The Reincarnated Cop Who Strikes With Wealth

A Golden Holiday (2)

Clutching our stomachs that were full to bursting, we arrived at Gogwangwon.

Under the lead of Gogwang’s community outreach program, volunteers had already arrived to fill the empty spaces left after the director and her lackeys were arrested. A few reporters who had yet to satisfy their curiosity about the latest incident were hovering outside the gate. They weren’t allowed inside as any investigation into ‘Aeryuwon’ itself had been suppressed in order to protect the children’s privacy.

“It’s here! Our sweets are here!”

“The mister has arrived!”

“Kyahahaha!”

The children spotted our car pulling in and ran over to us from the front yard. With a helpless smile, I popped open the trunk.

“That’s right. I’ve arrived. Now then, which greedy kid said ‘our sweets are here’?”

“It was Chan-Woo! Chan-Woo said that!”

“Eep! I was just playing around!”

“Mister!”

During all this commotion, So-Yeon ran ahead of the crowd and wrapped me in a hug. Looking down at her, all I could see was the round top of her head. Her small arms couldn’t even reach all the way around my waist.

So-Yeon raised her head to look up at me with a grin.

“Have you been doing well? And have you been going to the hospital?”

“Yes!”

Because So-Yeon had stayed asleep ever since she was drugged in the car, she had no memories of the abandoned factory. That at least was a silver lining. However, I had arranged for her to see a psychiatrist, because I was worried that the betrayal of the people who were supposed to be adopting her might leave behind a trauma. Though for a child who spends nearly every day at an orphanage, going to the hospital might just seem like a fun outing.

“You’ve arrived?”

Sang-Beom and Ji-Hye were wearing casual clothes, instead of their usual school uniforms.

It was then that I suddenly realized something important. Something that I should have realized from the moment I got the call from Gogwangwon. It was currently noon on a weekday.

“Why aren’t you two at school?”

Showing off a relaxed smile, Ji-Hye waved her finger.

“Haha. We don’t have to go to school until next week.”

“Why not?”

“Today is the school’s anniversary. Tomorrow is a free Saturday. And Monday is Children’s Day!”

She seemed to be really excited by this. In any case, today was their school’s anniversary. So this was the reason why Sang-Beom had decided to phone me today and encourage me to begin the search. Since he also had the day off, he intended for us to start searching for his hyung together.

“Fine then. This is convenient. I’m also free until next week.”

“So how should we start the search?”

“Hm… let me think.”

Around five years had already passed since Sang-Ho had gone missing. At the time of the report, the police should have already carried out an investigation while following the basic guidelines. That meant that I needed to do something different.

First, I popped open two cans of drinks and handed one to each of them.

“For now, why don’t I listen to the whole story?”

Since the weather was nice, we sat down outside, on the short bench next to the basketball hoop.

“Tell me everything that you can remember about your brother’s case. Was he showing any signs that he intended to run away from home, in which directions did the police officers investigate? Things like that.”

“How close were you to my hyung?”

“What? Is that something I can immediately answer off the top of my head?”

“No, I just wanted to know if you’re aware of my family’s situation?”

Sang-Beom glanced towards Ji-Hye. It seemed that she already had a rough awareness of his situation, but he seemed uncomfortable with putting it into words and dragging his dirty laundry back out into the open.

I waved my hand to show him that it was fine if we skipped that explanation.

“Uhuh. I know all about that. Your brother told me about it and said that I could even use it as material to write the script for a drama. It’s all very… well… cinematic.”

It was to a point where the words ‘soap opera’ spring to mind. To start with, Sang-Ho and Sang-Beom weren’t full-blooded siblings. As they shared the same father, they were only half-brothers, but the relationship between the two of them couldn’t be closer.

However the problem was their parents. Their father and the two women that were entangled with him. Those three would habitually take out their stress on the two brothers in the form of both physical and verbal abuse. Alcoholism, gambling, and affairs, having long achieved this triple crown, their father also happened to be toxically patriarchal. Meanwhile, the mother who kept the household was neglectful of both of them.

By the way, it was the future Sang-Beom who had made the joke that his family could be used as material for a drama. Even while watching the most over-the-top soap operas, he would click his tongue and say that things still weren’t stimulating enough.

“I knew that hyung was having it hard. He had to take a lot of part-time jobs even though he was still attending high school.”

The future Sang-Beom had told me that he had received more in allowance from his hyung than he had ever received from his parents. To him, Sang-Ho was a friend, a reliable older brother, and an existence closer to that of a true parent, all rolled into one. That’s why his hyung’s disappearance had left him feeling so frustrated and lonely. Even as he worried about his hyung who had suddenly disappeared, he was also enduring feelings of betrayal and abandonment at being left behind.