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CHAPTER 10
“Mom, I’m scared…”
Miran stood trembling on top of the slide, tears streaming down her face.
Even so, her mother, Park Miyang, kept pressuring her.
“I said jump! If you jump, Mommy will catch you. Jump! Are you going to disobey me again?!”
Park Miyang nervously looked around the area.
Inside the vanished memory, Jincheol followed her gaze and looked around too.
And the moment she confirmed nobody else was nearby—
Courage filled her eyes.
“Mom! Mom!!!”
Without caring about her terrified daughter standing on the playground equipment, Park Miyang violently shook the structure.
Miran staggered in fear while desperately calling for her mother.
And in that dangerous moment…
Trusting only her mother, she jumped.
‘That wasn’t a slide made for children…’
The slide stood over two meters high.
There were smaller children’s slides nearby too, but the one Park Miyang cruelly forced Miran onto was practically for adults.
It was obviously terrifying for a small child to jump from there.
But Miran trusted her mother.
A young child could never understand what kind of thoughts hid behind those eyes.
And then—
Thud!
A horrifying tragedy occurred.
Creeeak.
The sound of grinding teeth echoed from Jincheol’s mouth.
It was a memory impossible to forget.
Not as a detective. Not even as a parent.
But simply as a human being.
A horrific tragedy nobody should ever imagine.
“Urgh…”
While waiting for the other detectives to arrive, Jincheol suddenly grabbed the wall and dry-heaved.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“Urgh…”
Chief Jang was startled by Jincheol’s sudden behavior and quickly checked his condition.
“No, I’m fine.”
Wiping saliva from his lips with one sleeve, Jincheol used the other to wipe away tears.
Then he remembered the devil-like eyes of Park Miyang, who had looked around first even after Miran fell and was gravely injured.
His fists clenched tightly.
‘You devil bitch…’
As he waited desperately for the detectives to arrive so he could personally lock her away—
‘Haa…’
A fragment of the horrifying memory suddenly flashed through his mind.
Because the surroundings had been so quiet, he heard it clearly.
The faint breathing of Miran.
The child he thought had died.
“Ah!!”
Jincheol suddenly whipped his head around, eyes wide open.
“What’s wrong with you now?!”
Reading the look in Jincheol’s eyes, Chief Jang instinctively stepped in front of him.
His sharp detective instincts had activated again.
That look was the kind that said Jincheol was about to cause something huge.
“There’s no time… there’s no time left!”
Jincheol tried forcing his way past Chief Jang.
Even while using all his strength to stop him, Chief Jang was still being pushed backward at almost normal walking speed.
That was the monstrous strength of the so-called physical monster.
Then Jincheol shouted with desperate fury in his voice.
“Miran… Miran’s still alive!”
Chief Jang’s eyes widened.
“What are you talking about…”
But there was something Jincheol forgot.
The truth about the vanished memories was something only he knew.
“There’s no time!!!”
As Jincheol shouted desperately, Chief Jang forcefully shoved him backward.
“That’s exactly why I’m asking what the hell you mean! Are you saying this isn’t just some insurance scam?!”
Chief Jang’s eyes widened further and further.
Jincheol slammed his fist hard against the wall and shouted back.
“Yes! Miran’s mother pushed her off the slide herself! From over two meters high!”
“…?!”
“She thought Miran was dead! There were no witnesses around, so she abandoned her in the wardrobe while she was dying! Even though the child was still alive!!!”
Chief Jang’s eyes sharpened.
What the hell was he hearing?
Until now, he thought this was just a simple fraud case.
His thoughts became tangled instantly.
“There’s no time! Miran’s going to die at this rate!!”
Jincheol stomped his feet anxiously like he was about to cry.
Chief Jang grabbed his own head tightly and glared at him.
Over decades as a detective, he had met countless criminals, victims, accomplices, and liars.
‘He’s not lying…’
He had enough experience to judge truth from lies just by looking into someone’s eyes.
And Jincheol’s eyes were sincere.
‘If that’s true…’
Chief Jang clenched his fist tightly.
Then, almost as if possessed, he followed Jincheol and sprinted toward Park Miyang’s apartment.
Ding-dong. Ding-dong. Ding-dong.
They rang the bell repeatedly, but there was no answer.
She must’ve heard everything they said downstairs and realized what was happening.
“Park Miyang! It’s Chief Jang! Open the door right now! There’s no time!”
Bang bang bang bang.
He pounded on the door over and over.
Still no response.
“Park Miyang!”
“Move.”
“What?”
Before he realized it, Chief Jang had instinctively stepped aside.
And the moment he looked at Jincheol—
BOOM!!!!
Jincheol’s foot slammed into the apartment door.
BOOM!!! BOOM!!!!
Physical monster.
Mad dog.
“No matter what, this is…”
Apartment doors were built completely differently from normal house doors.
But Jincheol’s monstrous strength occasionally created unbelievable scenes.
Just like now.
CRACK! Creak.
“…!?”
Chief Jang’s eyes widened.
That sound was—
‘The hinges are bending…’
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!
An unbelievable sight unfolded before Chief Jang’s eyes.
The apartment door was literally collapsing from kicks alone.
Creeeeak! THUD!
The door crashed open.
And standing there beyond it was Park Miyang, biting her nails with wide terrified eyes staring at Jincheol.
“So you were here? Hah… This would’ve been easier if you’d just opened the door.”
“P-police… the police…”
Too shocked to even speak properly, Park Miyang stood frozen as Jincheol walked straight past her toward the master bedroom.
Like someone who had visited this house before, he moved without hesitation.
That confident stride finally made Park Miyang move.
“N-no!!!”
She desperately ran ahead and blocked the wardrobe.
“Move.”
Jincheol suppressed his boiling rage and spoke as politely as possible.
But what came back was something else entirely.
“KYAAAAAAH!! The detective is sexually harassing me!!!”
The final desperate move of a rotten human being.
“You’re filthy until the very end. Fuck.”
Jincheol grabbed her wrist without hesitation and threw her aside.
Park Miyang crashed weakly to the floor.
And Jincheol immediately yanked open the wardrobe doors.
Inside—
Miran stared weakly at him while desperately clinging to the fading spark of her life.
“Miran… let’s go.”
Jincheol picked her up in his arms and ran outside.
“N-no!!!!!”
Park Miyang finally regained her senses and screamed while trying to chase after him.
But what greeted her instead was the judgment of the law.
“Park Miyang.”
Chief Jang pulled out handcuffs and grabbed her arm.
Naturally, Park Miyang fell as her arms were forced behind her back.
“You are under arrest for child abuse and attempted murder.”
Click!
And just like that…
What everyone believed was a kidnapping and abduction case ended as child abuse and attempted murder.
Marked by the handcuffs locked around the devil-like Park Miyang’s wrists.
= = =
Wee-woo. Wee-woo. Wee-woo.
Jincheol stared at the ambulance driving farther away before finally looking away.
“Isn’t it a relief?”
Chief Jang approached and lightly smacked his arm.
“It is.”
“The father’s pretty cold-hearted though. His daughter’s been missing for almost two hours and only now he shows up?”
“He was probably busy.”
Jincheol let out a small laugh.
“Still, it’s good Miran’s father is a doctor. He’s more of an expert than us.”
“You’ve never been married or had kids, so you wouldn’t understand.”
“Huh?”
“If someone told me my child disappeared? Everything in front of me would go black instantly. Nothing else would matter. My beloved son disappeared? I’d go insane. Important meeting? Surgery? None of that matters. Your child comes first. That’s what being a parent means.”
Listening to Chief Jang’s heartfelt words, Jincheol smiled faintly again.
“Then you should treat your wife better too, Chief.”
“Oh? I complimented you once and now you’re getting cocky?”
“So I did do well?”
“You did. Even Miran’s father said it. If we’d been any later, it could’ve been fatal. He thanked us. Honestly, you might be the one who saved Miran.”
The smile slowly disappeared from Jincheol’s face as he looked down at his own hands.
‘Me…?’
‘I saved someone?’
An indescribable emotion wrapped around him.
Was it joy from catching the criminal?
Relief that Miran would live?
Or rage toward the devil-like Park Miyang?
“Hoo…”
He couldn’t fully define the feeling.
But one thing was certain.
“Heh.”
This feeling was fucking amazing.
He desperately suppressed the urge to scream with excitement, engraving the trembling sensation deep into his chest so he’d never forget it.
And he silently thanked the strange aftereffect that let him uncover the truth in time.
If nobody else had been around, he honestly felt like kissing both his hands repeatedly.
“Ah! But still…”
That was when it happened.
Chief Jang, who had been happily celebrating, suddenly looked at Jincheol meaningfully and asked:
“How did you know? That Miran was still alive, and that this wasn’t kidnapping but something her mother did?”
The sharp question instantly wiped every emotion from Jincheol’s face.
Replacing it with deep anxiety and frantic thoughts on how to escape the situation.
“W-well…”
“No seriously. You were still on standby duty. You arrived late, then suddenly figured out clues none of us found and pushed the case forward perfectly. Isn’t that really strange?”
Chief Jang tilted his head suspiciously.
Jincheol forced a calm expression and answered,
“Come on~ You can just tell by looking. I asked the neighborhood moms a bunch of questions and kind of figured it out.”
“But you moved with way too much certainty. That’s why even I followed along despite how insane it sounded.”
Anger slowly appeared on Chief Jang’s face.
“Thinking about it now, if you’d been wrong and Park Miyang wasn’t the culprit… we would’ve been seriously screwed.”
“H-hahahaha…”
“And now you’re laughing?”
But the angrier Chief Jang got, the wider Jincheol smiled.
Getting beaten up was fine.
If taking a beating helped him survive this situation, then that was enough.
“Hahahahaha.”
“Detective Kim! Detective Lee! Grab this bastard. Thinking about it now, I’m pissed.”
“Hey rookie, get over here.”
“Senior, he’s a rookie but not the youngest anymore. We still have an actual youngest member.”
“You talking back to your senior right now?”
“Hahahahaha.”
“I said catch him!!”
Even while the chief shouted angrily, smiles remained on every detective’s face, including Jincheol’s.
The joy of perfectly stopping a case that could’ve become a huge tragedy.
That was the greatest privilege and happiness a detective could experience.
Catching bad people and saving lives.
No matter how much they got beaten, injured, or cursed at—
That feeling was exactly why detectives could never let go of this dangerous, low-paying profession.
“Catch him!!!!”
“Hahahahahahaha!”
