After Story 197

He hurriedly got out of the car and picked up his phone. Just a little away, he saw the building where Changsik lived. He looked at the 3rd floor first. All the lights were off. Did that mean Yoon Hojung had also left?

Daecheol called Changsik. He wanted to ask how that guy managed to even think about getting close to the murderer to get information. If he had known that he would do so, he would’ve held him back without a doubt.

This was not a regular criminal, but a serial murderer. The criminal was a lunatic who killed humans for fun and had forgotten about guilt a long time ago.

Did Changsik have the guts to approach a person like that? He had started seeming unstable a few days ago, but Daecheol did not think in his wildest imagination that he would respond like this.

“You said the playground, didn’t you? Where is it exactly?”

He heard the location from Changsik. He turned left at the convenience store and ran. Not long later, he saw a playground, in which he saw Changsik. He was looking down at his own hands in a daze while sitting on a swing.

“Hey, you okay?”

The moment he placed his hand on top of Changsik’s shoulder, Changsik spasmed and sprang up. Daecheol saw something fly into the air. It was a small and s.h.i.+ny object.

“Calm down. It’s me.”

He calmed him down before looking at the object that fell on the floor. It was a cross. Daecheol immediately realized what that cross, which shone under the lamplight, signified.

He took out his gloves and grabbed the tip of the cross.

“This is…”

“It’s my sister’s,” Changsik said.

Daecheol frowned. There wasn’t just dirt and dust on it. There was blood as well. It was not the blood of the deceased. It looked fresh.

Daecheol looked at Changsik’s palm. Blood was oozing out from his flesh. He probably gripped it so hard that it dug into his body.

He wrapped the cross in a handkerchief. This was important evidence. Although it had been damaged badly, he might get something out of it if he had it investigated.

“What do you think you were doing going in there?! I told you, didn’t I? That you should stay at your parents’ house for a while.”

“I tried to. But whenever I close my eyes, I keep hearing a sound. My sister is telling me to save her. How can I possibly stay at mom’s house, when I know that the f.u.c.king murderer is the person who lives right next door? Just how?”

“That’s why you thought to go inside the criminal’s house and drink with him? What do you think this is, a joke?”

“Do I look like I’m taking this as a joke to you?”

Daecheol closed his mouth. Changsik’s eyes were trembling. No, his entire body was trembling as though he was sick.

“This is seriously driving me nuts.”

Daecheol waved his hand a few times before grabbing his shoulder.

He just confirmed for himself that a member of his family had been killed. No one other than himself would probably know what he was going through.

Daecheol couldn’t give him any words of consolation. He could only say one thing.

“I’ll get him. I’ll get that guy and put him behind bars.”

“I wanted to kill him. Just 10 minutes ago, I really wanted to kill him. But now, I’m just scared. I’m scared that he killed my sister, I’m scared I was just with him, I’m scared that I’ll meet him again, and I’m scared that he remembers me.”

“I know, I know. It’d be strange if you weren’t. He’s someone who has killed people. If you aren’t scared of him, that’s what’s abnormal.”

Daecheol looked up at Yoon Hojung’s house and asked, “Where’s he?”

“I don’t know. I just got the cross and left his house.”

“The lights are off now, though. I’m sure he didn’t suddenly decide to sleep after drinking.”

Daecheol held up Changsik who had frozen stiff. He sat him down in the back of his car and had him breathe deeply.

Yoon Hojung was not a fool. He was an intellectual criminal who didn’t leave a trace of his crimes despite committing five murders in the vicinity. He probably wasn’t the type of person to dismiss a trivial change or a suspicious spot.

Changsik looked uneasy right now, so how would he have been in Yoon Hojung’s house? He must have made a mistake, and Yoon Hojung must have caught that.

“You wait here.”

Daecheol zipped up his jacket and went to the apartment where Yoon Hojung lived. He looked up at the 3rd floor before going inside.

11 p.m. The multi-residence building was rather quiet. He used the stairs to go up to the 3rd floor.

After looking at Changsik’s door, he turned his head around to Yoon Hojung’s house.

He licked his dry lips a few times before knocking on the door.

Once, twice, and a third time. There was no response. He even pressed the bell, but there was still no answer.

Maybe he fled already? Just as he thought so, he heard car engine noises from a distance. The engine noise died down right in front of the building. Daecheol killed his footsteps and went up to the 4th floor. He heard someone open the gla.s.s door and come in. From the coughs he heard, it was a man.

Daecheol stuck himself against the wall and checked the man coming up. The sound became closer and eventually stopped.

It was Yoon Hojung. Daecheol observed him while being careful not to get caught.

Hojung, who stood in front of his door quietly, opened the door while muttering.

“Interesting.”

* * *

“Nothing. It’s clean. There’s no DNA match.”

“Okay then.”

“Daecheol, are you going to keep doing this?”

“I am.”

“I don’t get it. I do trust you, but the case itself is rather ridiculous. You’re saying that some people that had been cla.s.sified as leavers for the past few years were actually murdered and that the corpse that was discovered 5 years ago was also the doing of one person?”

“I won’t ask for any a.s.sistance. But if I catch a tail, please help me out at that time.”

The leader tossed the DNA test results from the NFS* in the trash. It was purely thanks to the leader, who had a friend in the NFS, that the NFS undertook a DNA test for a case that didn’t even have a warrant.

“Daecheol. I’ve seen many people who ruined their lives as investigators because they were hung up on an unsolved case. What you’re doing now is like gambling. It feels like you can do it, it feels like you can catch the criminal, but you won’t get any a.s.sistance, so you might ruin your own life investigating with your own money.”

“I’ll think about it at that time, right before my life is ruined.”

“You stubborn guy. I wonder why I have someone like you as my junior. Go on. I’ll give you a break, so dig into that properly. But if there are no results, you have to take your hands off it, okay? I don’t wanna hear it ever again.”

“How can I do that? I’ll go as far as I can.”

“Fine, then, punk. Do what you want.”

Daecheol scratched his head and returned to his desk. Even if the evidence was acquired without a warrant, an investigation would’ve been much easier if there was any DNA or a fingerprint from the missing person.

-How did it go?

Changsik called. Daecheol told him the truth.

-So you can’t do anything?

“We can’t move rashly right now. There’s nothing that can pressure him in this situation.”

-What about other methods? Do you have one in mind?

Daecheol closed his mouth. He had no other methods. Intuitive evidence could not become critical evidence.

-I’ll do it.

“What are you going to do now?”

-He probably knows anyway. The cross disappeared after all.

“So?”

-I’ll try mentioning my sister directly.

“What do you think he’ll do if you say that? He’ll be even more cautious than he is now. He’ll get rid of all the evidence as well.”

-You told me, didn’t you? That Yoon Hojung is smart but is also someone with an ego. He’s someone who stores the items of his victims that might put him in jeopardy if found out, inside his drawer. If he intended to throw them away, he would’ve done so ages ago. That man can’t throw them away. Those things are what’s most important to him.

“How do you know that?”

-A hunch.

“A hunch.”

-Intuition doesn’t come from nothing. It comes when the things you see, hear, and feel cross one another. I’ve talked a lot with Yoon Hojung. I heard his thoughts, and I saw his expressions.

“You’re saying you understood him?”

-Just a little. I’ve been watching people a lot since I was young because of the number only I could see. I tried to explain to them. I’m very quick to catch. And also.

Changsik continued with a calm voice.

-He’ll be shaken if I mention the exact number of his murders. There are no murderers who want to get caught after all. Once he thinks that the things he thought were perfect were actually flawed, he’ll show a reaction.

“You can’t. That’s too dangerous.”

-That’s why I’m telling you about it. Protect me, detective. Actually, I’m saying all this, but I feel really scared right now.

“If you’re scared, then stop! Don’t try to do what a detective must do!”

-But you said there is no way!

Daecheol took his phone away from his ear when he heard the loud voice. He thought back to the first time he met Changsik. Changsik had been becoming a totally different man in these past months. Perhaps talking with Yoon Hojung might have been the catalyst for the change.

A murderer was not someone an ordinary person could understand. Such a mess of a human talked to the victim of his crimes. Changsik was laughing and talking as a pretense this whole time. Would his mind be sane?

“I’ll take responsibility and catch that guy.”

-I believe you. I still feel grateful. But I don’t think a way involving the law will work.

“Hey, HEY!”

-I’m going to meet Yoon Hojung right now.

“Hey!”

He shouted as he stood up from his seat. His colleagues around him all stared at him, wondering what was going on.

Daecheol gnashed his teeth and got his vest. The texture of the pistol by his waist felt much rougher than usual.

* * *

Jung Dawoon looked at the TV in a daze. She had not gotten a single work in the past year. The popularity she thought she had gained while shooting the daily drama had disappeared like bubbles. Her agency only told her that things would go well.

She had earned quite a lot of money, so she didn’t have any trouble getting by. The apartment she bought also rose by 200 million won in the past year. Even if she didn’t get any work for a few years, she would have no problems in everyday life.

However, she didn’t become an actress to live like that. She wanted to s.h.i.+ne brighter than anyone else, be loved more than anyone else.

Just where did things go wrong? She only tried to do better, to be loved more.

Episode 9 of Case Number 0 was nearing its end. The immersion was great to the point that it made her forget about her depressing thoughts.

Whenever she looked at Maru acting in the drama, she reflected on herself. Could she act like that?

“How boring. And unfair too.”

She called her manager, saying that she wished to no longer extend the contract with her agency.

Her manager asked what had gotten into her.

“It’s just not fun anymore.”

She grabbed her phone. She looked up all the numbers she had related to the entertainment industry and erased them.

The only one left at the end was Han Maru’s number.

-h.e.l.lo?

“Oppa, it’s me.”

-Yeah.

“I plan to quit acting.”

-You didn’t need to tell me that.

“That’s true. But I just wanted to ask now that I called you. If, you know, if I didn’t do such things and confessed to you, would our relations.h.i.+p have changed a little?”

Maru replied without hesitation.

-I found that a.s.sumptions are generally meaningless.

Dawoon’s lips twitched before she pressed the end call b.u.t.ton. She then erased Maru’s number.

“What’s so great about him?”

She sent texts to her friends that she had not contacted for a while. She was going to form new relations.h.i.+ps; there, she would become the center and receive everyone’s love. There was no need to compare herself to great people and suffer.

“Yeah, it’s me. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I was wondering if we could meet up. I’ll pay for everything, so won’t you go to Jeju island with me?”

Dawoon turned off the TV and said into her phone.