“Looks like you’re really busy.”

“Thanks to a certain senior who refused to reveal his name, I was able to work without getting any rest. Thank you, senior.”

“Nah, I didn’t do anything. It’s my junior who helped you by ordering flowers from you.”

Dongwook watched Choi Miyeon move a small cactus to a small vase. Smiles appeared from time to time on the face that always had a shade cast over it. He was reminded of the saying work makes worries go away.

“I’ll get going then.”

“Already?”

“I only visited because I had some business nearby. I checked that you’re doing well, so I should get going.”

“You should have lunch or something. The restaurant next door is really good.”

“Maybe next time. I have a lot of things to do right now.”

He stopped Miyeon from seeing him out and left the store. He could see Miyeon smiling behind the glass door. The fatigue from pulling an all-nighter disappeared in an instant.

“How did it go?”

He picked up his phone as he got in his car.

-We’re still asking around, but it’s hard to catch any clues. Some of the stores have CCTVs, so I think we might be able to find a clue if we look at the footage.

“I’ll go there right now. You’ll be reported to the police if you ask for CCTV video without any warrant.”

-I’ll send you the location by text. Then I’ll move to the next spot.

“Please.”

The self-proclaimed private investigators that president Lee Junmin introduced to him were investigating Incheon and towns within an hour of traveling distance. Mari and the man, who came to the country through Incheon airport, were caught while trying to take refuge in a shelter they arranged in Incheon, and then they were dragged around in a black van to a warehouse in the middle of a mountain. From there, Mari was released and she returned to Incheon, while the man went missing. He was searching for clues based on Mari’s testimony that she was carried in the van blindfolded for about an hour, but he had not found any concrete traces yet.

He moved to the address the private investigator had sent him. It was a store that might possibly have footage of the car that headed to the nameless mountain. It was a Chinese-style restaurant that took up the entirety of the first floor, and it had CCTVs looking towards the street. According to the private investigator, they were installed because accidents happened during parking.

He went inside the store. Even though it was Saturday afternoon, there were only two tables with customers. There were more employees than customers.

“Welcome. Are you here to eat?”

“Rather than eating, I’m here to see the owner.”

“The owner?”

The waitress scratched her eyebrows before poking her head into the kitchen. As it was an open-style kitchen, the inside could be seen, and the man standing in front of a wok responded to the waitress’ call.

“What is it?” said the man as he came out.

“Are you the owner of this restaurant?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, I’m this kind of person.”

He gave out the business card he used when he still worked for the TV station. The owner, who accepted the business card, looked at him and the business card alternately.

“If you’re here for a TV show, then forget about it. I don’t have any money to give you.”

“I’m not here to scout this place as a good restaurant. I work in a different field.”

The owner gave him back the business card.

“If it’s not for such a show, what business do you have?”

“Let me start off by telling you that it’s definitely not something that will bring you harm. Currently, I’m chasing down a big piece of news. I found evidence of a famous celebrity’s secret love.”

“A celebrity?”

“Yes, though, forgive me for not being able to tell you the details.”

The owner rubbed his nose and spoke,

“You’re saying that that celebrity visited my restaurant?”

“No, but the couple frequently had meetings in this area. What I want to ask of you is to have a look at the CCTV footage installed around the store. I won’t be asking anyone any questions, since that’ll annoy many people.”

A customer, who had finished eating, walked past. The owner took off his chef hat before sending that person out. Dongwook took a step back and had a look at the owner’s face. From how he didn’t refuse outright, it seemed like he was willing to show the CCTV footage; just not for free. Dongwook immediately talked about the thing that the owner wanted to know about.

“Of course, you’ll be giving me help, so I can’t ask you to do it for free. I get some money for work expenses, and I’ll give you 500,000 won. I’m sure it’s not much to you since you run such a big restaurant, but it’s quite a lot to me.”

“Well, I wasn’t really hoping for something like that.”

“I’m sure you didn’t. But please accept it as it’ll put both of us at ease. If the secret love scandal is confirmed, I’ll make sure that the show will leak information about this place. You know, right? These days, people on the internet find out the precise location of places that appear on TV with minimal clues. People will definitely take interest in your restaurant if a super popular celebrity used to hold secret meetings in front.”

That seemed to have dealt the finishing blow as the owner immediately opened the door leading inside from behind the counter. When he went inside, he found a computer right next to a shelf of food ingredients.

“Take your time looking.”

The owner left the small room while stuffing the 500,000 won in his pocket. Dongwook inserted the external hard drive on the computer. The owner even kindly helped him move the files to his external drive. He moved the video footage ten days before and after the day Mari came to Korea. These days, popular CCTV products required special security software in order to watch the footage, but this restaurant’s CCTVs were on the level of just high-resolution cameras. Thanks to that, there was no additional work necessary.

“Thank you for your help. If things go well, I’ll definitely visit this place with my colleagues in the future.”

The owner told him to contact him any time he needed help. That was the magic created by 500,000 won and the empty serving hall. There would never come a day when this restaurant would become a hot topic on the internet or a day when he would bring his colleagues here, but the owner wasn’t losing out since he got 500,000 won.

He drove his car back home. He turned on the PC placed in the middle of the living room and cooked some instant noodles. He immediately uploaded the CCTV video onto a cloud server so that the private investigators working for him could see it.

Dongwook played back two videos at the same time at double speed. He quickly looked around while slurping some noodles. He stopped and watched closely whenever he found a van that looked like the one Mari told him about. The first thing he noticed was that he could read the license plates. It was a pity that he wasn’t able to see inside the vehicles if the windows were tinted, but he was in no position to worry about that since he lacked information.

He did not take his eyes off the screen for a while. This was the first time he focused so hard since he was a probationary journalist. When he checked the time, he saw that it was 11 p.m. His back was screaming at him since he had been staying absolutely still for nearly six hours.

Just as he thought that he should go wash up after checking for ten more minutes, another van that resembled the one Mari talked about appeared on the screen. There was an accident in front of the store, so the van wasn’t able to move forward. A person got out of the van after staying still for about twenty seconds. When a skinny man opened the back door and stepped out, Dongwook stopped the playback. He could see legs tied up inside the car. The resolution was pretty good, so he was able to check the man’s face. At this point, he wanted to kiss the owner of that restaurant for using such high-resolution CCTV. He immediately called Mari.

“Miss Mari. Did the van stop any time when you were caught?”

-I don’t know. I was so scared that I wasn’t paying attention.

“I understand that it must be hard for you. But can you focus a little more?”

-I do remember it stopping a few times, but most of the time, it should have been traffic.

“There must be something else among those memories. If I say it myself, I might influence your memories, so you must remember it yourself. Think back carefully and just tell me that there wasn’t if you don’t remember anything.”

Not many people would be carrying a tied-up person inside a van in South Korea. Dongwook’s intuition told him that the van on the screen belonged to the culprit, but the information would lose value if he could not find any common points with the testifier’s memories. After staying silent for a while, Mari spoke,

-There was one thing that was different. It wasn’t long after a gang barged into the room and kidnapped me and oppa. The van suddenly stopped and the man next to me got off while swearing. I also heard something like ‘get out of the way’ or something. Then the man got back in again. I’m sure that’s what happened. I went through it slowly as you said and I remembered it.

Dongwook clicked his fingers and played back the video. Just as Mari said, the man got back in the van and the van departed again. The estimated movement route that the private investigators came up with turned out to be accurate.

“I think I found the vehicle. Your help was big in this one.”

-Then can you find oppa as well?

“We have both money and people, so we’ll investigate all hills and warehouses in a one-hour range from this place. I’ll also investigate the man that got caught on the camera. If things go well, we might be able to find him unexpectedly easily.”

-It only just came to me, but nothing bad must have happened to oppa, right?

“Kidnapping is a serious crime, but murder is even worse. Even though they are men who act before they think, they shouldn’t have taken any unnecessary risks. Your man shouldn’t be in danger of losing his life. He might be injured though.”

-Please, just find him.

“I’ll do my best.”

Dongwook hung up. While he consoled Mari with hopeful words, he could not exclude the worst possible scenario. Mari’s man did not have any relatives. There was no one who would report him as missing, so there was no way the police were going to move. Even if Mari reported herself, it was extremely improbable that a large-scale force would be dispatched for that case. As such, it was possible that he might have been dragged to an incinerator. Hired assassinations made the news these days. It wouldn’t be strange even if something bad happened.

He immediately shared this information with the private investigators. They would track down the van’s movements and the identity of the man from other sources. Dongwook immediately grabbed his phone and wrote a text message. He was in the middle of the legal and illegal, and now, he needed to rely on civil authority.

“Inspector, it’s me, Dongwook. Why don’t we have a drink after all this time? Oh no, I wouldn’t ask anything special from you, would I? If you just tell me one trivial thing, I’ll pay you back for my whole life. What was that? I have ten such debts to pay you already? Inspector, let’s meet up first. How about some tuna?”

I have a feeling Mari's boyfriend is dead, considering Hong Janghae's brutality....Editor's Note:Honestly, I don't really care about Mari or her bf.