Ashes and Alliances

Swish.

A cool stream of water shot out from the fire truck.
The flames, which had not been suppressed by the sprinkler, gradually died down.
As the water was poured, the smell of ash that had filled the area around the building also slowly subsided.
Though it would take a little more time for the fire to be completely extinguished…
Choi Suhyeok and I were sitting on the back of an ambulance, wrapped in blankets.

“It’s a relief that there weren’t any serious injuries.”
“I know, right. Even with a fire this big.”
“It was a relief that we could save the children. They looked to be the same age as Doyeong…”
“Doyeong?”
“Ah, he’s Lawyer Won’s nephew. He was also a client in a case I handled recently.”
“Huh, I guess that blood doesn’t go anywhere.”

After that conversation, a brief silence fell.
I moved my lips a few times and then opened my mouth.

“…Thank you so much for today, Detective Choi. And I’m also sorry for always causing you trouble.”
“You… are you really Lawyer Cha? Didn’t you switch places with someone in the building? Why are you suddenly apologizing?”

Choi Suhyeok narrowed his brows and looked at me suspiciously.

“…I really don’t know what you see me as, Detective Choi.”
[You don’t really not know, do you?]
‘Hey, Gram. You should at least take my side. I’m disappointed.’
[I’m quite objective.]

Choi Suhyeok, who had been thinking with narrowed eyes for a moment, opened his mouth with a playful expression.

“Hmm, a troublemaker?”
[I agree. Please take care of yourself. Do you know that the dangerous situations are being renewed every time?]

I couldn’t win against the attacks coming from both sides and scratched my cheek awkwardly.

“…I think that safe was the cause of this fire. It was a trap. I think this situation happened because I opened it carelessly… I don’t feel at ease. I’m sorry.”

Choi Suhyeok shook the remaining water from his hair and opened his mouth with his gaze fixed on the front.

“I would have opened it too. So don’t apologize.”

He slowly turned his head and met my eyes.

“Not just me, but everyone else would have done the same. It’s just that you, Lawyer Cha, were the first to find it.”

Choi Suhyeok smiled faintly and continued.

“In fact, it might have been a relief that it was us, that it was Lawyer Cha, who opened it, and not anyone else.”
“What do you mean by that…”
“Because we reacted quickly. And we even found the fire shutter in the process.”
“But…”
“Accidents that are meant to happen will happen no matter what.”

Choi Suhyeok said that and showed a rare bitter expression.
As if he were talking to himself.

“As you said, Lawyer Cha, this was a trap, and anyone would have fallen for it. Who would have expected the wall to catch fire just by opening a safe? It’s natural not to be able to.”

I looked at the building that had been completely burned black.
As if to show the floor where the fire had started, it was difficult to take my eyes off the particularly blackened part.
While I was staring at the 8th floor, Choi Suhyeok, as if he had remembered something, hurriedly rummaged through his pockets.

“Ah…”

He lifted his wet clothes with a busy hand and checked his pockets.
But in the end, as if he couldn’t find it, Choi Suhyeok quickly turned his gaze to the place I had been looking at until just now with a look of despair.

“Did you lose something?”
“…I think so.”
“Is it important?”

Choi Suhyeok gritted his teeth so hard that his masseter muscle stood out and nodded.

“Is it a brown leather notebook?”
“…How do you know that, Lawyer Cha?”
“Ah, I almost forgot.”

I smiled as if to say not to worry and took out the notebook in question from my pocket and handed it to Choi Suhyeok.

“I picked it up when I was following you earlier. It might have all burned if I hadn’t followed you.”
“Haa…”

Choi Suhyeok smiled and let out a sigh of relief.
He slowly wiped his face and then reached out his hand to me.
The tips of Choi Suhyeok’s fingers were trembling. I pretended not to have seen it and put the notebook in his hand.

“I didn’t open it. In case it got torn. I think we need to deal with the wetness first.”
“…Thank you, Lawyer Cha.”
“I’m glad I could be of at least a little help.”

Choi Suhyeok slowly stroked the damp leather and then opened his mouth in a low voice.

“…About family. Especially parents.”

I answered him with silence and blinked slowly.

‘I think this is the first time Choi Suhyeok is talking about himself.’

He carefully lifted the blanket he was covering himself with and wiped the notebook.

“When a child loses a parent, it’s no different from losing the world. I’ve never told anyone this before, but…”

Amidst the numerous sirens, Choi Suhyeok’s voice clearly pierced my ears.

“When my father said that it was all a frame-up, that he would solve it and be reinstated as a police officer with dignity, I believed him.”

Choi Suhyeok narrowed his eyes.
As if recalling a past that was left unresolved.

“But as time went by, the evidence poured in.”

Choi Suhyeok rubbed his wrinkled eyes and slowly added.

“Even in my young eyes, my father was a very shameless, corrupt police officer. A corrupt police officer whose name was a disgrace to even say.”

Did they say that everyone carries a secret?

“But he passed away like that. In vain.”

Choi Suhyeok let out a hollow laugh.
With a face that was laughing but not laughing at all.
I slowly gazed at the inner self he was revealing. Because sometimes silence is the best proof of listening.

“He promised me. But my father couldn’t keep anything. Neither his promise to me, nor his honor.”

They often say that leather ‘gets a patina’.
That as time goes by, it reveals that time in its entirety.
The notebook that Choi Suhyeok had found and that I had picked up was holding that time.

“No one paid attention to the death of a corrupt police officer, and so it remained a cold case. That’s the reason I became a police officer. Because I wanted to find a clue somehow.”

Choi Suhyeok, who had been looking straight ahead for a long time, now looked at me.

“But a while ago, while I was looking through the evidence, I found my father’s name in this notebook.”

He lightly shook the notebook, which had now released some of its moisture and had turned a light brown color.

“It was written about the incidents that had occurred at the time of my father’s death. So what I mean is… thank you.”

I slowly smiled, raising the corners of my mouth, and patted his shoulder a couple of times.

“We wouldn’t have found it if you hadn’t come today. It seems like there’s one more reason to catch K.”

Choi Suhyeok smiled bitterly, pulling up one corner of his mouth.
He pushed the notebook deep into the inner pocket of his jumper.

“From now on, contact me whenever there’s anything related to that guy. I want to catch him too.”
“Of course.”

We simultaneously turned our gaze to the place we had come from.
Just as I blinked a few times, the firefighters who were aiming a stream of water at the last flame shouted.

“The fire has been suppressed!”

Choi Suhyeok, as if nothing had happened, returned to being a detective and pointed to the fire scene.

“There might be some evidence left, so I’m going to go and request cooperation. The fire station that was dispatched happens to be in the same jurisdiction.”
“Yes. But be careful, just in case, Detective Choi.”
“Yes, I’ll be in touch. You should go home too, Lawyer Cha. You must have been very tired today. Ah, and be sure to go to the hospital tomorrow.”
“Yes, I will. Go ahead.”
“Be sure to go.”

With a final word of advice, Choi Suhyeok, who had immediately started walking, greeted the firefighters with a familiar attitude.

“Ah, Lieutenant Choi. Ah, should I call you Chief Inspector Choi now?”
“Let’s just do as we always do. Don’t tease me. More importantly, inside…”

As I was watching that, Gram spoke to me as if he were curious.

[It seems they know each other.]

‘Well, there are a lot of crime scenes among fire scenes. And arson cases are not uncommon.’

And so, as I was talking with Gram, I felt the presence of someone who had been waiting for me to be alone.

“Have some of this, lawyer.”
“Ah, Mr. Lee Ilwoo. Thank you. I was just getting thirsty.”

Lee Ilwoo handed me a bottle of water and approached the seat where Choi Suhyeok had been sitting until just now.
Instead of sitting, he stood and turned his body towards me.

‘Is it a habit?’

Lee Ilwoo cleverly blocked the view from the outside so that even if someone were watching us, they couldn’t guess the content of our conversation.
It seemed to be an ingrained behavior.

“…I’m sorry that I couldn’t be of much help.”
“What are you talking about, Mr. Lee Ilwoo? Please don’t say that. I felt like I had met a savior at the academy earlier. If you hadn’t come then, I wouldn’t have been able to save the children.”

But even with my words, Lee Ilwoo’s stiff face did not relax.
He seemed to be feeling even more guilty because of the disappointment of falling into the criminal’s trap, and the resulting damage that was directly revealed before his eyes.

‘This is the first time I’ve seen Mr. Lee Ilwoo so down. Is there something else?’

Instead of continuing to speak, I deliberately chugged the water to buy some time to think.

Swish.

Lee Ilwoo immediately handed me the other bottle of water he had been holding in his other hand.
It must have seemed like I was very thirsty.

“Thank you.”

I opened the lid of the second water bottle and finally moved my lips.

“It seems that guy has already figured us out. What do you think, Mr. Lee Ilwoo?”
“…I feel the same way. That’s why I feel even more sorry. It seems even our people have been exposed.”

Our people must be referring to the NIS agents.

“I’ve already reported to the company. I’m sorry, lawyer.”

I immediately stopped Lee Ilwoo, who was about to bow his head.

“It’s fine, really. It makes me feel even more uncomfortable if you apologize like that. I really think it was a relief that I came with you, Mr. Lee Ilwoo.”

Before Lee Ilwoo could apologize again, I hurriedly asked a question.

“How does your company plan to respond from now on?”

The flow could change depending on how the NIS responded to K’s case.
No one would have expected them to attempt an all-out war like this.
They must have thought of K as just a person who designed crimes on the dark web.
Lee Ilwoo let out a small sigh and ran his hand through his still-damp hair.
He looked at the water stains on his palm for a moment and then clenched his fist.
A certain promise and determination flowed from Lee Ilwoo’s veined fist.

“We plan to raise the grade on that guy. Both the alert level and the management level to the highest priority. As such, more personnel than now will be deployed.”
“More than now? Is that possible?”
“…Even if it’s impossible, we have to. Until now, the grounds for doing so were unclear, but now we have them. Because what he caused today was a ‘terrorist attack’.”

Terrorism.
Lee Ilwoo was right.
This was on a scale that was too large to be dismissed as a trap.
In fact, it was a miracle that there were no casualties.
After making eye contact with Lee Ilwoo for a moment, I got up from the ambulance.

“Let’s continue this at the office.”