Meanwhile in Busan:
Once positioned on the eastern coastline, Jeonjo Port. A glistening white ultra-large container vessel, about 400 meters in length, roughly the size of four football fields, with a width of around 60 meters, was moored at the dock.
Eight shore cranes were unloading the containers and placing them on the dock. Each container was white with a logo of a blue snowflake on both sides.
Sung-Jin Park, wearing a yellow protective helmet, watched all the containers being unloaded and the massive number of trucks passing through the dock, each taking a container. This might have been the first time in his life that he had seen this, and perhaps it would be the last.
Sung-Jin Park had just retired as an operations manager a few days ago. Suddenly, some gangster-like men visited his home. They offered to clear all his loans and promised that any future loans would not carry any interest. The condition was to provide information about a port.
Not just any port, but one large enough to moor a 400-meter-long vessel. However, there was a condition: anything and everything he saw or heard at the port had to remain with him and only him forever. If word got out, he and his family would lose their precious lives.
(This conversation is in Korean)
"My… I must say, Mr. Park. I've seen my share of insanity in my career, but this, this is something else," Min-Seok Lee commented, standing beside Sung-Jin.
A man in his forties, wearing a black shirt and pants, silver chains with a cross in the middle, and black sunglasses.
"Did you make an estimate of how much this is?" Min-Seok asked, looking at Sung-Jin.
"Seven…," Sung-Jin muttered, looking at the massive white ship.
"Seven?" Min-Seok asked.
"Seven thousand one hundred and sixty containers…," Sung-Jin said, eyes wide as he stared at Min-Seok.
"That's maybe fifteen percent of the capacity of this ship?" Min-Seok guessed.
"But…" Sung-Jin gritted his teeth and paused.
"Oh? You recognize the logo?" Min-Seok asked.
"The Snows. That ship is not just anyone's but 'The Snows'!" Sung-Jin screamed.
"And I am sure, this is not where it is supposed to be—" Sung-Jin's eyes, from the start, were not filled with astonishment but terror. He was scared.
"There were dead bodies on the ship, forty-two armed men, dead and shoved in the storage!" he let it out on Min-Seok, who from the start did not lose his cool.
"You think I didn't know that, Mr. Park? Your job here is to just make sure everything goes smoothly. Your job now is to do… nothing," Min-Seok responded with a smirk.
"So… the estimate?" Min-Seok asked, taking the notepad from Sung-Jin's hands.
"Let's see…" Min-Seok muttered, looking at the notepad. "Seven thousand six hund… no, seven thousand one hundred and sixty containers. Sixty for pistols, a hundred for ARs, and seven thousand for ammo. According to the container capacity, that makes six million pistols, five million automated rifles, and wow… look at that number, seven billion rounds of ammo."
"Let me just do a rough price estimate…" Min-Seok took out his phone and opened the calculator. "Well… eighteen billion dollars."
Min-Seok scoffed.
"Would you believe it, Mr. Park? This much weaponry is enough to start a large-scale riot. Maybe a war. But the money that's gonna come from selling them… oh, just think about that. Eighteen billion dollars, and off the records, it can go up to forty billion," Min-Seok paused.
"But unfortunately, it's not ours…" Min-Seok looked around and added, "You see those people on guard with big rifles in their hands? Of course, to pull this kind of stunt, you need power, and not just your average power. The power of money. Money is everything, Mr. Park, and that's why you agreed to give out and manage the dock without questioning what could be inside the shipment."
"You also wanted that money. Did you ever think… what if there were humans in the shipment? Sex workers? Girls with a future ahead? Drugs?" Min-Seok questioned as Sung-Jin turned his head down, staring at the concrete floor.
"So it shouldn't matter now… Remember, Mr. Park, you have a family, a wife, beautiful daughters, an aspiring son. And all you have to do to secure their and your future is… nothing." Min-Seok patted Sung-Jin on the back and left with the notepad in his hands.
----[Gangnam, Halcyon Sentinel Tower]
"Alright then. Let's start—" Yara nodded and drank the remaining glass of water.
"From the very beginning!"
At my words, Eun-Ji leaned forward, deeply invested in Yara Choi's words.
"Okay…" Yara took a long breath and continued, "Ah—I don't know where to begin. This… this is so hard to talk about," Yara muttered.
"Don't worry, take your time," I replied.
"That day was just another day for me. I had a few meetings in the morning—mostly with designers and sponsors about an upcoming campaign… Around 2 PM, I had lunch with my manager, Han-Seo, at a café near the office. After that, I spent most of the afternoon getting ready for the party. The party was supposed to be a celebration of Evelyn's new project, something she had been working on for months."
"It wasn't exactly my scene, but I went because I thought it would be good to show support… Evelyn and I weren't close friends, but we were civil—professional, you know?"
"I arrived at the venue around 8 PM. The place was buzzing, and there were so many people. It was overwhelming, honestly. I remember grabbing a drink and chatting with a few people—industry faces mostly. At some point, Evelyn pulled me aside. She was… different. I could feel something was off. She was agitated, maybe even angry."
"She accused me of undermining her project. I had no idea what she was talking about. It wasn't like her to be so confrontational in public. I told her I didn't have time for her paranoia and walked away. I didn't think much of it at the time—I mean, everyone knew Evelyn could be dramatic."
"The argument lasted barely five minutes. It wasn't a screaming match or anything, just tense words exchanged between two people. I didn't say anything threatening or incriminating—I swear. After that, I kept my distance. I stayed near the bar or mingled in the crowd. I didn't see Evelyn again for the rest of the night."
"I left the party around midnight. Han-Seo was with me, and we shared a ride home. He can confirm that. I went straight to my apartment, changed into my pajamas, and binge-watched a drama until I fell asleep. The next morning, I woke up to the news about Evelyn's death. I was in shock. I didn't even know what to think."
There was a minute of silence in the room. What she said was…pretty much useless. It was information we already knew.
"You shared a ride back with Han-Seo? By sharing a ride, you mean it was the car of Havens, not any of your personal vehicles. How many people have access to your personal car?" I asked.
"It's not about access, the keys are everything. And I don't usually keep them in a secure place," Yara replied.
It doesn't seem like I'll get anything more out of this. The time-specific details are already with me.
"Well… I think I now have all the information I needed," I said, standing up from the couch.
"You can always ask for me through Ms. Eun-Ji, Yara. As long as I'm on your side, there's no chance you're losing," I added as everyone stood along with me. They seemed to have courtesy above anything else.
"Thank you… really, Mr. Advisor," Yara said in a barely audible voice.
With a nod, I looked at Ethan and turned around towards the exit. The lady bodyguard guided us out and gave us access to the lift.
"What do you think?" Ethan asked, pressing the ground floor button in the lift.
"This is an… already won case. It's not even a case at this point," I replied.
"Then?" Ethan pressed further.
"It just feels like something's amiss."
"You never know, she's a celebrity after all. Creating a mask of emotions is not really hard for people like them," Ethan replied.
"Of course, but that doesn't really matter. As I said, I'll make sure my client is proven innocent, even if she is a cold-blooded murderer."