The Sea of Information

Busy, busy.
At this rate, I feel like I’m Hong Gildong.
Just now, I was at Songpa Police Station, and now I’ve arrived in a secluded neighborhood on the outskirts of Gangnam.

‘This place is still the same.’

The redevelopment placards that have been up for years, and the word ‘demolition’ written in red paint everywhere.
Here, I was an outsider to anyone who saw me.
But this was a neighborhood where there were no ‘anyones’.

Creak.

I parked the car in an alley where it couldn’t go any further and got out to walk.
As I turned into the alley, an old building soon appeared.
On the first floor of the small building, there was a worn-out diner with a sign that looked like it would fall off with a single gust of wind, and an old hardware store.
In the corner, I saw a mill where the savory smell of sesame oil still occasionally wafted on the wind.
Between the hardware store and the mill, there was a main entrance that led into the commercial building.
My destination was the PC bang on the second floor.

Step, step.

Enduring the old smell characteristic of old buildings and all sorts of foul odors, I climbed the cement stairs one by one.

My brows furrowed at the childish name.
Ah, it’s been a while, but I still can’t get used to it.
The corners of the character stickers from that era, which were plastered all over the old glass windows, were all peeling off.

[You’re already busy, why did you come all the way to a PC bang?]

‘Our Gram has a tendency to see only the surface. There must be a reason why I came all the way here when I’m already busy.’

Look at the big picture, the big picture.
A person’s vision needs to be broad.

‘But are you even a person? Are you just an organism of self, by any chance?’

No answer came to my philosophical question.
When it’s at a disadvantage, it always uses silence as a weapon.

<A match more thrilling than the World Cup!>

I pushed open the door, which was plastered with old posters of games that were popular more than twenty years ago.

Creak.

Unlike its dilapidated exterior, the interior was at least tolerable.
Though it wasn’t the latest model.

Beep, boop.

The part-timer, who was sitting at the counter, blowing bubblegum and enjoying a game on his phone, nodded at me.

“Aish, I died.”

Though his words sounded like he was blaming me.

<2,000 won per hour>

‘My, that’s expensive.’

In fact, this was a kind of smokescreen, like ‘Are you still going to come in? Are you still going to play here?’.
Knowing that, I didn’t say anything and instead headed for the ‘Staff Only Area’ in the back.

[This is just like… a prison door.]

‘Gram, weren’t you sulking?’

No answer again.
She’s so fickle, really.
But just as the hologram said, this iron door had a space at eye level that could be opened and closed from side to side.
It was a height and area where you could just check a face.
I knocked on the door.
With a slightly different rhythm from the usual knock.

Knock-knock, knock-knock-knock, knock-knock-knock-knock, knock-knock.

Click!

A short while after the rhythmic knock that made my heart react, the eye-level cover opened at once.
The person who had pressed his eye to the door shouted in a fierce tone.

“What is it? If you’re going to play a useless prank, then leave.”
“I made an appointment for a consultation. Urgent, at that.”

Clack.

I heard the sound of a door locking behind me.
The employee who was engrossed in his phone game had locked the PC bang’s door.

Beep, boop.

Clang!

A short while later, the iron door opened.
When I went inside, a completely different scene from the shabby outside greeted me.
The first thing I saw were five people looking at computers with at least eight monitors each.

[Wow…]

I agreed with the hologram’s pure admiration. Because I had the same reaction at first.
Though my impression is different now.

‘Can they even see all of that at once?’

They would need three pairs of eyes.
And the clean interior, where the air purifier was running non-stop, had a different quality of air.

[Where is this, no.]
[What is this place?]

‘Literally, the sea of information.’

There was a time when the internet was called the sea of information.
It was such a basic story that it even appeared regularly on school exam questions.
But how betrayed I felt when I learned that it was close to Konglish.
No, that’s not it.

‘Most of the information in South Korea is here. No, not just South Korea, but if you want, anywhere overseas is possible, and if they don’t have it, they’ll find it and bring it to you.’

Step, step.

The man who was sitting in the white chair in the innermost part walked towards me.
He was a man with an intelligent impression, wearing transparent half-rim glasses.
And this man was the reason I had become Hong Gildong.

‘If I want to meet someone of this caliber, I have to come in person.’

This man’s name is Im Suho.
A genius who was said to have learned computer language faster than Korean and English.
Other countries recognized his genius earlier than Korea. But the reason he returned to Korea is unknown.
He was a founding member of one of the leading conglomerates in Korea, but he suddenly disappeared.
Now, he was living in a space built with his own beliefs like this.
I recalled a conversation I had with Im Suho before.

‘Why are you doing this?’
‘Then why did you quit being a judge, lawyer?’
‘…I felt that it was not the right job for me.’
‘It’s a similar reason for me. Money, well, I can’t spend it all before I die. Since I’m living a new life, I wanted to live as a good person.’
‘Is this your way of doing that?’
‘Do you know how many geniuses in the world die without knowing or being able to display their genius, lawyer? I’ve gathered those people. And I will gather them.’

As Im Suho said, the hackers Im Suho had brought in were all talented people who had no opportunities.

“This is my ‘justice’. Just like your ‘justice’, lawyer.”

The people sitting in those chairs now looked happy, even though they were exhausted.
And they were probably earning several times the salary of executives at major corporations.
The reason I got to know this Im Suho was because of his twisted sense of justice.

‘A bastard like that deserves to see a worse fate.’
‘But you don’t need to go to prison for a person like that, Mr. Im Suho. The only reason I’m taking your case is for this one reason.’

It was an unusual choice for me, who did not take on large-scale individual cases.
It was when Im Suho’s private sanctions were finally revealed.
The direction Im Suho and I were pursuing was a little different, but in the end, justice was at the end of it all.
Im Suho, who had been silently looking me up and down, finally spoke.

“Well, you look very neat, but what brings you to this rough place?”

This incomprehensible tone, as if from a B-grade movie, was Im Suho’s way of probing.
I smiled and held out my hand.

“I heard from Lawyer Yoon Eunho.”

Instead of shaking my hand, Im Suho asked back with a glint in his eyes.

“Does a dead person talk, Lawyer Cha Yohan?”

I hadn’t said my name, but as expected, Im Suho already knew.

“You know my name.”
“Do I only know your name? I know that you were originally Zero-Wins, and that you’re suddenly singing ‘I’ll show you a completely changed me’ these days. Is that all? I even know how you had a heart-wrenching one-sided love at what age and how.”

Im Suho spouted a string of cringeworthy lines with an expressionless face.

“My light, my love, my life… Because you didn’t call my name, I couldn’t become a flower today…”

Unlike me, who was as composed as Im Suho, the one who was in a frenzy was the hologram.

[Aaaah! No!]

‘He must have had a very heart-wrenching love.’

Judging from the hologram’s reaction, it seemed to be true. It must be a piece of some SNS that contains the tragedy of the past.
I closed my eyes and nodded, then spoke.

“Isn’t one-sided love something everyone does at that age? I am proud of my past feelings.”

Well, it wasn’t my dark past anyway.
This is why SNS is so harmful.
See, how upright I am now.

[…I’m so annoyed I could die.]

I pretended not to have heard that and spoke again.

“Since you’ve looked into it enough, can we talk about work now?”
“Sure, what is it? What brought you here?”
“I’d like to find someone.”

I tore a page from the notebook where I had written down two numbers in advance.
It was the phone number of the mastermind I had recklessly called, and the phone number of the terrorist who was the owner of that phone.
Im Suho took the paper from me and tilted his head.

“Are these two numbers the same person?”
“I’m looking for the person with the number below. The one above is his subordinate, or underling. I want to know all related information.”
“Hmm.”

Im Suho held the paper in his hand and scratched his temple.

“I don’t do this kind of background check. What are you going to use it for? Why are you looking for something like this? People who ask for things like this usually have a shady background.”
“It’s for ‘justice’. Lawyer Yoon Eunho told me to go to you when I need help. Otherwise, how would I have found this place?”
“There’s not a single point of contact between Cha Yohan ‘ssi’ and Yoon Eunho ‘byunhosanim’. Elementary, middle, high school, college, even private tutoring, judicial research and training institute, law firm, court, trial. Nowhere?”

Im Suho now looked at me with a sullen face.
I decided to play my last trump card.

“Let’s live as good guys if we can. But let’s live first.”

At my words, the expressionless Im Suho’s eyes narrowed for the first time.

“…How do you.”
“Do you believe me now?”

Im Suho nodded with a reluctant face.

‘I used to think that all lawyers were a bunch of untrustworthy people. It was thanks to Lawyer Yoon Eunho that I started to think again. So I’ll tell you a secret too.’
‘What secret?’
‘Why I live like this. ‘Let’s live as good guys if we can. But let’s live first.’ That’s my motto.’
‘Haha, those are good words.’
‘You helped me this time, lawyer, so I’ll help you once next time. If you send someone with these words, I’ll grant that one request no matter what.’

That was a promise between Yoon Eunho and Im Suho.
It was also the reason why I could confidently come here.
Im Suho checked the paper once more and then nodded.

“But just know that the fee is expensive.”
“Yes, I understand.”

I turned around.
It was to return to the hospital and discuss the situation with Won Youngoh.

“Huh? I said it’s expensive. What about the money? This is prepaid.”
“I’ll defend you if you get sued again someday.”
“Huh.”

Im Suho laughed as if he were dumbfounded.

“I just did some calculations in my head. Me? This is not a good deal at all.”

I shrugged and replied.

“Well, that’s true. My fee will be more expensive then. Then, I’ll be in your care.”
“Well, of all things.”

I left the bewildered Im Suho and left the secret space and the PC bang.

Beep, beep.

The door was already open.

[You know someone like that, so why did you only go to him today?]

“I told you not to display the hologram while I’m driving. Use your voice.”

I waved my hand in front of my face and answered.

“Of course, Im Suho isn’t a bad guy, but if you get caught by guys like that, you’ll be held captive for the rest of your life. You think about it too. Did you even remember what you said about ‘my life, my what’?”

[…No.]

“In the first place, if ‘that man’ hadn’t swung his knife at Lawyer Won, I wouldn’t have come this far either.”

[Then what are you going to do now?]

“I have to do what I can right now. I can’t predict terrorism, so I’m just going to do my job as a lawyer, as usual. And I’ll keep working out hard with Mr. Lee Ilwoo.”

Two weeks passed like that.
A lot of things happened in the meantime.
The most surprising of them was, by far, Choi Suhyeok’s phone call.

[Not only Lawyer Won Youngoh’s blood, but also a number of other bloodstains were found on that knife.]