Blue Summer

Chapter 27: "If chance has it, I will save you!"

Ibuki had grown immensely weak at this point. He had no idea how he was able to breathe at this point. He thought he would be dead by now, but somehow, through luck and persistence, he had managed to live to see another day. He was being fed on time, his test time was reduced, and he was allowed to rest. However, all of this in solace inside a tall, small room with a small window at the highest point on the wall. Ibuki was fine with the place but wanted to return to his initially assigned room to see how his roommates were doing. But for now, since Chang had not been doing anything, Ibuki also thought it was best to remain silent. He had forgotten entirely that he had called the police and possibly given them a clue. He was too occupied with surviving than with other things. Day in and day out, he hoped to see the outside world, his family, and above all, Misao.

Misao, on the other hand, had taken it upon herself to uncover Yun-Ji's secret. But with what she had, she could only do the bare. She had nearly no option on her hands to follow Yun-Ji into the heavily guarded office. Misao, disappointingly, looked at it from a distance. She could not understand how she would pull off going in in the least suspicious way possible. If she said that she wanted to meet Yun-Ji, she would be led away from there and somewhere else in the building. So that won't work. She could sneak in, but how would she distract the men and ensure she gets out safely?

She stood in her position, musing about the different ways she had learned through movies. Her eyes caught the fire alarm, and she looked at the guarded men again. So she did what she could: initiate a false fire alarm. The alarm was deafening and irritating. The whole building went into chaos because no one knew where the alarm had begun and where the fire was. Everyone ran out of the building for safety, and so did Yun-Ji. The men guarding the room also followed her, and it was Misao's chance to sneak in before anyone would realise it was a false alarm.

Misao entered the room and found it dark. She turned on her flashlight and surveyed about. Her heart was throbbing with fear and anxiousness. She held her nerve and quickly looked at the room, trying to spot a clue. She spotted the switch for the lights and turned it on. The room was far more spacious than it appeared in the dark. Misao's eyes fell upon a desktop in the far-right corner of the room. It was on but in sleeping mode. Misao wished that it would not ask for a password. She tried her luck, and to her surprise, the computer had just gone to sleep mode. When it was opened again, it did not ask for a password.

Misao scrolled aimlessly through different folders with weird names. But she stopped at one of the folders that said 'Drug Test Series: 5506'. The number and its significance were the least of Misao's concerns. She opened the folder and found details of some drugs. The possible and expected outcomes of the drugs were listed in one file, and the other file had names of the test subjects, including Ibuki.

At that very moment, she heard the fire alarm go off and realised that she did not have time to go through the file. So she quickly clicked two pictures of each file and made her way out before Yun-Ji and her men arrived back. Misao made sure to turn the lights off before leaving to avoid suspicions. Her heart was in her mouth. She took a deep breath once out of the building. Not wasting time, she left the building.

Upon arriving, she first went through the pictures taken. The details regarding the test and the drug horrified Misao as she realised that Yun-Ji was doing these trials against the regulations set by South Korea. Misao remembered promising Officer Lee that she would share any information she would get with him that may help him with the case. This was a huge clue, and she decided to immediately tell Officer Lee. She went through her diary and found the paper with the officer's number. Still quivering from her heist, Misao called the officer.

Yoeun-Ho had been hitting dead end after dead end. Until he received a call from a friend officer in Seoul who told him about the phone call they had received from Ibuki. They said that in the phone call, Ibuki had revealed his name, the horrific conditions of the test subjects at a drug test facility, possibly somewhere in Seoul and the involvement of Ko Chang. Ibuki had told them, before being cut off, that the facility was probably on the outskirts of some dense forest area far from the central city.