My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 170

“We need to get the money back.”

“They won’t give it to you, though, will they?”

“They won’t just give it; they’ll give more. From their perspective, they have no choice.”

“What? What do you mean, the school is going to collapse?”

“Do you think Lee Hak-soo is the only student being bullied at that school?”

Of course, he wasn’t the only one. And the school had been neglecting them.

“But now, Lee Hak-soo has filed a lawsuit regarding gun ownership. Wouldn’t other bullied kids try to protect themselves with guns?”

“But you said he can’t win, right?”

“I said he can’t win. But that doesn’t mean those kids won’t use guns. As I said before, the human brain doesn’t understand negation.”

Rumors about guns would have spread widely throughout the school.

And the school will keep telling students not to own or bring guns.

“Ah! But from the victim’s point of view, they’ll think, ‘If I had a gun, I wouldn’t be in this situation.'”

“Exactly, and that’s actually possible. And since it’s impossible to search students’ bags to check if they have guns…”

If a bullied kid brought a gun and fired a blank into the air, would the kids who used to bully him still bully him?

No. Absolutely not.

“They’d probably be terrified that if they bullied him again, they’d get a lead bullet in their heads.”

And that case would give strength to their side, the Gun Association.

‘Look. With one blank shot, school violence, which the education system couldn’t solve, was resolved.’

“The Gun Association would shield and protect that.”

“Exactly. Moreover, it’s not like he actually shot someone; he just fired a blank into the air. Would it be easy to punish him?”

It wouldn’t be easy. The U.S. broadly recognizes self-defense. Looking at the level of violence of the so-called bullies in the U.S., this is clearly self-defense.

“It’s ambiguous. Legally, they can sue and prevent them from bringing guns in, but ironically, they can’t stop them from secretly bringing them in.”

If bullied kids armed themselves with guns to protect themselves? Parents would go crazy.

“Parents send their children to prestigious private high schools because they want their children to succeed. But what parent would want to send their child to a school where they might get a lead bullet in their head at any moment?”

“Aha!”

The school has no way to stop guns being smuggled into the school. Once the door to guns is opened, it will continue to stimulate other victims, and eventually, the possibility of a school shooting inside the school will increase infinitely.

“Being prestigious means preparing for the children’s future. But if they have to worry about survival when they go to school, it’s worse than not going at all.”

Of course, many students will start to leave. It’s not like this is the only prestigious high school.

“Then what about us?”

“That’s the important thing. Your son is in 10th grade now, right?”

Unlike Korea, the U.S. doesn’t divide into elementary, middle, and high school; the grades just keep going up. So, Korea’s high school freshman is 10th grade, and high school senior is 12th grade.

“Yes.”

“Then he has to go to school for three more years. Of course, Se-joon will be a symbolic figure of gun ownership while he’s at school.”

And the bullied kids will gather around Se-joon and start advocating for gun ownership.

“It’s definitely going to collapse.”

Lee Ji-soo had to admit it. Prestige or not, what parent would tolerate a situation where a school shooting could happen at any moment?

“The school will probably try to get Se-joon out of the school by any means. The problem is, they can’t expel him.”

Not only is he a party to the lawsuit, but they can’t arbitrarily expel him because it would infringe on the right to bear arms guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

“So, they have to send him out through negotiation.”

“That negotiation is…?”

“That’s right. Tell them to cough up the donation. No, tell them to give more.”

They have no choice but to accept. Otherwise, the school will collapse.

“Tell Se-joon to increase contact with the bullied kids in the school and offer to support their gun purchase costs. They’ll probably be sweating bullets [extremely nervous or frightened].”

Legally, they may not win, but they can still take the benefits.

“Thank you. Thank you.”

Lee Hak-soo and Jang So-young were sincerely grateful. They had also suffered from racism in the United States for a long time. So, they wondered if there was a way to protect their son.

They never thought it would be solved so easily.

“You’re welcome. It’s a problem that needs to be solved anyway. But… do you remember anything related to Jang Jin-woo?”

That was the original purpose. It’s been quite a while since I came to the United States. It feels like a fleeting moment, but I’ve wasted too much time dealing with the terrorist problem and the American school violence problem. I’m going to get a lot of flak when I go back to Korea.

“Oh, there’s one thing I remember.”

Fortunately, Jang So-young seemed to remember something.

“What is it?”

“One day, my brother came home with a very bad look on his face.”

“Why?”

“He didn’t say much. But he said, ‘That guy…’.”

“That guy?”

Lee Ji-soo tilted her head at the words. That would make the target too broad. All the parties to the lawsuit are bound to be human.

“That’s too broad of a target.”

“No. Usually, people call the target by name. The target that is individualized and called that way is someone they really don’t get along with. Especially if it’s someone they know. Moreover, the title ‘that guy’ basically means that the speaker thinks the other person knows who they’re talking about. Do you know Han Sung-gi?”

“Who is that?”

“He’s a profiler who got fired for causing trouble. If you objectify a target you don’t know like that, no one will know. In other words, the title ‘that guy’ means it’s someone you also know.”

For example, if there’s someone you really hate, you’d curse them, ‘So-and-so, you son of a bitch.’ But if you don’t even call them by name and just say ‘that guy,’ it means you don’t even want to treat them like a person or be associated with them.

“Then do you know who ‘that guy’ is?”

“I have a rough idea. My brother didn’t say it, but he actually hated the name itself.”

“Who is it?”

“It’s my uncle.”

“Uncle?”

“Actually, my parents passed away early.”

At that time, Jang Jin-woo was a high school student, and Jang So-young was an elementary school student. Jang Jin-woo was living in the agency as a trainee, so he had no problem with his livelihood, but the problem was Jang So-young.

Jang So-young had nowhere to go after her parents passed away. So, she was entrusted to her uncle’s family at that time.

“But I was kicked out of there.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“I stayed there for about six months and then I was kicked out and went to an orphanage.”

Jang Jin-woo knew about this, but he couldn’t do anything at the time because he had just debuted. But as soon as he became successful, he took his sister out and found a house.

“That was more than 10 years ago.”

After that, he never talked about his uncle’s family and had nothing to do with them.

“So, I had completely forgotten about it.”

But this time, as she experienced the incident, she felt deeply that people could hate her for no reason, and this brought back some memories related to her uncle’s family.

“So, did your brother completely cut off contact with his uncle’s family?”

“Yes, he just said, ‘That guy came to see me,’ and didn’t say anything more. He didn’t say the name, but if he said ‘that guy,’ I can only think of my uncle, honestly.”

Park Do-joon stroked his chin at the words.

“I think I’ve got a direction.”

#That Guy

That guy.

Finding the name wasn’t difficult.

“This bastard turned the police station upside down in the United States… but he still has results.”

“It must have been a mess, right?”

“Yikes, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the CIA involved, how could it have been okay? What the hell happened?”

“It’s classified.”

“Ugh! Okay, classified.”

The team leader clicked his tongue as if he was disappointed, but he didn’t ask further. It’s classified, so what can he say?

“Anyway, it seems like the higher-ups can’t say anything to you, just like you said.”

“That’s probably right. By the way, did what I asked for come out?”

“You bastard, you didn’t even buy a gift when you came from the United States.”

The team leader frowned and threw the documents at him.

“Jang O-gi. Jang Jin-woo’s uncle. The ‘that guy’ you’re talking about is probably this guy.”

Jang So-young said he was her uncle, so that must be right. He’s the only relative.

“He used to have a big business, but now he’s bankrupt.”

“Isn’t the point of bankruptcy about four years ago?”

“Huh? How did you know?”

“I heard there was a brief mention around that time.”

After going bankrupt four years ago, no one knows where he is now. He’s running away from creditors.

“If it’s four years ago, that’s when Jang Jin-woo’s first album was a huge hit, right?”

“That’s right. I think I know the situation roughly.”

Jang Jin-woo was a big hit in the group, but his first album after going solo was literally a sensation.

“I think I know the situation roughly. His company was in trouble, so he went to ask for help.”

“No, but I don’t understand? Jang Jin-woo would have refused, right? Then he should have been listed as a suspect, right?”

The team leader nodded at Lee Ji-soo’s words.

“If we had known, we would have. But there was no connection at all.”

“None?”

“Yeah, honestly, meeting four years ago is just a guess. There’s no call history either.”

“Why?”

Park Do-joon answered the question.

“He probably blocked him. So, he wouldn’t be able to contact him with Jang O-gi’s phone. Or Jang O-gi might not know Jang Jin-woo’s phone number. Celebrities change their phone numbers often.”

“But you said they met? Then they must have contacted him somehow, right?”

“No. The words are completely different. Jang So-young didn’t say ‘met.’ She said he came to see him.”

In other words, it’s highly likely that Jang O-gi came to see him without making an appointment.

“Since there’s an agency, it’s not difficult to assume that he could just come there.”

“Ah…”

The company is failing, and he’s short on money. But his nephew is incredibly successful. If he gets help, he can save the company.

Then wouldn’t he go?

“But Jang Jin-woo probably had no desire to help him at all.”

“I wouldn’t want to help him either.”

Would you want to get involved with someone who threw your sister into an orphanage? Of course, it would be understandable if he was struggling to make a living.

“But if he was living in a 52-pyeong apartment in Gangnam [affluent district in Seoul] at the time, it’s not like he couldn’t afford it.”

He just threw his niece into an orphanage because he was annoyed.

“Was he that 싫어 [Korean word for ‘dislike’ or ‘hate’]?”

“He probably hated him. Jang Jin-woo probably never wanted to see him again. There’s no lawsuit record, right?”

“What? What do you mean?”

“Look at Jang Jin-woo’s first address. If Jang So-young is right, that’s where the siblings first lived.”

A small, old one-room apartment in the countryside. Even that was a monthly rent. That was the first house Jang Jin-woo got. Even though he debuted successfully, considering the timing of receiving payments, he got a room as soon as he became an adult, even if it was a stretch.”