With hands cuffed together and placed on the metallic table that separated the law enforcers from the nefarious, Ewan swerved his neck in every direction of the subtly mildewed interrogation room in order to feed its constituents into his brain.

A dreary tone of grey was uniformly splashed onto the matted tiles that reached halfway to the roof. From the ceiling hung a dimly lit pear-shaped bulb whose contribution in illuminating the room was almost negligible— it was nothing more than a superfluous piece of decoration, to be honest. Scrunching his nose in cluelessness, Ewan tried to further explore the other standalone furniture in his proximity, only to realize later that he had already checked out every single one of them.

The perimeter of that space must have been in double digits— it finished as soon as it started.

Exhaling listlessly, Ewan dipped his head down, resting it gently onto the table-top only to have the surface rapped against just next to his ears. He immediately jolted up, eyes narrowing at the female who had finally showed up after hours of waiting as she carefully seated herself from across him. Laying open a dossier to further increase the distance between the two of them, she firmly clasped her hands together, bending forward her torso so that her arms were positioned at one-eighty degrees upon the burnished surface of the desk.

"Just so you know, even if you hadn't agreed to confessing to your crimes by yourself, your mother's testimony still would've assisted us as efficiently in building a case against you. So, you aren't doing us any favor, alright?" Nora whispered, a smirk persistent on her lips.

"The police force and their age-old habit of threatening with obvious facts." Smugness overpowered Ewan's expression. "Tell me, officer, does any part of what you just said makes a difference in my case? I don't think so. Then why are you wasting the time of us both?"

"Tone down the arrogance for a moment, will you? Even I don't have any intention of spending more time with you than required. Let's come straight to the point then," Nora arched her eyebrows. "Apart from the incidents that I already have plenty of evidence on, against you, do you wanna... maybe recall a few other unregistered crimes that you've committed—"

"No senior, you're not permitted to go in there— Wait!"

The commotion buzzing outside would not have mattered much if the door to where Nora was in the process of debriefing Ewan had not flung open unannounced. Tearing haphazardly through the tense air, Youngmi had managed to barge in there. The female's intrusion was not one to be overlooked at all, but for some reason, Nora could not seem to pose her objection pertaining to it.

As the civilian stood planted on her spot, shoulders a tad hunched as she simultaneously recovered from breathlessness, the Lieutenant gradually backed away. Rather than doing something about the unusual development— which her superiors must also be monitoring through the CCTV cameras installed therein— she motioned Namjoon not to haul Youngmi away just yet, with the former choosing to stick to the doorsill as a result.

"Why did you do this to me? What was it I did that rubbed you so wrong that you came after me like that? Why did you have to toy with my emotions?" Youngmi yelled, each one of her questions corresponding with her strides towards Ewan. "Did you ever truly love me?" He jarred at his own spot as she proceeded to clutch onto his collar.

"Tell me Ewan, was all of it a mere sham like these people say? The certainty in their assertion makes me wonder if they really know you far better than I did, Ewan, please tell me I'm an idiot to fall for their lies." Youngmi sniffled, tears threatening to flood out of her eyes. "Please say something for God's sake." Her knees gradually gave in as she lost her balance and collided them against the cemented floor, her grip over Ewan's shirt loosening as a consequence.

"Why do you think they're lying, Shin Youngmi?" Ewan mumbled, instantly ripping away his gaze when the addressed lifted her head to glance at him. "You fucking left everything that was supposed to be there for me in shambles, left me crippled for eight whole years. I got practically crushed because of what you did for that goner. There was nothing to live for anymore, and you suspect whether my love for you was ever genuine? Obviously not. It never was."

Finally meeting his eyes with a crouched down Youngmi, he resumed, "My heart has never been there with you. All I ever looked forward to was the day when I'd sabotage you, just like what you had done to me, but he," Ewan's line of sight flitted in Namjoon's direction, "he'd never let me achieve that without having fretted about getting caught by him. He was fucking everywhere— wherever I went, wherever we went."

"Do you seriously have this notion in mind that I ruined your life? You fucking asshole," Youngmi rose on her two feet without further ado, eyes burning in contempt for him, "you were the one who thrashed that kid so bad that he ended up waking up in a hospital! Were you really under the impression that there'd be no aftermath? Your mother was right, your parents' input in turning you into an egotistic brat shouldn't be taken lightly—"

"Don't mention those hypocrites and me in the same sentence." Ewan grumbled viciously, rolling his eyes when another fragment of Youngmi's derision subsequently knocked into his head. "That kid could've walked out of that hospital just fine if he hadn't attempted on his own life. It's not my fault what happened to him. He was a coward who wasn't prepared to face the real world."

"He did that because of you! Because you wouldn't stop being a menace to him! You can't escape from being called his murderer, Choi Yooan, at least not in this life." Youngmi hurled back, stepping closer to him as she wistfully stared for a while, "Rot in here until you realize how you've wrecked numerous lives while victimizing your own self, you piece of shit. You deserve no less than that." She mumbled, stiffly wiping away the tear-stains on her cheeks and bolting out through the door, jostling by Namjoon in the process.

Namjoon was swift in trailing after her, not forgetting to shut the door behind him nonetheless. Nora undid the cross across her chest that she had folded her arms into till then, a ghost of a smile appearing on her lips as she moved ahead to reclaim her seat. Narrowing her eyes at Ewan as her lips pressed into a thin line, she initially came across as someone who had drifted away to a brown study, and was only using Ewan's face as a medium of distraction. Though when she opened her mouth at long last, what escaped her lips had rendered Ewan flabbergasted.

"Any regrets? Something that you had had planned beforehand but couldn't execute because we came in the way?"

"W—why such a question out of nowhere?" Ewan stuttered, unable to fathom what must be going on in the detective's mind.

"Uhm, you know, for an impactful closing statement. Most of your deeds have already been exposed by Youngmi and your mother, why prolong this for nothing then? Go ahead, speak your mind." Nora encouraged, gaining a perplexed look from Ewan. "Why did you do what you did?"

"Guess I have no choice now but to vomit it all before you, huh?" Ewan quirked a brow, prompting Nora to flash a reluctant grin. "Alright, I'll be honest with you, as well as my own self. I've fantasized about the day when I'd bring Youngmi to her knees ever since I had spotted her that day on the street. My plan wasn't originally that of being at her heels though, but when all I could feel upon stumbling across that face was intense hatred— as if to wreak havoc on her ought to be my priority at all costs— then I couldn't remain calm anymore and resolved to make her life hell. To the extent that at one point, she's left with no way out but to beg me to kill her with my own hands."

"In retrospect, I did accomplish whatever I had had chalked out to begin with," Ewan glimpsed charily at Nora, and then at his open palms that were still restrained by the iron shackles around them, "except for that day when I would've easily stolen Youngmi's passbooks from her clinic but couldn't because her lackey decided to visit for reasons unknown. I guess that was where I failed, and then couldn't keep up with whatever unfolded later. The illusion that event created for me, that Youngmi had begun to trust me more than that Namjoon, was what had toppled everything over. Not a regret, but something that I could've— should've avoided from taking place, I guess."

"Namjoon did save his senior in the end, then." Nora spoke to herself in hushed tones, hastily changing the subject when she felt Ewan's gaze on her to be getting stronger. "Alright so, you're being booked for identity theft, embezzlement, harboring malicious intentions against others, money laundering, keeping a hostage and actually killing a person. You haven't forgotten about your Dad, right? That sums it up. Any objections to make?" She quizzed absentmindedly while jotting down the offenses in the register before her as well.

"Nope."

"You own up to all the charges pressed against you?" Nora put forth, her voice almost mechanical.

"Do I have an option?" Ewan shrugged his shoulders, a defeated smile dancing on his lips.

"Not one that I can think of," Nora breathed out, pushing her chair away before stooping down to shift closer to the microphone that was installed on the table. "The interrogation is complete, he's all yours for the rest of the legal procedures." She said, raising her eye level to peer into the wide, translucent glass pane behind which her colleagues had been awaiting her signal ever since the investigation began.

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a/n

aaaaaand the finale is finally here! but don't be sad just yet, the book doesn't end here. don't worry either, you won't have to wait for another week in order to read the epilogue😳 it'll be available in a couple of days (definitely not a week tho hehe) 👀 don't forget to vote and comment on this one as well tho💀 happy reading <33