Chapter 18: Real Faces

Mr. Mark sat in his office, contemplating the difficult decision he had made. Miss Lewis handed him a file, and he questioned her about the man who had approached him for legal help. "Why is he so interested in meeting me?" Mark inquired. Miss Lewis replied, "Because he knows that you are the only lawyer in town who can save him."

Mark's expression darkened as he considered the gravity of the situation. "He killed his wife because he didn't like her," he muttered, his voice filled with disdain. "He stabbed her again and again until she stopped crying. Do you want me to save him?"

Miss Lewis seemed taken aback by Mark's resolve. She hesitated before speaking, "Oh, I didn't know about this. This man really deserves a strong punishment."

Mark nodded, reflecting on his decision. "He came to me because every popular lawyer, except me, refused to take his case. Then he came to me as the last place of hope. I spent my last week thinking whether to help him or not. Then I thought that I should take his case."

Miss Lewis appeared concerned. "Mark, I think you still need some time. Think about it again. You're planning to defend a person who is obviously a criminal and a murderer. He even admits this himself."

Mark interrupted her firmly, "Miss Lewis, I have made my decision, and you know I don't think again. Just call him and ask him to meet me in my office."

Chin and Elly were engaged in a conversation at their university when Elly posed a hypothetical question. "Chin, what if Taewoo was really a serial killer? Would you still like him the way you like him now?"

Chin replied with a sense of comfort, "I've already told you, for me, it doesn't matter. If I like a person, it doesn't matter if they are good or bad, an angel or a devil. I just like the way they are, their presence, their smell, their smile."

Elly pushed further, asking, "Do you like me?" Chin playfully responded, "No, I don't like you because I don't know whether you are good or bad. But you are pretty." They both shared a laugh, and Elly asked, "So you admit that I'm beautiful?" Chin clarified, "No, not beautiful, but pretty."

Elly questioned the difference between the terms, and Chin explained, "Pretty is something that all people admit is attractive, whereas beauty is something that can never have a fixed definition. Everyone has their own standards of beauty based on what they don't have. Beauty is a standard set by people to obtain what they lack."

Elly then asked Chin for her definition of beauty. Chin replied thoughtfully, "There is nothing more beautiful than the last tear that falls from the eyes of a person who is dying. It contains dreams, and I've never had dreams in my life. That tear holds the purest form of dreams, the ones someone has gathered throughout their life. If I say that a single drop of tear is the purest extract of someone's soul, then that would not be wrong."

Elly was slightly taken aback by Chin's deep thoughts and remarked, "Oh man, you sometimes scare me. Just stop talking so deeply."

Back in the base station, Hazel and Taewoo received a letter in a black envelope. As Hazel opened the letter and read its contents, her expression turned fearful. She stared at Taewoo, who inquired about the letter's contents. With a tremor in her voice, Hazel relayed the message: "There is a grave in the Valley of Silence waiting for you. But don't worry, you will enjoy there the company of your lover."