VDN Ch 55

[Congratulations! You’ve successfully completed your main job (securing at least one new contract)]

[As a reward, we will give you one raffle ticket.]

Nam-woon successfully closed two contracts today. One was a loan agreement, and the other was a request. While drafting the request for finding Chun-gil, there was also the issue of rewriting the loan agreement under the pretext of needing to receive an advance payment. He intends to take money from the bastard who tries to cheat him out of his own money. This was Nam-woon’s plan.

After all the hardships he has endured, he feels he must receive compensation out of spite. He just needs to find out where Chun-gil is. First, he plans to go the location mentioned in the text messages and thoroughly search everyone….Nam-woon did not mention the text message conversation he had seen to Jin-sang. If Jin-sang requests a progress report, Nam-woon intends to provide that information as if he has been working hard on it.

While searching for Teheran-ro on the internet, Nam-woon unintentionally fell asleep. How long had he closed his eyes? When he woke up from the feeling of a busy office, it was already afternoon.

Yong-deuk, who was sitting on one side of the office, approached Nam-woon with a puzzled expression.

“Master, are you awake?”

“Uh, yeah.”

Approaching Nam-woon with an awkward expression, Yong-deuk spoke.

“I have something to tell you. About the grandson of that restaurant owner you asked about before.”

“Oh, did you find him?”

“No matter how hard we look, we can’t find it. And although we call ourselves a detective agency, in reality…”

We are a loan office. Yong-deuk continued,

“When we briefly did detective work before, we had only one informant in the government, and even he is gone now, so it’s a bit difficult to find people.”

“I see… Thank you for your hard work.”

Nam-woon’s expression darkened slightly as he said that. This was because Nam-woon had been visiting the Haengwon quite often these days.

“I heard that the old man collapsed once before. When he had a grandson, the grandson used to help out at the restaurant, but he’s not around anymore. Still, but the business is still doing well there, and there are quite a lot of customers.”

Deok-chil’s passing remark made Nam-woon take a closer look at the Haengwon restaurant when he stopped by.

From the day he saw the grandfather serving food alone, Nam-woon started helping out at the store. At first, even though the grandfather threw various ingredients and cursed at him, he eventually turned his heart around when Nam-woon didn’t listen to anything he said. Recently, he had reached the point where he just let Nam-woon be.

“We need to find him quickly.”

While Nam-woon was making a worried expression, a small sound suddenly came from his stomach. I guess I should eat ramen. Stretching and getting up, he approached the shelf next to the refrigerator, but it was empty. Yong-deuk said, upon seeing it,

“Oh, we’re all out of ramen. I’ll go out and get some.”

“It’s okay. I’ll go.”

Nam-woon pocketed the card on the table and left the office.

***

“We’re having a Kiwi sale! We only have a few left, come on down!”

When I was at Kwon Seo-oh’s house, I ate quite well, but Nam-woon’s usual food was ramen.

While eating ramen, he bought even a small piece of kimchi to eat with his ramen, he would recall Seo-oh’s back, who used to stir-fry kimchi in a frying pan like a kimchi master. Often, by the time he snapped out of his thoughts, the ramen would already be overcooked.

It wasn’t just Kwon Seo-oh that came to mind. Rustle. Returning from the mart with ramen and snacks, Nam-woon organized the items on the shelf and turned on the TV while pouring water into the cup of ramen. It just happened to be that Se-han’s favorite cartoon that he liked was broadcast. Nam-woon slurped up the cup of ramen and before he knew it, he had finished watching an episode of the cartoon.

“Ah, what if it ends there? Kwon Se-han is probably going to talk about Dal-kong all day long.”

Nam-woon slightly added with exaggeration. Then an advertisement that followed the end of the cartoon was for Se-han’s favorite soda flavor of Dal-kong.

Should I buy a few of those for the office?

It was a random thought since there wasn’t anyone to drink it with but he thought about it anyway.

At that moment, Yong-deuk, who checked the time on his phone, stood up from his seat.

“Master, I’ll go for collections.”

Nam-woon stood up with the cup of ramen with only soup left and said,

“I’ll go collect today. And please go buy that.”

Nam-woon pointed to the beverage advertisement that was appearing again. Yong-deuk, who had been looking at Nam-woon for a moment, nodded soon after.

As Nam-woon walked out of the office, Yong-deuk let out a long sigh. Jang-mi and Deok-chil, who came back to the office late after finishing their work, also looked worried. These days, Nam-woon couldn’t sit still in his office.

They all knew that this had been the case since Kwon Seo-oh hadn’t stepped foot in the office, but no one had mentioned his name because of Nam-woon. However, the sinking atmosphere in the office was inevitable.

***

Nam-woon stood in front of a restaurant with an atmosphere similar to that of Haengwon restaurant. It was his first time at the store, the one where Yong-deuk used to collect payments. As he opened the door, a woman in an apron who appeared to be the owner of the store greeted him.

“Welcome-“

As soon as she saw Nam-woon enter the door, her expression hardened and she said, “Okay, wait a minute.” and went inside.

Nam-woon looked around the store. There were only four old tables. At a table near the door, a man in a wrinkled shirt was eating with his face buried in his bowl, and at the innermost table, two middle school students in school uniforms were watching Nam-woon.

One of the children suddenly stood up. Then the boy next to her grabbed her arm and stopped her.

“Noona, don’t…”

“Get out!”

The child shouted angrily at Nam-woon, glaring at him. The owner inside must have heard her voice, as she quickly came out and apologized to Nam-woon while hiding the child behind her.

“I-I’m sorry. She’s still a child…”

“I said get out!”

“Stay behind.”

But the child still refused to go out even behind her mother, yelling at Nam-woon. Watching the fierce yelling of the child while leaving her younger sibling behind, Nam-woon was reminded of the boy who had been occupying his thoughts lately. Nam-woon looked at them for a moment, then silently opened the door and went outside.

Nam-woon raised his head. Seeing the cloudy sky, it seemed like rain was about to pour down.

Then it happened.

Drip, drip.

The person who came out after opening the door was the man who had been eating inside the restaurant. Looking up at the cloudy sky, he muttered to himself, “I didn’t bring an umbrella” and put his hand in his pants pocket.

He took out a cigarette from his pocket, lit it with a flick, then glanced at Nam-woon standing in front of the store and offered him a cigarette pack. When Nam-woon shook his head quietly, the man put the cigarette pack back in his pocket and spoke as if to a close friend.

“Is Chairman Seok still in charge?”

“……!”

Surprised, Nam-woon looked at the man. The man chuckled, saying,

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost, buddy.”

Nam-woon quickly scanned the man.

Does Seok Nam-woon know this guy? Who is he?

As Nam-woon’s gaze shifted, something dangling near the man’s waist caught his eye. It was a police officer’s badge. The man inhaled his cigarette until his cheeks hollowed. The man exhaled smoke and spoke.

“You’re lucky, huh? Making money so easily. People like me have to break our backs just to make ends meet.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m the one who puts assholes like you in jail.”

The man looked at Nam-woon with a smile.

“So you like detective agencies? Guys like you need to be dealt with thoroughly. Oh, and tell Chairman Seok that he’s like a cockroach, making a ruckus.”

The man, who had just finished smoking a cigarette, took out a new one. He glanced at Nam-woon and made an exaggerated expression.

“Oh? Look at those eyes. Are you going to hit me?”

The man, who was carefully examining Nam-woon’s face while laughing, suddenly looked surprised.

“You don’t look like someone who would work in a loan shark office.”

“Looks can be deceiving,” the man muttered. Nam-woon looked intently at the man’s government ID. Jang Myung. It’s a completely unfamiliar name. Nam-woon spoke expressionlessly.

Nam-woon spoke with a blank expression.

“You don’t look like someone who should be living off government money either.”

He added, “You look like a gangster.” The man laughed, “Haha, everyone in our department looks like this.” He brought his palm close to his face and shook it up and down.

Then he scrutinized Nam-woon’s features.

“I’ve heard some strange rumors lately. They say Chairman Seok’s son is delivering chicken these days.”

Nam-woon put his hand in his pocket without looking at the man. While he had thought that Chairman Seok or Seok Nam-woon’s enemies might be somewhere, he didn’t expect to encounter them so suddenly. Stay calm and respond. There’s no need to panic. From the way he spoke, it seemed like the man didn’t know Nam-woon well.

Status window.

[Yes, did you call?]

I want to use the setting book.

[Yes. Please tell me what you need.]

Jang Myung, character information.

[One voucher is required for this service. Will you use it?

▶Yes]

[Jang Myung – A detective with a grudge against Chairman Seok]

That was the end of it. What grudge? Nam-woon asked, but the status window just repeated that it wasn’t listed in the settings.

The man spoke to Nam-woon, who was staring into space.

“Have you had a change of heart?”

“You’re tailing ordinary people. Isn’t that illegal?”

“I investigate all ordinary people. What kind of ordinary person are you?”

“I haven’t even been to jail. So, I’m an ordinary civilian aren’t I?”

Nam-woon continued, gesturing towards the man’s belly with his chin.

“Detective, it’s not going to be easy to get rid of that. You should try doing deliveries. It’s good for your belly fat.”

The man chuckled at Nam-woon’s words. Then he came closer to Nam-woon, and a strong smell of cigarette smoke wafted over.

“Chairman Seok, the contract with Mooyoung Group isn’t finalized yet, right?”

“How would I know? Go ask them yourself.”

“Oh, come on, why are you being like this?”

The detective leaned in close to Nam-woon and spoke in a low voice as if he were sharing a secret.

“You’ve been beaten by your father since you were a child!”