At 4:30 am, Seung Woo was up; with the doctor’s humor, it was better if he wasn’t late.

Seoul was even more sinister at the hour he left. No one in the street, no sound except the clatter of a few bins and the barks of a few angry dogs. It was not an hour to be out, but many like him went to work.

Stein didn’t have an hour. Some girls disappeared at night and some in broad daylight. If the women found themselves lured, Stein took the men in the peace of their home.

Studying Stein’s methods was no easy task. Apart from brain surgery, there was no particular pattern or clue.

The killer aimed the rich, the poor, the young, and the middle-aged in total indifference. There wasn’t a model type victim; anybody could potentially become one. He didn’t kill children or foreigners. The only thing Seung Woo liked to imagine Stein pitied the children as for the foreigners; perhaps he didn’t understand what they said or maybe what he desired was within Korean citizens.

The killer didn’t obey any calendar, and there wasn’t any folkloric ritual behind his murders.

Clinical was the only word that came back all the time.

As asked by Doctor Baek, inspector Choi Seung Woo was on time and greeted by the faithful and hated nurse Kim Seok.

“On time.”

“Yes, I learned a valuable lesson,” Seung Woo said, making the nurse smile.

“Do you need me to come with you, or you can make it on your own?”

The inspector didn’t know if the nurse mocked him or genuinely offered his assistance.

“I’ll be fine, thank you,” Seung Woo said.

He didn’t find the nurse’s grin reassuring. Still, nurse Kim got up and accompanied him. Once in front of the doctor’s door, the nurse stretched out his hand, and Seung Woo handed him his belt, for he didn’t wear a tie.

“The gun.”

“I can’t give it to you.”

“You heard her yourself yesterday, do as you like, don’t come complaining when she’ll blow your guts away.”

“I won’t be able to complain; I’d be dead.”

The nurse grinned; the idea didn’t displease him.

“The door is open, she isn’t locked in,” the nurse said.

Seung Woo opened the door; the doctor was exactly like the day before the only difference was her hair was in a bun. Seung Woo wondered when was the last time the woman washed her hair.

“Annyeonghaㅡ.”

“Have a seat; she looked severe. Her facial expression had nothing to do with the malicious devil he had met the day before.

Dr. Noh stretched out her hand, and Seung Woo understood she was waiting for her apples.

“I didn’t know which one you liked, so I picked a few different varieties,” Seung Woo said, handing them to the woman who took a cloth, sat at her desk, and started to polish the apples one by one.

“You really like apples,” Seung Woo said as he approached.

“You didn’t hand your gun to nurse Kim; you’re aren’t scared to death.”

“I am, but I can’t give my gun to anyone, even for safekeeping.”

“Yes, I like apples. They’re ordinary, yet they’re sacred at the same time. They’re sinful; some religions portray the fruit of knowledge as an apple. I find the imagery interesting.”

Seung Woo looked around the room and her desk. There wasn’t a single pen or pencil or anything else on it.

“Are you a real doctor?”

“That’s a good question, am I a doctor? Would it better if I wore this white doctor’s blouse,” Dr.Noh said as she took the one hanging on the back of her chair.

“Would it be better if I put on these glasses?”

Doctor Noh took a pair of glasses from her blouse’s pocket and placed them on her face with both her hands.

“Do I look like a doctor now?”

“Eh, at least the image of ー.”

“That’s the problem inspector, the image. Despite the clothes, I’m still the crazy michin nyeon, you think I am, but I’m also a doctor.”

“You see all these dead people; they’re not dead because a serial killer targeted them. They’re dead because they followed the image of, I can assure your most victims went with the killer as willingly as lambs. The police are lost like sheep because they are worn out by the attrition warfare Stein has got them in.”

The doctor finally sounded like a specialist, reassuring the man who listened and released his tensed muscles.

“Hmm, you feel reassured, you shouldn’t. You let down your guard one second, and I could leap on this desk and stab you in between the two jugulars hitting your carotid artery with these glasses I’m wearing, what do you think? Does it sound good?”

Seung Woo gulped as he realized the woman could read body signs. At that moment, she had no difficulties understanding him.

Seung Woo didn’t notice he gripped his neck as doctor Noh spoke.

“You see how tense you are there, that’s how you have to be at all the times when with me and when chasing Stein. Fear will keep you alive, inspector Choi; it’s the greatest defense mechanism one has. Fear keeps us alert and cautious; please be afraid at all times.”

The last sentence rang oddly in Seung Woo’s ears. His whole life Seung Woo was told not to be afraid to overcome adversity, and here the doctor preached the contrary.

The doctor took a bite into her apple.

“Will you help me?”

The doctor smiled, “yes, if you bring me big and juicy apples.”

Perplexed, the inspector frowned, making the doctor add a note to her request.

“Yes, apples, sagwa, malus pumila whatever name you want.”

“Do you need any material, files?”

“No, I’ll check everything at the police station. I don’t like homework. Pick me up tomorrow at 6:35. Kut [end].”

“What is that It?”

“That’s all the time I have for you today; my shift is starting in a few minutes. Why are you looking at me that way? You still don’t believe I’m a doctor?” Dr. Noh said, getting up from her chair while biting into her apple.

She approached Seung Woo; it happened in a flash, she threw the apple in the air and tried to grab Seung Woo’s gun.

The inspector blocked her hand as the apple smashed on the floor, making both of them turn heads in the scattered apple’s direction.

“What a waste,” the doctor walking to the door of the room, “good reflex, by the way, we might just make it.”

Nurse Kim opened the door, letting the doctor go off to her duties. Inspector Choi followed. For the first time, nurse Kim seemed to carry a speck of respect in his stare as Seung Woo past him.