Chapter 73: Everyone Is a Suspect

“Don’t look.”

At first, Go Ha-jin couldn’t even tell what the thing was that had stolen everyone’s attention. He wasn’t sure it was blood, either. He had only assumed so instinctively.

It was something grotesquely shaped.

Before he could identify it, his vision was blocked. Though his eyes were open, all he could see was darkness.

“It’s okay. It’s okay…”

The only things he could feel were the suffocating pressure of Chae Woo-seok’s arms wrapped around him and Woo-seok’s voice murmuring into his ear.

Beyond Woo-seok’s repeated assurances, the venue remained filled with chaos and noise, but Ha-jin could hear only one voice.

The way Woo-seok kept repeating the words felt almost hypnotic.

And because of that, it really did feel as though everything would be okay.

Outside the safety of his embrace, however, reality was anything but.

****

“What the hell happened here? There were so many people involved, and nobody checked? How could you let this happen!”

“Chairman, please calm down first. We’ll need your cooperation with the investigation.”

The event venue had transformed into a crime scene in an instant.

All ordinary attendees were sent home. Before they left the gallery, SHS employees requested that they keep everything confidential. Naturally, this was accompanied by threats of legal action if even a single photograph leaked.

Once only relevant personnel remained, the police arrived.

The unusual part was that the police commissioner himself had come, along with a force large enough to seem excessive.

Apparently, not even a conglomerate could avoid an investigation when something like this happened. They might receive certain conveniences, but not immunity.

“Father, please calm down. Dad already collapsed…”

“How am I supposed to calm down? This isn’t some ordinary incident! A murder, in my building, in my gallery!”

“There are too many people around. Let’s go inside first.”

Strangely enough, Chae Woo-seok was the most rational person present.

Lee Ah-seong had fainted at the scene. Chae Il-joo was furious. Go Ha-jin looked half out of his mind.

Woo-seok was the one taking care of all three.

After asking the police for permission, he escorted them into a nearby conference room. The police commissioner followed.

“Chairman, I’m afraid this situation may be more serious than it appears. The method used here resembles- ”

“Speak plainly, Commissioner. I don’t think anything you say can shock me now.”

Once the civilians had entered the room, officers in white forensic suits removed the cloth covering the display.

Only then did Ha-jin glance through the glass wall and finally see the object.

Distance made it easier to look. Perhaps time had helped, too.

He immediately regretted it.

Even from far away, even reduced to something no larger than his palm from this distance, the sight made his entire body freeze.

The thing drenched in crimson liquid was difficult to identify.

It looked as though feet, thighs, torso, arms, and a head had all been twisted together into a single mass and bound with wire.

It almost resembled an avant-garde piece of modern art.

Except…

“Urgh!”

It was far too real.

Real enough to make nausea surge up his throat.

As though the smell of blood itself had reached him.

“Are you okay? Someone close the blinds.”

At Woo-seok’s request, Manager Kim, who had just entered the room, lowered the blinds.

Only after the hideous object disappeared from sight did the tension gradually leave Ha-jin’s body.

“What exactly is that?”

“Well…”

The commissioner looked extremely uncomfortable.

Even with Chae Il-joo and Chae Woo-seok pressing him for answers, he hesitated.

After a long pause, he finally spoke.

“It appears to be the work of the Omega Serial Killer. The method is similar. He’s never displayed a victim like this before, but…”

Everyone had wanted an explanation.

Yet when they heard it, nobody could respond.

The shock was simply too great.

Who in Korea didn’t know about the Omega Serial Killer?

The news had talked about nothing else for months.

But until now, it had always felt distant.

Something that happened to other people.

Even the recent murder of a member of a powerful business family had been dismissed as someone else’s tragedy.

Now it seemed the commissioner hadn’t come personally merely because the crime had occurred at the SHS Art Center.

“Commissioner, as you know, this isn’t a place just anyone can enter. The facility hasn’t even officially opened yet.”

“I’m aware. Which is why this time… we may finally find something. Previous victims were abandoned in remote locations. Meaningful evidence was difficult to obtain. This case may be different.”

A spark appeared in the veteran officer’s eyes.

As though he was anticipating something.

“There’s one thing we’ll need. A list of everyone who had access to this building.”

“Including the owner family?”

The sharp voice came from Woo-seok.

Even Chae Il-joo found himself surprised.

The son he was seeing now felt very different from the Woo-seok he knew.

Even while holding Ha-jin’s hand tightly, Woo-seok spoke with an authority that made him seem like another person entirely.

Looking at him now, he seemed capable of protecting both the company and his family.

Perhaps a tiger’s cub truly remained a tiger after all.

“Everyone,” the commissioner replied. “We’d appreciate your cooperation.”

It was a perfectly reasonable request.

Yet unease was growing inside Woo-seok.

A very rational kind of unease.

The problem lay in the things he was holding.

In one hand was Go Ha-jin.

The other rested on his thigh.

Inside that pocket, an object.

Those two things were the source of his anxiety.

Amid the chaos, while everyone had been panicking, Woo-seok had picked something up.

A familiar bracelet.

Technically, he knew better.

Tampering with a crime scene was common sense.

But he hadn’t been able to leave it there.

It was Lee Ah-seong’s bracelet—the same bracelet that had nearly gotten Ha-jin into serious trouble before.

The moment Woo-seok saw it lying there, stained with dried blood, he had acted on impulse.

There had been no calculation.

No deliberate reasoning.

Only a face flashing through his mind.

Ha-jin’s devastated expression when he had been accused of theft because of that bracelet.

The way Ha-jin had looked to Woo-seok for help.

The way people had surrounded him, criticizing and blaming him.

Woo-seok never wanted to see that again.

So he had hidden the bracelet before anyone noticed.

This time, he would make sure Ha-jin never experienced that again.

Suppressing his anxiety, Woo-seok tightened his grip on Ha-jin’s hand.

****

“Feeling any better?”

“Yeah… I just can’t understand how something like that ended up inside the gallery.”

“The CCTV footage from last night was erased. Whoever did it probably came sometime during the night. We’ll have to investigate, but honestly, catching them won’t be easy.”

Ha-jin agreed.

The killer had committed numerous murders without leaving any significant evidence.

The fact that the method had suddenly changed suggested one thing:

the killer was absolutely confident they wouldn’t get caught.

“Has the police said anything?”

“…Not much.”

Among everyone present, Woo-seok had remained the calmest.

Representing the Chae family and SHS, he had spent quite a while speaking privately with the commissioner.

Yet afterward, he seemed reluctant to share anything.

“What’s with that face? You’re making me feel left out.”

Ha-jin tried to sound casual.

It was only a simple question.

But Woo-seok remained silent.

The unusually serious expression on his face made Ha-jin even more uneasy.

“The police said something.”

Woo-seok finally spoke after sitting there lost in thought for a long time.

He glanced toward Ha-jin repeatedly, sighing several times before managing to continue.

“What?”

“They said the motive might be revenge. Or hatred. Something along those lines.”

“So?”

“Just in case…”

Woo-seok hesitated.

“It’s not you, right?”

For a moment, Ha-jin didn’t understand the question.

Then realization dawned.

A laugh escaped him.

What kind of ridiculous thing was that?

“You can’t be serious. Why would I do something like that? Killing people doesn’t make money.”

“…That’s true, but…”

Even with Ha-jin’s confident denial, Woo-seok still seemed troubled.

His expression remained rigid.

He clearly wasn’t joking.

“What’s going on? You’re seriously making me nervous now.”

“The truth is…”

Woo-seok reached into his pocket.

He seemed to wrestle with himself one last time before opening his hand.

The object resting in his palm left Ha-jin speechless.

“…What? Why do you have that?”

“It was lying there.”

In his hand was a bracelet.

A very familiar bracelet.

“…That belongs to Father.”

“Yeah.”

The same bracelet that had once been used to frame Ha-jin as a thief.

Or rather, half of it.

The remaining piece was covered in dark, dried blood, making it difficult to recognize at first glance.

“This was there?”

“Right beside the display. I picked it up before the police arrived.”

Ha-jin couldn’t even bring himself to touch it.

The dried blood instantly reminded him of the mutilated mass that had replaced the statue.

“That’s impossible…”

“Exactly. It shouldn’t make sense.”

Now Ha-jin finally understood why Woo-seok had been acting so serious.

And why he had asked such an absurd question earlier.

This was far worse than it appeared.

The implications were almost too dangerous to say aloud.

“Then…”

Ha-jin swallowed hard.

“Are you saying the killer could be in this family?”

Woo-seok bit down on his lip.

“Yeah.”

His voice was low.

“At this point… everyone has to be considered a suspect.”

Thinking back on it now, every single one of them seemed suspicious.

Including Chae Woo-seok himself.

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