„Ah, how good the hot coffee is during the night when you are working alone in this cold place,” murmured the old guardian while turning back to his post after he left it for a few minutes only to bring something hot to drink.

Although he was close to retirement, the old Kim Mun Ho used to often take night shifts because they were well paid, quiet, and he also hadn't to work much because the prisoners from Kanam police station’s cells were usually sleeping, and, at that late hour in the night, there wasn’t any visit too. So, the old guardian had time to watch his favorite TV shows, and his favorites evenings were those when he could watch a football match on TV - far away from his wife who all the time was mumbling that he just waste time watching it, but also at his post he could watch those matches along with some prisoners, exchanging thoughts and opinion about who’ll win or who did some mistake and why.

„And yet, I think that’s too quiet tonight,” the old guardian said, sitting in his place and also carefully leaving the cup with hot coffee on the table. „Do you also think so, prisoner? It’s too quiet today, isn't it?” he asked without looking at the cell where the only prisoner kept there that night was and the only one who he had to watch too. „Is he asleep?” the guardian wondered in half a voice, looking at the cell, but he saw only the back of the prisoner that was lying on the floor and seemed asleep.

„Eh, I think he’s already asleep because there’s nothing else to do in a cell at night and alone,” Mun Ho mumbled and turned on the TV because the football match was about to start. „I hope that’s not that loud. If something, tell me, but I really want to see this match,” but he again heard no answer. So, he dropped his bundle and, sipping from the coffee, stared at the TV screen where the start of the match was announced.

About half an hour later, Kim Mun Ho looked again toward the cell because, despite the loud sound of the TV, the prisoner didn’t even move or pulled the blanket over his ears as the other prisoners used to do when they wanted to sleep and the guard to watch the TV. So, the old guardian decreased the volume, and, taking the truncheon with him, he approached the bars of the cell, slowly hitting them with the truncheon. „Hey, prisoner, are you ok? Or… maybe you are hurt or something? Should I call someone?”

And he again received no answer. So, he took the keys out of his pocket and, walking with difficulty due to his age, Mun Ho opened the door, but he did it carefully because not only once he had been forced to fight with a prisoner that jumped over him when he opened the door even if the prisoner had pretended to be asleep before this.

This one instead was suspiciously calm, with his eyes closed, and his hands lying next to his body, and when the old guardian approached and bent over him, touching him with the truncheon, the prisoner didn’t even move and this made Mun Ho be alert. „Hei, hey, what’s wrong with you? Don’t scare me like this,” but the guardian eventually scared so bad when he touched the prisoner’s hand, trying to make him react, and this one fell on his back. Only after this, did Mun Ho spot the white, foamy liquid that came out of the prisoner’s mouth, a sign that he has been poisoned or it maybe was a suicide because there was no sign that someone forced him to do that, and especially because the guardian saw the tray with food turned upside down. This was the signal that he must do something. So, he took the whistle out of his shirt pocket and started to blow it as loud as possible.

***

Holding SolHi to his chest while lying next to her under the same blanket, DooSan unwillingly kissed the top of her head as if that movement - of kissing her - would have been a simple routine, and SolHi was just as always sleeping next to him.

Then, he also closed his eyes and fell prey to memories because when he asked SolHi those questions that night and mentioned YuSan’s name, he became melancholically, wanting with his whole heart to feel his elder brother once again close to him, even if it would have been for a few moments only.

Suddenly, DooSan winced as if what he remembered just happened, a moment ago: „ooo, prosecutor Han YuSan graces us with his presence tonight,” DooSan told his elder brother, 7-years-ago when YuSan turned back home one evening and he had decided to join his younger brother and to play a basket game with him.

YuSan only smiled, seeing DooSan’s happy face who focused his glance on him, curious to hear what YuSan will tell him. But… YuSan said nothing and this allowed DooSan another portion of mockeries while throwing the ball to the cage: „It seems that they did the dirty on you if you are home and not in some important dinner meeting. If so and you are free now, let’s have a game and… I won’t accept for sure a no as an answer.”

„Unquestionably. Or what… do you think that I’m a saint to let the lazy guy of our home be unpunished for his sharp tongue?” YuSan joked while leaving his jacket and his briefcase on the small wooden bank next to the flower bed. „So, tell me brother, are you ready to lose?” YuSan provoked him, but his words only made DooSan smile.

„If you say so,” DooSan happily mumbled, taking YuSan by surprise when it took the ball from his hands and then threw it into the cage. „Eeee, 1-0 for me!” DooSan shouted.

„This is only the warming up, my friend,” YuSan said feisty. Then, stretching his legs, arms, and his neck, YuSan started to attack his younger brother so aggressively that DooSan found it really weird.

One hour later, when both were already exhausted and sitting on the ground, with sweat running down their whole body, YuSan watched his brother for a long time as if he wanted to say something, but he hadn’t enough courage to do it.

„What?” DooSan asked, spotting his elder brother's hesitation.

„Nothing important. I was just… curious.”

„About?”

„That girl… you know which one,” YuSan mumbled, staring at his red palms after the game.

„Girl? What girl?” DooSan asked with curiosity because he used to see many girls, but he wasn’t remembering which one, in particular, DooSan asked him about at that moment.

„You know… that girl with whom you spent the night … after your birthday party… at a motel.”

„Aaa, that one,” DooSan dryly answered, and, supporting his body on his elbows, after bending on his back, he watched the sky. „I didn’t think that you still remember her,” DooSan added, with a certain sadness in his voice.

„Why?” YuSan asked him in amazement, taking the same sitting position.

„Because… I don’t remember anything about her. Actually, to be honest, I don’t even remember her face. Only… the moment when I left the room and that she was asleep and her face was half under the blanket and half on the pillow, and that she had brown hair and that she had a pleasant lavender scent.”

„And… wouldn't you like to see her again?”

„Me?” DooSan asked in amazement. „Why to see her?”

„Well, at least to see how she looks like. Anyway, you left that night without telling her goodbye or finding out her name.”

„Ia, Han YuSan, to say her goodbye? And … what else should I have told her: thank you for spending the night with me or maybe … would you like to do it once again? Are you serious right now? Saying this you look like one that never spent his night with anybody. Or… don’t tell me that you…”

„Are you crazy? Did you forget that I was about to marry someone?”

„Well, you are also right: So Su Yon isn’t that kind of girl that will meet a man only to hold hands with him. I still remember what she did to me to…”

„Stop it!” YuSan murmured upset because he didn’t like at all to remember what happened between DooSan and his ex, an event that actually forced YuSan to break up with her and cancel the wedding.

„Sorry,” DooSan murmured, feeling guilty about what he said. „Anyway, it was only a remark to make you understand that…”

„Yes, I got the point. Anyway, I think that it’ll be a good idea to look for that girl.”

„What for?” DooSan asked confused.

„If not because of being curious to see her face, at least to be sure that no child will grow up without you next to him.”

„A child? Mine?”

„Of course, that he won't be mine. Or… did you already forget how drunk you two were that night when you go to the motel? What if she got pregnant then for not using protection, none of you? Will you allow a child to live without his father?”

„Wow, YuSan, brother, do you really think that I’m so cowpuncher? Well, maybe I am, but for sure not that big idiot to have children with God knows with whom. So… take care to have your own children and not ask me for nephews… because I’ll never be a father before you. And… forget about that girl! I don’t know why, but … I don’t want to know her!” DooSan told him somehow upset and, after standing up, he took the ball and headed toward the house.

But YuSan continued to stay in the same place, watching the sky, and DooSan see him standing there even after taking a shower, and, as usual, he looked outside while drying his hair with a towel and this made him wonder what happened to his brother that he looks so thoughtfully that night and why he preferred to stay outside for so long.

„I would have liked to approach him that night once again, SolHi,” DooSan murmured, still holding SolHi to his chest while she was sleeping like a baby and feeling protected. „And … I would have liked to ask him about what he knew about that girl because … YuSan wasn’t that kind of man to talk about something without being sure of this. What if … no, it can’t be! I don’t even want to think about this!” he murmured, wrapping his arms around SolHi’s body who, for the first time, completely stuck to his body and hugged him in her sleep.

The fact that SolHi was sleeping next to him, calmed DooSan down quickly and he didn’t listen to the vibrations of his mobile phone left on the sofa, in the jacket's pocket, that was left there since they turned from a walk that night and the vibrations were so intense as if someone was very eager to tell DooSan some big news.

***

„Rather I’ll make a dead guy stand up from his coffin than to find prosecutor Han in the dead of night,” Kan furiously murmured and then he put the phone in the jacket’s chest pocket and, mumbling, he headed toward the cells. „Well, if I was him, I would have done the same for sure, more with such a nurse like SolHi next to me. If she’s there, why bother for a simple suicide?” he added with irony.

„I doubt he did this alone” GhiYon told Kan, suddenly approaching him.

„Allow me to think differently,” Kan hissed through the teeth because GhiYon was like a fishbone stuck in his throat even if SolHi told him that she and doctor Park reached an agreement to not attack the other one or to talk bad behind him. „It’s more than obvious that he killed himself: he was under guard. Who would have dared to enter the police station only to kill a simple truck driver?”

„I… never said that he didn’t drink alone the poison, but … my question is still… how did that poison get to him?”

Kan scratched the back of his head: the forensic doctor’s question was something that caught him off guard and … this wart friend of DooSan was right - he always called a spade a spade. „Do you think so?” Kan added eventually.

„At least I suspect this because … let’s say that he’s not the first dead guy I „visit” in a cell.”

Kan cleared his throat while grimacing. „Now I think the same as you,” he said in mockery, trying to puncture the doc’s ego. „Anyway, the investigation will reveal the truth, eventually.”

„Do not forget that some investigations never reveal the truth, detective.”

„Like?”

„Ian SolHi!” and Kan suddenly stopped, turning toward GhiYon and showing his fangs, seeing the doc stopped only a few meters behind him because GhiYon first followed the detective, but mentioning SolHi’s name, he knew that it always brings trouble - so, he decided that it’ll be a damn good idea to stay away from Kan, at least a few steps away. „I’ve been right. If not, you wouldn’t have stopped right now.”

Kan cracked a smile. „Actually, if you would have been right, it wouldn’t have bothered me to punch your nose, mister forensic doctor because you are really insufferable these days.”

„And this tells me that I’m right. So… what did you and detective Ian find then, in that abandoned warehouse?”

„Nothing interesting for you for sure,” Kan told him, turning his back to the doc and entering the cell to look for evidence. But he had to take a step aside when GhiYon’s team took the dead one out of the cell, on the stretcher, and Kan could notice that man’s face due to the fact that the mortuary sac was only half zipped.

Left alone in the cell, Kan looked around, standing tea pot fashion as he used to do each time, he had some important tasks to solve. But nothing came into his mind and he decided that maybe changing the position will help: so, he just squatted next to the place where the truck driver was found dead. „So… we must exclude the idea that … if those catch me, I’ll kill myself… he didn’t seem that kind of guy to have always a bottle of poison with him. Otherwise, we would have found it when we brought him here,” Kan told GhiYon when the doc entered the cell.

„Yeah, I think so too. Only if someone didn’t „work a lot” to make that evidence „invisible.”

„Improbable. I know these guys who work here and… nea, they didn't do anything like this because, working with them, I got to know each of them and I can guarantee this.”

„In this case - he had been visited by someone.”

„Maybe. Ia, Oh Yoon Suk, what time did you visit the dead guy?”

„Around 4 o’clock in the evening, sombe. Why?” Yoon Suk asked, hurrying up into the room from the hall where he was along with the old guardian, taking his declaration.

„And… didn’t you see anything suspect around?”

„I think no. Why? Do you think that someone „helped” him?”

„I hope you don’t think that he had magical powers, kid, and … the man vanished for a few moments, went loose to the store, took a dose of poison, and he just quickly turned back here?!” Yu told Yoon Suk in mockery when he suddenly entered the room. „I’m sure that there must be at least someone who was too eager to silence him and this means he had something important to tell us.”

„What do you lately eat that you tell only the truth, man?” Kan told the inspector, feisty, but he was just upset that he couldn’t go home to have some rest after he had interrogated Scorpion, but he was forced to come here and more - accompanied by Yu who lately was always only one step behind him.

„Let’s say that I just had a good master to teach me this!” Yu calmly answered and started to check the place.

„If that good master was about me… then, tell me, inspector, what your sixth sense tells you this time?” Kan teased Yu.

„That someone threatened him and that’s why he accepted to kill himself. Let’s not forget that he probably has a family somewhere or maybe a beloved woman he didn’t want to be hurt,” Yu said, standing up and approaching Yoon Suk, on whose shoulder he supported his arm later.

„Then the threat came after our bird has been closed in this cage!” Yoon Suk said.

„Most probably!” Yu added.

„Officer Kim!” Kan shouted and he forced the old guardian this way to show up in front of him in a hurry. „By chance, did the victim have „strange visits” in the last few days?”

„From what I remember, no. The only ones who visited him here have been the detectives who work here and the prosecutors. Actually, one of yours came today to see him. I think he’s name was Oh Yoon Suk or something like this.”

„It’s me!” Yoon Suk murmured, raising a little bit his hand as if he was a pupil asking for his teacher's permission to answer, but still amazed that the guardian didn’t remember him.

„If you don’t remember the detective who visited the victim only a few hours before, then … what the hell are you doing here, officer?!” Kan hissed the words, taking the register from the guardian’s hands, that started to nervously skim. „Yoon Suk, tell me, what the dead guy told you when you saw him?” Kan asked, skimming the register.

„Nothing important. Just … that he hadn’t anything else to add and … that’s all.”

„Someone taught him well,” Yu murmured.

„Bingo! I like the pupils that learn fast!” Kan suddenly shouted, taking everybody by surprise, but he only made others smile eventually. „It wasn’t a joke, actually,” Kan said in a serious tone.

„Nobody thought otherwise,” GhiYon pricked him. „You should better tell us what you are looking for in that register. You’ll leave it soon without leaves.”

„Ghosts. But … it seems that I barked up the wrong tree,” Kan said furiously and threw the register on the table. „It means that … we have nothing to start from.”

„It looks like,” Yu added.

„What about the cameras?”

„Nothing yet. SuJin is still on this.”

„Wait a minute!” Kim Mun Ho murmured, forcing others to stare in amazement at him. „If I’m not mistaken, the dead one was weird and for many days.”

„Weird? In which way?” Yoon Suk inquired.

„Scared… worried… what I know?! And … he acted like this since his lawyer's visit.”

„Lawyer? Didn’t you say that nobody else visited him except our guys?”

„Ah, I lost sight of this,” Kim murmured confused, scratching the back of his head.

„Darn you, guys! You are very good at „losing sight of important things.” And… how did you say that was that lawyer’s name?”

„I didn’t say that!”

„Then?! Quickly take the notebook if you wrote it somewhere and check! Or… don’t tell me that you didn’t make note of it?”

„No, I did it. I always make note of important things,” Kim said upset because he considered that Kan chided him unmeritedly. „Look, here it is! Ian Hion Uk! Yes, yes, the lawyer’s name is Ian Hion Uk! He visited his client three days ago. I remember this because he came when I just started my shift, around 6 o’clock in the evening.”

„A little bit late for social visits, in my opinion. Don’t you think, Kan?” Yu said.

„That's the way it strikes me too. Especially knowing what kind of piece of shit is the one he works for,” Kan snarled. „Let’s do him a social visit!”

„At this hour, sombe?” Yoon Suk stared at Kan with pumped eyes. „It’s 5 o’clock in the morning!”

„Then we’ll nicely wait for him next to the door until he comes. Not for nothing, but I loved to be an early client!” Kan said this in mockery, motioning Yu to follow him as long as he „stuck” on him lately as if being his soulmate.

Yu smiled, spotting the detective’s gesture. Then, he slowly tapped Yoon Suk’s shoulder, confiding him to be attentive and to check well the place for possible new evidence.