Mental Asylum || PURINZ

025

"You don't seem to be in a good mood. How was the interrogation?" Beom asked me the day after I went to see Yunjin .

As a suspect in the case of Huh Yunjin, I was temporarily suspended. The theft of a surgical knife and sleeping with the enemy was enough to put me on the officials' blacklist.

I poured milk into the cereal bowl and added some freshly cut strawberries. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you're mocking me," I said as I settled at the table.

Beom had just come out of the steaming bathroom, shirtless. He had what looked like claw marks on his shoulder. "How did you get that?"

"Someone brought a wild cat to the clinic a few days ago," Beom said, as if it was nothing. He was prone to being injured by uncooperative animals, the kind that looked adorable until they sank their teeth into you and scratched your face.

"They have no reason to suspect you. You've told them the truth."

"What's not good enough to prove I'm innocent. Hanni told me that Yunjin is cooperative in the whole thing, which is suspicious. She didn't try to attack anyone, didn't even give them the usual death glares. What's going on with her?... I think she's giving up, Beom. She's had enough."

Beom shook his head. "That's too theatrical. Do you think Yunjin, famous for killing more than a dozen people, will just give up because she's tired of being interrogated?" He laughed. "You're thinking wrong, little sister."

"Oh, so you have it all figured out already?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. "Let me hear your theory, amateur detective Kim Beomgyu."

"I think Yunjin has an accomplice," and then he clarified quickly, "Not you, but someone else."

"Like who?"

Beom seemed lost in thought for a moment. "Someone personal from the hospital, of course. Those who don't seem very close to her but probably are."

He paused.

"Go on. I'm listening."

"Think about it, when Felix was killed, Yunjin was in a straightjacket, confined in a high-security room. The next nurse, Dayeon, turns up dead. Yunjin could have personally killed her and left the body for people to find, almost mocking the FBI and the police. That or someone killed her on her orders."

I hadn't given Beom much credit, but he was smart.

"Who do you suspect?" I asked him.

"Eunchae," he said dryly.

"Why Eunchae?"

"Eunchae pretends to hate Yunjin's guts, but she and Yunjin seem to have been cut from the same cloth. They could be faking the hatred that goes on between them."

The theories could be true or completely wild, but I wasn't going to mention that to my younger brother. He seemed very excited to play detective, and I didn't want to hurt his feelings.

"That could be the case, or Yunjin is really innocent, and someone is framing her. Killing all those people and making her look guilty."

Beom ran a hand through his hair in frustration.

I realized he was angry.

"What the hell did you eat when you were together?"

"Yunjin was honest."

"You slept with her, didn't you?"

It was my turn to stare. "I never cared to ask you who you sleep with or not, and I would appreciate it if you could do the same."