They couldn't even finish their sentences, stumbling over their words timidly, but their meaning was clear enough. They didn't want to lose their case fees.
Hae Dam gave them a firm answer.
"I'm not interested in the case fee. I just want to find a lost parrot. I feel sorry for the poor thing, crying all alone in a foreign country so far from home, especially in this cold weather."
"......!"
The detectives and their assistants covered their mouths, looking deeply moved.
"No wonder you don't have a GemTube channel, even with those looks...!"
"You're offering your talents for free, purely out of a sense of duty...!"
They seemed to have gotten entirely the wrong idea, but Hae Dam saw no reason to correct them.
"Did you call for me?"
The person who had come down to the lobby at Aeng Tam's request was a woman dressed in an immaculate, perfectly tailored suit. She wore glasses, had a bob cut that ended just below her ears, and stood a little taller than Hae Dam.
"Secretary Yoon, this is Detective Hae Dam. You know, the one we've been recommending all this time."
"Ah, him."
Secretary Yoon openly looked Hae Dam up and down.
"He's younger than I expected."
"He may look young, but he's renowned as the best in our field."
"How did you come to be here? I don't recall anyone from our side contacting you."
Secretary Yoon narrowed her eyes.
"Surely there hasn't been a leak—"
"A-absolutely not! Do you know how much the penalty would be? We'd never do anything like that! It's a coincidence. Detective Hae Dam heard about a sighting of a parrot nearby, came to the hotel, and happened to run into us."
"A sighting? Didn't you tell me no one had seen the parrot since the first day?"
"That's exactly my point! The three of us have been asking around everywhere and couldn't find a thing, but Detective Hae Dam managed to obtain information with ease. His abilities are on a completely different level from ours."
"Well... Very well. Let's get the contract signed first."
Secretary Yoon gestured for him to follow her.
Hae Dam shook his head.
"I don't want any money. I won't tell anyone about this case, either. I just want to find the parrot as quickly as possible and leave. I can get the photos and other information from the detectives, so all I need is one of those passes."
He pointed to the passes hanging around the detectives' necks, which authorized them to search the hotel grounds.
Secretary Yoon gave him another peculiar look, studying him from head to toe.
"Understood. Please wait a moment."
She headed toward the hotel's front desk.
Aeng Tam turned to Hae Dam with a worried expression.
"Are you really sure you don't want to get paid? The fee for this case is enormous...."
"Yes, I'm sure."
Hae Dam needed money.
A great deal of it.
But this time, he was doing it to repay a kindness, so he wouldn't accept payment.
"You're only saying that because you don't know how much they're paying for this case. I respect your sense of duty, but we're talking about a serious amount of money here.... Several million won a day...."
"Please don't tell me."
"Wh-why not?"
"Because then I'll want the money."
"Well, if you want it that badly, why not just take it...?"
"Oh, right. Sure. Here you go. Apparently, all these videos were taken within the past month."
They brought their phones together, and the files transferred over.
When Hae Dam saw the photographs, he blinked in surprise.
"It's a Pacific parrotlet?"
"We were surprised, too. When we heard the owner was an oil tycoon, we expected some incredibly unusual, rare species. But it turned out to be an ordinary Pacific parrotlet."
The bird was smaller than the palm of a hand.
Its coloring looked as though someone had cut a piece from the sky on the loveliest spring day, mixed it with condensed milk to make paint, and poured that paint over its tiny body.
Its feathers were so beautifully maintained that their softness was apparent even in the photographs.
Its beak was small and smooth, and the hand appearing in every photograph and video seemed to belong to its owner.
Hae Dam played one of the videos.
"Zahir."
"Chirp!"
At the sound of its owner's low voice, Zahir fluttered down from the perch and landed on his finger.
The tiny sky-blue parrot nestled against the thick finger, rubbing its neck and head affectionately against it.
Pet me more. Right here. Pet me here, too. And here, too.
The video captured every bit of Zahir's affectionate chatter, along with the owner's deep, quiet laughter.
"This is the photo they're using on the missing-bird flyer. It was taken at the hotel after they arrived in Korea, so it's the most recent one."
Zahir wasn't wearing a leash, only a ring around one ankle.
The tiny ring glittered dazzlingly in the sunlight.
Hae Dam handed the phone back.
"The bird looks fairly old. Around twenty, I'd say."
"Wow, you can tell just by looking? We all thought Zahir was much younger at first. But you're right, twenty years old. Incredible care, isn't it? Just look at those feathers. Must have been raised on nothing but the most expensive food."
"Has Zahir ever gone missing back home?"
"They don't clip the wings, so apparently Zahir wanders off from home now and then. This is the first time the bird's gone missing abroad, though."
"Did the owner bring only Zahir? What about family?"
"The male parrot died recently. He lived twenty years, too, so he'd reached the end of his natural lifespan. When we asked why the owner had brought Zahir all the way to another country, he said the bird seemed lonely and he couldn't bear to leave it alone."
The bird seemed lonely, so he couldn't bear to leave it alone....
Hae Dam found himself thinking.
Why couldn't humans bear to see something lonely?
Why did they assume that no one, human or animal, should ever have to feel lonely?
He was no different himself.
Everyone seemed to think that way.
Everyone except the apartment owner, who lived alone high above the city.
That man believed loneliness was exactly what he deserved.
Alone in that vast apartment, watching the sunset stain everything the same color, lonely and solitary....
"Oh! Oh! It's the CEO! The CEO's here! Hurry, say hello! Say hello!"
Aeng Tam suddenly erupted into a flurry of excitement.
At the same moment, the front desk staff sprang to their feet, and the hotel employees hurried toward the main entrance.
Seeing the sudden commotion, the guests in the lobby also turned to look toward the doors, wondering what was happening. The source of this chapter is g.com.
Someone who was clearly no ordinary person was entering the hotel.
He was tall and powerfully built, with thick eyebrows rising like mountains above his eyes. Every strand of his hair had been swept straight back from his forehead.
Hae Dam knew him, too.
The apartment owner's own older brother, Ji Seok Won.
The very man who had been sobbing just last night, begging their precious little Dungdung not to emigrate.
Well, he hadn't actually shed any tears.
"That's the CEO! Hurry up and greet him. He's the one with all the power here."
At Aeng Tam's urging, Hae Dam bowed his head politely.
But the apartment owner's brother didn't even glance in their direction.
He was wearing a suit that had clearly been tailored to perfection, exactly as one would expect of a successful businessman. Unfortunately, his swaggering gait did little to inspire confidence.
He kept looking over his shoulder and beckoning for someone behind him to come inside.
He was grinning so broadly that the corners of his mouth looked ready to reach his ears.
"Wow. That guy usually walks around with his face twisted up like the world's personally offended him. What's gotten into him today? Who's he with? He's not married. Could it be a girlfriend?"
Aeng Tam leaned closer and whispered.
"By the way, that really is the Ji Seok Won. Ji Seok Won of Jishin Group. The famous eldest son of the Jishin Group family."
"Jishin Group? What are they famous for? Is it a big company?"
"You don't know? Anyone with even the slightest interest in business or politics knows about them.... Moments like this really show how young you are, Detective Hae Dam."
Aeng Tam was about to elaborate when Secretary Yoon emerged from the front desk.
She passed the detectives, handed Hae Dam his access pass, and headed straight toward Ji Seok Won without another word.
Whatever Secretary Yoon and Ji Seok Won were saying, their conversation couldn't be heard from where the detectives stood.
About half the hotel guests in the lobby had lost interest and turned away, but the other half were still watching with undisguised curiosity.
Some whispered among themselves as though they'd recognized a genuine celebrity.
"The Jishin Group family is famous in business circles."
Aeng Tam continued his explanation in a whisper.
"The company was established in 2029, but there are rumors the family originally operated in the underworld. People expected the whole thing to collapse when Chairman Ji died just five years after the company was founded. But apparently, the five siblings who inherited control have been doing surprisingly well. They say the group's on the verge of becoming a major conglomerate."
"Five siblings?"
"The eldest is Ji Hae Ri. She's the CEO of Jess Hotel, where we're standing right now. She owns an entertainment company, too. The second is that man over there, Ji Seok Won. He's the CEO of Jishin Electronics, the group's biggest source of revenue. The third, Ji Myeong Won, runs a welfare foundation and a bookstore business. The fourth, Ji Yu Ri, handles the department stores, supermarkets, and food businesses. I've heard the fifth sibling is in business as well, but nobody seems to know exactly what they do."
"I think the fifth mostly works overseas," another detective added. "I heard she originally planned to make a career in the military, but she left the service and went abroad."
"I'd heard she'd enlisted, but I didn't realize she'd already gotten out."
"I looked her up. I mean, it's pretty impressive, isn't it? With conscription abolished, even men don't have to serve anymore, but she volunteered for the military as a woman."
Apparently, Hae Dam really was the only person there who knew nothing about the family behind Jishin Group. The detectives continued chatting as though all of this were common knowledge.
But Hae Dam was puzzled.
The apartment owner was the youngest of six children, with two older brothers and three older sisters.
Yet everyone said the Ji family had only five siblings.
Then does that mean the apartment owner isn't part of the Ji family?
But that man with his hair slicked straight back, Ji Seok Won, was definitely the apartment owner's biological brother.
He'd called him their precious youngest, Dungdung.
So what's going on? They're definitely family, but everyone thinks there are only five siblings....
Don't tell me...
That lonely man I'd seen, always so quiet and composed, whose eyes grew round whenever something startled him....