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CHAPTER 06
“Kim Jincheol!”
After hearing that Jincheol had woken up, Seungcheol, who had been nearby taking care of him, rushed over.
He grabbed both of Jincheol’s shoulders and carefully checked his face and body.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
Seeing that Jincheol looked relatively stable, Seungcheol sighed in relief and turned toward the nurse in charge.
“Did the test results come out?”
“Yes. Everything appears completely normal. His pulse and nervous system show no abnormalities.”
“He clearly had a seizure. There’s no way that’s normal.”
“If you want more accurate results, you’ll probably need a brain MRI. We couldn’t find anything unusual through blood tests, X-rays, or ultrasounds.”
“Haa…”
No matter what he said to the nurse, nothing would change.
Seungcheol shook his head and apologized.
“Sorry. I was just really worried…”
“It’s okay. Family or friends of people who suddenly collapse usually react this way. Let the patient rest, and if you want further tests, let us know. Otherwise, he can be discharged once the IV is finished.”
“Thank you.”
The nurse bowed slightly and left.
Then Seungcheol collapsed into the chair beside the bed and sighed deeply again.
“Do you know how scared I was because of you?”
“I was scared too.”
“Well… I guess you were the most shocked. How are you now? Anywhere hurting?”
“……”
Jincheol looked like he wanted to say something, but then shook his head.
“The IV seems finished, so let’s get discharged.”
Jincheol removed the IV needle himself and got out of bed to put on his shoes.
After confirming the IV bag was empty, Seungcheol sighed again and patted Jincheol’s shoulder.
“Still, thank god you’re okay, idiot. Come on, I’ll drive you home.”
“Yes.”
And just like that, the two finished the discharge process and walked outside the hospital.
= = =
“What?”
Actually, before Seungcheol arrived earlier, Jincheol had first met Mincheol hyung, the doctor who often treated Violent Crimes Unit 2.
While Jincheol was staring blankly at the strange phenomenon before his eyes, Mincheol approached him as the attending doctor.
And with a dazed expression, Jincheol asked him:
‘Hyung… I think something’s wrong with me.’
‘What’s wrong? You’re perfectly normal.’
‘No… I’m seeing weird things.’
At first, he hadn’t noticed anything.
But when he tried getting up, a severe headache accompanied by dizziness like anemia caused an unbelievable sight to unfold before him.
Floating through the air like a galaxy…
Blue smoke-like wisps.
‘There’s not just one or two of them.’
So Jincheol explained the phenomenon to Mincheol.
And Mincheol answered:
‘It’s probably temporary shock. Medicine hasn’t fully explained everything yet, but sometimes people who faint or undergo surgery experience strange visual aftereffects.’
And it wasn’t just anyone saying it.
It was Mincheol, an actual doctor.
So Jincheol assumed it must be temporary and proceeded with his discharge.
But…
“Why can I still see them…”
Three hours had already passed since he regained consciousness, and they were almost home.
Yet countless blue wisps still floated through the air with long trailing tails like galaxies.
Jincheol rubbed his eyes aggressively and frowned.
“What’s wrong? Still feeling bad somewhere?”
Seeing Jincheol acting strangely, Seungcheol looked worried.
‘No. He said it was temporary.’
Thinking of Mincheol’s words, Jincheol shook his head to reassure him.
“I’m okay. We’re almost there.”
Let’s just go home and rest.
Then it’ll probably disappear.
Thinking that, he tried to ignore the chaotic sight around him.
Then suddenly, another concern he had briefly forgotten because of the strange phenomenon resurfaced.
“Senior! More importantly, the evidence…”
Jincheol looked down at the passenger seat floor.
Crushed stone powder was scattered everywhere.
“It already shattered. Nothing we can do now.”
“Ah… what do we do? I’m not going to get fired, right…? I can’t get fired…”
All kinds of worries flooded his mind.
The worst possibilities included losing his detective status and even prison time.
“This is bad…”
“Don’t worry, idiot.”
Rustle.
Seungcheol suddenly pulled a stone out from his pocket.
Seeing a rock that looked almost identical to the evidence, Jincheol immediately snatched it away.
“Y-you found it?”
He examined the stone carefully from every angle.
No matter how he looked at it, he couldn’t spot any difference from the original evidence.
Relieved, he looked up, and Seungcheol smirked.
“Found it? Nope. I just picked up a random rock nearby.”
“…What?”
“Still though, you’re seriously strong. How did you crush a stone into powder?”
It wasn’t a misunderstanding.
Jincheol had really turned the black raincoat killer’s only piece of evidence into dust.
“Ah…”
It felt like all the strength drained from his body.
Now all he felt was regret over stealing the evidence in the first place.
“Don’t worry. I’ll put this back where the original was.”
“They’ll notice. It’s a different stone.”
“How would they know? Even you can’t tell the difference, and you were the one who picked it up.”
Jincheol’s eyebrow twitched.
Honestly, Seungcheol’s logic made sense.
The person who examined the evidence most closely was Jincheol himself.
Meaning Jincheol should’ve been the best person to distinguish it.
But even he couldn’t tell that this replacement stone was fake.
In the first place, the original evidence looked like nothing more than an ordinary rock anyway.
Screeeech.
While he was thinking, the car stopped in front of Jincheol’s home.
“Get out and rest.”
“Will it really be okay?”
Jincheol looked worried.
“Don’t worry. I’m Seungcheol. The brain of the Missing Perso— no, unsolved case team. Trust me and go rest.”
“…It’ll really be okay?”
“I promise. If this gets exposed, I’ll take the blame instead of you. So stop worrying and go rest.”
Only after hearing Seungcheol speak so firmly did Jincheol finally remove his hand from the passenger window.
“If you’re saying it that seriously… then I’ll trust you.”
Seeing Jincheol look a little relieved, Seungcheol smiled.
“You collapsed because of me. I’ll take responsibility. I’ll explain things to the chief and manager too. If possible, take tomorrow off as well.”
“Thank you…”
Jincheol bowed his head slightly, and Seungcheol nodded.
“No, I’m the thankful one. Thanks for waking up. Go get some rest.”
“Yes. Ah! One last thing… the missing person case…”
“Don’t worry about that either. We found her nearby.”
“That’s a relief. Then drive safely!”
Jincheol bowed deeply as he stepped away from the car.
Seungcheol waved and drove off.
Once the car disappeared, Jincheol stood alone in front of his home, staring blankly at the darkening sky before sighing.
“Haa… why the hell won’t those things disappear…”
Shaking his head, Jincheol frowned at the blue wisps drifting before his eyes.
Then, thinking that sleeping would probably fix everything, he unlocked the front door and went inside.
= = =
How long had he slept?
Without even washing up, he collapsed onto the bed and simply opened and closed his eyes repeatedly.
Every time he woke, the warm sunlight of day or deep darkness of night told him that a long time had passed.
And the tingling in his muscles along with the complete disappearance of fatigue made him feel refreshed.
“Something definitely changed.”
But that pleasant feeling disappeared instantly because of the blue haze floating before his eyes.
What exactly had happened?
Even the nurse said it would disappear after rest.
That it was just an aftereffect from fainting.
Then why was it still here?
Unable to ignore the blue haze anymore under the excuse of exhaustion, Jincheol got up.
Then he slowly reached his hand into the blue mist.
Flash.
“Ghk!”
A tingling sensation like lightning striking from the top of his head to the soles of his feet made his body shrink back.
The moment he opened his tightly shut eyes—
Something unbelievable happened.
“Looks like he’s still asleep. Wonder if there’s anything worth stealing around here?”
Unlike the dark night he’d been in moments ago, a bright daytime scene suddenly unfolded before Jincheol’s eyes.
But only briefly.
Flash.
“Huff… huff… huff…”
Another electric shock-like sensation hit him, and darkness returned.
More accurately, he had returned to the moment before he stuck his hand into the blue haze.
All he had done was reach in and pull it back out.
“Huff… huff…”
What was that?
What had he just seen?
And why was his breathing so ragged and his heart so heavy?
Grabbing the left side of his chest tightly, Jincheol steadied himself and stood before the blue haze again.
“This is strange. Really strange… Something definitely happened to me…”
Without even having time to process the panic and fear from the bizarre phenomenon—
Jincheol shoved his hand into the haze again.
Flash.
And just like always when chasing clues in a case, Jincheol repeated the madness over and over until he could understand it.
Flash. Flash. Flash. Flash.
= = =
I was strong since childhood.
Even without training, I was naturally strong enough to protect others.
Because of that, throughout middle school and high school, sports clubs constantly tried recruiting me for judo, baseball, soccer, and every other athletic activity.
But none of it interested me, so I lived like any normal student.
I knew I was a little different from others.
Still, I thought my strength was simply something useful for life.
I never once thought about using it to protect someone.
Justice? What was so important about that?
Figuring out what I wanted to do with my own life mattered more.
But then something happened that made me decide to use my strength for others.
‘I’m going to become a police officer.’
It started after graduating high school, when I chose military service instead of college.
Back then, when I entered the 35th Infantry Division training camp—
‘Isn’t it cool? Punishing criminals with your own hands and protecting victims?’
I met a fellow trainee who was preparing for the police service exam.
At first, I just brushed him off as someone with unusual dreams.
‘Wow~ You’re really strong.’
I’d never seriously thought about what I wanted to do in life.
So his dream of becoming a police officer felt unrelated to me.
Then training camp entered its third week.
Like any boot camp, we slept and trained together every day, and slowly his thoughts started influencing me too.
‘With your strength, you could catch way more criminals than me. People would naturally respect and admire you.’
The third week was the hardest period for all recruits.
It was shooting practice week, when one mistake could lead to a serious accident, so both instructors and assistant drill sergeants were extremely tense.
Their yelling was already irritating enough.
But the march to the firing range was even worse.
A steep road that felt at least five kilometers long.
Everyone complained from exhaustion, but that guy alone kept smiling, wiping away sweat while taking care of the others.
That was when it started.
That was when his words began sinking into me.
‘Aren’t you tired?’
‘Of course I am. But what about you? Aren’t you tired?’
‘I’m fine.’
‘You really are different… Seriously. Can’t you honestly think about becoming a cop? You’re genuinely different from everyone else.’
The words from that comrade, who was unlike anyone else, completely changed the me from week one into the me from week five.
‘Let’s meet again after discharge. Wearing police uniforms together.’
Even after being assigned to different units, we promised each other our futures.
Stab.
And then—
“J-Jeongjin!”
Time moved forward from my military days to the moment I met the black raincoat killer.
Yoon Jeongjin.
The friend who inspired my dream of becoming a police officer.
The friend who promised we’d meet again as cops.
While passing through Wolgok Station during leave, I ran into Jeongjin by coincidence.
And then I witnessed something horrifying.
“You son of a bitch!!!!”
Jeongjin, the person I promised to meet again, was rolling on the ground covered in blood.
Blood from his abdomen had already soaked through his clothes.
And his police badge fell from his pocket.
Hearing my scream, the black raincoat killer slightly turned his head.
Then he ran without looking back.
‘Why did I do that?’
The moment I saw him—
I chased the killer instead of the bleeding and suffering Jeongjin.
I ran past Jeongjin as blood poured from him.
Flash.
Jincheol’s tightly shut eyes opened.
The reason he was so desperate to catch the killer.
That’s right.
The reason the killer chase stopped that day…
Was because Jeongjin himself grabbed onto Jincheol and stopped him.
“Haa…”
Through the mirror, Jincheol saw himself collapsed in the middle of a living room filled with blue haze.
Slowly getting up, he stared at both his hands.
Then, without caring that he had fainted multiple times already, he reached into the blue haze once again.
Flash!
And after repeating this over and over, Jincheol spent the dark night repeatedly losing consciousness.
