“Didn’t I…… tell you to restrain yourselves? That Goeidam occurred in this area, and that there’s a culprit among you who created Goeidam.”
The man, the Detective, let out a sigh soaked in fatigue.
“If you can cause an accident like this even after hearing that, how about just ending your life now……? Then at least you can avoid the fate of becoming a specter who died to Goeidam without even knowing you’re dead……”
The Detective, who stopped mid-sentence, looked at Son Yowan who had grabbed his arm.
“It’s me.”
Son Yowan, whose eyes were still staring intently ahead, said that while taking out the handkerchief covering his mouth with his other hand.
“So that the explanation won’t get long between us, speak properly from the start……”
“People said I’m suspicious, Det—no, Captain. They said only my invitation is fake.”
Swish.
Son Yowan suddenly turned his face and stared up at the Detective intently.
“But I think so too.”
“?”
“I think I’m suspicious too. So, Captain. Keep me close and monitor me.”
The Detective made the exact same expression as when Son Yowan had forcibly woken him up when he’d given up on escaping from a drinking party that had gone to round 3 and was just about to sleep at the table, then put his arm around his shoulder and swayed.
Son Yowan looked straight at the Detective and grinned, just like when he’d woken up his glasses-wearing friend who was trying to sleep at the drinking table and ‘helped’ his social life.
“Thoroughly, and absolutely don’t let me go.”
***
They say people change when they come back from the dead, but he didn’t really know if that was true—anyway, after being grabbed by the collar and brought back right before a big disaster, Son Yowan’s mind cleared up.
‘This is it.’
That’s what he meant.
‘Why didn’t I think of this until now?’
The feeling that had been frustrating as if he’d reached a dead end cleared up completely.
Who would survive the longest among the characters in a murder play? And who has the highest survival rate in Goeidam?
The answer was obvious.
So Yeowon, who plays the detective role in the murder play and is the Captain of Goyo who handles Goeidam.
Then what should he, a mere civilian, do to survive?
‘What do you mean what? Just stick close to the person with the high survival rate!’
So Son Yowan firmly resolved to stick close to the Detective. By any means necessary.
So currently.
Bang bang.
“Captain-nim?”
Son Yowan pounded hard on the Detective’s door. There was no answer. Son Yowan wasn’t discouraged. He didn’t even think things like ‘Maybe he’s not inside?’
Bang bang bang!
He just pounded on the door even louder.
“Captain-nim, it’s me. Captain-nim!”
“Could he have gone out?”
The young man who had been restless alone near Son Yowan stopped him, thinking he really would break it at this rate. He was the Actor, one of the distinguished guests.
“You’re the one who guarded in front of this guy’s door while I brought luggage, so what are you doing, Uya?”
Bang bang bang bang!
Son Yowan didn’t care and put even more strength into his hands.
“Uya?”
“I heard you guys decided to call each other by some kind of nicknames here. Then you’re ‘Actor,’ but calling you Actor-nim sounds too formal, so we decided to affectionately call you U. ……Ah! But why is there no response? Det—Captain-nim! Captain-nim? If you’re alive, please answer!”
“As expected, he’s not here……”
“You said you were in front the whole time. You must have guarded well. I trust you.”
“Hmm. Then is he sleeping?”
“Hey hey hey. If he’s sleeping even with this much noise, that’s an illness. If he’s really sleeping, it’s proper to wake him up.”
At such a bold claim, the Actor got confused, going “I-is that so?”, and Son Yowan rummaged through the pockets of a stiff high-neck gray coat that would suit a mannequin better than a person and pulled out a sharp-bladed hand axe.
“Wh-what are you doing!”
“If Captain-nim is in a state where he doesn’t even have the strength to ask others for help, we need to break down the door to rescue him, so I spent some chips.”
Actually, he’d bought it in preparation for any situation, but Son Yowan boldly claimed the hand axe was for someone else, not himself. And, after saying it, it seemed like that was really true! He just hadn’t realized the ‘truth’ until now!
“This bastard is my younger brother, but he’s just like a loach. His thinking is too flexible, I tell you. Too much. Excessively. More than necessary.”
Son Yowan suddenly recalled an evaluation his noona, the family’s dictator and long-lived ancient one, had made about him, but immediately erased that thought from his head.
He was too busy with things to do to leisurely reminisce.
“Captain-nim, I’m breaking it down?”
Before doing that ‘thing to do,’ Son Yowan even put his palm to his mouth and loudly announced it, then raised the hand axe up high.
‘If I just thwack this and strike the doorknob, it’s over……’
But before the thwack sound came, a creak sound was heard first.
“Yoan! The door opened!”
Son Yowan knew too. He also had eyes. And he had ears.
‘Every single one of these so-called distinguished guests doesn’t call people’s names properly……’
It’s not even that complicated a name, is it? This is all because of lack of interest and consideration for others. Otherwise, how could there be so many variations like Yohan, Joseph, Yoan like this……
“Son Yowan-ssi.”
He paused.
“Is pretending not to hear when you heard a new method of tormenting someone who’s already struggling? If that’s it, please moderate it a bit……”
“I heard, I heard you.”
Since he couldn’t say, ‘It’s been too long since I heard my proper name from someone else’s mouth,’ Son Yowan quickly made an excuse.
“But I was surprised.”
“By what……”
“That you came out like this.”
Son Yowan looked up at the tall man standing inside the open door. The Detective, who was frowning with narrowed brows as if his head hurt, looked exactly like part of a dark room.
“Wasn’t it that you knocked for me to come out……”
The Detective muttered while frowning even more, narrowing his brows to the point where you’d wonder if his eyebrows would stick together, then turned around unsteadily.
“H-hey, where are you going in!”
Son Yowan quickly grabbed him.
“That’s right, I knocked for you to come out!”
“Haaaaaa……”
Only then did the Detective turn his body back toward Son Yowan and tilted his head to the side.
“I was hoping it wasn’t.”
“Huh? If you didn’t knock for me to come out, wouldn’t that be more troublesome? It means there’s a crazy person making noise outside for no reason, right?”
“That’s…… because if you ignore it, it’s over.”
“That’s interesting. Can you ignore it?”
“If you’re too tired, you can. Even if a bomb explodes outside, you can ignore it.”
Son Yowan was puzzled.
‘What makes him so tired?’
Honestly, the Detective didn’t seem to do much. Even when he didn’t know he was the Captain of Goyo, all the ‘glasses-wearing guy’ did was lie sprawled on the bed or floor like dried fish, and honestly, that didn’t seem much different now either. Well, actually, since he hadn’t seen what he did inside the room, it was hard to say for sure.
‘But I’ll know from now on, so it doesn’t matter!’
The Detective muttered gloomily.
“What could it be? I just had a very ominous premonition……”
Since it seemed like a story unrelated to himself, Son Yowan pretended not to hear.
“If you could just move aside a bit, Captain-nim?”
Instead, he politely requested to make way. He self-evaluated that it was a considerate request saying there was no need to completely move aside or help move luggage, but strangely, the Detective who heard those words, instead of giving Son Yowan an admiring look, asked back as if he’d heard something he shouldn’t have heard.
“Why?”
“Because I need to go in?”
“Where?”
Instead of answering with words, Son Yowan raised his finger and pointed behind the Detective.
Yep, your room.
“……”
The Detective indeed showed comprehension befitting his visual of a grad student who’d stayed up white through three days and nights in the research lab.
“In the end, you’re going to…… cling to my room.”
‘Cling.’
Depending on the person—like someone whose nickname was ‘Teacher’—it could be vocabulary taken very insultingly, but Son Yowan wasn’t that type.
“Yep.”
The Detective stared at Son Yowan, who even raised his hand and answered readily, then let out a long sigh that seemed to definitely be a habit.
Huuuuuuu.
This time it was somehow longer than usual.
……uuuuuu.
Very much so.
“Son Yowan-ssi. I…… clearly said.”
Son Yowan immediately caught on to what the Detective was talking about.
“I think I’m suspicious too. So, Captain. Keep me close and monitor me.”
That problematic ‘claim.’
To that, the Detective immediately gave feedback.
“There’s no need for that……”
Cutting it off cleanly at that.
“Not at all.”
Without leaving any room.
“You are not the culprit.”
That statement, which was not just firm but even cold, was enough to fluster even people who weren’t the person in question.
