I’m Obsessed With the Suspect - Chapter 43
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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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43
Right. It really left a bitter taste.
Cheong-a drove for a long while with the car window wide open, her arm resting on it.
Even so, the heat that had risen wouldn’t easily subside.
It was because Rachel’s final face, screaming while covered in tears, kept flickering before her eyes.
−I’m a victim too. Do you think I wanted to do something like that?
−….
−I was forced into it. I was coerced. I really didn’t even know I was taking drugs. Really.
Rachel was arrested on drug charges when she was twenty.
Her parents had passed away around that time, leaving behind a massive inheritance. Left alone while studying abroad in South Korea, she lost her mind and hung around with bad friends.
And she got involved in such incidents.
−I was caught by the police, you know. But someone called me aside. Said if I helped him, he’d get me out.
−….
−Information about drug dealers. That’s what he wanted me to find out. He threatened that if I didn’t cooperate, he’d frame me as a dealer and send me to prison.
−….
−What would I know? I just said I’d do as told. I wanted to live.
Rachel said the one who made such conditions to her was ‘Manager Oh.’
−I’m pretty, aren’t I? I was young back then too. How much help must I have been? I got into every gathering of drug dealers nationwide. Bringing them in, delivering messages, introducing them to Manager Oh.
−….
−I was scared. I thought something big would happen someday. That I’d get caught. But Manager Oh said it was fine. That he’d protect me. That he… loved me.
“Love, my ass.”
Cheong-a chewed her lips and kept tapping her cold fingers on the steering wheel.
Was love really a word to use in such situations?
−Just a little more and he’d get promoted. Then he’d really take responsibility for me. Asked me to endure just a little more hardship.
−You believed those words? You should have asked your family back home for help.
−If that had been possible, I would have! Do you know how much inheritance my parents left? If I didn’t return, it would all go to my relatives. Would they have looked for me? No, absolutely not. So, so he was the only person I could lean on…
Rachel cried like that for a long time. Very loudly, wailing at the top of her lungs.
After crying for a while, she collapsed on the floor and muttered.
−But he got married. To some department head judge’s daughter, I think.
−….
−I went to the wedding venue planning to die there.
−….
−Cheon-u was the one who saved me then.
“Haah.”
The more she went over it, the more suffocating the story became.
A South Korean police officer had used an innocent woman for his own promotion.
And even used that information as a means to make money?
You’d have to be crazy, really.
Cheong-a stopped at a red light, hit the brakes, and shook her head vigorously.
‘No. Let me think rationally.’
No matter how it started with Manager Oh’s orders. Rachel was a woman who had gone beyond that to build up a drug trafficking distribution platform.
Rachel is a criminal.
This was an undeniable fact.
Cheong-a knew all too well how vile and cunningly they could pour out lies.
She was even the Cheongwha Faction Boss’s lover, wasn’t she?
So there was no need to believe everything she said.
At least not until evidence was found.
‘But there was no Mr. Oh in the past Narcotics Units. Who exactly is Manager Oh?’
Rachel first met him almost 20 years ago.
If his introduction as Manager Oh back then wasn’t a lie, he would be a superintendent general now, or at least assistant commissioner level.
‘Are there any Mr. Ohs among the headquarters’ senior superintendents… One, two. Was it two people?’
Adding the lower ranks of superintendent general and assistant commissioner, it would probably be difficult to count the numbers.
Cheong-a stared at the unchanging signal, repeatedly grabbing and releasing her hair.
−I needed something to lean on, wanted to lean on something. Really wanted to lean on anything… That’s why I did it.
Compassion.
She kept feeling such emotions, making it difficult to make proper judgments.
Perhaps helping Se-yeon was also because she saw herself in her.
Such thoughts kept making her feel suffocated.
‘Ah, come to think of it, I didn’t even ask how she knew my identity. How stupid.’
It was a complete mess.
Because of that damn compassion.
“Damn it, damn it!”
Following the signal that had turned green, Cheong-a quickly stepped on the accelerator.
***
“Oh, I didn’t expect to meet you here.”
Chinatown Jungwha-ro, where she returned after finishing her meeting with Rachel.
Cheong-a couldn’t take her eyes off the inside of the hall for quite a while.
It was because someone who shouldn’t be here was greeting her warmly.
“Why… are you here…?”
The identity of the person here was none other than Min Woo-jin.
He smiled at Cheong-a, narrowing his eyes.
“Why, you ask. Where else is there a better Chinese restaurant than here?”
“That’s right! Our Hwaryong Restaurant is the best! This handsome customer knows what’s good. Haha.”
Chairman Jang appeared from somewhere, grinning broadly as if pleased with Wujin’s evaluation, and squeezed between the two.
Judging by the menu tucked under his arm, it seemed Min Woo-jin hadn’t been in the restaurant for long.
Step. Step.
Cheong-a quickly moved and firmly grabbed Chairman Jang’s forearm.
“Uhhhhh?”
At Cheong-a’s sudden use of force, Chairman Jang couldn’t resist and was dragged outside the restaurant.
“Why are you suddenly doing this? I’m running a business!”
“Shhhh.”
Cheong-a glanced toward the inside of the restaurant and put her index finger to her lips.
“Is that customer a regular?”
“No? I saw him for the first time today.”
“But how did he find this place?”
Cheong-a asked out of pure curiosity, but Chairman Jang’s perspective was different.
He couldn’t hide his upset expression and asked.
“Why are you like this? Our restaurant is a nationwide famous place, so of course he could find it!”
“Ah. Ahhh. Is that so? I’m sorry.”
After thinking for a moment, Cheong-a firmly grabbed Chairman Jang’s shoulders.
“Chairman. Let me ask you for one more favor.”
“Speak up. It hurts. Why are you so strong?”
“Ah, sorry. The thing is. Please help me out.”
“With what.”
“That person doesn’t know I’m a detective, okay? There are reasons I can’t let him know.”
“Huh?”
“So from now on, don’t call me Detective Kim, call me a customer. Got it? You’ll help me, right? Please. I’m begging you.”
Chairman Jang still looked puzzled.
Then he seemed to catch on to something and grinned.
“Ah. Ahhh. In case he runs away if he finds out you’re a detective?!”
“As expected of our chairman. Your intuition is like a ghost!”
“Okay. Just trust me!”
The two who had instantly hit it off exchanged a hearty handshake before walking back into the restaurant together.
Of course, Chairman Jang was under a slightly different misunderstanding.
Entering the restaurant, he glanced at Wujin once and then winked at Cheong-a.
‘What’s with him. Why is he acting like that. Did something get in his eye.’
Cheong-a thought that, while
‘If it’s such a handsome man, he’d probably want to hide the fact that he’s a playboy. Our son would give up right away if he saw he was dating a man like that, right?’
was what he thought.
Cheong-a pulled out a chair and sat across from Wujin.
“Is Bokseon a regular here?”
Wujin calmly placed a glass in front of Cheong-a and poured water while asking.
“Just, well. It’s not far from home.”
Wujin smiled slightly again without saying much, and Cheong-a leaned toward Wujin with her arms on the table.
“But how do we coincidentally meet here again.”
“Right. I was thinking I wanted to see you, but I didn’t expect it to be this soon.”
Then Cheong-a let out a snort.
“You don’t answer calls or reply to messages, yet you’re so shameless.”
Then Wujin took out his phone from his pocket and held it out to show her.
“I replied. You just didn’t check.”
“…?”
Cheong-a hurriedly took out her phone and opened her message inbox.
However, there were no received messages from Wujin’s number.
Cheong-a’s gaze quickly alternated between her phone and Wujin’s phone.
「Let’s meet and talk.」
A message that wasn’t in her inbox remained on Wujin’s phone as sent.
“…Why isn’t this here?”
According to Yeonhui, only phone calls were being tapped. This was really strange.
Cheong-a’s head slowly turned directly toward Wujin.
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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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