the devil in me!inhun au (kind of?)
• gihun is a director of a true crime show that is not doing well and about to end for good cause they don't have enough money and their views are not as high as before. he is depressed about it and smokes a lot, and tries to hide the downfall of their show from his team
• sae-byeok is a sound-enginieer that doesn't speak much and prefers to listen; she's dating their lightning technician, ji-yeong; ali is standing behind the camera, and is in love with the host of the show, sang-woo. the later suspects that the show doesn't look good and already plans on leaving. he tries to convince others to move on as well, to be realistic, but gihun is too stubborn to see that
• gihun receives a strange phone call from oh young-il, who invites them to his hotel that replicates the infamous murder-hotel made by serial killer that lived in 20th century. he offers them to film an episode there, and it's the chance gihun was waiting for, the chance to make his show popular again. he is so happy he ignores the obviously suspicious rules this young-il has - like, no phones on the island and not inviting anyone else, not showing his face anywhere and so on. then again, maybe he is just shy and private? nothing too weird about that, so gihun ignores sang-woo's suspicions, moving on
• the host looks off and nervous and asks them to go into their rooms until dinner. but, when they come in the dining room, he's not there. they still eat and drink a bit of wine, but end up fighting - sang-woo wants to leave the show and move on to a more successful project, and tries to convince gihun to join him there in some new role, not directing for a while. he wants what is best for him but fails to understand that this project is everything for gihun. this dinner ends with a disaster
• some time passes. they are planning to shot in the lobby but can't find sae-byeok. she turns out to be in some weird room, locked, and now that they have freed her, she talks something about seeing the very same serial killer who died almost a century ago. gihun tries to convince everyone that she just saw a mannequin dressed like that killer or that this is just a prank. nevertheless, the team wants to leave. he begs them to shoot just one more scene
• gihun tries to find young-il, but this weird young anxious boy (he will soon find out that this one's name was dae-ho, and he was not the owner of this estate) is nowhere to be found. and then, he and ji-yeong find a pool of blood on the floor. gihun explains it to her and himself as "well he probably just brought here a corpse of some animal to feed us tomorrow, what's so bad about it?" but then, they hear someone screaming, and run to help
• gihun sees someone trapped with a bag on his head, begging to be saved. he moves to help, but accidently steps on some mechanism - and now, if he moves even a bit away from it, this man will die. he freezes it horror, and then - the killer comes closer to him, pointing a knife to his face. gihun never moves, and he cuts him, making him step away from the platform, activating to machine. before it happens, he stared for a good long minute into his eyes through the slits of his mask, and now he can't stop shaking, remembering every second of what just happened
• trying to find others and run away from here, gihun accidently falls into another trap. in basement, he walks for a while, all alone, scared and in terrifying need to smoke just one little sig. he couldn't find his pack since his ride here, though he's pretty sure he took one with himself. now his hands are trembling cause of his addiction, and that's when he sees it - his pack is just lying there on the floor. he exhales in relief, steps inside like a fool he is - and it turns out to be a trap. he looks back at the door, and through a small window sees this face in a mask. watching. staring. and then - walking away.
• he almost dies there but survives the fire, hiding under the vent. he tries to find a way out now, but instead finds the maniac instead. he pleads and begs and cries, but the frontman doesn't take his life. he lets him run, almost amused. for a while.
• gihun finds others, but not everyone. sang-woo is visibally stressed and brooding, silent. gihun asks him where ali and ji-yeong and what happened, and sae-byeok, with tears still on her face and her voice small, explains that this serial killer made them make a choice. she says, sang-woo chose to save himself and let ali suffocate in a room with no air. and that ji-yeong chose to save her, letting the moving wall crush her body like in a real horror movie. that's just the three of them now, and they walk towards a lighthouse to call for help.
• but sae-byeok tells him - and sang-woo - something else too. she says she knows that gihun is in this with the killer, that she heard the record of a call he had with him. says that gihun wanted to make his show popular again, and what the best idea could save it if not murder? gihun tries to tell her that this is insane and that he knows she's upset but he has nothing to do with this. he looks at sang-woo, trying to find help in him - but he doesn't even say anything because he already sees it in his eyes
• when he tells him he also found something on him, gihun can't believe this. and when the two people he cared most about decide that it would be better to tie him up until the police comes, he feels miserable and hurt
• and that is when he comes to him. this maniac in a mask that forced them to play his games
• frontman never speaks, like he forgot how. but he stares, oh, he stares. he comes closer to him, left alone and tied to a fence, and tilts his head to the side in a mute question. gihun keeps crying, already thinking he's gonna die just like this, but then - this man comes closer, slowly unbuttons his shirt, uses his blade to curve letters of the word "complicit" on him, and- kisses him.
• gihun is trembling in pain, in shock, in horror, then stares at the man when he takes a step back to take a better look at him. and then, with a terror in his eyes, gihun looks at him leaving towards the lighthouse
• gihun screams to stop him, offering him to kill him and not his team. he begs him to come back because no matter what, he knows that the rest are just terrified and try to survive, knows they don't deserve it and knows, that in some way, he really is to blame for this
• this confession, this emotional speech of his, makes the frontman stop at last, turning back and staring at him once again
• then, a voice, quite and broken. "you never change, do you?" and gihun falls silent. because he knows this voice. because now, thinking about it, he knows this lips, those kisses. he remembers this man. he knows who he is. and it hurts, because for a moment, just a fleeting moment - he forgets about everything that happened that night and just smiles in relief, saying "inho", like they are just old friends bumping into each other in a subway
• inho was a detective gihun knew once many years ago, when he was just a journalist, fresh out of college. and inho - inho was a star. that detective people write books and make shows about. he caught a serial killer ones, the one that was called "the salesman", and it was a huge case everyone wanted to write something exclusive about. but inho hated talking to a press. until the moment he met gihun, who with his soft smile and genuine interest and fascination made him feel something again
• they dated for weeks (it was love, and it was great, and it was too late for inho and too soon for gihun), no more, before inho disappeared for good. no one could find him - the police, gihun, inho's little brother. no one knew where he is or what happened, but gihun tried to solve this mystery, for years before he just accepted what happened. inho's disappearance was the reason he started smoking and drinking
• once, gihun even convinced junho to let him talk to the salesman, because he knew that before disappearing, inho talked a lot with this man. he came as a visitor every week and never explained to gihun why. and, sitting across from this serial killer, gihun still couldn't say why.
• the salesman said he just opened inho's eyes and no more. gihun till this day didn't know what he meant, it was all in vain. he thought inho died somewhere trying to solve some mystery, but it turns out that he was drawn mad by other serial killers, the ones he had caught. il-nam, the salesman, all of them - looking into his minds, he took something with himself when tried to walk out. and now, almost 20 years later, he stays here, in a mask, with a knife and blood on his hands. not a person anymore - a wild animal. and he still loves him so much and in that type of twisted way that he did all of this for him. and gihun wants nothing more than to die when he realizes this
• inho talks to him. tries to convince him that his team hates him, that he'd heard the way they talk about him when he's not around. he tells him he deserves better. he wipes gihun's tears from his face and kisses him again, holds him like a broken cup and is too focused on him to hear someone behind them
• gihun hears a gunshot. and suddenly, the grip of the man's hands on his waits tights more before letting go of him for good
• he can't tell he doesn't wish for sang-woo to shoot him too
• when they untie him, gihun falls to the ground, weak and crying, and uncovers the man's face hidden behind the mask, and he cries again.
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