THE TRUTH MANSION'S
Chapter 19's
The fire happened in early spring. Summer is so hot. The night air is stiffer than the sunlight during the day. Tired of the tropical night, the old man slept with all the doors and windows open. He awoke when the occasional cool air blew from the fan which often only produced a hot wind, but after that he quickly fell asleep again. In between his sleep, he heard a polite knock. Geck, tok, tok. Three beats that are not too fast and not too slow. The old man heard the knock, but his eyelids were heavy. Geck, tok, tok. Ja also sensed that someone was blocking the gust of wind from the fan, but the old man remained unable to move
“You okay?”
The person blocking the wind from the fan shook the old man's shoulder, waking him up.
“You had a bad dream? Gosh, look at your sweat Though today is not as hot as last night.”
The old man immediately felt displeased at that person. The man was friendly and polite in a condescending manner. When the old man looked at him with a flat expression, neither grateful nor curious, the man took out an identifying mark from his pants pocket and showed it to the old man. Turns out he's a cop.
“There was a fire that happened last night. At the intersection in the city center. Have you heard the news?”
“I didn't hear anything, asshole.”
The policeman chuckled. Then, he pulled up the chair outside the office, sat down in front of the old man, and looked straight into his eyes.
“There burned the Flag of Heptagram. That man dared to burn all the flags from the city center all the way to Parliament. Fortunately the fire did not spread and we managed to put it out. However, the culprit has not yet been caught. Did you see any suspicious people before and after three in the morning?” ask the police.
The old man shook his hands. “I don't know. Why did you come here looking for the guy who started the fire downtown?”
Right at that moment, a man in his forties with oily hair and who lived on the second floor of Building A walked into the Mansion while yawning long. The man turned his head towards the building's supervisory office with half-opened eyes, lowered his head to greet, and saw a foreign face there.
The police observed the man who had been sneaking up the stairs for some time. “The guy just came home this early in the morning?”
“He works as a road sweeper at night. The man you're looking for isn't here. I assure. Therefore, there is no need to waste time here every time something happens Find the culprit in the city only.”
“How can you know everyone's work and guarantee them? People in this Mansion have a diverse history.”
Minor disputes often occurred in the Mansion. Some residents have been detained for attacking residents or causing commotion, usually because business owners do not keep their promises. Often those cases are closed with the occupants of the Mansion not getting the compensation or medical treatment promised to them. Doing a monotonous, life-long mundane job, like a robot, with no compensation guarantees is like walking backwards. After going through all the scary, old, and difficult things, they arrived at a worse place than before. That was why the residents of the Mansion grew more childish and narrow-minded.
The man who lives on the second floor of Building A who came home early that morning, Jin-kyeong, Do-kyeong, and two other residents in their twenties were questioned by police. The next day, the real culprit turned himself in. Jin-kyeong is released and comes home with a big bruise on her arm. He said his arm hit the bus door on the way home.
“Which may bruise appear immediately once the impact occurs?” The old man took out a rubbing medicine from the desk drawer while grumbling about the police who knew nothing about the people living in the Saha Mansion.