Chapter 43
***
Gong Yunseok respected his father.
His father was a wonderful man.
He had followed the elite track, held a high position in the police, and racked up plenty of achievements.
Gong Yunseok respected such a father, and wanted to live like him.
That was why he went on to Police University.
Even though his grades were good enough to get him into a better university.
His mother wasn't too happy about it, but his father was quite pleased.
"Yunseok. If you really want to become a proper police officer, you need to understand the weight of laws and rules."
Ever since he was little, his father had said there was nothing more important than obeying laws and rules.
And when he entered Police University, his father said it even more seriously.
Even the rules you think of as trivial were written in blood.
If you don't follow them, they can become dangerous.
That was why he strictly obeyed the law and the rules.
For someone like him, it was only natural that he would place first at Police University and become the representative of the 47th class.
"Isn't that a little too rigid?"
"I'm just always following the rules and moving according to them."
"People need to be flexible. Flexible."
Among the young Police University students, he was so rigid that it wouldn't have been strange to call him a stuffy old man.
Many of his classmates respected him, but there were hardly any who were close to him.
One of the very few was Won Gyuseong.
A classmate whose grades weren't great, but whose personality made him popular with people.
He was playful, and often broke the rules, but he was still highly respected.
Maybe that's why he had accepted Gong Yunseok.
"You're too stiff. Live a little more flexibly."
"Rules and principles are important."
"Geez."
A friend and classmate who always wore an easygoing grin beside him.
One day, that friend made a desperate request.
"Hey. Can I stay out overnight today?"
"As if."
"Come on. If you, the dormitory representative, approve it, then I can stay out overnight."
"According to the rules, overnight leave is only allowed for students with top grades..."
"That's why I'm asking you like this."
Gong Yunseok looked at Won Gyuseong.
It wasn't easy to ignore such a desperate request from a friend.
And it was only an overnight pass.
If he let his friend use his own overnight pass, that should be fine.
He bent the rules a little for a friend.
And that was why he regretted it.
Won Gyuseong died.
They said he killed the bastard who had bullied his older brother and then committed suicide on the spot.
When he heard that news, Gong Yunseok had been flustered.
'Why?'
Why did Won Gyuseong die?
Because he had allowed the overnight leave.
'Why?
Why did he die?
Why was he able to go out even though he shouldn't have been able to?
Rules.
Principles.
Because he hadn't followed them.
If he hadn't allowed that overnight leave.
Then he would never have met the bastard who had driven his brother to his death.
Then he would have graduated from Police University with him and gone on to live as a police officer.
All of that.
'I ruined it.'
One act of looking away.
One mistake.
That was enough to kill his closest friend.
That.
Was enough to become Gong Yunseok's horrific trauma.
***
I calmly examined Gong Yunseok's past and future.
Before he had even gone to Police University.
And even after he was crushed by that incident in the future.
He did not deny living a righteous life.
If he were just some trash who only knew how to follow rules and principles and didn't know a thing about responsibility, I would have chosen to exclude him.
But although he was obsessed with principles and rules, he was a good person through and through.
He had a sense of justice, and he wanted to save people.
He was only like that because of what happened in the past; if that problem were solved, he could become a fine police officer and save many people.
Then there was no reason not to help him.
"There must be a reason you're even more fixated on principles."
Gong Yunseok was silent, just like the version of him I had seen in the past.
There was a reason he valued rules and principles even after graduating from Police University and being assigned to the field.
If he had not allowed that unauthorized overnight leave back then.
If he hadn't gone outside, he wouldn't have met that bastard.
Then, at the very least, he would have been in the field like me.
That thought had always ruled him.
"...What do you know."
"I don't know. I'm not as smart as someone who graduated from Police University in the first place."
The matter with Won Gyuseong.
It had become a curse for Gong Yunseok.
And that curse was gnawing away at Gong Yunseok.
It made him turn away from reality in order to uphold rules and principles.
"What happened back then wasn't your fault. It was just... something that was bound to happen."
If I had been there, I would have stopped it somehow.
But what can you do about something that's already happened?
"...That was my fault."
"Who said you didn't do anything wrong? You did make a mistake, but don't get too hung up on it."
I shrugged.
"Just because you didn't stop him that day, do you think Won Gyuseong wouldn't have killed that guy?"
"That..."
Maybe after becoming a police officer, he would have found him and killed him in an even more horrific way.
"You at least know what's right and wrong, don't you?"
Gong Yunseok closed his mouth.
Then shall we talk about something else?
"In three days, you'll receive a report about a stalker."
"......"
A stalker.
A troublesome problem.
At this point, if he followed the rules, the only thing the police could do was issue the stalker a no-contact order.
And based on what that stalker had actually done, that really was all there was to it.
The problem was that the stalker eventually crossed the line.
Even after the report came in, Gong Yunseok acted according to the law and principles, and as a result the victim was brutally hacked to death.
"Even knowing a future like that, would you still value the law and principles? Or would you try to save that person by using some backdoor method?"
Gong Yunseok remained silent.
There was only one thing I could say to him.
Remember this: if you don't act, that person will die.
He gave no reply to my words.
But I could see that his eyes were wavering.
Yes. Even if he was trapped by the idea that he had to uphold principles and rules, he was a sufficiently righteous person.
Then he would move.
Gong Yunseok stood in silence for a long while, head bowed deeply.
But his future was changing.
That was all I could do up to this point.
And, just in case, let's not forget to tell Kang Injeong separately too.
***
After Kang Noa left, Kang Injeong kept saying that Kang Noa could be trusted, but Gong Yunseok gave no reply.
Three days passed like that.
I was in the middle of handling work at my desk.
"Chief. Uh..."
"What is it?"
"We've received a report of stalking."
One of the hesitant detectives said cautiously.
"It doesn't seem especially dangerous yet."
"......."
It was true.
Three days after meeting Kang Noa, a stalking report came in.
[That person will be hacked to death.]
Kang Noa's words came to mind.
Gong Yunseok felt his heart pounding.
At this point, if he followed the rules, the only thing the police could do was issue the stalker a no-contact order.
But should it end there?
Then the victim might die.
"May I meet with them?"
"Huh? You, Chief? Uh... yes. Go ahead."
The detective in charge, still bewildered, moved with him.
The place they arrived at was a small café.
The owner of the café, Yoo Hyemi, a woman in her early thirties, let out a heavy sigh.
"...Lately, this weird older man keeps coming up to me."
"Does he only come to the shop?"
"Yes... for now. He also leaves letters at the shop entrance. And somehow he knows my number and sends me messages like this."
The messages said things like, "Let's date," or asked if he could come over to my place.
"It's gotten worse lately."
As the owner, I kept putting up with it out of hospitality to customers, but lately it's gone too far.
The man in the photo looked like he was at least in his fifties, and no matter how you looked at it, he was a poor match for a woman in her early thirties.
"He keeps saying he wants to marry me, and that he's a good man so I should call him oppa..."
"Oppa...?"
No matter how you looked at it, there was more than a twenty-year age gap.
He seemed more like a father or an uncle than an oppa.
"They say he runs the scrap yard over there..."
"I see."
"Yes. And he also comes around near our house a lot..."
With just this, there's almost nothing the police can do.
At most, a written warning and a no-contact order.
A temporary measure could block his approach, but the time required for review and investigation also had to be considered.
This was as far as front-line police could go.
So this is where we back off.
But Gong Yunseok said seriously.
"May I stake out the area nearby for a while?"
It went against the principles.
In the worst case, he could be disciplined over this.
So he couldn't make a subordinate do this.
Preparing himself directly so he could take responsibility if anything happened.
That was the best Gong Yunseok could do.
.
.
.
And so the stakeout began.
With the cooperation of a small restaurant near the café, he kept binoculars trained on the café from a small second-floor window.
Yoo Hyemi was an energetic person.
Even while running a small café, she was kind to many people.
She even gave coffee to the police officers patrolling this neighborhood.
She even gave small snacks as gifts to children on their way to school.
And she would hand cold water to elderly men and women out walking in the hot weather.
She also laughed and chatted with the owners of nearby shops.
She was a good person.
He saw an old man approaching such a good person.
The moment he saw him, Gong Yunseok knew.
How distressed Yoo Hyemi looked.
He never would have known if he hadn't been watching from here.
Maybe that was why?
My trust in Kang Noa was rising.