Here I Lie // ATEEZ ✔

- 24 -

Younghyun accepts the paper from Dowoon gingerly, the handwriting on it visible even before he had it in his hands. Dowoon is pacing back and forth impatiently, hands behind his back, face creasing. He keeps glancing at his watch and biting his lips. Beside him, while leaning against the desk, the hacker is reading the hint scribbled by Wooyoung.

On the paper it read:
San had always wanted to build a snowman. His favourite flowers were bougainvilleas.

"Does it make sense to you?" he sighs, "I hate playing this freaking game. What's the relationship between a snowman and bougainvilleas? Can bougainvilleas even grow in snow?"

"They can, but apparently it's not something common," Younghyun says while consulting his computer. "The problem right now is whether this lunatic is trying to speak to us in codes again, or it's something straightforward." He types something in the computer. "Considering how it's winter, we can't find anywhere near here where they would have bougainvilleas."

"Snowman... bougainvilleas... The whole country is snowing, so we would find snowmen everywhere. It's winter now, so there's no way we can find bougainvilleas. What is he trying to say?" His eyes flick to the left and right, trying to find a connection. He's trying to think beyond the box, but something in his mind is telling him that it's something simple. He thinks back to Wooyoung's expressions and body language in the interrogation room. He was... sincere? It really seemed that their game is coming to an end, that he's making it game over once and for all. Wooyoung had wanted him to find the last victims... but time is ticking.

Younghyun picks up the case file, flipping through it randomly, hoping to find a spark that could lead him to the answer. Both of them didn't sleep ever since the suspects were caught, trying to milk further information from them. His brain is sluggish, that he even almost drank mouthwash because he thought it was coffee. He stares at the deceased's picture; Choi San. It is as if he could find the answers in his eyes; those very eyes that saw hell. They are doing this for him... so everything is related to him.

"Oh gosh," the hacker suddenly says, catching a nondescript information they had obtained from the victims. "What are the odds that they went back to the villa after we ransacked the whole house? When we didn't find anything we left the crime scene, leaving them free to go back after. We were too caught up with trying to locate Song Mingi after he went missing, and we were focused on the victims at the hospital because we didn't find a connection before. Look here," he pushes the file towards his colleague, "they said that their director had introduced the 'guesthouse' as one that is called Bougain Villa. What if," he lowers down his voice, as if they will be caught by the suspects springing from behind any of the case files stacked up against the walls, "he wasn't referring to the actual flowers. He was pointing us towards the villa, again. It was a play on words."

Dowoon doesn't disprove of his theory as his hands travel to his pockets, taking out his phone, commanding his team to make their way to the villa. Before he even switches off the phone, he gestures towards Younghyun that they, too, will be going there. They dash out of the station, wrapping their jackets in time as they burst through the glass doors, Dowoon hopping almost immediately into the driver's seat. Younghyun takes the passenger seat, while he types in the address into the navigator and makes sure that he has the exact directions of the villa once the navigator will not be able to be used anymore. The car leaves the station, but accompanied by the rumble of the five-year-old car, the former cannot slow down his beating heart, as he feels there's still something out of place.

Jung Wooyoung was being too generous by giving us the hint. Why did he suddenly decide to give it when all they were doing before was to try and twist things around? Is he leading us into another trap, another diversion? Can we really find the three victims' bodies now?