IWT 33

 Chapter 33

“Open your eyes.”

Chaerin’s calm voice reached Seong-jin’s ears.

“Did we come out already?”

Seong-jin slowly opened his eyes and looked at Chaerin with a blank expression.

“Yes.”

Chaerin answered shortly while lifting a bottle of water beside the chair to her mouth.

“Just like that?”

Seong-jin asked again, still stunned.

He had simply closed his eyes and opened them once, yet they had moved freely between memory and reality.
The ability made goosebumps run all over his body again.

“Right! Chief! Chief!”

But there was no time to just be surprised.

Seong-jin hurriedly called for Chief Choi.

“Shh! Why?”

Chief Choi quickly covered Seong-jin’s mouth and checked Seung-beom’s condition on the monitor.

“We need to go to the sauna right now. We have to find that trash bag there quickly!”

Seong-jin pushed Chief Choi’s hand away and spoke excitedly.

“What are you talking about? Trash bag?”

“The clothes he wore at the murder scene are in it. Anyway, we have to hurry.”

Seong-jin grabbed Chief Choi’s clothes and tried to pull him up.

“Calm down. But will that trash bag even still be there? It’s already been several days.”

“It might still be there! And if it’s not, we’ll search the entire garbage dump if we have to. We must find it. Please hurry.”

Seong-jin urgently forced Chief Choi to stand.

“Alright, alright. Chaerin, what about you? Do you want to come with us now? We can drop you off on the way.”

Chief Choi looked at Chaerin while putting on his jumper, worried about leaving her alone.

“I’ll go a little later. You should hurry.”

Chaerin leaned back in the chair, looking slightly tired.

“Chaerin, you worked hard. See you later. Chief, I’ll go move the car first.”

Seong-jin greeted her with a strange expression—half urgency, half a smile—and rushed out of the room like the wind.

“Then send a message when you get home. And really, good work today.”

Chief Choi sent a quick message on his phone and looked at Chaerin, who was resting with her eyes closed in the chair, with a sympathetic gaze.

Then he quietly left the room.

* * *

In-hye, who was conducting Seung-beom’s hypnosis, carefully took out her phone from her pocket.

“Detective Kim and I have to leave because of another case. Please take care of Chaerin.”

Did they finish already?

“Now it’s time to end the long journey and return to reality.”

After checking the message, In-hye softly spoke again to end the hypnosis.

“Relax. When I count one, two, three, slowly open your eyes again.”

At that same moment in the next room—

“Is it over now?”

Chaerin, who was watching through CCTV, saw that In-hye was about to end the hypnosis.

She stood up and grabbed the doorknob to leave.

But suddenly—

Seung-beom’s voice from the CCTV stopped her.

“Back then… I really… didn’t want to do that.”

* * *

“What do you mean you didn’t want to do that?”

In-hye was also surprised by Seung-beom’s sudden words.

“….”

Was it a memory he wanted to hide even in hypnosis?

Or something he didn’t want to remember?

Seung-beom swallowed the words that had accidentally escaped from his heart.

“It’s okay. Relax and try talking about it.”

In-hye spoke gently, though her voice had slightly quickened.

“….”

What’s happening?

Just as In-hye was confused by Seung-beom’s reaction—

A message appeared on her phone.

[I’m going back inside again. Please prepare.]

It was from Chaerin.

She wanted to enter the memory again.

If Chaerin was going this far, there must definitely be something important.

In-hye had to somehow buy more time.

“Alright. If you don’t want to talk, that’s okay. Then let’s just recall that memory once.”

In-hye slightly nodded toward the CCTV camera in the consultation room.

It was a signal telling Chaerin to enter Seung-beom’s memory again.

At that same moment in the next room—

Chaerin let out a deep breath.

“Whew…”

Then she slowly closed her eyes.

* * *

“Where is this?”

When Chaerin opened her eyes, she found herself in an unfamiliar place.

But she quickly realized where she was.

“This is a columbarium… But why here?”

Surprised by the unexpected location, Chaerin walked around the building searching for traces of Seung-beom.

Then she noticed the back of a woman.

The woman wore a clean ivory dress and had long straight hair.

She stood in front of a half-open urn locker, trembling while holding a small notebook.

After reading the notebook for a long time—

She suddenly started breathing heavily and dropped it to the floor.

Her pale hand trembled like a leaf as she picked it up.

“What happened to her?”

Just then—

The sound of footsteps echoed somewhere.

Chaerin quickly hid behind the corridor.

“Ah! Kim Seung-beom.”

She never expected him to appear here.

“I couldn’t find a latte, so I bought an Americano instead. That’s okay, right?”

With a bright smile, Seung-beom walked inside holding two cups of coffee.

A moment later—

“Come out. Come out right now.”

Seung-beom’s rough voice echoed from inside the columbarium.

“Seung-beom, what’s wrong? Calm down!”

“Follow me. Now.”

With the same murderous expression he had when killing Hwang Jung-sik, Seung-beom grabbed the woman’s hand and dragged her toward the parking lot.

“Get in. Hurry.”

“Seung-beom, calm down. Let’s talk here.”

The woman struggled in fear.

“I’m telling you nicely. Get in the car.”

Seung-beom forced the resisting woman into the car and quickly drove out of the columbarium.

“Where is he going?”

Not wanting to lose him, Chaerin quickly jumped into a taxi waiting at the taxi stand.

“Please follow that car.”

* * *

After chasing Seung-beom for some time—

His car suddenly began driving in a zigzag.

Then—

BANG!

The car crossed the center line repeatedly before crashing into a utility pole.

“Ah!”

Chaerin gasped at the sudden accident happening before her eyes.

The taxi screeched to a stop.

“Oh no… that’s bad. Stay here, it’s dangerous.”

The taxi driver ran toward the crashed car.

“Okay.”

At that moment, Chaerin saw Seung-beom stumbling out of the damaged car.

“What?”

But then—

Seung-beom exaggeratedly waved his hands, telling the taxi driver he was fine and trying to send him away.

Chaerin tilted her head in confusion.

His reaction felt… strange.

Then suddenly a thought flashed through her mind.

“Wait… isn’t this the traffic accident from his trial?”

She had accidentally witnessed the accident involving Seung-beom’s fiancée.

She had entered this memory thinking it was connected to the Hwang Jung-sik case—

But now she had encountered an entirely different event.

Still—

Sometimes a missing puzzle piece appears in the most unexpected place.

Maybe this memory would reveal the key to everything.

Then suddenly—

“Ah!”

Chaerin realized something.

“If this taxi and that driver exist in Seung-beom’s memory… it means he met that man. That means there’s another witness.”

A hidden witness.

Chaerin couldn’t hide her excitement.

“The dashcam is here… good. I just need the name and license number.”

After checking the dashcam, she wrote down the taxi driver’s name and car number on her phone.

She quietly left some money on the seat and slipped out of the taxi, hiding in the nearby field.

* * *

“I told you I’m fine. Please just go.”

Seung-beom repeatedly told the taxi driver he was okay, clearly irritated.

“You’re really okay? But are you alone?”

The driver found it strange that Seung-beom was keeping him away from the crashed car.

“Yes, I’m alone. Please just go.”

“Don’t blame me later. I tried to help.”

The taxi driver reluctantly returned to his car, looking suspicious.

“What? Where did that passenger go?”

He looked around for Chaerin, who had suddenly disappeared.

Then he noticed the money she left on the seat and drove away.

“Damn persistent.”

After confirming the taxi had left, Seung-beom returned to his car.

He removed the dashcam and took out the memory chip, putting it in his pocket.

Then he smashed the dashcam on the ground.

“Damn it… I just bought this car.”

He crushed the broken dashcam again with his foot.

Then he looked around the damaged car with a frown.

And finally—

His eyes briefly glanced toward the road ahead.

There lay his fiancée, thrown several meters away, unconscious and bleeding.

His face showed no emotion.

He looked at her as if she were a stranger—

No.

As if she were just a fallen piece of wood.

Then his gaze shifted back to the car, now filled with regret.

The object of his concern was wrong.

“Crazy…”

Watching this silently, Chaerin clenched her fist.

“Damn… I’ll have to scrap the car.”

After inspecting the vehicle for a long time, Seung-beom suddenly stopped.

He took out his phone.

Then he took a deep breath—

And called 119 with a trembling voice.

“Hello… this is 119, right? There’s been an accident. My fiancée… please hurry. Please come quickly…”

But despite the desperate voice—

His face looked strangely calm.

It almost looked like the expression of someone who had just finished an important task.

* * *

Soon the loud sound of sirens echoed.

The ambulance arrived.

“Where is the patient?”

“Over there! She was thrown forward! Please save her!”

Now Seung-beom’s face was covered in tears and mucus.

“Her condition is serious.”

The paramedics’ expressions hardened.

“I’ll start emergency treatment. Call the hospital!”

“The operating room at Jungseo Hospital is full. They said to go somewhere else.”

“Damn it. Find a hospital that can operate! Tell them it’s a TA emergency!”

Soon—

A blood-covered woman was placed on a stretcher.

It was the woman from the columbarium.

Seung-beom’s fiancée.

Seung-hee.

“Are you injured anywhere?”

A paramedic placed a blanket over Seung-beom.

“I’m fine. Please save Seung-hee.”

“Get in the ambulance. We need to go now.”

“Please… please save her.”

Seung-beom grabbed the paramedic and cried desperately.

Inside the ambulance—

He held Seung-hee’s limp hand and pressed it against his face, sobbing loudly.

The ambulance sped away with loud sirens.

After the chaos passed—

Chaerin slowly stepped onto the road.

She stared at the departing ambulance with burning anger.

Then she whispered quietly as she closed her eyes.

“I will definitely put you behind bars.”