I’m Obsessed With the Suspect - Chapter 59
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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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59
After a brief silence, the first question Cheong-a threw out was about his identity.
“What are you really?”
“Doctor. Name is Min Yoo-shin. National Intelligence Service. Everything else is classified.”
Wujin. No, Yushin’s answer was concise.
“Then what’s Min Woo-jin?”
“Ah, that’s my older brother.”
“Is it okay to just use someone’s name like that?”
“Well, it shouldn’t matter.”
Cheong-a let out a deep sigh at Yushin’s indifferent response.
“But if you’re a National Intelligence Service employee, why did you act that way toward me? You knew from the beginning that I was a police officer… didn’t you.”
Yushin kept his gaze fixed straight ahead while just shrugging his shoulders slightly.
“I didn’t know at first. After I found out, it became a bit more troublesome so I avoided you. I couldn’t tell whether you were in cahoots with Manager Oh or not. The National Intelligence Service was monitoring the movements of drug ships, but information kept leaking from the police side.”
“…”
“It was also suspicious that you, who were core investigation personnel at headquarters, were suddenly transferred to Central Police Station where North Port is located.”
It was a story with sufficient grounds.
The fact that Cheong-a was transferred to Central Police Station taking responsibility for the failed operation to arrest Jeong Gwangsub could be found out with just a little digging into the records.
However, from the National Intelligence Service’s perspective, it would be difficult to hastily judge whether this was a planned move or the result of being pushed out under false accusations.
“To be honest, I was suspicious until recently. After the suspicion was cleared… I was cautious thinking that information might reach the ears of the police insider through your mouth.”
“Police insider…”
“By the way, you said it yourself at Star Hotel. That there seemed to be Manager Oh’s connection at Central Police Station.”
“…”
“And then you suggested a way to find Central Police Station’s informant.”
“I did? How…”
“You asked me to call everyone on Violent Crimes Team 2 using headquarters’ number. With the content that you should be excluded from investigations since you were internally reported for illegal undercover investigation.”
“…!”
“You even added the provocation that if it’s really the National Intelligence Service, making a call with headquarters’ number would be nothing. Ahahat.”
All the way home, Yushin systematically organized and conveyed what had happened at Star Hotel.
Cheong-a silently listened to his story while looking at the pitch-black Han River and the sparkling scenery across the river.
Her own words and actions that he told her about.
How she had suggested a method to identify the traitor within Central Police Station.
When Yushin said she wouldn’t remember this situation when she woke up, how she promised to meet again at the Police Academy alumni cruise party using earpiece frequency.
And even the act of pointing a gun at his stomach.
“…”
Though she had no memory of it, they were all exactly the kind of words and actions Cheong-a herself would do.
While listening to Yushin’s story, they arrived in Incheon in no time. Yushin slowly drove and parked the car in Central Police Station’s now quiet parking lot.
Cheong-a unbuckled her seatbelt and bowed her head to express her gratitude.
“Don’t you have any more questions now?”
At Yushin’s question, Cheong-a shook her head.
“I understand enough.”
“There’s still something you haven’t asked about.”
“…”
“The Central Police Station insider.”
Cheong-a just kept fidgeting with the cuff of her coat. Yushin waited patiently for her, who couldn’t bring herself to speak.
“I already know who it is.”
“I see.”
“…”
Yushin turned his gaze to look at Central Police Station’s lit entrance and ran his hand through his hair once.
“You already look troubled enough, so it’s a bit awkward to add this kind of talk. But there’s not much time, so I’ll speak directly.”
“…”
“I’d like to formally propose a joint investigation.”
***
For the first time in quite a while, all members of Violent Crimes Team 2 gathered in the cafeteria.
Today, Cheong-a was stirring the rice grains on her tray but couldn’t bring them to her mouth.
“Hey, Cheong-a has been doing desk work lately, so is this your second lunch? Why are you playing push-and-pull with rice grains again.”
It was Sung-min’s role to look after Cheong-a who wasn’t eating properly.
As it had always been.
He was the person who noticed Cheong-a’s condition first and looked after her.
Cheong-a’s head slowly lifted toward Sung-min.
“Maybe because my activity has decreased lately… I don’t have much appetite.”
Cheong-a forced the corners of her mouth up to try to smile.
Hihi, the same laughter as usual flowed out. Hi.
However, the laughter couldn’t continue further.
Tears dropped onto the tray with plop, plop sounds.
Only then realizing she was crying, Cheong-a hurriedly wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.
“Hey, what. What’s wrong!”
Inkyu, sitting next to her, was startled and grabbed Cheong-a’s face to fix her gaze on him.
“Why are you crying! Even I, who’s doing double duty shifts, don’t cry!”
“…”
“Don’t tell me you got depression from going on investigations just among ourselves?”
Sung-min clicked his tongue and pulled out a bunch of tissues to hand to Cheong-a.
Cheong-a swatted away Inkyu’s hands that were holding her face and pressed the tissues Sung-min gave her firmly against her eyes.
“Aigoo, we locked up a filly that needs to run around in a pen, so of course it broke down.”
“…”
“Team leader. Let our Cheong-a run around with us. Ah, the kid is crying.”
Team leader Hong-nam crossed his arms and frowned while looking at Cheong-a without answering. Senior Sung-min stopping him and taking Cheong-a’s side. Inkyu trying hard to comfort her from the side.
It was the usual appearance of her team, no different from normal.
At that thought, Cheong-a felt like more tears would pour out, so she hung her head low.
“Tomorrow too…”
At Cheong-a’s trembling voice, the ears of Violent Crimes Team 2 perked up attentively.
“Please eat with me tomorrow too!”
At Cheong-a’s story squeezed out in a loud voice, laughter burst out from Hong-nam, Sung-min, and Inkyu all at once with a “Wah!”
“Ah, of course, of course. What’s wrong with that. Tomorrow when we go to a scene, we’ll call you there, so come over, okay?”
“Yes!”
In the afternoon, the Violent Crimes Unit office became noisy.
“Hey, what are you doing!”
“No, team leader. Is this right now? You’re not kidding? A fight with weapons? In the 2020s?”
Inkyu asked back in disbelief at what he heard on the radio while flustering around.
The radio continued to broadcast urgent guidance from the situation room. Reports kept flowing that a fight had broken out among foreign workers at a construction site, and various tools had even been brought into the fight.
“Team leader. They’re saying a chainsaw appeared at the scene right now?”
“What? Ah, shit. How do we stop that. This is driving me crazy!”
Inkyu, who had been rolling his eyes around, shouted loudly toward Hong-nam.
“They say it’s foreign workers. Don’t we need an interpreter, an interpreter?”
“Don’t talk nonsense. These days foreigners speak Korean better than you.”
“No, they might not understand what we’re saying. Hey, Kim Chung-a can speak four languages, can’t we take her?”
Before he could finish speaking, Hong-nam’s large hand smacked Inkyu’s back with a loud whack.
“Stop talking nonsense and just put on your stab vest and run!”
“No! What if they swing a chainsaw when we tell them to stop. Argh! Okay, I’m going. Going!”
Inkyu grumbled while picking up and putting on his stab vest, kept looking back at Cheong-a, then soon left the office.
Hong-nam, who was the last to leave the office, glanced back once at Cheong-a sitting at her desk.
The moment their eyes met, Cheong-a raised the corners of her mouth just slightly, giving a bitter smile.
“Be careful out there. Fighting!”
Hong-nam spoke to Cheong-a in a low voice.
“You do what you need to do.”
And with that, he rushed out.
Cheong-a understood Hong-nam’s words exactly.
It wasn’t that he was saying they would exclude her from the investigation, but rather that she should continue diligently pursuing the Cheongwha Faction and Jeong Gwangsub.
Even so, the fact that she alone had been left out of the Violent Crimes Team 2 investigation that they had all worked on together like one body left her feeling deeply disappointed. There was nothing she could do about feeling that way.
Cheong-a slowly looked around the now empty office.
The office that had suddenly become desolate felt cold.
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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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