Chapter 9 — Even More Clues

[Ahjussi – a word used to address middle aged men, over 30 years old.

Ajumeoni (less formal Ajumma) – a Korean word for a married or a middle-aged woman.]

Soo Min and Hyun Woo spent the rest of the day browsing the list of Choi Ye Eun's haters and psycho-fans, and it was quite a large group of people. CEO Choi was really serious, mentioning suing people who either wanted to destroy his daughter's image or were simply obsessed with her and violated Ye Eun's privacy. On the one hand, Choi Young Sik seemed to be a very cold, firm and a man who was not showing affection, but he certainly cared for children in his own way—for example, removing from their path any obstacles or persons who wanted to harm them. It was all the more impressive because, despite being a very busy man, CEO Choi always found time to meet with a lawyer or go to the court trial, if it was happening to punish someone who had threatened his family in any way.

The list of haters and psycho-fans was long, but in fact most of them were kids who probably had nothing better to do or wanted to become famous by creating rumors about a celebrity. Therefore, Soo Min and Hyun Woo, out of all this long list, selected only three people who were at least 20 years old and with more serious allegations, like stalking and persistent harassment. They were three men who also looked similar to the kidnapper shown in the CCTV recordings.

The first one was Yeon Jong Pil, 35 years old, unemployed, living with his mother. He was obsessed with Choi Ye Eun, stalked her by following around, got her phone number and called or messaged thousands of times, no matter if it was night or day. Jong Pil also sent various presents to her home address, some of them really disgusting—like a cloth handkerchief soaked in his blood, hair (including the pubic ones), or sperm put in a perfume bottle.

The second was Nam Dong Sun, 26 years old, a medicine student coming from a wealthy family of doctors. Currently he was repeating a year because of his obsession with Choi Ye Eun and a subsequent lawsuit from Mr. Choi. He mostly followed Ye Eun everywhere, send obsessive love letters and spammed her social media, even sending her via e-mail a video of himself masturbating to her photos and videos.

The third guy was Kim Young Chul, 30 years old, who helped his parents run a restaurant. He is the most unstable and had the most serious allegations, because he even broke into Choi's residence to meet Ye Eun, but miraculously avoided imprisonment. Also, like the others, Young Chul followed Ye Eun when he had free time, sent her letters, harassed with phone calls or messages and spammed her social media, however, compared to the others, he did it with much more intensity. He was certainly saved from imprisonment by a good lawyer hired by his parents, but also by the opinion of a psychiatrist, which ensured his insanity. He spent several months in a psychiatric hospital in a closed ward, but at the very beginning of this year his parents took him home and made sure that he attended therapy and took his medication.

In general, each of them, especially Young Chul, might have something to do with the disappearance of Ye Eun, but only Nam Dong Sun and Kim Young Chul could know the other victims too. Dong Sun went with his parents many times to the same high society events that Choi Ye Eun would occasionally attend with her parents and older brother, also Seo In Sung and his models, Choi Seo Yoon who often attended them with her lawyer father, also the owner of the Shim Eun A and Kim Hae Ran's talent agency. Dong Sun sometimes was also a client of Jung Hee Young's parents cafe in Gangnam, where he liked to buy a coffee in the morning, before going on his classes.

Young Chul's parents' restaurant, on the other hand, was quite an elegant place. Located in a hot spot of Gangnam, it often hosted famous personalities, including Seo In Sung and his models. Plus the owner of the talent agency whose trainees went missing had also dined in this place many times. Choi Seo Yoon, the famous lawyer's daughter, went to this place too with her father once or twice, and Jung Hee Young's parents' cafe in Gangnam was located just across the street from the restaurant, so Hee Young knew Young Chul quite well and even called him oppa instead of ahjussi, as she probably should.

Taking all this into account, Soo Min and Hyun Woo decided to put them on the list of suspects for now and necessarily interview each the next day, even Yeon Jong Pil because this man had plenty of free time not working for years, taking advantage of his mother, and it was possible that he could simply follow not only Ye Eun but the other victims as well. Seeing all these connections and possibilities, Soo Min was surprised that Joo Chan hadn't looked more closely at all the people who knew the previous victims. He may not have been good at mental work, but she thought these connections should have struck even him. Only now did Soo Min saw very clearly how lazily the Cherry Blossom Reaper case was handled by Joo Chan and Jung Mo. With a little more effort surely at least one of them would have noticed all these connections, after all, if you studied very carefully the lists of people each victim knew, you would see some similarities. However, with so many possibilities and potential suspects, it made the whole Cherry Blossom Reaper case even more complicated. The list of suspects kept growing, but Soo Min and Hyun Woo still had no concrete evidence that would point to any of the suspects. The only thing they had at the moment was a lot of information and guesswork. But this did not discourage Soo Min, as she was very determined to catch this psychopath and also had great hope that the missing girls would be found alive. Every day Soo Min checked the information to see if any more bodies had been found, but fortunately it didn't happened for now, which gave a lot of hope. The desire to catch the Cherry Blossom Reaper literally filled her every thought right now so much that she forgot to eat properly, couldn't sleep at night, and then only coffee saved her at work.

Hyun Woo, on the other hand, felt more and more how much he was lacking to deserve the title of a detective. Yes, he did his best at work, but while comparing himself to Soo Min, he had to honestly admit that fell out poorly in terms of skills. Of course, Hyun Woo realized that he would learn in time, but regretted a little that he had to learn the detectives work on such a difficult case. On the other hand, after such a hard journey, any easier case will be a child's play, right? At least he hoped so. Overall Hyun Woo liked to spend time with Soo Min, but it was a shame they met at work. He had a great desire to get to know her better, but while solving the Cherry Blossom Reaper case it was almost impossible, there was no time for anything else, besides, Hyun Woo knew very well he should focus if wanted to make any contribution to the solving of this case.

When they called each of the men who were the Ye Eun's psycho-fans, arranging meetings and warning about penalties for a possible avoidance of conversation, or even more so to escape, Soo Min and Hyun Woo started creating applications for a search warrant for the apartments and workplaces of people from the list of suspects. Soo Min hoped they would get the warrants for each person and the arguments she put in each application will be taken into account. In order to find any evidence, they had to check the suspects more closely, even more so if they were to remove someone from this list. Some will certainly object and ask what the search is for, but if they have nothing to hide and want to prove their innocence, they will not resist for long.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the late afternoon, Min Hye Sun from Cyber Security Division, Digital Forensic Section came to Soo Min and Hyun Woo's office with new information. Of course, she started to sweeten Hyun Woo, but when Soo Min got her attention, she immediately became serious.

"So first of all, we've got the footage from camera monitoring the gate at Choi Hyun Sik's house from his security company. I've checked it thoroughly few times and the footage seems to be completely legit. It shows no one entered or left the house on Sunday." Hye Sun informed at the beginning. "Of course, I will conduct a few more tests to see if there were any modifications, but initially I did not notice any traces of interference with this footage." she emphasized. "Another thing..." Hye Sun began rummaging through the paper folder she had brought with her and pulled out a few pages. "Here is a list of people who owned this car as seen on the CCTV recordings. After looking at the footage again and again, I'm sure it's that KIA we've talked about." she said with such a face that Soo Min knew Hye Sun was speaking quite honestly. "Interestingly, there were some interesting clues. One of the photographers working at Seo In Sung's model agency, had such a car. Also CEO Choi, but according to the information from the car scrap yard, his car was destroyed about 3 years ago at his request. The others did not own or owned such KIA, at least there's no record of that." she added.

"I understand. It's quite a lot of information and very useful." said Soo Min, taking the papers from her.

"Sunbae." Hyun Woo spoke up, breaking away from the computer screen. "I was just reading the reviews on the Internet about the Cherry Blossom Beauty clinic and the owner himself." he informed, immediately drawing the attention of both ladies to himself. "Several people, including one woman who reportedly worked as a nurse in the clinic for some time, are writing about basement rooms that can only be accessed through the perpetually locked door on the ground floor next to Kim Sang Min's office." Hyun Woo began to tell. "Apparently, the rumor says they are carrying out some illegal research there and no one except Kim Sang Min and a few of his fellow doctors has access to this basement." he informed.

"In fact, there was a door on which there was no information about where they lead." Soo Min said, remembering. "But it could just be a storage room or something... Anyway, we need a search warrant." she added sighing lightly.

"But that's not all." Hyun Woo replied. "I also looked again at the list of people who bought artificial cherry blossoms. This is information from 4 years ago, so maybe that's why everyone omitted it." he explained. "The Choi family's fashion house is on the list. I checked their collections from that period more closely and they actually used these flowers for decorating a collection of spring-summer dresses designed, of course, by Choi Hyun Sik. The collection itself was called 'Beauty Of Cherry Blossom'. Most interestingly, they bought a lot more than they eventually used. The collection was popular, but not quite like CEO Choi thought it would be. So the question is what happened to the rest of the unused artificial flowers." Hyun Woo added at the end.

"Wow, oppa... You are so smart." Hye Sun looked at him dreamily, at which he just smiled a bit embarrassed.

"You actually did a very good job." agreed Soo Min, trying to ignore Hye Sun's glare that was kind of annoying. "We have at least some starting points and we know what we will ask about the suspects and others, like CEO Choi, when we call them to the police station for questioning." she admitted with visible relief.

Hye Sun then had to go to her section, then Soo Min and Hyun Woo wrote out summons to interview Kim Sang Min regarding the rumors about the secret room, Seo In Sung, his agency's photographer about the car, CEO Choi also the car's case and the disappearance of the rest of the artificial cherry blossoms.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The very next morning, Soo Min and Hyun Woo went to three men who were psycho-fans of Choi Ye Eun. They started with Yeon Jong Pil, who was at the bottom of the suspect list. After a court case with CEO Choi, he and his mother moved from Seoul to Bucheon, so the ride again took a little bit over an hour. Being in the town they looked for high residential building located in the vicinity to primary school and it wasn't hard to find it. Entering the parking lot they passed the watchman's booth, of course, and explained the reason for their visit while showing him their badges and the older man let them go into the parking lot without hesitating. When they reached the free spot, Soo Min stopped the car and looked up while getting out. The block had 14 floors, but fortunately the apartment that Yeon Jong Pil and his mother were currently living in was on the 2nd floor. They entered the building via 1st out of 2 entrances without the need to ring the intercom, since someone just left the building and opened the door, so they went in and quickly found themselves on the 2nd floor using the stairs. The apartment was on the left, so they turned that way and went closer to the door. Hyun Woo pressed the bell and after a while there was the voice heard of an old woman who cursed terribly at her son, because he didn't even want to move and open the door. Then footsteps could be heard and the door finally opened.

Before their eyes appeared a woman definitely over 60 year old with long gray hair and brown eyes, a pale and weary face with deep wrinkles. She was short in height and terribly thin, especially her legs looked so weak that it seemed a miracle that a woman could walk on them. She wore a flowery, obviously worn dress and flip flops. According to data that Soo Min and Hyun Woo had, Kim Mi Sook, mother of Yeon Jong Pil, was 62 years old. But now that they saw her, she looked much older, but considering that she lost her husband while she was pregnant and then had to take care of her son all by herself, trying to encourage him first to study hard, then to keep the job for longer, and finally to look for any job, it was no wonder she aged faster. After all, she had a lot of worries. Jong Pil's father, Yeon Jong Gun, was a soldier and died on one of his foreign missions, leaving his wife with only the money she was getting as compensation.

The woman looked at Soo Min and Hyun Woo with a slightly annoyed expression.

"What do you want?" she asked in a dry tone, eyes scanning each of them individually.

"Good morning, we're detectives from Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, Investigation Department, Violent Crime Section. My name is Kim Soo Min, and this is my partner Jung Hyun Woo." Soo Min replied, and they both showed their badges.

"We called yesterday, Ajumeoni, do you remember?" Hyun Woo joined in, looking at the woman and smiling warmly.

"Ah, I remember." confirmed Mrs. Kim, a little bit calmer. "Can you tell me now what my son did again?" she asked, opening the door a little so that they could enter.

"We are not sure if your son did anything, he is not accused of anything yet, and that's why we need to talk to him." Soo Min replied as they took off their shoes and entered the living room. It was evident that this room was also a bedroom, because apart from this one there were two more rooms in the apartment—a bathroom and a kitchen—and a very modest balcony. On the wall was a large picture of a man in uniform, framed, and it was certainly Mr. Yeon Jong Gun, Mrs. Kim's husband. The room itself was a bit of a mess, especially around the couch and the little table in front of the TV, where a tall, thin man with broad shoulders and a bald head sat. His hair that was growing back indicated he was black-haired, his eyes were the same brown color as his mother's, even face looked like hers. The man looked exactly like 35 years old, and despite his somewhat feminine features, was quite handsome. However, the fact that he was dressed in dirty tracksuits spoiled his image.

"Yeon Jong Pil-ssi, we are..." began to say Soo Min.

"Yes, I know who you are. I heard you introducing yourself at the door." the man interrupted her, finally looking away from the TV screen. The low table in front of him was full of empty packages from delivery food, salty snacks, soju bottles, and beer cans. "I have no idea why you are bothering me again. I was punished for following this bitch, I even had to move since people were pointing their fingers at me... Since then I haven't done anything wrong." he added, clearly annoyed.

"I understand, but we need to ask you some questions because of Choi Ye Eun's disappearance." Soo Min replied and Hyun Woo prepared a notebook and pen.

"Okay, just be quick." replied Jong Pil, looking at them with bored eyes.

"Okay, first of all, can you tell us what you did last week, on Sunday? We are most interested in the evening hours." Soo Min asked and glanced to the side, noticing Mrs. Kim standing in the kitchen door, listening intently to the conversation.

"As every weekend, I went to a nearby bar and drank. You can ask the bartender and my friends, some were there too." Jong Pil replied.

"Okay, we'll check it out for sure." Hyun Woo assured.

"Another thing... After the trial with CEO Choi over the harassment of his daughter, did you meet her again later?" Soo Min asked, looking at the man.

"Of course not. First of all, I had too much trouble because of this bitch, secondly I moved and I can't afford to ride the bus for over an hour just to see her." Jong Pil replied, and his eyes showed some sadness. "I was also in therapy and I don't even want to meet her anymore." he added after a moment.

"Are you sure? You'd better be telling the truth." Hyun Woo asked.

"Do you really think I could kidnap her? How? Without a car, living in this tiny apartment with my mother?" Jong Pil was indignant, almost getting up from the couch.

"Please calm down, Jong Pil-ssi." Hyun Woo looked at him warningly, speaking in a very firm tone which made Soo Min slightly surprised. "You said you have friends with whom you drink, so they could help you." he suggested.

"They are only good when you buy them alcohol. They would never help you with anything." Mrs. Kim said to her son.

"I'm sorry, Ajumeoni, but we're talking to your son." Soo Min admonished her.

"I know, but that's the truth. Jong Pil takes money from me, and they make him to buy alcohol, even though most of them work and earn their own money while he doesn't. And what's worse, they know it well, but still use him." the woman explained.

"My mother is partly right." Jong Pil admitted, and he looked like he was about to cry, but he was holding back effectively and began to nervously tug at the sleeve of his sweatshirt. "I know it's probably easy for you to suspect me because I did many things to this girl before. But I certainly didn't kidnap her... I wouldn't do anything like this to her." he continued, occasionally biting his lower lip. "Besides, I would also have to be guilty of disappearing and murdering of the others, and I didn't know those girls at all. They were all from high society, I wouldn't even have a chance to get close to them. Besides, we already moved here near the end of last year, so way before all this started to happen." Jong Pil added at the end.

"I can confirm that." Mrs. Kim spoke up. "Except for drinking at this bar on weekends, he doesn't move from the couch. If my son was going somewhere, I would have known about it. Besides, Jong Pil can't afford bus tickets. He spends everything I give him on alcohol and snacks even though I'm cooking for him," she sighed heavily. It was evident that that despite the cursing on him, Mrs. Kim loved her son a lot and therefore was unable to throw him away or stop giving money.

"Okay, then it will be all on our part for now." Soo Min replied, then turned to Jong Pil. "We only ask you not to move anywhere until we solve the case, okay?" she asked him in such a gentle tone, that was surprised herself that she could talk that way.

"Sure, I don't plan on going anywhere." Jong Pil replied.

Hyun Woo hide the notebook and pen in his pocket, then he and Soo Min said goodbye and put on their shoes, leaving the apartment, then the building and soon the Bucheon city.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

To meet the next man, Nam Dong Sun, they had to return to Seoul, specifically Gangnam. He lived there with his parents in a tall apartment building. Today Dong Sun had classes at the university only in the late afternoon, so they had some time to talk. His parents were not present as they both worked in the same hospital and were on duty. When they got closer to the door of an elegant building and rang the intercom, Dong Sun let them in as soon as he heard who had come. Then Soo Min and Hyun Woo took the elevator to the 6th floor, went right down the corridor and stopped under one of the apartments, the door of which was already open and a tall, slender boy with rather broad shoulders was standing in it. Dong Sun had slightly longer hair dyed in cherry color, his eyes were black, and he was lightly tanned which made him look a little over 26 years old. Seeing Soo Min, the young man smiled charmingly and inspected her from head to toe.

"Hello, detective Kim Soo Min I presume?" he spoke up in a low voice. "I did not think you would be such a beautiful woman." he added, looking at her significantly.

"Yes, I'm detective Kim Soo Min, and this is my partner Jung Hyun Woo." she replied a bit coldly, introducing her companion, cutting off any flirtation that this boy wanted to weave into the conversation.

"Okay, then I invite you both inside, detectives." Dong Sun replied in a slightly more normal tone, pointing them to the hall. There they took off their shoes as the young man closed the door. Then, together, they continued into the living room, where Dong Sun sat them down on the sofa and took the chair across from them. The apartment was no doubt luxurious, like the typical Gangnam apartment that had been seen in commercials. Spacious, with large windows and a balcony. There was a kitchen, bathroom, and two other rooms that must have been the bedrooms of Dong Sun and his parents.

"Do you want some coffee? Tea?" he asked suddenly, ready to get up again.

"No need, we stopped in a cafe before coming to see you, Nam Dong Sun-sii." Hyun Woo replied, taking out a notebook and pen.

"Let's get to the point." Soo Min spoke up. "We want to talk to you because Choi Ye Eun went missing recently." she explained.

"I know, I heard it on the news. She fell victim to this Cherry Blossom Reaper or something, right?" Dong Sun asked. "You don't suspect I'm that psycho?" he added after a moment.

"For now, we are checking anyone who might be related to this case. And you won't deny that you're definitely related to at least one of the victims, Choi Ye Eun since you used to stalk her. Besides, we also have information that you may have known the rest of girls." Soo Min explained.

"True, I had an episode when I was obsessed with Choi Ye Eun, but after the court case, my parents made sure that I went to the doctor for therapy and took medications." Dong Sun replied. "They're watching me now quite well, I have a tracking app on my phone that I can't remove and even mustn't. I wouldn't be able to get anywhere without their knowledge. I am allowed to go from home to college and possibly to a store close to home. Nothing else." he explained, evidently a little ashamed of having to reveal such information.

"Then we can confirm it after talking to your parents, right?" Hyun Woo asked.

"Of course. I already gave you their numbers during our conversation yesterday, right?" Dong Sun asked, and Soo Min nodded.

" Tell me, Dong Sun-ssi, did you knew the other victims as well? If so, to what extent?" Hyun Woo asked.

"From Seo In Sung's models I knew well only Lee Eun Jung since she talked to me a lot, I even think she kind of liked me, but back then I was only interested in Choi Ye Eun. As for other models, we just got introduced to each other briefly." replied Dong Sun. "If we talk about those talent agency trainees I didn't knew them at all, but I've heard from their agency CEO how talented and pretty they are. That ajussi just couldn't stop bragging about what diamonds he had gotten, saying that those girls would become really successful and earn him a lot of money," he sighed, slightly annoyed at the memory. "I knew Jung Hee Young only by sight, sometimes she stood at the counter her my parents cafe when I ordered coffee from her, that's all. As for Choi Seo Yoon, I knew her very well, probably the best of all the girls. Not only from events and stuff, our parents are friends and it seems to me that they planned to bind us together, but with little success. I was interested in Choi Ye Eun, she was also interested in someone else. I even know who it was." he pointed out, focusing all the attention of Soo Min and Hyun Woo. "Seo Yoon was hopelessly in one-sided love with Choi Hyun Sik, Ye Eun's older brother. But he was so uninterested in her that she couldn't get his phone number or even his KakaoTalk ID. All Seo Yoon could do was follow him whenever she met him at these fancy parties, but always made a fool of herself by being completely ignored by this 'ice prince', just like any other woman." Dong Sun continued. "It seemed like the only females that Choi Hyun Sik noticed were his sister and mother. That's why I'm not surprised at all that there are rumors that he is gay and that his father's family business will end on him." he added at the end.

"You went off topic a bit, but it's okay." Soo Min said. "Tell me where were you a week ago on Sunday, when Ye Eun went missing?" she asked after a while.

"Unfortunately, I spend whole weekends at home with my parents." Dong Sun sighed heavily. "My college friends invite me to parties all the time, but I can only go with my parents to these buffoon banquets." he added, clearly annoyed by this.

"Well, we'll check the rest with your parents. Therefore, for this moment it will be everything on our part." Soo Min spoke up. "Of course, if you remember something, Dong Sun-sii, you can call the same number we contacted you from yesterday," she reminded him.

"Okay, I'll keep that in mind." Dong Sun assured them and escorted them to the door.

They said goodbye, Hyun Woo put his notebook and pen into the pocket and along with Soo Min rode the elevator down to the underground parking lot, where they had left their car.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Today's last stop was the house above the restaurant run by Kim Young Chul's parents. He was supposed to accept them in the apartment because his parents didn't want the restaurant guests to see detectives wandering around the place. That's why Soo Min parked the car at the back of the building, where the entrance to the apartment located on the 1st floor was. She and Hyun Woo got out and entered the building, taking the stairs to the 1st floor, straight to the apartment door. After one bell ringing one could immediately hear rushing footsteps and the clang of the lock, then the door opened and a definitely 30 years old man stood there, as slim as his predecessors, with the same broad shoulders, was only a few centimeters shorter, but within the supposed height of the kidnapper from CCTV recordings. He was wearing a green shirt and jeans that seemed a little bit too big for him, fastened with a black belt with a silver buckle with the Calvin Klein symbol. He had long black hair tied in a ponytail and gray eyes, his face was definitely handsome but seemed to show no emotions. Kim Young Chul looked a bit like those psychopaths they sometimes showed on television in documentaries.

"Detectives, right?" he asked briefly.

"That's right. We're..." Soo Min began to introduce them, but the man already opened the door for them wider and disappeared inside. Hyun Woo held the door for Soo Min and went in after her, closing them. They both took off their shoes, left them in the hall, and walked into the living room, where Kim Young Chul was already sitting sideways at one end of a very long black leather couch, sipping coffee from the simple white mug. This place was similar in size and number of rooms to Nam Dong Sun's apartment, it only was different by the vibe of much greater minimalism and modesty.

"Please sit down." Young Chul said, putting the mug on the table next to the couch. "Would you like coffee or tea?" he asked in a rather artificial tone which was resembling polite, but he sounded like a robot with no emotions at all. Even his face was expressionless.

"Please do not bother yourself. We've got some coffee on a way here." Hyun Woo replied politely, taking a seat on the couch next to Soo Min, who sat more or less in the middle so as not to be too close to this man since his emotionless face scared her a little bit.

"We would like to talk about the Cherry Blossom Reaper case. Choi Ye Eun, the celebrity you stalked, fell victim to him." Soo Min informed, quickly getting a grip on herself.

"You probably think I did it?" Young Chul asked with something like a little amusement in his voice and face. "You must think so because everyone knows I am crazy. After all, since I broke into her house, I'm probably capable of kidnapping, and maybe even murdering someone?" he said, still smiling strangely.

"We are not accusing you of anything yet, we just want to ask a few questions." Hyun Woo assured, looking at him, at the same time taking his notebook and pen.

"Exactly." joined Soo Min. "First, we would like to know where you were a week ago, on Sunday?" she asked.

"My parents work in a restaurant even at weekends so they were working downstairs and I sat at home watching movies." replied Young Chul. "Unfortunately no one can confirm it, except maybe the neighbors. It is possible that they heard the sounds of the TV." he added after a moment.

"We will check it." Hyun Woo said, taking a break from writing for a moment.

"Okay, another thing... Besides Choi Ye Eun, did you knew other victims? If so, how well?" Soo Min asked again.

"I only knew the models from Seo In Sung's agency, as well as him, by sight, when they were organizing banquets in our restaurant. The same for Choi Seo Yoon, the daughter of this lawyer, they sometimes came to us to eat dinner together." Young Chul replied, again with no emotion in his face or voice. "As for the trainees from this talent agency, I think they came to the restaurant with the CEO and their manager once, but I didn't get to know them well, after all, I was at work and didn't have time to chat." he explained briefly. "As for Jung Hee Young, of course I knew her well, after all, her parents coffee shop is opposite our restaurant. We talked sometimes, I liked her calling me oppa, that was really nice." at this words something like a sad smile flashed across his face. "I was very sad when I found out about her death. I miss her..." he said the last part a little more quietly but Soo Min and Hyun Woo heard it.

"We are so sorry for your loss, Kim Young Chul-ssi." Hyun Woo said with incredible empathy in his voice. This must have touched Young Chul somehow, as his expression changed to evidently surprised, and that was perhaps the most human-like expression he had on his face so far.

"Thank you." Young Chul replied, looking carefully at Hyun Woo, but then all emotions disappeared from his face again. "Anyway, let me say one thing... It may sound bad, but whatever happened to Choi Ye Eun, she probably deserved it. And I'm not saying this just because I am angry because she rejected me and sent her father, this mad dog, at me..." at these words he clenched his right hand into a fist. "But I saw her at the high society banquets organized in our restaurant. Ye Eun supposedly had a fiancé, but she flirted with almost every attractive male. If this Cherry Blossom Reaper is also handsome, she probably just went into his car herself, no matter if knew him or not. But you will never hear this truth from her family and friends, for them she was the temple of innocence. Even that fiancé of hers would protect her even though she cheated on him left and right and he probably knew and if not, it means that Jang Chang Ho is completely blind." he added contemptuously.

"Okay, that's enough information for us." Soo Min spoke up, still unable to believe what she had just heard. Whether what he said about Choi Ye Eun was true or not, this girl certainly didn't deserve to be kidnapped and possibly killed by some psychopath.

"This will be all on our part." said Hyun Woo, relieving her from further speaking. "If you'll have anything else to say, Kim Young Chul-ssi, please call the number from which we contacted you, okay?" he asked, closing his notebook and putting it together with a pen in the pocket of his leather jacket.

"I certainly will if I think of something." Young Chul replied and got up from the couch, grabbed a mug from the table and finished his coffee, putting it back down.

After that, Kim Young Chul escorted Soo Min and Hyun Woo to the door of the apartment, and they said goodbye. When they left the building, the detectives got into the car and drove to the police station to write reports based on Hyun Woo's notes.