“What… is this?”
Yieum frowned at the report Jeong Namsu had brought in.
They had run the amnesiac man’s fingerprints, but the result came back inconclusive. Usually, when fingerprints failed to show up in the system, it meant they had been deliberately damaged, or the person was an illegal immigrant, or—if neither of those applied—a minor.
“He can’t be a minor, can he?”
“Does he look like one to you?”
“Right? That’s what I thought too. Then is he a foreigner?”
“His features are pretty sharp for an East Asian, so it’s possible.”
“What about DNA?”
“Not yet.”
Yieum set the results down and sent a message to his older sister.
The man had already been discharged from the hospital. Since he had nowhere else to go, he was temporarily staying at Yieum’s sister’s house. After telling her he would come pick him up that evening, Yieum sighed, troubled.
Just then, Team Leader Oh, who had finished a phone call, clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention.
“Alright, everyone. We’ve got Mansik’s location. Get ready.”
The team moved at once, as if they had all been waiting for the signal.
“Detective Park and Detective Lee, you’re with me. Detective Kim and Detective Jeong, take another car. We’ll block him from both sides. You know the back door there, right?”
“Yes.”
“That bastard uses a knife, so be careful.”
The five of them rushed outside and split into their cars. As soon as he got in, Yieum started the engine.
Mansik was a gangster wanted for stabbing several members of a rival gang. The reason they had gone out to the countryside a few days earlier was to track him down.
They had to catch him today.
With that thought fixed in mind, they headed for the location.
The team leader’s car, which had left first, stopped in front of an adult entertainment establishment. Several bulky men were standing guard by the entrance like a wall.
“Ah, those gangster bastards. Did they catch on? Why are they all out here?”
While the team leader and the others went inside, Yieum drove past the establishment and turned into the alley behind it.
He was watching the back door when the radio crackled.
[Sergeant Kim! Mansik isn’t here. Did he go out your way?]
“No, over here—”
Before he could finish, the back door burst open, and a short man in a cap shot out.
Yieum immediately reported over the radio that Mansik had come out the back, then got out of the car.
Spotting the detectives, Mansik grabbed a nearby liquor bottle, hurled it at them, cursed, and bolted up the alley like a rat.
He was quick and nimble enough that they’d already lost him several times before.
Determined not to let him escape today, Yieum gave chase. But the bastard instantly vaulted over a wall as high as a man’s shoulder.
Yieum cleared it after him without difficulty.
Mansik glanced back and picked up speed.
The alley stretched endlessly ahead, and when a long flight of stairs appeared, Namsu gradually began falling behind.
“Wow, that fucker—hey! Stop right there, you son of a bitch!”
Soon, Yieum could hear the rest of the team running up behind them.
His lungs burned, but he forced himself to close the distance.
It would have been easier if Mansik had run downhill toward the road. But the bastard knew the neighborhood layout well, and he knew exactly how much this terrain favored him.
After sprinting nonstop through the maze-like alleys, Mansik suddenly came to a halt.
Yieum soon saw why.
A large refrigerator was blocking the path ahead. Someone must have sealed off what used to be an open passage.
As Mansik tried to climb the wall beside it, Yieum grabbed him by the leg and slammed him to the ground.
The bastard immediately pulled a gleaming sashimi knife from inside his clothes.
Yieum panted hard and gestured with one hand.
“I’m asking nicely. Put the knife down.”
“I’ll cut a new breathing hole in your gut. Come on!”
Mansik lunged, swinging the knife.
Swish. Swish.
Yieum dodged the flashing blade, but it was too fast for him to think clearly. He knocked aside a slash aimed at his face and felt the edge graze his palm.
Taking a step back, he checked the cut and caught his breath.
“How’s that? Just a little taste. Thrilling, isn’t it? This time I’ll stick it in for real.”
The knife came at him again.
Yieum stripped off his shirt, wrapped it around both hands, and charged straight in.
He seized Mansik’s wrist and twisted it back.
Crack.
The knife clattered to the ground.
Mansik screamed like a pig being slaughtered.
Namsu, who had finally caught up, threw himself onto the struggling bastard and cuffed him.
“From this moment on, you have the right to remain silent—and, you son of a bitch, hold still. You have the right to an attorney, and—”
After they finished cuffing him and hauled him up, the rest of the team began appearing one by one at the top of the stairs.
Every single one of them looked like hell after running up that steep climb.
Team Leader Oh arrived last, clutching his knee before plopping down on the spot. His cartilage had worn out far too early.
“Oof… did you get him?”
“Yes, he’s been apprehended.”
“Good work, everyone. Ah, that son of a bitch. If he was going to run, he should’ve run downhill. Why the hell did he come all the way up here and make everyone suffer?” Team Leader Oh groaned. “Detective Lee. My blood sugar’s dropping. Candy. Candy, quickly.”
Detective Lee quickly handed him a piece of candy, and the team leader popped it into his mouth, mumbling around it.
The others looked just as exhausted.
Then Detective Lee noticed the blood on Yieum’s palm and widened his eyes.
“Detective Kim, is your hand okay?”
“It’s nothing. Just a scratch.”
Team Leader Oh, having recovered a little, walked over to Mansik and smacked him on the back of the head.
“You bastard. As if stabbing people wasn’t enough, now you’re swinging a knife at a detective too? Go rot in prison for a good, long time.”
When he was hit, Mansik cursed and glared at him.
That only made the team leader angrier, and the other detectives had to struggle to hold him back.
After the long walk down to transport the suspect, they saw the gangsters lined up in front of the establishment.
“What are you looking at, you bastards? You want me to take you in too?”
At that, the men glanced around awkwardly and disappeared back inside.
“Tsk. Cockroach bastards.”
After loading the suspect into the car, the team leader turned to Yieum.
“Detective Kim, go to the hospital.”
“It’s fine. It’s really nothing.”
“What do you mean, nothing? If you leave it and it gets infected, you’re the one who’ll suffer. Take care of yourself, alright? Please. I don’t want your sister chewing my ear off.”
At the team leader’s worried nagging, Yieum smiled brightly and practically fled to his car.
Namsu, who climbed into the passenger seat a moment later, had somehow procured ointment and bandages in a small bag.
For all his fussing, Namsu could be surprisingly considerate.
“Give me your hand.”
“It’s fine, man. This is embarrassing.”
“Give it here.”
“I said it’s fine.”
When Yieum refused, Namsu finally shoved the bag at him.
“Take it and make sure you put some on. It’ll scar. How heartbroken would I be if a scar appeared on your beautiful hands, sunbae-nim?”
He even added an exaggerated flourish, making a show of fawning over him.
Yieum gave him a disgusted look.
After that, instead of heading to the station, he went to his eldest sister’s house first.
He rang the doorbell and stepped inside.
The entryway was noisier than usual.
When Yieum saw what was happening in the living room, he was left speechless.
His twin nephews, still in kindergarten, were clinging to the amnesiac man and playing with him.
“Roar!”
When the man pretended to be a dinosaur, the children shrieked with laughter and ran away.
Then the man, who had been playing with them, spotted Yieum.
His face lit up.
“Mister!”
The twins cried, “Uncle!” at the same time and ran to hug Yieum too.
The children were one thing, but being hugged by a grown man the size of a door was deeply uncomfortable.
After peeling them off one by one, his sister emerged from her room holding a large dumbbell.
“You’re here already?”
Her biceps bulged every time she bent and extended her arm.
Yieum’s sister had spent a long time in violent crimes before transferring to intelligence. Even back when she was active in the field, she had been strong enough to take down most men barehanded.
That was why, unlike most people, Yieum had never gone through a rebellious phase.
On top of that, their father had been strict too, so he had never even had the courage to try acting out.
“Have you eaten?”
“I’ll eat when I get home.”
“Talk to me for a second.”
His sister led Yieum into her room. After closing the door, she lowered her voice.
“What are you going to do about that man?”
“For now, I’ve put in a request with the local station. I’ll have to take him with me for the time being.”
“Will that be alright? You could leave him here. I’m on vacation anyway, so I have nothing to do.”
Yieum shook his head.
He had left the man here the first day because there had been no other choice, but his brother-in-law was away on a business trip, and they still didn’t know what kind of person the man really was.
Right now, he acted like a child because he had lost his memory.
But there was no guarantee he was like that in reality.
When Yieum said he would take him, his sister looked genuinely disappointed.
“That’s too bad. The kids liked him.”
“Looks like you liked him more.”
“Was it that obvious?”
Yieum narrowed his eyes.
“I’m telling my brother-in-law.”
“Try living with someone for over ten years. This happens to everyone. Don’t you get married, okay?”
Despite saying that, she and her husband had a very good relationship.
But separate from whether she was happy, his sister loved her job too much. Some part of her had always believed marriage got in the way of work.
That was why she told Yieum to stay single every time she saw him—something that would make their father back in the countryside faint if he ever heard it.
After finishing his conversation with his sister, Yieum stepped back out and found the man standing in front of the door.
“Mister… are you leaving me here?”
The sight of him hanging his head made Yieum’s chest pinch with sympathy.
“No. We’re going home.”
The man immediately smiled brightly.
The twins whined for him to stay the night, but when Yieum refused with a smile, they hit him where it hurt, saying their uncle was mean and that was why he didn’t have a girlfriend.
His sister burst out laughing.
Yieum sighed, shook his head, and took the man outside.
Once in the car, the man sat neatly in the passenger seat, staring straight ahead.
“Put on your seatbelt.”
He grabbed the belt and fumbled with it, trying to insert it into all the wrong places.
Yieum turned sideways and pulled the seatbelt over him himself.
The man turned his head to the left.
Their faces were suddenly close.
The way the man stared at him did not feel childlike at all.
Just as Yieum began slowly pulling away, the man grabbed his hand and shouted.
“Mister, you’re hurt!”
Flustered, Yieum tried to pull his hand back.
“It’s nothing. It’s okay. Just a scratch.”
But the man continued fidgeting anxiously.
“What do we do? You’re bleeding. Does it hurt a lot?”
Yieum smiled and said it was fine.
Then the man brought his injured hand to his lips and gently blew on it.
Hoo.
Caught completely off guard, Yieum flinched and pulled his hand away.
An awkward silence settled between them.
The man pouted, looking wounded.
In the end, Yieum pretended not to notice.