“Why do you assert that so definitively?”
From the person asking so politely.
“Don’t tell me, Captain So! Were you acquainted with that rascal from the beginning?”
To the person protesting after making an amazing logical jump through whatever delusion they’d had in that short time, the reactions were varied.
“Even I don’t trust myself, so you can’t assert like that. And Det—Captain-nim, aren’t you the investigation officer in charge? Naturally, an investigator shouldn’t exclude even the smallest possibility.”
Even in the midst of that, Son Yowan shamelessly clung on.
“No, you are not the culprit who created Goeidam.”
“I could be!”
“……In the first place…… do you know the rules for creating Goeidam?”
“Even if I knew, would I readily tell if I’m the culprit?”
“Haaa……”
The Detective seemed to think for a moment (or was he struggling from lack of stamina?), then produced the same feedback as before.
“I won’t listen anymore. It’s a waste of time. To correct one more thing, I am not an ‘investigator.'”
And he declared so with a voice soaked in deep fatigue.
“What do you mean?”
“Goyo.”
The two characters he bluntly uttered were the name of the special group the Detective captained.
“The reason the group I…… belong to is named Goyo is very simple. It’s because it’s an institution that does the work of suppressing ‘Soyo’ that makes the world noisy to make it ‘Goyo’—silent. Goeidam belongs to that Soyo. It’s because stories become real and cause incidents, making the surroundings noisy. So Goyo has the mission to quiet strange Soyo, but the means and methods are entirely according to the arbitrary judgment of the person in charge. Then, to go over it again here, why does Goyo seal off the area where Goeidam occurred into a closed room? ……Let’s think about it. If you put one spider and six flies in a sealed space and let time pass, what would the result be?”
It didn’t seem to be really a question. The Detective continued speaking immediately without giving anyone time to ponder or answer.
“It becomes quiet. Eventually.”
Silence flowed.
“Then I just need to catch that spider in the closed room, put it in a collection container, and return.”
The predator spider and prey flies trapped in the closed room. Inside the collection container that becomes ‘silent’ as time passes. What that metaphor meant was crystal clear.
“How can that be……!”
The Detective’s intention in bringing up that metaphor was also crystal clear.
“If another member had been in charge of this place, they might have done something like the investigation you wanted. In the way of saving the six flies as much as possible and catching the spider. However, I have too much work and am too tired, so I don’t have that capacity.”
After casually uttering such a cruel story, the Detective added in a tone that wasn’t regretful at all.
“It’s regrettable.”
Setting aside the commotion that happened after that, anyway, at that time the Detective denied Son Yowan’s claim in one word. Yet Son Yowan came with his luggage packed, so it was understandable that he’d be dumbfounded, but……
“Oh, there’s only one bed.”
Son Yowan didn’t care.
“I do have a conscience, so I’ll yield the bed to Captain-nim, and I can sleep on that sofa, right?”
“Yoan!”
Instead of Son Yowan who was already peeking into the Detective’s room, the Actor who had been restless behind him minded the Detective’s mood.
“……I’m tired to death.”
The Detective, who had pressed his forehead against the doorframe and closed his eyes tightly, muttered along with a long sigh. The Actor’s face paled when he heard those words. It was because he couldn’t determine whether the Detective saying he was tired was just reciting his physical state or referring to Son Yowan.
“Why are you being so stubborn……?”
“Just as I said.”
“Because you seem like the culprit, so you need my monitoring?”
“Of course. Of course.”
“I clearly expressed my opinion that you’re not. Were my words insufficient……?”
“The words weren’t insufficient, but if we’re being picky, the basis was lacking, right?”
The Detective smoothly lifted his forehead from the doorframe and turned his head. The Actor almost hiccupped. It was because the Detective’s tea-colored eyes were quietly looking at him.
‘Why me?’
Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be a problem with that itself.
“As for basis. Isn’t it the same for you, Son Yowan-ssi……? The very fact that there’s someone who readily helps Son Yowan-ssi like that means other people don’t seriously suspect you either.”
“That’s not it. U helping me is because of the friendship between U and me.”
“I didn’t know a few days’ worth of friendship could be this solid……?”
“In true friendship, the time spent together is not important at all, Captain So-nim!”
Son Yowan’s voice grew louder, sensing the time had come.
‘Now’s the time!’
At the moment of ‘enlightenment,’ Son Yowan demonstrated the ‘flexibility’ guaranteed by his different-gendered blood relative and ‘switched’ his thinking like this.
‘Why of all people is the glasses-wearing guy I persistently dragged around the Detective—what shallow judgment that was!’
He persistently dragged around the glasses-wearing guy who said he didn’t want to for the past few days. → I’m screwed. (X)
to
He persistently dragged around the glasses-wearing guy who said he didn’t want to for the past few days. → He has a friendship with him. (O)
Why?
The person who spent the longest time with the Detective hiding his identity was also himself! The person who was always with him was also himself! So if there was someone who could be called his friend here, it could only be Son Yowan himself!
That’s how he finished his self-rationalization.
“Like our friendship!”
That was the reason Son Yowan could (shamelessly) shout at this very moment.
“……”
No sooner had those words fallen than silence descended. The Actor’s face turned from white to pale blue, and the Detective’s expressionless face, which already felt nothing but fatigue, became as stiff as a death mask.
“Ha……?”
Then the Detective opened his mouth slightly and muttered like that.
“……Son Yowan-ssi. If you’re tired, please sleep.”
The Actor was convinced there was a phrase hidden after those words: ‘and don’t make people tired.’
“No, I’m fine, Captain-nim!”
But it seemed it wasn’t conveyed to Son Yowan himself.
“……I’m going in.”
“Ah, I haven’t finished talking! Captain-nim must monitor me!”
“……”
“Don’t close it! I’m really suspicious! There’s no need to actively interrogate me, but keeping me nearby to monitor is essential! Captain-nim! How suspicious am I, you see……”
Son Yowan devoted his whole body to clinging to the almost-closed door.
“Actually, my memory of last night isn’t intact! If Goeidam was created, circumstantially it would be yesterday, and my memory of that very last night isn’t intact! Isn’t that too suspicious?”
Then he displayed the secret technique of a creative work protagonist that could be summarized as ‘I’m afraid because I can’t remember my own business! What on earth happened during that blank?’
‘Damn, this won’t work.’
Though he’d blurted it out in urgency, Son Yowan didn’t think at all that would work.
‘I need to cling on somehow, but what should I say……’
So he was squeezing his brain that seemed like it would make crackling sounds from being so dry, when the closing door opened again.
“Huh?”
Son Yowan, rarely flustered, blinked his eyes and blankly looked up at the man looking down at him from far above.
In a place with some light, he just looked like a tired grad student, but being in a completely dark place, his delicate and distinct features came into view. However, the strangely reddish-tinged eyes felt even more like some other being that wasn’t human, so Son Yowan momentarily got goosebumps on the back of his neck.
‘Ah, he wore glasses when disguised because of those eyes.’
Son Yowan had such a thought unsuited to the situation.
‘His eyesight doesn’t even seem particularly bad, but I wondered why glasses of all things.’
At that moment, the Detective muttered.
“Your memory isn’t intact……?”
Even while having other thoughts, Son Yowan caught the opportunity like a (water) ghost with a snap.
“Yes! So until everything is certain, I think it’s right for Captain-nim to keep me nearby and monitor me.”
“Son Yowan-ssi…… do you express having your film cut from getting dead drunk like that?”
“……”
Well, the ‘lost last night memory’ he’d blurted out randomly was exactly that.
And Son Yowan recalled only after being pointed out, the fact that on the night his ‘film was cut,’ he had the ‘glasses-wearing guy’ beside him.
“It’s not wrong though, is it?”
But Son Yowan was righteous. He had a blank in his memory. And of all times, yesterday (though it wasn’t just yesterday, but anyway)! So I’m scared of what I might have done then! Look, there’s not even a bit of a lie, is there?
‘And my memory is strange too, so it’s not wrong at all.’
Since memories of a future he’d never experienced had come in like impurities, Son Yowan was confident.
The Detective standing in the darkness looked down at Son Yowan without speaking for a long time. Then at some moment, he slowly moved his jaw and pointed to his room.
“……Please come in.”
