The next day.
The air in the Vice Department seemed thicker than usual. It was warmed not so much by the weak morning sun, but by the heat from the old, working computers and the dry breath of hundreds of unopened files. Xin Shi flung open the door to the main room, and her appearance disrupted the stagnant silence. In her hands were two fresh folders with bright red stamps marked "URGENT."
She headed straight for the desk in the corner where Lao Han was sitting. He wasn't working, just sitting there, staring at the white, slightly cracked wall in front of him, his hands resting on the table, palms down. Before him, like an accusation, lay the sole, skinny folder on the Hee Rak case, which they still hadn't made any progress on.
"Lao Han," she said, placing the new cases on the desk with a soft but firm thud. "Wake up, we have new work! Two cases, even! And it smells very, very bad."
Lao Han slowly tore his gaze away from the wall. His gray eyes, usually empty as if veiled in haze, slowly focused on her, then on the folders.
"Vice Department work always smells bad, Xin Shi. Of rot, sweat, and human stupidity. What is it this time? Another brothel we'll never shut down, or indecent exposure in a public park?"
His voice was flat, tired, but it carried the usual caustic note. Xin Shi ignored it. She pulled back a chair and sat down opposite him, flipping open the top folder.
"Forget brothels. These are disappearances. Teenagers, to be precise. A brother and sister. So Ho and So Yeon, to be exact. They disappeared yesterday evening, and a report came in at dawn from the mother — the children didn't come home, their phones are switched off."
"Teenagers… they have a habit of disappearing, Xin Shi. They have arguments with their parents, first love, stupid ambitions. They run away. That's statistics, not a crime. Didn't we go through this with that… Hee Rak?" Lao Han nodded toward the old folder.
"This isn't the same," Xin Shi cut him off, her voice hardening. "Hee Rak disappeared alone. Here — two. A brother and sister, and simultaneously! They went out together to the basketball court in 'Sonnám' Park and didn't return. This doesn't look like running away; it looks like… a disappearance."
Lao Han sighed, as if weary of the world's naivety.
"And what does your intuition say, Inspector? That they fell through the earth? Or maybe they were abducted by Martians interested in Korean street basketball?"
"My intuition says that three teenage disappearances in a short time is already a pattern, not a coincidence!" she blurted out, raising her voice slightly. "First, Hee Rak from 'Songhwa' College. Now a brother and sister — So Ho from 'Yoshido' School and So Yeon from 'Miran' Art College. Three different institutions. Three teenagers."
"Yoshido School?" For the first time, a hint of interest sounded in Lao Han's voice. "That Hee Rak was from 'Songhwa' College, right? No formal connection to Yoshido. And now a student from Yoshido and his sister from a third place. Where's the link, Xin Shi? Are we looking for a ghost that wanders around different schools and snatches teenagers?"
"Maybe the link isn't in the institution!" she insisted, flipping through the report. "Look: Hee Rak was into basketball. So Ho is a student at Yoshido School, and according to records, also an active basketball player, a member of the school team. His sister, So Yeon, also played, but at an amateur level. The common denominator is basketball."
Lao Han smirked, but there was no mirth in his eyes, only skepticism.
"Basketball. In this city, tens of thousands of teenagers play basketball. It's like saying they're all connected because they breathe the same air. That's too vague. Too… convenient for building conspiracy theories. Maybe they just got into a fight on the court? Maybe they owed someone money? Maybe got mixed up in something stupid? But a serial maniac hunting basketball players?"
Xin Shi felt a wave of frustration wash over her.
"What if it's not a maniac?" she said, trying to think like him. "What if it's something else? Something that connects precisely these three? Maybe they saw something? Maybe they were witnesses?"
At that moment, the phone on her desk rang piercingly. The ringtone was sharp and alarming. Xin Shi flinched, then snatched the receiver.
"Vice Department, Inspector Xin Shi."
She listened. At first, her face reflected habitual concentration, then her brows slowly crept upward, and her eyes widened. Color drained from her cheeks, leaving a matte pallor.
"Repeat that, please… slowly. You say missing… who? Chang Wo? A coach? …His whole family? Wife, daughter… and an infant? …Car found empty near the restaurant? …Yes. I… I understand. Thank you. We're on our way."
She put down the receiver. The sound was muffled, final. Xin Shi simply stared at the phone for a few seconds, as if not believing what she'd heard, then slowly shifted her gaze to Lao Han. Her lips trembled before she could speak.
"Lao Han… this… this is crossing all boundaries."
He watched her, his face remaining an impenetrable mask, but deep within his empty eyes, a cold, analytical spark flickered to life.
"What is crossing boundaries, Inspector?"
"Just now… a report just came in. An entire family is missing. Chang Wo, the basketball team coach…" she paused, and the words escaped in a whisper full of horror, "…of Yoshido School. Disappeared along with his wife, twelve-year-old daughter, and two-year-old son after a family dinner. Their car was found near the restaurant. Completely empty… no signs of a struggle, nothing."
Lao Han didn't move. But something changed in his posture. The relaxedness vanished, replaced by tense readiness. He slowly stood up, and his fingers touched the three folders on the table: the old, skinny one — Hee Rak; and the two new ones — So Ho and So Yeon.
"Coach of Yoshido School," he drawled. "Yoshido School… Where one of our missing teenagers studied. So Ho. Now his coach and his entire family disappear."
He looked at Xin Shi, and there wasn't a trace of skepticism left in his gaze. Only chilling, crystal-clear analysis.
"Three incidents, Inspector. Three seemingly disparate cases. First: Hee Rak, a student of 'Songhwa' College, amateur basketball player. Disappeared. The fear in his friends' eyes was real, but unmotivated for us. Second: So Ho, a student of Yoshido School, basketball player on the school team, and his sister So Yeon from 'Miran' College. Disappeared together. And now… third. Chang Wo. Coach of the team So Ho was on. Disappeared with his family."
He began to pace slowly in front of the desk, his gaze fixed on the folders.
"We were looking for a link between the teenagers. Between the institutions. Looking for a basketball-playing ghost. But the link might be elsewhere. In one point that connects only two of the three cases. In Yoshido School. So Ho and Chang Wo are directly linked: student and coach. But where does Hee Rak from 'Songhwa' fit here? He falls out of this chain."
"Maybe he's not connected at all?" suggested Xin Shi, her mind racing feverishly. "Maybe his disappearance is a separate story, and these two are connected to each other?"
"Possibly," Lao Han nodded. "But my intuition… what's left of it… whispers that it's too convenient. Two similar disappearances, and one — old, cold — appears nearby, creating noise, masking the true target. Or the true link."
He stopped and leaned on the desk with his hands, bending over the folders.
"Suppose the target is something related to Yoshido School. To its basketball team. First, a student from the team disappears — So Ho. Along with his sister, who might have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time, or was used as leverage. Then — the coach of that team. Eliminating both someone who might know something and the authority figure, the center. That's logical if someone is cleaning up a problem."
"But cleaning up what?" asked Xin Shi, standing up. "What could the coach have known? And what could So Ho have known or done? And what does Hee Rak from another college have to do with it?"
"That is the question," Lao Han said quietly. "Maybe Hee Rak also intersected with Yoshido School somehow? Through inter-school games? Through mutual acquaintances? Or…" he paused, and his next question sounded deceptively soft, "what if our Coach Chang Wo wasn't only involved with Yoshido High School? What if he gave private lessons? Recruited groups of talented kids from different places? And Hee Rak could have been one of them?"
Xin Shi froze in place.
"You think all three could have been his students at different times or in different projects?"
"That would be the perfect link," said Lao Han. "A link not obvious at first glance. Not 'Yoshido School,' but 'Coach Chang Wo.' He is the common denominator. And if so, then someone is eliminating people connected to him. Why? Revenge? Concealing some secret of his? Or… the secret of whoever is hunting now?"
He straightened up and decisively gathered all three folders.
"Theories are good. But we need facts. And they aren't in this dusty office. They're out there, with the families. We'll go first to the parents of So Ho and So Yeon. We need to find out everything So Ho said about the school, the team, the coach. What problems did he have? What was he worried about? Then — to Chang Wo's relatives. We need his portrait, conflicts, ill-wishers, and most importantly — a list of everyone he coached, officially and unofficially. Maybe we'll find Hee Rak's name there."
Xin Shi was already putting on her blue jacket, her eyes burning with resolve mixed with anxiety.
"And if we find nothing? If there's no link? If this is just a series of terrible coincidences?"
Lao Han lingered in the doorway for a moment, his silhouette sharply outlined against the dim light of the corridor.
"Then, Xin Shi, we're dealing with something much more terrifying than a serial maniac. With randomness that devours lives. And against randomness, we have no weapons. Only reports and empty folders. So… let's go."