Chapter 2: Back in time

A cheerful melody was heard coming out of DooSan's car while he was driving on a crowded street in Seoul city, at all bothered to see, through the front windshield, the traffic jam that was stretching for kilometers. But even if he was a little bit hurrying, he knew that it was already too late to take another route. So, he just opted for waiting and enjoying the melody.

  And he liked that melody that he was listening to, and, while mumbling the words of the song, his fingers were slowly knocking on the wheel, a sign that DooSan was happy, and not only because he was listening to that beautiful song that was playing on the radio, but because his plan was about to start.

  Actually, DooSan spent many hours locked in his obscure office making that plan, and over many years he has been forced just to work and to wait till he would be enough prepared to reach his goal. But it has happened now and, for the first time since he became a prosecutor, he wasn't regretting it and, of course, he was also convinced to do himself justice for what happened 7 years ago: he lost someone dear that day and the fact that the murder hadn't been punished yet was driving him crazy.

  The ringtone instead brought DooSan back to reality. „I'm listening to you, prosecutor Yun Marie," DooSan said gently and the sweet voice of a woman was heard coming out of the loudspeaker:

„You are trifling with your mother again," Marie said while she was in the garden of her house, taking care of the white roses bush.

  She never liked to take care of plants, but in those 7 years since she lost her child, she learned to love the roses because they have been YuSan's favorite flowers. Also, YuSan was who brought those roots 2 years before his death and he took care of them with all his heart and she couldn't let them die after YuSan's death.

  „Where are you?" she asked DooSan.

  „On the way to the police station," he answered. But Marie knew her younger son well: that one wasn't for sure the voice of happiness that she had expected him to have. „Today is the first day, remember?" DooSan said.

  „I remember it, but I thought that you gave up on that idea," Marie answered while frowning. „I don't like all this, DooSan. I think it'll be better to leave things how they are now."

  „No way. I have been waiting for this day for 7 years, mother. I won't give up so easily. I will make her crawl for what she did to YuSan and I'll do this legally," he said.

  „You know that you can burn yourself in the same fire you are trying to ignite for her, son. Without evidence…"

  „I'll find that evidence, mother just as I'll make her bring that evidence to me and she will be the one who will reveal her real face in front of the whole world, and when this will happen, I'll bury her alive," DooSan said and a trace of anger has been felt in his voice. „Why did you call?" he eventually asked.

  „To remember you about tonight. I prepared everything for the ceremony. You only need to be present. YuSan needs us," Marie said. „Will you come?"

  „Yeah. I'll be there, mom!"

  „Then, I'll wait for you at 7 o'clock!" Marie said and she hung up the phone.

  DooSan turned off the radio too: the music that made him happy until that moment was rasping him so much then and he couldn't stand it anymore and more after hearing the deafening noise made by the ambulance that passed by him and made him turn back in time...

***

7 YEARS AGO

Getting in front of the abandoned warehouse that was surrounded by policemen and by yellow bands, DooSan got out of his luxuriant car and hurried up toward the entrance.

  But there was everything surrounded by yellow bands and the access inside the warehouse was also blocked by the policemen that didn't allow him to pass, even if DooSan was struggling with them and yelling at them to leave him to pass. „There is my brother inside there, idiots! I need to see him," he continued to yell, but it didn't help him at all and nor did it unsteel the hearts of those present there, whose job was to impede intruders to enter the crime scene and damage the evidence, and DooSan was just a simple intruder for them.

  „I told you to let me pass," DooSan shouted at those two policemen that were struggling with him to not let him pass.

  „And I said that this is impossible, sir. This is a crime place and nobody will enter there without permission," one of the two officers told DooSan. „Someone died there and till CNS won't check it for evidence, nobody will enter there, not even the fly."

  Listening to the officer telling him that someone died in that warehouse, DooSan froze, more when he spotted two CNS members carrying a mortuary sack on a stretcher. „It can't be," DooSan mumbled, staring at the mortuary sack. Then, completely going crazy, DooSan pushed the two cops from in front of him and approached the stretcher.

  The two officers ran after DooSan, trying to take him away from there. But Kan motioned them to leave DooSan with the dead one and they listened to his order and turned back to their places.

  At the moment DooSan was running toward the stretcher, detective Kan and detective Gi were just exiting the warehouse, following those who were carrying on the body. But seeing the sufferance in Doosan's eyes and understanding that he won't give up without seeing the dead one's face, Kan just motioned to the CNS members to stop and to leave the stretcher on the ground.

  The two CNS members right away listened to Kan's command and left the stretcher on the ground, taking two steps away from it.

  Interruptingly breathing and shaking like hell, DooSan finally found the courage to kneel next to the mortuary sack and unzip it. But when he saw that the dead one was YuSan, he just let a painful sigh come out of his chest and an „Oh, Gosh, only not this!" was heard mumbled by him. Then, with the same shaking hand, DooSan finished unzipping the sack and started to touch YuSan's face and his hands, and he finally spotted the knife wound on his belly.

  „We think that he has been stabbed to death," Kan told DooSan, who was crying with his head on YuSan's chest.

  „Who did this to him?" DooSan asked through sighs of pain.

  „We think that it has been the young lady who we found next to him. But we need to investigate this first, and only then we will know if she was who killed him or not," Gi answered.

  But he couldn't finish his thought when he heard DooSan yelling: „where is she? Where is that murderer that dared to...," but he hadn't had to wait long for the answer because he right away spotted the paramedics taking SolHi out of the warehouse on another stretcher and running toward the ambulance that was waiting for them while it was deafeningly yelping around.

  The simple fact that he saw her, made DooSan lose his mind, especially after seeing the oxygen mask on her face, a sign that she was still breathing and nothing else didn't matter to him: neither did the fact that SolHi was unconscious, with a deep wound on her head that was badly bleeding, nor that the paramedic was yelling at the other one to hurry up because she can have another heart attack. All that mattered to DooSan was that she was alive and even this fact DooSan thought to impede: to allow her to leave that place on the stretcher, still having a chance to survive and not inside of a mortuary sack as his brother did. And, without logically thinking, DooSan just grabbed the truncheon from the hands of one of the officers and he right away headed toward the stretcher intending to kill her there.

  But DooSan couldn't get to the stretcher, being stopped by Gi and Kan, who grabbed him by arms and forced him to stay away from SolHi and the paramedics that blocked DooSan's way, being alerted by the yelps of the others.

  „Just let me do justice!" DooSan yelled while struggling with the two detectives. „She doesn't deserve to live if my brother is dead. Why is she still alive when DooSan died? She must die too! She doesn't deserve to live after all she did to my brother. If he's dead she must die too: here and now."

  „Just think rationally, Han DooSan," Kan yelped at him. „We don't know if she is really guilty for this crime or she's just another victim. Without knowing the truth, we can't judge anybody."

  „I don't care if she's innocent or not! The simple fact that she was there when YuSan died makes her a criminal," DooSan said through bitter tears that were flowing all over his face. „If you leave me do what I have to do... for my brother's honor... I can..."

  „And to be a criminal too?" Gi asked him, but that question only made DooSan stare at him for a while as if he was staring at a blind spot and nothing more.

  „I don't care because what she has done is...," DooSan mumbled. But he decided to stop, feeling that his heart hurts him so much.

  „Just think a little bit, DooSan: I know that it's hard for you now, but killing her won't bring your brother back to life and it won't make you feel better either. The only thing you'll win will be to stain your hands with her blood, nothing more. If you want her to suffer, then let her be punished by law and she will be punished if she is guilty," Kan told DooSan. „I promise this to you, Han DooSan, that I'll make her pay for everything if the evidence we found will reveal her as YuSan's criminal and I'll be the one to close her into a maximum-security jail."

  DooSan said nothing more: he just kneeled down when he felt himself totally lacking power, listening to the deafening yelp of the ambulance that was leaving the place, with his head bowed, and staring at the soil. Then, clenching his fists, he turned toward YuSan, but he didn't dare to touch again his brother's hands - DooSan only managed to mumble: „why, brother? Why did you allow to be killed by a woman? Who is she for you to die this way and how could you just leave and make us suffer so much?"

  But nobody of those present there knew the answer to all of Doosan's questions, and nor YuSan could answer him: and, because of this, DooSan just put his head on his brother's chest and cried a lot, standing like this, knowing that it was the last time they could be so close one of the other.