I breathe heavily as I look around the room.

The woman is holding her blanket tightly and crying. Thankfully, her clothes are just a little disheveled; it doesn’t look like she’s suffered anything worse.

This piece of shit GPS. A 30-meter radius is a bigger margin of error than I thought. I would have been too late if the window hadn’t been open.

The woman’s hands are shaking as she begins to understand the situation.

Lee Yeong-tae is cursing under his breath as he clutches his face.

“Excuse me, Ma’am,” I say to the woman.

“Yes?”

I lightly toss my phone towards her. “Call the police and stay back.”

As the woman catches the phone with shaking hands, the Spaniel runs towards the entranceway. It looks like he’s given up on the window, since I’m standing in the way.

“Lee Yeong-tae!” I shout, before he can grab the door handle.

Sorry, but you’re a rat in a trap now.

The Spaniel slumps onto the ground and turns around to look at me. “How did you know my…”

“You want to get cuffed in front of your wife?” I ask him.

His eyes open wide in shock.

The only light in the dark room is coming from the television’s screen.

He stares at me. “You’re that son of a bitch from that other time, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I’m that son of a bitch from the other time,” I reply simply.

It seems that he remembers his unsuccessful rape attempt in the Dongsu neighborhood. Though his mask covers his face, his eyes are gleaming with rage in the darkness.

Refusing to give up, he picks up a kitchen knife from the rack by the sink. Since I know his name and exactly who he is, it seems that he’d rather kill me than try to escape.

Hmm. Shit. A box cutter isn’t so bad, but a kitchen knife is problematic.

“Y-you motherfucker! Why are you always getting in my way?!” he shouts, agitated.

“Sorry. You just bother me,” I say with a shrug.

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!”

The woman screams.

“Die!” the Spaniel bellows as he runs towards me with his knife.

I make no attempt to avoid his attack.

Since he has a knife, it would be a dangerous situation even if I were a black-belt martial artist. I need another method if I want to apprehend him with Go Ji-hun’s body.

I take the stun gun out of my pocket. The moment he gets close, I thrust it hard, into his face.

As he raises his hands instinctively to protect his face, the knife travels upwards in a curve. I thought it just grazed my clothes, but a moment later, I feel a stinging sensation.

Ugh. I wanted to catch him without getting injured.

Still, in a way, it’s a good thing. No matter what happens now, I won’t be at fault.

There’s a buzzing sound, and Lee Yeong-tae lets out a cry of pain. He starts to sway in a strange manner, as if his body’s gone stiff.

“Oh, oh my god,” the woman gasps.

“Ah. It’s alright, don’t worry. It’s set to the weakest voltage,” I tell her.

Still, it must be pretty shocking for someone who’s never seen someone being hit with a stun gun before.

I grab Lee Yeong-tae’s throat and thrust my knee into his solar plexus. It seems to be a good hit; I hear him gasp.

Using that momentum, I grab his face and throw it against the floor. His nose must have crashed into the floor; blood is dripping from it.

As he curls up into a fetal position, I kick him in his stomach and at his sides. Strangely, hitting him makes me feel a lot better. I feel an excitement that’s a mysterious combination of anger and joy.

Breathing hard, I give him one final kick that snaps his ankle, causing him to scream in pain. I can’t afford to have him get away if I get careless, after all.

I straighten my bloody, dusty clothes as I catch my breath.

My beige clothes have become filthy. In contrast, this bastard’s black clothes remain exactly the same.

These are the kinds of people who ruin other people’s lives and continue to live their own as if nothing happened.

I seize the son of a bitch’s hair. “Hey, Yeong-tae. I’m only going to tell you this once.”

His face is glistening with saliva and blood. His swollen eyes move slightly. There’s fear in his black pupils. I’m sure it’s the same fear that he saw in his victims.

“Swear that you won’t do anything like this ever again, and make an earnest apology to your victims,” I say.

I’m giving him an opportunity. It’s my way of making a small apology for coming from the future and changing the present.

No matter how much of a piece of garbage he is, he had his own life.

Lee Yeong-tae looks at me and nods.

I let go of his head and dust off my hands. I take the tracking device off the bottom of his shoe and crush it. With a crunch, it breaks into tiny pieces.

I turn around to see that the woman is huddled up in the corner of the room.

“Have you called the police?” I ask her.

“Huh? Y-yes, just a minute ago,” she stammers.

“Phew. Are you alright?”

“Th-thank you. I’m unharmed, thanks to you.”

That’s a relief. I feel terrible just imagining if my greed had stopped me from preventing another victim falling prey to the Spaniel. I was lucky this time, but I’ll be more careful from now on.

“Ah, b-behind you!” the woman stutters all of a sudden.

“Huh?”

I turn around to see Lee Yeong-tae crawling towards the kitchen knife.

It’s so unbelievable that I can’t help but let out a laugh. What happened to the guy who just swore that he would lead a good life from now on?

“What do you think you’re doing?” I say to him.

“Ugh… Fuck… you…” he groans.

Okay. If that’s your answer, there’s nothing more to be said.

I walk over and kick the knife away, and then I take the stun gun back out of my pocket and press one of the buttons. It emits a crackling sound, like an electric fly swatter.

The highest voltage is pretty damn strong, so I didn’t want to have to use it.

I flip the Spaniel over and pull him towards me.

His face turns pale. He freaks out and tries to wriggle away. It seems that he knows what I’m about to do.

“I’ll… I’ll… I’ll sue you,” he whispers.

I calmly press the stun gun into his groin, causing him to scream in agony.

“Sue me, then. I have a lot of money,” I tell him.

I can hear sirens in the distance. The Su-an Spaniel has been caught tonight.

 

***

 

“What in the world…?!” mutters Chief Kim as he grabs the back of my neck.

My face and my clothes are a mess.

I’ve been charged with assault. How does that even make sense? All I did was catch a guy who forced his way into someone’s home.

But the Spaniel was in too terrible a state to be explained by just those circumstances.

Chief Kim looks at the refreshments I’m holding as if he can’t believe his eyes. “Why, in the middle of all of this mess, do you have bread and milk?”

“The detective gave them to me. He said I did a good job,” I reply.

“Are you happy? Pleased with yourself?”

I shrug.

People were treating me like a violent criminal when I first got here, but the atmosphere changed when I told them it was the Su-an Spaniel. After that, the people passing by were praising me, and even the people in the cells were cheering for me from behind the bars.

It was tough having to stay sitting in a chair for hours because my guardian wasn’t here, though.

“Why weren’t you answering your phone, anyway?” I ask Chief Kim grumpily.

“It is four in the morning.”

“You said you felt like you were on standby 24 hours a day.”

“Enough. Please give me a concise explanation of the situation.”

“Hmm… I caught the Su-an Spaniel, I guess?”

“Caught the Su-an Spaniel, out of nowhere? You?” Chief Kim says incredulously.

“Things just turned out this way.”

“And how exactly did things turn out this way?”

“… I just happened to be passing by the woman’s house at the time.”

“Why would you be passing by that area? At that hour, of all times?”

I’m rendered speechless by Chief Kim’s inquisitive interrogation.

Chief Kim falls deep into thought, and then his face suddenly turns pale.

“Have you been stalking women every night?” he whispers, sounding horrified.

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“If you weren’t, then how could you have been there with such perfect timing?”

“… Wait a -“

“It’s as if you were watching them.”

“I kind of was watching over them; the nuance is a little…”

“My god. So that is the reason you were leaving early and coming home late every day.”

“Chief Kim,” I say loudly.

“That’s a crime. What would happen if the president were to find out?!” Chief Kim shouts.

“I’m telling you, that’s not how it is. Hello?”

“Oh my god. Oh my god.”

It’s like Chief Kim can’t hear me at all. He’s just shaking his head and muttering to himself.

Hmm. Let’s blame it on the fact that he was sleeping and just woke up.

Lee Yeong-tae was taken straight to the hospital. It was magnificent to hear him moaning that he had no feeling in his most important regions. It was also astounding to watch him act like he did nothing wrong.

Chief Kim sighs and takes out his phone.

The family has its own dedicated lawyer, but if things go down that route, Go Dae-man will hear of it. It’s a situation of damned if I do, damned if I don’t.

Chief Kim grinds his teeth as he glares at me.

I laugh. “Just make the call. It’s fine.”

“Fine? What’s fine? Do you want to anger the president?”

“I’ll take the opportunity to become independent.”

“Those are empty words. You’ve started to take an interest in spending money these days.”

“Uh-huh. Just hurry up and get this sorted out quickly. My whole body is aching,” I say, patting Chief Kim’s shoulder.

He sighs and gives me a pitying, sympathetic look. “Should I go and buy some tofu?”

“You’re exaggerating things. I’m not a criminal being released from prison, am I?” I laugh.

“Ugh. I don’t want to go home.”

“I’m the one who’s going to be scolded, so why are you the one who doesn’t want to go home?”

“You’ll know when we get back. Get in the car.”

After arriving at the police station in the middle of the night, I’m finally able to leave after the sun has already come up.

 

***

 

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency headquarters.

The chief of the National Police Agency is starting his morning by wiping down the surfaces in his office, just as he always does.

Sitting in front of him are the head of the Su-an Police Department and the leader of the investigation team.

Though the two of them are restless, the chief’s hands are very relaxed as he goes about his cleaning.

“So, I’ve been told that the Su-an Spaniel has been caught?” he says.

“The Hakgeum Patrol Division received a report yesterday and transferred it to us. The person making the report said that it seemed to be the Su-an Spaniel. The DNA test results were a match,” says the police department head.

“The press are asking if there will be an incident briefing today. What should we do?” asks the investigation team leader.

“What should we do? Did we catch him?” the chief shouts in a thunderous tone, throwing his wiping cloth over their heads in anger.

“I-I’m sorry,” says the investigation team leader as he hastily stands up out of his chair to pick up the cloth.

The chief’s anger is understandable. The Spaniel being caught is not necessarily a good thing.

In situations like this in particular, the most important thing is who caught him. The police’s public image is essentially dead at this point, and they needed to catch the Spaniel in order to redeem themselves.

But that opportunity is now gone because of a single young man who came out of nowhere.

“It’s problematic that someone caught the criminal for us,” the chief mutters as he crosses his arms.

The case is solved, but there’s no telling how the public will react. In the worst-case scenario, there will be voices criticizing the police for their incompetence, and if that happens, the chief’s position will be at risk.

“How about making the story a little more dramatic?” he says.

His suggestion is to slightly embellish the story of how the criminal was caught.

“Offer a little cash to the person who turned him in and tell him to stay quiet,” he continues.

“How…”

“He’s just a guy who came across the crime by chance and made the report, and it’s the police who recognized him as the Spaniel.”

It’s not what is said, it’s how it is said. It’s important to at least show that the police were thinking ahead of the ordinary citizen. And it’s such a small difference in the story that the person who reported it should be willing to agree.

“And don’t you think it’d be a waste to give him the whole hundred million? So much of it would go to taxes,” the chief says.

“Chief. There’s a small problem with that,” says the police department head.

“What? Why?”

“The person who turned the criminal in seems to be the third son of the Gogwang Group’s leader.”

“The Gogwang Group?” the chief whispers through thin lips.

Why the Gogwang Group, all of a sudden?

“That hasn’t been reported to the press yet, but it’s only a matter of time. And the method he used to restrain the criminal was somewhat extreme…” said the investigation team leader.

“Have you ever seen a proper physical struggle? Restraining criminals always involves extreme methods,” the chief snaps impatiently.

“A stun gun was used, but it was applied to… the ge… the genitals.”

The chief drops his cloth as he hears this last piece in the series of shocking news. The cloth hits the floor with a soft thud as the office turns silent for a few moments.

“But there is no legal issue, as the voltage was below 60,000 volts,” the police department head adds.

“We’ve received word from the hospital that his sexual organs no longer function. He has no sensation in his lower parts,” says the investigation team leader.

The chief laughs in disbelief. “Is that son of a bitch out of his mind?”

“Things have turned into a mess because all of this information, excluding the identity of the person who turned the criminal in, has gone public. I believe that making the story more dramatic would be impossible,” says the Su-an Police Department head.

“The third son of the Gogwang Group’s leader, it’s the guy I’ve heard of, right?” says the chief.

The child who lived a life of seclusion after his birth mother’s death at a young age. The child who was known as the only stain on the life of Go Dae-man, a man who had everything.

The chief clicks his tongue and nods. “In any case, the Gogwang Group’s leader should be watching what his kids are doing. The Gogwang Group is going to be in trouble as well now.”

“No. It seems to be the opposite,” says the investigation team’s head.

“The opposite?” the chief repeats.

“It’s a very hot topic, with people saying things like ‘justice had been served.'”

“You’re kidding me.”

“It’s true. The internet is going wild over it. The public opinion seems to be that this outcome was better than what the law could have…”

“Since when have the opinions of this country’s citizens been such bullshit?”

The other two remain silent in response to the chief’s question.

But all of this is true. In addition to their outrage, the public is praising Go Ji-hun’s actions, from the morning news to entertainment TV shows and radio stations. They are all talking about the news of the Spaniel’s arrest and the identity of the mysterious hero.

Of course, nothing is known about the latter, so discussions about that topic are nothing more than widespread speculation.

“We have also been told that he helped in solving the ‘Twin DNA incident’ that became a topic of conversation a little while ago, and he handed in the weapon that was previously used by the Spaniel,” says the police department head.

“How?” asks the chief.

“The detectives say that he’s the one who told them the perpetrator could have a twin. I heard it from them personally.”

The chief puts a hand on his forehead and begins to think.

He’s a man who started all the way at the bottom, but he climbed all the way to the position of chief of the National Police Agency. This is something that definitely couldn’t have been achieved by results and a sense of justice alone. He made it here through insight and politics. So isn’t there a way to protect this position as well?

“He’s in his mid-twenties, isn’t he?” the chief asks calmly.

“That’s right,” says the police department head.

“And his face is not bad-looking.”

“It is not just ‘not bad-looking,’ he is very handsome. He is tall, too.”

“From what I’ve heard, he has completely withdrawn from doing any business, am I correct?”

“I believe so. He has two older brothers who are already working in that field.”

The chief strokes his chin with a satisfied expression on his face. “Let’s make him a cop.”

“I’m sorry?” the other two say in unison.

“I said let’s make him a cop. Let’s use Go Ji-hun to improve the police’s public image a little. The dreamboat cop who caught the Spaniel,” the chief declares.

“Chief. People don’t say ‘dreamboat’ these days,” the investigation team leader points out.

“What do they say, then?”

“‘Hot.’ Or ‘gorgeous.'”

“Whatever!” the chief shouts impatiently. “What do you think! Not bad, right? Since he’s related to the Gogwang Group, everyone’s going to be talking about it. Let’s take some attention off ourselves.”

“But will he agree?” the police department head questions. “He has plenty of money. He’s young and good-looking. I can’t imagine him having any hardships…”

“Making him an honorary ambassador would be fine, too. Just get Go Ji-hun on our side, no matter what. No matter what. Do you understand me?” the chief says firmly.

The police department head quietly takes out his cell phone. He has known the chief for a while, and he knows that he is a boss whose orders must always be obeyed when he uses the phrase, ‘no matter what.’

He also knows that the chief is secretly proficient at these kinds of methods. The fact that he kept his position despite the change of government speaks for itself.

The police department head sends a text message to a reporter that he is acquainted with. He still has the police’s reputation to protect, so he needs to be a little vague…

‘The one who caught the Spaniel is Go Ji-hun, the third son of the Gogwang Group’s leader. The same one who was born from a scandal in the past. He takes after his actress mother and is extremely good-looking. There is a large possibility of the police offering him a special employment.’