●○ ｔｅａｓｅｒ ｔｈｒｅｅ ○●

"when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

a mantra, etched over and over again into countless cases and notepads and all sorts of books and novels preserved for study. the truth, he writes to himself, can be garnered from the smallest details. look it over again. once upon a time, he'd hacked away at unsolved cases with brute force, spending hours and hours poring over those case files and searching for that one hint — that one clue that would tie everything together, that would end in that satisfying red stamp. case closed.

but age catches up with him, and so does reality.

there are too many cold cases, too many criminals, too many leads gone ignored and too many lives hurt, lost, gone. their pain is on his hands — hands that no longer ache to solve puzzles and crimes, hands that are only withered with the ache of accusations and pointed fingers. this is your fault, they say. why couldn't you have done more?

i'm tired, he wants to answer — a sentiment buried deep, deep, deep within his chest. but he isn't allowed to experience exhaustion, no — he's a hero. so the sentiment remains buried, entombed, impossible — because he holds the fate of the city in his calloused, rough fingertips. he chooses to stay blind, to stay smiling, to stay strong —

whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

hong jisoo doesn't think he's ready to know of the truth just yet.