Unbeliever (3)
Gong Yunseok revered his father.
His father was an exemplary man.
He had climbed the elite track in the police force, holding high positions and achieving numerous accomplishments.
Gong Yunseok admired such a father and aspired to live like him.
That was why he entered the police academy.
Even though his grades could have gotten him into a better university.
His mother hadn't been thrilled, but his father had been quite pleased.
"Yun-seok, if you truly want to become a proper police officer, you must understand the weight of laws and rules."
From a young age, his father had emphasized that nothing was more important than abiding by laws and rules.
When Gong Yunseok enrolled in the police academy, his father spoke even more earnestly about it.
Even the seemingly trivial rules were written in blood.
Break them, and danger follows.
So he adhered strictly to laws and rules.
It was only natural, then, that he topped the police academy and became the representative of the 47th class.
"Aren't you too rigid?"
"I simply follow the rules and act accordingly."
"People need flexibility. Flexibility."
Among the young police cadets, he was so stiff that they wouldn't have been surprised to call him an old fogey.
Many classmates respected him, but few were close to him.
One of the rare exceptions was Won Gyuseong.
A classmate whose grades weren't great but whose good personality made him popular.
Full of pranks and occasionally breaking rules, yet he had thick rapport with everyone.
That might be why he accepted Gong Yunseok.
"You're too rigid. Live a bit more loosely."
"Rules and principles are important."
"Jeez."
Always chuckling lightly by his side, that friend and classmate.
One day, he made an earnest plea.
"Hey, can I go out tonight?"
"Can you?"
"Argh. If the dorm rep like you approves, I can go out."
"According to the rules, overnight stays are only for top academic performers..."
"That's why I'm asking you like this."
Gong Yunseok looked at Won Gyuseong.
Ignoring a friend's desperate request wasn't easy.
And it was just an overnight stay, after all.
If he lent his own overnight privilege, it would be fine.
For his friend, he bent the rules just a little.
That was why he regretted it.
Won Gyuseong was dead.
He'd killed the guy tormenting his brother and then committed suicide on the spot.
When Gong Yunseok heard the news, he was stunned.
'Why?'
Why had Won Gyuseong died?
Because I'd approved his overnight.
'Why?'
Why did he die?
What made it possible for him to go out when he shouldn't have?
Rules.
Principles.
He hadn't followed them.
If I hadn't approved his overnight...
He wouldn't have met the bastard who drove his brother to death.
He would have graduated the academy with me and lived as a police officer.
All of it...
'I ruined it.'
A single lapse.
A single mistake.
It killed his closest friend.
That was more than enough to become Gong Yunseok's horrific trauma.
I calmly examined Gong Yunseok's past and future.
Before the police academy.
And after, when that incident crushed him.
He never denied living righteously.
If he were just trash obsessed with rules and principles, ignorant of true responsibility, I would have excluded him.
But despite his fixation on rules and principles, he was undeniably a good man.
He had a sense of justice and wanted to save people.
He was like that only because of the past; solve that issue, and he could be an excellent cop saving countless lives.
No reason not to help, then.
"There's a reason you cling so tightly to principles."
Gong Yunseok stayed silent, just as in the past I'd seen.
Even after graduating and being assigned to the field, he prioritized rules and principles for a reason.
If only he hadn't allowed that unauthorized overnight.
If only he hadn't gone out, he wouldn't have met that guy.
At least, he'd be out there like me now.
That thought dominated him always.
"...What do you know?"
"I don't. I'm not as smart as a police academy graduate like you."
The incident with Won Gyuseong.
It had become a curse on Gong Yunseok.
And that curse was eating away at him.
Making him ignore reality to uphold rules and principles.
"What happened back then wasn't your fault. It was just... something that was going to happen."
If I'd been there, I'd have stopped it somehow.
But what could be done about things already past?
"...That was my fault."
"Who said it wasn't? It was a mistake, but don't get so hung up on it."
I shrugged.
"You think Won Gyuseong wouldn't have killed that guy if you'd stopped him that day?"
"That's..."
Maybe after becoming a cop, he'd have tracked him down and killed him even more brutally.
"You know right from wrong well enough."
Gong Yunseok fell silent.
Time for a different topic, then?
"In three days, you'll get a stalking report."
"......"
Stalker.
A headache.
What police could do to current stalkers was limited to restraining orders.
That was all, based on what the stalker had done so far.
The problem was that the stalker would eventually cross the line.
Despite the report, Gong Yunseok would follow law and principle, and the victim would end up butchered to death.
"Even knowing that future, will you prioritize law and principle? Or use some backdoor way to save her?"
Gong Yunseok stayed silent.
Only one thing I could say to him.
Remember: if you don't act, that person dies.
He gave no reply to my words.
But I could see his eyes wavering.
Yes. Bound by rules though he was, he was just man enough.
So he'd move.
Gong Yunseok bowed his head in long silence.
But his future was changing.
This was all I could do.
And for good measure, I shouldn't forget to tell Kang Injeong separately.
After Kang Noah left and Kang Injeong insisted several times that he was trustworthy, Gong Yunseok gave no answer.
Three days later.
He was deep in reports at his desk.
"Sir. Um..."
"What is it?"
"We got a stalking report."
One hesitant detective spoke cautiously.
"It doesn't seem particularly dangerous yet."
"......."
It was true.
Three days after meeting Kang Noah, the stalking report came in.
[That person will be butchered to death.]
Kang Noah's words echoed.
Gong Yunseok felt his heart pound.
By principle now, all police could do was issue a restraining order to the stalker.
But was that enough?
The reporter might die.
"...Can I, can I go meet her?"
"Pardon? You, sir? Uh... yes, sure."
The assigned detective looked puzzled but went with him.
The place was a small cafe.
Yu Hyemi, the owner in her early thirties, let out a heavy sigh.
"...Lately, this weird old guy's been approaching me."
"Only at the shop?"
"Yes... for now. And there are letters at the entrance too. Somehow he got my number and sends these messages."
The messages said things like "Let's date" or "Can I come over?"
"It's gotten worse lately."
She'd endured as owner treating customers, but now it was too much.
The man in the photo looked nothing like a match for a woman in her early thirties—clearly over fifty.
"He keeps proposing marriage, calling himself a good guy, telling me to call him oppa..."
"Oppa...?"
The age gap was over twenty years.
More like dad or uncle material.
"He runs a junk shop nearby..."
"I see."
"Yes. And he shows up near my house a lot..."
With this, police could do almost nothing.
At best, a written warning and restraining order.
Preliminary measures might block him, but processing time mattered.
This was the limit for street-level cops.
So they should back off here.
But Gong Yunseok said seriously,
"Can I stake out nearby for a while?"
It went against principle.
Worst case, he'd face discipline.
So he couldn't assign it to a subordinate.
If something happened, he'd take responsibility himself—direct preparation.
The best Gong Yunseok could do.
.
.
.
Thus began the stakeout.
With cooperation from a small restaurant near the cafe, he peered through a telescope from a second-floor window, focused on the cafe.
Yu Hyemi was passionate.
Running a small cafe, yet kind to many.
She gave coffee to patrolling cops in the neighborhood.
Handed snacks to kids heading to school.
Offered cold water to elderly folks out in the heat.
Chatted and laughed with nearby shop owners.
A good person.
Then an old man approached that good person.
The moment Gong Yunseok saw him, he knew.
How troubled Yu Hyemi was.
He never would have known without watching like this.
Was that why?
His trust in Kang Noah was rising.