“Two minutes, two minutes, three minutes, two minutes...” A young man mumbled to himself, taking down notes as he took Line 2 of his local subway. He checked his previous draft of notes on estimated time and then his smartphone, mentally calculating the time between each subway station to revise his draft.

An old man watched him curiously, calling for the young man to come take a seat next to him for a little while. He did afterall look like he was in a bad position to be doing all that work while standing.

The young man pointed at himself before realising there wasn’t anyone else around him. It was ten in the morning, and most of the population were either at school or at work on a weekday like this.

“Yes?” The young man then brought his belongings to the empty seat beside the old man, smiling politely. “Is there anything I can help you with?”

“Slowly.” The old man smiled amiably back. “What’s your name, young man?”

“I’m Shim Hyunseong.” The man replied, bowing slightly.

“Ah, a fine name for a young man like you.” The old man then chuckled lightly, leaning back against his seat. “What are you doing? I’ve taken this train around a lot but haven’t seen someone doing what you did.”

“Ah.” Hyunseong nodded in understanding, leaning back as well and smiling down at his smartphone and papers. “I’m trying to figure out the time between each station and hence estimate the distance also. I’ve managed to calculate the start and stop velocity of the train, so with the time between, I can use the train map to map out a more accurate picture of city’s train tracks.”

“What’s with this interesting project?”

“I’m an aspiring detective!” Hyunseong replied proudly, deciding to leave his notes aside to have a small chat with the old man. It was a nice day and a rare opportunity to share his ideas with someone who would listen. “I was told by my professor that a detective needed to be observant about details no one else thought of, to be able to think ahead of the criminals.”

“Mm.” The elderly nodded thoughtfully, noting the young man’s consideration to pause and ensure he was following the conversation. “And then?”

“I haven’t been able to solve any cases for five months now so I’m not really a detective yet, but I figured to think ahead of criminals would be probably appearing at the crime scene before them!” Hyunseong excitedly continued. “So I figured to do something like that, I’d need to know the city’s roads and geography like the back of my hand.”

“Isn’t it sufficient to study maps, then?”

“Nope!” Hyunseong grinned, as if expecting the question. “You see, because of congestion in the city and the general nonchalant attitudes of the public towards suspicious behaviours, criminals are more likely to use public transport than their own cars. Of course, there are still some crimes committed for those with cars, but I figured the locations would be far off from subway stations and it would be a tell-tale sign. As such, to have a grasp of the geography of the city is half the case solved. You can figure out the criminal’s house and then the next possible area of crime scene in addition to the time at which he would commit the crime.”

“Not something I can easily understand.” The old man chuckled lightly, patting Hyunseong on his back as a form of silent support. “But I’m glad to talk to someone with so much ambition. Reminds me a lot of my son.”

“Your son?” Hyunseong cocked his head to a side, showing interest. If his friends are of any indication, there were fewer and fewer people with actual ambitions. Most of them would just want a nice, stable job in an office cubicle. New inventions? Save the Earth? Leave it to someone else, was what they said.

“He’s an amazing son, though he doesn’t talk like this with me. Keeps a lot to himself, but everyone tells me he’s the best son any parent would want.” The old man shrugged lightly. “He’s a detective too.”

“Really?” Hyunseong’s eyes sparkled, eager to hear more.

Chuckling while nodding, the old man sighed before looking at the distant scenery that was passing by before them as their train continued travelling. “He brings back money, he takes care of us, and when he’s at home he always makes sure we are comfortable. He’s respectful to everyone he meets, and always tell us not to worry about him. But you know, I would like a heart-to-heart talk like that once in a while, to ask if his job is stressful and if there’s anything interesting happening in his life. But he always talks about us, never about himself. His mother doesn’t even know what his favourite food is anymore. He just smiles and says everything is great.”

“That’s a really amazing son you have there.” Hyunseong widened his eyes, wondering if he even had half the traits. He shuddered at the thought that his parents may be going around saying he was a bad son instead. As if his conscience was finding him, Hyunseong bit his lower lip at the thought of last night when he complained to his mother that she had added too much soy sauce into the marinated crab she made.

He should probably apologise when he goes back home tonight.

“Thank you.” The older man nodded, knowing it was the most common response to his ramblings. “I think he works alone too, maybe I can give him a call and ask if he would like to work with you?”

“That’d be awesome!” Hyunseong clapped his hands together, before shaking his head as an afterthought. “No, I’m still not good enough. I’ll work hard and solve my first case, then I’ll meet your son with confidence, as an equal to someone that remarkable.”

“If that is what you want.” The old man nodded, then pulling a pen from his pocket and gesturing for a small piece of paper he can write on. Hyunseong hurriedly offered the empty space on his notes, smiling that it didn’t matter if the older man wrote on it. After scribbling a bit, the old man then kept his pen. “That’s my son’s contact number. He gets calls often so it doesn’t really matter, but if you want to, you can introduce yourself as a man his father met. He would, afterall, ask about my day yet again tonight.”

There was something in the older man’s tone that said he didn’t appreciate his son’s efforts as much as he should.

Hyunseong then looked back at his notes with a contact number now scribbled at the bottom of the page. With newfound determination to work even harder than before, Hyunseong made meeting the mysterious son of this stranger his goal.

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