Part 33: Bachelor Pad! Keep Out!

_{content warning: gun violence, police corruption, hand trauma}

[BGM: Broken Dream 1]


Wow, feels like it's been a while since we got a new person. And it's Rocky! We know that guy already! Sucks that he's had to room with Jimmy for a whole semester though. Fortunately, there's actually very few actual outcomes for this puzzle- so let's get to it! (For reference, Regallion's guess for Rocky and Li Wen still resulted in the initial Bad ending for both.)



There's one other bad ending for Li Wen, so let's get that knocked out first. (Shellception's guess for Li Wen results in this ending.)



I lay on the roof, staring at the grey sky.
I was counting the clouds.

To go... not to go... to go... not to go...
I didn't know how many I had counted before I fell asleep.

I didn't wake up until it was already dark.
There was a new text message on my phone.

[The classroom was full today! You should have been there to see how I shut those people up for bad mouthing you. Oh and at the end of the class, Mr. Wen tore up everybody's sketches... this guy!]

I probably should have gone to the class.
What should I do about the class the day after tomorrow?

Yeah. Pretty straightforward. Anyway, let's get the other non-S endings out of the way here.



[BGM: Sunny Day]


Jimmy finally came back.
His gaming console was lying in the middle of the spilled water like an island in the middle of a dark lake. He lost it.

“How dare you break my console?!”
“How dare you not wash your clothes for so long?!”
“That's none of your business!”
”Oh, but it is! And it's not even the first time!”
”What are you talking about?”
”I'm talking about those photos that you secretly took! I'm the one who posted them!!”



”What did you just say?!”
”You have a crush on Li Wen, right? You even stalked her! You are such a psycho and a loser! If you really like her, why didn't you just tell her already?!"

”None! Of! Your! Business!”

Jimmy tossed his console away and lunged at me.
We were wrestling and rolling in all of the dirty water until the RA pulled us apart.
He made it clear that if we hadn't already graduated he would have made sure that we “suffered the most severe consequences”.

That night, Jimmy and I went to the grill bar near school and ate an unhealthy amount of chicken wings.
That was the end of our high school era. I would miss it.



[BGM: Broken Dream 1]


The yogurt tasted stranger than usual. Had it gone bad maybe?
Well, that would actually be great for me. I could just go and hide in the infirmary with a stomachache as my excuse.
With such a legitimate reason nobody should be able to say anything else about me.

I held my breath and drank the whole cup.

The art classroom was on the way to the infirmary.
I couldn't help myself, so I snuck up to the back door and tried to peek inside through the small glass window.

They were doing sketch practice today.
Mr. Wen was standing with his back towards me, looking at Rocky's sketch.

What was Rocky drawing... that Mr. Wen would be watching so closely...
I stood up on my toes.
He suddenly turned around.
Thank God I crouched down just in time...



However, the sudden movement must have caused my stomach to start hurting. It felt like it was a bad cramp.
Fortunately, it wasn't too bad.

I finally got to the infirmary with a hand pressed against my stomach; I stayed there until the end of school.



Personally, I think Rocky's should've been the S ending bc it had him actually tell Jimmy off for being a stalking creep, but hey. At least we now have confirmation on what happened with the pictures- though Rocky did it to get at Jimmy, not out of any malice towards Li Wen specifically. In turn, Jimmy was the one who hacked the BBS to get the photos taken down, most likely.

In any case, let's get to the S endings. (Shellception's guess for Rocky results in his S ending!)



[BGM: Sunny Day]


Jimmy had always half-assed everything and he had never followed through with anything.
He would never learn if I didn't teach him a lesson this time. Plus, I really couldn't stand this any longer!

His dirty clothes and the “mushrooms” had spilled on the floor, with the smelly water flooding throughout the room.

Ah, here came the star of the show: Jimmy just walked in.
He let out a grunt of surprise and immediately walked over to his bed to pick up his precious gaming console.
He had even stepped over a few mushrooms.

“You win.”

Jimmy recognized my anger, and started cleaning the room without a word.
Hmm... as long as he had learned his lesson.



[BGM: Broken Dream 1]


The yogurt tasted kind of strange... or stranger than usual, I should say.
Well, if it had gone bad, that would actually be great for me. I could just go and hide in the infirmary with a stomach ache as my excuse.
With such a legitimate reason nobody could say anything else about me.

I held my breath and drank the whole cup.

The art classroom was on the way to the infirmary.
I couldn't help myself, so I snuck up to the back door and tried to peek inside through the small glass window.

Rocky was sound asleep, drooling with his mouth open.
Jing was so focused. Mr. Wen would be insane to tear up her sketch this time.



Mr. Wen was standing with his back towards me, looking at Jing's sketch.
He must have liked it to be looking at it so closely...

I stood up on my toes and tried to see her sketch for myself.
But he suddenly turned around.
Thank God I crouched down just in time...

However, the sudden movement must have caused my stomach to start hurting. It felt like it was a bad cramp.
And it was getting worse and worse...

[BGM: Silence]


I leaned against the door and crumpled.
I felt like I was dreaming.

[BGM: Tender Love]


In my dream, he was carrying me on his back, and asking me where I wanted to go.
I said I wanted to go and see the rainbow on Shuanglong Mountain.
I heard that the rainbow was gorgeous there.

He said okay.

But Shuanglong Mountain was hard to get to. Even taxis wouldn't take us.
So Mr. Wen kept carrying me on his back. And he kept running, running... and running...

I fell asleep in the dream, too.
But... did we ever get to see the rainbow or not?

Nevertheless, it didn't really matter.
I just wanted the dream to last a little longer, and longer... and longer...



…

[BGM: New Life]






NEW MESSAGE: Street Fight



NEW MESSAGE: The Final Goodbye



…

[BGM: The Darkness]


A Black Box

2 PM.
The 32nd floor of the Shenlong Corp. Building.
The women's restroom.

I pressed the button on my phone, timed to the movement of the hands on my watch.
Almost immediately I heard a muffled “boom” from the bottom of the building.
The entire building shook slightly for a few seconds, and made a subtle grinding sound.

I heard the latest instructions coming from the building's security team leader on the radio, broadcast through their dedicated security channel.
He wanted two guards on the top floor and the rest on the ground floor.

I turned off the radio and walked out of the bathroom in a janitor's uniform.
I blended into a crowd of panicking and confused salarymen.
Then I ducked into the security stairwell and went up to the 33rd floor---- the highest floor of the building, which was reserved exclusively for the chief executives of the corporation.



I reached for the knife hidden at my waist.
I planned to ambush the two guards before they noticed me.
However, there was no one in the hallway.

I opened the door to the president's office.
There was no one there, either.

I began to scour through the office.
When I opened the closet a body rolled out from inside!

The door was kicked open.
I took two steps back, then sprinted forward and burst through the window.



I held onto the rope with my right hand and descended all the way to the ground from the outside of the building.
A couple of people had seen me while I was dropping down, and let out some admiring and terrified gasps.
But their attention was soon pulled away by the explosion from the top floor.

The body in the closet had been my target tonight---- the president of Shenlong Corp., Liang Zilong.
Someone had gotten to him before I could.
What I couldn't understand, though, was why a bomb was tied to his body.
It was the kind of bomb that would detonate upon disturbance, or when the timer ran out.
It was much more powerful than the one I had made.

I could only think of one reason.
The other assassin had known that someone else was after the same target, so it had been a “prank”.



In fact, my mission tonight was more than just killing Liang. There was something else ------
I was supposed to retrieve a black metal box that he had.
I had no idea what was inside the box, but it must be something extremely important.
However, I was afraid that the box had fallen into the hands of the other assassin, too.

Who could this person be?
Had he known that Ray had also been looking for the same box?
Was the “prank” specifically designed for me?

Pain from my left arm interrupted my thought.
Only then did I realize that my left arm had been blown into pieces; my left palm had completely disappeared.

Alicia



[BGM: Pensive Moments]


Disasters in Unit 4

Lieutenant Kang was not here, and neither was Officer Min-Jun, nor Officer Ji-Yeon.
I was alone in the office, working on the suspect's statements and feeling a little lonely.

The lieutenant had told me to “make him pay”.
Officer Ji-Yeon had said to me that Lieutenant Kang used to tamper with the amount of goods and money when dealing with smuggling cases, so that the criminals would get a heavier sentence.
But this guy was already an accomplice... to a murder... how could I make the case worse?
I didn't know what to do.

I was scratching my head when the phone on the lieutenant's desk rang.
It was an anonymous tip to a murder.
However, Unit 4 usually handled cases related to gang violence or drugs. Why would we get a tip about a murder?

I wasn't sure how to deal with this situation.
Although, I didn't have much at hand to deal with right now anyway.
My heart of justice was beating with excitement...



I grabbed my gun and walked out. I was about to take the stairs when I heard someone yelling loudly behind me.
I turned around. It was Lieutenant Kim Jeong-Ho of Unit 3.

Lieutenant Kim asked if I was heading to the murder scene reported by the anonymous tip earlier.
He said I should not go alone, and that he was coming along with me so that we could look after each other.
It seemed like a good idea. We got into his patrol car and started the siren.

20 minutes later we arrived at the apartment building of the scene.
It was a two floor rental building.
I could vaguely see fire through the windows of one apartment in the middle of the second floor.
Something wasn't right.



“Anybody home?”
I knocked on the door. There was no response.
I knocked even harder and yelled some more, but still nothing.
Lieutenant Kim stopped me and said we should just wait for the apartment manager to open the door for us.

The whole apartment had been engulfed in fire.
When the manager turned the key and touched the doorknob, he suddenly jumped back like he had been shocked.
I stepped ahead and grabbed the knob. It felt like a soldering iron burning my palm.
I bit my own lips to stop myself from screaming. As soon as I forced the door open, flames leapt out of the apartment along with a wave of heat.
I could almost smell my hair getting burnt. Lieutenant Kim and I had to take a few steps back.



If the tips had been true, there might still be people inside.
I took a step towards the door, but Lieutenant Kim grabbed me.

“Are you crazy? Look at the fire! You'll be burnt to ashes! We've been here for over 20 minutes. Whoever might still be in there is already dead!”

He made a good point.
We waited until the firefighters put out the fire before we finally went into the apartment.

Everything inside had been scorched. All of the furniture had been incinerated.
We found two bodies that were completely unrecognizeable due to fire. One in the bathroom, the other in the living room.
We had to send them back for autopsies.



We didn't learn the identities of the bodies until the next day.
I could not have imagined...
that they were...
Officer Min-Jun, and Lieutenant Kang.

I should have charged inside! I could have saved them!

Chang Gyeong-Min



***

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