Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Han Hyun-ho seemed to be talking about the video of the ‘High school girl saved on the subway by a man’ that had recently become a hot issue on social media.

“How did you know?”

No one at school had recognized him yet, so Kang Hyun gave a hollow laugh, dumbfounded that Han Hyun-ho had figured it out right away.

He had given an answer that acknowledged that he was indeed the main character.

“As expected!”

At that, Han Hyun-ho nodded as if he had become a detective, making a V with his fingers and bringing it to his chin.

“That day, I was in the same car as you! I caught a glimpse of your face and thought it might be you, but wow! It really is you!”

“You were there?”

“Yeah, I was on my way to work. That day was really amazing!”

It was an incredible coincidence that Han Hyun-ho was among the people who had given Kang Hyun a thumbs up and clapped for him.

As Kang Hyun scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, Han Hyun-ho spoke in an even louder voice.

“Wow! That day, I was really impressed! I was completely blown away! Somehow… I was interested because someone familiar was holed up in the reading room… and it turns out it was the ‘Subway Hero’!”

He seemed to have completely forgotten about his stolen belongings, grinning broadly with a happy expression, revealing his white teeth.

“It was just luck. Anyway, let’s catch the thief first. I’ll help you.”

Now that things had come to this, Kang Hyun thought it would be easier to talk openly. However, Han Hyun-ho waved his hands, declining the offer.

“No, it’s okay. I can just buy the books again, and I can consider it even with meeting such an amazing friend today!”

Han Hyun-ho seemed genuinely happy to have met Kang Hyun. However, Kang Hyun shook his head firmly.

“No, it’s not something to just let go. Your books are important too. And there could be more victims.”

Kang Hyun’s eyes shone as he spoke in a cautious voice.

“And this guy, isn’t he despicable? He’s shamelessly continuing to do bad things. This petty thief will become a big thief later. We can’t let him go.”

When Kang Hyun expressed his strong will, Han Hyun-ho nodded vigorously, as if he was even more impressed.

“Right! You’re right! As expected, a hero thinks differently! I was short-sighted.”

Han Hyun-ho, who was staring at Kang Hyun with wide eyes, suddenly asked with a serious look,

“So what should we do now?”

“Finding out who he is won’t take long. The problem is what comes after.”

Kang Hyun smiled slyly.

***

When Kang Hyun and Han Hyun-ho spoke to a library employee who hadn’t left work yet, he asked with a hardened expression, as if he had expected it.

“Did you lose something?”

“Yes. This friend’s study books and even his writing utensils have all disappeared.”

“Everything I had… is gone.”

Kang Hyun’s blazing eyes and Hyun-ho’s pitiful expression combined to reach the employee.

The employee, who was about to leisurely leave work, had no choice but to sit back down when the two high school students came to him saying they had their belongings stolen.

“Sigh… I told you beforehand that the library can’t take responsibility. What am I going to do….”

He let out a big sigh.

Even though he sat back down to listen to their story, it seemed he was going to remain defensive about this matter, showing how much he had been plagued by complaints so far.

However, Kang Hyun didn’t mind as long as the employee provided simple assistance, so he quickly spoke up, sensing his troubled look.

“Sir! We won’t bother you or cause you any trouble! We just have a hunch and would like to ask you to confirm a few things!”

He hadn’t thought of calling the police or asking to see the CCTV footage in the first place. If he had, would this kind of incident have continued for so long?

“Oh, really….”

The employee seemed to have softened a bit at Kang Hyun’s earnest words, but he was still dissatisfied. As if waiting for this moment, Kang Hyun began to persuade him in a clear and logical manner.

“Of course, neither you nor the library as a whole is responsible for the stolen items. You already gave us a notice saying that the responsibility lies with the individual, and it’s also posted all over the building. But you can at least listen to the request of the person who was robbed, right?”

“If you’re thinking of calling the police, that would be difficult. If things get bigger, it’ll be a bit awkward for us too… so we can’t help it….”

“No! I will absolutely not call the police and cause a commotion in the library. What I mean is, while you don’t have an obligation to find the lost items, you can help out of goodwill.”

Responsibility.

It’s a word that also has a negative power that hinders cooperation and assistance. Kang Hyun strongly emphasized that this was something that could be helped with simple goodwill, while also reminding him that it wasn’t his responsibility.

As Kang Hyun coaxed him a little more gently, the employee nodded, admitting that he wasn’t wrong.

“Hmm… alright. Then, what do you need my help with… Honestly, I want to help. The student who lost his laptop last time cried so much… it broke my heart. I couldn’t do anything….”

“I understand completely!”

Kang Hyun expressed strong agreement and stated his request.

“First of all, I need the data registered here, just one or two things. I’ll just check it and use it only for this case.”

“What do you need?”

When the man showed interest, Kang Hyun didn’t miss the opportunity and said,

“I think I can roughly filter out who did it just by looking at the student entry records. If there’s a list of stolen items, that would be even better.”

“If it’s just that…”

Fortunately, after a brief moment of contemplation, he nodded with an expression that wasn’t too unpleasant and started looking for the data.

“There’s a file listing the stolen items, and as for the entry records… they don’t show the exact time. What we can confirm is when they came in….”

“That’s all I need.”

“But you must never leak it outside.”

“Thank you so much for your help!”

“Thank you!”

As Kang Hyun bowed his head and politely expressed his gratitude, Han Hyun-ho also bowed his head alongside him.

A moment later, Kang Hyun received the data, spread it out on the wide desk, and began comparing something.

Han Hyun-ho watched in silence, trying to guess what Kang Hyun was up to, but he couldn’t figure it out at all.

Of course, common sense dictated that both the list of stolen items and the library entry records were meaningful data for this theft case.

But how could a ledger with a list of missing items be of any help? Also, the entry records only showed the date, not the time, and there was no record of entries and exits, so what was the point?

Moreover, what was the point of comparing these two?

After waiting for a long time, Han Hyun-ho couldn’t hold back his curiosity about what Kang Hyun was doing and asked in a small voice,

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

Kang Hyun, his eyes leaving the data at the sound of his voice, saw Han Hyun-ho’s curious expression and chuckled.

“Ah, sorry. I was too focused.”

“What are you doing?”

“Hmm… this is a kind of simple deduction. Should I explain it to you?”

At Kang Hyun’s words, Han Hyun-ho nodded vigorously.

“Well, it’s not that complicated, but it’s tedious. For example, you set a standard that provides a very simple guideline for judgment. First, the premise starts with the fact that this is the public library of the Jigeongseok Foundation.”

He laid out the two sets of data for easy viewing and said,

“First, on the left is the list of stolen items. Naturally, since people came crying and complaining about their things being gone, the date would be recorded, as well as the detailed information about the items.”

When Han Hyun-ho tilted his head, Kang Hyun’s tone became a little higher.

“Now, look closely. What you can see from this data is that the first theft occurred ‘three months ago,’ and the type and number of stolen items have been steadily increasing. You can almost feel the thief getting bolder.”

“Around two months ago, a lot of really valuable items went missing, huh?”

“That’s right. And initially, I heard from that employee that the thefts were happening with similar methods, right? In other words, we can deduce that the culprit has been entering and exiting the reading room with an assigned seat since at least three months ago, and it’s highly likely that the same person has been doing it.”

“Oh! That’s amazing!”

Han Hyun-ho’s eyes widened.

“Once the suspect’s identity is narrowed down like this, the rest is simple. The second set of data is a list of entry card swipes, and I got six months’ worth. Surprisingly, it’s for six months, but there isn’t much data. This is because it’s an assigned seat area, so there are fewer people.”

“So?”

“The important thing is that the culprit definitely came and went when the items were stolen, and that culprit, whether using their own card key or a stolen one, definitely left a record of their entry that day with the card key tag provided by the library. Then, all we have to do is compare this record for the past three months and filter out the people who overlap.”

“Hmm… but couldn’t it be wrong?”

“No, it can’t be. That’s precisely the trap. The thought, ‘What if some other coincidence happened and it’s not them?’ is what criminals think most often during police and prosecution investigations. Prosecutors and judges catch those kinds of errors.”

“Hmm… now that I hear it, I think you’re right.”

“That’s why I’ve been comparing since earlier, and about twenty people overlap. If we exclude the people who came today and are currently sitting in their assigned seats…”

“Three people? Whoa, and they’re from the same school?”

“That’s right.”

Kang Hyun wore a meaningful expression.

Three people.

They were all high school students attending the same school, and the entry dates of these three matched exactly.

“They’ve been coming here for three months. But why did they bother coming here?”

“Why? Isn’t it their freedom?”

“Look here. ‘Hanram High School’ is very far from our library, and there are two other libraries around it. This place isn’t anything special, it’s just a small local library, so why did they come all the way here?”

“Now that I think about it, you’re right. Why did they bother to come here and register? And all three of them?”

As Han Hyun-ho finally began to understand and question, Kang Hyun abruptly stood up.

“That’s what we need to find out now, right? Anyway, this is how you find them. It’s not difficult, just bothersome to think about, right? You can deduce almost anything within the realm of common sense.”

“Ah!”

Han Hyun-ho let out a short exclamation. It was the same feeling he had felt when he first saw Kang Hyun in his school uniform, cornering the criminal in the subway car.

Would all the library staff who kept talking about responsibility and the many people in the reading room who pretended not to know anything even compare to Kang Hyun alone?

Han Hyun-ho was convinced that he had indeed judged Kang Hyun correctly. His clear eyes and exclamations of admiration were proof that he trusted Kang Hyun.

“You… I thought you were a lawyer, but you’re a detective!”

“It’s not important that it’s illegal because Korea doesn’t have a detective law… Anyway, thanks for the compliment.”

Kang Hyun, who was about to mumble something about the irrelevant Japanese detective law, barely managed to regain his composure and responded to Han Hyun-ho’s expectant gaze.

“But it’s not solved yet. We’ll have to go and confront them, but if more than three of them have been stealing periodically in pairs….”

“Hmm!”

Before Kang Hyun could finish his sentence, Han Hyun-ho let out a forceful grunt. Then, as if to show Kang Hyun something useful, he thumped his chest.

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll take care of the rest.”

—————

Please rate and review this novel on NU.