Summer rain poured like God was punishing humanity, but worse with the heat.
On the way to the station, I walked with an umbrella, not being able to stop all the rain from slipping into my clothes. This made my old scars and wounds itching, and the old pain came back, hurting me inside.
Rain hammered the airport drop-off zone. "Appa, are you going with us?" Jae-min clutched his little dinosaur backpack.
"No my son. I am not going. You will stay with mom." I had to say it. I had to be the one.
"Why do we have to go? Did I do something." He was bursted into tears.
"No, no, no" I hugged him as if this would be the last time I would hug him "I am so sorry, Jae-min. I am the bad one here" I let him go "Now, don't cry.. you would be the man of the family. You need to protect your mother okay?" I wiped rain off his cheek.
"We have to go." My ex-wife grabbed Jae-min's hand and pulled."I hope you won't get killed in action." She left me with my son. I could still hear his voice calling me, "Appa..", everytime it rains.
As I walked into the station, captain Choi called me.
"Hyun-su! I've got a case you might be interested in." He sounded hyped. "Victim Lee Soo-ah. Mugged by some random bastard, stabbed, and left in an alley. Then she walked to a payphone and called us herself. Calm. Too calm."
It sounded exactly like the cases I'd been chasing: someone visits the Church of Harmony, meets a Dr. Lee, stays eerily calm for two weeks, behaves normally the third week, and by the end of the month commits violence—against themselves or someone else.
"Where is it?" I asked in a hurry.
"Itaewon alley," he said with a grin. "You're driving this time—I called it in."
"Fine. The passenger seat's yours." I sighed as he went to grab the keys.
"Bring me a raincoat!"
As I waited for captain Choi at the front door of the police station, I watched people hurry through the downpour: salarymen clutching briefcases, mothers dragging kids, everyone trying to escape the rain and the heat.
"Let's go!" Choi came with two police raincoats. As soon as I opened the door for the driver's side, he opened the passenger's side.
"Damn this weather. I don't really work in this weather." Choi said with a small voice like he was talking to himself.
"Me too."I agreed. "By the way, how's your children?" I asked while I started the engine and drove to the destination, Itaewon.
"They are fine. Can you believe my eldest is about to go to university?" He chuckled, "man time flies. He wants to be a computer engineer like I know anything about it." As he still complained, I spotted his grin. His eldest son got accepted at Kaist, one of the most prestigious engineering universities in South Korea.
"You should be very proud of him."
"Yeah but it costs alot. gotta work hard I guess." He continued."On the bright side, he got a partial scholarship so it should be cheaper."
"Your son must get that brain from his mom." I chuckled.
"Hey What do you mean by that, you bastard?" He looked at me with a grin, not angry but still happy. "So.. Were you able to contact your ex and your son?" He asked very carefully.
"No, I have no idea how to contact them but wait for them to call me." I said in a small voice and with frustration in my face. I felt my hands trembling a little bit. An awkward silence continued.
"Oh! we are here!" Choi tapped my shoulder.
What I saw was raw emotion; anger, despair, greed, and then emptiness under the brightest street ever. Neon signs ignited every corner of the street, people were puking in a back alley, and young men were flirting with nearby women; all drunk.
I stood in that Itaewon alley, rain hammering my borrowed raincoat, the summer monsoon turning the narrow street into a river. It stank of blood, vomit and burnt sugar from the club's fog machines-sweet rot under the rain. Yellow tape flapped outside a club whose bass still throbbed despite the hour.
A young officer bowed slightly, face pale and soaked. "Captain Kim. The victim is Lee Soo-ah, twenty-two. Stabbed and assaulted. She called it in herself. She's… too calm, sir. Like she feels nothing."
I found her sitting on the curb under a dripping tarp, blood on her torn dress, eyes empty. She should have been screaming.
"Miss Lee," I said over the roar of the rain. "What happened?"
Her lips twitched. "It's empty now," she whispered. "No anger. No pain. Nothing. It's comforting… but it's fading. I need Dr. Lee again. She knows me."
Dr. Lee.
The name hit like a punch. I turned to the officer. "Did she mention the Church of Harmony? Dr. Min-hee Lee?"
The officer blinked, rain dripping off the brim of his cap. "Uh, yeah… she mentioned something about that. Said she was there ten days ago. Didn't think it was important, sir."
I nodded, jaw tight.
"It's important," I said, voice low but sharp enough to cut through the rain. "As a junior officer, you don't decide what's important and what isn't. You report everything. Anything can be a clue."
His cheeks reddened under the water. The kid couldn't have been older than twenty-five, still soft around the edges. I saw my son's face for half a second and the anger leaked out of me.
I exhaled. "Just… next time, write it down. All of it."
The officer continued "I think Dr.Lee is either witch or something supernatural, captain. It doesn't make sense. How can someone be this calm like their souls sucked out from them?"
"Drugs" I said. "Could be something close to marijuana."
The paramedic crouched beside her, already shaking his head. "Clean. Field tox came back negative. And Captain… she's got an old surgical scar under the ribs. Says she has no idea where it came from."
"That's weird," the young officer said. "She remembered every detail of her mugger."
I opened my mouth to say "drugs," like always.
The word stuck in my throat.
For the first time in twenty years on the job, I wasn't sure.
As I trudged back to the car, something bright caught my eye—a soaked flyer plastered to the asphalt.
On the front it said:
Welcome to the Church of Harmony
We welcome anybody.
Come to our place on Sunday for sermon by Dr. Lee
and on the back it said:
We will cleanse your negative emotion
To make you feel better!
At 10:00 a.m. on Sunday.
This could be my way in. Blend in, see Dr. Lee myself—no one else. Not Choi Sun-ho. Not Prosecutor Kang.
"Hey, Hyun-su!" Choi yelled into my ear. "You there, man?"
"Damn it, I'm right here. You don't need to yell in my ears," I bantered.
"We should go back to the station for the report. You coming?" he asked, annoyed.
"Yeah, but you're driving this time," I said with a bit of annoyance.
"Okay," he answered and sighed. "I hate driving in the rain."
I was already thinking about what to wear to blend in with the people visiting there.
On our way to the station, Choi asked a bit annoyed, "You're thinking about going to the Church, aren't you?"
I was thinking about what to say. If I answered yes, he would either stop me or follow me.
"No" I lied. "I might jeopardize the entire case."
"You better be because I know those eyes. When it comes to real danger, you always face it alone."His eyes got more narrow as he was frustrated. "Look at me Hyun-su." He looked directly into my eyes."You promise me on Jae-min's name you won't be there alone."
I met his eyes in the dark car and lied straight to his face.
"I promise"