Chapter 38
It looked like the thing had fallen with the lunatic when he stumbled a moment ago.
Car keys?
They were car keys, shaped in a way that looked painfully familiar. Just then, the manager, who had been watching the stalker being dragged away, hurried over. Without thinking, Young-in instinctively hid the keys under his hand.
"Young-in! Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere? I saw a knife dropped over there..."
"Yes. Fortunately, no one's hurt."
"Good... But did that guy say anything weird? Is there anything else suspicious in the car besides the shopping bag? You're really okay, right? Don't hide anything from me because you don't want to worry us."
"...No, there's really nothing else. I'm fine. But the police have been notified, so they should be here soon. For now, I don't want this to blow up."
"Yeah, yeah. I'll handle it carefully so it doesn't get any bigger. You all have to go with them anyway, so don't worry."
"Yes. And I... actually, I think there may be reporters outside. Sorry, but could you check for a moment while we wait?"
"Sure. That's probably best."
He stared after the manager as he headed out of the parking lot to check. The man kept looking back every few steps, so Young-in raised a hand to reassure him that he was fine.
The moment the manager turned the corner and disappeared, Go Young-in sprang to his feet and went looking for Lim Se-bin. Even without meaning to, his stride had turned noticeably urgent.
No way. Shit, no way. Sure enough, Lim Se-bin was standing in front of the van. He looked like he'd come to check the shopping bag and the box.
"Se-bin hyung."
"What."
Lim Se-bin answered carelessly without even turning around. In truth, it was hardly worth being surprised; if it had been anyone else, he probably wouldn't have answered at all.
[Clause 28: A kind idol leader offers warm words and actions to the members.]
Damn it. Come to think of it, I still haven't asked if he's okay.
"For starters... I'm glad you weren't hurt. I was worried."
"Worried? You were the one who jumped in and got in the way in the first place... Hah, seriously."
As if the earlier incident had just come back to him, Lim Se-bin flared up, cut himself off, and pressed hard between his brows with a low sigh. And he was the one who had been acting like a rabid bastard over this the whole time.
"Don't make a fuss over nothing. I would've handled it anyway even if it wasn't you. It's not like this is the first time... Whatever. You didn't come over because you had something to say? Say it."
Shit. So he really wasn't going to think Young-in had come just because he was genuinely worried.
"...Uh. Our car keys. You took them, right? I just wanted to check something."
Without answering, Lim Se-bin took the car keys from his pocket and threw them at Young-in. Young-in swung out a hand and caught them. Well, this at least was cooperative. Maybe a little pity born from going through the same thing?
Young-in held the recovered keys and the one he'd been given side by side on his palm, comparing them.
...
The guess had been right. He'd thought they looked familiar, and sure enough the shape of the key and even the engraved vehicle emblem were exactly the same.
It was the spare key to Zero One's van.
* * *
Fortunately, only the usual loitering reporters were visible; no one who had come with prior knowledge showed their face. Still, there was no point taking risks, so they went out the back entrance and received a brief statement from the police.
As a precaution, the manager suggested they stop by the hospital quietly as well. But Lim Se-bin refused, saying he was fine and didn't want to go over something this trivial, so they settled on going back to the dorm to rest. For someone who had been acting so sharp all day, it was a strange thing to say.
After they got back to the dorm, the manager told the other members as well to head home early if possible, then said he would report back to the company before returning, and left again.
After that, it was only natural to check the shopping bag and box that had been stuffed into the large bag they'd brought with them in the first place.
Young-in had been bothered by Lim Se-bin's reaction earlier and wondered whether it was really right to look at these together, but Lim Se-bin came over first, snatched up the bag, and slammed it onto the table. Then, before anyone could say a word, he opened it and checked the shopping bag.
"This really is the work of a psycho."
With a voice full of disgust, Lim Se-bin upended the shopping bag and shook it violently. With that rough motion, Polaroids spilled out in a rush from inside.
The photographs scattered across the table and floor, making a mess of the place. Lim Se-bin's expression remained savage. Now that he'd actually seen the mess around him, it looked as if his temper had only gotten worse. Maybe he wanted to get through it quickly and clean it up right away.
One of the photos fluttered down and landed near Young-in's feet. He picked it up as it was.
In the picture were two people wearing similar clothes. Their faces were pressed together in a pose so unnaturally affectionate it looked like a couple photo, except the problem was that one of them was Lim Se-bin's face.
...What the hell is this bastard doing? I thought it would stop at secretly taken photos.
The other person was, of course, the lunatic himself. But the longer Young-in looked, the more familiar that face became. He felt like he'd recently seen someone who looked very similar, but maybe he was mistaken.
On closer inspection, the photos had clearly been assembled by sticking together separate shots, but at a glance they looked natural enough to fool someone. Even the forgery had been painstaking. Young-in found himself, for once, in full agreement with Lim Se-bin. The man really was insane.
Looking through the other scattered photos, the whole thing only got worse.
Most of them were couples' two-shots with the lunatic, done in this same way. Along with Lim Se-bin's face, Young-in's had been mixed into the photos too.
No... now that I look at it, there seem to be more photos of my face than anything else...? When the hell were these taken? What the hell is happening to my publicity rights right now? Christ, this is insane.
Each photo had a date and some words written in the white margin at the bottom. The first ones that jumped out at him were things like The Day We First Met, Jin-hee ♥ Se-bin, still going, and Young-in's Indoor Date.
So it wasn't just one person he was supposedly dating. Did he get tired of pretending with only one and have to make up more? And for some reason, there were still no photos of the other members. It was absurd.
Most of the clothes Young-in wore in the photos were casual outfits, not the kind he would wear for official schedules.
Young-in inspected the photos one by one, grabbing whatever he could. This one too, and that one. And this as well...
As the seconds passed, the hand rifling through the photos slowed bit by bit.
Haha... I wish the clothes were forged too.......
He could tell at once that the photos were of him.
Every piece of clothing the Young-ins in the pictures wore belonged to the real Young-in. They were hanging neatly in his bedroom closet even now. ...Great, now I feel sick again.
No, no matter how I look at it, that's me.
Some of the photos felt far too intimate. In other words, they were no different from pictures taken in a deeply private space.
There was a reason he'd blathered about having evidence. If someone only skimmed them without looking closely, they could probably be fooled for a moment. A few of the solo shots were ones he had no memory of taking at all, and even if he had taken them, they were photos he'd never posted anywhere.
If he'd tipped this off to some NewTube exposer or one of those celebrity-rumor accounts, it would have blown up instantly. Shit.
Lim Se-bin was probably in a similar situation. Young-in didn't know what clothes Lim Se-bin had been wearing or what photos had been taken, but if it was the same bastard doing the same thing, it had to be something like this.
By this point, it was obvious that whatever was in the box wouldn't be ordinary either. The box was small enough that it only made the suspense worse.
While they were still sorting through the photos, Lim Se-bin returned from washing his hands after stepping away. He'd been muttering curses the entire time he looked at them.
He really must have been grossed out to the core. Honestly, Young-in had been wondering whether he even touched random things so freely. And yet he still hadn't looked away from the box even once. Lim Se-bin was staring at it like he meant to burn it to ashes.
Despite acting like he was dying to know what was inside, Lim Se-bin didn't move his hands. He probably hated the idea of touching the box itself. In the end, Young-in reached out first.
"I'll open the box."
It was a blindingly white box, almost offensively clean. Young-in lifted the lid straight up.
Inside were a large pie shaped like bread, along with an envelope.