It was a voice completely absent from Yeon Cheonguk’s database, sensitive as he was to sounds. In short, it was a stranger. It wasn’t as if he’d expected Gakseori or a classmate to answer, but the disappointment was great. Yeon Cheonguk asked in an indifferent tone.
“Hello. I’m the person who borrowed <Jjang> volume 35.”
—……So?
The other end of the call was particularly quiet. The silence was so profound that it could be inferred to be a reading room or library, making even Yeon Cheonguk’s voice grow smaller.
“By any chance, wasn’t there something like a student ID in there? I think I stuck it in there.”
—There was nothing like that.
At the curt response, Yeon Cheonguk decided not to beat around the bush and to tackle it head-on. He mustered his courage and brazenly blurted it out.
“Do you happen to know a person named Hwang Jegu?”
The person on the call, who had been silent, answered.
—I don’t know them. Are you saying Hwang Jegu’s student ID? In any case, I didn’t see it.
Hearing “I don’t know” from a completely unfamiliar voice left him speechless. Racking his brain, Yeon Cheonguk asked once more, trying to find even a clue.
“……Then could you perhaps tell me your route of movement? I’ll look around that area.”
The person on the call was particularly slow to answer. They seemed to be a slow-talking type. This time too, they paused for a few seconds before bringing out a delayed response.
—Why are you working so hard to find something that’s already lost?
“……”
—What’s so precious about a student ID that’s already out of your hands? It seems like it’d be more convenient to just get a new one issued.
At the meaningful words, this time it was Yeon Cheonguk who couldn’t provide an answer for a long time. Searching for something to say, Yeon Cheonguk opened his mouth as if confessing his true feelings.
“Because it has memories. Because it has engraved in it time that can’t be exchanged for anything else. Of course it’s precious.”
—…….
“I want to find it again. It has to be that one specifically.”
After a few seconds of silence, the other party spat out a mechanical answer and hung up.
—It’s not my concern, so don’t call me again.
He’d searched everywhere, but there were no results at all. Yeon Cheonguk left the PC bang with drained steps. After the police station called again asking for the defendant’s contact information and company name, he answered and then went to the beer hall. It was a familiar part-time job, but today it felt especially wearisome.
What was the difference between the college students who spent money here and Yeon Cheonguk, a college student who earned money? He’d never properly attended a department gathering even once due to worries about tuition. A life where entertainment, romance, and romance weren’t permitted. A distant family relationship where he couldn’t even confide that he’d reported the agency.
No one had told him to chase his dreams and jump onto a thorny path. Even if it was his own choice, sometimes it was hard. Sometimes he felt it was really fucking terrible.
When he wished there was just one person by his side.
While Yeon Cheonguk was washing beer glasses, one last method came to mind.
What if he left a desperate message on the book flap—
Wouldn’t Hwang Jegu respond?
If he was alive.
The next day, Yeon Cheonguk got on a bus to Seoul again. He thought this might be the last time he’d go to Kkaebi Manga Village this frequently. There was a limit to how much he could fret and worry anxiously.
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He deliberately borrowed just one manga to leave a rental record. After secretly scrawling graffiti on the book flap, he immediately returned it. When he left the bookstore, the sun was setting. After watching about ten customers smoking in the alley, he gave up and went down to the subway station.
Today too, he went to work at the beer hall and put on a black piqué shirt. When he smiled and greeted the regular female college student customers who came flooding in, his cell phone vibrated.
Caller ID blocked.
What’s this? With half suspicion and half excitement, he pressed the call button. However, the voice he heard was from someone who mercilessly shattered his fantasies and expectations.
—Yeon, just listen for a moment. The entertainment manager isn’t answering calls at all. It seems….
Yeon Cheonguk hung up without listening further. It seemed he’d called with caller ID blocked thinking Yeon Cheonguk might not answer if he recognized the number, but he didn’t want to subtly start talking with Kim Hyuntae about this problem.
After that, until two in the morning while carrying fried food and pouring draft beer, five more calls came with blocked caller ID.
07/16 00:23 AM Caller ID blocked
07/16 00:28 AM Caller ID blocked
07/16 00:45 AM Caller ID blocked
07/16 01:16 AM Caller ID blocked
07/16 01:25 AM Caller ID blocked
Unable to stand it anymore, he turned off his cell phone and felt at peace. In Yeon Cheonguk’s mind, there was only the thought of wanting to go to the manga bookstore tomorrow or the day after to check the book flap.
However, what awaited Yeon Cheonguk the next day was news like a bolt from the blue.
Early in the morning, he opened his eyes to the vibration of his cell phone ringing. Thinking it seemed to be the police station number, he hurriedly pressed the call button, and an urgent-toned explanation came through.
—Yes, Yeon Cheonguk-ssi? This is the police. We couldn’t contact the suspect yesterday, so we called even his family, but they said they can’t contact his parents or wife either.
“…Yes. So?”
—It seems he fled in the night. His home is empty too.
Manager, you crazy bastard! A curse burst out loud enough to be heard in the room next to his boarding house.
The blocked caller ID calls yesterday must have been from President Kim, who had foreseen the night escape. Yeon Cheonguk pressed down his cap and ran out of the house. Under the morning sunlight seeping onto the desk, the electronic dictionary sat there forlornly.
It was so frustrating he felt like he’d burst. There were no credit card transaction records to show whether he was using cash, and the last thing captured on road CCTV was Gyeonggi Gwangju IC. The cell phone GPS was last picked up in Goesan, South Chungcheong Province. If he’d switched cars in Goesan and used national highways, it would be difficult to track him in a short time.
“You should go to Goesan right away and conduct an inquiry investigation to see if there are witnesses!”
Yeon Cheonguk appealed his grievance with a resounding voice. But the police only repeated that they’d sent a cooperation request to Goesan Police Station. They claimed it was difficult to mobilize investigative personnel to catch a scammer who’d fled with a mere 15 million won.
They had to wait until the cell phone signal was picked up somewhere again, or card usage records appeared, or a tip came in after putting out a warrant. That was every police officer’s answer.
“Just think of it as a life lesson and wait a bit. He’ll get caught eventually.”
“And even if we find him, it’s hard to get the money back in full. He’s probably already hidden it as cash! Even if we seize assets, there won’t be much. In most fraud cases, you should expect to get almost no money back even if you win in civil court.”
He didn’t want to just sit there dumbfounded after being blindsided. An intense obsession that he absolutely couldn’t just lose the money no matter what swept through his mind.
He had to get that money back and settle things with President Kim! If he didn’t, he’d always have to see that guy while being in debt as an investor—he didn’t even want to imagine it!
At that moment, a voice echoed in his ears.
—If you just act prideful without working hard at anything, what changes?
Hadn’t Hwang Jegu back then gone all the way to Gangwon Province to find his father? Yeon Cheonguk was an adult much older now than he had been then.
“Ah, yes. You all can be negligent then. I’ll go directly to Goesan and look for traces myself.”
“What? Reporter, it’s dangerous! Please don’t do that….”
Yeon Cheonguk ran out of the police station and caught a taxi. He didn’t think it was an impulsive action. It was only a feeling that it was a responsibility he had to fulfill and a strong sense of duty.
During the long ride alone in the taxi, the feeling of being alone washed over him strongly.
It felt like there was no one on Yeon Cheonguk’s side in the world. Fiddling with his cell phone, the first people who came to mind were family members he couldn’t tell about this.
It was the same with his friends. What good news was this to report every little detail about? He always had to be the good-natured, playful Yeon Cheonguk. Bad things could also become weaknesses. He didn’t want to throw them gossip material that would definitely be talked about behind his back.
Right, when wasn’t he alone? Comforting himself with brief words, he stared holes through the window.
Once on the highway going at full speed, it took about an hour and fifty minutes to Goesan. Seeing that the cell phone signal was last picked up here, there was a high probability he’d switched cars here.
He drew a picture in his mind.
If I were a scammer fleeing in the night? Where would I stop the car?
I’d receive the car at the outskirts where there are no eyes watching and change clothes.
Then he probably wouldn’t have gone all the way into the town center where the county office was. On the road entering Goesan County from Eumseong County, there was one large mountain. Yeon Cheonguk, who was alternately examining left and right, discovered a gas station across the road.
“Ahjussi, just a moment! …I’ll get off here.”
He paid the enormous taxi fare and got off in the middle of a country road. If someone had switched cars and refueled here during the early morning hours, wouldn’t there be a gas station attendant who witnessed it?
Yeon Cheonguk crossed the two-lane road and ran to the gas station. When he knocked on the office door, a middle-aged man who appeared to be the owner opened it.
“Is this a 24-hour gas station?”
“Why?”
“There’s someone I’m looking for, so I was wondering if you might have seen them….”
“Agh, really…! The police already came and asked earlier. Keep bothering me. We close right at twelve.”
The man who answered with an annoyed expression glanced up at the desperate Yeon Cheonguk. When Yeon Cheonguk’s gaze reached the house above the gas station, he reluctantly opened his mouth again.
“Yesterday there was someone who wanted to get gas in the early morning, so I put in 50,000 won worth. In a gray Sonata.”
“……The driver’s appearance…!”
“I told everything to the police, so go ask them! Agh, this is uncomfortable.”
The door shut roughly, making Yeon Cheonguk step back. The moment he urgently took out his cell phone, a call came from Ansan Police Station.
Since he was about to call anyway, he immediately pressed the call button. An excited shout from a police officer came through.
—Yeon Cheonguk-ssi! There’s already an investigation team that was dispatched to South Chungcheong. The suspect was just apprehended in Okcheon.
“…What?”
It was welcome news and at the same time a nonsensical statement. He was flabbergasted. Yeon Cheonguk snapped back, unable to just rejoice.
“……You told me to wait because it would take months!”
—Well, it’s not our station’s investigation team….
