Chapter 43: She started it first
It was through sobbing that he found out this man wasn't under hypnosis.
For a moment, Hansol read Kim Daehyun's feelings as 'false.' He told a lie while sobbing, and Hansol came to know it.
'…it is difficult to adopt the evidence under hypnosis as real evidence. We need to find another way.'
In Korea, statements obtained through hypnosis have a 50-50 chance of being adopted as evidence. Therefore, the sincere emotions the suspect should have felt were nothing but false cries.
After this, Hansol decided to reveal the suspect's truth by playing with words. In other words, this was going to be psychological warfare.
"Continue telling me what you see."
Kim Daehyun continued to sob.
"She is beckoning me to come… I need that necklace of Jihye… I want to feel her smell… but I lost it…."
"How did you make that necklace of Miss Jihye? Did she permit you?"
"It was the proof of our love…."
'Lie.'
Now he was telling lies. Kim Daehyun, with his eyes closed, couldn't see Hansol's left eye turn blue. Unlike other times when it would flash for a nanosecond. In other words, Kim Daehyun was continuously telling lies.
"Then let's talk about what happened before. Since when did Miss Jihye have a boyfriend?"
He stopped sobbing immediately, and his voice was filled with anger as he said, "That bastard! Asshole! That fucker stole Jihye from me… Jihye will always come back to me."
"Did Miss JIhye tell you that herself?"
"Jihye left a letter for me. I treasure that letter."
Finally, he got one thing. If there was a letter, it should have been inside the house and was collected by the police. But no such things as letters were found in the evidence gathered. There were only things related to murder were brought.
"And where is this letter?"
"…. Inside the fan motor…."
Hansol thought about where this fan was in Kim Daehyun's house when he was arrested. He definitely looked around the house, but there was no such thing.
Kim Daehyun kept telling lies about it.
"And where is this fan?"
"He took it!"
Lie again.
Hansol felt his inherent aggression rise as false information keeps coming out of the suspect's mouth.
What is the motive of this killer in front of him? Why did this killer, who had no antisocial personality disorder, kill a human?
Informal attachment, poor social skills… was that really all?
Why did he kill the victim? Why wasn't the 'boyfriend' the goal instead of the victim? Too many things Hansol wanted to ask the suspect.
After deciding to hold back, Hansol asked.
"Do you remember when the two of you decided to date?"
"I-I can never forget that!"
"Can you clearly remember what day of the week you confessed?"
"It was October 31st, Sunday. Jihye accepted my feelings… Since Jihye rests on weekends, I confessed that I would like to meet her during…."
And he was caught.
"And what time was it?"
"I… I asked for a lunch meeting. We went to a café… I confessed to her around 3:22 pm, and it was Jihye's birthday…."
"You have great memory power. You remember everything about Miss Jihye."
"I, I… there is nothing I don't know about Jihye…."
Hansol almost laughed out loud at it.
"Mr. Kim Daehyun."
Hansol's soft voice ran in the ears.
Hansol smiled and then said, "You can stop with the acting now."
"….uh, sorry?"
Kim Daaehyun looked confused. But he didn't open his eyes. It was clear he wanted to act till the end.
"Mr. Kim Daehyun, October 31st of 2018, Wednesday at 3:22 pm, the victim, working part-time on weekdays afternoon, was at work. And she is known to leave work at 5 pm."
Kim Daehyun opened his eyes.
Unknowingly, he was caught in the trap laid by Hansol.
"Now, you opened your eyes."
Kim Daehyun ran for Hansol. At that moment, Hansol held onto the wrist of Kim Daehyun tight enough to break it.
"Okay now, shall we start the real questioning? I have so many questions."
The soft voice from behind was entirely gone.
Kim Daehyun, who had been suppressed, was turning nervous.
"Now, let's move on to the second statement. How did it feel to kill? Why did you target the victim?"
Kim Daehyun was speechless.
"Unable to speak? You must have made a plan on what statement to make, but you didn't think the day you would say would be a Wednesday, right?"
Hansol kept trying to irate him.
Kim Daehyun saw the profiler like he was a monster. It felt like he was falling into an abyss where the monster was lurking.
"Shall we talk one after another? If Mr. Kim Daehyun doesn't speak, I will have to put the situation on my own. I have so many questions. So tell me right away. I don't have a lot of patience."
Hansol seemed to hear a growling sound inside him. It felt like his emotions, which had been dormant for far too long, were now coming up.
"S-so… I…"
Kim Daehyun began to speak with a sob.
"Don't cry. I couldn't even see a tear. Aren't you tired of forcing yourself to cry? Now, let's go back to your life ten years ago. Well, the environment you grew up in wouldn't have been nice. You must have a feeling of dissatisfaction about this world."
Kim Daehyun kept silent. The tears he tried to make were drying up, and he couldn't even speak.
Hansol continued.
"You were arrested for robbery and had a record of a first offense, right? At that time, you claimed to be mentally ill, but the court didn't accept it according to the results… it must have been bad. Just because you had a criminal record, they robbed you of having a normal social life. And the complaints of this world must have piled up."
Kim Daehyun, who was furious at these words, growled.
"What do you even know?! Have you grown up under the care of a mother who doesn't give a shit about her children? What do you even know?!"
"Good. Do it like now. I love these emotions from you. This is human nature. I won't side with anyone, but I don't like the screaming either, so tone back on it. Now, let's talk more?"
Kim Daehyun was confused.
Kim Daehyun looked significantly different from the man stroking that necklace before.
Hansol gave him tissues to wipe his face.
He was trying to feel for Kim Daehyun, imagining his situation.
"You couldn't possibly have established an attachment. You most likely had never heard the term "love." You must have felt as if society had abandoned you. You're always with dissatisfaction. Then, she caught your eyes, the victim, the only person who was kind to you."
"Right! Jihye was kind to me! It wasn't just kindness to customers! She was the one who seduced me!"
"Now, you are speaking honestly, but the way she acted was to be expected by someone who is in the service industry. As she is working as a service provider in a store, she was being kind and courteous to the customer, but the other person mistakes it. In fact, there are many cases where such people get confessed to and suffer from stalking. She, too, must have known it, and you did too. But why didn't she say anything despite going through it? Was it to make you a murderer? You kept being released despite the stalking complaint, but after committing the murder, it is almost certain that you would rot in the prison for at least ten years."
Kim Daehyun trembled. His eyes said he wanted to kill Hansol immediately, but he knew that this man wasn't weak.
"That fucking bitch… she is the one who made a move…. Right, I approached her but that witch! She treated the drink I gave her as trash! She's playing around with other men! She should have loved me too if she was that kind of woman! No, she lied that she loved me!"
"Mr. Kim Daehyun. Do you realize what is wrong with the words you say? You admit it too. That the victim showed kindness due to the nature of her job was mistaken by you and misunderstood. Why are you still pretending not to understand when you clearly know that? uh?"
"You fucker!"
Daehyun ran to Hansol again.
This time it didn't stop with suppressing the hand. Hansol avoided colliding with the body and pushed the man down as he put his knee on Kim Daehyun's back to press him on the floor, holding the suspect's hands behind his back.
Hansol's aggression was reaching his head. And he thought if it happened again, he might kill Kim Daehyun on the spot.
"Let's talk. There is no need to be violent when just talking, right? You are here to confess… all the things spoken will now be taken as evidence. It would be better if the rest of the interrogation goes smoothly."
Kim Daehyun, under Hansol's weight, groaned at it.
Hansol ignored it and said, "Right, that is how it started. That is how the stalking started. Since the punishment of stalking is light, you must have gone around harassing her, right? The call log is out."
Hansol confirmed the call history between Kim Daehyun and the victim. Thousands of calls were made before the victim died, and they were all by Kim Daehyun. Park Jihye never once called him first.
"You said it was love. Love is receiving and giving it back. But why were there records of Mr. Kim Daehyun only calling and Miss Park Jihye receiving it? And in fact, she didn't seem to answer them."
"I-It is because she didn't know I loved her! It is because I love her more! It is because of that affair! She was messing around with me in the first place! I am the real boyfriend! The real boyfriend is me!"
"There is no need to keep acting. You should also know that you weren't her boyfriend."
"Fuck…"
Kim Daehyun spat out abusive words.
Hansol didn't release the grip and said, "It must have been satisfying to get you to be punished for misdemeanors by the police. In the meantime, you must have been accumulating much information about the victim, right? Then one day, you saw something. And that must have touched you most strangely. What was that?"
"Ahh! Yes! I saw them together! I saw it! In front of me! How dare they do it in front of me!"
"Right. That was it. After that, you must have planned the murder. You must have prepared all the tools needed: preservatives and other pieces of evidence we collected. It's hard to do everything on a whim. You must have decided to kidnap and murder the victim."
Kim Daehyun chuckled as he leaned to the floor.
And he mumbled.
"That fucking wench… I did nothing wrong… it is all because of her…."
Hansol grabbed him by the hands to force him to stand up and whispered into the suspect's ear.
"… thank you. But if it were me, I wouldn't have done that. You are so stupid."
Angel's Corner
Yes, Angel's Corner is back! I saw someone looking for me in our discord server, I just wanna say that I'm here alive and well! I'm editing this awesome novel. 😎
Alsooo, yes! If you've noticed, Hansol is starting to feel. He's having emotions. It started few chapters back. If you know what exact chapter, comment it below! Haha.
So, what are your thoughts for this chapter? 🤔💭