43

And that brings us to the end of the incident. As for the details… Early the next morning, almost a full week after my abduction by the U family, the police rang the intercom. I don’t know if I should say that it was too late or sooner than I expected, but there was finally an intervention by public authorities. I never looked into it in post, but I guess U was acting suspiciously during her shopping trip a few days prior. From there, a sort of telephone game was played from the clerk who bagged her items to the convenience store manager, from the manager to his family, from his family to their friends, and so on, until someone finally filed a police report over it. I’d be tempted to say there are good people in the world if not for the vague rumors being spread around like a game of telephone… That’s only half-sarcastic.

I guess in a way, U‘s first shopping errand was a failure. Then again, she had brought the food back and I didn’t starve to death under her imprisonment, so it’s not like she really messed anything up.

The whole kidnapping soap opera was bound to fail at some point. I guess looking at everything in perspective, it fell apart at just the right time, because I had already told U all that I wanted her to know.

The intercom woke U up, and she walked to the door and politely greeted the police officers. The arrest wasn’t anything like an over-the-top police drama, but both U and I were removed from the U household and taken to the nearest police station in separate cars.

Due to the separate patrol cars, I never did get to say goodbye to U. Neither of us got to say, “Farewell.” And that was the last time I saw U… There was no melodrama, just a simple, realistic parting with no narrative satisfaction.

That more or less wraps up what caused my trauma that decade ago, but I suppose I’ll provide a follow-up with what happened shortly afterwards. I wouldn’t say it’s necessary, but I don’t think a few more details will hurt.

My trip to the police station was followed by a relentless interrogation. Things were pretty peaceful in the car ride over, so I had figured that maybe everything was already settled, but objectively speaking, I definitely looked like the bad guy in that scenario. There was probably another officer that scoped the scene out after U and I were removed and found the two dead bodies, which definitely would have made everything much more alarming. I had gone the whole night telling U “stories” without rest, and that on top of my captivity had me completely exhausted both mentally and physically. That interrogation almost broke me. It was a real lesson on how easily false accusations can land on a person. Fortunately, I was cleared of suspicion before too long.

Perhaps U‘s testimony played a role, but evidently there were also several witnesses who claimed to have seen U leading me from behind while holding me at knifepoint. I had to wonder what those witnesses had been doing for the past week, but I suppose there is no such thing as the perfect crime at the end of the day.

From what I know, U was not punished to the fullest measure of the law for her unlawful kidnapping and confinement charges… But she was just an elementary schooler, after all. To my knowledge, it was all waved away as a good-natured college student playing along with a kidnapping game. I sure don’t know where they got the idea that I was good-natured, but that was that. Though I’m sure U got the lecture of a lifetime over the nature of her crimes… I’m not really sure how U would have handled a scolding from someone who wasn’t her parents. But I am sure that U would have found herself unable to follow her “restrictive use” manual for quite some time afterwards.

Which I would say is definitely a good thing.

But even ignoring the fact that a child had constructed a little theater play of a kidnapping, a husband and wife had both ended up killing each other, and despite all that, neither of those incidents ever got any media coverage. No newspapers, no television, nothing. A major natural disaster had occurred in a nearby region, so maybe the media was already overwhelmed, but I also recall an officer dropping by my apartment and swearing me to secrecy, so I think it’s safe to say things went a little deeper than that.

If I’m right, the victims… U‘s mother and father, both murderers and murder victims, were people of status. I wouldn’t say it was all covered up, but they were important enough to not want the incident actively spoken about… I guess that just shows how different times used to be. There was a completely different mentality around the disclosure of information. I don’t know if it’s for me to say which way is better, but at the very least it served U and I very well back then. Despite the extremely sensational incident I was a part of, I didn’t have to become food for the paparazzi.

But even without being reported, and even with the hush orders, naturally people nearby found out. I was bold enough not to move in response, staying in the same one-room apartment until my graduation (which was actually difficult for me, since I love moving, but I figured it’d be harder to move until the heat died down). U, however, could not afford to stay in her parents’ house. She was alone, so that was just how it was going to be.

Considering her actions, I had assumed she’d be taken in by some sort of child consultation center, but as I mentioned earlier none of her charges were actually pressed, so from what I know she went overseas to live with extended family. I don’t know if her personality would have meshed well with relatives, but I wasn’t close enough to her to be the judge of that, so all I could do was wish her well from afar.

After the incident, every now and then I would be riding on my brand new road racer (the exact same model as the one before) and would pass by the U family household (which was just a stone’s throw away from my apartment, as it turned out). The place eventually just turned into a vacant lot. After these ten years, I’ve moved all over, and now live in an entirely different area, so I don’t know what became of the land. Given a murder took place there, I wouldn’t be surprised if it were unsold to this day.

A while after the incident, I became an author.

And I continue to be an author to this day.

It’s still life, and work is always work, so I have good days and bad days, and even days I want to quit, but I remain an author nonetheless.

Yet despite going on 10 years since I started making a living off writing novels, I can’t remember writing anything worth being called a novel in all that time.

Because everything I’ve ever written is just an extension of those silly little fairy tales that I told U that night.