Page 38 of Perfect Happiness

The third reason was an emotional one. Simply put, she didn’t want to help Min-young.

She knew Min-young didn’t know how to say thank you.

Worse yet, if she did tell Min-young that she had met Joon-young, she would never hear the end of it.

Min-young would chase Jane around and demand to know why she didn’t tell her the truth from the beginning.

In fact, this was probably the reason why Jane was sitting in the police interrogation room right now.

In the end, Jane had decided to wait things out.

She knew that the police would step in if Joon-young really was missing.

And if the police found out she had met Joon-young the day he disappeared, she could tell the truth to them directly.

She had hoped the police would be more sensible than Min-young. But she had hoped in vain.

“Are your feelings really that important?” Detective Kim wanted an answer to this question.

“I’m not going to answer that.”

Detective Kim turned his head to look at the wall. Jane could almost hear him clicking his tongue.

“Look, Jane. You were the only person to see Joon-young that day. He disappeared after you two met. Do you know what that means?”

Hearing this, Jane realized they must not have any evidence on Yuna. If Yuna had been caught on camera, they wouldn’t be questioning Jane like this. If indeed Yuna had taken Joon-young to the cabin in Woohyeri, then she did a fantastic job of avoiding the network of CCTV cameras.

“Miss Shin?”

“I think your timeline is off. There’s one person who talked on the phone with him after he got out of my car.”

“And who’s that?” Detective Kim asked with an unphased look on his face.

“The person who made the missing person report. I guess she didn’t tell you. From what she told me, she last talked with Joon-young at around 2 p.m. that day. I was in an interview at that time.”

“What kind of interview takes that long?”

Jane reached into her bag and pulled out her business card wallet. Thankfully, the museum employee’s business card was at the very front.

“You can ask the person I interviewed that day. They will corroborate my alibi.”

Detective Kim took the card and looked at it for a moment before stashing it in his pocket.

“While we’re on the topic, I would like you to tell us if what Min-young said in her email was true.”

“There was only one thing Min-young said that was factual. My dad died in a car accident. The rest of what she said are her own assertions.”

“But it’s also true that he dated you and then married your sister Yuna. And because of that, she said you cut ties with your sister.”

Jane thought for a moment. Why was he continuing to push this narrative that she and Joon-young dated? Did he not understand the meaning of the word friend? Were they trying to frame this as an act of revenge by some resentful past lover? That would be the easiest thing for them to do.

“And on top of that, you kept meeting Joon-young behind your sister’s back? This sounds more and more like one of those morning soap operas.”

Jane bit down on the inside of her lip. She had to maintain her composure, even if it meant drawing her own blood. If she didn’t, she would be engulfed by the fireball raging inside her chest.

“I told you that was the first time I’d seen him in seven years.”

Detective Kim nodded his head slightly as if to say, Of course you did.

“Okay, so you met your old boyfriend for the first time in seven years. But nothing happened between you two. He just slept in your car until you left for an interview and then disappeared? Tell me, would you believe this story?”

Jane steadied her breathing.

“Whether you believe it or not, it’s the truth.”

The sound of nails on dry hair filled the room as Detective Kim scratched his temple with this index finger.

“And how am I supposed to believe that Joon-young left your car like you said he did?”

“I showed you the text message.”

“It’s not hard to forge a text message.”

“Where was the last place his cellphone had service? Was it Chungju? According to what Min-young told me, Joon-young was in Kyochon when she last talked with him on the phone. At that time, I was inside Chungju Literature Museum.”

Detective Kim tilted his head to the side as he looked down.

“I’m not sure that proves you weren’t the last person to be with him.”

Jane desperately wanted to tell them that they were talking to the wrong person, that they should be questioning Yuna, not her. But she just bit her tongue. It wasn’t time yet to talk about that. Jane wasn’t planning on voicing her suspicions until she knew exactly how everything was connected.

For now, her lips weren’t sealed because Yuna was family, but because most of the information she had was based off rumors.

If she jumped to conclusions based on circumstantial evidence, there would be no telling what kind of damage the shockwaves would cause.

If she wasn’t careful, Jiyoo, Mom, and herself would all be sucked into this.

“I think that’s a question you can answer by asking the taxi driver who drove him to Kyochon.”

Detective Kim tilted his head in a confused manner.

“Why are you so sure he took a taxi to Kyochon?”

“I doubt he took the bus. If he left at 11 a.m., he wouldn’t have enough time to get there by 2 p.m. if he took the bus.”

Detective Kim studied Jane’s eyes for a while. She didn’t look away.

“Fine. We can talk about that again later.”

Detective Kim finally broke eye contact and looked at his notes.

“Where did you go after leaving Chungju?”

“Home.”

“You stayed there until morning?”

“Yes.”

“Is there anyone who can corroborate that?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

This time it was Jane who tilted her head to the side in confusion.

“Because I was alone.”

Aha . . . Detective Kim nodded. He bared his lion’s teeth again as he grinned. Jane had the feeling she had made a mistake. But she couldn’t figure out what they knew that she didn’t.

“What did you do at home alone?”

“I worked on an article until two in the morning. This is something you can confirm for yourself, you know.”

“Oh, really? Please tell me.” Detective Kim crossed his arms and leaned back against his chair.

“Check the apartment CCTV. You’ll see me drive into the apartment parking garage. If I had left my house before morning, it would be on the tape.”

Detective Kim hit his forehead sarcastically as if to say, Really? Why didn’t I think of that?

Jane was seconds away from stabbing him in the forehead with her pen. Had her hands been above the table, she might have done it, too. Jane crossed her legs and switched sitting positions.

That night, she finally realized why anyone would confess to a crime they hadn’t committed.

Detective Kim repeated the same questions and made her give the same testimony over and over for hours.

She must have told him ten times about what she did after leaving Chungju.

By the time the interrogation finished it was late into the night, and Jane felt nauseous just hearing Detective Kim’s voice.

“Would like to read over our report, ma’am?”

This was the first time in hours the young detective had opened his mouth. Jane said she would. A minute later, they gave her a printed copy. Even the first sentence had been twisted to reflect their own bias.

“The subject of this sentence is wrong,” Jane said as she pointed to the error with her pen. “It was Joon-young who called me. Not the other way around.”

It took another hour to compare notes. The whole time, Jane found it hard to concentrate because Detective Kim was talking to himself for everyone to hear.

“What patience to keep one’s lips sealed this whole time . . . despite knowing Joon-young was thought missing . . . and only she opens her mouth when we call her in.”

Jane didn’t know what his point was. Even if she wanted to share what she knew, it wasn’t as easy as just opening her mouth and declaring it to the world.

She didn’t know at which police station Min-young made her report.

Jane couldn’t just go to any old police station and say she had information about the Joon-young Seo case.

And besides, Min-young said the police dismissed her when she first tried to make a report.

Until Jane knew the police were actually investigating Joon-young’s disappearance, there was no reason for her to go to the police.

And even if she did go to the police, what could she say?

I’m the last person who saw the missing person Joon-young Seo?

Jane signed the report and handed it back to Detective Kim.

“One more question, Miss Shin. Would you show us your car’s black box?”

This caught Jane by surprise. Why hadn’t she thought about that before?

Although, she doubted her black box went that far back in time.

In fact, she was positive the footage had been written over by now.

But perhaps forensics could retrieve the data.

With the two detectives following her, she walked them to her car in the parking lot.

Detective Kim received the black box from her car and then took a step back.

“We’ll have a look and get back to you. It might take a few days.”

The two men watched her as she left the parking lot.

Jane felt nauseous as she entered the river of cars. Her vision was blurry, and every muscle in her body was pulsing with built-up tension. Both her body and mind felt tattered and frayed.

Jane wanted to go straight to Woohyeri. Perhaps she should have gone there first. The problem was, she didn’t have time. She was just too busy. Her sudden absence from work had left her with a lot to get caught up on. And after work, she was completely tied up with taking care of Jiyoo.