Vacation to Jeju (3)

Bingo.

“Everyone, visit the nearby stores and ask them if anyone remembers Choi Sang-Ho.’

Leaving them with this order, I entered the store. An old man with a somewhat unhealthy pallor was sitting at the counter, reading a novel. The whole place smelled like old books. It was obvious that it had been in operation for at least the past few years.

“Excuse me.”

“Yes?”

I showed him my police badge. The store owner folded his book in half and stared at me. He looked curious as to why a cop from Seoul had come all the way to Jeju.

“I’m looking for a person. By any chance, would you be able to check if they were a member here?”

“Just a moment. Please tell me their full name.”

“It’s Choi Sang-Ho.”

“The name comes up twice. He’s not an elementary school student, right?”

“That’s right. He’s in his twenties.”

Good. I thought this might be the case. There’s nothing like a rental store for young people who want to enjoy their hobbies at a cheap price. Although in the future, everyone would be reading on their smartphones, at this point in time there were still two or three comic book rental stores in every neighborhood.

After clicking on something, the owner frowned.

“Ah, I remember now. The person who borrowed the whole series of Waryongjeongong from start to finish and ran away with them. They’ve been overdue for three years now. Because of him, I had to buy the whole series again. Why are you looking for him? Is he a repeat offender? Or something like a book thief?”

The owner grumbled in indignation. This was the kind of person that the entire book rental business most hated, a long-overdue debtor.

On top of that, he had made off with an entire series. While responding vaguely to his questions, I handed him a pen.

“That’s right. Please write down the latest address and number that you have recorded.”

“This sort of bastard definitely needs to spend some time in jail. Humph.”

Scratch, scratch-

The owner elegantly scrawled out the membership information and handed it to me. The address was the same one that had been written on the letter. However the phone number was a new piece of information. Right then and there, I tried to call the number.

[The phone number you have called is not currently switched on, connecting you to voicemail…]

So it’s a real phone number, but it’s currently switched off?

I bowed in thanks to the store owner and left his store. Chief Kim drove up in the car and pulled up next to me.

“None of the locals seem to know him. And since this is such a busy city, there are too many people passing through each day to question anybody. Have you found anything new, young master?”

“I found his cellphone number. Though now that I’ve found it, I think I’ll have put in a request to track down its location. Ah, by the way, Chief Kim. Do you know of a series called ‘Waryongjeonggong’?”

“Of course I know it. It’s an extremely famous martial arts manhwa. But because it goes on for too long, I gave up after only reading part of it.”

Hmm. A young man who had been wandering here and there disappeared after borrowing a whole series of books. Under close examination, it didn’t seem like anything special, but the truth was that it didn’t sit right with me. Looking at how long it was overdue, it should have been borrowed before the guesthouse went bankrupt.

Leaning her head against the window, Ji-Hye mumbled, “What should we do now? No one in the neighbourhood can remember Sang-Ho-oppa. Even the lady in charge of the laundromat.”

“Hmph. It feels like something keeps getting in our way,” Sang-Beom also exclaimed angrily.

I texted a message to the Suan Police Station’s Situation Room. It said that, due to certain circumstances, I was going to send them a phone number and I needed to track down the location of its last call.

[Detective Go. Location tracking is only allowed if we receive a report of a crime first.]

I thought about it for a moment before sending a reply.

[I’ll make the report. It’s for a theft. I’ll be sure to upload a report later, so please check it for me first. I’ll owe you one.]

“Hey? Ahjussi. What are we supposed to be doing now?” Ji-Hye said, thrusting her face in between the gaps of the front seats.

Since this was a personal request, it might take them some time.

After checking my watch, I prompted Chief Kim, “Let’s go get something to eat. Drive to the oldest place in town that serves the most delicious dishes.”

“And where is that exactly?”

Wherever you went, there was one constant truth. There was only one restaurant that could boast both refined taste and a long tradition. On top of that, it was the perfect place to gather information.

“To the nearest truckstop diner. We’ll get something to eat there while waiting for my contact to get back to me. We can also take this chance to ask the truckers a few questions.”