Chapter 14 — Cherry Blossom Reaper
Hyun Woo sat in the car in the parking lot, dialing Soo Min a third time. The first and second time no one answered, and soon also the third time.
"Is she really so angry with me that doesn't answer the phone?" he asked himself, staring at the phone screen. All in all, he should have expected it. Soo Min was certainly disappointed that he had shown such irresponsibility and left her alone while they had such an important investigation to deal with. But Hyun Woo felt that what he had learned in Gwangju was very important and he couldn't ignore this feeling.
After a while he decided to text her on KakaoTalk, hoping she would at least read the message.
"Sunbae, I'm sorry to disappear like that, but I assure you I had a good reason. I'll explain it when we meet tomorrow at the police station." he wrote and put the phone in his trouser pocket, ready to start the car's engine.
Hyun Woo set off, left the parking lot in front of the Gwangju Police Station and only managed to drive a few streets when he felt the vibration of the phone in his pocket. Thinking it might be Soo Min calling him back, he pulled into the nearest parking lot outside the restaurant and took out his phone, which began to vibrate again. However, the number that called was from the Seoul Police Station.
"Detective Jung Hyun Woo here. What's up?" he asked after answering the phone, because he had never been called from the post at this time before.
"Min Hye Sun from the Cyber Security Division, Digital Forensic Section, reported to us that detective Kim Soo Min did not answer her phone call and it has made her concerned. She checked the cell's location, just in case, and it turned out that it's in a strange place, near a car junkyard," a quite nice female voice explained to him. "We tried to contact Soo Min several times, then her family, because before her phone had signaled that she was near their house. Unfortunately they told us she didn't make it home, but found her car nearby. We wanted to ask if Soo Min has contacted you, detective Jung?" the woman asked finally.
"No, she hasn't contacted me. Soo Min didn't pick up the phone even once." Hyun Woo replied, very worried.
"In that case, we will have to start the search." the woman decided. "We've already sent a patrol to the place where her phone signal is coming from, and also to her parents' house. We will also check the recordings from the cameras in the area." she continued. "Detective Jung, if Soo Min gets in touch with you, please call us, okay?" she asked.
"Of course I will." Hyun Woo assured her, feeling how panic is gradually overwhelming him. "Could I also ask for a phone call if you find out something new?" he said to the woman almost pleadingly.
"Of course, I'll give you any new information, Detective Jung," the woman assured him, and suddenly he could hear people's voices in the receiver. "Please wait a moment..." the woman said, and Hyun Woo could hear that she was talking to someone in the distance, but he could not understand anything. He waited tensely, and with his free hand gripped the steering wheel tightly and felt the skin on his palms sweating with nervousness.
"Detective Jung? Are you there?" he finally heard the woman's voice on the receiver.
"Yes, I'm still here." Hyun Woo confirmed.
"I think you should come to the police station." she finally informed him in a clearly nervous voice.
"What happened?" Hyun Woo asked anxiously, unable to hide his frustration and fear anymore. He had a very bad feeling.
"In the CCTV footage from the area where Soo Min's parents live you can see in the distance a silhouette similar to Soo Min, who is attacked by someone with appearance like the Cherry Blossom Reaper from previous recordings." the woman replied and that was enough Hyun Woo.
"Get in touch with detectives from the Violent Crime Section, especially Min Joo Chan." Hyun Woo quickly blurted out.
"But why?" asked the woman, not understanding anything.
"Trust me and just do it, for God's sake. Tell them to go to Gwangju and check our group chat on KakaoTalk, because I will send them exact instructions there where exactly in Gwangju they should go." he explained in a tone that tolerates no objection. "I think that Soo Min's life is in danger." he added at the end.
"Okay, detective Jung..." the woman started, but Hyun Woo couldn't listen to her anymore, didn't have time for that, he had to move now. Hyun Woo broke the connection and dropped the phone on the seat next to him. He had no idea why, but knew instinctively where to go and felt that the fact that he had not yet left Gwangju was like a gift from fate to save Soo Min.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Soo Min woke up in a cold, fairly empty room with a general mortuary atmosphere. She immediately felt that was lying on the bed, tied to it tightly with leather straps. Soo Min tugged hard on those straps, but there was not even a little slack in them. Her head was spinning all the time, and the image was blurry from time to time before her eyes. Additionally, she felt as if her legs were made of jelly. Soo Min felt more strength in her hands, but a few jerks on the straps were enough and her muscles ached, as if she had strained them a lot. When Soo Min looked more closely around the room, she saw metal stairs leading up, clearly indicating it was a basement, to the right of the stairs there was a metal cabinet, next to which stood a table on wheels full of surgical equipment. Opposite the bed on which she lied down was a metal door that looked like the one that led to the cold room in a restaurant or butcher's shop, but secured with a code, as indicated by the keypad on the lock. Against the other wall was another table, plain wood, on which lied down a bouquet made of artificial cherry blossoms. At this point, Soo Min was sure she was going to be the next victim of the Cherry Blossom Reaper, but had no intention of agreeing to it. There had to be a way to get out of here.
However, Soo Min did not have much time to think about how to break free from the belts and get out of there, because she heard the door open, then footsteps on the metal stairs. Soo Min turned her head in that direction and first her eyes saw long thin legs dressed in black elegant pants and shoes, then gradually the rest of the body dressed in a white shirt. When the tall man with broad shoulders came all the way down the stairs, he had his back to her at first, so the thing she noticed right away was his black, nicely styled hair. Eventually, however, the man turned to her, stepping completely into the room. Seeing his face Soo Min was not shocked, but felt a slight twinge in her heart, something like a... disappointment?
"Choi Hyun Sik..." she said softly, a slight smile appeared on his face.
"Detective Kim, how nice it is to hear my name coming out of your mouth, and spoken like this." he said in a very relaxed voice. It sounded strange, unnatural, especially after Soo Min's previous conversations with him. At this point, he did not look like an introvert at all. "And as it's better give up formal language, let me call you Soo Min, okay?" he asked and walked closer to her bed. Then Hyun Sik bent slightly over Soo Min and ran his hand over her cheek with an expression on his face as if this small gesture alone gave him a lot of pleasure.
"So you are really the Cherry Blossom Reaper..." Soo Min spoke to him in a tone full of accusation.
Her words changed the expression on his face within seconds, but there was no point in finding anger or indignation on it. His face turned to stone, completely expressionless.
"I don't really like this nickname." Hyun Sik finally said. "People don't understand how important a mission I'm carrying out and just call me a criminal." he added, sighing slightly and straightening, thereby increasing the distance between them.
"Then explain to me what your mission is." Soo Min replied, suddenly having an idea. If she talked to him, she would definitely buy herself some time, and she wanted to know his motives. "If you convince me, maybe I will be able to explain it to other people." she added, looking at him carefully, even though could not read any emotions from his face, but she preferred to keep an eye on him just in case, if she could at some point crush that stony expression on his face.
"Do you really want to know? To understand?" Hyun Sik livened up, and despite the lack of emotion on his face, something like excitement flashed through his eyes. "Will you listen to me?" he asked, looking at her so intensely she was out of breath for a moment.
"Yes... of course... That's also what my job is about, right? I listen to different people." replied Soo Min as she took a deep breath.
"Well, it's true." Hyun Sik nodded.
"See? So tell me about it..." Soo Min said encouragingly once again. "Please, Hyuk Sik." she added, using a little bit of her flirting skills and even putting some ageyo in her voice. But she hadn't expected it to cause such surprise and confusion on his face. Of course it took a short while for his face to turn to stone again, but it gave Soo Min confidence that her tactics were working on him. And despite his stone face, Hyun Sik's ears were still slightly red.
"Okay, I'll tell you." he finally replied, smiling slightly. "The point is, most beautiful women are either empty or cruel. They deserve to be punished by time so it would take their beauty away." Hyun Sik began to speak already with a pretty serious expression. "But there are women who are beautiful both inside and out. In my opinion, they don't deserve their beauty to pass away, they should be beautiful forever. Just like Im Hae Won, the guardian at my orphanage," he added.
"I don't understand..." Soo Min interjected, looking at him with surprise on her face.
"Well, you see, Soo Min... I'm not really Choi Hyun Sik." he confessed, and a bit sad smile appeared on his face. "I have been playing the role of the heir of the Choi family since I was 9, when they adopted me. Their son had an accident and died, but they did not want to lose an heir, so they searched orphanages in Korea for a boy of similar age and appearance. And it turned out that I was perfect. Of course, they paid a lot for the paperwork to say that a family from the United States had adopted me. Then they took me to a place where I learned for several months how to be Choi Hyun Sik." he continued, ignoring her shocked expression. "Of course, it was impossible to change my character, and I was a much calmer child than real Hyun Sik... But Madam Lee said it was okay, since they could blame the change in behavior on the consequences of the accident. After all, Hyun Sik had a decent head injury after falling down the stairs," he added.
"But what does this have to do with your mission?" Soo Min asked carefully, as if not wanting to make him think that she was interrogating him rather than listening.
"Before joining a foster family, from which CEO Choi and Madam Lee adopted me, I was in an orphanage in Gwangju. That's why I wanted to build my summer house right here. This is my hometown." Hyun Sik explained. "I was born here as Lee Joo Young but my family was described as pathological. My father abused me and my mother, so the officials finally took me and put me in an orphanage. From what I later found out in the newspapers, my father murdered my mother and then committed suicide not long after I was taken." he said about something so terrible with voice drained of emotion, and his face still had the same stone expression.
It seemed as if only Soo Min was touched by the story, but also wanted to keep her emotions in check. Yes, if what he was saying was true then Hyun Sik, or rather Joo Young, had a terrible life. However, this could in no way explain what he was doing as The Cherry Blossom Reaper.
"However, the orphanage I ended up in was no different from my family home." Hyun Sik continued, looking somewhere ahead. "The guardians mistreated every child there. If any of them didn't like something about your behavior, you got spanked. The orphanage received subsidies from the city, but our meals were so modest that it was impossible to fill yourself with it in any way, we wore always the same clothes, we were allowed to wash ourselves only once every two weeks. There was a playroom full of new toys, but we weren't allowed to go in as we might have broken something. We rarely went out to the yard, we never got sweets or books to learn." despite the very sad topic, he said it all like a robot, completely emotionless. "Only when the check was due were we dressed in better clothes, allowed to play in this closed room with toys, and our meals were decent. And we were not allowed to say a word to the controllers about what was really going on every day, otherwise we would be beaten later." only after these words he clenched his hands into a fist, but the expression on his face remained the same. "One day Im Hae Won, a young and beautiful girl, started working in the orphanage. She was the only one who treated us like children, played with us, gave us sweets, read books that she brought herself, but all this, of course, when no one else saw. Every child loved her, but one day the rest of the guardians caught her playing with us and giving us candy. They rushed at Hae Won like animals and dragged her into their room, we heard screams and then suddenly silence. In the evening, when I couldn't sleep because of worry, I was hanging around the house and I saw two of the evil guardians throwing something into the basement. I hid, and when they left, I crept into that room and found Hae Won's body there, all beaten and in blood. They beat her to death..." Hyun Sik broke off, and only then Soo Min saw something like anger on his face, however, she didn't say a word, because couldn't even think of what to say. "I had seen her beauty deteriorate and I wished I could stop time while Hae Won's beauty was still intact. She didn't deserve what had happened to her... She deserved to be beautiful forever." he added almost in a whisper, but Soo Min heard every word because he was standing very close.
"I understand." Soo Min spoke up, though she didn't really understand where this story was going and what it had to do with what he was doing as the Cherry Blossom Reaper. "What happened next?" she asked.
"That same evening, I blocked the door to the room in which our guardians were sleeping. Then I started a fire, which was easy thanks to that old furnace that was heating the whole building." Hyun Sik said, something like madness flickering through his eyes. "I woke the other kids and took all of them from the orphanage before it burned down. The neighbors called the fire brigade, but by the time they arrived most of the building had burned down and the guardians in it, trapped in the room." at these words he smiled widely, which scared Soo Min a little. Yes, those women behaved unforgivably, but they should be judged by the court, not murdered in this way.
"And that is why you became the Cherry Blossom Reaper?" Soo Min asked a bit carelessly, and she realized it only when saw Hyun Sik leaning over her, resting both hands on the bed, on both sides of her face.
"Don't call me that nasty nickname." he answered her in a cold tone, then pulled away, straightening completely. "I'm beginning to wonder if you really want to try to understand me, Soo Min." he added, eyeing her suspiciously.
"I'm so sorry..." Soo Min replied, and it seems she looked scared enough, because he looked at her with a slightly gentler gaze. "Of course I want to try to understand you, so keep talking. What exactly is your mission and what does it have to do with your story?" she asked much more carefully.
"From the day of burning down the orphanage, I decided that if I find a woman as beautiful inside and out as Hae Won, I will not let her beauty pass away or be destroyed by others. "Hyun Sik began to speak again, with a stony expression on his face." And soon I found that person, it was my new sister, Ye Eun. I thought for a long time, read, looked for information to know how to keep her beauty forever. Finally I found it, but first had to learn the technique to perfection. That's why I started practicing with other girls who I thought deserved this honor. "he continued, and Soo Min had to really make an effort not to show the horror that began to overwhelm her as she began to understand his motives better.
"Would you like to see my beautiful creations? My immortally beautiful ladies?" Hyun Sik asked suddenly, his eyes fully focused on her, and for the first time the emotion could be read so clearly on his face, and it was a strange mixture of pride, excitement, anticipation, and hope. He kind of looked like a little child who wanted to show his mother what beautiful things it had done.
"Yes of course. Show me." Soo Min finally replied, trying to smile as credibly as possible and even though was afraid of what she would see, but couldn't show it to him, otherwise her plan might have crumbled very quickly.
At her words Hyun Sik's face lit up even more and he walked away from the bed where Soo Min was lying, towards the metal door. He revealed the keyboard, but quickly covered it with his whole body before he started typing the code. You can see that Hyun Sik was very careful, which did not surprise Soo Min. She couldn't forget that he was, after all, the Cherry Blossom Reaper, the same one who was so brilliantly able to cover his tracks and planned each kidnapping with precision down to the smallest detail.
When the sound of the lock was heard, Hyun Sik pulled hard on the handle, unlocking the massive metal door. She was immediately struck by the tremendous chill of this room that really reminded her of a morgue. But as the door was opened completely, Soo Min saw a sight much more terrifying than the morgue.
In the center of the room was a slightly frosted couch, with human-sized dolls perched on top of it, or so it seemed at first glance. They were sitting side by side, one leaning against the other, dressed in beautiful dresses, full make-up and nicely arranged hair. However, Soo Min quickly recognized in each of their faces the victims of the Cherry Blossom Reaper whose bodies were not found. There were both missing models—Kim Min Hee and Joon Hwa Young—and a talent agency trainees, Shim Eun Ah and Kim Hae Ran. In the center was of course Choi Ye Eun, in the most beautiful dress, looking the most vivid of them all. Ye Eun as his main goal was supposed to look perfect and some of the other girls had some imperfections masked with makeup, and it was obvious that Hyun Sik was 'learning' on them the proper way to preserve the corpse. Yes, that was what he did. To 'keep the beauty' of his victims forever, especially Ye Eun, he killed them, mummified and made into dolls. In a way, Hyun Sik made them eternally beautiful, but it was still some sort of paranoia and Soo Min had to end it today.
"Beautiful, aren't they?" he asked, turning slowly to look at her, then at his 'creations' with something like reverence. "Now think how lucky you are, Soo Min. Today you will join them and be forever beautiful and young, just like this." saying this, Hyun Sik turned towards her completely.
He said it with so much seriousness on his face, and there was excitement visible in his eyes, which chilled Soo Min's blood in her veins. Finally she started to think again that had to break free because her time was running out and doubted if she would be able to talk to him further, because he probably told her everything, and there was no indication that anyone knew where Soo Min was. No wonder, except for her, probably no one really suspected Choi Hyun Sik of being the Cherry Blossom Reaper. Suddenly, however, another point struck her mind.
"But why not all of the kidnapped girls ended up here? You kidnapped them, because they definitely deserved this honor..." Soo Min spoke up. "So why did you abandoned Lee Eun Jung, Choi Seo Yoon and Jung Hee Young?" she asked, carefully choosing her words, because didn't want to make him doubt again her intentions to understand him.
"They were rude and wanted to get away. After receiving such a gift they stubbornly rejected it." Hyun Sik replied, and in his eyes there was some sadness mixed with anger. "Due to Eun Jung and Seo Yoon escape I had to fasten the belts tighter later, since those two somehow freed themselves from them. Hee Young I didn't even get here... She woke up too early, halfway, in a car." he sighed heavily, walking slowly to the metal cabinet. "I felt sorry for them, but unfortunately I couldn't let them escape and interfere with my mission." he continued, opening the cabinet door, and then taking out a bottle with colorless liquid from it. "But now enough talking, Soo Min. Time to get to work." Hyun Sik concluded, taking the syringe on the way from a metal table on wheels standing nearby.
Seeing how he filled the syringe with liquid from the bottle along the way, Soo Min began to implement her plan a little faster. Some time ago she remembered the miniature pocket knife she always had tucked in the sleeves just in case, now it was in her denim jacket's sleeve. When Hyun Sik was turned back from her, Soo Min cut one of the straps binding her right wrist and quickly transferred the knife to her left hand, while carefully concealing the fact that the right strap had been cut. Fortunately, when Hyun Sik started walking towards her, he had to focus on filling the syringe, so Soo Min could cut the strap on her left wrist imperceptibly.
"It's time to fall asleep, Soo Min. Don't be afraid, it won't hurt. And then you will become beautiful forever..." Hyun Sik said, walking up to her with a triumphant smile, a syringe in his hand.
"Forgive me, Hyun Sik..." Soo Min said softly, then freed her hands and swung her pocket knife hard, injuring his arm in which he had the syringe, causing him to drop it to the floor.
It was only then, for the first time, that she saw emotions so clear on his face that their power almost struck her. The mixture of fear, disappointment and anger was visible on his face more clearly than any other feelings that Soo Min had seen on his face so far, counting from their first meeting. Then there was madness in his eyes and Hyun Sik lunged at her, trying to tear the miniature pocket knife from her hand. He was really strong, and Soo Min was still slightly dizzy and barely able to stay on her feet because of the stuff he had injected her while attacking in that dark alley. But despite of everything, Soo Min only swayed slightly, quickly freeing herself from his grip with an agile movement. At the police academy, she learned how to fight an attacker who is stronger than you and how to use his own strength against him. And at that exact moment she used those teachings to hurt him in a few more places with a pocket knife, then knocked to the ground so that Hyun Sik hit his head heavily on the hard floor. Then, slightly staggering, still visibly under the influence of the previously injected substance, Soo Min rushed to the metal stairs leading upstairs, on the way seeing once more the cold room where the victims of the Cherry Blossom Reaper were sitting, turned into eternally beautiful dolls and a lonely tear run down her cheek.
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Hyun Woo got quite quickly to the Choi Hyun Sik's house, but in his opinion too late for the situation. He had no idea if Soo Min was still alive, but she was a detective after all and certainly had a better chance against the Cherry Blossom Reaper. Nevertheless, Hyun Woo was terribly worried, and as stopped the car in front of the gate, which began to open slowly, he wondered what would happen if there were security guards on the property. However, when Hyun Woo entered the area, his fears turned out to be unfounded. It was empty here, as if no one was there at all. But he had the impression that young master Choi must be here, and Soo Min with him. Of course, Hyun Woo was worried about what would happen, but if he was wrong and Choi Hyun Sik was not the Cherry Blossom Reaper. However, as he learned from Soo Min, Hyun Woo chose to trust his intuition.
He turned off the engine and got out of the car, removing the gun from its holster for the first time since arriving in Seoul. Hyun Woo stepped onto the porch, but the main door was clearly locked, and he didn't even try to break the lock, which was password-protected. He left the porch and walked cautiously towards the garage. The side door, surprisingly, turned out to be open so he went inside and in the darkness found a light switch on the wall. As the garage lit up with a light bulb, Hyun Woo saw clearly the two cars parked in the middle of the garage, near the entrance. The black Hyundai IONIQ Hybrid stood deeper in the garage, and right next to it was a KIA, identical to the car seen in the CCTV footage with the Cherry Blossom Reaper. After quickly checking the license plates, Hyun Woo knew it was the KIA that belonged to CEO Choi, which meant Secretary Lee most likely lied while saying that he had ensured that the car was destroyed in front of his own eyes. For now, however, Hyun Woo didn't have time to think about this issue any longer, but it reassured him that he was in the right place and Soo Min was somewhere in this house too. Luckily, the door leading through the garage to the house was open as well. Choi Hyun Sik must have been very sure of himself and that no one would come here, since he acted so carelessly and didn't even close the door behind him. But it didn't mattered, the better for him. Hyun Woo entered the corridor that leads past the kitchen to the dining and living room. The lights were off and Hyun Woo wasn't going to change it. Quickly his eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, and he studied every angle carefully, feeling the tension building up. As he passed the stairs leading to the second floor to check the second wing of the house, Soo Min suddenly jumped from around the corner.
"Sunbae?" Hyun Woo couldn't believe he'd seen her alive and lowered the gun right away.
"Hyun Woo? Is that really you?" she asked, grasping his shoulders hard and swaying slightly.
"Are you okay?" he asked, unable to hide his concern.
"I am weakened by what he injected me during the kidnapping. He failed with a rag soaked in chloroform, so he gave me something else later." Soo Min explained shortly. "But it doesn't matter... What are you doing here? I didn't think anyone knew where I could be. After all, nobody really suspected Choi Hyun Sik..." she added, looking at him uncertainly.
"Sunbae, my disappearance today has something to do with my later suspicion of Choi Hyun Sik, but I'll explain that in more detail later." Hyun Woo replied, then took her down the hall to the door that led to the garage.
Soo Min was glad to hear his words. She knew Hyun Woo had a good reason to disappear so suddenly, and although wanted to know exactly what was going on right now, she knew they still had Hyun Sik on their heads.
"He's in the basement, or at least that's where I left him when he hit his head on the floor and passed out." she told him. Soo Min didn't have to say the name anymore so Hyun Woo would know who it was. Besides, could the Cherry Blossom Reaper be called Choi Hyun Sik if he wasn't him really?
"Listen to me, Sunbae." Hyun Woo looked at her carefully. "This door leads to the garage, and there is a side door through which you can get outside. There's a police car in front of the garage." he said, then spread one of her hands and put the car keys in it, closing her fingers back around it. "Get in it and wait 15 minutes for me. In the meantime, contact the police station via radio and ask if the colleagues from our Section are on the way, if they took help with them and if they could hurry up. Do you understand?" asked Hyun Woo, and when she nodded her head he sighed slightly. "If I don't come back after 15 minutes and the police cars won't come too, start the engine and get away from here, Sunbae." he asked her at the end.
"But I can't do that... I won't leave you here." Soo Min spoke up.
"Kim Soo Min, for God's sake." Hyun Woo replied pleadingly. "You're still weakened so listen to me and if 15 minutes pass, the police cars won't come and I won't leave this house, drive away from here as fast as possible." he said firmly.
Maybe it wasn't the right time for it, but in this moment Hyun Woo seemed to Soo Min more masculine and attractive than ever. She didn't even care that he called her informally by name.
"Okay, I understand." Soo Min confirmed, nodding her head a little, because he was right, she still felt weak. "But please..." she looked up at him. "Take care of yourself and if it's too dangerous, run away. Don't put yourself in too much risk." she asked, then hugged him tightly, but got embarrassed and quickly walked through the garage door, leaving a slightly shocked Hyun Woo standing in the dark corridor. However, soon a broad smile spread across his face, and heart skipped a beat at the thought that she was so worried about him. However, Hyun Woo quickly recovered because he knew very well that a hard fight awaited him.
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Soo Min ran through the garage, stopping when saw the KIA car she spotted there.
"Same car as in the footage..." Soo Min said to herself and checked the license plates. "Choi Young Sik's KIA... So it was not destroyed after all." she added, but then found the side door and got out. Their police car was actually parked in the driveway to the garage, so using her keys, Soo Min unlocked the door and got in, taking the driver's seat. She put the keys in the ignition switch and immediately turned on the CB-radio, searched for the right frequency, and when she found it, immediately began asking about support. It turned out that Min Joo Chan and a few police cars were on the way, so Soo Min asked the central station to pressure them a bit, as right now detective Jung Hyun Woo is alone with Cherry Blossom Reaper in one house. When she received confirmation that they would pass on the information, Soo Min was unable to sit still. Her hands were clenched on the steering wheel, she was staring at the garage side door all the time, hoping to see Hyun Woo soon in them.