That night, she had a restless sleep. It felt like she wasn't safe, but she couldn't pinpoint exactly what she should be afraid of. She woke up at dawn, well before her alarm was set to go off. She washed up and left her house, heading to the concierge where the custodian worked in the morning hours.
"Good morning, Mr. Lee," Detective Oh said. "Do you know if the cameras were working yesterday?"
The concierge, Mr. Lee, was surprised by the question. He furrowed his brow, stretched his legs under the desk, then placed his large hand on the mouse and clicked through a few folders on the computer.
"Yes, they were functioning normally."
"Great. Don't think I'm crazy, but I'm almost certain that someone entered my apartment yesterday. I need to check the footage of my hallway to understand if someone really managed to get into my home and take the necessary precautions."
"That would be scary," commented Mr. Lee. "Let's check right away."
He opened the recordings from the previous day. There were four files, each about six hours long. He started playing them at high speed so the minutes would pass quickly before their eyes, but even then, it would take some time to review all the footage. Detective Oh watched each frame carefully. For dozens of minutes, they saw nothing but the empty hallway, occasionally her neighbor passing by, first taking out the dog and then the trash, but never approaching Detective Oh's door. Detective Oh was almost losing hope when, toward the end of the fifth recording, she clearly saw a young man approaching her door. He was tall, slender, with broad shoulders, his face covered by the brim of a cap, exactly as she had seen a few days earlier outside the police station garage. She got chills.
"Must be him," said the concierge, Mr. Lee, pointing at the screen with his large finger.
"Yes," said Detective Oh. "Now let's see how he got in."
The mysterious young man confidently typed in Detective Oh's access PIN. He didn't hesitate for a second; it was as if he already knew it. But how was that possible? She was certain she had never given her access PIN to anyone, not even her ex-boyfriends. She hadn't chosen an easily guessable number—her professional training always pushed her to think more shrewdly than the criminals she encountered. That's why she had chosen a PIN that, while simple to remember, had no correlation with any particular date that could be easily guessed. It was just a random series of numbers. There was no way someone could have deduced the exact sequence of those digits based on her personal information. The only explanation that came to mind was that this person must have been watching her for a long time.
“Should we notify the police?” said the doorman, then glanced at Detective Oh and felt embarrassed. “Oh, right,” he said, only then remembering he was speaking to a police officer.
“I need you to send me all the footage of my hallway, not just from yesterday but from the previous days as well,” said Detective Oh.
“You know I can’t do that due to privacy concerns. I’m the only one authorized to view these recordings… but if a police detective asks, how can I refuse?” He concluded with a low chuckle, as if they had just shared an inside joke that no one else would understand.
Detective Oh gave a polite smile and took out a business card, writing her personal email address on the back. “Send the files here. The recordings might be too large, so you’ll need to share them via a hosting service. Do you know how to do that?”
“Of course, I work at various doorman stations, and this isn’t the first time recordings have needed to be handed over to the police. I’ll send everything over in the next few hours.”
“Thank you.”
“In the meantime, I suggest you change your door PIN.”
“No, it’s better not to. If this person wanted to harm me, they would have done so already. Also, if I changed the PIN, it would be much harder for me to catch them.”
“Detective, I wouldn’t want to interfere or tell you how to do your job, but are you sure this is prudent?”
“There are many situations where courage is more useful than caution.”
“I really hope you’re right,” said the doorman. “If I see him, I’ll let you know immediately.”
“I doubt he’ll show up while someone’s in the doorman’s office,” commented Detective Oh. “In any case, thank you for your help; it’s been very valuable.”
“It’s my duty, Detective.”
Detective Oh bade farewell to the man and walked back to the elevator, heading down to the garage. She crossed paths with Mrs. Kim, exchanged a smile, and then each went on their way.
Mrs. Kim, always elegantly dressed, was a housewife, married to a successful man. She probably had no worries beyond choosing which day to visit the hairdresser or the beauty salon, or which prestigious school to enroll her children in. Detective Oh had once had a life very similar to that.
She had been a detective for at least ten years, but at the start of her career, she had met a man named Lee Junseong at the precinct. He was a few years older than her, with a charming smile, though his demeanor could be described as somewhat aloof. Initially, interacting with him had been quite challenging, but over time, they had ended up falling deeply in love. At that time, Detective Oh was only 25 years old. When Lee Junseong proposed, she accepted immediately, and for several months, she did nothing but plan every detail of their wedding day. She had never been happier, and probably would never feel that way again.
That idyllic dream, so reminiscent of a fairy tale, was shattered abruptly. During a complicated mission, Agent Lee Junseong and his team mysteriously disappeared. For months, extensive searches were conducted in the area where they had vanished, until one day, they were declared dead. It was only after this devastating news was announced that Detective Oh learned the nature of that mission. The team her fiancé had joined had been tasked with dismantling an organization involved in human trafficking between North and South Korea. It was plausible that something terrible had happened beyond the border. Perhaps they had been captured—indeed, everyone agreed that this was the most likely scenario—and if that was the case, it was logical to assume that all the members of the investigative team had been killed by their captors.
Without a body to mourn, Detective Oh, Lee Junseong’s family, and the relatives of all the other team members held a funeral that only further broke their hearts. They would forever wonder what had happened to those young men, full of hope and life, who could have still done so much for the country.
Since then, a vast amount of time had passed, and Detective Oh had never been able to fall in love again. It was as if Lee Junseong’s disappearance had left a void in her heart that was impossible to fill. How could one return to loving when their feelings were still trapped in an elusive past?
The proof that she had not forgotten that man was evident in her envy of the strange simplicity of her neighbor's life. Detective Oh loved her job and wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world, yet she often wondered what joy she might feel coming home to find Lee Junseong waiting for her, embracing him on the couch, chatting about their days, recounting what had happened, laughing about small mishaps, and planning their next vacation. She wondered what it would be like to hold their child in her arms, what he would look like, and whether he would be as handsome and charming as his father. Those dreams were destined to remain just that. Detective Oh could never change the protagonist of that story. Her heart, just as much as her unyielding spirit, prevented it.
When she arrived at the station, her head felt light, as if those memories had somehow erased the harsh reality of the present. She knew she needed to recover quickly; she had pressing obligations, and at the moment, the life or death of a child also depended on her actions and work.
As she walked through the corridors towards her office, she ran into Jinhwan.
“Detective Oh, I’ve been looking for you.”
“Is there any news about the case?”
“Someone says they saw something.”
“Who is it?”
“It’s a teenager. She says that she took the bus near the gym that evening and saw something she wants to tell us about.”
“Have you not interviewed her yet?”
“The girl is a minor, and as urgent as it is to hear what she has to say, we can’t proceed without parental consent.”
“Have you notified them?”
“Yes, they will be at the station shortly,” Jinhwan said.
“Perfect. I’m really curious to hear what she has to say.”
“Detective Oh, are you sure everything is okay?” Jinhwan asked. He couldn’t help but notice the woman’s tired and pale face. It looked like she had barely slept, and her eyes were veiled with fatigue, pain, and worry.
“Everything’s fine,” she said. “I just want to find the child as soon as possible.”
“Of course,” Jinhwan agreed. “We’re all very concerned. The media won’t stop talking about this case; it’s become a full-blown media circus. In a way, this could help the investigation, as the girl learned about the child’s disappearance through the news. However, on the other hand, the presence of journalists might complicate things.”
“We’ll handle it when the time comes.”
Detective Oh passed Jinhwan and placed her hand on the doorknob of her office.
“Detective Oh,” Jinhwan called out, catching her attention.
“Is there something else?” she asked, turning to look at him. He seemed about to say something but then hesitated.
“No, nothing. I’ll let you know when the girl’s interrogation begins.”
“Alright. I’ll be in my office reviewing some documents.”
“If you need any help…”
“No, thanks. You can go,” Detective Oh said, dismissing Jinhwan.
She closed the office door behind her, leaned against it with her back, and took a deep breath. There were too many things to think about; all these threads were creating a tangled mess in her mind. Maybe she should call Dr. Na again, the psychologist who had been helping her after Junseong’s disappearance. She was sure she still had the number written down somewhere. For the first time in many years, Detective Oh felt that such help was absolutely necessary.
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