Chapter 40 - His love letters (2/2)
Nobody utters a word. She collapses on her seat and looks up at the ceiling with a mad smile. A heavy silence falls in the room. Both men don't know what to say or how to approach her. The deranged look in her eyes is keeping them away. One step toward her and she might break.
The silence is broken by Do Sejin's ringtone. He doesn't move to pick it up. Ahn looks at him and commands in her low and hypnotic voice. ”Pick it up.”
She seems different.
[Do Sejin, Seol A... ] He hears his father's hysterical voice.
”What happened?” A bad premonition envelops him.
”She is...”
***
Seol A, the 17 years old daughter of congressman Do Hwan Seok, is found dead inside a garbage bin in an isolated alley.
Do Sejin takes off the white sheet with his trembling hand. Her sister looks like she is sleeping. Her face is extremely pale under the light. He calls her name. ”Seol A, stop pretending to sleep.”
”Sejin...” His mother can't see it anymore. She runs outside. His father is still standing behind the door. His feet are frozen. He can't look at his only daughter's corpse. Seol A. Who would do this to her? His enemies?
”Seol A, you can click as many pictures that you want.” Sejin cups her face. It's cold as ice. ”Please tell me that you are playing a prank.”
Outside, Ahn Hana is listening to the detective's words.
”Her mouth was stuffed with socks. She couldn't scream,” The detective tells her and Jung Kwang-soo. ”He broke her fingers one by one. Then, he sliced across her belly. The organs inside her belly are gone. He drove the knife in her heart after she died.”
”When was she found?” Jung Kwang-soo asks. Ahn Hana looks at her fingers. One by one. She can imagine it the sound that Seol A's fingers must have made when he snapped them.
'I am Ahn Hana,' She tells herself in her mind. 'I am Ahn Hana.'
”Around 10 AM.” The detective takes a glance at Ahn Hana who is still looking at her fingers.
”She is just thinking.” Jung Kwang-soo stands in front of Ahn Hana.
”Oh.” The detective eyes her suspiciously, but his view is blocked by Jung Kwang-soo. ”She skipped school with her boyfriend. They were planning to watch a movie. The boyfriend went to buy movie tickets. When he came back, she was gone. A few hours later, she was found in the alley by a garbage picker.”
Ahn Hana thinks about Seol A, trying to imagine her. She has never met her. She wonders how she must have screamed when he slit her belly. He let her bleed and then, stabbed her dead heart. He threw her in the garbage bin.
A clear message.
Seol A is his revenge on Do Sejin for her.