Blue Summer

Chapter 29: The will to live and love

Ibuki's patience, which had held for more than a year now, was falling to its knees. He had forced himself to bear unimaginable pain and agony during his time at the facility. After finding out that Ji-Bok had passed away, he somehow felt uneasy. He did not want to see any more of his fellow subjects die in front of his eyes. He could not bear the sight of it or the word of it. When he learned that he would be taken to Germany the following week, Ibuki had grown impatient. He wanted to see Misao and his family one last time. But if he were to go to Germany, he would never see them again. What would happen once the test is over? Would they kill all of the trial subjects?

Ibuki's rebellion had stopped, for he hadn't seen Chang for a while. He figured he could be busy preparing to move the subjects. He was right. Chang alienated himself from everyone except the facility workers and Yun-Ji to prepare the necessities to move such a large group to Germany. He had no clue that Sungmin had found out about the trial and that the police were looking for him. Sungmin revealed the information shared with him by Woon-Gi to the police, and they were tracing Chang's whereabouts.

Officer Lee had sent a search party to Seoul to look for suspicious facilities in outskirt forest lands. He also questioned the hospital where Ibuki was admitted and asked them to tell him the physique of the men accompanying Ibuki. He had their sketches drawn and sent out another search party to look for them. If he could track them down, he could use them to reach Chang.

On the morning of the third of September, the extensive search began. On the night of the second of September, all the traffic in and out of Seoul was halted to avoid the escape of the suspected. Overnight, Yoeun-Ho and Ha-Jun gathered the sketches of the men who were with Ibuki. They went about sending pamphlets with their face and asking anyone who spotted them to let the police know on immediate terms. All vehicles travelling with Seoul from district to district were searched.

Sungmin was kept in touch as he constantly made attempts to reach out to Chang. He had made calls to all the people who knew Chang, but no one could tell where he was. With no choice left, Sungmin decided to go to Chang's apartment. When he reached there, the tenant told him that Chang hadn't been home for almost a week at this point. Sungmin took the spare key from the tenant and went to check the apartment.

Even though Chang had a substantial income from working under Sungmin and possibly well enough of an income from working for Yun-Ji, he was living in a tiny space. It would have been due to the fact that he had no family and no partner. The apartment was a two-room space. Upon entering, there was a small space with a kitchen and dining area. The two rooms were also small, with one being Chang's bedroom, and the other room, which had a bed, seemed to be out of use. Sungmin went through the main space, checking the kitchen and all the other areas around it, including the dining room, the couch, and the TV. However, he could find nothing there except some off and weird magazines that rather unsettled Sungmin.

Then Sungmin checked Chang's bedroom. While small, it had a bed and a desk. The clothes were kept under the bed in drawers. There was overhead space for bedding and other stuff. Sungmin went through the room from corner to corner, up and down. Again, there was nothing suspicious or off-putting. Instead, Sungmin stumbled upon pictures of a girl in a box, too many of them under Chang's table with letters alongside. The letters, when Sungmin checked curiously, were love letters.

Sungmin's last resort was the second bedroom. Although seemingly uninhabited, Sungmin sought to look there, too, in a bid to find something substantial. As he scoured the room, he stumbled upon a small closet hidden behind curtains. He opened it and found it was filled with various documents. He went through them one by one and soon realised that he had found an extensive plan regarding Yun-Ji's drug trial. He immediately contacted the police, and they arrived at the apartment.