Gun Rose and I stood in the river in silence.
My boyfriend's body floated between us.
A summer night, accompanied only by the croaking of frogs.
His body was pushed toward the center of the river by Gun Rose.
The only thing I could do was secretly slip my boyfriend's set of cheating equipment into his clothes.
It was the one thing I'd promised him. Now, the only thing I could give him.
The gentle sound of water swallowed the darkness whole.
3
Gun Rose and I left the riverbank and sat in his car.
His eyes were bloodshot with anxiety.
He turned to me. "If the police question you, you say this."
"You came swimming this afternoon. You had a fight — a lovers' quarrel, perfectly normal. So you went home early. Your boyfriend stayed in the river. It was an accident. He drowned."
"Whoever asks, you say the same thing."
I was soaked and shivering — from cold or from fear, I couldn't tell.
I couldn't speak.
Slap!
Gun Rose hit me across the face. Hard.
"Repeat it."
Slap!
Another slap.
I finally stammered, "We... we went swimming, had a fight, I went home angry... I didn't expect... he had an accident..."
Gun Rose nodded.
He took my feature phone and deleted all our messaging history.
"You've never seen me. We don't know each other at all. Understand?"
"I understand..."
I saw him remove something small from the rearview mirror.
A camera.
Then he opened his phone and showed me a video.
Of me and him in the car. That act.
I was too exhausted to wonder why he'd recorded it.
"You don't want me posting this online. You cannot mention me to anyone."
He was warning me.
I nodded.
"Get out of the car."
"I can't drive you home. Someone might see. Walk back on your own."
I stepped out into the pitch-black night.
His car didn't turn on its headlights. The road ahead was nothing but terrifying darkness.
I couldn't see a thing.
"May you pass with flying colors." Those were Gun Rose's last words to me.
That night was the longest walk home I'd ever taken.
4
By the time I made it home in the dark, Gun Rose had probably already fled.
He got to escape. I had to stay.
I couldn't sleep all night.
The next morning, I steeled myself, trying to act like nothing had happened.
But when I opened my door, I nearly screamed.
Two police officers were sitting in my home.
They'd found my boyfriend's body in the suburban river.
People had seen the two of us heading to the river that evening.
Facing the police, I repeated everything exactly as Gun Rose had taught me.
"We went swimming together... we had a fight, so I left early... he didn't show up today, I didn't know it was an accident..."
Yes, I was afraid.
I was afraid my family couldn't afford the compensation.
I was afraid that video would be posted online.
Accidental drowning while swimming in unauthorized areas — it happened almost every year.
In a poor, small county like this, nothing about it was worth questioning.
The case was closed.
Even the newspaper ran a story warning people not to swim in rivers.
5
After that, I couldn't sleep. Almost every night was insomnia.
I still clung to hope — maybe I'd pass the October exam and get my life back on track. Maybe this case would never come up again.
But in mid-October, a witness appeared and shattered all my illusions.
That farm woman from beneath the tree.
6
That evening, the woman had walked past the trees and heard strange sounds.
Sounds like a struggle. Or someone fighting for their life.
She looked toward the river.
In the dark, there was nothing to see. Only blackness.
But she heard me shout: "I'm fine—"
Yet in my official statement, I'd said I was already on my way home at that time.
Everyone realized immediately.
I had lied!
7
At the same time, the adult entrance exam arrived.
There were plainclothes officers staking out near my home. My parents had been brought in for questioning.
I walked into the exam hall completely unaware.
Terror-stricken as I was, I hadn't been able to study much.
Clinging to hope, the only thing I could rely on was that cheating equipment...
Until the proctor pulled apart my eraser and revealed the electronic components inside.
That night, when I was brought to the police station, I finally broke down and told the entire truth.
I confessed everything Gun Rose had forced me to do.
IX
Colt sat in my apartment, listening quietly.
It was late autumn. Outside, the wind whistled sharply.
"I've told you everything. You can verify it with the police. I haven't lied about a single thing."
Tears filled my eyes.
Recounting that nightmare experience again still brought me pain.
"I understand."
Colt slowly stood up.
But he only lit a cigarette.
"Great story. There's just one problem," he said.
"The entire story is your version."
"In your story, Gun Rose is the villain — cruel, cunning. And you — coerced, innocent. Even a victim yourself."
"Don't you think that's a little too perfect?"
I blinked.
Colt smoked, leaning against my window, watching me casually.
"Does Gun Rose even exist?"
My heart skipped a beat.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
He smiled. "I checked the Gun Rose ID. There are no posts associated with it. There are accounts with the same name, but none matching your description."
"He deleted everything! Just like he deleted the records on my phone!" I fired back.
"Is that so? But the police pulled traffic camera footage. None of the out-of-town vehicles that day match your description."
"Even if text messages are deleted from a phone, the carrier keeps records. The police checked. Nothing."
"This person named Gun Rose — no one has seen him, no one knows where he is, no record of him can be found... The most logical explanation is that this person simply doesn't exist."
"So if Gun Rose doesn't exist, what's the real story?"
"Why would you invent someone like that?"
Colt's eyes bore straight into me.
I couldn't hold his gaze.
"Let's remove Gun Rose from the story," he said. "That evening, you were the only one at the river. Your boyfriend's body — you were the only one with it."
His eyes grew sharper.
My heart pounded wildly.
"That evening, you lied to send away the farm woman."
"That evening, you were the one who pushed the body to the center of the river."
"No Gun Rose. No coercion."
"From beginning to end, it was all you."
I snapped my head up, staring at Colt.
But in his eyes, I was nothing more than a puppet for him to manipulate.
"Who the hell are you?"
He didn't answer. He flicked ash out the window.
"Lying to me does you no good." Smoke curled between his fingers.
X
I gritted my teeth.
Reason told me not to be drawn into his rhythm. Not to fall into his pace.
I'd faced adults' interrogations. I'd faced the police. But no one had ever given me this kind of pressure.
"Everything you've said is speculation."
"Want to hear evidence?"
"You and your boyfriend's relationship — you glossed over it as if you'd said everything." Colt said. "But you left out something crucial."
"Your conflict."
"Your best friend told me that before your boyfriend died, the two of you fought almost every day. Yes, he was a playboy. He'd already decided to move on to a new woman."
"You told your friend you wished he was dead. That way, he'd be yours forever."
"Your friend's not great at keeping secrets."
"What kind of evidence is that?" I shot back. "Those were just angry words!"
Colt ignored my defense entirely. "That night you two drank together before going to the river."
"Someone saw you crying."
"Crying hard."
My heart hammered again.
"You said you were celebrating the cheating success. Happy." He repeated my own story.
"But on this tiny, insignificant detail, you lied."
"Why?"
"Because that night over drinks, he broke your heart completely—"