Chapter 42
***
Kang Injeong couldn’t hold it in anymore.
If he had listened to Kang Noa,
if he had moved in the direction Noa had pointed out, there would have been no victim.
Kang Noa had told him who the culprit in the serial robbery-murder case was.
Then all he had to do was catch him, or at least keep him under surveillance.
But there had been an obstacle.
A punk who had graduated from the Police Academy without even any proper field experience,
the rude little brat named Gong Yunseok.
That bastard had gotten in the way.
"Kang Noa is just a streamer, an occult fortune-teller with no scientific evidence. If you move police based on the words of someone like that, the public will laugh at you."
He had said it openly to the police chief, and in the end the chief sided with Gong Yunseok.
It wasn’t just because Gong Yunseok’s father was an important man.
It was because, by common sense, he was right.
But the field is not something that can be handled by common sense alone.
This is what happens when you go by common sense.
Kang Injeong’s junior.
The junior who had been secretly protecting the next victim at his request was stabbed.
And not only that, the victim was stabbed too.
The culprit died after being hit by a car while fleeing.
In the end, all that remained was the stigma of being an incompetent cop and one person's death.
Kang Injeong couldn’t take it.
If he had followed Kang Noa from the start,
if he had guided the investigation using Noa’s divination, none of this would have happened.
"Gong Yunseok!!!"
He shoved the door open.
The man who had been sitting there with a stony face slowly stood up when Kang Injeong came in.
"Because of you!! Because of you, Hyunsik...!!"
"Then are you saying that’s right, senior? That the police should follow the words of some orphan fortune-teller no one even knows?"
"If it helps the investigation!! If it means no victims!! We should use a fortune-teller, or whatever!!"
"That’s how the law breaks down!! That’s how the rules fall apart!!"
"Shut up!!"
Unable to contain his rage, Kang Injeong’s fist slammed into Gong Yunseok’s face.
And then.
Because of that, Kang Injeong was suspended.
In the end, it was a conclusion that made no one happy.
***
Though taken aback, he didn’t deny what I said.
He probably knew at least that the future I saw was right.
"I... hit him? Uh, well. I think I would’ve punched him once. Why do you ask?"
"Because his line of investigation is different from mine."
I told him about the future I had seen, and Kang Injeong’s expression gradually hardened.
"Honestly... Gong Yunseok isn’t wrong."
You identify the culprit through divination, keep him under surveillance, and catch him when he tries to commit a crime.
According to Korean police law, that was nonsense.
"I think Mr. Kang is right."
"I’m also Noa’s friend, so I have no intention of saying it’s wrong for Noa to use his own methods to identify dangerous people and stop them."
She let out a small sigh.
"But from the perspective of someone who doesn’t know, it’s only natural to find it ridiculous. Even I doubted Noa’s words at first."
So Gong Yunseok would be the same.
"Then would it be best to introduce Mr. Kang to Gong Yunseok?"
Since I’ve already gone this far, if I showed him that, wouldn’t Gong Yunseok become cooperative rather than obstructive?
Han Yuna fell silent.
"That does seem like the best way... but the problem is you, Noa."
"Huh? Me? Why?"
"Would you be okay with that?"
"With what?"
"According to the future Noa saw, that man might suspect you."
He was the kind of person who emphasized science, law, and rules.
At the idea that someone like that might become hostile just from meeting and talking to me, I laughed.
"If he gets hostile, then I just won’t meet him."
If worse came to worst, we could even get help from the two prosecutors.
Han Yuna let out a small sigh at my answer.
"I know people too, so I’ll help if it comes to that."
"Haha. That’s reassuring."
At my thanks, a faint smile touched Han Yuna’s lips.
Good. So tomorrow I’d be going to the police station for the first time in a while?
.
.
.
The next day.
I was lazing around at home when Kang Injeong called.
"-Did you have breakfast? Lunch isn't until later, right?"
"Ah. Yes. I was thinking of just grabbing something simple."
There’s leftover pizza from yesterday in the fridge.
I was thinking of microwaving that for lunch today.
"-Come on. Is just making do enough? Get out here. I’ll treat you."
When I went out, Kang Injeong was waiting.
"What would you like?"
"Jeyuk or tonkatsu?"
An offer no man could refuse.
Kang Injeong grinned.
"Then jeyuk."
Jeyuk sounds good.
We went into a driver’s diner near the officetel and ordered jeyuk.
It was cheap and came in huge portions, so it filled up fast.
"You’re going straight to the police station after you eat, right?"
"Yes. No need to drag this out, right?"
We wolfed down lunch in no time.
Sniff. It was delicious. Today’s meal too.
After the two of us filled our stomachs, we got into his car and arrived at Dobong-gu Police Station.
As I’d felt before, even if you haven’t done anything wrong, coming to the police station somehow puts you in a bad mood.
"You look unhappy."
"Back when I was at the orphanage, the older brothers and sisters who went to the police station never went there for good reasons."
What kind of reason would orphans have to go to the police station for?
Most of the time, it was for bad reasons.
I suddenly remembered visiting an older brother I had shared a room with at the orphanage after he went out into society, got caught stealing a few months later, and ended up at the police station.
"If you’ve committed a crime, it’s only natural to be punished. But what that hyung stole was diapers and baby formula."
"Diapers and baby formula?"
"Yes. Um... how should I put this."
That hyung had been dating a nuna from another orphanage while he was still at the orphanage.
They got married as soon as they became adults, because they’d already had a child on the way before they left the orphanage.
"So?"
"The baby had been born, but how could two people who had just entered society raise a child properly?"
They both worked themselves to the bone, but that alone couldn’t solve their poverty.
On top of that, his wife got injured at work and couldn’t even go out for part-time jobs anymore.
"Something like that... they might have been able to get support through the administrative welfare center."
"We didn’t know that back then. Honestly, unless you go looking for it, you wouldn’t know something like that."
Anyway, they had no money for diapers or formula.
So the hyung was driven to the brink, and in the end he got caught stealing from the store’s stockroom.
"So what happened?"
"The orphanage director paid the fine and got him released. The mart owner was lenient too... I heard he’s now working at another large supermarket after the owner got him a job there."
"...I see."
Kang Injeong’s expression was grim.
It wasn’t like I’d told him to make that face.
"Is this it?"
I remembered the place from before.
It had been when I grabbed the Criminal Investigation Division office door.
"Damn it!! Seriously, this is so filthy I can’t even work here!!"
The door flew open.
It was yanked so hard that I, who was holding the handle, was nearly dragged along with it.
"Huh? Who..."
A man with a build and face that would make you avert your eyes if you saw him on the street.
And.
The face from Kang Injeong’s future.
Kang Injeong’s junior, the one who believed the future I saw and kept the suspect under surveillance.
And the man who was stabbed while trying to protect the victim and fell into critical condition.
It was Ki Hyunsik.
"I know him."
"Huh? Senior?"
"And why are you so angry?"
"No, senior...!! Listen to me! How am I supposed to work with that narrow-minded brat...!!"
He seemed pretty angry.
A quick look at his past suggested he had clashed with his new superior, Gong Yunseok, over investigative methods.
"Law? Rules? Fine and all. But those bastards break the law and the rules and do whatever they want—how are we supposed to catch the culprit while worrying about that?!"
"Hey, hey. Calm down. We can hear everything."
"Let them hear it, then!!"
Still huffing and puffing, he stormed out.
Kang Injeong watched him ruefully, then came into the office with me.
"That man is Gong Yunseok."
There wasn’t even a wall separating Criminal Investigation Units 1 and 2.
A young man who looked to be in his late twenties, wearing a suit, was sitting in a seat similar to Kang Injeong’s.
"I hear he graduated top of the Police Academy."
"Oh..."
"He built up a decent record at his first post and got placed in that seat... but the detectives under him seem to have a lot of complaints."
"I see..."
The man with the cold expression was looking over the paperwork.
Gong Yunseok slowly stood up.
And he was coming this way.
"Section Chief Kang. Please check this document."
"Haha. Yes."
"But... who is this person?"
"Someone helping with the investigation."
"Is that so?"
Through his glasses, his sharp eyes landed on me.
"I’m Gong Yunseok."
"I’m Kang Noa. Nice to meet you."
"I don’t know which case you’re a witness in, but we police officers always try to protect our witnesses, so please don’t worry too much and trust the police."
He was serious.
Too serious.
He didn’t even realize that his seriousness was eating away at him.
"Mr. Kang?"
"Hmm... this is going to be dangerous."
There was a reason Gong Yunseok was so obsessed with rules and principles.
The problem was that it was at a level almost like trauma.
It would be hard to change his policy with anything less than a serious shock.
Then all I had to do was give him a shock that wasn’t ordinary, right?
I held out a deck of cards to him.
"...Huh? Why is this..."
"Would you turn one over?"
"...This one?"
With a reluctant look, Gong Yunseok flipped over the card I handed him.
What appeared was the upright Death card.
His expression hardened.
"Mr. Gong Yunseok. I’m Kang Noa, an internet streamer and fortune-teller."
"....."
At the mention of fortune-telling, Gong Yunseok’s face grew fierce.
Before he could say anything,
I struck first.
"Mr. Gong Yunseok. I know that your police academy classmate, your close friend, killed the man who tormented his older brother."
".....!!!"
Gong Yunseok’s eyes went wide.
"You think not being able to stop that was entirely your own fault, don’t you."
"...You. What are you."
Gong Yunseok’s eyes turned sharp.
But even so, I had to say it.
"Mr. Gong Yunseok. That wasn’t your responsibility."
Gong Yunseok took one more step toward me.
I didn’t avoid meeting his cold, murderous gaze.
All right. Then let’s start changing his thoughts and his future.
He’d been bound by principles and rules, unable to see the field for what it was.
Let’s change the future where, in the end, he gets manipulated by the terrorist, fails to catch him too, and is left in despair after dozens of hostages are killed.