On rainy days, the school entrance was more chaotic than usual.
Wet sneakers.
Folded umbrellas.
Water dripping from umbrella tips.
And students rummaging through the umbrella stand, trying to find their own.
Garam was one of them.
“It's not here.”
The girl beside him, Dahye, spoke up.
“What isn't?”
“My umbrella.”
“You put it here earlier.”
“Exactly.”
Garam checked the umbrella stand one more time.
A black umbrella.
A clear umbrella.
A floral umbrella.
A yellow umbrella.
And a blue umbrella.
Garam's hand stopped.
“There it is.”
Dahye said, “So there is.”
Garam pulled out the blue umbrella.
It had a black handle and deep blue fabric, almost navy.
It was an ordinary long umbrella, nothing special.
Dahye took out her own clear umbrella first and said, “Why are you looking so hard?”
“I don't think this is mine.”
“They look exactly the same.”
Garam examined the umbrella.
“Mine had a scratch on the handle.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere around here.”
He turned the lower part of the handle around, but there was no scratch.
Dahye leaned in.
“It's really not there.”
“And...”
Garam looked at the tip of the umbrella.
“Mine had a little wear on the rubber at the end.”
“This one is fine.”
“Yeah.”
Dahye looked down at the blue umbrella for a moment.
“Then someone took yours.”
Garam didn't answer right away.
“Maybe.”
“What else could it be?”
“Maybe two similar umbrellas got switched.”
Dahye narrowed her eyes.
“That means someone took it.”
“I mean, it might not have been on purpose.”
“You really do assume the best of people.”
“We don't know yet.”
Dahye laughed and shook her head.
“Then what about this one?”
“I can't take it for now.”
Garam put the blue umbrella back in the stand.
Dahye looked outside.
It was still raining.
“So how are you getting home?”
“I'll walk in the rain.”
“Are you crazy?”
“Garam Bookstore isn't that far.”
“It takes fifteen minutes to walk.”
“That isn't too bad.”
“No.”
Dahye opened her clear umbrella.
“Share mine.”
“It's too small.”
“You're small.”
Garam looked at Dahye.
“Did you just say something about my height?”
“No.”
“You did.”
“I was talking about the umbrella.”
“That's the same thing.”
Laughing, Dahye grabbed Garam's arm.
“Come on. The rain's getting heavier.”
In the end, Garam stepped under the clear umbrella.
Their shoulders bumped slightly.
Dahye said, “See? There's plenty of room.”
“Your bag's getting soaked.”
“It's fine.”
“What about the books?”
“Those aren't fine.”
They both pulled their bags farther under the umbrella at the same time.
As a result, their shoulders pressed even closer together.
Garam said, “I told you it's cramped.”
“Why does someone so short take up so much space?”
“Seo Dahye.”
“Yeah?”
“I'll shove you out.”
“In the rain? You'd do that to your friend?”
Dahye laughed.
Garam couldn't hold back his own laughter either.
The moment Garam opened the door to Garam Bookstore, Chichi came running.
“You're back!”
Garam shook off his wet sneakers.
“You're getting water everywhere.”
Chichi stopped.
Then she looked beside Garam.
“Dahye's here too.”
Dahye waved at Chichi, naturally unable to understand her.
“Hi, Chichi.”
Chichi said to Garam, “She recognized me.”
“You see her every day. Of course she did.”
Dahye folded her umbrella and put it in the umbrella holder beside the door.
Garam's hands were empty.
Kkami opened his eyes by the window.
Dahye's face lit up at once.
“Kkami.”
Kkami didn't even sit up.
He merely flicked the tip of his tail once.
That alone was enough to satisfy Dahye.
“You're pretty as ever today.”
Kkami said, “Obviously.”
As Garam set down his bag, he asked, “Don't you ever get tired of that?”
Dahye sat down beside Kkami.
“Never.”
“Of Kkami?”
“Yep.”
“What about studying? Don't you get tired of that?”
“I get tired of that every day.”
Garam went behind the counter.
Goro was under the bookshelf, and Boss still seemed to be out and hadn't come back yet.
Gramps was lying in the armchair.
Chichi was interested in the bag Dahye had brought.
“What’s in it?”
Garam said, “Don't touch it.”
“I haven't touched it yet.”
Chichi only sniffed around the bag.
Dahye asked, “What’s she saying?”
“She wants to know what's in your bag.”
“Chocolate bread.”
Chichi's ears shot up.
“What?”
“It's not yours.”
Garam cut her off immediately.
Chichi looked at him reproachfully.
“I was only smelling it.”
“Those are the eyes of someone planning to eat it.”
“No, they're not.”
Goro said from under the bookshelf, “They are.”
Chichi turned toward Goro.
“Goro, be quiet.”
Dahye laughed.
“Are they fighting again?”
“No.”
“Then why is Chichi staring at Goro?”
“Coincidence.”
“Who would believe that?”
Garam didn't answer. He took out a towel and dried the ends of his hair.
Dahye watched him for a moment, then asked, “You really didn't bring an umbrella.”
“I told you earlier.”
“That blue one wasn't yours?”
“Yeah.”
Gramps opened his eyes.
“What did you lose?”
Garam said, “An umbrella.”
“Another case?”
“My own.”
Gramps looked at Garam for a moment.
“You look for your own things too?”
“Why?”
“Because you only ever look for other people's things.”
Garam stopped folding the towel.
Dahye asked, “What did Gramps say?”
“He asked if I look for my own things too.”
“You should look for it.”
Dahye said it as though it were obvious.
“It'd be pretty funny if the owner of the Cat Detective Agency kept losing his own umbrella.”
Garam looked at Dahye.
“I'm not the owner.”
“Then what are you?”
“I just do it.”
“That makes you the owner.”
Kkami said, “You do the most work.”
Garam muttered under his breath, “Why is everyone taking sides?”
Dahye pretended not to hear and opened the bag of chocolate bread.
The next morning.
The rain had stopped.
The moment Garam entered the school entrance, he looked at the umbrella stand first.
The blue umbrella he'd left there yesterday was still in place.
Garam stood in front of it for a moment.
Dahye approached from behind.
“It's still here.”
“Yeah.”
“No one took it.”
“Apparently not.”
“Then maybe the person who took your umbrella left this one behind?”
“That seems likely.”
Garam looked at the umbrella handle again.
As expected, there was no scratch.
Then someone behind them said, “Huh?”
Garam and Dahye turned around at the same time.
A boy from their class was looking at the umbrella stand.
A moment later, the boy pulled out the blue umbrella.
Garam blinked.
It was the same umbrella from yesterday.
The boy looked at the handle once and said, “This isn't mine.”
Dahye looked at Garam.
Garam looked at Dahye too.
The boy felt their eyes on him and raised his head.
“What?”
Dahye asked first, “Isn't that your umbrella?”
“No.”
“Then why are you taking it?”
“It looks exactly like mine, so I was checking.”
The boy put the umbrella back.
Garam asked, “Yours is blue too?”
“Yeah.”
“The same kind?”
“Probably.”
“Does the handle have anything marking it?”
The boy thought for a moment.
“I have a sticker with my name on it.”
“Where?”
“Inside the handle.”
Garam pulled out the blue umbrella that had been there since yesterday.
He turned the inside of the handle around.
There was nothing there.
“So this isn't it.”
“Told you.”
The boy searched through the umbrella stand for a long while.
Then he pulled out another blue umbrella.
Garam's eyes widened slightly.
“There was another one?”
Dahye was surprised too.
“I didn't see it yesterday.”
The boy checked the handle.
“This isn't it either.”
Garam stepped closer.
The second blue umbrella was almost identical to the first.
The color.
The length.
The black handle.
Even the tip.
Dahye said, “What the heck?”
The boy looked puzzled too.
“Why are there two of the same kind?”
Garam set the two umbrellas side by side.
The first had no markings on the handle.
The second had a small strip of white tape stuck to the tip.
Garam said, “This one isn't yours either, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then where's yours?”
“Beats me.”
The boy scratched his head.
Dahye said quietly beside Garam, “Do you think two umbrellas got switched instead of one?”
Garam didn't answer right away.
Until yesterday, he'd thought it was just a simple case of mistaking one umbrella for another.
But there were two blue umbrellas with the same design.
And there were more than two blue umbrellas whose owners were looking for them.
Garam inspected the umbrella stand again.
“Maybe...”
Dahye asked, “What?”
“Are there more people in our class who use umbrellas like these?”
The boy said, “Probably.”
“Who?”
“Don't know.”
“Why do you think so?”
“They sell these at the stationery store in front of the school.”
Garam and Dahye looked at the boy at the same time.
“The stationery store?”
“Yeah.”
The boy spoke as though it were no big deal.
“They've been selling them since last year. They're cheap, so a lot of kids use them.”
Dahye pressed a hand to her forehead.
“Then how many are there?”
Garam looked at the blue umbrellas in the stand.
The problem might be simpler than he'd thought.
Students who used the same umbrella were simply getting them mixed up.
But...
Garam picked up the first umbrella again.
“Something's weird.”
Dahye asked, “What?”
“This one was here yesterday.”
“Yeah.”
“And there was one more today.”
“Yeah.”
“Then doesn't that mean someone went home yesterday without their umbrella?”
Dahye faltered.
The boy looked at the umbrellas and said, “Huh. You're right.”
Garam put the two umbrellas back.
It was still too soon to conclude anything.
But it didn't seem like just one umbrella had been switched.
At lunchtime.
Garam and Dahye got their lunch and sat down at their seats.
Dahye lifted a spoonful of soup and said, “I asked around.”
“About what?”
“The blue umbrellas.”
Garam stopped his chopsticks.
“Who did you ask?”
“The people in our class.”
“When?”
“When you went to the bathroom.”
“Why are you investigating this?”
Dahye said confidently, “It's fun.”
“It's my umbrella.”
“If it's my friend's umbrella, it's my business too.”
Garam gave her an incredulous look but didn't bother arguing further.
“So?”
Dahye held up one finger.
“First, there are three people in our class who use that blue umbrella.”
“Three?”
“Four, counting you.”
“That's a lot.”
“Yeah.”
“Then they could just keep getting switched around.”
“But here's the problem.”
Dahye held up another finger.
“You know Choi Yujin from our class, right?”
Garam thought for a moment.
“The one by the window?”
“Yeah. She has a blue umbrella too, and apparently she said this morning that it wasn't hers.”
“Her too?”
“She had a key chain hanging from the handle, but it's gone.”
Garam set down his chopsticks.
“Since when?”
“Yesterday.”
They fell silent for a moment.
Garam.
The boy from this morning.
And Choi Yujin.
At least three people were looking for their umbrellas.
And yet there were two identical blue umbrellas sitting in the entrance with no known owners.
Dahye said, “Isn't this a case by now?”
Garam thought about it.
“Not yet.”
“Still not?”
“We don't know if someone is taking them on purpose.”
“That's why it's a case. We can look into it.”
Garam stared at Dahye.
“Do you want to join the Cat Detective Agency?”
Dahye answered immediately, “No.”
“Then why are you so excited?”
“Because it's someone else's problem.”
“And because this is the first thing that's happened inside the school.”
That was true.
Until now, all the cases had begun outside Garam Bookstore.
School was school.
For Garam, it was a place where he had to be a student before he could be part of the Cat Detective Agency.
That made it feel a little strange too.
Dahye said, “But we can't use the cats this time.”
Garam had been thinking the same thing.
“Yeah.”
“They can't come inside the school.”
“Chichi seems like she'd try.”
“What if she got caught?”
“Then I'd probably get dragged away too.”
Dahye laughed.
“A student who came to school with five cats.”
“No.”
“You'd become famous.”
“Even worse.”
Garam took a bite of rice.
This time, someone really had to investigate in person.
Not the cats.
Garam and Dahye.
After school.
The two of them stood in front of the entrance again.
The two blue umbrellas from that morning were still there.
But...
Dahye was looking at the umbrella stand when she said, “Hey.”
“What?”
“That.”
Garam followed her gaze.
There was one more blue umbrella.
Three.
Similar lengths.
The same color.
The same black handles.
Dahye said slowly, “There were two this morning, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then one more showed up.”
Garam took out the three umbrellas one by one.
The first.
No markings.
The second.
White tape on the tip.
The third.
A tiny scratch below the handle.
Garam's hand stopped.
Dahye asked, “What?”
Garam turned the handle of the third umbrella around.
On the underside.
A long, shallow scratch ran across the black plastic surface.
“This.”
Dahye looked closer too.
“Is that yours?”
“Yeah.”
Garam checked the tip of the umbrella as well.
The rubber was slightly worn.
There was no doubt.
“This is mine.”
Dahye's eyes widened.
“It came back?”
“Yeah.”
Garam held his umbrella in his hand.
It had definitely been missing yesterday.
And yet it had returned by the end of the day.
In its place, two unidentified blue umbrellas remained.
Dahye said, “Maybe someone took yours by mistake and brought it back?”
“Maybe.”
“But they didn't take their own?”
Garam looked at the two umbrellas.
“That's what's weird.”
If someone had mistaken Garam's umbrella for their own and taken it,
then when they returned it today, they could have taken their original umbrella too.
But instead of the number of blue umbrellas going down, there were more than yesterday.
Dahye said, “What if umbrellas reproduce?”
Garam looked at her.
“Don't say creepy things.”
“They multiply by one whenever it rains.”
“Stop.”
“The Blue Umbrella Haunting.”
“Seo Dahye.”
Dahye laughed.
Garam opened his umbrella, then folded it again.
The problem was solved.
At least his umbrella had come back.
He could simply leave it at that.
Garam stared at the other two umbrellas for a long while.
Dahye asked, “What?”
“I found mine.”
“Yeah.”
“But the others still haven't found theirs.”
The corners of Dahye's mouth lifted.
“I knew it.”
“Knew what?”
“You're going to keep investigating, aren't you?”
Garam didn't answer.
Instead, he picked up a memo pad from beside the umbrella stand.
He wrote a short message in ballpoint pen.
Anyone looking for a blue umbrella, please come to Han Garam in Class 3-2.
Dahye read it beside him.
“You've opened a school branch of the Cat Detective Agency.”
“It's nothing like that.”
“Sure looks like it.”
Garam stuck the note above the umbrella stand.
Then he lined up the two remaining blue umbrellas neatly.
Dahye asked, “How many umbrellas do you think got switched?”
Garam wondered about that too.
At least three people were looking for their own.
There were two umbrellas with no known owners.
And there were more students in the school who used the same kind.
Who had taken whose.
Who had returned what.
Which umbrellas still hadn't made it back to their owners.
No one knew yet.
Garam looked outside the entrance.
It wasn't raining today.
And yet, inside the umbrella stand...
Three blue umbrellas stood side by side.
One belonged to Garam.
And the other two
were still waiting for their owners.
Episode 9: Three Blue Umbrellas — End.