Blue Summer

Chapter 21: A Lonely Spring

Police Department Report, Incheon, 9:31 pm-

· 12 young adults, eight boys and four girls, have been reported missing in February 20XX.

· six young adults, all boys, have been reported missing in March 20XX.

· 14 young adults, six boys and eight girls, have been reported missing in May 20XX.

· 15 young adults, six boys and seven girls, have been reported missing in June 20XX.

· three young adults, all boys, have been reported missing in July 20XX.

Lee Yoeun-Ho, an officer in the Incheon district of Namdong-gu, stared at the report from last year. His eyes ran through it many times, but no clue could be gathered of it. He stretched his arms and let out a huge sigh. Then he looked at the desk in front of him. He was in a small cabin with two lamps, one flickering. His workspace was against a plain grey wall. A small locker was at the corner of the room—a table with a kettle and some coffee. A small window was to the left of the room covered with curtains.

Yoeun-Ho opened another report. It had a list of names of the missing young adults with the details of their last seen.

"Cheok Sando, age 15 years, last seen in a fish market....... Mo Long, age 13 years, last seen at a public park......." He went on reading the details aloud in an empty room. Finally, he stopped at the last name, the last victim, "Ibuki Kaoru, age 17 years, last seen at the Cheongug Research Facility......Um, interesting."

After giving some thought to the reports, he got out of his chair and put them back on the table. He grabbed his coat and went out on the chilly spring evening.

It had been a year since Ibuki had disappeared. He was last seen by some passerby entering the Cheongug Research Facility but never appeared there. His disappearance was the nail in the coffin, forcing the authorities to rethink a broader connection in the similar disappearance that had happened over the same time. Officer Yoeun-Ho was posted in the district six months after Ibuki's disappearance. He was interested in the case from the beginning because of the complexity it held. For six months, he had been gathering as much information about the missing teenagers as much as he could. Ibuki was the only one left. Yoeun-Ho was failing to get much about him from his research. The only clue he could get was that he may have disappeared from the facility. But the question was, what was he doing there?

"A 17-year-old boy in a renowned research facility?" thought Yoeun-Ho.

He stopped by a roadside eatery that cooked fresh shrimp, to Yoeun-Ho's delight. He sat down and placed his order. While waiting, he took out his phone and texted another officer to meet up. As the shrimp was being cooked, Yoeun-Ho looked about the area. Then he checked his phone for a response to his text.

"Hyung!" A young man, not that tall but fit, waved at Yoeun-Ho. He smiled. The man came and sat in front of him. He bowed to greet him and said, "How was your day?"

Yoeun-Ho passed a bottle of shoujo to the fellow and replied, "I may have a clue. But I need your help."

The man nodded as he poured the drink into the glass.

"Ha-Joon, do you know anything about this boy Ibuki?" Yoeun-Ho took the drink as he asked the question.

Ha-Joon thought for a moment and said, "I am not sure. But I do remember that his mother, I think, had come to report him missing. She said he hadn't returned home for a whole day and was responding to her calls."

"Do you remember his mother? Can you take me to meet her?" Yoeun-Ho asked excitingly.

"Yes, I can."

The next day, Yoeun-Ho and Ha-Joon met up at the police station. Ha-Joon gave Yoeun-Ho all the details he had, and then the two went to meet Mrs Cho.