Chapter 29: A Familiar Stranger

Mu-yun swallowed a short breath.

His gaze turned toward Unit 303.

It was a strange feeling somehow.

As if, if he knocked on the door, Won Tae-i would stick his head out with Kkammi at any moment.

‘Why that face?’

Mu-yun rubbed his face with his palm.

Even without looking in a mirror, he knew what expression he was wearing.

It was surely a foolish one.

He exhaled deeply again.

Then he looked up at the remaining flight of stairs.

Because the number 4 had been removed entirely, even though it was the fourth floor, it was where Units 503 and 505 were.

Taking a deep breath, an acrid smell hit him.

Mu-yun knew it wasn’t real.

The air here wasn’t so thick as to make breathing difficult.

But the smoke and soot-laden air in his mind instantly invaded his airways.

His lungs tightened and then expanded, and Mu-yun coughed.

He covered his nose and mouth with both palms and bent over.

As he tried to regulate his breathing, the world before his eyes turned crimson.

“Are you okay?”

Someone grabbed his shoulder.

Mu-yun turned his gaze sideways, then forgot to cough and froze.

A face resembling—yet not resembling—Won Tae-i at twenty-seven was looking down at him.

Dark, glossy eyes slowly scanned his face and body.

Then a large hand patted his back.

Mu-yun, coughing and hacking, spat out the breath that had been cut off and returned, barely managing to recover.

His throat stung from the violent coughing that shook his body, but there was no roughness, no feeling of thorns.

“Should I get you some water?”

The man smiled.

For a moment, Mu-yun mistakenly thought that Won Tae-i had another sibling.

The resemblance was that strong.

Mu-yun blinked.

The look-alike stared at him, then lifted the corners of his mouth higher in a smile.

“I’m not a suspicious person.

I live here.

I’m a firefighter.”

Mu-yun unconsciously swallowed the words of refusal he had been about to say.

As if the mis-swallowed food had gone down the wrong pipe, he coughed again.

The man’s eyes widened, then narrowed.

Then he smiled.

“I’ll get you some water.”

Mu-yun wiped away the reflexive tears with his hand and tried hard to regain his composure.

The look-alike went into Unit 305.

Not Unit 303.

Mu-yun threw his gaze toward the door across the hall.

The tightly closed door did not open.

Instead, the man who had identified himself as a firefighter came back out of Unit 305, where Mu-yun had lived, and held out a bottle of water.

In a voice that sounded as if it had been scratched and peeled, Mu-yun spoke.

“Thank you.”

The smile on the face looking at him deepened.

He looked very pleased, almost ecstatic, which made Mu-yun wonder why, but he forced his gaze away.

His own inability to look away felt unfamiliar to him.

“I’m sorry for imposing on a first meeting.”

The man waved his hand.

“It’s nothing.”

At the kind tone, Mu-yun laughed briefly and nodded, conveying his thanks again.

He turned his body toward the stairs.

“Then.”

The man didn’t go inside his house but stood watching Mu-yun.

As if seeing him off.

Mu-yun took a step, his feet reluctant to move.

If he didn’t, he felt he would run to the man and ask if he had siblings, if he knew the name Won Tae-i.

From the third floor to the first, to opening the car door and sitting in the driver’s seat—it didn’t take long.

Feeling as if he were bewitched, Mu-yun collapsed forward over the steering wheel.

His heart pounded heavily, as if he hadn’t run this hard in years.

He lifted the water bottle again and washed down his insides.

As the inexplicable fever cooled, his mind finally cleared.

He turned his head to the side.

The look-alike, who had been looking down from the balcony of Unit 305, waved his hand.

***

D-5

The fire station building, facing the police box across a single road, was unchanged.

Only the types of trees in the flower beds had changed slightly, so Mu-yun felt as if he alone had taken the direct hit of time.

He spread his palm and clenched it; his hand tingled as if electrified.

He stepped into the fire station, as familiar to him as the police box behind him.

“What brings you here?”

A firefighter inside the 119 Safety Center saw him and asked.

Mu-yun took out his wallet from his pocket and held out the business card Kang Byeong-jo had given him.

“You’re here to see Supervisor Kang?”

The title felt awkward.

When Mu-yun answered yes, the firefighter returned the business card and directed him where to go.

Mu-yun bowed his head in thanks and glanced inside the center.

He wondered if there would be any familiar faces, but he saw none.

He turned and went up to the second floor of the fire station.

Byeong-jo was somewhere above the garage where the pump trucks and ladder trucks were kept.

Going in next to the second-floor conference room, the fire investigation team’s office came into view.

Mu-yun raised his hand and knocked.

A presence was felt inside, and soon a voice said to come in.

When Mu-yun entered, Kang Byeong-jo, who had been sitting at his desk, jumped up.

The sight was unfamiliar and amusing.

Mu-yun only guessed that this must be how Kang Byeong-jo had felt when he came to the police station looking for him.

“Come in, come in.”

Byeong-jo welcomed Mu-yun with a face full of smiles.

The reception, as if greeting an important person, was a bit unfamiliar, so Mu-yun smiled wryly.

Police work primarily involves dealing with people who have experienced the worst situations, so it’s a job where one usually hears ‘why are you here?’ rather than ‘welcome.’

“Sit anywhere comfortable.”

The office was quiet, with no one else.

Mu-yun looked around the small but well-equipped office.

“I should have bought a potted plant.”

“No need.

I have no talent for growing things.

I’ve killed several plants in this room too.”

Kang Byeong-jo waved his hand vigorously, as if shuddering.

Mu-yun snorted.

“So you put artificial flowers instead?”

Neither the succulent on the desk nor the plausible-looking plant by the window was alive.

“Chief So, you don’t know.

Artificial flowers are the best.

They’re always green and fresh without needing water.”

After chatting for a while about the weather and the state of the world, the two eventually pressed their lips shut.

“By the way, seeing that you came today…”
Mu-yun nodded at the conversation slowly getting to the point.

“I received the materials from the detective in charge and reviewed them.”

The incinerator case where dog and cat bones were found and the apartment fire case had been assigned to different people.

Animal abuse cases go to the investigation division, and arson cases go to the violent crimes division—that was natural.

And originally, whether police or gangsters, poking into someone else’s territory leads to fights.

So Mu-yun had barely managed to get cooperation with the help of a detective from Team 3 who had three times his experience and was truly on the verge of retirement.

“I’d like to visit the scenes myself.

Of course, this isn’t official.”

Mu-yun made it clear that he was on vacation and that he hadn’t taken over the cases.

It was only natural, since they weren’t his jurisdiction anyway.

It had been a while since he thought that he should have just gone to the regional investigation unit if he wanted to poke around anywhere.

Kang Byeong-jo nodded as if he understood.

“Just wait a moment.

Once I hand over the reports, my work for today will be done anyway.”

Saying he understood, Mu-yun waved his hand.

Soon, listening to the long clattering sound of the printer, he closed his eyes.

***

Dry vines crunched under his old hiking boots.

“This way.”

Seeing the bright orange color standing out in the green foliage that surrounded them in every direction, making it impossible to tell front from back, Mu-yun easily set his direction.

As they went where Kang Byeong-jo guided, a path emerged, not a dense thicket like before, but a trail sparsely cleared of trees.

Mu-yun scanned the not-quite-a-path along the ridge with a calm gaze.

Perhaps because there was no shade, freshly sprouting grass grew thickly between the dried, dead weeds.

Even if someone had walked through the grass, the traces would likely have been erased within a few days, so it was best to assume that.

He might be able to tell the general direction of movement, but if an investigation had already been completed and the scene left, any remaining traces would have been covered up, so he had to give up on finding them.

Mu-yun swept his falling hair back with his fingertips.

‘It’s a fairly long path that leads all the way there.’

Not this one, but along the path connected to this one, he had once searched every inch with Tae-i.

Mu-yun looked toward where the barbed wire fence he himself had climbed over long ago used to be.

Around here, it was possible.

“Let’s go.”

Mu-yun looked at Kang Byeong-jo and spoke.

Kang Byeong-jo, who had been waiting for a moment, stepped on the thick vines again and went inside.

It wasn’t a mountain of mostly pine trees.

There were many broadleaf trees of unknown names, so fallen leaves were piled high accordingly.

Passing through paths that sank up to their ankles with each step, they leaned their bodies forward and climbed up.

A musty smell, a mix of wet earth and rot, rose.

And somewhere, there was a smell of ash.

It was a faint smell, probably difficult to actually detect, but Mu-yun definitely smelled it.

“It’s here.”

It was below a collapsed dirt wall.

It wasn’t a remote, deep mountain.

At a spot slightly off from the gentle peak that rose and then fell again, there was a collapsed pit, a hollow like a cliff.

And below it was the incinerator from the photo Byeong-jo had brought.

It wasn’t shaped like a furnace; it was an incinerator with a crude appearance, though someone had put considerable effort into it.

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