Paint It Black - Jeongcheol

EPILOGUE PART 1:

OVER A YEAR LATER

The case against the Black Lotus had officially been closed. All that remained in the file was evidence pointing directly at Jeonghan, and with Jeonghan dead, there was nothing more to pursue. It felt like a hollow victory—an ending that wasn't really an ending at all.

Seojoon and the Serpents were a different story. They were completely wiped out. With the file which they received that correlated the evidence the task force had painstakingly gathered, Seojoon was finally arrested. The ciphers that Seungcheol had cracked had led them to the Serpents' operations, bringing them to their knees. The victory was bittersweet, tainted by everything that had been lost along the way.

But when it came to the Black Lotus, it was as if they had vanished into thin air. The warehouse where they had once gathered, where so many plans had been forged in the shadows, was reduced to ashes, leaving no trace behind. Jeonghan's safe house stood abandoned, a hollow shell of what it once was. Seungkwan's clinic, too, was deserted, as if it had never existed. Even Chan, who had been a constant presence, had disappeared without a word.

Seungcheol couldn't escape the lingering guilt that settled deep within him. Jeonghan had been his responsibility, in some twisted, unspoken way. He had promised Chan that he would keep Jeonghan safe, but now, with Jeonghan gone, Seungcheol couldn't deny his part in what had happened. Facing Chan with that knowledge felt impossible.

If Seungcheol didn't know any better, he might have believed that the Black Lotus was truly gone, wiped from existence. That's what the law believed. But something didn't sit right. Smaller gangs had started to rise, only to be swiftly taken down. It was too easy for the task force to clean. There was no chaos, no uproar like Jeonghan had warned there would be. It made Seungcheol wonder if the Black Lotus was still out there, operating from the shadows, maintaining the balance in their own way. And if that was the case, it had to be Joshua pulling the strings. He wondered how Seokmin must be dealing with everything.

"I don't regret letting go of Joshua that day," Seokmin had said to him.

Seungcheol nodded, "Good. You had good intentions, and nothing bad came out of it."

Things had changed dramatically since then. The task force was disbanded, its mission completed. They had gone back to their usual cases. Although it was a comfort to return to familiar work, Seungcheol felt a deep emptiness inside. Each time he arrested someone, he found himself questioning whether he was doing the right thing. Was he arresting the right person? Did they truly deserve to be punished? Or was there more to their story, more reasons behind their crime?

"Thinking this way makes you a better cop. Every cop should question things. We've learned that life isn't just black and white," Wonwoo's words echoed in Seungcheol's mind.

Wonwoo and Mingyu seemed to have found their own equilibrium. They were closer than ever, even moving in together, becoming roommates like Mingyu had wanted, their bond evident in the easy way they interacted. It was a stark contrast to the fractured pieces of Seungcheol's own life.

Seungcheol had said everything he needed to say to Jeonghan, pouring out his heart, but the response he received was nothing like he had hoped for. He wished for a different ending, one where things were still intact and where Jeonghan was still a part of his world. The idea of turning back time and fixing everything that had gone wrong consumed him. There were so many things he wished he could change, so many regrets he couldn't shake.

He tried to push thoughts of Jeonghan out of his mind, trying not to believe that he was truly gone. But he knew he had to face Chan. It was something he couldn't avoid any longer. The guilt that weighed on him demanded that he act. He needed to reach out, to offer some kind of comfort, to deal with the reality of what had happened. He had to keep trying even if Chan refused to pick his calls.