CH 100

I inhaled the chilly air, then I asked, “…Then, why did you send Yeonseon back alone in the taxi back then?”

Hyehyun stopped in his tracks. Sweat was pouring out of his face like rain, either from the pain of his injury or from being mentally cornered. I gripped the knife with both hands and looked squarely at Hyehyun.

I came here to kill. Therefore, I was fine with dying here.

The next shoot didn’t exist for me. This recording was my last. This was my final stop and his grave. It was the end for Yeonseon, me, and Hyehyun. I was all right with not finding the exit or whatever. I was fine with wandering this mansion forever.

“I heard you were the last person to see Yeonseon. You knew that Yeonseon couldn’t take the taxi by himself. There were always three people in your car. Me, you, and Yeonseon. You knew that Yeonseon would hyperventilate when he was left with one other person.”

The taxi driver must have been alarmed when Yeonseon’s condition suddenly worsened. The driver must have kept glancing back and asked if Yeonseon was all right—he was unable to pay attention to his surroundings. The accident that could have been easily prevented couldn’t be avoided that day. The taxi collided with the truck whose driver was drowsy.

“You told the police that Yeonseon was drowsy after drinking a lot, right? So, you sent him off in a taxi. Yeonseon’s parents didn’t want to lose you after losing Yeonseon, so they couldn’t probe your lies further, but I’m different.”

“H-Haeseo…”

“Why did you do that? I asked around, and everyone who was there said that Yeonseon drank, but he only had a few drinks. There was no way Yeonseon would have gotten drunk from that.” My endless interrogation made the blood in Hyehyun’s face drain. It felt absurd to see him make that face after he had pressed me on so much before that I burst out laughing. ‘Oh! I should have done this earlier!’

I should have stabbed him on the first day we entered the mansion when he came into my room with lunch. If I had done that, we wouldn’t have been murdered in this mansion…! Maybe nobody would have died. My fingertips, gripping the knife, turned white from nervousness. “Hey, you asked me, right? Why am I so cold to you? Why did I suddenly decide to go on television?”

Hyehyun seemed to misinterpret the reason I asked him to be my manager out of the blue. He probably thought that I missed Yeonseon so much that I moved on to his brother. I didn’t know what he was hoping for.

But when I saw Hyehyun again, my heart was filled with despair.

“There’s only one reason, Hyehyun.” I smirked at Hyehyun, who looked at me with frightened eyes. I could say what I wanted to say every time I saw him. Finally. “I wanted to kill you.”

“H-Haeseo.”

“Every time you mimicked Yeonseon’s smile, I wanted to tear your face off. Every time you tried to comfort me while imitating Yeonseon, I wanted to carve my flesh where you touched.”

Of all days, why after the happiest day in the world? Yeonseon had finally overcome his self-hatred. Why did Hyehyun prevent Yeonseon from hearing my reply? I couldn’t tell him anything. The only thing I could do was have regrets, so I couldn’t bring myself to go to his funeral.

I couldn’t miss Yeonseon purely anymore.

“Why did you kill him? Yeonseon trusted you,” I asked.

Hyehyun frantically barked back, “You’re just speculating! Paranoia is an illness, Haeseo! You’re mentally ill!”

The one who responded to his shouts wasn’t me. It was the lump of meat on his back. The flesh that barely maintained human form expanded into a huge mountainous lump in reaction to Hyehyun. It looked as if it could crush Hyehyun under its weight as flatly as he was crushed.

I frowned and stared at Hyehyun’s back. “Don’t you get it, Hyehyun?”

“G-get what?”

“Didn’t your head start to hurt after Yeonseon died? Medication didn’t work, and going to the hospital didn’t help either.”

“What are you saying all of a sudden?” Hyehyun’s tone was lower than before.

“Hyehyun, if you’re so innocent, then why is that person clinging to your back?”

The scene of the accident was so horrendous that everything was out of the ordinary. Yeonseon’s face and torso were completely pulverized and one more thing.

“If you had nothing to do with the accident, then why is the taxi driver, who died that day, attached to you?”

The taxi driver’s face was partially intact while the rest of his body was crushed. The lump of meat trembled—no, shuddered—at my words. He started to grind and gnaw with the few teeth he had left.