It had been 2 weeks since the visit at the church of Harmony. There was nothing that changed much except Sunho was spacing out a lot during these two weeks.I assumed that he had family matters but he never answered me. When I asked if everything's okay with him, he just answered "I'm perfect, Hyun-Su". He smiled the way the woman at the church - too wide, too many teeth, zero light behind the eyes. I let it go. I shouldn't have.
"I came back from the hell" Choi barged in the precinct like he owned this place. "Here is a felon!"
He came over to his seat, sitting the suspect in front of him. He properly interrogated him and got a confession easily as he was writing down his report. He called an officer to take him to the cell until the other police officers picked him up for the court.
"Hey. Captain Kim. I will be calling you my junior after I beat you to the promotion." He smirked like his old self.
"In your dream, Sunho." I chuckled and continued. "By the way, did you resolve everything? You acted strangely for the past two weeks."
"Oh yeah well.. My son. He called me directly and asked for money. I was not myself lately due to this being my first time ever to talk to my son since the divorce." He stuttered a bit but it made a lot of sense. I would be spacing out and seemed to have a complicated feeling.
"Well congratulations to you my friend." I said.
Suddenly a young officer came to me and said, "Captain Kim. There is someone who is looking for you, sir! He said his name is Ji-hoon Park." He looked a bit agitated. Ji-hoon Park. The reporter who made anyone with power sweat — then wrote a tear-soaked apology to the Church of Harmony and vanished.
"Tell him I will be there soon."
I approached Mr. Park. What I saw was not the old Park I remember; eyes sharp and burning with passion, confident stand and having a pen and a notebook for writing anything he deemed a story. What I saw was a distressed and agitating man, hand shaking, eyes constantly looking around and highly on alert.
"Mr.Park. This is Captain Kim.I've heard you are looking for me."
"Ah Captain Kim." He showed his hand like he was going to shake but there was something written in shaky blue ink, letter bleeding on the hand.'Church of harmony. not safe here. They have my daughter.'
I shook his hand. "Why don't we go out to smoke outside. Mr.Park?" I smiled like everything was normal.
I texted Prosecutor Kang to come to the precinct, saying there was someone who wanted to tell us about the church as I walked outside with him to the backyard of Yongsan police department. Then suddenly, Choi jumped me.
"Hyun-su! Where are you going? Can I join if you are going out to drink coffee?" He chuckled and smiled at me.
"Do you want me to buy you one again?"
"It would be better if you do. By the way, who is this fella?" Choi came close to Park.
"This is Park Ji-hoon. He's here to talk about the church of harmony." Ji-hoon suddenly went pale and glanced at Choi."You shouldn't have mentioned that. I only came to you because I saw you leaving Church, not looking "harmonized." How do I know he's not one of them?" He pointed to Captain Choi and berated me for revealing his motive for coming here.
"You can trust him. He is the most loyal partner and friend in my life." I said it with confidence. "Isn't it right, Sunho?" I glanced at Choi. He was watching Park like a hawk. No hollow smile now. Just the old Sun-ho, ready for a fight.
"You are making me embarrassed, friend." He stuttered and looked away but I believed him.
"So.. What about the church?" Choi asked.
"We can't talk here." Park looked around. "There are too many people passing by. Why don't we go somewhere more private."
While I was thinking where to bring him, Choi said, "why don't we use an interrogation room? It is sound-proof and the only way to listen is from the recording booth. I will turn it off the mic in the room."
"That is actually not a bad idea, Captain Choi!"
When we went back to the precinct, Prosecutor Kang was already there.
"Reporter Park?" She looked genuinely surprised.
"Deputy Prosecutor Kang?" He seemed to be, too.
"How have you been? We met back when you interviewed me about the Baekgom-pa case." She seemed to know him well.
"Do you two know each other?" Sunho asked with confusion all over his face.
"Ah. He approached me and asked me if he could interview me. He wanted to write about me getting promoted pretty early in my career."
"It was rare to see a female prosecutor get promoted this fast. I wanted to write something to inspire young girls to have a real-life role model."
Detective Kang's face suddenly turned a bit red. "I wouldn't say I am." said it with a cold and flat voice.
"Let's go and Prosecutor Kang, please follow us." I had to break this moment to make the process in a hurry.
"What is going on, Captain Kim?" Prosecutor Kang asked with a hesitation.
"You will see. Prosecutor Kang."
Prosecutor Kang, Mr. Park and I all went into the interrogation room while Choi was in the recording booth.
"Tell me Mr.Park Ji-hoon. You mentioned something about the Church of harmony." I started to ask him slowly since he looked too nervous.
He looked up into the light shined directly down at the table.
"I was investigating the Church of Harmony from 3 years ago. I was suspicious of this church due to its influence in many aspects of South Korea - politics, business and even religion. It was funded by chaebol families, local municipal funds and even other religious groups like Buddhist temples. At first, it looked all okay on the paper, Korean Buddhist funding coal charity? Chaebol donating billions for 'hope'? Politicians carrying coals? I didn't buy it. First of all, No Christian leader works with Buddhists like that."
He looked directly at me and Prosecutor Kang. He looked passionate about what he did in the past.
"So I dug deeper. I bought none of it. So I followed her every step except inside of her church. On the third day following her, I saw her leaving church in a limousine so I tailed it with discretion. It led me inside the construction site. Of course, I was able to sneak past the guards. There were many people but it seemed like a union negotiation. There were 5 people in suits and 5 people in worker's uniform and headbands reading 'never stop resisting.' I was far enough not to get caught but enough to hear what they were saying. Dr. Lee entered the room, shaking their hands with them and said that they looked painful. Then she put her hands on the Union boss and each of its members there." He looked onto his palms, sweating. "I was dreadful. Absolutely fearful. Because after touching them, their faces went from anger to blend in a second when she touched them. Then, men in suits handed them papers, telling them to put their signature on them. They did it and mumbled like they are going through a stroke but not painful." He made his palm into fists, nails poking the palm and leaving the mark.
"Of course, I took pictures but I did not run with this and stopped following her. Whatever she did there, it frightened me to the core. But now that I think of it, I should have." He sighed and continued. "The union boss jumped off the very construction site where he was working. and its members, one way or another, was either captured by police due to them committing murder or commiting suicide just like the boss."
Prosecutor Kang leaned forward. "Didn't you write about the exposé on Dr.Lee?"
"Yeah. Right after that happened I couldn't ignore it. I have written an article titled 'Dr.Lee, saint or a manipulator? A go-to person to silence union.' Obviously it caught the attention of the Church of harmony.." He chuckled. "I got more death threats than when I wrote about a corrupt union boss."
"One day, I received a letter from Dr.Lee personally. It said she wants to have an exclusive interview with me, and that she wants to tell me about her position." He looked at the glass window of the interrogation room, chuckling again but in a sad way. "If I only knew it was to lure me, I would have ignored it. But as a reporter, I could not miss this opportunity." I breathed out heavily.
"I went to her personal office at the building behind the church. She told me about how she saw great pain and suffering in this world and within people. She was chosen by God to eradicate every emotional pain people hold. And then she looked me in the eyes directly. And she said I have a lot of pain right now, that I am also her 'patient'. and she approached me. I was surprised and remembered her touching union members. I refused to get touched and pushed her away but hearing the commotion, some guards in white hanbok came in and pinned me down on the floor and said 'don't resist Dr.Lee. She is the only cure in this world.' She touched my forehead." I swallowed my own spit.
"I've never felt empty in my life after that. It was actually refreshing." He looked down to his fist and let it go. "I wanted my family to feel this refreshness."
The room went colder than the alley outside because I knew what came next.