The Dark Clothed Man
The Dark Clothed Man
Gayoon stared at the math book which Jina had handed to her. The little girl was looking up at her with hopeful eyes while Shinho sat on the bed with Casper as they watched the mother-daughter duo trying to solve maths for the past three hours. They had not even completed one problem.
Yumi was off chasing an idol at a concert out of town so she would not be back for the night.
"How did she become a detective?" Shinho whispered at Casper. The ghost simply shrugged because he was also astonished at the pair's astounding lack of skills when it came to numbers.
"I'm sure the answer is one million!" Gayoon insisted.
"Mother, it's ten in the book," Jian said flatly, pointing out the answers which were given at the back page.
"Well, the book is wrong then!" Gayoon pouted.
"I didn't attend school for months and even I can tell the answer is ten!" Shinho's voice taunted them from behind.
"Don't question my intelligence!" Gayoon snapped, feeling affronted. "I was the smartest girl in our class! Always scored the highest!"
"Uh huh," Shinho said in a dull tone. "Sure. I believe ya."
Gayoon scowled towards the direction of the bed before returning to the problem in hand. "I give up," she finally said. "I can't solve this! Jina, don't worry if you fail this subject. I'll tell the teacher we're just not cut out for maths!"
Just then, Gayoon's phone rang up. It was Junho.
"Jina, finish up the rest of your homework with Shinho's help," she instructed. "I'll have to take this call."
"Okay!" Jina exclaimed. Shinho jumped off the bed and walked towards the table to help Jina while Casper indicated that he was off to visit his murder spot again. He went there almost every night to keep a stakeout on who might have killed him. The ghost disapparated leaving the children alone.
Jina watched in wonder as Shinho solved all the maths in her homework book within minutes.
"How come you're so good at this?" she whined.
"You just need to practice," Shinho said patiently. "It's not that hard!"
"It's just useless numbers!" Jina scowled. "But how come you're so good at it?"
"I...I liked to study," Shinho admitted. "I wanted to become a doctor someday."
"Like that pedo doctor?" Jina asked in surprise. "You wanted to be like him?"
"That was before I met him!" Shinho frowned. "When I was living with my mom, she once took me to the hospital when I became really sick. I was too scared to take the needle coz it hurts! But the doctor there was nice. He showed me some magic tricks! Pulled a coin out of my ear!"
"I was so focused on his tricks, that I didn't realize when he injected the medicine into me!" he went on. "Didn't feel a thing! He even gave me a candy later on. So when I told him I wanna become a doctor like him, he smiled and told me to study a lot. Do a lot of maths and science stuff! And I'll become a doctor just like him! But most importantly…"
"Most importantly what?" Jina asked curiously when he trailed off.
"He said that most importantly, I need to be sure that I want to save patients!" Shinho said with a hint of pride. "Never say no to a patient and treat them with kindness. Only studying and operating ain't a doctor's job! They've got to save millions of people! So I'll have to do that too!"
He beamed upon thinking of the past of how he took those words seriously and diligently studied. They did not have a lot of money but his mother said that determination was enough to achieve his dreams. And she would also make sure that he would succeed.
"But now…" he trailed off once again. Those memories were of a distant past and he was sad that he could no longer fulfill his dreams. Jina gently patted his head.
"You can still study!" she encouraged him. "We'll work hard in maths!"
"You mean that I'll work hard in maths while you slack off," Shinho said shrewdly. She smacked his head in annoyance.
"You'll see!" She swore. "I'll become a great detective and I'll never need maths!"
"Uh huh."
While the kids were bickering inside, Gayoon was on the phone with Junho.
"I'm in your neighborhood," Junho said. "At the cafe opposite to the road leading to your mansion. Come alone."
Without another word, he hung up. Gayoon sighed and put on her coat before heading towards the main door. She exited the front gate, heading for the cafe. Minho, who had just pulled up in front of the mansion's gate, noticed her leaving.
"Gayoon!" he called for her but she had put on headphones to listen to music so she did not hear him. Minho tried to call her but to his surprise, his phone had run out of battery.
I should catch up with her, he decided. Getting back into his car, he followed her.
Gayoon was near the intersection. She did not notice Minho in the car but kept on walking until she reached the cafe. Junho was sitting near the window, wearing a dark jacket and a hat to hide his face. He also wore a mask and he noticed from the window that Gayoon was walking towards the cafe. Junho was about to wave at her when he froze.
There was a silver Maybach behind her, following her closely and to his horror, his son was driving it. Minho peered from the opposite end of the road, stuck at that spot as the signal turned red. He noticed the dark clothed man sitting near the window but could not see his face clearly.
The man, upon noticing Minho, quickly rose up and left the cafe from the other end. This struck Minho as odd. The man seemed to be escaping upon seeing him in the car and seconds after the man left, Gayoon appeared at the spot. She was glancing around for the man but her gaze fell on the table. She picked up an envelope and opened it to check the contents.
After a few minutes, she left the cafe, feeling confused.
"Where is ahjusshi and why did he just leave these on the table?" She wondered out loud. She halted in her steps and to her surprise, Minho was standing outside the cafe, waiting for her.
"How did you know I was here?" she asked.
"I saw you leaving the house," he replied. "I tried to call you but my phone was dead so I followed you, trying to catch up but you had already gone inside the cafe…"
He glanced around to see if the mysterious man was anywhere around. "Were you here to meet someone?" he inquired.
"Yes," she sighed. "Ahjusshi told me that he would be here with the envelope containing Kang Danny's relation to Shinho. But he left this on the table and disappeared. I wonder where he went…"
Minho did not reply to her but his mind was already suspicious of her mysterious ahjusshi. Why did he run upon seeing me? He wondered. There was something fishy about that guy.
He could not shrug off the feeling that the figure seemed familiar but where had he seen him? If only he could have seen the face!
"Let's go," Gayoon's voice broke his reverie. "We need to analyze these papers. I'll dig up Hyeri's past accounts and link those with this envelope so that the investigation seems legit. Otherwise we'll be accused of going rogue."
"Y-yeah!" Minho stammered. They got into the car and drove towards home. On the way, Minho just realized something.
"Gayoon, you never told me your ahjusshi's name," he said, trying to sound casual.
"His name is Jun Iksun," she lied. "Why?"
Junho had forbidden her from telling his name to anyone so she had to honor his wish. She did not want to lie to Minho but Junho's request forbade her from telling the truth.
"Nothing," Minho said quickly. "Nothing at all."
Deep down, he knew that Gayoon was probably lying. That man must have told her not to tell him his real name or she was not aware herself.
Why am I feeling so unsettled? Minho wondered. Why?
But he had no answer to that. All he knew was that for some reason, Gayoon's ahjusshi was a familiar person. Who was he?