The Heroes We Weren't

Chapter 21 - A Detective's Confession

Numb. Silenced. The living room was deadly silent apart from the thump of Fisher's prosthetic as Hyun-Soo had slowly let the man go.

He relaxed his fingers, let go of the man's collar and took a step back. All while his eyes remained at me.

His fingers stayed crooked, cramped in mid-air before he slowly lowered his arms. His every move so carefully planned.

Fisher adjusted his collar, smacked his lips and walked past us; in between us, out the hallway, out the door with no goodbye; His part was done, his secrets spilled. With his leaving came the thick atmosphere - that suffocating feeling of wishing to be elsewhere; anywhere in the world but by his side.

"You have to listen to me." His words were just as carefully chosen as his moves. "It's not what you think."

His fingers were up mid-air again, as if to calm me down while approaching. As if to near a lion waiting to eat him up. One step closer. I avoided his touch by stepping aside. I took a few steps through the room, bit my bottom lip and eyed the walls.

"Who are you?" I exclaimed, huffed rather. Irony, the irony of having let him into my home.

"Hyun-Soo."

"Choi?" I turned around, it pained me to face him.

"Choi is my last name." He said, walked up to me again. "It doesn't change who you know me as."

I reached my hand out to stop him. He respected my reaction and came to a halt.

"Are you him?" I feared the reply. "Soldier Number One?"

The lack of denial hurt even more the second time around. No words, no sign that I was wrong in thinking that he was in fact the man I now feared. No words, nothing - He left me with nothing.

"Are you?" Second tear around and the shortening of my breath came to visit.

A nod. A small, close to insignificant nod.

'Nothing' suddenly seemed like the greatest gift he could have given me for that nod had been but the ignition to a panic attack on hold. My breaths shortened further, each one bringing me closer to a light hyperventilation.

"You could of told me, you know!" I called out, desperate attempts to keep my eyes away from his. "When we spoke to Adam about Number One, you could of said something!"

Silence.

He had wished for me to listen, yet my panic seemed to have left him unable to speak. He kept averting his gaze - he turned around every once in a while, ran his hands through his hair, then placed them in his pockets.

"You-" I stuttered, "You saved me whenever I was about to die, you showed up whenever I was thinking of quitting, you-"

I placed my hand on my chest, tried to retake control of my breathing.
"You told me to push Mister Garcia in front of a train and yet I-" I swallowed, grabbed my coat from a chair, "and yet I didn't see it."

I felt baffled by my own stupidity. My own naivety. Everything I had known or thought I had known had been flipped upside down. Except for one thing; The unknown M had been right about my innocence.

"I am." Hyun-Soo finally spoke. "I am him. The soldier. But 'City you-"

"Don't." I hissed. "Don't call me that."

I had thrown my coat on and as I passed him he hurriedly shoved his hand in my pocket - As I turned back to view him, he had already taken the pocket watch away from me.

He held it up. Its metal arms ticked away, happily unknowing of their surroundings.