FACELESS

[ 18 ]

Deserted.

It was one way to describe the state of Daegu at the wee hours of the day. There was no one walking on the sidewalks, no lights coming from the various establishments, no cars passing by the main roads. There was only the moon and the stars to accompany Maia and Jungkook at one o'clock in the morning.

The girl shivered as another gust of wind passed by them. Another word that would describe Daegu during the crack of dawn: it was chilly. There was no way you could've survived the time without a thick jacket to wrap around your fragile body.

Eventually, Jungkook, who was in the lead stopped, causing his noona to follow suit. "Hoseok hyung said to meet there."

The boy pointed at the alleyway a few feet away from them. A couple feet more was Omelas, the diner all of them knew and grew fond of. Unfortunately, without its neon sign lit up, it looked as creepy as the rest of the town was during that time.

"Okay then," Maia said. "Let's go."

Jungkook looked at her weirdly. "You're not scared?"

"No." The girl shook her head. "Why? Are you?"

The Busan boy snorted. "Of course not. I'm a man."

"Says the one who shrieked a while ago over a curtain."

"Shut up!"

Crash!

The two of them jumped in surprise. They both frantically turned around, with Jungkook turning on the light on his phone.

It was just a cat, jumping on top of some trash cans.

Maia inwardly groaned. "Come on, let's just get this over with."

Together, they finally walked towards the alley.

Just like any other alley in Daegu, it had a couple of trash cans, some garbage lying on the ground because people were too lazy to actually throw them inside the very visible and near trash cans, and a bunch of graffiti that both served as a showcase of talent and an act of rebellion.

But today, there was an exception. Today, the alley became special for inside stood a very important person that has been gone for far too long.

"Hoseok hyung!"

The man didn't hesitate to accept the running Jungkook into his arms. It has been a long time since he saw his favorite maknae.

"Jungkook! Long time no see." Hoseok grinned at the boy. Then he glanced at the person in front of them. "Maia."

Maia nodded. "I'm sorry for intruding your meetup, Hoseok. But I've been wanting answers for a long time."

The supposedly-dead man sighed. "I guess you do deserve an explanation as well."

Jungkook, who finally looked up to observe his hyung even more, gasped. "You dyed your hair!"

Indeed, out was the vibrant red hair and in was the calming dark brown mop on top of his head.

"I needed to," Hoseok explained, running a hand through his hair. "I can't have people recognizing me. He isn't supposed to know that I'm alive."

Maia raised an eyebrow. "He?"

"The killer."

Jungkook's eyes widened. "You know who he is, then?"

Hoseok nodded. "Unfortunately, you can't go blaming people without enough evidence. Yes, I may have seen the one who killed me, but I honestly thought he could get away with it. That's why I didn't say anything."

"How are you alive, hyung? How were you able to prevent people from realizing you're not dead?"

"A miracle happened when I was sent to the hospital. I started breathing again. My parents were there, and they were so happy. But I told them that we had to keep it a secret. I was afraid that the serial killer would come for me once again, knowing that I survived his attack, and after seeing his face. So we had to pay the hospital a huge sum of money and dye my hair.

"Since then I started trying to gather more evidence," Hoseok continued. "I visited Min Yoongi. He, too, was very surprised to find out that I was alive, but I also made him swear to keep it a secret. He told me everything. He told me how he was forced to set Jin's penthouse on fire. He told me how he was threatened to not say a word about anything or else he would be joining his mother six feet under.

"Wait, were you the one who has been watching us?" Maia asked.

"At the cemetery and at Jin's building? Yes. That was me. I'm sorry that I ran away from you. I wasn't ready to reveal anything just yet, specifically myself." He then suddenly took out something from his pocket. It was a flashdrive. He gently grabbed Maia's hand and placed the object on it. "But now everything is set. In that flashdrive is everything that you need to prove who the killer is—even the lost CCTV footage on the night the Kim family was murdered."

"This is amazing!" Jungkook exclaimed. "So who is it, hyung? Who's the serial killer?"

"It's-"

Bang!

Hoseok suddenly slumped to the ground, creating a pool of blood under him.

"Hyung!"

"Hoseok!"

The stepsiblings anxiously knelt down the brunette. Hoseok almost died before. Would he conquer death again?

"Noona..."

Maia looked at Jungkook who was pointing at something towards the end of the alley. The girl followed the direction of his finger.

Her eyes widened.

At the other end of the alley was a hooded man wearing a sequined mask.

The serial killer.

Maia stood up, with Jungkook following suit. In one of his hands was a gun, still pointing towards them.

A few seconds after, his other hand folded twice, gesturing for them to give something significant.

The flashdrive.

Stubbornly, Maia shook her head. "No."

The hand dropped. The other hand pulled the trigger.

Bang!

Jungkook slumped to the ground as well.

---

JUNGKOOK NOOOOOO!

HOSEOK NOOOOO!

There's only like less than ten chapters I think left for this book. Not exactly sure with how many because I still haven't finished writing the ending yet lol. There's so much questions to be answered, so I'm trying my best to lay it out as clear as possible.

Thank you so much for the never-ending support. Faceless is almost up to 3K reads while I'm writing this. You don't know how much I appreciate every single one of you.

See you all on the next chapter!