(Truth pt.4)

Trigger warning: Blood, violence, gore

Though the face was unfamiliar, the way of speaking was familiar and the voice remained the same as before. Yes, thinking about it now, the voices were similar. Since Radel barely spoke, he hadn’t noticed, but they were definitely the same person.

The man took the trophy from In-woo’s stiff hands and put it back in the display case.

“This is something you achieved. So don’t break it out of anger at me. It’s precious, isn’t it?”

“…Did you just read my mind?”

When In-woo snapped, remembering that Radel could read and control others’ minds, the man shook his head as if flustered.

“No.”

“Then how do you know what I’m thinking?”

“We’ve been together for 5 years.”

“…”

“I know because we’ve been together for so long.”

In-woo glared fiercely at the man who tried to soothe him with a trembling voice. The sight of this shameless con artist pretending to be pitiful was disgusting.

The anger that had been boiling and radiating in all directions found its proper target. In-woo immediately struck the man’s face with his clenched fist.

“…”

The man quietly took In-woo’s punch. As if it didn’t even tickle, he didn’t move an inch.

This was the man who could always lift In-woo effortlessly with one hand. There was a time when In-woo had pitied this overwhelming difference in strength. He had made groundless assumptions that something terrible must have happened to him…

He was someone In-woo thought he understood deeply. But as it turned out, Kim In-woo knew nothing about the man. Since even the most basic things were built on lies, In-woo gritted his teeth in fury.

“I don’t understand what you’re thinking.”

“…”

“I don’t understand anything about what you’re thinking…”

“I’m sorry.”

The man spoke with a thoroughly trembling voice. In-woo’s movements stopped at that weak voice. Similarly shaking, the man’s blue eyes couldn’t look directly at In-woo and faced the floor.

“I’m sorry, In-woo. I knew you’d be angry, but I liked you too much, and I was scared of being found out…”

The thoroughly trembling voice felt terribly pitiful. In that moment, In-woo felt an unbearable rage. The anger burned, consuming his reason.

Don’t pretend to be pitiful after completely deceiving someone. You’re not pitiful at all. Rather, I want to kill you…

‘Don’t resist the impulse.’

Just then, suddenly a voice rang in In-woo’s head.

‘You’re going to honestly express your anger.’

Express anger, honestly… how exactly?

‘Without hesitation, find the nearest weapon…’

Weapon. Was that the way to express anger?

The small voice stirred up In-woo’s reason. It caught the tiniest moment of impulse and drew it out, inflating it dramatically. Kim In-woo’s heart raced wildly at the impulse brought by the infiltrating voice.

Weapon. Something sharp. An attacking weapon. With a weapon, to stab… The man, the one who betrayed him, the monster who deceived him… want to kill him.

‘Understood?’

In-woo nodded. The completed suggestion completely dominated him. Unable to overcome the suddenly swollen desire, In-woo rushed at the man. Seeing In-woo who had completely lost his reason, the man realized everything.

“You met Ezel.”

Whatever the man was saying no longer properly reached In-woo’s ears.

In-woo mounted the fallen man and struck him with clenched fists. Too excited, his fists missed the man several times and cut through empty air. Even when they landed, the man didn’t seem hurt. In-woo looked down at his smooth hands. Bare fists couldn’t be weapons against the robust man.

Then…

In-woo left the man and stood up, heading straight for the kitchen. Knives were placed on one wall of the kitchen. In-woo chose and grabbed the largest and sharpest one.

The blade is sharp, so don’t touch it.

Ignoring the voice from his memories that naturally followed, In-woo returned to the living room. The man was lying exactly where In-woo had left him. Then seeing what In-woo held in his hand, he frowned.

Seeing that face, fear suddenly struck. The man let out a short sigh seeing In-woo hesitate.

“It’s okay.”

The man muttered something. His parting lips said something more. Instead of listening to the man’s words, In-woo approached and stabbed the knife into his stomach.

The feeling of a knife cutting through human flesh was too strange and horrible. But even while shuddering, one part of his mind was strangely elevated as if drugged.

Keep, keep stabbing.

The sweet and comfortable voice whispered. In-woo didn’t resist the impulse that made him feel relieved. The knife firmly gripped in both hands rose up again and plunged down. Like that once, twice, three times… countless times.

“Hah…”

Before he knew it, In-woo’s entire body was drenched in sweat. Even more so, the man beneath In-woo was soaked in blood. A scene too cruel to see even in staged productions unfolded before In-woo’s eyes. In-woo glared at the man without blinking while gasping for breath. The face that had grown pale from losing too much blood…

“Huh, ugh…”

Is he, still alive?

In-woo placed his trembling hand in front of the man’s nose. But no matter how long he waited… he couldn’t feel the man’s breath.

Is he dead? Or is he actually holding his breath and pretending to be dead?

In-woo gripped the knife again. Since he didn’t know what aliens looked like, he couldn’t be reassured just because there was no breathing. He needed to cut off the head completely to end this…

“Ugh… urgh.”

In-woo dropped the knife before he could bring it to Radel’s neck. His mind, which had been strangely burning hot, gradually cooled. In-woo looked at the man collapsed beneath him, so soaked in blood that his original color was indiscernible.

As the goal was accomplished, the suggestion faded. Only then did the sight of the man register as reality to Kim In-woo’s madness-soaked eyes. The too-deep wounds and the smell of death emanating from the hot blood that flowed from them…

“…Hyung.”

The word came out like a sob.

“Hyung… hyung, hyung, ah, ugh…”

The groans that began pouring out uncontrollably scattered over the man, having nowhere else to go. Unable to accept the situation that had ended so suddenly without reaching any conclusions, In-woo stepped backward.

“Ah. Ah…”

It’s all a lie.

I wish it were a dream. I wish everything were a dream. I wish it were all false. Though he couldn’t tell what he wanted to deny most, he couldn’t accept any of the current reality.

But none of it was a dream. The sensation of cutting through flesh still clung vividly to his fingertips. This was his second murder.

In-woo fled blindly from the atrocity he had created. But he couldn’t run far. Because there was nowhere to run to anyway. In-woo’s place, his sanctuary… Everything had shattered to pieces just moments ago. It was hard to distinguish whether it was the man or himself who had shattered everything.

Dragging his feet, the place In-woo fled to was just the veranda attached to the living room. In-woo stared blankly ahead before dropping his gaze with a thud.

The ground viewed from the highest floor was dizzyingly far below. Time must have passed significantly as the sky was now red. But even that redness was paler than the living room and the man right now.

“…”

In-woo kept looking down.

Long ago, he had looked down from a bridge over the Han River. He had been thinking of dying, but seeing the flow of the massive river, fear had unconsciously washed over him. So he couldn’t jump.

But now he felt nothing.

He wasn’t afraid of this life ending. Though just yesterday he had been thinking about his brilliant future ahead, now he had no attachments left.

Why…

Why did he do it?

Why did he deceive me? Why was he Radel?

Why were the person I loved most and the person I hated most the same person?

Why.

Why?