The Young Accomplices (3)

Okay. If that’s the case, then things could work out.

I spoke to Sang-Beom with a wide smile on my face.

“If you help me out a little, I’ll help you in return. Whether it’s learning how to speak with a silver tongue or something else, I can give it to you.”

I tucked Chief Kim’s business card into his pocket.

At that moment, Jin Hwa-An emerged from the building, looking for me.

“I’m very sorry. I’ve kept you waiting for so long.”

“Not at all. It’s perfectly fine.”

“If you would like to see more…”

While tidying up her slightly disarrayed hair, she gestured to me to follow her back inside.

However, since I didn’t feel the need to see any more, I just took out my wallet once again.

From it, I pulled out three crisp, white cheques.

As the saying goes, if you have a lot of time on your hands, then you don’t have much money; and if you have a lot of money, then you don’t have the time to spend it all.

That described my situation perfectly. I handed the cheques to her with a smile.

“I would like to make a donation. For now, just these three big ones.”

With my eyes, I sent a signal to Sang-Beom, whose jaw had dropped to the floor.

It was a sign that we should go meet somewhere away from here.

There were a lot of things that I wanted to ask about this somewhat suspicious orphanage.

***

Sang-Beom and I arranged a rendezvous through Chief Kim.

The place where we met was a snackbar in front of a nearby school.

The tteokbokki and fish cakes served in a green bowl looked delicious.

“Thanks for the food.”

Sang-Beom picked up his fork as soon as the food got to the table.

At this behavior, the girl sitting next to him scolded him.

“Hey. You’re not supposed to carelessly accept this sort of thing.”

The name tag on the girl’s chest read Gong Ji-Hye.

As her name implied, she really did look quite wise.

Since Ji-Hye wasn’t aware that I was a police officer, she had decided to keep a watchful eye on me for now.

I smiled broadly and held out a fork to her as well.

“Looks like Sang-Beom needs to learn from you.”

“This hyung is my older brother’s friend. It’s fine, so eat up.”

Ji-Hye gave Sang-Beom a sceptical glance before accepting the fork.

While sipping on my water, I slowly got to the point.

“So I’ve heard that you’ve been volunteering at Aeryuwon for quite some time?”

“Only for a month. Why?”

“How’s the atmosphere there? Are all the teachers there as good as the kids say they are?”

“…of course. Everyone is nice. Although the principal is a bit scary, there needs to be at least one strict person on the staff.”

Ji-Hye replied while chewing on a rice cake.

Even as her eyes were still full of vigilance.

“By chance, have you noticed anything that felt strange or unusual? For example, have there been any suspicious men visiting, or has the principal taken regular leaves of absent from her work-”

Click-

Ji-Hye set down her fork, making a loud noise.

After giving her a stealthy side-glance, Sang-Beom also stopped moving his fork.

Ji-Hye grabbed hold of her bag and looked as if she was on the verge of running out of here.

“Right now, oppa is the most suspicious person. Why are you asking all these sorts of questions?”

Hm. Can’t be helped.

Looks like I need to be a bit more direct in my investigation..

From my pocket, I took out my police badge.

Ji-Hye took the badge and rubbed it discreetly in several places to check if it was real or not.

I couldn’t tell why such a sharp kid is hanging out with Sang-Beom.

Ji-Hye returned my badge after she looked like she had finished satisfying her suspicions.

Seeing as how the bag she had been holding onto tightly was lowered to the ground once more, it looked like she had lowered her guard.

“You’re a police officer?”

“So my hyung had a cop as one of his friends…”

The sparkle in Sang-Beom’s eyes deepened as he looked at me.

Ji-Hye picked up her fork once more and returned to eating the tteokbokki.

Now we could have a more relaxed conversation.

“Why is a police officer interested in Aeryuwon?”

“It’s just a simple investigation. That’s why, do you mind telling me anything you can think of?”

Taking out my notebook, I asked them gently.

Ji-Hye and Sang-Beom looked like they were trying to recall something.

Sang-Beom was the first to speak up.

“But there really isn’t anything. Our volunteering time is all spent playing with the children or eating some snacks.”

“That’s right. There’s nothing too difficult. Ah, except for that. When we have to part with the kids.”

“Uh-huh. That is a bit depressing.”

Sang-Beom and Ji-Hye nodded their heads as if they were sympathizing with each other.

“Since the orphanage is well run, the children get adopted quickly.”

“Is that so?”

“Should I say that we get as many kids coming as we do kids leaving? It feels like they leave as soon as we get attached.”

“But it’s been a bit slower since last week. And because there have been too many admissions, the servings of food have been a bit lacking.”

“There’s a place that delivers groceries to us once a week, but we only ordered the usual amount. So this week we keep falling short on the number of side-dishes.”

So the number of children being adopted has decreased since last week?