Icy-Shock (Completed)

11. Secret Camera

Heartina...

Next morning when I woke up, I was in a room to which I had never been before. Then I stared at the ceiling painted with historical figures and Greek Gods. This type of interest was pretty rare for Korean people, and so I thought that someone had kidnapped me. Then the door, which was closed when I woke up, opened and Yoon Min Joon came inside with a cup of coffee. His eyes were all swollen and red, as though he had not slept at all. Then, the previous day's events flashed up and I was alarmed that I had totally forgotten about it. He came near me and sat down. My hoarse voice was up in the morning.

I croaked, "What happened? Why am I here?"

He looked at me for a long time and then said, "You slept sitting down in the café. Choi Young thought that it would damage your body and so he brought you here."

I was puzzled and asked him, "I don't remember walking in my sleep to this room at all."

Yoon Min Joon gave me a wry smile and said, "He carried you like a small child all the way to the first floor. He was so careful not to wake you up and finally I see that he has done a good job."

My face reddened as no one had carried me before. I felt a thrill of excitement in me and I did not know why. I simply hated to accept it because it did not make any sense for me to get attracted by a person whom I got to know only the day before and after the murder last night, I felt everything here lacked connection.

Then Cha Eun Sang hurried inside the room. His eyes were also swollen and he appeared weak and sick. He came straight to Yoon Min Joon and said, "Hyung (brother/ buddy in Korean), Kim Ji Won had installed a CCTV in the camera room few days back secretly and that means the murder will be recorded in that camera and also we can easily find who the murderer is."

"What? He has a CCTV?" asked Min Joon puzzled.

"He mentioned it to me yesterday about it", said Eun Sang.

"What? Are you sure? Why didn't you tell this to Tae Kyung yesterday?" asked Min Joon.

"I'm positive and I forgot about the CCTV in all the commotion yesterday. Also, Choi Young said he has some hair clip belonging to the murderer. So, I think we are a step closer to the murderer", he said.

Yoon Min Joon became alert and we all rushed to call the other two, of the 5 fingers. Choi Young had also called Hwang Tae Kyung to come to see the footage. Then, Cha Eun Sang bought Kim Ji Won 's laptop and switched it on.

The laptop had a password. We tried to guess and finally Tae Kyung said, "Ji Won loved Hae Ra. So, it must be her name or both of their names".

"Yes", said Young and typed few wrong passwords - 'haera', 'HaeRa', 'HaeRaJiWon', 'HaErAjIwOn' and finally Eun Sang pulled the laptop and typed, 'KiMjIwOn&IncredibleWorld' and the laptop opened and I didn't understand how she got it right. But that wasn't important now.

The atmosphere was really tense and we were all eager and at the same time really anxious to see who the murderer was. Then, in the video, we saw Kim Ji Won coming inside the camera room and setting the camera with different lightings and doing other adjustments. The atmosphere was becoming really nervous now. Then the next second we saw a black masked thin figure coming in and then all went blank and again the video showed us after Choi Young came inside to me. Hae Ra came in and closed the system after that. She too looked weak.

Then Hwang Tae Kyung came forward and said, "The murderer must have either stolen the CCTV record or erased it by just hacking into the system. I think the murderer was already aware that there was a CCTV inside this room which means he must have visited this studio before." Every pair of eyes in the room stared at Hwang Tae Kyung with fear.

"But, that can't be sir. The computer is highly secured and it is difficult to hack in or open it. The password is known to Kim Ji Won only", said Hae Ra.

"How do you know that, only Ji Won knows the password, Hae Ra?" asked Tae Kyung.

"He is like that. He gets bored of almost everything in life. He gets very sick of his models that he changes them once a week. Applying the same concept here, he would change his passwords very often", said Hae Ra and Eun Sang together.

I wondered how both of them came to the same conclusion.

"I think Hae Ra and Eun Sang is right about Ji Won", said Young quietly.

"How?" demanded Tae Kyung.

"There is a theory related to this in human psychology. A person's character will be the same at all points of life but the perspective with which people see is all that matters. Here, Ji Won changes everything soon in life. He changes his models often and the same applies with his passwords. But the frequency of change, that is, he may change the password every day, every week or at max every month. That frequency is difficult to find out", he said thoughtfully.

"Now, I think you are right Choi Young. Yesterday he changed his password", said Eun Sang.

"Did he tell you his password?" asked Tae Kyung.

"No. Yesterday when he was leaving his studio in the afternoon, he was about to leave and sat in his car. But, he went back again to the basement. I asked him why and he said, it was to change his password for that day", he said.

"Then, does this mean he is changing his password daily?" asked Min Joon shocked.

"Exactly", said Choi Young.

"I think the killer is close to Ji Won because, he knows this habit of Ji Won. He must have been here after yesterday afternoon to know the password", said Tae Kyung.

"Who all came to the basement after late afternoon?" asked Hae Ra.

"Heartina left in the early afternoon and was back by 8:00pm. You left early in the afternoon too, Hae Ra. Then, the café had its customers but no one went down into the basement. Ji Won was the last to leave and the first to enter the basement after the password change", said Min Joon.

"Does the studio have any other doors?" asked Tae Kyung.

"No sir and no windows are broken. So, the killer must have used only the main entrance door to the basement from the café", said Eun Sang.

"When did you close the café yesterday?" asked Tae Kyung.

"At 7:30pm, a little early than usual", said Min Joon.

"Why did you close it early?" asked Tae Kyung.

"We were out of supplies. So, we closed early. Min Joon and I went to the super market to buy the necessities", said Nam Soon.

"Then does that mean Young, Eun Sang was here and then Heartina joined you?" said Tae Kyung.

"Yes, it was like that and there was this makeup lady too", said Eun Sang.

"Where were you all by then?" asked Tae Kyung.

"I was in my lab in the attic, Choi Young was browsing in his room in the first floor, Heartina was in the makeup room and that makeup lady had gone out for a drink", said Eun Sang.

"If my guess is correct, there was no one in the café at the time of murder and so the killer stealthily walked in via the main entrance, killed Ji Won while Heartina was inside the makeup room and placed the parchment meticulously in Ji Won's pocket and ran away", said Tae Kyung.

Everyone in the room had the same thought "Who is the murderer?"