NTH 75

“That is true.”

“It is far more beneficial in the long run to remain as a long-term, stable source of funds than to be discovered trying to save the life of one independence martyr. That is why I had to thoroughly play the role of a pro-Japanese collaborator.”

“Then why on earth did you come today? You were almost dragged away along with me.”

“Did I not already say I went to pick up my fiancée?”

“And what is with the way you jumped on me like a beast as soon as we got home? Are you trying to actually have a wedding ceremony with me?”

“I risked my life to save you, so why would it not be possible? Now, Nana, hurry up and eat to regain your strength so we can continue our frolicking. The winter nights are long and tedious.”

Tsubame, who clicked his tongue at Suhyeon’s banter, asked as if he had just remembered something.

“That name ‘Nana’, is it the name of someone you already know?”

“No. It is a name that suddenly came to mind when I saw you beautifully dressed up earlier. Does it not suit you better than ‘Tsubame’?”

“It is a girl’s name. But well, it is not so bad. It is easy to pronounce too.”

Tsubame, who quietly chewed and swallowed his food, continued after a moment.

“If by any chance I am reborn in the next life, I think it would be okay to live with the name ‘Nana’.”

“Why so?”

When Suhyeon asked with a puzzled expression, Tsubame smiled awkwardly.

“You never know, I might be able to meet you again. Well, I mean… as a fiancé.”

Suhyeon immediately pushed the dining table far away and lunged at Tsubame.

Due to the bombing incident in Jongno, Matsuyama, the nation’s largest Japanese-style clothing store, lost its president. Before the soil on President Matsuuchi’s grave had even dried, his two greedy sons fought to take over Matsuyama, causing a considerable stir within the store.

Hayashi Ryomu was losing weight by the day, and his skin color turned even more swarthy. It had reached the point where other employees at Matsuyama noticed that something was wrong with his health.

Not only had he lost Tsubame before he could fully absorb his energy in this life, but Tsubame had also been intimate with another, making Hayashi look like a man who did not have much time left to live. At this rate, it would have been far better for Hayashi if Tsubame died quickly so they could both be reborn again.

There was no more time to hesitate.

Hayashi, who had secretly entered the empty president’s office, gripped the telephone receiver on the desk.

“Young master, we have a big problem! There are a lot of policemen outside the main gate!”

At Abeom’s urgent shout as he ran into the entrance, Suhyeon put down the newspaper he was reading.

“What is the matter?”

“They say they need to conduct a search, so they are telling us to open the main gate, and if we do not, they will break it down and come in. It seemed like a rather high-ranking person came himself.”

“I will go out and buy as much time as possible, so please hurry and hide Tsubame in the basement.”

“I understand.”

While Suhyeon went out to the entrance, Abeom quickly pushed the table in the drawing room, rolled up the rug on the floor, and revealed a narrow crack in the center of the wooden floor. When he stuck a chopstick into it and lifted, a passage just big enough for one person to pass through was revealed. Abeom said to the terrified Tsubame.

“Hurry and go down. Quickly!”

Tsubame quickly climbed down the ladder into the basement. Abeom, in a hurried motion, closed the wooden panel again, laid the rug over it, and returned the table to its original place.

Tsubame crouched in the dark basement without even turning on a light and hugged his knees.

It will be nothing. It will be over soon. Soon, Suhyeon will open the entrance and extend his hand to pull him up. If he just endures a little longer, Suhyeon will hug him, saying, “You must have been scared,” “You went through a lot,” “Everything is okay now”…

Meanwhile, Suhyeon was confronting Inspector Oohara at the main gate.

“I am greatly disappointed that you, Inspector Oohara, have come out like this.”

When Suhyeon spoke with an arrogant and rude attitude, Oohara replied with a hardened expression.

“I also have no desire to be disrespectful to you, Mr. Dasukawa, but since a report has been filed, I feel it is necessary to check.”

“That report, is it really that I am hiding a bomb terrorist in this house? Surely, Inspector, you are not unaware of who my grandfather is?”

“I know, of course I know. But the informant was so insistent, saying he would bet his own life.”

It was as clear as day who the informant was. To think he would use the infinite trust he had built with the police through countless accusations over the years in this way. Moreover, showing up at an event he was not supposed to attend, with some fiancée no less, must have played a part in making Suhyeon seem suspicious.

“In truth, Mr. Dasukawa, you are truly innocent, are you not? Therefore, it would be more refreshing for you to just allow the search.”

“If nothing is found, hand that informant over to me. I must make him pay the price for defiling my grandfather’s honor.”

“Th-that is a bit…”

“Mr. Oohara! Then is it okay for me to report that you, Mr. Oohara, are leaking police confidential information to the Joseon independence army? Does it not matter if an innocent person is put in trouble with a ‘good if it sticks, oh well if it doesn’t’ attitude!”

As Suhyeon drove him into a corner with his sharp tongue and lost his temper, Oohara made a displeased face.

“I understand. If nothing is found, I will provide Mr. Dasukawa with the informant’s information.”

Suhyeon raised his hearing to its limit and listened to the sounds inside the house.

“Everyone, act calmly. No matter who asks what, do not answer rashly under any circumstances and call for the young master!”

Seeing Abeom giving instructions to the household employees, it seemed that the task of hiding Tsubame was already finished. Suhyeon flung open the main gate with a gesture that said he had nothing to hide.

“As quickly and quietly as possible, please.”

With a flick of Oohara’s hand, a dozen uniformed police officers rushed into the house.

They searched not only every room in the mansion but also the kitchen, bathroom, storeroom, and inside the closets, and even poked around the garden pond with long bamboo poles. However, not even a mouse, let alone a bomb terrorist, was found.

Inspector Oohara, who was sitting in the drawing room with a displeased Suhyeon, let out a long sigh and dropped his head after receiving the final report from his subordinates that there was nothing.

Right at that moment, his eyes behind the spectacle lenses glinted.

“This table, it seems you have placed it here again very recently.”

When Oohara asked with a mysterious smile, Suhyeon replied calmly.

“It has been several years since I brought it in when I first moved into this mansion.”

“That is strange, then. The indentation in the rug and the position of the table legs are slightly misaligned.”

Suhyeon’s heart skipped a beat, but he retorted without batting an eye.

“Well, I suppose the employees must have moved it while cleaning. I do not have some kind of obsessive-compulsive disorder where I am only satisfied if the position of every object matches perfectly all the time.”

Oohara shot up from his seat and said to his subordinates waiting at the entrance.

“Remove it.”

Before Suhyeon could stop them, the table was lifted and the rug was removed in an instant. Inspector Oohara found a faint square-shaped crack in the center of the wooden floor, pointed to it, and ordered.

“Lift it.”

When his subordinates opened the entrance to the basement, a wooden ladder was revealed. Two police officers went down, shone a flashlight into every corner, and shouted.

“There is a person here!”

Watching Inspector Oohara’s triumphant smile, Suhyeon clenched his jaw tightly.

“I have stated this repeatedly, but Tsubame has absolutely nothing to do with the bombing. On the contrary, he was a person who was constantly cursed by fellow Joseon people for frequently informing on the independence army. If you had investigated in the neighborhood where he used to live, you would already know this, would you not?”

“Mr. Dasukawa, please be honest even now. If that is not the case, why would you hide a person in a place like a basement?”

“I have already confessed everything about that as well. If it becomes known that a person of my social status and reputation enjoys sodomy, how much would that tarnish the honor of my family? That is the only reason I hid Tsubame there.”

“Did Ms. Sekiguchi, whom you called your fiancée, know about this fact?”

“Are you insane? For me to say such a thing with my own mouth. I thought I would not be able to enjoy such pastimes once I get married soon, so I brought Tsubame to my house altogether.”

“Then where is Ms. Sekiguchi now?”

“She returned to her home country, saying she was scared right after experiencing the bombing incident.”

“Hmm. According to the Matsuyama employees, the servant named Tsubame disappeared one day without a word.”

“The day I went to Matsuyama, I happened to see him and took a liking to him, so I kidnapped and confined him. I may be punished for kidnapping and confinement, but Tsubame is merely a victim, so release him immediately.”

“About that, Tsubame gave a slightly different testimony.”

“What do you mean?”

“This is a record of Tsubame’s testimony.”

The investigator handed a piece of paper to Suhyeon. Suhyeon read it with a frown.

“Working at Matsuyama was too hard and I was hungry, so I asked Mr. Dasukawa, who had come as a customer, to hire me as a servant. But that day, I was caught trying to steal something from the mansion, so I was being punished in the basement for a while as a sign of repentance.”

“Since the two of you are in a situation where you are both insisting it is your own fault, that sentiment is endlessly touching, but from our perspective, we cannot believe either side, can we?”

“…”

“Mr. Dasukawa, as you yourself have said, is a person of ‘social status and reputation,’ so we are treating you as gentlemanly as possible. But surely you are not so naive as to expect Tsubame to receive similar treatment.”

Hearing the investigator’s mocking words, Suhyeon clenched his fists tightly.

“This bastard is definitely that woman named Nana.”

The uniformed police officer said with a confident face. It was the same man who had blocked Tsubame in the square where the Chamber of Commerce event was held. Tsubame, who was sitting in a chair with his hands tied behind his back, let out a smirk.

“It is obvious that anyone here would have said the same thing, so I do not know why you are bothering to ask.”

“What, you son of a bitch?”

Although Inspector Oohara shouted with a face like a demon, Tsubame said with a completely unfrightened expression.

“Does it make sense to be certain even after seeing a face that is all swollen and bruised from being beaten to a pulp, not to mention a different gender? It is just nodding along to a predetermined answer.”

“Will you not shut up!”

“Anyway, I do not know Nana or Hachi, and I have no interest in cross-dressing.”

“Do not lie. You threw the bomb under Seo Suhyeon’s instigation, didn’t you! And Seo Suhyeon went to get you out safely.”

“I told you, I was doing laundry at the Dasukawa mansion that day.”

“Then where is Sekiguchi Nana? The woman who was said to be Seo Suhyeon’s fiancée.”

“How would I know. I suppose she went back to her own country.”

Inspector Oohara approached Tsubame, grabbed a fistful of his hair, and yanked it back sharply.

“Do not use that useless head of yours. Do you even know what Seo Suhyeon testified?”

“I do not.”

“He said he happened to see you in Matsuyama, took a liking to you, and kidnapped and confined you. And he hid you in the basement because he was afraid it would harm his family if it got out that he enjoys sodomy. Do you think a person who really has a fiancée would say something like that?”

“That is up to him.”

“Hmph. What does Seo Suhyeon lack that he would try to protect a beggar bastard like you? He is desperately trying to get you out because he is afraid you will open your mouth and his dirty deeds will be revealed.”