The adults around me used to predict that such a child would surely grow up to be a gangster. But to everyone’s surprise, Agwi became a police officer. 

By this time, many of the people who had served as Japanese collaborators during the colonial period had given up their armbands and become police officers themselves.

After liberation and the war, times were still chaotic and the idea that the police could serve the public as civil servants, as they do today, was something no one could even dream of. 

Then again, the police and the gangsters were pretty much the same. 

The adults mumbled and I thought that whether they were gangsters or policemen, Agwi would never be a part of my life. 

But I was wrong. Just like how Jae-yeol returned home, badly injured, Agwi suddenly stood before me. 

“W-What are you doing?” 

I screamed while tightly holding onto my grandmother. 

My grandmother, who had lost her mind, sat in fear, covering her head and crying like an animal.

Up close, Agwi was tall. 

And he looked truly terrifying, like a demon that had risen from hell. 

I remembered the first time I saw him, just briefly, long ago. He was around the same age as Jae-yeol, and instead of going to school, he often roamed the docks with a group of thugs. 

Even back then, he had the same expression. 

Cold and emotionless—his face was one that could freeze your blood just by looking at it. 

“Hey.” 

He looked at me holding onto my grandmother and leaned forward to examine my face closely. 

His hands were tucked into his pants pockets, but I felt like he could pull a knife from them at any moment. 

“Kim Soon-young’s place.” 

A chill ran down my spine. 

Did he know?

Did Agwi knows that she was the one who secretly called the adults when his gang used to beat up others back then? 

Startled, I tightened my grip on my grandmother and looked at him. 

He just smiled. It was a smile full of familiarity, as if we were long-time acquaintances. 

Then, he spoke again. 

“Soon-young, are you still diving well these days?” 

What? 

I was even more shocked to realize that not only did he know my name, but he also knew what I did for a living. 

He seemed to see his reflection in my wide-open eyes, and his smile grew even brighter. 

Then he asked, 

“Did you meet your brother?” 

I felt like I couldn’t breathe, but I stubbornly held my ground. 

“What do you mean?” 

“Ah, I already know everything. Soon-young, lying is bad.”

He raised his hand and slapped my cheek. A cold shiver ran through me, and I instinctively slapped his hand away.

“What’s wrong with you?! I don’t know anything!” 

“You don’t know anything? What a stupid answer. If you haven’t met him, just say you haven’t met him. Instead you say you don’t know anything. You…” 

Why does he keep looking at me with that strange gaze? 

At that moment, I truly didn’t know anything. 

“…You really are stupid.” 

Agwi was laughing at me. 

“Soon-young, why are you acting like this?” 

My grandmother, trembling in my arms, cried out like a frightened child.

I felt like I was about to lose my mind. 

I didn’t know how to respond, what to do, or what expression to wear—everything in front of me went white. 

“Tell me, Soon-young. You know your brother did something terrible, right?” 

I knew. I knew he had been involved in that demo.

So what? 

I pressed my lips together tightly, refusing to answer. 

Agwi laughed and straightened up, still appearing calm. But his slick, unreadable gaze bore down on me. 

“He went right up to the president and shouted. Crazy, isn’t it? He walked straight up to him. The president clearly saw his face and heard every word that fool said…”

What? 

What on earth did Jae-yeol do? 

I stared at Agwi in shock. I had heard about the demo, but the idea that my brother had gone face-to-face with the president was completely new to me. 

“So, do you think the president would just let that slide? Can you imagine how furious he must have been? That’s why the president personally…” 

Agwi looked at me as if delivering a death sentence. 

“…ordered your brother to be captured.” 

Thud! 

The men rummaging through the room kicked open the door and stepped outside. 

“There’s nothing here.” 

Of course, there wouldn’t be. A fugitive wouldn’t hide in his own house. 

For the first time, I felt relief that my brother hadn’t come home. 

I held my grandmother tightly in my arms, her lifeless body limp against me, and glared at Agwi. 

“Is that so?” 

Agwi studied me for a moment, then slowly stood and gave me a sly grin. 

“Well then, how about we start by questioning the witness?” 

What? 

Before I could react, Agwi grabbed my wrist. 

That’s when I realized something was terribly wrong. 

“Let go!” 

I screamed, trying to pull away. 

The look in Agwi’s eyes shifted, and I recognized it immediately. 

That look—I’d seen it before. 

It was the same look he always had when tormenting others—a cold, detached gaze that showed no connection to their suffering. No, worse than that—he seemed to enjoy it. 

I tried to wrench my hand free, but his grip was unrelenting. 

“Let go! You bastard, let go!” 

Even my grandmother, who was screaming in panic, was pushed to the ground. 

The detectives laughed as they blocked the gate, pushing curious neighbors away. 

How could this be happening? How could something like this happen in broad daylight? 

“We’re just asking questions.”

One of them said mockingly. 

“Do it here!”

I shouted desperately. 

“You won’t say anything here, will you, you b*tch?”

Agwi sneered. It felt as if my whole world was crumbling around me. 

It had been a hard, meaningless life, but what little stability I had clung to was now disintegrating before my eyes. 

Brother! 

Brother! 

Jae-yeol! 

I wanted to scream his name, but fear choked me. 

As they dragged me away, my shoes slipped off. 

In the chaos, my worn shirt was pulled up, exposing my bare waist. 

I froze as Agwi’s slick, predatory gaze fixed on my exposed skin. 

Fear weighed down on me, suffocating my entire body. 

I fought with all my strength to push him away, but I was no match for his strength. 

“What do you think you’re doing?” 

A stern voice suddenly cut through the tension. 

Someone grabbed Agwi’s hand and pulled it away from me, shoving him aside. 

The man stepped between me and Agwi, shielding me. 

Tears streamed down my face as I looked up at him. 

“Kim Soon-young, watch your words. This senior saved me, and that’s how I made it here safely.”

The man who had unexpectedly entered my life. The one who claimed to have saved my brother. 

The man who had sat so elegantly on a fishing boat, looking completely out of place, was now standing right in front of me. 

He still had that strikingly handsome face, but his eyes were cold—so cold, it felt like they could freeze everything around him. 

And now, here he was, standing before me.