly rising feelings. As soon as she saw Woo-hyun sitting on the stone steps, she felt like the world had stopped.

Why was he there again?

An unknown bitter feeling was about to leak out.

Yoo-hwa moved her lips slightly and then stopped. Instead, she looked at Woo-hyun, who was looking at a white paper. Perhaps he wasn’t cold, as he sat with his legs outstretched, and, unlike usual, he was looking at something. The paper hanging between his fingers shook with a flapping sound.

Woo-hyun’s profile overlapped with the one from last night, looking at the night view. Unwavering eyes and tightly closed lips. Seeing Woo-hyun’s face loosening up in an instant, Yoo-hwa remembered a ship.

He was like a ship on a purposeless voyage, drifting away because the anchor wasn’t lowered, but not sinking either. Otherwise, there was no way he would have a face that seemed like it would melt away if she touched it.

Whether he had been feeling her presence for a while but pretending not to notice her, Woo-hyun naturally turned his head towards Yoo-hwa.

“You’re here?”

Woo-hyun’s simple question, with no awkward greetings and no regard for asking how she had slept, felt moderately intimate.

“Yeah.”

Yoo-hwa replied, sweeping down her hair that was disheveled by the blowing wind. Trying to tie it up wasn’t worth it. What she tried to do always produced this kind of result.

Yoo-hwa stared at Woo-hyun with a bitter expression. Today was not a day to eat ramyeon together, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t have a friendly conversation for no reason, so Yoo-hwa stepped forward.

She was going to get the newspaper with job advertisements. It was the only way for Yoo-hwa to get work, as she had no laptop and was deliberately using a cellphone with no internet.

“Something like this came.”

Just when she was passing by Woo-hyun, he lifted the paper he was holding.

“What is it?”

At the same time she asked, Yoo-hwa’s eyes turned to the paper. As soon as she read the first sentence on the paper, Yoo-hwa’s face hardened visibly.

Kim Yoo-hwa is the daughter of serial killer Kim Beom-sik. And she is the person who murdered Kim Beom-sik.

Two sentences. It was all that was used to describe her messy life.

Yoo-hwa’s expression as she read the last sentence wavered with numerous emotions, and then quickly became calm. After reading the two sentences, and then reading them again, like a person who had given up everything, Yoo-hwa turned her gaze to the floor with a resigning expression.

“It came to you too.”

… In the end.

Yoo-hwa spoke calmly, as if muttering.

She knew when she changed jobs for the 4th time. That letter would always come, wherever she was. That piece of paper with the two sentences always tore apart the life she had barely tried to protect. She tried to stop it.

However, that letter always arrived in dozens, as if mocking and laughing at her. As if telling her to try stopping it if she could. As if they were saying they were going to watch her efforts.

Yoo-hwa, who was staring at the floor, twisted her lips without knowing whether to laugh or cry. Her expression, which had been showing self-scorn, resentment, pain, and all of those things, came to a breathtaking stillness. Her empty eyes, and lips that did not try to plead. She was giving up.

“Did you kill him?”

Amid that, Woo-hyun asked, holding the piece of paper. It was a simple question, without curiosity or wariness. It was as if he was asking if she had had breakfast. Because of that, she answered the question that she would normally ignore.

“No.”

“…”

“If I say that, will you believe me?”

Yoo-hwa’s voice was as powerless as the abating wind.

Although she wanted to kill him, she didn’t do it. However, the conclusion was that she had killed him. The world wanted to know that. Because that would be a more exciting, more spectacular outcome. Even if that choice would turn her life into a mess.

“The daughter of a murderer… And a murderer, on top of that. It’s malicious.”

Woo-hyun stood up, speaking lightly.

“Did you find out who it was? The victim’s family? Who was it? Does someone hold a grudge against you?”

“…”

Woo-hyun asked casually as if talking about someone else’s business, looking at the front and back of the paper absentmindedly. His attitude was as if Yoo-hwa had been unfairly framed. Confirming that there was nothing on the back, Woo-hyun pulled both sides of the paper.

Rip. The paper was torn helplessly. Once, twice, three times, and several times, the paper became the size of a nail.

Woo-hyun, who had gotten up, came out of the house with a new plastic bag and opened his hand inside it. The pieces of paper falling from his hand were visible through the bag. After removing all the pieces of paper stuck on his palm, he rolled it half-heartedly and threw it by the door.

Yoo-hwa looked at his chain of actions without even blinking.

“Have you eaten?”

Approaching her, Woo-hyun made eye contact and asked, as usual. He didn’t ask any more. Moreover, he had his usual face, with no expression of fear, contempt, or vigilance.