Sitting next to the open door of the house, SinHa was looking at the starry sky, on which was seen, from time to time, scattered clouds, and even with that weak celestial light, nature was still capable to reveal its fairy-like, nocturne beauty.

„Beautiful!” SinHa whispered, without taking her eyes off the sky. After that, she hugged SolHi’s photo to her chest, a photo since SolHi was still a little child. Then, right to her right, lying around on the floor, was seen a small doll which she was never leaving behind her. „My daughter is also beautiful, stars! And … she’s beautiful!” the woman added while smiling strangely as if a band of beautiful memories had come to her mind.

Suddenly, SinHa kept silent and got serious while staring at the old woman who was taking care of her and who was in the yard, at that moment, along with a man about 40 that was insistingly asking her to call someone from his phone.

„Bad guy!” SinHa suddenly murmured, getting enraged and squeezing the doll to her chest. „He has always been a bad man! A bad man!” and she crawled later toward a dark corner, covering her ears with her palms not to hear the insistences of that man that was saying the same thing all the time: „come on, mother! Don’t act like this! Call SolHi and tell her to send us more money!”

„To send us again, son? Aren’t you ashamed of this? That girl is sending us money all the time! How should I ask her to send more money when she has just paid us last week?!”

„As if it’s such a big deal!” he mumbled. „Just tell her that … the crazy SinHa did again something bad and that you should pay for this. Or what… should I pay with my head this time? You know that this will happen if I don't pay, mother!”

The old lady slapped his back several times: „Ah, you are killing my soul and making my old age so bitter! You’re all the time looking for trouble! When will you grow up?”

„But I did nothing. I swear that I did nothing this time, but … as I didn’t pay everything last time, the percentage increased and I … if I don’t pay, mother, I swear that they’ll bury me this time God knows where.”

„They would do the world a favor,” the old woman said feisty, pulling the phone out of her son’s hand and looking for SolHi’s number on it. Then, till SolHi answered, she nervously squeezed her hand into a fist. „Hello, SolHi, it’s me! How are you doing?”

SolHi, who was returning from the supermarket, suddenly got alert, for each time the old woman was calling her, it was to tell her bad news or to ask for more money. „Me? Fine, but … why are you calling this time?”

„Aaa, I just wanted … nothing special. I just wanted to tell you that… you know, uhh, my old ages, I’m so ashamed to tell you about this, but … I didn’t look after her only for one second, I swear, and your mother…”

SolHi suddenly stopped and sighed. „What did my mother do this time, YeJin grandma?”

„Nothing disastrous, but… she again bounced into Mrs. Ho’s store and … she destroyed some things there,” the old YeJin lied to SolHi, saying those words in a half a voice while she was pushing her son away from her because he was practically yelling in her ear to ask SolHi for more money.

„How much this time?” SolHi asked, practically lacking power.

„Not much. Only … 10 thousand Wons.”

„10 thousand Wons?” SolHi shouted. „Grandma, do you think that I earn millions? I’m a simple detective who receives a salary from the state. I can’t afford to pay for everything my mother breaks, plus her medical, care, and your salary. More than that: I also must make a living and I also need money for me.”

„I know, SolHi, I know, but… how should we don’t pay Mrs. Ho for the damages?! You know that she always helps us and…”

„I’m so aware of this, grandma, but … I’m also tired and…I also need someone to help me in this, at least from time to time.”

„SolHi, dear girl, you know that if I could…”

„It’s all right, I understood. I’ll send that money you asked for tomorrow and … I hope this is the last time you don’t take care of my mother as you should do that, grandma, because … I swear that I won’t send more money next time and that you’ll pay for everything from your own pocket,” and SolHi hung up the phone, furiously kicking a stone she met in her way. „Wonderful! It seems that they all agreed to kill me this time! Wherefrom to raise the wind this time?! More with the rent that has been also raised up?! Why nobody thinks about me too because I really don’t have where to take that damn money from and every single time when they need it!”

After SolHi hung up the phone, the old YeJin furiously stared at her son. „If I catch you once again inside of a gambling hall, or asking me to beg for damn money to pay for your debts later, I swear that I’ll bury you with my own hand somewhere before those loan sharks will find you. Did you understand me?”

„Yes, mother, but now…”

„Now what? What?” the old lady yelled.

„I’m starving. Can we go to eat now?”

„Not yet. SinHa isn’t asleep. I can’t let her alone.”

„Mom, nothing will happen to her! Don’t worry! Anyway, our house is just next door. If something happens, that mindless person will scream so bad that even the dead ones will stand up and walk around. More than this: it’s quiet and dark in her room. She’s probably already asleep.”

„Anyway: first, I’ll go to check her.”

„What for, huh?! Tell me, what for? To awake her and then not to have the possibility to get rid of her? As I said, nothing will happen to her, as nothing happens in this damn village! So… let’s go, ok?! I’m starving! Don’t you really care about me even a little?” the man started to beg her and, pushing her slowly from behind, he managed to convince her eventually and both of them headed toward their house.

After they left, SinHa again opened the door and, frightened, she looked at the empty yard, squeezing the doll to her chest and slowly biting her lower lip, because she was so frightened each time the old lady was letting her alone in that dark and empty house, even if the old lady’s agreement with SolHi has been not to leave SinHa alone even for a few minutes.

***

Even though she has been afraid that only the money will spoil her evening, SolHi has been wrong, because during the dinner, into a small squabble with DooSan while they were playing the Tom and Jerry game, their favorite game actually, trying to make friends again with her, DooSan kicked her stomach, unwillingly, and this brought the storm into SolHi’s soul again.

She right away stood up from next to the small grill on which the meat was frying and she ran into the bathroom, without paying at all attention to the fact that DooSan could have suspected of her mental situation, even if since the last crisis until that moment he knew about her ghost pain, but he never knew or imagined as difficult was her situation and what kind of unbearable pains SolHi was forced to endure. And, her inner demons were awaking even more if someone was kicking her stomach or belly, and because of it, the nightmare from the night when she lost her baby due to the kicks and the punches of that bastard, was returning to her like a boomerang that hadn’t mercy on nobody and anything.

„Did I exaggerate?” DooSan wondered in a whisper, lying on the bed, with his hands under his head and watching at the white ceiling of the room, piercing the darkness with his glance. „Well… I ate everything I’ve cooked, but … even if I made a joke that everything had to be for me, it seems to me that she gave up too easily. On other occasions, I would have remained the hungry one and not her. Why did SolHi step aside this time? Is it true that she ate something bad and because of this she spent so much time locked in the bathroom?! Yet… those deaf blows I’ve heard… they were so similar to what I’ve heard last time. No… wait, DooSan, you’re thinking too much lately. I think it would be better to change the subject, or you won’t ever fall asleep.”

However, he found it quite difficult to fall asleep, for no matter how long he didn’t move from one side to another, memories were returning to his mind: a beautiful brown hair, strewn on the white sheet of the bed in which he had spent a night with a stranger long ago. And that shade of the hair was reminding him so much about the color of SolHi’s hair, strewn on his arm while they spent the night together only one night before.

Suddenly, DooSan opened his eyes and looked at the darkness of the room. „I should have told her at least goodbye as YuSan suggested. Now, I wouldn't have been tormented by doubts. I would have known at least if my thoughts are real, that what I see now, hidden in my mind, aren’t just fake memories. But yet…”

He finally got out of bed with difficulty, for trying to make the less possible noise with the crutches, and approached the sofa on which SolHi was asleep because, for some unknown reason, she refused to sleep on the bed and him on the sofa.

Then, he sat down on the floor, at her bedside and, after hesitating for a few minutes, he stretched his hand and caressed her hair, watching as charmed at her asleep face, which seemed to be so calm and so beautiful in that weak light of the street lamp.

„What are we hiding, even from ourselves, SolHi?” DooSan eventually murmured. „What do those images I’ve seen lately in front of my eyes mean? And… why they are reminding me about you, about a SolHi I’ve never met, I’ve never known before, but who still seems to be so familiar to me, so dear, especially because those images are fragments of a hot night together, of a night when we made love, SolHi?! And yet, SolHi, I’m sure that the first time when I’ve seen you has been that night when the paramedics took you out of that damn abandoned warehouse. But…,” and his heart stopped in his chest for a few moments, for feeling how his breath has been interrupted by the guilt he should have felt for YuSan because he started to love the same woman accused of being the one who took his brother’s life. But… instead of guilt, DooSan was feeling love for her, feelings that he wasn’t able anymore to hide, even if he wanted so bad to keep them only for him, but which still were filling his chest to the brim, driving him crazy so bad that he forgot about getting revenge and was trying to make his life next to her.

SolHi finally moved in asleep and turned her back on him, leaving half of her back uncovered while her hair has strewed on the pillow just as the last night, blinking in a beautiful brown, illuminated by the same blind street lamp.

DooSan bowed his head and, after closing his eyes, he deeply breathed in the scent of those chestnuts hidden into SolHi’s hair and, for a moment only, it seemed to him that she was again so pleasantly smelling like lavender.

In order not to lose his temper and, completely driven crazy, to hold her to his chest and scare her, DooSan rushed to cover her back with the blanket up to the neck, then he supported his palm on the sofa to stand up, and approached eventually the window.

He stood like that for minutes in a row, in front of those half-opened curtains, watching at the empty and badly illuminated street, onto which only the night ghosts weren’t afraid to pass. Then, a fragment of what SolHi said while being in the kitchen with her back at him when he left the bathroom, suddenly came into his mind: „wherefrom to take again this time? I’ve really reached my limits!” but DooSan hasn’t understood what did she mean and he didn’t also dare to ask her what she was talking about. „She’ll tell me if it’s necessary,” DooSan calmed down himself. „I’m sure she’ll ask for my help if she needs it,” but he was wrong because while he was standing in front of the window and watching the street, SolHi was lying on the sofa, with her back on him, pretending to be asleep, even if she had heard everything that he whispered to her, for she’s been awakened by those whispers, but she preferred not to watch DooSan into his eyes, afraid not to fall prey to madness and to spend a whole night into his arms.

***

The next morning, SolHi went to the office, despite DooSan’s attempts of making her stay home, with him, and trying this way to keep her away from the investigation and, especially, to keep her out of Min SinJu's way.

However, SolHi was stubborn and, at the moment DooSan has started his eternal speech about the advantages of a long day spent together, she simply took her coat and, without saying a word, she left the apartment, leaving DooSan mumbling alone… that she never listens to him and that she’s all the time doing only what enters her mind.

„Did you again wrangle with prosecutor Han?” Kan asked her, approaching the edge of the roof where SolHi was standing, just as she was always standing next to it, each time she had problems to think about. And, lately, the problems seemed to cling to her like a leech, after a long period of time when she had thought that they have already forgotten about her.

„Did you ever see me and Han DooSan without wrangling, sombe? If a whole day will pass without having an argument with him, then we got to Heaven for sure. But so: let’s say that we only fulfilled our daily routine.”

„And again, the famous crisis is clinging to you like a leech.”

SolHi winced and, frightened, looked at Kan. „How do you know that?” her eyes were asking him, but this made Kan only smile.

„SolHi, maybe I’m just an old and lonely wolf, but I still can make the difference between when someone’s eyes are black because of tiredness and when because of illness, and yours are always black because of the same soul pain. What this time?”

„Nothing important. Just: unwillingly, DooSan kicked my stomach last night and… I lived again everything - so fresh and so painful.”

„And… won’t it be wiser to tell prosecutor Han about your story? I’m sure next time he’ll be much more careful, because…”

„If to tell him about this, sombe, it means that I have to tell him about the rest of the problems… and… I don’t want to involve him in this.”

„Why not? Because everything points toward Min SinJu?”

„And… how did you find out this one? Don’t tell me that the same old and lonely wolf that lives inside you told you about this too?!”

„No. Let’s say that we had a „special investigation” last night: me, inspector Yu, and the donkey boy, Oh Yoon Suk.”

„Mmm,” SolHi slurred calmly, which amazed Kan.

„Only mmm and that’s all?! I thought you’ll kill me finding out about this, that we left you behind in that operation.”

„What for?! I don’t think you found out a big deal anyway. Min SinJu is extremely careful in his things and he’s full of secrets. Even if he does business with the devil itself in his club, I’m sure that we won’t find anything there, even looking for a whole life through each corner of that local. Tell me better about the truck’s driver. SuJin told me that his wife received money after the accident.”

„I'm going to break SuJin's throat for revealing things that should have been secret,” Kan furiously snarled. „Anyway, he’s right. But… no matter how hard we didn’t try to find where those 5 thousand euros have been spent or at least to find his wife and his child, it resulted impossible. As if the earth swallowed them.”

„We should ask for the Interpol's cooperation then.”

„What for? They didn’t leave the country! I’m sure about this! I and inspector Yu’ve checked the cameras from the airport, and A Rim checked the passengers'lists, but … nothing.”

„The lists of the passengers? Didn’t you need a court order for this?”

„Of course, we needed it! Actually, we checked them having that damn court order. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have found anything, ever.”

„And… who signed that order? San DuSik or your eternal „helper?” SolHi teased him.

„Eh, my helper already… moved to the Financial Department. So: I had to ask for Han DooSan’s signature. Otherwise, we wouldn't have found out anything, ever, because San DuSik chased me out of his office only by smelling me next to his door.”

„I’m not even surprised. But what surprises me is that the truck’s driver gave up so easily. I mean that he killed himself only a few days after the accident. And … all this only for 50 thousand euros?! It smells weird, to be honest.”

„I think so too, but… we can't bond those two: Ian Hion Uk and the truck's driver.”

„Ian Hion Uk? Min SinJu’s cousin was the truck driver’s lawyer?”

„Did you also know that? I mean … did you know that Ian Hion Uk and Min SinJu are cousins?”

„Of course, I knew. Ever since Li Ha Ni’s case, but… he didn’t look for problems then. I mean, not as close as this time. However, investigating Min SinJu, I could bond them two, and… Ian Hion Uk actually is the same lawyer for Gu SilGi and Park YuRa.”

„I knew about those two. But… not the rest. And… if to talk about those two lovers - it seems that they'll spend a very long time behind the bars. Capitan Leen took care to cut Ian Hion Uk’s bonds and he can’t count on anybody at the trial. This means, his clients won’t escape jail ever. The judge is captain Lee’s friend and he’s that kind of man that even if Death comes to offer him money for some kind of favor, he won’t ever accept them.”

„Maybe that guy won’t ever accept money from the Death, but … if she was coming to me, I would have paid her a lot of money to get rid of someone for me. However, even death doesn’t come after him, even paying her for her job,” SolHi mumbled furiously.

„Do you mean prosecutor Han?” Kan said smiling.

„Who else?! And I’m very sure that who „convinces” him all the time to blow down my neck are you, sombe. Or… am I wrong?”

„No, and I won’t even try to hide it. Especially after Min SinJu tried to… Forget about this!”

„Did you also find out?” SolHi said calmly, looking in front of her.

„What exactly?”

„That Min SinJu ordered someone to find out about my past.”

„Did you know that too?! I’m not even surprised!”

„Well, let’s just say that my „dog nose” doesn’t allow me to stay away from him. I found out about this a few nights ago when I went to pay him a social visit - a visit you also took care to „whistle” to Han DooSan about and that’s why he „kept” me inside of a hospital for days, begging for my mercy.”

„I don’t think that we’ve done something wrong, SolHi. Let not forget that Min SinJu is a very dangerous man and he keeps an eye on you, actually.”

„Maybe you’re right, but I can’t do anything against this thing. And I don’t have also anything in my position to be afraid of losing it. Nothing, except my mother, but… I doubt he’ll stain his hands by killing someone, who actually doesn’t think normally and who’s all the time out of reality.”

„And you shouldn’t forget that Iu Si Yon was also invalid, but she ended into the waters. I don’t want that you or your mother pass through this. So… listen to my words and stay away from him.” Then, Kan rested his hand on SolHi’s shoulder for a few moments, and after this, he left, with his head bowed and with his both hands stuck into his pockets.