( CHAPTER FOURTEEN ; THE PENTHOUSE )
"I'm telling you, you shouldn't be here!" You scolded Andrew who went into your unit with no warning.
A few minutes ago, you cleaned your wound and put a bandage on top of it to hide the stitches. You probably need to make up excuses on how you got a wound on your face later, because being interrogated by your two other friends is probably expected.
"We're going to gather in front of Kim Se-Hoon's apartment later, stay beside me, and keep quiet." He informed you and you nodded at him.
Andrew looked around your apartment because he could sense something was missing. "Where's the cat?" He asked you and you shrugged. "How am I supposed to know? I let it run away." You told him casually and you looked at him.
"I had no choice, Sae-bom was gonna catch me." You explained and he walked closer to you. "Catch you for what reason? Do you think you did something wrong?" He asked and you took some time to think about it.
Right, you just got caught up on the situation. You forgot the fact that you did NOT kill someone and it was all him who did the dirty work. But for some reason, you felt a little guilty too. It felt like you were somehow conspiring against your friends because you'd been keeping secrets from them.
You didn't even know why you were listening to him. From your perspective, he did try to kill you. Maybe it was just pity, or maybe he meant everything he said earlier. It was an accident and he didn't mean to hurt you that badly.
"Forget it. Let's go." You told him and you went past him to go outside. Andrew turned to your leaving figure and he closed the door and followed after you.
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"Come on, open the door, please! Sir!" Se-Kyu pleaded while knocking on the door. "I don't hear anything. Are you in there?" He asked and you turned to the side where Yi-Hyun and Sae-bom just came from.
"What are you doing?" Yi-Hyun asked and everyone turned to the side to let the representative walk up to him and explain. Sae-bom looked at you for a moment while eyeing your bandaged face. You looked away from her, not wanting to let her see more.
The people with you didn't care to ask what happened to your face because they were more focused on getting Kim Se-Hoon's unit door to open. That wasn't going to magically just happen unless someone used a spare keycard though.
When you saw Se-Hoon's state, it wasn't too late to save him. But since you got into a fight with Andrew, he probably died shortly after because he didn't get a chance to be treated.
Seeing how Andrew handled the dead cleaner from the building, he probably did the same with Se-Hoon's body. You were suspecting that the representative was involved since the doctor was too.
"Everyone asked me for help. I heard he has a lot of water, so wouldn't it be nice to share some?" The representative explained herself and she asked the couple in front.
"I know, right? So we just want to talk to him." Se-Kyu said with an impatient tone and he banged on the door again. "Someone saw him going outside too, so we must check if he's infected as well." The representative said and you swallowed a lump down your throat.
"Who saw him?" Yi-Hyun asked and Andrew raised his hand. "Me. I saw him going out early in the morning." He informed them and Sae-bom spoke up. "Really? Are you sure it was Kim Se-hoon?" She asked while trying to go closer to everyone else, but Yi-Hyun held her back.
"I couldn't see his face, but he's the only person who wears a quarantine suit," Andrew said and the lawyer from behind pushed his wife in front. "I'm sorry, but we do need a plan because we're short on water." She explained in a low tone and she looked behind her.
"And the people on unit #201 put a ridiculous price on it." She said and the cleaners from behind looked down. "Gosh," Se-Kyu exclaimed in annoyance.
There were a few seconds of silence, but after a while, Yi-Hyun unlocked the door with a keycard. "So you had the key too." The representative told him with disbelief. "They even brought out a shopping bag with something in it!" Se-Kyu snitched loudly and Sae-bom told him it was hers.
You all went inside the unit of Kim Se-hoon, and you couldn't help but be wary because of last night. "He said to share the things in his house." The representative read the message on the paper.
"So the house owner gave permission. Then why didn't you say anything earlier?" Moon-hee asked Sae-bom loudly. "More than that, what's something that cannot be undone?" Hyun-Kyung asked confusedly and the lawyer snatched the paper from her.
"Did he have legal problems?" He asked and Se-Kyu went to the stocks of waters to get some. "Anyway, it's a finders-keepers situation. Honey, take this water first." He instructed her wife and Sae-bom quickly walked to him.
Sae-bom forced his hand to drop the bottles of water, and she bent his hands in an abnormal position. "Let go," Se-Kyu told her while wincing in pain. "Please calm down. Let's share some of the food first." Yi-Hyun told everyone.
"Not all of them. Just some of them. We don't know when he'll be back. And leave some for those who aren't here." Sae-bom said and Se-Kyu looked at her. "Who are you to decide that?" He asked madly and Sae-bom pinned him harshly to the table.
"All right! Call the others! Tell them to come!" He yelled quickly in pain and he pointed to Yi-Hyun who looked away. "Detective, look at this! Call everyone!" He shouted at him, wanting to be free from Sae-bom's hold.
"I said, call them! I got it! Let me go! Come on!" He shrieked and Sae-bom finally let him go. The couple both handed out the food fairly and you were last again.
"What happened to you?" Yi-Hyun asked with suspicion and you took the box of goods from Sae-bom. "I fell on some glass, it'll heal soon." You lied to them and you mentally facepalmed at the stupid excuse.
"The cat is safe with Seo-Yoon, don't do anything hasty at this time. Stay safe,
(Y/n)." Sae-bom told you and you smiled at her while bidding them both goodbye.
You went back to your unit and removed the bandage in your bathroom. You winced at the pain and you took some time to look at your scarred face. The threads were uneven at first, but when you got to the middle and end, it was done better and nicer.
You found it odd why Andrew had spared you. Perhaps it was because you two were slowly forming a good bond, or it's what you would call “becoming friends”.
Maybe he liked the idea of having someone beside him, someone to share all his problems with, someone he can spend time with.
You sighed and cleaned the wound and put a bandage on top of it again. You weren't oblivious to the fact that Yi-Hyun was starting to get suspicious of you, maybe even Sae-bom. Even before you had the wound, he had been treating you like a suspect, maybe he found out something that he shouldn't have which made him act this way towards you.
You went to your bedroom to get some sleep. You were probably not gonna get a good night's sleep because of everything that has happened. You saw dead bodies, you got a scar, you found out Andrew was a murderer, and more disturbing things you couldn't even count and say.
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Sae-bom opened the door to the empty master bedroom of the royal unit. "Mr. Kim." She called the missing person, but she didn't get any response. Sae-bom went further into the room and she looked at the floor. There were small droplets of blood, which belonged to you. And there were remains of black scrunched-up threads.
She looked to the corner of the room and she saw someone with a blanket over them. "Mr. Kim?" She asked if it was him and Yi-Hyun entered the room too. "Can you hear me?" She asked them, but the person didn't move or speak at all.
"Are you doing this because you feel thirsty?" She asked warily while getting closer to the person. She slightly kneeled to the blanketed person, and she took it off. The lawyer and the lady behind them screamed in shock when Sae-bom revealed a dead lady under the blanket.
It was the missing cleaner, and she was covered with limestone. Sae-bom put her hand over her mouth in shock, and she looked at the mark on her neck which resembled a bite mark.
Yi-Hyun kneeled to the dead lady and he put his hand on her hair. He sniffed the powder and he looked at Sae-bom, the both of them realizing it was limestone.
"It's limestone. It was at Kim Se-Hoon's house." She recalled and they both continued to inspect the corpse.
Sae-bom looked at Yi-Hyun in shock, remembering the threads and blood on the floor. "What about the blood and threads, who do you think it belongs to?" She asked with worry.
Yi-Hyun stayed silent while trying to remember anything that can help. Suddenly, he remembered how you had a wound on her face, and it was covered with a bandage so no one could see what was under. "(Y/n)," Yi-Hyun told her and Sae-boom looked at him with wide eyes.
"What do you mean? (Y/n) wouldn't do this! Maybe it was really Kim Se-hoon!" Sae-bom defended you, she didn't want to find out that Yi-Hyun's assumption was correct, because you were a good friend of hers. She knew you, you would never kill someone.
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"That superpower jerk stabbed us in the back!" Se-Kyu complained and you all looked to the door where Yi-Hyun exited from. You were along with a few other residents, gathered in front of the royal unit because the dead body had been found.
"Detective, Andrew took our food and ran away!" Se-Kyu complained and you mentally shook your head, what has the idiot done this time? "He's been caught in the act! Don't you have to arrest him right away?" Moon-Hee asked, also worried because they were now lacking in food and water.
"Please calm down. Someone died." Sae-bom told them and Se-Kyu sighed with annoyance. "That's not important right now. The food is gone!" He exclaimed and Sae-bom shouted back at him. "The cleaning lady who was at your house died! Ms. Lee Deok-soon!" She said and the cleaner couple looked at her with shock.
There was a mixture of complaints and sighs, and the doctor spoke up. "I checked the body, and it looks like the infected did it. Her neck was bitten." Dr. Oh explained and you figured out that the two deaths were linked to each other to make a believable story.
"It must be the man on the 15th floor. It was written on the note. Something wrong that cannot be undone." The representative accused and Se-Kyu agreed with her. "That was a confession." The representative said.
"That means we can share the remaining food, right?" Dr. Oh asked and Sae-bom spoke up. "We don't have evidence saying that Kim Se-hoon did it." She told them and the representative asked if its not him, who could it be?
"There aren't any other infected people here." The representative told her, sure that she was correct in her assumption. "Now, when you take a look at it... If there's a victim and a runaway, we naturally know who the culprit is. Mr. Jung, you're a detective, so you'd know, right?" He asked and his wife looked at him with disbelief.
"We need to investigate more, especially about how the victim left the second floor and was found here." He informed him, not adding the extra evidence and information. "We will hear more from you two as the witnesses later," Yi-Hyun told him and Sang-hee, and the lawyer's wife looked at him with shock and betrayal.
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"Unit 1102 is a crime scene, so no one's allowed in there. We changed the passcode too. So keep that in mind." Yi-Hyun informed everyone while you were all walking down the stairs.
"When will you give out the food? That bastard Andrew took ours and ran away!" Se-Kyu complained once again while trying to squeeze in front.
"Sae-bom, Yi-Hyun! Mr. Ahn and the writer are here." Jung-kook informed the couple and Hyun-Kyung made her way to the rest of you all. "You damn thief!" Se-Kyu shouted once he saw Andrew, and he made his way to him while accidentally bumping onto you on the way.
"How could you do this?" He asked and he punched Andrew in the face harshly. He was gonna punch him for the second time, so you sneakily kicked the back of his knees lightly. He punched the wall and he fell to the ground in pain.
"Stop it!" Jung-kook shouted while some people were trying to separate the both of them. "Honey, are you trying to kill him?" Moon-hee asked her husband while trying to pull him away too.
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"I'm sure my husband would want me to do something for this apartment too. He was worried about all of you until his last moments." The representative said and she looked at the couple who just entered the gym.
You were currently gathered in the gym along with some residents while the representative was giving her speech. "You all know... that the infected killed the cleaning lady, right? They may still be inside, so please be careful." She finished while looking around the room.
"Do your best to stay at home, and if you need to move, stay in groups of two or more," Sae-bom instructed and the representative spoke up again. "We should discuss securing the doors of this building and distinguishing the infected from now on. In the case of my husband.. If we had found out a bit earlier..." She said but she couldn't finish her sentence.
"It's important to actively find the infected and persuade those who are not coming out of their houses to test them." She changed the topic and Se-kyu agreed with her.
"Right, we have to find the infected. Whose blood should we use today? Should we draw straws?" He asked creepily while everyone stayed silent.
"I think you should just do it." Dr. Oh suggested and Se-kyu turned to him. "No.. A doctor should do it. So you can treat yourself when you bleed!" He shouted and he quickly ran to the doctor to attack him.
"More than that, shouldn't we discuss food and water first?" Yi-Hyun asked to silence the shouting of the people. "If you have any ideas, please tell us." The representative told him.
"We're going outside," Yi-Hyun informed her and Sae-bom spoke up. "If Kim Se-hoon really did go outside, that means there's a way out. So we're going to go outside and see if we can get food or water."
"There's an emergency power down in the basement. Rather than going outside, if you go down and turn on that emergency power, the electricity will come back on, so we can cook, and the water will start again too." Dr. Oh informed them.
You still had lots of water left because you weren't wasting it. But to find out you can have electricity again is a great thing. "But honestly, I'm more worried that you could never just go outside and never return." Dr. Oh finished and Se-Kyu agreed and spoke up once again.
"Mr. Detective, you're close to that military man," Se-Kyu said while walking up to the couple in front. "Like Mr. Oh said, it'd be better to take care of things here first." The representative told them and there were a few seconds of silence.
"Let's do that. We'll go down and turn on the emergency power." Yi-Hyun said and everyone made their way to leave. "You should be careful with your wound (Y/n), we wouldn't want it to get infected," Yi-Hyun said out of nowhere and you stopped in your tracks.
You ignored his comment and continued to leave.
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"What do you mean?" You asked Andrew who was in your unit. "I need you to open their door for me." He told you and you looked at him with disbelief. He was downright suggesting that you get involved in his plan and make you become an accomplice, which would harm Sae-bom and Yi-Hyun.
"I don't want to do anything that can hurt them." You told him while backing away. "It's not them who'll get hurt. Unless you open that door for me, I'll find another way, one that is worse." He informed you in a threatening tone and you took some time to think about it.
"Worse? What do you mean?!" You asked him with shock, not sure of what he meant. Was he gonna torture them like what he did to Kim Se-hoon?
"I'm running out of time. We have to go!" He shouted at you and he grabbed your hand with force and dragged you out of your apartment. "I'm not giving you a choice now, open it, or I'll kill you too." He threatened you in a low tone and you looked at him with shock and fear.
You snatched your hand away from him and you backed away. "Fine!" You shouted at him, wanting him to leave you alone now.
"Let's go." He ordered you and you looked at his leaving figure. You never asked to be involved, you never asked to be spared either. God, he should have just killed you the first time.