A Day Without You

The Lies You Tell

Why did it turn out like this… I shouldn’t have let him go that easily then. Shinwon being like this again and also Jinho hyung… why do we always keep meeting in hospitals… 

This all started when hyung came to me to ask me about Hwitaek-shi. Before that, I never really paid any heed to that name. Little did I know how important that name would become later on. I heard a lot about him in our division. He was a topic of the evening fun here. A guy who got taken in for fighting at a pub, it wasn’t exactly something to have a serious conversation about and all of us laughed at it and kind of mocked his idiocy for going against so many alone. He did have an accomplice but 2 against 6 wasn’t exactly competition. But a few weeks after that incident, hyung suddenly visited me at the station and it looked kinda odd to me. He never usually visits unless I call him about a case. When I heard him call out to me, that’s the first thing I said to him. He replied, “Why? I can’t just come to meet you?” and my reply to that was obviously “Who are you kidding here” and as expected, hyung found that funny.

And then it started.

Hyung told me all the things he had heard from Shinwon about the guy and when he said the name, I reacted instantly. I told him “I know this guy” and I could see his expression change. He was surprised by my answer and honestly didn’t know the reason behind it then. He actually had trouble talking for a bit because he was in a hurry. When he asked me how I knew him, I told him about what had happened. I could tell he had a lot of different emotions about this. He was worried and yet, he looked determined. He told me this was urgent and somehow, I had to ask him, “He's a regular troublemaker… Why are you interested in someone like him suddenly?” and hyung then said the whole story. Hyung said “He looked really… broken when talking about him” I could feel that he was worrying about Shinwon. I understood how the kid felt. To not even know whether the person he’s cares about this much, is even alive or not… it can take a toll on anyone. I had no reasons to say no to hyung about this but, it was the first time I saw him like this.

He sounded a bit desperate.

I don’t blame him. He just wanted to help his junior find some peace of mind. I knew Shinwon myself and he was nice kid. So I didn’t delay much and told hyung to give me some time to look into it. After hyung had left that day, I went to the district police station afterwards where Hwitaek was kept after his fight in the pub. I knew most of the people there so I didn’t really think about it much and went there to find things out. I went to speak with sunbae-nim about  Hwitaek’s records but I knew I won’t be getting everything. “Ah sunbae, you know me. I’m not someone to start trouble”, I told him in order for him to tell me something. And the reply I got to that was, “It’s not that Hongseokaa. You know there are certain rules” and I knew he wasn’t saying anything absurd. But I wanted to help hyung with this so I didn’t really want to give up easily. It took me quite a while to convince them to give me any kind of information. I did visit the pub he had the fight in but it was of no use since I had no solid direction to go to. I kept going to the station again and again and kept pestering them. It finally paid off after a few weeks. I said “Sunbae-nim, please… I really need to know this” again again and I don’t know what kind of face I was making but, I knew I sounded a tad bit helpless. Although he got irritated with this, he finally replied the last day saying “I can’t give you anything from the file but… I’ll tell you the locality. He lives nearby the place I’ll tell you to go to” and that was more than enough to for me. I thanked him at least five times and that only led to him being more annoyed.

I had a lead.

I went to where sunbae told me to and I asked around. I noted down some details and took his picture with me to ask around using that. I cross checked it with the information provided by hyung and, I could see he had changed quite a bit. The kid didn’t even know how he looks now… it had been quite a while. But I found solid information when I went into the convenience store. I ended up in the vicinity after quite a few days. I showed the guy the picture and he knew quite well about him. “Yeah I know him. He came back that day pretty beaten up and bruised” he said, quite confidently. I asked him where he had seen him last and he gave me a direction to go to. It was already night by the time I reached to the place of concern. It wasn’t a good neighborhood at all, but I had to wait this one out. I needed to be sure he lives close by and I knew no person there would answer a detective’s questions easily.

After quite a while, he was there.

I saw him get into an apartment building from the other side of the lane. It was already the middle of the night by the time he arrived and he was alone. I could see him well enough under the streetlights even though I was standing far away. When he went in, I took a picture of the building and took down the address and went to my car to go back. It was about 6 am at that time so I went back to the station to put everything in place and went to hyung the next day, after I had taken care of things. As I was about to call him from in front of his building, he called out to me from behind. “Ah you were out”, I said when I saw him coming from the other direction. I saw Shinwon right behind him, carrying him camera on his shoulder. I was expecting them to listen to what I had to say together, but hyung told him to go ahead before him. He greeted me once before going in and I knew something was off. I asked the inevitable question, “You haven’t told him yet?” and hyung replied, “Not before I look into it myself”. He had never acted this way before but I didn’t want to question him further. I gave him the file and showed him everything and told him I saw him get in my self and that reassured hyung a bit.

Hyung wasn’t going to wait any longer.

I knew that already but I still told him to hurry on a reflex I guess. I did go with him that evening and when hyung saw the guy with his own eyes, he didn’t wait a second to go to him. That was the first time I saw him up close. The bruises were pretty distinct, his whole face was covered up in it. I understood why hyung didn’t want Shinwon to know of this yet. When asked about him, the guy started smiling suddenly and it wasn’t one of those good ones. He looked creepy and absolutely pathetic. But then he said, “That piece of s**t? Why, he’s still crying because his hyung doesn’t love him anymore?” and I knew I had to stop hyung. He was ready to pounce at him and I could see his hands curled up in a ball, but a fight right then wouldn’t have ended well for anyone. I nodded at him, telling him to stop and although that was enough to stop him from moving, hyung’s expression didn’t change at all.

I don’t blame him, even I felt angry.

To think, the guy that still cares about a lowlife like him, even after all those years was getting told off like this… I wasn’t taking it well either. But all we could do was watch him walk away. It would’ve been best if we had never seen him again but, I guess that wasn’t how things were supposed to go.