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The police officers who received the report arrived quickly, equipped with tools to retrieve the wallet from the railing.
“So you’re saying the wallet fell through the gap in the railing?”
“…Yes. It slipped toward the bottom gap over there.”
“What was inside the wallet?”
She glanced nervously between the officers and me before answering. “…A million won.”
She’d been carrying quite a bit. I bowed my head deeply to the police. “Please, I’m begging you.”
“Ha… This is exactly why cards and mobile payments are safer. Cash is just asking for trouble. …We’ll take a look.”
“Thank you so much. You must be busy.”
“It’s our job. Don’t mention it.”
The middle-aged officer who seemed to be the most senior said that and began searching for the wallet with his colleagues. They looked reassuringly competent.
“Hey, what were you thinking, trying to climb down there yourself? I’m not joking—you could’ve died.”
“…But the police have to catch criminals. They shouldn’t be wasting time picking up wallets.”
“Finding a wallet is nothing compared to pulling your body out of the river as a corpse.”
What kind of life leads someone to decide they’d rather scale a bridge railing alone than bother the police?
“It’s easier for me to handle things myself than to ask someone for help. I don’t want to owe anyone… especially when I have no way to repay them.”
I’d thought her determination to do everything alone showed good independence, but that wasn’t it. This girl’s self-esteem was simply in the gutter. With a face that looked like she smoked two packs a day, her mannerisms were those of a constantly anxious meerkat. For someone in my position—someone who needed to use her—it was actually a welcome personality trait. Indecisive and pessimistic; if I pushed hard enough, she’d probably follow along without resistance.
I moistened my lips and spoke. “Don’t treat it like some heavy burden called ‘debt.’”
Gyeowool lifted her head and looked at me.
“When you’re in trouble, the effort and risk you’d have to take on might be huge for you, but to someone else it could be relatively easy.”
Crises were always relative.
“A single ‘thank you’ could be more than enough reward. So it’s okay to ask for help.”
So ask me. You’ll get an introduction to Cheon Jonghun, and I’ll get a job referral. Let’s both profit from this arrangement.
She had been staring up at the night sky with swollen eyes. After glancing at me, she asked quietly, “…My name is Han Gyeowool. How would you like me to address you?”
“Just call me ajusshi.”
“…You don’t really seem like an ajusshi,” she muttered, but the bridge was quiet enough that I heard it clearly. At least she seemed favorably disposed. That was good.
“You said you came up from the countryside. Was there no adult with you? Or any acquaintances in Seoul?”
“Ah… My parents aren’t around, and my grandfather has trouble traveling, so I came alone. I don’t have any connections here either…”
I didn’t feel like giving her some condescending lecture about how reckless it was for a minor to come up alone. On the contrary, I was grateful she’d been bold enough to do it. That was how I’d found my opening. If she’d had a guardian, no amount of smooth talking would have kept them from suspecting my motives.
“I see. That must have taken a lot of resolve.”
I spoke like a genuinely supportive adult. “When I told him I wanted to go, Grandfather gave me the money he’d saved… and now I’ve gone and lost it… *hic* *sob*.”
The tears she’d managed to stop began flowing again.
“There, there… It’s all right. The officers will find it.”
I pulled the tissues I’d kept in my pocket and handed them to her. She bowed her head and blew her nose loudly. On the bridge at dawn, only the sounds of the police searching and her nose-blowing echoed.
From what she’d said, this girl named Gyeowool was planning to audition for CH tomorrow. That meant she was interested in becoming a trainee, so the difficulty of persuasion had dropped. But it wasn’t entirely good news. The status window never lied—if she had talent on Gyeowool’s level, she’d pass CH’s audition easily. The problem started after that. If she passed and began life as a trainee, I wouldn’t have any room to insert myself and make a deal with Cheon Jonghun. My plan to introduce her and profit would fall apart.
Should I try to convince her that SS was a more attractive agency than CH? Or should I strong-arm her into at least getting an introduction and securing a promise? I was still weighing the options when one of the officers called out.
“Miss, could you come over for a moment?”
“They must have found it. Let’s go.”
The middle-aged officer who had been kind earlier spoke in a regretful tone. “Miss, are you sure you dropped it right there?”
Sensing the uneasy atmosphere, Gyeowool clasped her hands together as if praying. “Yes… It fell out from that section.”
“We checked the camera footage thoroughly, but unfortunately we couldn’t see anything.”
The officer kindly showed her the recorded video while explaining. “If it had fallen from that gap, it would have to be somewhere in this area or just outside the netting here. But as you can see, there’s nothing.”
“…Oh, then… uh…”
Gyeowool’s pupils trembled like candle flames. The officer looked at her sympathetically and spoke with consideration. “I’ll give you a ride home for now. Where do you live?”
“Home? It’s… a little far. I’m fine.”
“Even if it’s a little far, it’s no problem. Where is it?”
“…Actually, it’s not a little far. It’s very far.”
“Where exactly?”
“…Jeonnam.”
When she named a place that would take at least three hours and forty minutes even by express bus, the officer’s sympathetic gaze changed. A wallet stuffed with cash, a home far from Seoul, typical delinquent fashion, and a minor. All the classic signs of a runaway.
“Jeonnam? Huh… Where are your guardians? They should be informed about this situation.”
Gyeowool must have felt the atmosphere turning strange, because sweat began beading on her forehead. Her pupils shook wildly before she suddenly looked at me and shouted, “…H-He’s my guardian!”
Since when had I become her guardian? I’d wanted to get close enough to use her, but not this close. I wanted the benefits of introducing her without the responsibility. I just wanted the honey without the sting.
The middle-aged officer looked between us with suspicion. “Pardon me, but what exactly is your relationship?”
Mid-teens and mid-twenties. An ambiguous age gap. Striking trainee-level beauty and an ordinary face. No matter how you looked at it, they didn’t resemble family. Even if I agreed with Gyeowool and claimed to be her guardian, the officer could easily expose the lie if he wanted to. And if that happened, we wouldn’t exactly receive friendly treatment. In the worst case, we could even get tangled up in some criminal suspicion.
No matter how I calculated it, the risk far outweighed the return of Gyeowool’s goodwill. After finishing my mental ledger, I was about to draw the line when my eyes met hers. She was looking at me with tears welling up, shaking her head desperately. It seemed like getting her grandfather involved would be extremely troublesome for her. The same girl who had climbed the railing alone rather than burden the police was now desperately claiming a man she’d just met as her guardian.
What would happen if the police called her grandfather? Even if I were the grandfather, hearing that my granddaughter who’d been sent to Seoul alone had lost her wallet and was now penniless would probably make me drop everything and rush up here. Or send another adult. Either way, her audition would become difficult.
Making the audition difficult was actually good for me. If she lost her chance and became desperate, she’d be more likely to accept my offer of an introduction. But having a guardian come up would introduce new variables. Both options had their pros and cons, but my mind leaned toward the latter—bearing less risk.
Then a thought occurred to me. In my previous life, during all the years I’d spent in the entertainment industry, I had never once seen this girl named Gyeowool. I had checked every small and mid-sized agency for market research. There was no way CH, famous for being a girl group factory, would fail to debut a trainee with her level of talent. That meant her audition had failed somehow, and her debut had been derailed.
If her audition was going to fail regardless of my involvement, then there was no risk in raising her favorability. Once I reached that conclusion, I knew exactly where to place my bet.
Right. If I’d already gone so far as to play the part of a would-be suicide victim just to build empathy, I might as well stay consistent. My eyes met Gyeowool’s again. I gave her a look that said to trust only me. She nodded slightly, as if she believed me.
Good. I’ll show you something.