The car drove a short distance and stopped at a convenience store near City Hall Station, just a few blocks away.
"Get off. Let's check."
"Yes."
I got out of the car with the Detective and went into the convenience store.
Ding~
The eyes of a few customers inside instantly turned toward me, dressed in a police uniform.
I put on a solemn expression and followed the Detective to the counter.
'No one's stealing anything, right?'
I glared sharply at the customers, scanning their hands left and right.
"Thank you for your hard work. I'm Detective Park Gangwoon from the Metropolitan Investigation Unit who contacted you earlier. Is the store manager here?"
"No, I was just told that when you come, I should give you the CCTV password.."
"Where is it?"
"Let me finish ringing this up, and I'lI help you."
While the slow-looking night shift part-timer finished ringing up the waiting customers, we surveyed the convenience store's package delivery area and the locations of the CCTV Cameras.
"It's attached over there. With this angle, it should have captured it well."
"But after we check it, how do we track him down?"
"After that, we'll have to rely on the authorities, starting with vehicle dashcam footage."
"Huh, is that even possible tonight?"
"If his movements get tangled, it might take a few days. Why?"
"Because you said we'd catch him on our own, I thought we'd be able to catch him with our own hands tonight."
"Are you disappointed that the police game ended so quickly? Unfortunately, we're only checking the CCTV here, and if nothing comes up, you'l have to take off that uniform."
"Tsk... If this was the case, why did you even bring me along?"
"Just in case something suspicious got recorded on that CCTV. Come on, let's So,"
"Yeah."
Soon, the part-timer who had finished ringing up the customers called us to the storage room, and we two went over to the computer installed in a dark corner of the storage room.
"The password is this, but I don't know how to use it either..."
"We'l figure it out ourselves. Go back to work."
"Yes..."
The night shift part-timer bowed his head politely, then closed the storageroom door and left.
After quickly scanning the shelves full of snacks and drinks in the storage room, I asked the Detective.
"Do you know what time the culprit came and went?"
"Well. I don't know that much. We'll have to rewind and look for it from now on."
The Detective set the CCTV date to yesterday, Saturday, the day I received the package.
"First, are you sure that the package arrived for you yesterday, Saturday afternoon?"
"Yes, probably. To be precise, it arrived at the security guard's office on Saturday afternoon. Mom picked it up today, Sunday."
"Why didn't you get it yourself and instead had your mom do it a day later? You're just complicating things with the whole Saturday-Sunday thing."
"I don't know. The delivery people usually don't hand it over directly, they just leave it at the security guard's office."
This is why you should use reliable Clover Rocket Delivery.
Delivery drivers from other companies, under increasingly tough working conditions, often just leave everything
at the security guard's office and wash
their hands of it.
"Okay then, since it's within Seoul and nearby, let's assume the package was
delivered the same day and start with
Saturday's records. On Saturday, the
driver picks up items at noon, so if we
set the time like this..."
As the Detective clicked the mouse a few times, a video popped up.
It showed time around Saturday lunchtime, a delivery driver was seen coming into the convenience store and picking up items.
As I closely examined the items being picked up, I was soon able to find the
camcorder box that I had received.
"That's the one. That's the delivery box.
I was right that it left from here on Saturday."
"Good. Now, let's trace it back from here and find out who left this item here. If we rewind this..."
When the Detective hit the rewind button, the delivery driver put the item down in reverse and then walked backward out of the store.
And all the while, customers came and went, picking up and putting down items, wandering around the store.
"...Still there."
"...Still is."
"Let's increase the speed a bit. Watch
carefully."
"Okay."
So we sped up for a while and watched the dizzying chaos inside the convenience store, and before I knew it, the time in the video had reversed from Saturday to Friday.
At a certain point, the Detective and I
spoke at the same time.
"Stop!"
"There it is."
The sight of someone quickly entering the convenience store with a whoosh and leaving an object behind.
The Detective adjusted the playback speed back to normal and clicked on the video again.
"It's Friday evening."
"That's right. Someone left the item on Friday evening, the delivery company picked it up on Saturday afternoon, it was delivered the same day and left with the security guard for a day, and then I received it on Sunday."
"So that's how it is,"
The Detective gave a single nod and then shot a glare at the culprit in the video.
The culprit was a sturdy adult male, but he was wearing a hat, sunglasses, and even a mask, making his face difficult to recognize.
The guy was holding his removed outer jacket in one hand, perhaps because he was hot, and a delivery box in the other.
"Lee Joon, can you bring up this person's name using the Status Window you have?"
"I already tried that before, but the name only appears when I see the person in real life."
"That's unfortunate."
The man in the video put the box containing the carmcorder in a delivery box in front of the packaging machine, and after completing the payment, he attached a sticker.
Then the man left the prepared shipment parcel in the collection box and turned his back.
"The face..."
"Hmm..."
Just as I was thinking he might leave like that and feeling disappointed, the man suddenly stopped in his tracks and looked around.
Then, he glanced at the CCTV we were
watching and suddenly stared at it straight.
Even though it was beyond the screen, I flinched slightly at the feeling that he was making eye contact with us.
And then, a strange sense of déjà vu arose for a moment.
..I've seen this person somewhere.'
Then, after staring intently at the CCTV for a while, he suddenly started to take off his hat.
".....!"
We thought that he might reveal his face and glued our eyes to the screen. The man took off his hat, and then took off his mask.
Then he took off even his sunglasses, shrugged on the outer jacket he had been carrying over his arm, and stared directly at us with his bare face.
Ash-gray coat. Broad, squared shoulders
The middle-aged man exuding a dignified presence in the video was none other than Detective Park Gangwoon.
".....!?"
"....."
When I turned my head and looked to the side, Detective Park Gangwoon was staring at himself on the screen with a stern face.
And just like that, Detective Park Gangwoon in the video and Detective Park Gangwoon beside me stared at each other for a long while, and the staring contest only ended when the Detective in the video turned his back and walked away.
I immediately turned to look at the Detective next to me and shouted inwardly,
'...Park Gangwoon status window.!'
(STATUS WINDOW)
Name: Park Gangwoon
Age: 41
Title: Detective
Disposition: Hard-boiled
Quirk:???
Understanding: 35/100)
'He's real.'
First of all, the Detective next to me was real.
As for that, since we've been together ever since we met at the National Police Agency today, there was no room for doubt.
Then who was the man on this screen who looked exactly like Detective Park Gangwoon?
"....."
Looking to the side, I saw the Detective, resting his chin on his hand and still staring at the screen.
I asked him quietly.
"Detective, could it be that you came and went at this time on Friday but just don't remember?"
"...Hey."
At those words, the Detective's expression instantly hardened, and he looked at me.
"What did you do on Friday evening?"
"Huh? Me?"
The Detective asked with a face that looked angry.
I flinched, stopping myself from speaking.
"I....ah."
"We had dinner together."
"..Yes."
I hesitated and nodded.
On Friday, at the very time when the man in the video had left the package.
I went to a bossam restaurant with the
Detective and ate a lot of boiled pork
slices.
The Detective even scolded me that if that's what I wanted, I should have just gone to a rice restaurant.
"It's physically impossible. For me to come here at this time."
"....."
"It seems there's one more guy in Seoul who looks exactly like me."
The Detective, with his mouth pursed, glared at the video in question.
He remained like that for a long while, then solemnly opened his mouth again.
"It was a good choice to come here with you. If I had just reported it and then investigated recklessly, I would have been headed straight for prison without a doubt."
"From now on, this is your field, Lee Joon."
The Detective suddenly turned his head and placed his hand on the word "police' attached to my arm like an armband.
"By the time you went back, at 2:30 PM on Friday, the National Police Agency had already been broken into. And that's also by that man in this video, the one who looks like me."
he continues.
"The National Police Agency is mobilizing all its personnel to chase the criminal. There's not much time. In the end, the one who will get caught isn't this man but me."
"...But-"
"Listen."
The Detective cut me off and firmly gripped my shoulder.
"You and I must find the man in this video before morning breaks, and we absolutely have to prove that I am innocent. Only then can I keep my position as a detective and help you all to the very end."
"..W-well, since this person was recorded while I was eating with you, Detective, that would be an alibi-"
"That won't work as an alibi, Lee joon! Snap out of it!"
The Detective patted me firmly on my frozen, stiff shoulders.
"No one will believe that! You'll get caught up in it too!,From now on, you have to keep yor wits about you!"
I nodded, but couldn't hide my flustered feelings.
The Detective was being falsely accused and sent to prison.
And then he would be unable to help Us.
That was something I had never thought about until now.
Soon, the Detective rose from his seat and looked at me with a serious gaze.
"Listen carefully, Joony. I don't know much about this kind of thing. You have to keep your head straight and lead me. To this man."
"Yes..."
"We will investigate together. You and me."
Tap tap.
"We'll catch them on our own."
**
We left the convenience store and returned to the Detective's car.
This time, I got into the passenger seat.
Tak~
As soon as he sat in the driver's seat, the Detective took out a cigarette and took a deep drag.
And so we silently remained parked in front of the convenience store.
"...."
Before we knew it, it was 11 PM.
There was only one hour left until Monday, the day of the final exam.
I wondered what all the other members were doing.
Have they already finished studying hard and gone to bed with a light heart?
Or maybe they were cramming at the last-minute, still clinging to their problem sets and struggling with them.
'...Wait a second.'
I suddenly realized something and pulled out my phone.
The Detective, who had been smoking and seemed deep in thought, stopped mid-drag and looked at me.
"Did you think of something?"
"Yes."
I nodded and opened the KakaoTalk chat window on my phone.
"Last Friday, when we were talking at the café. We discussed together why you didn't tell me anything when you shot at me on Monday, remember?"
"That's right."
"Do you remember how back then, as one of the possible reasons, we speculated that it might be a kind of ghost story, something that spread just by being told, something that triggers the moment you recognize or perceive it?"
"I remember."
"So I had asked Gyeongwon to put together a list of ghost stories that trigger when you perceive them. From the list I received back... here. This One."
I pointed to one part of the list that Gyeongwon had put together and handed my phone to the Detective.
The Detective stubbed his cigarette in the smart ashtray in the driver's seat, then took my phone from me.
"Let's see..."
(Doppelgänger)
I's an urban legend that originated from Germany.
1.
On March 8, 1808, the German writer Goethe, who wrote Faust, was riding alone along a forest path when he witnessed a person identical to himself, riding the same horse, passing by from the opposite direction.
Startled, Goethe turned his head again
to look for the man, but the other man
suddenly vanished into thin air.
2.
Ryunosulke Akutagawa, the Japanese
novelist who wrote Rashomon, went
around telling his close acquaintances
that he had seen a person exactly
like himself just before his death. He
claimed that there were also instances
where a manuscript of a work he had
never written was found placed on his
desk, and situations where someone
who looked exactly like him pretended
to be him, socializing and drinking
with his acquaintances at times when
he himself was at home.
Eventually, not long after, he ended up
committing suicide.
3.
On july 8, 1822, the British Romantic
poet Percy Bysshe Shelley claimed to
his wife that while walking near his
home, he saw someone who looked
exactly like him and even spoke to him.
His wife didn't believe him, but she
later heard from her neighbor, Mrs.
Williams, who said that while walking
on the street, her husband had just
passed in front of her twice.
The startled wife hurried back home to
find her husband, but by then he had
already thrown himself into a lake and
drowned.
4.
In 1612, while having dinner in Paris,
the English metaphysical poet John
Donne witnessed his wife pass in front
of him twice, holding a baby in her
arms.
His wife, who was pregnant at the time,
reportedly suffered a miscarriage that
night.
"...In this way, a being that looks
exactly like oneself is called a
doppelgänger. After being seen, if
one tries to chase it down, it usually
vanishes mysteriously without a trace.
In modern times, even when people try
to capture its appearance with cameras
or other equipment, it is common for
the timing to coincide with a power
outage or a device malfunction. And it
is said that the witness soon dies within
a short period of time... hmm."
The Detective muttered to himself,
then looked up from Gyeongwon's
KakaoTalk messages on my phone.
"It's definitely one of those ghost stories
where you die if you recognize it. But I
don't see any reason not to explain it to
you. It's not like telling you about it will
kill you."
"....That's true."
"Hmm... alright, anyway, to summarize."
The Detective continued speaking as he
handed my phone back to me.
"So the guy who looks like me in the video is my doppelgänger, and he stole evidence items from the National Police Agency while impersonating me. In other words, he's trying to make me a criminal."
"Probably."
"This is troublesome. How are you planning to handle it, Joon?"
The Detective asked with a sigh.
"If it really kills you the moment you see it, then I can't even get close. This is going to be difficult,"
"It might not be possible for you to see it yourself, but other people can, right? I could chase it and immobilize it with a taser or something."
"A taser? I didn't bring one."
"You carry a gun, though?"
"I do have a gun. I just didn't bring a taser."
Somehow, it felt odd that the Koreanpolice would carry real firearms more readily than tasers.
I looked at the Detective as if to ask what kind of person he took me for.
"What? You don't have the confidence to take him down with physical force?"
"How could I possibly win if l got into a physical fight with you, Detective?"
"That's why you should get some exercise. How are you going to manage if you can't even beat a guy in his forties?"
The Detective chuckled softly, then grabbed the steering wheel.
He started the car, as if heading somewhere.
"People usually say guys around that age are the strongest in real fights because of experience. But where are we going right now?"
"We're heading to the Jung District Office to check the street CCTV. We need to trace that thing's movements."
"The district office manages the CCTV?
Not the police?"
"The district office handles it. There's a CCTV Control center in the basement of the Jung District Office main building. That's where we're headed."
"Ah, I see... but at this hour, I wonder if there'll even be staff there..."
"There will be some. The problem is getting permission."
The Detective pressed down on the accelerator.
"Remember this, Lee Joon. If we catch it, we're innocent. If we don't, I get blamed for acting independently without reporting, and I'll be the one getting fired. Either way, figure out a way to help me get through this. That's
the only way I can keep helping you
all."
The Detective spoke calmly, his eyes free of any personal desire or concern.
It wasn't a look driven by self-preservation, but one that says he must hold onto his position as a detective in order to truly help us.
I nodded back with a firm gaze.
"Alright. I'll try to figure something out..."
"Good,"
Vroom-
The mid-sized Sorento carrying the two
Cops picked up speed, the night grew deeper darker