EIGHT HOURS ━ STRAY KIDS

ENDING NOTES

Hi! Thanks for reading my story. I know most of you are probably kinda confused, so I'm going to explain all of the hints I gave you now (I definitely forgot some, so I'll be adding to this list as I edit).

1) Chan's social life (or lack thereof)

In the first paragraph of the first chapter, I said that Chan was hated parties, and would much rather be alone.

Why this matters:

Not only do statistics show that serial killers are more likely to prefer isolation over being in the company of others, but when he was alone, what could he have been doing? Each murder was very well planned—maybe he was setting the stage for that night.

2) Chan's Medical Degree

In the first chapter and seventh chapter, I purposely made sure to include the fact that Chan was a medical student. I also mentioned that he slept through his surgery examination and attempted to make it sound like an offhanded comment when in reality it was very deliberate.

Why this matters:

After each death, I mentioned the victim having a number carved into their forehead. I even described Jeongin's number as "pristinely cut". Obviously, the book was quite fast-paced and each death happened quickly. What person would be able to carve a pristinely neat number into someone's forehead within a few moments? Someone with a surgical background, of course.

3) The house

In the first chapter, I mentioned that the seven boys didn't know their way around the house. I tried to make it sound like Chan was included in the said boys, but he actually was not.

Why this matters:

Most of the deaths were extremely planned in advance. They all happened quickly, within seconds—it would be impossible for them to occur without some pre-planning. And if Chan was the only one that knew his way around the house, that would immediately give him an advantage over the other seven boys.

4) Chan's shaky hands.

In the second chapter, I mentioned that Chan's hands were shaking, and hadn't stopped since they had found Jeongin. I tried to make it sound like an unimportant detail when in reality it was actually a hint.

Why this matters:

A couple of paragraphs before I mentioned Chan's hands shaking, I also described Seungmin and Felix's deaths. Just like Jeongin, they had numbers carved into their foreheads—a two and a three. I mentioned that each number was messier than the last. Perhaps the murder's hands were shaking when they cut them?

5) Autonomy.

This one is rather simple: would just anyone know precisely how to commit murder without knowing bodily autonomy? Obviously, medical students need to know biology. Interesting.

6) The recording on the radio.

This one you have to think about a little bit. Chan heard Changbin say whatever he said, but he had to have recorded it and looped it on the radio without anyone finding out. How could he have done it?

Obviously, Chan couldn't have predicted that Changbin would say that sentence at that precise time. He couldn't have known, he isn't psychic. All he could have done is recorded the entire game and hoped Changbin would make a comment like that, and with a murder game, that was very likely. 

And for anyone that knows anything about radios, you would know that many radios double as recording devices. Looping it would require simply a click of a button.

7) Hyunjin's death.

I thought this one was obvious. I guess not.

Hyunjin's neck was broken. That's how he was killed. Breaking someone's neck requires being within close proximity (not that I would know firsthand—it's not like I've broken anyone's neck, of course). Who was holding him when the lights went off?

Here are some of the fake hints I provided to throw you off of Chan's track.

1) Hyunjin's burnt flesh.

I described Hyunjin's number five as "seared" into his forehead. Magic. Seared = burned. Burnt flesh. Ta-da. 

2) The radio.

This actually had a bit more meaning to it. Obviously, since Minho was an engineering major (I mentioned that in the first chapter, too), he would know how to work a radio. Changbin, a music major, wouldn't. Duh.

(If you have outside knowledge about medicine and medical school, you might have caught onto this one. If you really think about it, though, you could have figured it out without exterior knowledge)

But Chan is studying to be a doctor. He's in medical school. Do you know what many pre-medical students study in college? Engineering.

3) Changbin. Just Changbin.

I'm not going to lie to you, I made him suspicious by accident. I hadn't fully planned out the chapters when I published the first one, so when people started to suspect him, I decided to really try and dive into his character. There were a lot of rookie mistakes and plotholes I accidentally created in the first few chapters, but instead of editing them out, I decided to use them to my advantage. As I predicted, some readers read into them entirely too far and created theories about why Changbin was the murderer. Obviously, he wasn't, but some people thought he was and I used their distractions to make Chan less suspicious.

4) Minho.

I purposely tried to make Minho suspicious, but I guess I tried too hard because everyone suspected Changbin instead—but it's alright. It all worked out. I don't have much to say about this one.

5) Changbin and Minho's collaboration (I'm looking at you, Mel and Sinclair).

In this story, especially in the first few chapters, Minho and Changbin collaborated. A lot. After people started to suspect Changbin and started to catch onto how suspicious Minho was progressively become, many readers mistakenly put two and two together and started to suspect them both. Then I gave Changbin a motive and Minho evidence, and it became a much too believable theory to simply ignore. 

And then Changbin died.

6) The mafia game (Mel, this is for you).

Changbin said "Don't get near me, I know who you are" (or something like that, I'm too lazy to check) in the first chapter, when he was playing mafia. The fact that he was playing mafia means literally nothing. I just had to include that sentence somehow, and in order to create a believable scenario, I used mafia. Nothing to see here.

And finally, in the last segment, little things y'all missed that aren't big enough to include in a specific category or things that fall into one of the statements above that I just want to include because I thought I made it obvious and now I'm mad. >:C.

1) MINHO FOLLOWING CHAN OUT OF THE ROOM IN THE SECOND CHAPTER RIGHT BEFORE SEUNGMIN AND FELIX'S DEATH.

When Seungmin and Felix died in the second chapter, Chan and Minho followed them into the hallway right before they died. They were right next to them. When they died. I explicitly stated it. To make Minho suspicious. And you guys still. Suspected. The. Wrong. Person. What

And that is the end of that segment. Thank you. 

You guys overthought this book way more than necessary. The details were all right in front of you, all you had to do was look. Like, you guys had so many awesome theories that I didn't even think of but are super cool ideas? I was rereading comments and suspicions and I kept thinking, "Damn, I wish I thought of that." Like? This plot is so much simpler than everything you guys came up with. 

In conclusion, I thought this book was well planned out but it turns out the readers are all smarter than the actual author