# Chapter 23
Opening my eyes, I stared blankly at the ceiling from where I lay. The ceiling still bore marks of black mold from when rainwater had leaked in some time ago. I saw these marks every day. There was no black smoke or flames in this space where I lived.
I’d had such a strange dream.
Dreams are typically strange by nature, but today’s dream was particularly intense, unlike the usual bizarre yet quickly fading dreams. Most dreams reflect past memories or real-life desires—the orphanage where I had lived appearing was understandable, but a young Heerim? That was completely out of the blue.
But the young Heerim’s face that my dream had conjured was oddly vivid and lifelike to have been merely fabricated by my brain. The image of young Heerim trembling all over and begging forgiveness for his mistake resurfaced. Even though it was just a dream, it left me feeling uneasy.
After recalling the increasingly blurry dream a few more times, I got up. Wanting to quickly resolve this unsettling yet ambiguous feeling, I left my room and headed to Jaeyeon’s room.
When I opened the sliding door separating the kitchen and the bedroom, I saw Jaeyeon sleeping with her blanket improperly covering her, spread-eagled on the bed. I abruptly turned on the lights and woke her up.
“Hey! Son Jaeyeon!”
“Ugh, what…?”
“Get up. I need to ask you something.”
“Ah, what is it…?”
Bothered by the sudden light, Jaeyeon pulled the blanket over her head and started to fall back asleep. I immediately pulled off her blanket and grabbed her arm, forcibly making her sit up.
“I said get up.”
Clutched by me and swaying like a marionette doll, Jaeyeon picked up her phone with her other hand to check the time, then crumpled her face in displeasure. Then she suddenly threw her pillow at me.
“Argh! Son Jaeo, are you crazy? It’s five in the morning!”
Jaeyeon, now fully awake, writhed vigorously in irritation. I felt sorry for waking her up when she was sleeping so well, but I needed to confirm the content of my dream.
“What is it! Why did you wake me up! It better not be something trivial. You’re dead if it is.”
Jaeyeon glared at me, breathing heavily. She looked ready to throw the thick workbook on her desk rather than a pillow next time. Though I thought I might actually die, I asked what I’d been wondering.
“Do you still have those group photos taken at our orphanage? You know, the ones the teachers took during special occasions.”
“Photos? I don’t have any photos, but they should be uploaded on the orphanage’s online cafe. Why? Did you wake me up at this hour just to ask about that?”
Ah, right. The orphanage cafe. The orphanage I stayed at had created and operated an internet cafe for donors and parents who had to leave their children there due to unavoidable circumstances. Monthly events and photos were uploaded to the cafe, and I hadn’t thought about the fact that photos of the orphanage children would be there too.
“Sorry for waking you. Go back to sleep.”
“Argh! Is saying sorry all you can do?!”
I quickly left Jaeyeon’s room before she could hit me. From behind the closed door, I could hear her muttering curses as she lay back down.
Back in my room, I immediately took out my phone and logged into the orphanage cafe account I had created long ago. However, since I hadn’t accessed it for so long, it took me nearly 10 minutes to reactivate my dormant account before I could finally access the cafe.
“Hmm. Fortunately, it still seems to be running well.”
Five years had passed since I left the orphanage, and quite a few posts had been uploaded during that time. When I checked the most recent post, I saw the familiar faces of the teachers. They seemed to have aged in the photos, which gave me a slightly achy feeling in my chest.
The teachers at the orphanage, though they couldn’t be good to every child, treated everyone without discrimination so that no child felt left out. Thanks to them, I was able to spend my school days without any major issues.
Maybe I should visit them sometime with a gift.
Come to think of it, I hadn’t visited them even once since leaving the orphanage. Now that I had some money, it would be good to visit and pay my respects when I had the chance.
After briefly indulging in nostalgia, I pulled myself together and examined the posts on the board again. Since the photo I wanted to see was from almost 10 years ago, I had to scroll through many pages.
“Found it.”
After digging through the board for a while, I finally found a post from the year I was looking for.
When I clicked on the post titled ‘Children’s Day Event Commemorative Photo,’ a group photo appeared showing volunteers and orphanage children in front of the orphanage building. In that photo was me, standing awkwardly with an equally awkward expression. It was because I, a middle school student, felt very embarrassed to be included in a ‘Children’s Day’ event. There were a few more students in uniform at the orphanage at that time, and they all had similar expressions to mine.
After briefly reminiscing about the past, I carefully examined the faces of all 60-some children.
Heerim had said we’d never met in the past, but Jaeyeon, who had seen Heerim recently, said his face looked familiar. If I had indeed met Heerim before, it was most likely at the orphanage. If that was the case, the dream I had might have been my subconscious recalling young Heerim’s face.
I examined each person in the photo, zooming in on their faces. Some faces were familiar, while others were so unfamiliar I wondered if such a child had really been there.
But Heerim was not among them.
Just to be sure, I checked a few more posts, but I couldn’t find Heerim or anyone who looked like him.
“I thought as much.”
It seemed the dream I had today was just nonsense. I let out a hollow laugh and lay down on my broken mattress with a somewhat lightened heart.
***
“Hello. I’m here.”
“Oh, Jaeo, you’re here?”
The Director, lying on the sofa, greeted me without even looking at me. Sitting across from her, Jeongmun merely gave a brief nod with an expressionless face. Both of them appeared no different from usual, but I felt something was missing. Now that I thought about it, Heerim, who would usually be the first to run up and greet me, was nowhere to be seen.
“Where’s Heerim?”
“He went out on an assignment.”
“What? Alone? What kind of assignment?”
“Well…”
In response to my casually asked question, Jeongmun made a troubled face and glanced at the Director, clearly uncomfortable with answering. His attitude was obviously that of someone finding it difficult to speak. It was suspicious.
Of course, a new assignment could have come in after I left work yesterday. But it was strange that they had sent Heerim alone. From what I’d observed while working here, the Director and Jeongmun tended to be overprotective of Heerim. It even seemed as if the “Earth Peace Research Institute” itself had been created for Heerim.
The Director had called to check on Heerim when we went to catch the flasher alone together, and she had held onto me with a huge sum of 100 million won solely for Heerim’s wellbeing. Jeongmun was the same. Though he appeared indifferent, he looked after Heerim like an elder brother, always caring and worrying about him. They were like parents concerned about a child they had left to fend for itself. It was strange that they would send such a Heerim to handle an assignment alone.
“Shouldn’t I go too? What if Heerim collapses?”
“Ah, no. Wait, Jaeo. There’s no need for that.”
As I picked up my phone to contact Heerim, the Director, who had been lying down, suddenly jumped to her feet.
“Heerim will be back soon. It’s just a simple assignment, so he went alone. When he returns, you can do Guiding then.”
Was Heerim really gone because of an assignment? It was truly suspicious, but since the Director had firmly ended the conversation, I couldn’t ask anymore.
“Ah, right. I found something useful from Kang Seokgi’s phone yesterday.”
Jeongmun wedged himself into the awkwardly ended conversation. He showed me a laptop screen mirroring Kang Seokgi’s phone and explained the weakness he had found in Kang Seokgi.
“It’s an electronic contract saved on his phone. Do you see the contract amount listed here?”
“One, ten, hundred, thousand, million… Gasp. Is this 1.2 billion won?”
“Yes. It appears Kang Seokgi made a logistics contract worth 1.2 billion won with a business partner. And this is the approval document that Kang Seokgi received from the company.”
Jeongmun changed the screen to show a PDF file he had previously downloaded. It was a difficult document for someone like me who had never worked in a company, but I understood roughly what kind of document it was. It seemed to be a document seeking company approval before contracting with a business partner. However, there was a difference in content compared to the contract I had seen earlier.
“Wait. It says 1 billion won here? But the contract was for 1.2 billion, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. I think he manipulated the contract, getting approval from the company for a contract amount of 1 billion won while receiving 1.2 billion from the business partner. So I also looked through Kang Seokgi’s bank account… and sure enough. 200 million won out of the 1.2 billion went into his personal account. Moreover, this doesn’t seem to be the first time he’s diverted money like this. Since his promotion to department head, there have been similar transaction records consistently.”
“Are you saying he committed embezzlement?”
“Yes.”
Embezzlement!
It was an issue that could not only get him fired from the company but also send him to prison.
“Then we should report this to the company, right?”
“It would be great if things could be resolved that easily, but we might need to approach this carefully.”
“Huh? Why?”
The Director sighed and continued Jeongmun’s thought.
“It’s a large corporation. Their higher-ups will have tremendous pride. What if something like this came out from their company? They might want to handle it quietly to avoid making a fuss. The amount Kang Seokgi embezzled isn’t that significant to them.”
“But it’s 200 million won? How is that not…”
“That’s why we need to make it impossible for them to hush it up. So they can’t handle it quietly. That’s what will satisfy our client.”
200 million won not being a lot of money? As someone who had readily accepted working here for 100 million won, this was incomprehensible to me.
“I just got a call from the client, and there’s apparently a presentation in front of the business partner the day after tomorrow. I’m thinking of exposing it then. If the business partner gets involved, they can’t just let it slide.”
“Um… how are we going to expose it?”
“We’re going to swap the materials.”
The Director said with a villain-like grin. What outlandish method was she planning to use this time? A chill ran down my spine for no reason.
Thud.
There was a sound from the door, and Heerim appeared.
“I’m back.”
Heerim approached the sofa with his shoulders drooping like a wet cotton ball and collapsed onto it.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
