Vacation to Jeju (1)

“Wow. This is a lot fancier than I expected.”

Sang-Beom and Ji-Hye’s eyes widened as they boarded the plane and were guided to their spacious and comfortable seats. It was the first time that either of them had ever seen chairs like this, ones which were equipped with all sorts of convenient functions.

As Chief Kim followed behind them, he said, “Because we were in such a rush, I could only book seats in the business class.”

“I don’t know what that means, but it sounds amazing.”

As the children went to take their seats, they froze and looked at each other.

Then they politely began offering for each other to go first.

“Would you like to take the window seat?”

“Me? No no, I’m fine. You sit there.”

“But I’m really okay, I don’t…”

As Chief Kim and I watched this scene, I called out to the children.

“If you both want to sit in the window seat, then one of you should come here. I’ll switch seats with you.”

When Ji-Hye heard this, she abruptly shook her head. Then she pushed Sang-Beom into their row of seats and took the aisle seat for herself. Once seated, she waved her hands at us to show that we could leave them be.

“It’s fine. You stay there, we’ll just sit next to each other.”

Oh boy. They sure are having fun. Chief Kim and I smiled in bemusement as we looked at the children.

“Kids these days sure are quick to adapt.”

“That’s for sure. Must be nice. Phew.”

Chief Kim sighed as he sat down next to me. As if waiting for someone’s call, he refused to let go of his handphone.

While buckling my belt, I asked out of curiosity, “Is there some kind of emergency?”

Chief Kim’s eyes were blazing and he had his teeth clenched as he turned to look at me. Although his expression showed resentment, he refused to let any of it show in his words.

“Hoho. Why do you think that might be?”

I vaguely knew what was going on, but I was pretending to be unaware. Since he had asked for time off until Monday, then he must have had plans of his own. He might have intended to see his girlfriend, or something along those lines. However it would be too awkward for me to endure if I had to go travelling with two kids by myself.

I looked through the letters that Sang-Beom had lent me and asked Chief Kim a question, “Do you like France?”

“What’s there to like or dislike about it? France is just France.”

Chief Kim’s tone felt a bit prickly.

“Once we get back from Jeju, let me borrow some of your time.”

“What time? Now, I don’t even have any vacation hours left.”

“I need to ask you for a favour. Take a short trip to France for me. I’ll get you as much time off as you want, so you can even go and do some sightseeing.”

“What kind of favor…?”

“I’ll write down an address. All you need to do is go to that address and meet with someone. There’s something that I’m curious about, but I can’t contact them at the moment, and it looks like they don’t intend to return to Korea.”

“Is that all that I need to do?”

Chief Kim’s voice was already warming up. After all, this was a vacation with ‘as much time off as you want’. And since it was a business trip, that meant all expenses were paid. On top of that, the request itself didn’t appear too difficult. His mood was gradually lightening.

“Yep. That’s all that you need to do. Take all the time that you need and return whenever you’re ready. I’ll even speak to my father to arrange this.”

“Sniff! Yes, sir!”

“And if your vacation isn’t for too long, then I can even arrange things for one companion.”

It was a slam dunk.

Chief Kim was so moved that he seemed to be on the verge of tears. After all, this was an all-expenses paid vacation to Europe together with his girlfriend.

He immediately started fussing over me, “Young master. Is your seatbelt on firmly? How about the headrest, is it at the right height? You’re not thirsty are you? Excuse me! Could we get some water-”

“Enough, I’m fine. Instead of that, once you get to France, make sure to tell the person you’re meeting that you’re a police officer.”

“Huh? What did you just say?”

Wang Ong-Gu’s family had remained in France. Even though Detective Wang had died, they refused to return to Korea and had instead asked for his body to be sent to them. It seemed that they intended to set down their roots there permanently, as they had even disposed of all their remaining assets in Korea.

Although there were a lot of things I needed to ask them, that would only be possible if someone met with them personally. Since they had refused to reply to a single phone call or email.