I’m Obsessed With the Suspect - Chapter 13

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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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13

Cheong-a’s head shot up at the sudden loud voice that echoed through the space.

It seemed someone had been waiting for her to come out of the restroom.

“I-I’m done! I’ll be right out!”

Cheong-a hurriedly stuffed the note into her pocket and got up.

“Oh my, I’m sorry… There’s so much to clean.”

She apologized in a troubled voice as she came out of the stall where the cleaning supplies were kept.

In front of her stood a man in a suit with an irritated expression, shaking his leg impatiently. Around his neck hung a visitor’s pass with the Buwang Pharmaceutical logo.

He was a pharmaceutical sales representative she had encountered several times in the hospital corridor. Cheong-a glanced at him sideways as she quickly walked away.

The man grumbled and glared at Cheong-a.

“Can’t a man clean the men’s restroom? How inconvenient, tsk.”

Then he waddled toward the restroom stall with steps that looked extremely urgent.

“Ah, I’m dying.”

In that instant when his hurried steps brushed past Cheong-a.

The man’s fingertips slipped into Cheong-a’s pocket.

It was incredibly fast and skillful.

Even so, normally Cheong-a wouldn’t have missed that sensation. However, her mind was currently completely filled with thoughts about the code Yeonhui had sent.

‘She asked me to call. What phone should I use? Oh no…’

Cheong-a hurriedly left the restroom.

Meanwhile, the man who had scolded and chased away Cheong-a had stopped walking inside the restroom. He fixed his gaze on the entrance and tapped his earpiece to connect communication.

“Requesting headquarters response.”

[…Static. Click. Mute.]

“Secured.”

When the man relaxed his clenched fist, the note that had been in Cheong-a’s pocket appeared in his hand.

[Good work. What does it say?]

The man looked at the note for a moment and shook his head.

“Ah, I don’t know?”

He quickly stuffed the note into his pocket and walked out of the restroom.

After looking around and confirming Cheong-a was gone, he naturally blended into the crowd and continued communicating in a low voice.

“It’s in code. Not ordinary. Looks like Morse code but it’s neither English nor Korean, so decoding will take some time.”

[…The boss will go crazy telling us to hurry up and follow her.]

“There’s definitely something going on at headquarters. Judging by how they’re exchanging stuff like this.”

A long sigh came through the earpiece.

[Take a photo of that and send it to me, then quickly return the original.]

“Yes sir.”

[Don’t arouse suspicion and do it well.]

“Roger that.”

The man smiled so wide his mouth reached his ears.

***

Cheong-a was quickly running down the stairs toward the hospital’s 1st floor. The sound of her jumping down three or four steps at a time echoed loudly in the quiet stairwell.

Arriving at the Central Information Center, she placed her hands on the desk without even catching her breath and said.

“Phone, sorry but could I use the phone once? I lost my cell phone.”

Of course, there was also a phone in the cleaning team office. However, using the hospital’s public phone would be a bit safer.

Anyway, it was better to minimize information that could identify her as much as possible.

The information desk staff showed a worried expression once and turned the landline phone toward Cheong-a.

The headquarters number felt unfamiliar as she dialed it after so long.

Cheong-a dialed the extension number and then added the password known only to staff members to connect directly to the Information Analysis Department.

After a couple of rings, the call connected.

[Yes, this is the Cyber Terrorism Response Division.]

It was an extension number that normally wouldn’t receive external calls. It was Yeonhui who answered the phone in a casual voice.

“Face mask, face mask.”

[Ah… Yes. Please wait a moment.]

Yeonhui responded to Cheong-a’s urgently spoken code.

Sounds of tapping something several times and moving around busily came through.

Only then did Yeonhui ask quietly.

[Sister! Did you check the note? Where are you now? Is the phone okay?]

“Hospital. Public phone.”

[Ah, that’s a relief. I added noise to the phone.]

That meant she had added interference signals to prevent wiretapping. It was a signal that they could continue the conversation comfortably.

“Tell me more details about that thing from earlier.”

[Sister. You saw the contents, right? Your phone has been wiretapped for quite a while.]

Cheong-a’s expression crumpled.

[I’m currently tracing it continuously but haven’t identified the location yet.]

For any ordinary route, she should have already identified the contents and reported back. The fact that Yeonhui needed this much time was somewhat serious.

“You can’t get any leads at all?”

She asked Yeonhui, but Cheong-a also had no clue whatsoever. Who on earth was wiretapping her and for what reason? And how?

[Yeah. Come meet me when you have time. I think I need to see it directly.]

“…Okay.”

When she pressed her hand firmly against her throbbing forehead, she felt the texture of the medical tape. Cheong-a immediately thought of Min Yoo-shin and asked Yeonhui about him.

“By any chance, did you check Min Yoo-shin’s information?”

[That’s completely clean.]

“What?”

She spoke so loudly in that moment that people around her turned to look.

Cheong-a hunched her shoulders and bowed her head deeply.

[Born August 7th. I checked his ID photo too – a handsome guy with somewhat fierce-looking eyes. That’s the right person, isn’t it?]

Cheong-a didn’t want to say with her own mouth that Min Yoo-shin was handsome. So she answered with silence instead.

[I scraped everything from hospital personnel records to the resident registration computer center API and checked three times. Clean information that’s never been manipulated.]

“…No, that can’t be right?”

[Unless someone tampered with the government integrated computer network, this information absolutely cannot be wrong. Even I can’t do that. It’s not easy to even look into it, sister.]

“…”

After a moment of silence, Yeonhui hesitated briefly then continued in an even quieter voice.

[Did you check the Morse code?]

Ah!

Only then did Cheong-a remember that she hadn’t finished checking the note due to the pharmaceutical employee’s complaint.

And it was the moment she thrust her hand into her pocket.

Huh, but why…

It felt like all the blood drained from her head.

She hurriedly pulled out her hand and searched the opposite pocket, but the note wasn’t there.

“I’ll call you back!”

[What?]

The staff member looked startled at how forcefully she slammed down the receiver. Cheong-a apologized and started running toward the stairs.

Every time her toes kicked off the floor, her heart pounded as if it would burst out.

Her hands kept fumbling through the empty pockets. Her eyes had to endlessly scan the path she had walked.

‘The note. Where did the note go?’

Cheong-a was breathing heavily as she threw open the door to the 5th Floor Stairwell Entrance. Her gaze was still fixed on the floor as she retraced and examined the path she had taken.

And what entered her sight was a man who was looking around just like her.

The Pharmaceutical Sales Representative from Buwang Pharmaceutical.

It was the same person who had brushed past her in the restroom earlier.

Could it be that bastard?

Just as her expression crumpled at the thought, the man smiled brightly and raised his hand toward Cheong-a.

And with large strides, he approached and stood in front of Cheong-a.

“Wow, where were you?”

“…Huh?”

The man held out the note that had been in his hand to Cheong-a.

“You’re looking for this, right? You dropped it on the floor earlier. I had to rush to the restroom so I couldn’t chase after you right away, but you disappeared so quickly.”

Cheong-a’s face hardened with difficulty as she took the note.

Should she suspect this man? Or not?

Her mind was in chaos.

The man was truly like a salesperson. Whether he knew Cheong-a’s thoughts or not, he smiled brightly and continued speaking without hesitation.

“But what is this? I’m a former communications soldier so I know Morse code incredibly well, but I couldn’t decode any of this, you know?”

Normally, she would have reacted a bit more nonchalantly. But right now, it wasn’t easy to even speak.

“Just…. A puzzle. It’s a puzzle. For preventing, dementia….”

Whether it was because she was out of breath from running up the 5-story staircase in one go. Or because of the relief of getting the note back. Or perhaps because of the suspicion that this man might not have found the note but stolen it.

Maybe it could have been all of the above.

“This is a puzzle? I really love that kind of stuff.”

“….”

The man still seemed unable to read Cheong-a’s inner thoughts, or perhaps he didn’t care at all, as he laughed loudly.

“You should thank me for finding this, right?”

“Ah…. Yes. Thank, you.”

“If you’re grateful, buy me coffee, noona.”

Noona?

Cheong-a’s eyes blinked several times at the man’s unexpectedly changed speech and behavior.

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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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