INSIDE MONSTER. THE FUGITIVE.

CHAPTER 52: A SILENT WITNESS

„He seemed to have been a very unfriendly witness, it seems to me," said IuNa, staring at DooSan. He was sitting on the sofa, with his face buried in his palms, something that made him look so unprotected and powerless at that moment.

Not only did DooSan look so emptied inside but also SolHi. She was leaning against the closet from the living room of Lee's house, with her head bowed, and often gnashing her teeth. The reason? She felt that the entire world was about to collapse over her shoulders because „No matter what we do, we are always losing. As though we are cursed."

Her shout made DooSan raise his head and silently look at her for a while. Seeing that SolHi couldn't calm down and her eyes were bathed by the tears of disappointment, he stood up and approached her. Touching her cheeks with both palms, he forced her to look into his eyes when he said, „A simple coincidence! That's all! Trust me!"

Hearing him talking like that, somehow carelessly, though the man's voice had shaken when he said those words, SolHi frowned. „Coincidence?" She hissed through her teeth. „Hell no, DooSan! It can't be about coincidence here. Not as long as even Park Yu Ra, who wasn't a problem for them anymore, was taken out of the game. She's dead, right?"

„No," stated DooSan, trying to be calm when he felt that SolHi was like a volcano about to blow. „She's in a coma," he added. „Thus, as long as she's still alive, we have a chance to succeed because... now it's different."

„What's different now, DooSan? Nothing! Why? Once again, an important witness was silenced. Once again, someone blocks our way and impedes us from finding out the truth. At the same time, how does the fact that she's in a coma help us if she can't tell us anything?"

„She might recover. Then..."

„...it can be too late," SolHi shouted again, pushing him away from her and walking up and down in front of him. „Until she awakes from the coma, if she awakes one day, we can be in her shoes: dead or buried God knows where."

„I think you exaggerate now," IuNa calmly told her, standing up from the armchair where she had sat by then. „Yet, though I think you both exaggerate anticipating such a grey future for all of us, something we have no idea if this happens one day or not, I still think you might be right. I mean... DooSan might be right in saying that Park Yu Ra can recover one day, just as you, SolHi, are right when you say that we can't count on her testimony. Thus, we are back from where we've started."

„I think differently though," SoRan cut her off, making everybody intently watch her. Looking only in front and often frowning, she said, „We aren't back to the starting point because when we started this investigation, we hadn't thought about talking with them. Plus, as IuNa says, while Park Yu Ra is still alive, the balance can tilt in our favor any moment."

„Or we can get worse than now," SolHi said through her teeth. „That balance can tilt so much so that it digs a big hole for all of us."

„I said already that you exaggerate," said IuNa reproachfully. „Yet, I won't say that I don't feel the same sometimes. Even so, it's a true fact that we can't count on Park Yu Ra, at least for the moment. Then... the last hope now is Scorpion."

DooSan weirdly smiled, making everybody wince. Seeing their grimaces, he sketched a kinder smile when he said, „He got worse than Park Yu Ra because... they'd buried him a few days ago. Overdose."

DooSan's words made SolHi burst into hysterical laughter. Then, when she'd been able to calm down a little, not paying attention to the stunned glances of others, which were focused on her, she asked, „Am I the only one who considers all these weird?"

„Weird? How?" SoRan inquired.

„The fact that we trip even where it's a rocky road, for instance. How? Simple: back in jail, I've been attacked because they've tried to silence me. Then, while we were following Jackal's footsteps, trying to find out what he was up to, Min Ha Rin was about to be sent to the other world. Not only did she suffer because, on top of that, the two important witnesses we had, those who might have made some light in this case, suffered in suspicious conditions. How? Park Yu Ra is in a coma while Scorpion is dead. Too many coincidences one after another, don't you think so?"