Chapter 53 - It's been a while

Her parents' house, abandoned and dusty, shows an unforgettable story of a happy family. He walks around the house. There is a picture of her with Ji-Won and a white furry dog. She is grinning ear to ear and pulling up Ji-Won's ponytail with her right hand. The dog is ŀɨċkɨnġ her chin in the picture. She looks happy here.

In another picture, she is standing between her parents with a high school diploma. They are looking at her proudly. Her parents took pictures of every stage of her life until she went to university. Birthdays. Many pictures with family and friends. Bicycle rides. Pouting. Grinning. Angry. Puffy cheeks. Reading her father cases. Dozing off on the dinner table. Many moments.

Ahn Hana seems like a different person before her parents were murdered.

In the previous year, Do Sejin had visited it a lot of time to find any clue. But, he feels that he will find something here. Anything. A clue to that man.

That man murdered her parents when she was 21. The reason? Hana had ȧssumed that he wanted to change her. He didn't have any hand in the accident, meaning that he didn't want her to die. He might have wanted to take her life with his hand. She might have been his first target. But, there was something else that he wanted from her.

Changing her was more important to him. That man didn't want this happy and notorious Hana. He wanted someone else. But, who?

He slept with her a few months after she woke up from her coma. He made it painful to her while loving her wholeheartedly. He tried to reprogram her mind with pain. He might have been successful. Somewhat. Ahn Hana was no longer the same happy and notorious Ahn Hana. She changed into a different person.

10 years later. He met her again on the street. He gave her the coat.

The case? He already knew that nobody would win Baek Han Sol's case other than her. It would go to her eventually. It was her destiny. He was waiting for her to accept the case. Love letters. Noe Kyung-Hee. Acts of revenge. When she accepted the case, he knew that it was time for him to reveal himself to her.

Everything comes back to her. That man has a lot of patience. There is no doubt. That man loves her, but it twisted beyond words. He wants this love to turn her into something else. Someone who would love him back despite who he is. Whether dead or alive, Ahn Hana will only belong to him.

That kind of obsession. Where did it start?

Do Sejin inhales and exhales to relax. He puts his hands in his pockets and looks at the pictures again.

He has looked through her classmates at university, talked to professors, and friends. He couldn't find a single one. 3 years at the university. If it was her classmate, senior, or junior, 3 years are not a long time. During that period, she didn't visit her parents frequently because of the distance and studies. She wasn't the type who talked about her family at the university. In reality, nobody at the university including Jung Kwang-soo knew that her parents were famous lawyers until they were found murdered and she got into an accident.

If the killer was from her university, he wouldn't have thought that she was close to her parents. He wouldn't have just decided to kill her parents to change her. Her parents were murdered a few months before the bar exam. It was planned. To change her decision. The killer knew that she would perform well. The killer planned 10 years to reveal his love letters to her.

To turn her into a lawyer who defended criminals whether they were guilty or not. It was his way to change her into someone who would accept his dark side even if the whole world didn't.

To make her the sun that blinded people. So, nobody would try to come close to her. She would have fewer people who would matter to her. In her life, those people are Jung Kwang-soo and Bo Ji-Won.

Why would he not take care of Jung Kwang-soo and Bo Ji-Won yet? Perhaps, he takes them as a challenge. Perhaps, they won't matter enough if she changes. Perhaps, he wants to use them as a weakness to control her until she becomes the person he wants her to be.

It feels like the killer has been planning for a longer time.

Think like the killer.

Do Sejin comes out of the house and stares at it for a long time. Soon, the darkness envelops the house. He reenters through the front door. The killer had a copy of the key. He must have followed Ahn Hana for a long time.

Do Sejin goes to the kitchen. He can imagine Ahn Hana's mother preparing the dinner. He imagines the killer grabbing her from behind and driving the knife across her throat. A quick death. Why?

Then, why not?

He turns around and slowly go to the study room. Ahn Hana's father must have been working at that time. He stands near the chair where Ahn Hana's father was sitting. Her father must have looked up. 6 stabs. Not a quick death for her father.

Bo Ji-Won told him that Ahn Hana loved her father the most. She was quite close to him. They used to study the cases together and argued like a prosecutor and a lawyer. Ahn Hana would take the role of the prosecutor.

The killer cannot be someone from the university. If the killer was someone she met during her university years, he wouldn't know such details of her life. He killed her parents just a few months before the bar exam which was important to her and her parents. He might have seen the bond closely. He was jealous and angry. He wanted to remove the biggest obstacle from his path to Ahn Hana's heart. He wanted her to be alone and hopeless. He did it right before she could shift to the next phase of her life.

Beads of sweats appear on his forehead. He wipes it with his hand. He is not afraid. He closes the door of the study room and turns around.

A person is standing near photos on the wall. Her hair is white and short. The rim of the white dress is fluttering with the wind. Being bathed under the moonlight pouring from the windows, she looks like a beautiful painting coming alive. Her eyes are detached. She looks like an otherworldly creature who has manifested in the darkness of the moon. He doesn't know whether he is hallucinating or not.

"Hana." He calls her name. She looks at him. Even her brows and eyelids are white. He touches her cheek with his fingers. Is she real?

"It's been a while, Do Sejin."