126 – Dongmin Lee (61)
Dongmin Lee (61)
Park Seong-kang sat down on a chair.
And then I thought.
A series of recent events.
Ban Yi-jae, Park Sang-woo, Jung Sung-min, Jang Hye-ok…
Their names were foretold in advance.
Where?
In 『Journal』.
My hands kept getting sweaty.
Are you nervous?
But I didn’t feel anything.
This moment is as unreal as a dream.
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I caught the slipping phone.
He was reading a novel now.
As he read 『Journal』, Which is openly circulating on web novel platforms, he felt uncomfortable.
I’ve never had a hobby like this.
This is because of work.
It all started because of this novel.
Where exactly does it begin?
Seonggang Park opened and closed his fists.
Is this hand his?
It’s strange, but he was asking himself that way.
[… Park Seong-jae has never seen a case that fits so well while working as a detective for nearly 10 years. But at the same time, it was incomprehensible.]
[… What was most shocking was the fact that he himself was a character in a novel. No, the order might be wrong. Fiction reflects reality.]
[… All characters appearing in the novel are characters in the novel. However, Seongjae Park knew that this was just a play on words. The reason is simple.]
“………”
Park Seong-gang let out a heavy sigh.
Park Seong-jae is himself.
I only found out now.
Why did no one show up at every moment of 『Journal』, When Kim Hye-eun was supposed to be ambushed, and when Park Sang-woo tried to kill Seo In-woo and Nam Jae-chan?
Why did he have to fill that role?
It was not a ‘replacement’.
… Seongjae Park is himself.
It upset him badly.
Though he barely made it clear, while chasing after the villains in 『Journal』, Things are happening that conflict with what he always said to himself, his determination, and his beliefs.
‘Things that shouldn’t exist in reality.’
‘Ban Yi-jae, Park Sang-woo, Jung Sung-min, Jang Hye-ok…’
These were all people who shouldn’t be in real life.
All of them are monsters created in a young man’s head, in delusion, and then popped out into reality.
The proof is that he knew best.
Surely, incidents that were not even searchable until yesterday are suddenly found in files or in the news list of portal sites.
This was truly magical.
Nevertheless, he persevered through the investigation.
Even while his fellow detective category broke his ribs, even while receiving a piercing wound in his thigh, he assumed that was what cops were supposed to do.
‘You shouldn’t exist.’
However, 『Journal』 Asked again.
‘You?’
‘Do you think it’s okay to exist?’
Now that I know the truth.
Park Seong-gang had no choice but to remain silent.
If he is the one who shouldn’t exist in reality, can he really arrest himself?
This caused him to suffer from insomnia.
He couldn’t even eat properly.
He has been believed to be in good health, and has never actually been hospitalized, but to the point where he has to take a vacation at the critical point of a series of incidents.
But has there really been such a thing as ‘until now’?
All backgrounds of Seonggang Park are fake.
He realized that he had no family, and that he did not find it strange in the least.
… Everything about him was fake.
I tried to force myself to focus on the incident.
Anyway, isn’t he obligated?
He is still a cop.
To endure anxiety and pain, he clung to the phenomena created by 『Journal』.
Ban Yi-jae, Park Sang-woo, Jung Sung-min, and Jang Hye-ok… All died or were killed in mysterious accidents.
Jeong Seong-min gets into a car accident, and Jang Hye-ok gets strangled.
Ban Yi-jae and Park Sang-woo were poisoned.
“……”
The two behind the double have been identified as the culprit.
No, they confessed.
The members of a pseudo-group claiming to have a prophet approached the arrested criminals for some trick.
It is unknown why they took the medicine offered by the believers, but there was no great resistance on CCTV.
It looked as if he was about to die.
The deaths of the first two were still a mystery.
In the first place, Jeong Seong-min and Jang Hye-ok died before they were ‘yet’ the targets of the police’s full-scale investigation.
Park Seong-gang knew through the contents of the 『Journal』 That Jung Seong-min was a serial rapist and that Jang Hye-ok committed murder for insurance money.
But at least not known to the public.
Such people were condemned early on.
Are these also the work of ‘believers’?
No.
I don’t know exactly who he is, but Park Seong-gang met a being who can be called a ‘darkness’ through writing.
Perhaps the prophecies that the pseudo-believers refer to are the contents of the 『Journal』, And the contents of the prophecies they are trying to fulfill also mean that.
This gave him an ordeal.
Park Seong-gang had a good reputation for his cool and steady work attitude, but if he brought 『Journal』 Out of the blue, he would damage all his reputation.
Even if you do it gradually-
In the detective section, which was separated from the inside of the police station by a thin glass window, there were five or six desks.
Because the team leader hadn’t arrived yet, fellow detectives cursed and speculated about the contents written on the walls and mobile whiteboards.
“A pseudo-group, they say Japan was the same as Korea 10 years ago.
“You mean sarin gas? Not ten years.”
“………”
At the end of the century, there was an incident where lethal gas was sprayed on the subway, saying that the world was going to end.
From the neighboring country Japan.
Those who are addicted to religion always do dangerous things.
There were many such things in Korea as well.
They move with the determination to abandon their present life, throwing themselves and those around them into hell.
Of course, this case is different from that.
The pseudo-group did not convey any ‘message’ and did not mention their mission.
There was nothing related to the apocalypse in 『Journal』.
On the contrary, the existence of the ‘dark curtain’ was also a secret.
It is not known exactly.
“Detective Park, are you okay?”
Park Seong-gang, who put down his phone and wiped his face, touched the shoulder of Park Seong-gang, who was sitting next to him.
“Your face is getting worse and worse.”
“………”
“Is it because of that crazy woman?”
Detective Beom listened to the words of a woman who was arrested as a suspect in the murders of Woo Sang-mi and Jang Hye-ok.
But he thought nothing of it.
“Hey, why are you so stressed out? Does it make sense that you are a character in a novel? I’ve known you for over five years, haven’t I?”
“………”
The categorical attitude toward Park Seong-gang was still exciting, but it was overly simplistic.
Park Seong-gang was confident in proving that the categorical ‘things he knew’ about Park Seong-gang, or the things he believed and his memories were wrong.
You just need to follow the same procedure as finding out that Park Seong-gang himself doesn’t actually have a ‘family’.
You can ask in detail, in detail.
But he didn’t.
He didn’t want to see the category-type look in his eyes, the trust-filled expression distorted.
… Park Seong-gang was weakened.
He felt the fear of being denied his existence.
Sentences and symbols summarizing the incident were written on the whiteboard, and on the walls were attached photos of various incidents that had already taken place.
The cases that Park Seong-gang’s Detective Division 2 team decided to take on were cases that were ‘revealed’ to be related to pseudo-believers.
But he knows the truth.
Jeong Seong-min and Jang Hye-ok are also from that lineage.
Whoever is in the dark.
“… I have to go.”
Park Seong-gang stood up.
“Detective Park, where are you going-“
“I need to find out…”
“Hey, the team leader is coming. Tell me and go.”
“… I’m in a hurry.”
I was able to do impulsive actions that the original Park Seong-gang would never do.
Things like police status, duties, rules and order don’t feel as important as they used to.
Of course.
Because all of that was actually false.
Like a spy operating with a fabricated false identity, Park Seong-gang is free from everything.
It was a strange feeling.
He had moved away from the police that was his everything and identity, but he felt himself as clearly as he could.
Park Seong-gang came out.
The detectives looked at him with puzzled expressions.
“Hey, where are you going?”
The team leader just came inside and asked.
“Something urgent has happened.”
“What? Hey man! What are you going to do now?”
“……”
Park Seong-gang ignored his words.
This was something he wouldn’t normally do.
‘I escaped from myself.’
Park Seong-gang got into the car and thought so.
If Park Seong-jae described in 『Journal』 Is right, and to the extent that he himself has no choice but to admit it, he was a stubborn and stubborn person.
Absolutely loyal to the organization and has a strong sense of justice.
Park Seong-kang is still persistent.
But he didn’t have to be a tight-fisted person in the investigation to the extent that he was caught up in meetings and briefings.
Because all of that is false.
He turned on the phone.
The first thing I wanted to ask was the existence of darkness.
For some reason, I didn’t think to use Bum-hyung-do, Park Seong-gang-do, and Lee Dong-min, the author of 『Ilji』.
‘Artist’ Lee Dong-min is clearly occupying a unique and important position in the current situation.
Maybe he knows the clue to the ‘dark curtain’.
The problem is Lee Da-mi, who is protecting him.
“………”
Unlike the way she had instructed the detectives until now, she remained silent.
As if acquiring Lee Dong-min would end his duty, he had almost lost his ability to act.
The brother and sister are living in a small studio.
What are they doing there?
Park Seong-gang has been busy taking vacations due to mental confusion, conducting investigations and briefings, but he never thought to ask the brother and sister for their opinions.
As if there is no such ‘choice’.
“…….”
I called Lee Dong-min, but he didn’t answer.
It was the same with Lee Da-mi.
I knew where they live.
“…Darkness, Haerin Kang…?”
The first thing that came to mind was the name.
The main character of 『Journal』.
『Journal』 Is the story of a heroine who tries to protect the villains of the novel whose content itself has been realized from ‘Lee Dong-hyun’.
Lee Dong-hyun is Lee Dong-min.
If you are ‘blocking’, how do you block it?
The simplest thing is murder.
“………”
Park Seong-gang remembered her home.
A torture chamber located underground.
I’ve never seen it myself.
“But…”
He felt confused for a moment.
At the time Lee Dong-min lived with Kang Ha-rin, he visited her house with a categorical detective.
It was because of Lee Da-mi’s order.
If you discover the existence of her underground torture chamber and find traces of her crimes there, you can arrest her.
Of course, it seems that Lee Da-mi has completely forgotten her thoughts of trying to catch Rin Kang, and Hae-Rin Kang isn’t trying to get Lee Dong-Min back either.
… It’s strangely quiet.
Incidents happen simultaneously here and there, but the main characters are missing.
“……”
For some reason, he felt a strong urge.
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There was something ominous about it.
I was concerned that the radius and cycle of activities of Lee Da-mi and Kang Hae-rin did not overlap.
Deterministically-
“… Haa…”
He put his head down again.
‘God calls you Seongjae Park.’
When Park Seong-gang heard those words from Woo Sang-mi, that you were a character in a novel, Seong-gang Park felt Lee Da-mi’s face shake for a moment.
It was confusing, like a haze blooming.
I can’t forget that memory.
Dami Lee or Haerin Kang?
Seonggang Park turned his steering wheel.
The vehicle he was riding was speeding along the road.
Park Seong-gang’s instincts clearly pointed to Lee Da-mi.
I’m not saying that Lee Da-mi is black.
Instinct told me that I should go not to the villa where the siblings live, but to Kang Hae-rin’s big mansion.
‘It is possible now.’
You will be able to reveal the secret of the mansion.
Maybe it’s because of the contents of 『Journal』.
According to the vague memories of Seong-gang Park, Seong-jae Park is persistently suspicious of Hae-rin Kang.
If you look only at the description in 『Journal』, It seems like a stubborn principled like Inspector Javert in 『Les Misérables』, But there must be a reason why the novel is written like that.
But it’s not just about following it.
Park Seong-gang is Park Seong-jae, but not at the same time.
He knows the contents of the novel.
So it can behave differently.
You can consider the contents of 『Journal』.
Anyway, the most powerful ‘black man’ is Haerin Kang.
Kang Hae-rin wants to protect Lee Dong-min.
But he hasn’t been showing up lately.
In fact, Park Seong-gang entrusted Lee Dong-min and Lee Da-mi siblings to the category-type, and watched Kang Hae-rin.
But she never showed up outside the house.
That was definitely not normal.
It was clear that he was plotting something.
She has outstanding intelligence and financial strength, and strength and martial arts skills that are enough to deal with large men.
Park Seong-gang was aiming for one thing.
An underground torture chamber.
You must see it for yourself.