I’m Obsessed With the Suspect - Chapter 12

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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12

Chamkkae’s urgent voice came through the earpiece.

[What the hell. Are you crazy? You ask for help then cut off communication?]

Yushin couldn’t find an appropriate answer to Chamkkae’s question.

Saying “because Meerkat was sleeping” didn’t suit the current situation at all, so he had to deflect slightly.

“Don’t worry about it.”

[There’s no problem, right?]

“Yeah. Right now, more than that—”

Yushin’s gaze, which had been scanning the room, stopped at a neatly organized pile of promotional materials.

“Our wiretaps got stolen.”

Moving his steps to examine the trash can, Yushin’s hand caught an empty energy drink bottle.

“Meerkat must have consumed it. Can you hear anything if we tap in right now?”

[Why would Meerkat eat that? If she really ate it… It’s probably broken, right? Oh, wait. If it hasn’t been long since she ate it, you might be able to hear sounds like her heartbeat.]

“Really?”

Yushin turned the energy drink bottle label to check the serial number.

“It’s channel 41. Try connecting it for me.”

[Who the hell is Meerkat anyway?]

“Who else. A cop from Central Police Station. I caught her in my room because I was worried she’d cause trouble around the hospital, and she was doing something quite adorable.”

Yushin leaned back on the sofa and pushed the earpiece in a bit deeper.

Through the channel Chamkkae connected, Cheong-a’s rapidly beating heart could be heard thumping.

The dark corridor.

Cheong-a’s footsteps were hurried. They were heading in exactly the opposite direction from the path Yushin had taken earlier.

Cold sweat poured from her entire body. She couldn’t remember anything about how she had escaped from Yushin’s research lab.

She ran down the staircase and squeezed herself into the janitor’s break room.

Crouched in an invisible spot inside the cabinet, Cheong-a covered her mouth with her hand, caught her ragged breath, and let out a big sigh.

“You’re crazy, Kim Cheong-a. You’re insane…”

Cheong-a slapped her cheek with her own hand.

Min Yushin’s naked body, which had been moving before her eyes just moments ago, kept flickering in her mind.

No. Wait?

Why was I keeping my eyes open? Am I crazy?

‘Do I have voyeuristic tendencies…?’

Cheong-a held her forehead and stared at the floor for a long time before trying to make excuses for herself.

“Ah. Ahhhhh. Right. Yeah. Cheongwha Faction executives have tattoos, right? There, there they hide secret markings… Right. That’s it. That’s why I looked, right? Right?”

And what came flooding in was self-loathing.

No matter what excuses she tried to make, the truth was that she had opened her eyes slightly because she was curious about his solid latissimus dorsi and pectorals.

What put the finishing touch on her shame was her own behavior of spouting nonsense in front of Yushin and then running away.

“Why did I really do that? I’m screwed.”

Cheong-a punched the wall repeatedly.

“Ugh, damn! Idiot! Ah! Why does he have to have such a good body for no reason? Damn, this is big trouble.”

Even though she felt like tears were about to come, her mercilessly beating heart was frustrating.

That day, Cheong-a stayed up all night.

Only when she received Inkyu’s message saying he had arrived at the hospital’s back gate could she finally drag herself up and leave the break room.

The sunlight was warm and the breeze was refreshing, but shadows hung heavily over her face.

Her face, having not slept a wink all night, was pale and bloodless.

Across the two-lane road in front of the hospital’s back gate, she could see Sung-min’s car.

“Hey there.”

Sung-min, who had been leaning against the car smoking, waved his hand. Cheong-a let out a long sigh and bowed deeply in greeting.

Immediately, the driver’s door opened and Park Inkyu jumped out. He quickly crossed the crosswalk and handed Cheong-a a large paper bag.

Inside were socks with pink hearts drawn on them, a phone charger, several pain relief patches, and snacks.

“Ah, what! I said I don’t need things like socks.”

“These are 100% pure cotton. If you go around wearing weird nylon socks, you’ll get athlete’s foot. Like Senior Sung-min.”

“…I’m so grateful I could cry.”

Inkyu, who had been giggling while looking at Cheong-a’s deeply furrowed brow, handed her the duty log he had been carrying under his arm.

“You couldn’t return for several days, so your logs piled up.”

“Can’t you write these for me? I’m really struggling both physically and mentally, hyung.”

Cheong-a sighed deeply as she took the duty log. However, the moment she received it, she made a strange expression.

“What’s this?”

It was because she felt the unfamiliar texture of an envelope tucked under the duty log at her fingertips. Inkyu answered in an indifferent, dry voice.

“What else could it be. Inspector In Yeonhui from headquarters contacted us. She said to deliver it to you without anyone knowing. I didn’t even tell Senior Sung-min.”

Cheong-a neither nodded nor gave any other response, but quickly began writing in the duty log.

While doing so, she swiftly moved her hand to stuff the envelope caught behind the duty log into her pocket.

“Hyung.”

“What.”

“Thank you.”

Inkyu, who had been watching Cheong-a with her head buried in the log, awkwardly touched his ear.

“Hey. But even looking at that, I don’t get it—does it really have to be given secretly?”

“Our Yeonhui probably wanted to make a secret confession to unnie.”

“…”

***

Clatter.

The fingertips that had been holding the aluminum blinds covering the window dropped. Yushin quietly crossed his arms and went over the faces he had witnessed through the window.

‘Oh Sung-min and Park Inkyu…’

The internal data from Violent Crimes Unit 2, Incheon Central Police Station that he had received from Chamkkae a few days ago overlapped in his mind.

People who looked exactly like the composite sketches contained there were making contact with Kim Cheong-a. Yushin sneered at the sight.

“Hmm… Did you bring the entire Central Police Station violent crimes team?”

He spun around and returned to his desk. Then he leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and mulled over what he had seen.

Kim Cheong-a, who had been diligently writing something with her head deeply bowed.

That was probably a duty log.

One she had postponed writing because she had been staying at the hospital until late hours for several days.

And the hand movement of quickly shoving something she received from Park Inkyu into her pocket. Park Inkyu awkwardly touching his ear while watching such Cheong-a.

Yushin picked up his coffee cup with only ice remaining, drank it in one gulp, and chewed it making crunching sounds.

“The Central Police Station cops moving this actively… is troublesome.”

He took out his phone and immediately called Doksah.

***

At that moment, Cheong-a was crossing the hospital lobby, clutching her pounding heart.

Receiving a secret message from Yeonhui was the first time in a very long while since the drug investigation task force was disbanded. Her pulse was racing fast, adrenaline was flowing, and her head felt dizzy.

However, there was no need to glance around nervously. There was no reason to show others that she was tense.

She walked with long strides, pretending to be nonchalant.

The place she arrived at was a corner inside the 5th Floor Men’s Restroom, in a stall being used as storage for cleaning supplies.

She let out a brief chuckle at her own choice of this place as the safest location to examine the note.

‘I think I’ve become a janitor down to my soul…?’

Could a restroom really be this cozy?

Cheong-a pulled over the cleaning supply box and sat on top of it.

As she took the note out of her pocket, she didn’t forget to push the door closed with her toes to prevent anyone else from entering.

. .-. . .–. ..- .- -. It’s been a long time since we ate snakehead fish on the 5th. I have 2 face masks left. .-. .– .- -.. … .- -. 4 became a blue bird. . – .- -. .-. -. -.. -.– 8 pink boxes. -. .- .. …. … 7 twins -.. –.- .- .. —

‘It’s been a while.’

As Inkyu had said, it was a note with sentences that were hard to understand. Cheong-a squinted and glared at the note.

This was the cipher method that she and Yeonhui had created when they formed the drug investigation task force in the past.

On the surface, it looked like just numbers and meaningless words combined with strange Morse code, but Cheong-a could interpret its meaning accurately.

Today is the 18th. Friday.

Then the number 5 would mean there’s a surveillance presence. If snakehead was added, it means the identity of the opponent hasn’t been determined.

Cheong-a’s expression hardened as she followed the code written on the paper.

‘What, I was being wiretapped?’

Her face turned pale as she quickly checked the next message.

‘Quick contact. Not personal phone? Hmm.’

When Cheong-a and Yeonhui first created this code, it was half a joke.

However, as their joint investigation deepened, the information they secretly exchanged also increased. Each time, Cheong-a and Yeonhui’s code became increasingly extensive and sophisticated.

Before they knew it, the code had developed into the systematized form it was now.

Cheong-a let out a deep sigh.

She never thought she’d end up using it this extensively.

‘But wait, is there even a reason for me to be wiretapped? It’s been almost a year since I was kicked out of headquarters…’

Just as she was shaking her head and trying to focus on the note again to decode the Morse code.

“Ma’am! This is the men’s restroom, how long are you going to stay? I’m really in a hurry!”

A loud voice filled with complaint was directed at Cheong-a.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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