#106
“So you went to the Management Bureau to get this?”
“Yeah. But you being in my house feels really natural, doesn’t you think?”
Ha-seong looked at Do-hyeok, who was sitting in the living room flipping through documents, with still somewhat awkward eyes.
When leaving work in the evening, Ha-seong hadn’t particularly refused Do-hyeok’s offer to give him a ride home, and when he mentioned that he had coincidentally gone to the Management Bureau to get some materials, Do-hyeok said he wanted to take a look too and naturally flowed into Ha-seong’s house like water.
[Ha-seong-nim! Why does that person keep coming to our house?]
Just then, the pig came over and stuck close to Ha-seong’s leg while chewing on cabbage.
Ha-seong ignored those words and gently pushed the pig aside.
“Why is this ‘our house’? It’s my house.”
Ha-seong left the pig with its pitiful eyes and approached Do-hyeok’s side.
“There’s still no particular contact from Woo-bin-ssi, right?”
“No. He seems to be having quite a hard time.”
It seemed Baek Sa-jin still wasn’t opening his mouth. Recently, the media had begun questioning the Management Bureau’s actions in continuing the investigation for a long time without referring Baek Sa-jin to trial.
Certainly, going into a long-term battle would be disadvantageous for their side. It would be better to quickly find out about Baek Sa-jin and those mysterious accomplices.
“Have you read this?”
“No. I was about to read it now.”
Ha-seong took out thick documents from the brown envelope. As Woo-bin had said, it detailed everything from Baek Sa-jin’s life history to his major activities.
After his father Baek Seong-hyeon died like that, he had lived alone with his mother, but after even his mother passed away, he seemed to have lived quite a hard life. Originally, military families were supposed to receive proper treatment from the country, but the military organization had already been forgotten by the nation, and there was nowhere to provide support for someone like him.
After becoming alone, Baek Sa-jin seemed to have wandered around quite a bit. He moved between part-time jobs and manual labor at various places before finally settling in ‘Baekguk Island’, where he had lived with his family until the end. It was a small island located in North Gyeongsang Province with a small population.
It seemed Baek Seong-hyeon had quit being a soldier and gone down there to continue a quiet life. He had built a family and raised Baek Sa-jin, but ultimately couldn’t let go of the past and died on Baekguk Island as well.
“Before coming up to Seoul, he seems to have worked at a small factory here.”
Ha-seong paid attention not only to Baek Sa-jin’s activities but also to his relationships. But there were no particular peculiarities. Baek Sa-jin’s relationships didn’t seem very extensive to begin with, and there seemed to be nothing particularly unusual among them.
“As expected, it’s hard to find clues from written documents.”
“Then shall we go see for ourselves?”
Do-hyeok, who had been intently watching Ha-seong’s face as he concentrated on the documents, said casually.
“Huh?”
“Yoon Woo-bin said so too. Since Baek Sa-jin won’t open his mouth, it seems like we’ll have to do some legwork ourselves, but it’s not easy to allocate personnel. It would look unnatural to excessively pursue the past activities of a perpetrator who has already confessed to everything about the murder case.”
“Ah.”
That’s right, Baek Sa-jin had completed detailed confessions about all aspects of the murder case. The fact that he was a prime suspect in the artificial gate incident was only known to a few within the Management Bureau, so sending people to trace his activities wouldn’t be an easy task either. Externally, Baek Sa-jin was just a perpetrator who had committed two murder cases.
“Hey, why are you only saying that now? That’s obviously something I should be doing.”
Isn’t that exactly what an informant is there to do?
“Then I’ll tell Yoon Woo-bin. That we’re going.”
“Never mind. Why would you go too? I’ll go and come back alone. You can’t easily leave your position since you’re a Guild Leader.”
Ha-seong looked at Baek Sa-jin’s past address in the materials and copied it into his phone’s memo app.
“I’m going too. One day should be fine.”
“I said I can go alone.”
But Do-hyeok also wouldn’t budge. He began insisting that he would go together.
“Are you doing this because you don’t trust me? I’m enough by myself. It’s not like we’re entering a dungeon.”
It was really just going to investigate information, so why was he trying to follow along like this? This was truly a waste of personnel.
“It’s not that. I just want to go with hyung.”
Because I want to spend time together. Ha-seong’s face, which had been full of irritation, froze like a robot at Do-hyeok’s casual words.
“If you really hate it that much, then hyung can go alone.”
“Huh? Hey, no… come to think of it, going together might be better. I can’t drive, and if two people go we can find out twice as much information, and also…”
Like spilled water that can’t be gathered up, spoken words were also hard to take back, but Ha-seong tried his best to somehow take back what he had just said.
“Good. Then let’s go together.”
Do-hyeok chuckled and lightly patted Ha-seong’s head.
“Hey, I’m older than you, you know? Don’t pat my head.”
Ha-seong felt embarrassed for no reason and quickly dodged his touch.
“Then hyung should do it for me.”
“This guy keeps getting cheeky.”
As the two began bickering, the pig quietly came out from the kitchen at the sound.
[How lovey-dovey.]
The pig, who had been chewing cabbage, looked at the two and muttered quietly.
* * *
[Yoon Woo-bin: Really? That’s great. I was actually going to ask Ha-seong-ssi. Contact me right away if you find out anything.]
The next day, Do-hyeok immediately contacted Woo-bin. Woo-bin was delighted to hear that he and Ha-seong would go to Baekguk Island, where Baek Sa-jin had lived, to conduct a direct investigation.
Just as he sent a simple “okay” in response, he saw Ha-seong coming out of his house.
“Sorry. I’m late. The pig was throwing a tantrum asking to be taken along.”
“I don’t mind taking him.”
“No way. If we take him, my ears will bleed. He’s too noisy.”
If they took him along, he would chatter non-stop without a moment’s rest, so rather than endure that, it was more comfortable to leave him at home even if it seemed a bit heartless.
“But even saying that, hyung takes good care of the pig. You don’t kick him out of the house or report him to the Management Bureau.”
“He made a big decision to leave the dungeon he was living in, so it would be pitiful if he had nowhere to go. He’s kind of like me too.”
Ha-seong, who had dimensionally traveled to another world, had also struggled quite a bit adapting to life here, hadn’t he? Of course, the pig was different from Ha-seong in that he had left the dungeon voluntarily, but he still felt some kinship and couldn’t heartlessly throw him out.
Do-hyeok quietly pondered what Ha-seong had said.
“But what did you tell the guild?”
“I told Shin-woo everything and just told him to make up some excuse about a business trip. As long as Kang Won-hyeok doesn’t catch on, there’s no one there who would think it strange if I’m away for about a day.”
Well, that one person was the biggest problem though. But trusting that Shin-woo would handle it well, Do-hyeok had come to Ha-seong’s house instead of the guild today with peace of mind.
“Then let’s depart. The journey is long, so you can sleep a bit.”
“How can I do that? You’ll have to drive for quite a while. Don’t worry and let’s go.”
Do-hyeok chuckled and slowly started the car.
As Ha-seong had said, their journey was quite long. They had to first go to Pohang, then enter Baekguk Island through the port there. Since Baekguk Island wasn’t a very large island, there were only a few ferry services per day, and most importantly, if the weather was even slightly bad, there was the risk of making the trip for nothing.
“There’s a ferry to Baekguk Island in 10 minutes. Shall I book it for you?”
Fortunately, all circumstances seemed to be helping the two. At Pohang Port, which they had reached after driving for over 3 hours, there was a ferry at just the right time. Moreover, the weather was sunny too, and they could hear locals saying it was a perfect day for boats to set sail.
“Yes, please.”
Ha-seong received the tickets along with the staff’s guidance to prepare for boarding immediately since the boat would depart in 10 minutes, and headed to the boarding area with Do-hyeok. As they went outside, air full of salty scent came rushing in.
An open view and calm sea scenery. When was the last time I saw the ocean? Ha-seong was unconsciously captivated by the scene painted entirely in blue.
“Do you like the ocean?”
“Well, just. When you look at it, it feels like your insides are clearing out. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it too.”
Before the dimensional transfer, he had been so busy with work that he couldn’t even dream of vacations or travel. Forget vacations – if he slept more than 4 hours a day, that was like a reward. Seeing the ocean or traveling was a life where he could only be satisfied watching it on TV. He didn’t even seem to have proper memories of seeing the ocean in his life.
Then the sound of a ship’s horn was heard from far away, and the large boat they would board entered the port. Numerous crowds that looked like tourists began lining up.
“Next time.”
“Huh?”
“Next time, let’s go together for fun, not work. To see the ocean.”
Do-hyeok casually threw out those words and walked ahead to get in line. And Ha-seong saw it. Do-hyeok’s ears turning red.
Ha-seong smiled faintly and silently followed behind him.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
