Genius
At the words I killed them, Kang Tae-oh's face went slack. He wasn't the only one. Every cop inside the precinct, and every criminal sitting through questioning, wore the same stunned look.
Kang Tae-oh cleared his throat, rose from his seat, and came to greet me.
"Ahem. Why don't you have a seat inside first. Though..."
He kept stealing glances at me, sipping water like his throat had gone dry ages ago.
"Ah, to hell with it. Why are you turning yourself in?"
"Why? Because I defied the will of God, of course. That's why I'm here. The murderer you've been hunting. The criminal. The raving psychopath. All of that is me."
"No, that's... Haa."
Faced with my shameless answer, Kang Tae-oh raked a hand roughly through his hair.
"If you keep scratching like that, you're going to break the skin. And look at this. A criminal walks in to turn herself in, and you haven't even put the cuffs on?"
"What do you want. No—what's your angle."
Kang Tae-oh didn't believe me. He never had, not from the start.
"An angle? I don't have one. I just wanted to rest."
I swept my gaze around the precinct. Nothing had changed since the last time I was here. If I had to pick something, it was the extra crease that had settled into Kang Tae-oh's forehead.
"You've got another wrinkle, Detective."
"Yeah. Because some raving psychopath had every last one of us running around for days without sleep."
"Sounds exhausting. But... if I'm that raving psychopath, why are you still speaking so politely to me?"
"That's... respect for the work you've done up to now. Once the interrogation starts, that courtesy is gone."
I nodded at the hardness in his voice.
"Is that so. I'd like to see that sooner rather than later. Ah... I already have, actually. At the funeral home."
Clack!
The instant the words funeral home left my mouth, Kang Tae-oh shoved his chair back and seized me by the collar.
"Now?! That's what comes out of your mouth right now?!"
"H-hey, calm down!"
"Kang Tae-oh! She hasn't even been confirmed as the perpetrator! We can't do this!"
Detectives rushed in from every side to pull him off me. His rage didn't die down. If anything it burned hotter, his eyes boring into me like he meant to kill me on the spot.
"I like it. That heat. That sense of duty. That's why I came here. Still... it's a shame. If you'd only been a little more careful back then, I never would have had to walk in and turn myself in."
"Son of a BITCH!"
Kang Tae-oh kicked a small trash can across the floor and spat the curse after it. The reason he was this furious was simple: I had killed his junior, a rookie detective.
Why? That was simple too. I had been as careful as I could, and the rookie still walked in on a murder. I had no choice but to kill him. And because of that, they finally had a trail to follow.
"That was my first kill. That detective."
"Don't give me that crap! Fifteen people have died by your hand."
"No. The correct count is fourteen pieces of social garbage and two innocent victims."
My voice drifted through the precinct, quiet and even. Kang Tae-oh let out a hollow laugh—and then caught the wrong note in what I'd said.
"Two innocent victims? Not one... so that's sixteen?"
"So it is. Sixteen, all told. I just finished sending one more to God's side on my way here."
The detectives held their silence. None of them knew what they were supposed to say. The only one who broke it and moved was Kang Tae-oh. He pulled a pair of cuffs from his pocket.
"I am placing you under arrest as the perpetrator in this case. You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to an attorney. Anything you say can and will be used against you."
He clenched his teeth to the last and locked the cuffs around my wrists.
Click. Click.
"Ow. That hurts. Could you be a little gentler?"
"Shut up. From this moment on, every word you say will be used against you."
Once the cuffs were on, I eased back against the chair. The thought that I could leave everything behind and go to God's side now sent a thrill through me; my heart was already hammering.
"Why that look? This is your victory, isn't it? So celebrate tonight. Enjoy yourselves. A day like this won't come again."
"I don't let my guard down until we've handed you over. This isn't over."
"That's right. It isn't over. If anything, this is only the beginning. I made a mistake and stopped here—but the ones who come after me will deliver God's judgment on society's garbage in ways that grow more cunning, more original, every time. So."
I met Kang Tae-oh's eyes. Anticipation had already outrun the excitement.
"Don't celebrate. Don't stop. Struggle all the way to the end, and reach it."
I rolled my tongue inside my mouth.
A tiny capsule, pinched between my teeth.
Crack!
I bit down hard. It burst in my mouth at once, and whatever was inside slid down my throat. In that instant my blood felt like it had turned to stone, and my body began to lock up.
"What the... St-stop her! No—call 911 first!"
Kang Tae-oh shouted first and checked my condition. It was already too late. My body was going rigid, and even if they managed to treat me, the blood loss was already killing brain cells. One way or another, I was going to die in this chair.
"Farewell, then."
I left those last words and slowly closed my eyes.
"Okay! Cut!"
Director Shin Yeomyeong's okay rang out across the set.
"Pwah—!"
I dumped out all the air I'd been holding to sell the rigor, then gasped like I'd just broken the surface.
"You okay?"
"Ah... yeah. Just a little short of breath. So... is that a wrap for today?"
"That's right. A few more angles and we'd be done, but I don't think we even need those. That focus just now... I never would have guessed you'd only been acting for a year."
Of course he wouldn't.
Look Only at Me!
Complete psychological and physical immersion into the role.
I'd been running the trait the whole time. When it came to immersion, I wasn't losing to anyone.
"I learned something from it, too. I almost got eaten alive by you."
Kim Haseong looked away like he was embarrassed, and a smile tugged at my mouth before I could stop it.
"Did you? Sunbae, you're not supposed to lose to me. What am I supposed to do with all this guilt?"
"....Your personality doesn't flip a little too fast?"
"Well, today's shoot is over. So I have to go back to being myself."
"Even so, that was way too fast..."
Kim Haseong frowned at me.
She's not an actual psycho... right?
I couldn't expect a clean answer, but the suspicion was there. Even veteran actors couldn't throw a switch on and off in a single heartbeat.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"No. It's nothing. More importantly, you should get back and rest."
"Should I?"
I didn't understand why he was saying that.
Then—
"Jiwoo! You're okay, right?"
Director Shin Yeomyeong came onto the set and looked me over from every angle.
"Me? I'm fine. Is something wrong?"
"No, nothing. The acting just now was so good I thought you might have actually died..."
"Come on. It's acting. Acting. And that capsule I bit was just water."
It had been custom-made for this shoot, but the contents were ordinary water. Nobody dies from drinking water. My body was perfectly fine.
"Yeah...? Then how about tonight? A wrap dinner, all of us! You in?"
"A wrap dinner! I'd love that! What are we eating? Meat? Or sashimi?! I'll take anything!"
I bounced in place at the thought of a delicious dinner.
"Wow... the vibe a second ago was insane, and now look at her. She's just a kid."
"She is a kid. She's still a student."
"Can a student even act at that level?"
"Who knows. If they can... they'd have to be a genius, right?"
A murmur ran through the crew. Everyone sounding like they were singing my praises put me in an excellent mood.
Hehe. I'll work even harder from here, raise my stats, rank up my traits, and become the greatest actress—and the strongest VTuber—there is.
"So what are we eating?"
"Hmm... with this many people, it's gotta be meat, right? We'll do beef on the day we wrap for real. Pork tonight?"
"Pork! Perfect."
Gulp.
I swallowed at the thought of pork hitting a hot grill with a hiss.
"Come on, come on, let's go!"
"Not yet. We've still got to break down the set, and today's the last day on the rental, so we have to clear everything out. Let's see, the time is..."
Director Shin Yeomyeong pulled his phone from his pocket.
It was around six in the morning. Everyone here was a seasoned veteran, so we'd flown through the shoot with almost no NGs.
"Alright. How about the dinner tomorrow at two? We drink our fill from then, take two days off, and pick the shoot back up. Sound good?"
I was a little disappointed it wasn't today. But if, as the director said, the rental ran out today, they had to pull every piece of equipment before the day was over. The important gear and the recorded footage couldn't be lost or leaked. That meant leaving it only with people they trusted at a minimum, which meant the strike was going to run late no matter what.
"Sounds good. Dinner tomorrow at two, then. Oh, can I bring Yuwol unnie too?"
"Yuwol unnie... you mean Lee Yuwol? Of course that's fine! She did important work for us. Invite her. Kim Woojin, too."
Kim Woojin would be at school around that time tomorrow. I wasn't sure he'd make it.
"I'll try giving him a call."