It was complicated. He couldn’t understand why the expression Sa Gong-hyun had worn when he came out of his deranged state kept lingering in his mind.
Where had he gone, disappearing and leaving him alone in the house? Forgetting to respond, Jae-young was lost in thought and let out a brief sigh.
The more he thought about it, the more his head seemed to ache. He closed his eyes tightly and emptied his cluttered mind.
After parting with Ju-yeon, he headed straight home. After contemplating whether to pick the lock himself, he decided to use the money he had borrowed from Ju-yeon. The main reason was that he didn’t want to expend his energy.
Jae-young rang the neighbor’s bell and asked them to call a locksmith. Only after the locksmith came and provided a new key could he enter his home.
Without time to rest, he changed his clothes. He put on a black baseball cap and gathered his work phone and the card he had intended to use in an emergency. Just as he was about to leave the house, he noticed an alert on his personal phone.
The screen showed several missed calls: 3 from Ju-seong and 1 from Jung-yun.
He swiped away Ju-seong’s missed calls and immediately called Jung-yun. The ringing didn’t last very long. Jung-yun answered right away.
“Oh, hyung.”
Jae-young placed the phone between his shoulder and ear as he left the house. He didn’t forget to take the new key with him.
After making dinner plans with Jung-yun, Jae-young headed to Seung-kwon’s officetel. When he entered the password that Seung-kwon hadn’t changed for years, the door lock chimed a clear alert sound.
The reason Jae-young visited Seung-kwon’s place was to shake off the sporadic uneasiness he had been feeling. He turned on the desktop while recalling Seung-kwon’s reaction at that time.
Somehow, Seung-kwon seemed unlikely to satisfy his curiosity about the situation in the photos. Since he appeared unwilling to talk, Jae-young had no choice but to find out for himself.
The photos Seung-kwon had taken would probably remain intact in his hardware. Jae-young planned to transfer one of them to an email and request an investigation from a private detective agency.
While Seung-kwon’s frequently used session was locked with a password, Jae-young had no trouble entering the password immediately.
And soon, he found the folder where the photos were collected. As Jae-young looked through the photos, he discovered pictures he hadn’t seen before and doubted his own eyes.
His breath stopped as if frozen, and his fingertips trembled. In one photo, a face that Jae-young recognized was partially cut off. He zoomed in on the photo.
“…What, is this…”
All he could do was laugh in disbelief. The man whose face was partially cut off was Seung-kwon. If Seung-kwon was there with Sa Gong-hyun, then who on earth took the photo?
The camera he had seen at that time was definitely Seung-kwon’s camera. The one he carried most frequently.
He calmly ran his hand through his hair. He bent his knuckles to grab his hair and then released it. He carefully recalled meeting Seung-kwon at Sa Gong-hyun’s house.
He had thought there must be some circumstances. Despite knowing that Sa Gong-hyun didn’t allow anyone but his close aides into his house, he hadn’t pressed to find out why Seung-kwon was there.
He had suspected that there was something Seung-kwon wasn’t telling him. But he had never imagined it would be like this.
Overwhelmed with shock, he couldn’t say anything for a while. He took a deep breath to calm his startled heart. Jae-young closed his eyes tightly and then opened them.
There was no time to remain frozen. With stiff movements, he searched through Seung-kwon’s desk drawer. He picked up the most familiar-looking business card from a private detective agency and made a call.
—Hello.
A phlegmy voice immediately greeted Jae-young. He opened his email, enlarged the blood-covered face of the man, and attached the clipped photo. The image quality was poor, but there was no alternative. He couldn’t send the original that contained the faces of Seung-kwon and Sa Gong-hyun.
“Is this S Detective Agency? I’m calling because I have a request.”
He entered the email address written on the business card in the recipient field.
—Will you come to the office first?
Just as he was about to send the email, he raised his eyes to check the time. It wasn’t even 2 PM yet. There was plenty of time left until his dinner appointment.
“I’ll come right away.”
After sending the photo to the email on the business card, Jae-young quickly turned off the desktop. As he got up from his seat, a sheet of paper that had fallen in front of the balcony caught his eye.
Picking up the paper, Jae-young quickly read the printed text on the white sheet. It was about the demolition of the â—‹â—‹-dong area. In the middle of the paper was a semi-transparent company logo, which was the logo representing Sebin. Suddenly, he recalled the voice file of Sa Gong-hyun and Manager Jo that he had casually listened to. Redevelopment project. He couldn’t remember exactly, but it seemed like it was â—‹â—‹-dong.
Moistening his lower lip with his tongue, he put the paper back in its place. Unconsciously, an empty breath escaped him.
He slowly backed away. Needlessly adjusting his cap, he immediately left Seung-kwon’s house. Jae-young took a deep breath as he pressed the elevator button.
Before leaving Ju-yeon’s studio, Jae-young had asked her about Seung-kwon. If she knew what Seung-kwon had been up to lately.
Ju-yeon had snorted as if it was a ridiculous question and answered, “He’s working, of course.” She also asked why he was asking.
“He does seem pretty busy. Must have a lot of tasks.”
At the time, he’d just let it go, but now he wondered if perhaps Ju-yeon knew that Seung-kwon wasn’t simply working for Sebin’s security team.
Her face, devoid of any suspicion, didn’t look like she thought Jae-young was unaware of that fact.
Why had he hidden it? From him of all people, why, for what reason… What was Seung-kwon thinking now?
The private investigation agency was located on the fourth floor of a building that looked like it could collapse at any moment. There was no elevator, and the staircase was covered in a handful of dust. Dust seemed to rise with each step he took. His throat felt inexplicably dry.
Frowning, Jae-young climbed to the fourth floor and pushed open the glass door with opaque film that was peeling off in places.
In the corner of the office was a man in his 40s who was so skinny that it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say he was emaciated. The man glanced at Jae-young while continuously smoking indoors.
The smell of cigarettes was overwhelming. Jae-young covered his nose while waving his hand in the air.
“What are you here for? Coffee? Green tea?”
The man, with a cigarette between his lips, casually got up and approached the water dispenser. He picked up a paper cup that had been placed upside down on top of the dispenser and shook it.
It was the worst. The disorganized office was so dirty that it made him wonder if it had ever been cleaned. With each step, dust seemed to kick up against his feet.
“No thanks.”
Jae-young shook his head and uncomfortably sat on a sofa with its leather half-torn. Without a particular response, the man tore open a coffee mix packet and poured it into the paper cup.
The man filled the paper cup with hot water and sat opposite Jae-young. The way he raised an eyebrow seemed to ask why Jae-young had come here. The man put out his cigarette in the ashtray on the table, and stirred the paper cup with the coffee mix wrapper.
“You received a photo by email, right?”
“Ah, are you the one who called earlier?”
“Please check if this person is alive or dead.”
“Let’s see.”
After taking a sip of coffee, the man took out his phone from his pocket. After checking the photo with a downward stretch of his facial features, the man glanced at Jae-young.
“Is the photo all you have?”
“Yes, well.”
I came because the photo is all I have, of course. Jae-young nodded with an insincere smile. The man’s unpleasant gaze scanned Jae-young. Jae-young tilted his head slightly.
“You know payment is upfront here, right?”
His way of speaking, neither formal nor informal, was quite ambiguous. His tone was clearly dismissive of Jae-young.
This further cracked his already uncomfortable mood. Jae-young forcibly pulled up the corners of his mouth into a smile and leaned back comfortably against the sofa.
“Don’t worry about the money, and please call your boss.”
He tried hard to suppress his rising temper, but couldn’t control the direction of his rolling eyes.
Jae-young looked the man up and down, just as he had been scrutinized earlier. The man’s attire was so shabby that even calling it “vintage” would be a stretch.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
