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CHAPTER 08
Two days of investigation standby.
At first, Jincheol thought it was an incredibly frustrating waste of time.
If you were a detective, you should be out catching criminals. If you were in the Missing Persons Team, you should be rushing out to investigate missing persons cases as quickly as possible.
But the human mind was surprisingly fickle.
He definitely believed that at first, but as he gradually settled into the slow atmosphere, this time suddenly became precious.
This time where he did absolutely nothing except observe the mood around him.
This beautiful time where nobody bothered him.
Because this was the perfect opportunity for Jincheol alone to freely experiment with his ability.
Twitch.
“You’re not having nightmares anymore?”
On the last day of standby duty, Junseong, who had also been sitting around doing nothing, yawned widely after seeing Jincheol twitch.
Jincheol smiled and adjusted his posture.
“Yeah. These days I only have really good dreams.”
“That’s a relief, Senior. I’m dying from boredom.”
Of course Junseong was bored.
And since he was timid and always careful about others, he didn’t have the courage to openly sleep like the mad dog Jincheol.
But unlike him, Jincheol had far too much to do.
For two whole days, he repeatedly used the ability to read the past.
‘Psychometry.’
He used the intoxicating power again and again.
And after all that experimentation, he reached one conclusion.
“This… it feels like it gets stronger the more I use it?”
He was happy.
Before, even reading a very short memory made his body stagger and his mind spin.
And reading older memories caused such severe backlash that he would faint for days.
But this ability…
‘The more I use it…’
It improves.
More accurately, the side effects after using the ability become weaker.
After training dozens, maybe even hundreds of times, Jincheol could now read memories over an hour long while suffering nothing more than slight dizziness instead of collapsing or fainting.
Clench.
It was definitely a crazy ability.
If this power really appeared as an aftereffect of fainting, then he sincerely hoped it would never disappear.
Maybe it was because he could now use the ability without blacking out…
“Miran…”
The memory he had just seen resurfaced in his mind.
“‘A missing person case just came in near Jongam KS Apartments. It’s pretty troublesome.’
‘What is?’
‘The person who reported it was the child’s mother. So we went to the playground where they disappeared together, right? But apparently there’s no CCTV there.’
‘What? Aren’t there cameras inside apartment complexes these days?’
‘Apparently the maintenance fees were too low to install them… but that’s not the important part. We checked nearby CCTV footage, and there’s footage of the child going toward the playground, but nothing showing her leaving.’
‘Bring me the CCTV footage!’
There’s footage of her entering, but none of her leaving.
According to the mother, the child disappeared while she was briefly distracted by her phone.
It’s possible the child wandered off alone.
But if that were true, with apartment complexes covered in CCTV cameras, she should’ve appeared somewhere.
Yet no matter how much they searched, she never appeared on any footage.
So how did the child disappear through all the CCTV blind spots?
‘There are many possibilities, but the most likely one is…’
Kidnapping.
If someone abducted the child using a car parked near the playground, then the child would never appear on any CCTV.
‘There’s not much time left.’
Based on all his experiments, Jincheol learned he could remain inside past memories for around ten minutes.
Realizing his time was almost up, he quickly ran toward the Missing Persons Team chief’s desk and checked the witness statements, photos of the child, and the clothes she wore when she disappeared.
And just as he finished confirming everything, his consciousness was forcibly pulled back out of the memory.”
Recalling every detail, Jincheol’s eyes snapped open.
The chief and detective who had been reviewing the CCTV footage in the memory were no longer there.
Meaning the investigation had already begun.
His gaze swept around the room before naturally settling on the blue haze drifting around him.
‘This case… with my psychometry…’
Forget the so-called golden time for missing persons.
He could catch the culprit.
Creak.
“I have to go.”
Jincheol suddenly jumped out of his seat.
The practice was enough.
Now it was finally time to put this dreamlike ability into action.
He kicked his chair back and immediately tried rushing outside, but Junseong grabbed his arm.
“Senior? If you leave now…”
“I have to go!”
From Junseong’s perspective, Jincheol suddenly trying to run out probably seemed completely random.
But Jincheol shook him off and quickly headed for the exit.
“Hey~”
Of course, Seungcheol wasn’t going to let him go that easily.
Standing in front of the door leading out of the Missing Persons office, Seungcheol blocked his path.
“Where are you going?”
“The case the chief personally started investigating an hour ago.”
“Hm?”
“Miran! I’m the one who needs to handle it!”
Seungcheol’s eyebrow twitched.
His gaze moved past Jincheol toward another detective.
“Byeongsik.”
“Yes!”
“Did you ever hand the Jongam KS Apartment missing person case file to these guys?”
“No…?”
Not just Byeongsik, but the other detectives nearby also began looking at Jincheol strangely.
“What’s this?”
“Uh… well…”
Feeling everyone’s stares, Jincheol realized his mistake.
Even Seungcheol’s expression was changing.
“How exactly did you find out about it?”
This wasn’t Seungcheol’s usual look.
It was the same sharp instinctive gaze he showed back when he noticed something suspicious between Junseong and the evidence.
Jincheol hurriedly forced out an awkward smile.
“H-haha… I overheard you talking earlier…”
“But earlier, weren’t you, Junseong, and I all out getting coffee together?”
A detective had to be good at improvising.
People say humans display superhuman ability during moments of crisis.
Like right now.
“Ah! When we came back earlier, the chief rushed out in a hurry, remember? I carefully overheard the two of you talking then.”
Normally, it would’ve been just another meaningless fragment of memory.
But right now, Jincheol’s brain spun faster than ever.
“That’s weird. I heard the case before leaving too, and I never heard the chief mention any of that.”
“No, he definitely said it. You probably just missed it.”
“I’m telling you he didn’t.”
“You know my nickname, right? Physical monster.”
Jincheol smiled kindly while tapping his ear.
Any officer in Jongam Police Station would’ve heard his nicknames before.
Physical monster. Mad dog.
Normally Jincheol hated those nicknames.
But right now, he had never been more grateful for them.
“While I was sitting down after the door closed, I heard you talking in the hallway. H-hahaha.”
Honestly, calling him crazy wouldn’t even be strange.
The Missing Persons office was soundproofed so well that hallway sounds could barely be heard unless someone pressed their ear against the door.
If anyone else claimed to hear a hallway conversation from inside, people would’ve told them to wake up and stop talking nonsense.
But Jincheol was different.
“Wow, so your hearing’s freakishly good too?”
Normally it would’ve sounded ridiculous.
But because it came from Jincheol, Seungcheol actually seemed convinced.
‘Whew… thank god.’
Just as Jincheol sighed in relief—
Seungcheol suddenly leaned his face close.
And asked:
“Then why are you making a scene now over something that happened an hour ago?”
Damn it.
He thought he’d crossed the mountain, but there was another bigger mountain waiting behind it.
“Seriously. If you were gonna react, you should’ve done it way earlier. Why now? Did some god whisper to you? Explain it. If your explanation makes sense, I’ll even go with you.”
Seungcheol’s wicked smile spread right in front of Jincheol’s face.
= = =
“Sixty thousand people a year.”
“What number is that?”
“The number of missing persons in South Korea.”
“…?!”
Yongwoon’s eyes widened.
One hundred eighty people a day.
The number sounded absurd.
“And that’s only adult men and women. If you include children, the number’s even crazier.”
There was a reason Seungcheol suddenly brought this up.
Because Jincheol had said this to him:
“‘Don’t ask questions! If I go there right now, I can find her! I’ll definitely find her. I can find her today!’”
At first, Seungcheol found the statement strange.
Since Jincheol joined Missing Persons, Seungcheol had spent enough time around him to understand his personality somewhat.
Jincheol had a fiery temper, but he was quick at reading situations, couldn’t ignore injustice, and most importantly…
‘His instincts are sharp.’
The black raincoat killer.
A criminal so meticulous that most detectives would never find even the slightest clue.
Yet Jincheol had actually found a needle in a desert full of sand.
What did that mean?
It meant he possessed the instinct every detective needed.
‘And his instincts are extraordinary.’
That was also why both Manager Park and Seungcheol desperately wanted Jincheol in the future Unsolved Cases Investigation Team.
Seungcheol suddenly tossed his government ID badge toward Jincheol.
“So go find her. Reduce the daily missing persons count by at least one.”
Since Jincheol was still technically on investigation standby, his detective identification was temporarily suspended.
So what did it mean when Seungcheol handed him his badge?
“D-does this mean… I’m allowed to investigate?”
“If you don’t want to, forget it.”
As Seungcheol tried taking the badge back, Jincheol instantly snatched it away.
“Thank you! Thank you so much!”
“Hurry and go. If you leave now, you can still catch up with the chief.”
“Yes! Thank you!”
Jincheol repeatedly bowed before sprinting out.
“Thank me…? No, I should be thanking you.”
Seungcheol smirked.
“The Unsolved Cases Team can’t exist without you…”
Thinking he’d successfully earned points with Jincheol, Seungcheol happily sipped the instant coffee he’d prepared earlier.
= = =
By the time Jincheol arrived at the Jongam KS Apartment playground in Seungcheol’s car, the chief and detectives were already searching around the area.
And the moment Team Chief Jang spotted Jincheol, he immediately frowned.
“Are you insane? You’re still on standby. Why the hell are you here—”
He lowered his voice because of all the nearby residents.
But Jincheol completely ignored the scolding and scanned the playground instead.
To Chief Jang, it looked like Jincheol was openly ignoring him.
“This little…”
Chief Jang immediately tried grabbing Jincheol by the ear.
But Jincheol caught his wrist and raised a finger to his lips.
“Just a second.”
“This crazy bastard…”
Grin.
Jincheol suddenly smiled brightly.
“They call you a mad dog. This is exactly why I said I didn’t want you, but Manager Park seriously…”
Laughing while being insulted.
The nickname “mad dog” suited him so perfectly that Chief Jang felt irritated just thinking about it.
But Jincheol couldn’t hear a single word.
All his attention was fixed on the countless blue wisps floating around the playground.
‘I found the past memories. But which one is the right answer?’
Since so many people constantly passed through this area, there were simply too many blue traces.
Sure, if he examined all of them eventually he’d find the answer.
But there was no way he could do it within a single day.
The golden time for missing persons cases was forty-eight hours.
But Jincheol had confidently promised Seungcheol he would solve it today.
‘Isn’t there another way?’
The smile vanished from his face as he bit his lip.
Then—
“I heard a new detective arrived…”
A woman approached Chief Jang and Jincheol.
“Who…”
“I’m Miran’s mother. Thank you for helping us. Thank you so much.”
The woman introducing herself as the missing girl’s mother repeatedly bowed with an exhausted face.
And the moment Jincheol saw her, he smiled inwardly.
‘Found it.’
Sssss.
A long blue haze stretched behind her.
Jincheol slowly reached toward the blue trail connected to her and smiled faintly.
‘If I follow the reporter’s past… I can find Miran!’
