“Raka!”
Alma’s voice came from behind us.
I turned around.
Alma jogged over to us, her expression completely different from a few minutes ago.
“Raka, what’s wrong?”
Raka didn’t answer right away.
“I’m fine.”
Alma glanced at the documents still in the teacher’s hands, then looked back at Raka.
“But they said your work…”
“I said I’m fine.”
Raka’s voice grew louder.
Alma fell silent.
I could see her hands begin to clasp each other.
She looked panicked, but she was trying to hide it.
I let out a quiet sigh.
“Alma.”
She turned to me.
“Calm down first.”
“But, Mom…”
“Raka hasn’t been found guilty.”
I said it calmly.
Alma looked at me.
“So Raka won’t be expelled?”
“There’s no reason to go that far yet.”
I turned to Raka.
“As long as we can prove the work really belongs to him.”
Raka fell silent.
Alma bit her lip.
“You really made the work yourself, right?”
Raka immediately looked at Alma.
“You don’t believe me either?”
“That’s not what I meant…”
“Then what did you mean?”
Alma didn’t answer.
Raka looked away.
I could see the expression on his face change.
That simple question seemed to hurt him quite a bit.
I didn’t blame Alma.
She was just scared.
But I didn’t want Raka to feel alone, either.
“Alma.”
I called her again.
“If you want to help your brother, don’t ask whether he’s guilty.”
Alma looked at me.
“Ask what you can do to prove he isn’t.”
Alma was silent for a long time.
Then she gave a small nod.
“Okay.”
I turned to Raka.
“You said the original file is on your laptop?”
“Yeah.”
“Then we’ll start there.”
We headed back to where Raka’s work was displayed.
I asked Raka to open his laptop.
He sat in an available chair while Alma stood beside him.
I studied the laptop screen.
“Is this the first file?”
“Yeah.”
“When was it created?”
Raka pointed to the file information.
I examined it.
The creation date was listed as several months ago.
I nodded.
“What about the next version?”
Raka opened another folder.
There were several files with nearly identical names.
First version.
Second version.
Revision.
Final.
Final two.
Actually final.
I almost smiled when I saw the last file name.
“You’re the one who named the files like this?”
Raka nodded.
“If I wasn’t sure it was final, I named it that.”
“Makes sense.”
I focused again.
Each file had a different date.
And they all showed a gradual process.
This was good.
But it wasn’t enough yet.
I slid my chair a little closer.
“Can we open the revision history?”
Raka tried to open it.
A few moments later, the screen displayed additional information.
I examined it piece by piece.
Nothing seemed strange.
At least, not so far.
I leaned back.
“Raka.”
“Hmm?”
“Who knew you were making this work?”
Raka thought about it.
“My supervising teacher.”
“Friends?”
“A few.”
“Who?”
Raka listed several names.
I committed them to memory.
“And who has seen the original file?”
Raka fell silent.
“Not many people.”
“Who?”
“My supervising teacher saw it.”
“Anyone else?”
Raka shook his head.
“I usually worked on it by myself.”
I nodded.
Alma suddenly spoke.
“Then how could that person’s work look so similar?”
Alma’s question made me turn toward her.
“That’s what we’re trying to find out.”
I stood up.
“Don’t immediately start looking for someone to blame.”
Raka looked at me.
“Then what do we do?”
“We find out how the work came to look like it belonged to someone else.”
I picked up the documents the school had given us earlier.
I read through them again.
The title of the work.
The creator’s name.
The publication date.
The submission date.
I read everything once more.
Then again.
Something was bothering me.
I didn’t know what.
But something definitely was.
I asked to meet with the teacher handling the report.
A few minutes later, we were sitting in a quieter room.
The teacher brought several documents.
“This is the report we received.”
I took it.
“Who submitted it?”
The teacher hesitated.
“For now, we can’t disclose the reporter’s identity.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Why not?”
“Because the investigation is still ongoing.”
I nodded.
Fine.
I wouldn’t pressure him.
“Then I’d like to see the work that’s being considered the original.”
The teacher handed me a digital document.
I opened it.
I examined the work.
There were similarities.
Quite a few, in fact.
If someone only looked at the final result, they might immediately assume Raka had plagiarized it.
But I didn’t.
Because in the business world, similarities didn’t always mean someone had stolen an idea.
It could have been a reference.
It could have been a coincidence.
Or…
Someone could have deliberately made it look that way.
“Who published this work?”
“The information is listed here.”
I read the name.
My eyes narrowed.
Then I looked at the date.
“When was this published?”
The teacher told me the date.
I looked back at Raka’s document.
The dates were different.
I tapped the table softly.
“There’s something I want to confirm.”
“Go ahead.”
“Has the school examined the original file of Raka’s work?”
The teacher shook his head.
“Not thoroughly.”
“Why not?”
“Because the initial report we received already included proof that the work had been published first.”
I gave a faint smile.
“Exactly.”
The teacher looked confused.
“Why?”
“Because that doesn’t prove Raka plagiarized it.”
I pointed to the document.
“It only proves that the work already existed.”
I looked at the teacher.
“To prove plagiarism, you have to prove that Raka took that work.”
The room fell silent.
The teacher seemed to begin understanding my point.
“So you think…”
“I’m not thinking anything yet.”
I cut him off calmly.
“I just don’t like jumping to conclusions before all the data is complete.”
After leaving the room, I saw Raka standing in the hallway.
Alma was beside him.
They both looked at me immediately.
“How did it go?”
I walked toward them.
“It’s not over yet.”
Raka lowered his head.
“So I’m still being considered a plagiarist?”
“Not yet.”
I looked at him.
“That’s exactly why you can’t give up. There still isn’t enough evidence.”
Raka was silent.
Then he asked quietly,
“What if they’re right?”
“If they are, we’ll face it.”
I answered without hesitation.
“But what if they’re not?”
Raka looked at me.
I gave him a small smile.
“Then we’ll find out who made you look guilty.”
Alma looked at me, her eyes still filled with worry.
“Mom…”
“Hmm?”
“If Raka really didn’t do it…”
“Yes?”
“Can we prove it?”
I nodded.
“We can.”
I didn’t know whether that answer was too confident.
But I was used to dealing with problems far more complicated than this.
I looked again at the documents in my hand.
There was one thing that had been bothering me the whole time.
The date.
Everything looked correct.
Too correct.
I reopened the digital document of the work being considered the original.
Then I checked its publication information.
I fell silent.
“Wait.”
Raka and Alma looked at me.
“What is it?”
I enlarged the date section.
Then I opened the information for Raka’s file.
I compared the two.
The publication date was indeed earlier.
But one detail didn’t make sense.
I furrowed my brow.
If that work had really been completed before Raka’s work…
why did its internal structure contain changes that had only appeared in the latest version of Raka’s work?
I stared at the screen for a long time.
Then I slowly smiled.
“Looks like we have a problem.”
Raka stepped closer.
“What kind of problem?”
I closed the laptop.
“I don’t know yet.”
I put the documents into my bag.
“But tomorrow, I want to see the entire file history.”
Alma looked at me in confusion.
“Why tomorrow?”
I smiled.
“Because today, we’ve only just found the door.”
I looked at Raka.
“Tomorrow, we’ll find out who’s behind it.”
And for the first time since coming to this world, I began to feel that the events in this novel might not be as simple as they were written.
Maybe the story I read really had changed.
Or…
maybe I had never known the whole truth in the first place.