Beast Tamer
Annam Police Station Chief Kim Gwang-yeon was a man who cared about practicalities, but he also kept his word once he gave it.
This time, in the review for special performance awards, the names of Detective Lee Joo-seok and Officer Song Tan were placed side by side, and without any controversy, the two of them were granted five million won in bonus pay.
Not only that, but the disciplinary committee scheduled to convene soon for Lee Joo-seok was canceled, and the internal affairs matter was quietly buried as well.
As the shackles that had bound him one by one came loose, the sour, cynical air around Lee Joo-seok gradually changed too.
The talk of excessive force disappeared before long, and he went on to solve every case assigned to him as smoothly as water finding its course.
Thanks to that, the reputation of being an uncontrollable handful began to fade, and his standing as the ace of Annam West Station returned as well.
Most of the staff at Annam West Station knew it.
They knew where this change had started, and who was the one gently handling the claws that had once swung wild in every direction.
The fact that the beast everyone had believed could never be tamed had only just become the responsibility of a rookie detective was, in Annam West Station, something close to an open secret.
***
[♬~~♬]
A building manager from the officetel pressed the intercom for room 1405.
[Haa, what now?]
A brusque male voice drifted out of the speaker.
"This is the management office. Sorry to bother you at this late hour. The detector in room 1405 keeps sending a malfunction signal, so I was wondering if we could go in and take care of it."
[Damn it, what the hell at this hour... Come back later. Later.]
"I'd like to, but if we leave it alone, the whole building could set off an alarm. In the worst case, the sprinklers could go off too. We only need to check the receiver by the front door, so if you could spare us just a moment, I'd really appreciate it."
A short silence hung over the intercom.
[Shit....]
A low curse followed, and only after about five minutes had passed did—
Click—
The heavy front door finally opened.
A man in his thirties, with hair standing up in messy spikes and a sleeveless shirt on, appeared with a scowl on his face.
"What the hell, at this hour, with no basic manners—"
In that instant, a thick hand caught the front door and yanked it open hard.
"Kim Jae-hyun? That's you, right?"
The man, startled by Lee Joo-seok's massive frame, stumbled back a step.
"W-who are you?"
"We’re from Annam Police Station. You know Park Sol-mi, right?"
The man nodded, looking dazed.
"Yeah. She was my girlfriend until recently. Why?"
"Park Sol-mi is currently missing. Her mother filed a report after she hadn't been able to contact her daughter for two days."
"So?"
"Coincidentally, the last call Park Sol-mi made was to you, Kim Jae-hyun. Where is she?"
At Lee Joo-seok's question, the man's face twisted harshly.
"How the fuck would I know? The bitch ran off after cheating on me."
Lee Joo-seok's eye twitched, and he swept his gaze over the room visible past the man's shoulder.
"Mind if we come in for a moment?"
The man froze, then glared at them both with open hostility.
"What gives you the right to barge into someone's house? Because you're cops, that makes it okay? Got a warrant? Bring a warrant!"
"Ah, so you like warrants? We have one right here. Then step aside, would you?"
Lee Joo-seok shoved the man aside and walked into the apartment, while Song Tan moved in close beside him.
It was a loft-style unit, but the inside was unexpectedly neat and orderly.
The sharp eyes of the two detectives swept through every corner of the room.
Then Song Tan gave Lee Joo-seok a glance toward the bathroom, which was tightly shut.
Lee Joo-seok turned the handle.
Click, click—
It was locked from the inside.
"Why is this locked?"
"It's broken. I was going to call someone to fix it tomorrow."
The man fumbled over his words, flustered.
"Oh? Is that so?"
After turning the handle a few more times, Lee Joo-seok—
Bang!
—kicked the bathroom door clean off its hinges.
The wooden door split with a sickening crack, a hole bursting open in the middle.
Lee Joo-seok looked through the opening.
A woman lay curled up on the floor, her hands and feet bound and tape wrapped over her mouth.
"You sons of bitches!"
The man suddenly changed his tune and pulled a knife from inside his clothes.
In that instant—
"Ghk!"
The man's arm was wrenched behind his back by Song Tan, and his face was slammed into the floor.
Click—
"You are under arrest for unlawful confinement and aggravated assault. You have the right to offer an explanation, the right to remain silent, the right to counsel, and later, you may petition for a review of the legality of your arrest."
The man, forced to his knees with his arm bent grotesquely behind him, began thrashing like a lunatic.
"You fucking bastard! Let go of me, you asshole—!? I said let go!?"
When Song Tan released the arm he was holding—
"Aaagh!"
—the man lost his balance and smashed his face into the floor again.
"You told me to let go."
The man glared at Song Tan with murderous hatred.
Click!
The building manager opened the bathroom door with a master key, and Lee Joo-seok hurriedly rescued the woman inside.
The woman, wearing pajamas, had been beaten so badly that her face was swollen like she’d been stung by a swarm of bees, and her lips were dry and split open, blood seeping from the cracks.
After checking the pulse of the unconscious woman, Lee Joo-seok grabbed his radio.
"This is Lee Joo-seok of Violent Crimes Team 1. One female victim rescued from unlawful confinement. Requesting an ambulance immediately. Location is Guchondong Pentaport Officetel..."
After finishing the call, Lee Joo-seok approached the man.
"You pathetic little bastard. Your girlfriend breaks up with you, and you do this to her? And you call yourself a man?"
The man shouted back, as if tearing his throat apart.
"Fuck! She betrayed me first, that bitch! When she was saying we’d spend our whole lives together, what, and now she stabs me in the back?"
"You mean she supported you through your civil service exam and everything? If you were even a halfway decent human being, you’d be bowing three times a day in gratitude, you little—!"
"So what? Isn’t it only natural for a woman to support a man? While I’m stuck working some goddamn shit company, huh!? I was gonna pass the exam anyway, and then she’d be living as a madam! She just couldn’t handle that and went crazy, that stupid bitch!"
The abuse was so vile it seemed enough to rot the ears clean off. Lee Joo-seok's face began to redden.
Just as his fist started to rise and the tendons in his forearm bulged—
"Calm down, sir."
Song Tan stepped in first and laid a hand on the back of the man's neck.
No, not quite a hand—more like a feint, while he sent internal force into Raenoeum, the point where the cervical vessels crossed.
The man felt a sharp stab of pain in his back, and at the same time—
"Hk!"
—his muscles locked up as if seizing, and his mouth snapped shut.
Pain rippled out to the tips of his fingers like an electric shock.
Five seconds of agony, thirty seconds of rigid muscle tension.
His mind stayed clear, but with his muscles paralyzed, he couldn't force out a single word.
"What's wrong with him?"
Lee Joo-seok looked baffled, watching the man suddenly go quiet.
"Not sure. Perhaps he has some chronic illness? Sir!? Are you all right?"
Song Tan shook the man's shoulder, as though concerned, and drew the internal force back in.
The man began drooling, staring at Song Tan with eyes full of fear and confusion.
"Why are you suddenly like this? Like someone who just got struck by lightning?"
"Y-you...!?"
"Still not clear-headed? Then I should probably do it again..."
"N-no! No!"
The man was already half out of his mind.
If this was what being struck by lightning felt like, then maybe it really was?
It was a horrendous pain that burned away even the thought of what to do next.
After that, the man lost all will to resist, like a broken doll, and obediently followed the detectives out.
****
By the time they had finished questioning the suspect, the two of them left the police station side by side.
The evidence had been far too obvious, and since the victim had been recovered at the scene, the culprit admitted his crime without resistance.
Lee Joo-seok, with a cigarette in his mouth, stole a glance at Song Tan.
"Thanks."
"For what?"
Lee Joo-seok grumbled awkwardly, as if embarrassed.
"For putting up with a shitty senior partner, you brat."
"Well, this is the sort of thing I'd only be able to do with you."
"What was that, punk?"
Lee Joo-seok frowned, then let out a snort of laughter.
He couldn't exactly deny it.
Nor could he deny the changes in himself.
His temper, which used to boil over whenever he saw criminals, had calmed down a great deal.
No, more precisely, there was no time for it to blow up in the first place.
Whenever the thread of reason seemed about to snap, his junior partner would always step in.
And the ending was always clean. There was nothing left to argue about.
For reasons he couldn't explain, the culprit would end up crying, snot streaming down his face, apologizing and confessing every last detail of his crime.
There had even been one especially stubborn bastard once, a man who'd resisted until the very end.
He'd carried out an armed robbery at a convenience store at dawn, and even while screaming, he kept thrashing and cursing.
Afterward, he filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission, claiming the detective had used excessive force, and even asked for a full medical examination at the hospital.
But there were plenty of CCTV recordings and eyewitnesses proving that the two detectives hadn't done a damn thing, so the complaint was dismissed immediately.
The doctor also submitted a report stating there was no trauma and no objective abnormality beyond the subjectively perceived pain.
As if that weren't enough, the court ruled that the culprit had abused his rights, and handed down a heavier sentence than the one he would have originally received.
Before his anger could even rise, the case would already be over, and whether the culprit's remorse was genuine or not, he'd be putting on such a convincing display of repentance that there was nothing left for him to be angry about. It was a ridiculous situation.
Thanks to that, the thing he heard most these days was:
"Damn, Joo-ttol. You look good lately. You change wives, and suddenly life gets easy, huh?"
"I hear the two of you have been tearing across all of Annam lately. You really are a match made in heaven."
That sort of thing.
The first time he heard it, he had been disgusted. Now, he just accepted it.
He had met the best partner a man could ever hope for in a lifetime.
At this rate, if things went well, the demotion he had once been facing might even be restored before long.
He was putting up that outstanding a record.
"You don't have anything rough going on these days, do you?"
At his senior partner's abrupt question, Song Tan tilted his head.
"Why do you ask all of a sudden?"
"We're busier than we can breathe. I was wondering if you were pushing yourself too hard."
"This is what I wanted. It's very good."
At the crisp answer, the corner of Lee Joo-seok's mouth twitched.
"You're crazy too, you know that?"
"Well, it is the kind of senior partner and junior partner that fit each other."
"What was that, punk?"
"Or not."
As they kept up their usual dry banter, Lee Joo-seok asked casually, "You’re off tomorrow, right? Want to grab some daytime drinks?"
Lately, Lee Joo-seok had been pestering Song Tan to drink with him every chance he got.
Even though he wasn’t particularly fond of alcohol himself.
"Sorry, but I already have plans tomorrow."
"Plans? You, who’re usually locked up at home?"
"I was going to visit my mother after a long time."
"Your mother?"
Lee Joo-seok, who knew all about Song Tan's family circumstances, frowned in confusion.
***
The next day, Song Tan drove somewhere in the late afternoon.
On the outskirts of Annam City, behind a church, stood a three-story building.
Song Tan entered the place called Raphael's House and headed straight for the second floor.
Knock, knock—
When he opened the door and stepped inside—
"Oh my! Tan, is that you?"
An elderly nun wearing reading glasses and tapping away at a keyboard hurried over to him.
Sunlight filtered over her gray habit, making her kind expression seem even softer.
"I'm sorry. It's been too long since I last came, hasn't it?"
"Hoho, you were here just two weeks ago. Now sit down. Would you like something to drink?"
"Anything is fine."
Sitting on the sofa, Song Tan glanced around the room.
The walls and shelves were crowded with drawings made by the children.
He watched the sister, moving briskly back and forth, with close attention.
"You look even more tired lately."
"Oh? Do I? Maybe because I haven't been sleeping well these days."
The mother superior smiled and poured tea into a mug.
Steam rose from the cup, filling the room with a warm fragrance.
"The children have been in a frenzy lately. They keep asking why Uncle Tan hasn't come. Honestly, they miss you more than they miss me."
"Tan was the affectionate nickname the children at the orphanage used for Song Tan.
"I'm sorry. I've been trying to make time somehow, but..."
The mother superior looked at him with warm, affectionate eyes.
"I know how hard you try. You have no idea how proud and grateful that makes me feel..."
"It’s nothing. I'm only doing what I should."
"How long has it been now since you became connected with our orphanage, Tan?"
"Since I was assigned to the local police substation... it's been almost two years, I think."
"Heaven above... has it really been that long already?"
A wistful look passed through the wrinkles around the mother superior's eyes.
"Thinking back on it now, it's all so strange."
"What is?"
"When Tan came all the way here out of the blue, said he wanted to volunteer at the orphanage, and donated such a large sum of money."
"Ah..."
"At the time, I thought maybe the son of some rich family had suddenly gone off his head. But later I realized. How sincere you are toward the children. I still feel bad when I think about it. I misunderstood you for no reason."
"No, from your point of view, it would have been natural to think that way."
The mother superior sipped her tea and studied Song Tan's face as if trying to read it.
"It's really strange. I'm sorry to say this, but our Tan doesn't exactly have a gentle face, so why is it that the children open their hearts to you so quickly and end up liking you so much? Hoho, I mean, I'm very happy about it."
In a way, it had been something like a whim.
He had decided to try volunteering at the orphanage because in his No. 28 life, he too had grown up in a place like this.
Of course, there was the small difference that it had been a place for learning how to kill rather than a welfare facility.
The nun, her eyes crescent-shaped with delight, suddenly clapped her hands as if remembering something.
"Ah! Right. There's Min-a."
"Big Min-a, or little Min-a?"
There were two children at the orphanage who used the name Min-a.
Fifteen-year-old Oh Min-a, and Kwak Min-a, who had turned ten this year.
"Little Min-a. Next week, she'll finally be able to go back to her mother's arms."
"Oh, really?"
The corners of Song Tan's mouth lifted slightly.
Little Min-a was a child who relied on him and acted cute more than anyone else.
So Song Tan felt especially attached to her too.
"Min-a's mother found a stable job, so now she can take Min-a back. Isn't that wonderful?"
"That's really great. She used to sing about how badly she wanted to live with her mom."
"She's been so excited lately she's practically bouncing off the walls. Hoho, just watching her is enough to melt your heart."
She was genuinely happy that the child she'd raised like a daughter would be leaving the facility and returning to her mother's embrace.
That was why Song Tan found Mother Superior both admirable and strange.
The very fact that she could make such unconditional sacrifices, no, such devotion, for someone else.
"Will Min-a be coming a bit early today? She'll be so happy if she knows you're here."
The mother superior glanced at the clock on the wall, then smacked her knee with her hand.
"Ah, right. There was something Min-a wanted me to tell you the next time Uncle Tan came. Just a moment."
Going over to her desk, the mother superior took something out of a drawer.
"Here, take this."
Song Tan, bewildered, accepted the sketchbook she handed him.
When he opened it, crude crayon drawings filled the pages.
In the picture, a man with shoulders broad as a mountain had been drawn with three stars on his chest.
Next to the giant man was a little girl with spiky hair, and the two of them were holding hands tightly, looking very close.
"Hoho, the man there is you, Tan, and the girl says she's Min-a. Funny, isn't it?"
"Why would she draw this...?"
"She said she had a scary dream, and that you came to save her? Then she drew that picture. She said it's less scary when you're there."
Song Tan said nothing as he looked at the drawing.
Below it, in crooked handwriting, was another sentence:
『If Uncle Policarp Tan is here, I’m not scared at all! He’s the strongest person in the whole world.』
For a long while, Song Tan could only stare blankly at the drawing.
Then his phone buzzed loudly, snapping him back to reality.
The caller was his senior partner, Lee Joo-seok.
"Yes, Senior."
[Tan! Sorry to bother you on your day off, but you need to get here right now.]
"Something happened?"
[You know Choi Doo-gil, right? The one who got out last year.]
There was no way he could not know.
He had been the brutal child sex offender who shocked the nation eleven years ago, and he was now living in Annam after his release.
[That crazy bastard cut off his electronic ankle monitor and disappeared somewhere. The whole place is in an uproar, so hurry up and get here.]
Before his senior partner had even finished speaking—
Swish—
A chill rose in waves up the back of Song Tan's neck, all the way from where he held the sketchbook.
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