As he boarded the passenger plane heading to Busan first, Jaeha regretted his choice. Why had he scheduled appointments on the same weekend?
Leaving behind Jung Kyungwoo, who was sleeping defenseless in the sunlight-filled second-floor bedroom—in a posture so stimulating to sexual desire that one had to wonder if there was any need to sleep like that—was one of the most difficult things he’d done in his entire life, enough to count on one hand.
The night spent with intense caresses and kisses alone had been far too short. He could make appointments even after returning. But the unfortunate thing was that both Jaeha and Kyungwoo had formidable careers that were sometimes interrupted.
‘When will I come to Jeju Island again?’
The passenger plane ran down the coastal runway submerged in sea fog.
As soon as he arrived at Busan Airport, Jaeha took a taxi to the promised park. The detective who needed rehabilitation exercise said he walked through the park with his daughter every weekend. That place was more comfortable for Jaeha than home.
When he arrived at the meeting place and called, a person presumed to be the daughter approached and greeted him.
“Hello, I’m Prosecutor Seo Jaeha.”
“Hello. You have striking features.”
She greeted him warmly and guided Jaeha to where her young son and parents were. There was a small paved plaza on one side of the park, and there were several parents watching children riding skateboards and kickboards there.
Under the shade of a pavilion on one side, an elderly man who looked somewhat uncomfortable moving and his wife were sitting on a bench.
“This is Prosecutor Seo Jaeha.”
“Hello. I’m his wife.”
When he bowed in greeting to the wife, the detective extended his trembling hand.
“Plea…sed…… to…… meet…… you. I’m…… De…tec…tive…… Seol…… Hae…seong…… Olshi…da.”
“He says ‘Pleased to meet you. I’m Detective Seol Haeseong Olshida.'”
The daughter translated from the side.
“Hello, Detective Seol. I’m Prosecutor Seo Jaeha from the Special Division of the Central District Prosecutors’ Office.”
With that, Jaeha took out his ID and showed it. On behalf of the detective, whose head was nodding, his wife looked closely at the ID.
“There’s such a handsome prosecutor.”
It was ordinary praise, but judging by the fact that the detective was observing his wife, it seemed to be a procedure to confirm that the ID was real.
The detective and his wife sat inside the benches arranged in a square shape, the daughter sat in the chair on that side, and Jaeha sat in the chair opposite. Judging by how the daughter kept being conscious of the paved plaza, there probably was a child. The wife sat next to the detective and took care of towels and water.
“I came all the way here because I have something I’d like to ask.”
Not wanting to take up much of the family’s time, Jaeha immediately got to the point. He mentioned a specific year and asked if he remembered the case where he’d responded to Myeongbu Hotel at that time.
“I…… know……”
“You don’t know?”
He thought it was a refusal, but the wife next to him interpreted, “He says he knows.”
“It’s difficult to converse over the phone.”
He now perfectly understood what the daughter had said. He really did well to come visit.
“Since it’s uncomfortable for you to speak, I’ll ask what I’m curious about first. Is that okay?”
The detective trembled, and the wife properly conveyed that reaction with a nod.
“You received a child missing report at Myeongbu Hotel, but that case file isn’t at Jongno Station. The computerized records were also lost. Do you remember receiving the case report and responding?”
“Myeong…bu…… Ho…tel…… child…… look…ing…… for……”
The detective said something passionately, but it was really hard for Jaeha to understand. In the end, Jaeha looked back at the wife and daughter with an awkward smile.
“You’re talking about the Myeongbu Hotel case, right? I’ve heard about it from Dad before, so I know a bit about it.”
When the daughter, who could communicate easily, helped out, Jaeha brightened up without realizing it.
“But why are you asking about that case?”
“It’s personal interest. There won’t be any harm to Detective-nim’s family. A person involved in that case has a private friendship with me.”
“The missing records have nothing to do with our dad.”
Jaeha accurately caught what the daughter was worried about.
“The loss of records is a coincidental result. Detective-nim isn’t the person responsible for record keeping, so it’s completely unrelated. I just want to know the inside story of the case, and there’s no possibility that Detective-nim will be put in a difficult position. If you say you don’t know, I can find out through other channels, but still, I thought Detective-nim would know in the most detail, so I took the time to come all the way here.”
“Things are so much like that these days. I was just checking just in case.”
The daughter, who had softened a bit, exchanged glances with the wife. The detective tapped his wife’s leg with his trembling hand. It was a tone of urging something. The wife, who had been observing her daughter and husband, carefully opened her mouth.
“I know the cases this person handled better than our child does. That’s why I came out, thinking I might be helpful.”
“Is that so? Thank you.”
“Actually, I looked at this person’s case notebook again, wondering what case it was.”
“Really? You have a case notebook?”
“Because he’s a detective. In the old days, there were no smartphones and everything was recorded by hand. It’s evidence that this person served the country, so I kept it well.”
With that, the wife took out a thick envelope that looked like it would burst at any moment from the handbag that contained water and towels. Inside were several sheets of copy paper that seemed to have been folded with difficulty.
“Actually, when this person heard that Prosecutor-nim was coming and told me, I was firmly convinced it would be this case, so I made copies in advance. Even though he had a stroke, a detective is still a detective. His intuition is extraordinary.”
“Is Dad an ordinary person? Even now, he identifies most suspects in cases that appear on the news in one go.”
The wife and daughter cast proud glances toward the detective, their husband and father who was ill. The man who had been nothing more than an old sick person just moments ago suddenly seemed to overflow with twice the strength. Even pride could be felt in his half-distorted gaze.
“I…… I…… this…… twen…ty…… eight…… years…… de…tec…tive…… work…… Se…oul…… mid…dle…… Hmph!”
The person who had done detective work for 28 years in the middle of Seoul ended the sentence with a proud cough that had great resonance.
“You’re admirable. It’s because people like Detective-nim are here that our country has developed into the safest country in the world.”
Half was empty words, half was sincere. The wife and daughter were so proud of the sick detective, and at some point, Jaeha too found him great.
“Here.”
The wife held out the envelope to Jaeha as if she’d forgotten. He took out the materials right there on the spot and skimmed through them. It was scribbled handwriting, but befitting an old person who had wielded a ballpoint pen in their own way, it was large and neat, making it easy to read. Among them were photo prints too.
“What’s this?”
“It’s a scan and print of a photo that was tucked in the notebook. The original is a bit……”
The daughter looked at the wife and trailed off. It was awkward to ask for the original too, and above all, the scan alone had no hindrance whatsoever in identifying things.
“Thank you. This was a great help.”
“Not at all. This person was eagerly waiting for Prosecutor-nim, saying it reminded him of his detective days after a long time.”
“If only I had enough time, I’d like to at least treat you to a meal.”
Jaeha looked at his watch as if regretful.
“You’re a busy person. You should hurry back up. Well, if there’s an opportunity next time, feel free to contact us anytime. This person will be happy.”
“Thank you so much. I’ll contact you again. Detective Seol, please get well. Stay healthy too, ma’am and daughter.”
“You too, Prosecutor-nim.”
They exchanged greetings, bowing several times. The detective raised his trembling hand to see Jaeha off.
Less than an hour later, Jaeha, who had boarded the northbound KTX, settled into a middle table seat where no one was sitting. Then he took out the copy paper from the envelope he’d received and read through it carefully.
Child Missing – X years old Jung Kyungwoo
Visited hotel event with mother
No peculiarities in employee statements
Failed to secure witnesses outside hotel
No ransom call – Don’t they know he’s Taeryoung’s son? Or is there another intention?
Request for secret investigation
The evidence Detective Seol Haeseong had secured and his personal judgments were organized by date and time. The discreet questioning and search of dozens of people in the surrounding area was also useless, and the child’s whereabouts couldn’t be found for nearly ten days.
The fact that Taeryoung Group put pressure to prevent the case from being made public also played a large role in the lack of progress in the investigation. At that point, Detective Seol Haeseong seemed angry as he scrawled the following in red letters:
Is the group’s reputation more important than their child? Can you call those people parents?
Taeryoung Group’s patriarchal tradition didn’t seem to be a matter of just a day or two. Still, how could they think of hiding it when their son had been kidnapped?
Some opinions that public investigation could rather threaten the child’s safety
It wasn’t entirely wrong. But that was only meaningful within 48 hours.
Furthermore, Myeongbu Hotel at the time was a luxury hotel that ranked among the best in the city center, and with many foreign guests, difficulties in the search continued.
Search of rooms with foreign guests not possible
Is this a foreign country or Korea?
The prejudice of the warrant judge also played a role—that no matter what, foreigners from advanced countries couldn’t possibly be interested in a Northeast Asian boy.
Of course, the judge was probably commissioned by someone uncomfortable with rummaging through the hotel.
The search was only conducted in Korean guests’ rooms, empty rooms, and auxiliary facilities. While it was plausible given the times, it was an extremely complacent judgment now.
‘Currently, warrant issuance and search are legally possible.’
It was an era when rich foreigners wielded unlimited power. Throughout reading the records, anger surged at the foolishness and helplessness of the past.
Just as the case was falling into a labyrinth and the Taeryoung family’s hysteria reached its peak, with even frontline detectives barely sleeping and being harassed, a fire report came in from Myeongbu Hotel.
Since the case hadn’t been concluded at that time, the fire suppression was also carried out very swiftly and quietly.
“The millennium is truly amazing. How do they hide a fire in an accommodation facility?”
At that passage, Jaeha unknowingly blurted out his inner thoughts.
The hotel side, already sensitive due to the presence of rough detectives and uniformed police coming and going inside and out, wanted to pass over it very quietly, thinking that if a fire incident broke out on top of that, there would be major disruptions to hotel operations.
In reality, the fire wasn’t big either. Downsizing the incident became even more feasible when an American guest who discovered acrid smoke seeping out from a Japanese guest’s room ran urgently to the front desk before calling 119.
The Jongno Fire Department, which responded after receiving the contact, suppressed the fire early and left quickly. Guests on other floors didn’t even know a fire had occurred.
Detective Seol Haeseong, who happened to be at the scene, entered the room where the fire incident occurred while firefighters were carrying out the Japanese male guest who was unconscious—later revealed to have died from suffocation—through the door they’d torn open. Because it might have been arson.
While examining the room, he discovered a child sitting naked in the bathroom, which had relatively little damage.
It was Jung Kyungwoo.
Having read that far, Jaeha felt as if flames were rising in his eyes. His heart pounded and all the blood vessels in his body bulged.
What did that crazy Japanese bastard do to a child? A bastard who should be torn to death.
The memo left by Detective Seol Haeseong leaped over 20-odd years and perfectly represented Jaeha’s feelings at this very moment.
