I told the Detective once again, in detail, about what had happened that day.
"It happened right after I opened the door and went in. But if you look here, this is the layout of our clubroom."
I showed the Detective the photo of our clubroom on my phone screen.
The Detective bowed his head along with me and peered into the screen.
"As you can see, there is a window, but it's designed to be locked by lowering the lever from the inside, so it can never be opened from the outside."
"When I came by before, it was locked with a screw. Looks like you change it."
"Yes. For security, we boughta digital
door lock and a bug detector too.
I discussed it quite a bit with the
members."
"Good job."
"As for the digital door lock.."
I zoomed in on the screen and showed
the Detective the newly installed door
lock.
"It's an incredibly expensive product.
It costs 3.3 million won, and it requires
both facial and fingerprint recognition.
Only when both are verified does it
unlock the door."
"I see."
"Detective."
After explaining up to that point, I
lifted my head from the phone and
looked at the Detective.
"How did you get into our clubroom?"
"..."
Of course, it went without saying that
the Detective's fingerprint and face
were not registered in the door lock
yet.
That's because the Detective had never
visited the school since the door lock
was installed.
Even registering new credentials
required my face and fingerprint as
the administrator first, so the clubroom at that time was a locked room that no one could enter.
Then how could the Detective have
been waiting for me there in advance?
"..."
The Detective, with his mouth tightly
shut, stared into the photo of the
clubroom on the phone with a piercing gaze.
A sharp gaze, eyes that carried the
intuition of a long police career.
Finally, the Detective, as if his thoughts
had been sorted out, lifted his head and opened his mouth.
"You're right."
'No....'
Feeling frustrated, I tapped my phone
screen with my finger.
"That's not the point, you ended up
getting inside, didn't you? Isn't there
any method you can recall, like how
you did it?"
"You installed an expensive device to
prevent people from entering."
The Detective also straightened his
back and leaned back in the chair.
"It's physically impossible to enter a
place that's been so thoroughly secured to keep people out."
"But in movies, thieves get into all
kinds of places..."
"If it were just about actually getting
inside, you could smash the door or
window and go in."
Sip, the Detective took a sip of coffee.
"But it wasn't like that, that's why you're asking, right?"
"Yes. It wasn't. From what I saw, there
was no sign of forced entry."
"So it's impossible, then."
The Detective set his cup down with a
sharp click.
"Even the thieves you mentioned
were all targeting weak points in
large infrastructure like mansions
or office buildings. Your clubroom
is so small that there's no place to
even look around, and it's even been
securely locked. Getting in cleanly is
impossible."
"Then how..."
"That's what I want to ask you."
"That's also what i wanted to ask you!"
When I shouted out in frustration,
the Detective kicked his tongue and
scratched his chin once.
I sighed, and put my phone back away.
And then, sipping my frappuccino
with a loud slurping sound, I began
grumbling.
"Come on, if you're sending me
back in time, at least say something.
Don't just start shooting without any
explanation..."
"I'm sorry about that. But I'm not
the kind of person who would do
something like that without a reason."
The Detective, looking embarrassed,
defended himself.
"I think there must be a reason why
I sent you back without telling you
anything. It would be good to go
through things one by one. Now, first of all, about that gun."
The Detective naturally pulled a
notebook out of his pocket and tapped it a couple of times with his pen.
"First of all, are you sure I fired only
one shot, exactly?"
"..Yes. I'm sure."
"Not twO shots, but one."
"Yes."
I nodded confidently.
The Detective wrote something down.
"The first shot from a police-issued gun is normally a blank. Since you're saying that I fired a live round right away without that blank means that either I went there intending to do so, or I had already fired a shot somewhere else."
"...!"
"And, you also said that I was wearing
a basic coat, different from my current
casual attire. Which means I was in a
situation where, even though internal
investigations were in full swing, I
somehow ended up bringing my gun
along and leaving work."
"....."
"But I couldn't tell you what had
happened. I only said to come find me
when you get back. That was... Monday
morning at 7:20."
"Yes, that's right.. Ah! And there's one
more thing."
I suddenly remembered something,
and urgently told the Detective.
"That morning, when you were
standing there, it was a bit dark, so I
only saw your back and wasn't sure
who it was. The light in the clubroom
was switched off. So I pressed the
Switch to turn it on... but it only made a
clicking sound, and the light didn't turn
On,"
"So you're saying that I entered a
completely sealed room, and the
electricity was out as well."
"Yes... I suppose so.."
I trailed off, leaning back in the chair.
Thinking about it again, it really was
strange.
"Then what was the reason I couldn't
tell you, Joon? You were going back in
Time anyway, and that timeline was
going to disappear entirely. I could
have just told you what happened."
"...Well. That's probably..."
I chewed on the straw of my
frappuccino and thought about the
experiences I had gone through in the
past.
"...Maybe because it's tied to some kind of mind corrupting ghost story, so if you told me, I'd be affected too... maybe it was that kind of situation?"
"That makes sense. Like that jiggle
jiggle."
"Yes, that's right! Something like that.
But it's 'wiggle wiggle."
"Even hearing it again, it's a strange
name."
The Detective scribbled something
down.
The "Wiggle Wiggle' ghost story was
one that affects the mind the moment a
person recognizes and comprehends its true form.
Perhaps, the Detective was caught up
in a similar ghost story, which was why
he couldn't bring himself to tell me
about it.
Because he was afraid that I would also be affected and possessed.
"But considering that, you, Detective,
looked pretty fine. Of course, you only
said a few words, though..."
"I'm naturally mentally strong. And it's
possible that I was slowly going insane, or maybe that few words I uttered was all I could manage."
"Wait a moment. I'll ask Gyeongwon
about this,"
I took out my phone and summarized
the conversation so far in the group
chat, asking him whether there was
any similar ghost story.
***
[Lee Joon: Find out what kinds of ghost
stories there are that affect you as soon as you hear them. Stories where if you tell someone else, that person gets caught up in it too. Something similar to wiggle wiggle ghost story.]
[Ahn Gyeongwon: The type that affects you if you understand it?]
[Lee Joon: Right. Exactly.]
[Ahn Gyeongwon: There are a few. I'l
look for more and send them to you all at once.]
[Lee Joon: Thank you.]
I put down my phone and let out a sigh.
"It seems like we've found out
everything we could just by sitting
here "
"Seems that way. Let's get up now."
"Okay."
"Do you want to have dinner before
you leave? I'll buy it for you."
"Then can we go to an expensive
place? If it costs too much, I'll chip in
too."
"Really. Where to? I have to get
back soon because of the internal
investigation, so we can't go far."
"I just want to try a bossam restaurant.
I've never been to one before."
[T/N: A bossam restaurant is a Korean
eatery specializing in bossam, a special pork dish.]
"Bossam is pretty expensive, though."
The Detective and I got up from our
seats and left the cafe.
After sending a KakaoTalk message to
my mom saying I'd eat dinner out, I
went to a nearby bossam restaurant,
sent back all the kimchi and vegetables, and ordered nothing but a
huge mountain of meat.
"You should at least eat some of the
wrap vegetables. At this rate, you might as well have just come to eat plain boiled pork slices."
"That's exactly what I wanted. I came
here to eat as much bossam meat as I like."
"If you want to eat boiled pork slices,
from now on, just go to a nearby pork
curry restaurant. People usually come
to places like this to eat kimchi and
vegetables. Who sends everything
back and only eats the meat like this?
Honestly."
The Detective, who hada stoic
expression from the moment we met
all the way up to then, finally let out.
small chuckle.
I had thought the meat served with
bossam was a different type, so today
I learned for the first time that it's the
same as boiled pork slices.
"Nothing unusual so far. How about
you head home now? I have more than a few matters to take care of as well."
"Yes, I'll head back. If anything comes
up, please contact me right away."
"Alright. See you again."
I exchanged goodbyes with the
Detective in front of the National Police
Agency and then returned home.
'Once I get home, I'll have to finish
studying for the exam I didn't finish
and wait for news.'
I didn't know what went wrong or how
things unfolded to the point where the
Detective ended up shooting me, but
anyway, it was Friday.
Once the weekend, Saturday and Sunday, would pass and Monday morning arrived, the whole truth would Come out anyway.
I headed home, thinking that I'd just have to wait and see for now.
***
In the end, Friday, the day I met the Detective passed quietly without anything happening
I spent all of Saturday studying for the exam, passing another uneventful day that way. Then on Sunday, the day right before the exam, I went to the library to study, cooled off my head at an internet café, and didn't get home until the evening.
"What on earth is going on? Why hasn't the Detective contacted me?"
I fidgeted with my phone as I climbed the apartment stairs.
Tomorrow would be Monday again, and the Detective would shoot me in the morning, but there was still no word from him at all.
Beep~
"I'm back"
"Why is a kid who has an exam tomorrow staying out so much? A package arrived for you, you know?"
"A package?"
"Yeah~ Mom picked it up, it was left at the security guard's office yesterday~ I put it on the desk~"
"Yeah..."
I took off my shoes and raised a mental question mark.
"There's no package that should be arriving for me. What is it?"
I peeked into the dark room and saw a small delivery box sitting on my desk, just like Mom said.
"What is it?"
Click-
I tried to turn on the light first because it was dark, but the switch only made a clicking sound and the light didn't turn on.
"Mom, my light is broken."
"What~? Didn't we just replace it recently?"
Mom, who had been watching news on TV, stopped and came into my room, pressing the switch.
Click-
The light turned on instantly.
"It turns on just fine."
"..Tsk."
Whenever something wouldn't work or I couldn't find it, Mom would always make it work.
I scratched my head and walked into
the room.
Then, just as I was about to touch the
delivery box on the desk, I stopped and quickly glanced around.
"...Nothing's inside it, right?"
Come to think of it, even when the Detective was in the clubroom, the light wouldn't turn on.
As I briefly looked around my room, my eyes suddenly caught sight of the bug detection device I had bought before.
I had bought it together with the door lock back then. After checking the clubroom once, I brought it home to check my room too, and it was still an item in storage.
'..I should check it out.'
This, too, was a fairly expensive item, it would beep when brought close to not only wiretapping devices but also electronic equipment like hidden cameras.
Holding the bug detection device, which looked like a walkie-talkie, I carefully brought it to every corner of the room, especially around the switch that hadn't turned on earlier.
"..Nothing's there."
And then, the moment I turned back to the desk.
[Beep- Beep- Beep- Beep-]
"....!!"
Startled, I pulled the detector away.
"...The package?"
I picked up the package placed on the desk and brought it to the center of the room.
Then I held the detector up to it again.
The detector was silent.
[...]
"...."
I looked at the desk.
"The desk..?"
I walked back to the desk and held the detector up to it.
[Beep- beep- beep- beep-]
After lowering the volume, I checked the signal strength on the detector's Screen as I touched the antenna here and there.
And finally, I found the place where the signal was strongest; it was the back of the computer case.
"...What? Why here?"
And then, after confirming that the signal was ringing strongest from the back, especially from the case screw, I gently turned and loosened that screw.
"...What's this?"
I flinched as I examined the screw I had loosened.
It was slightly different from a normal screw, a fairly large one, about the size of a single finger joint, used for the computer case's outer cover.
In the center of that large screw, a very tiny, unidentified semiconductor-like chip was embedded.
".....?"
The signal the bug detector had picked up must have come from right here.
I hurried to the kitchen and tore off a handful of aluminum foil, the kind used for wrapping food.
Then I returned to my room and wrapped that problematic bug screw tightly in aluminum foil.
"That way, the signal won't be able to leak out."
I decided to keep this safe and show it to the Detective.
I immediately texted the Detective that I had found a bug in my room, also added that a strange package had arrived, and finally headed toward the delivery box.
"Shall I take a look and see what it is?"