Chapter 16 - 2#

The telephone in the Metropolitan Investigation Unit office rang shrilly. It seemed Team 4 was receiving tips on a case, as their office phone was busy and in high demand. Since the Team 4 leader was currently in a meeting with Dojin and Captain Yeom in the captain’s office, calls for the team leader’s desk were being picked up by other teams, making the offices of Team 3 and Team 5 just as chaotic.

Amidst the surrounding noise, the members of Team 1, who had just returned from their vacation, were peaceful. Among the members busy with their own work, only the team leader was on pins and needles. Her face, occasionally glancing toward the small conference room, held all the anxiety in the world. Perhaps wondering about such behavior, Ma Jeong-eun at the diagonal desk quietly called out her title.

“Team Leader?”

Coming to her senses late, she looked at her.

“Huh? Jeong-eun, why?”

“What are you thinking about so hard?”

“I wasn’t thinking about anything.” She really hadn’t been thinking about anything.

Except for thoughts of Sa Dojin.

It seemed that an urgent and important case had been assigned to Team 4 while Team 1 was off. Perhaps because of that, it was hard to catch a glimpse of Dojin’s face from the morning, despite it being the first day back after the holiday. But that wouldn’t last long. At this close distance, they were bound to run into each other at least once. The thought of facing Sa Dojin’s face soon made Hye-jun so nervous and preoccupied that she couldn’t lift a finger. It reached the point where she wished that she, a workaholic, could be on vacation forever. It was frustrating, as it was the first time her private life had influenced her work performance.

The team members, guessing that she wasn’t her usual self, exchanged glances. As if they had planned it, they all directed their gazes toward Kim Gang-san, signaling for the youngest to step up. Kim Gang-san, reading the room, had no choice but to slide his laptop monitor toward the team leader’s desk and start off with a friendly tone.

“Team leader, my friend sent me this. Have you seen it? They say it’s circulating because there are so many handsome police officers at the Central Government Complex.” On the screen was a photo of Hye-jun giving a briefing last week. As she scrolled down, she saw a group photo taken at the police academy graduation and commissioning ceremony a few years ago—how they found it, she didn’t know. That day, the President and the First Lady were in attendance, and the dean at the time had suggested to the Blue House security detail that it would look good for the picture, so he had spontaneously placed her, who was in the back, right next to the First Lady in the front row. A circle was drawn around her face, which was smiling awkwardly from nervousness.

“Wow, how do you find things from several years ago like this? There sure are a lot of people with free time.”

Waving her hand as if to tell him to put it away, Hye-jun stole another glance at the distant small conference room. She thought she had paid attention to the photo for a moment, but it was just a loop. The team members accepted their failure, shook their heads, and returned to their work.

Just then, as if the meeting had ended, the door to the small conference room opened, and the Team 4 leader, Captain Yeom, and Sa Dojin stepped out. The Team 4 leader, perfectly disciplined, saluted the two superiors politely and headed back to his office first. Dojin and Captain Yeom carried on a conversation with quite a serious expression, barely acknowledging others.

‘Is it a major case?’

It wasn’t that she was greedy for big cases, but usually, such high-profile tasks were mostly left to her, so she felt a strange sense of disappointment that it had been given to someone else while she was away.

Even though he had never made her any promises, it seemed her expectations had already begun. Scolding herself inwardly, Hye-jun lowered her body tightly beneath the partition, afraid that she might make eye contact with Dojin.

Thanks to this, the gazes of the team members, who had been looking for cases or doing paperwork, converged on Hye-jun once again. Hwang Si-woo waved his hand over the partition as if puzzled.

“Why are you really like this today? You can’t focus at all. Is something wrong?” Please don’t take an interest in me.

As if delivering that message, she only extended her hand upward and waved it. But perhaps this seemed even more suspicious, as even Yoon Tae-wan, who had been silent, added a worried voice.

“Team Leader Nam, are you sick?” Please don’t make people stare at me…

Hye-jun, with only her eyes poking out over the partition, sent a desperate look as if to ask when they had ever seen her sick. Unfortunately, the team members seemed to have sent their usual intuition flying into the sky all at once and began to make even more of a fuss. Thinking she couldn’t stay here any longer, she barely stood up.

It would be best to slip away to the breakroom until Sa Dojin went into the office. Having decided on her path, Hye-jun grabbed only her phone and left the Team 1 area. Or rather, she intended to, but in the narrow hallway, she saw a luxurious dress shirt standing like a totem pole, and upon witnessing it head-on, she turned into a still life.

When she slowly lifted her slumped upper body to look ahead, Sa Dojin was standing right in front of her.

Dojin, who was looking down at her as if inspecting goods, broke the silence first.

“Team Leader Nam, it’s been a while.”

“I suppose so. Then, excuse me.”

Since the path ahead was blocked, leaving via the shortcut seemed unlikely. Quickly finding a plan B, Hye-jun turned to the side and stepped into the hallway connected to the central passage. The unfortunate thing was that not long after, her path was blocked again by Dojin, who had followed her.

Thwack. Dojin, blocking the passage, was tall and sturdy, resembling a Yaksha.

Captain Yeom, who had been watching this situation unfold, seemed to have a premonition that something interesting was about to happen; he stopped halfway to his office and walked toward the Team 1 office. Provokingly, he sidestepped Dojin and Hye-jun, who were blocking the way, sat on the edge of Kim Gang-san’s desk, and observed the two standing far apart.

Feeling several gazes landing on the back of her head, Hye-jun put on the softest expression she could, wanting to resolve this situation amicably.

“Captain, by any chance, if I go outside, are you going to follow me all the way there…”

“That depends on Team Leader Nam’s answer.”

“What are you curious about?”

“Why is it that you haven’t answered your superior’s calls for an entire week? Is that something one can do with a sound mind?” Regarding this, she had a few things to say herself.

“Calling dozens of times every day because I don’t pick up is also not exactly normal, is it?”

“I thought your phone was broken since you wouldn’t pick up. Seeing that you checked the dozens of missed calls left every day, I suppose it wasn’t broken. In other words… you ignored them on purpose. Is that correct?”

If the other party came at her like this, her only argument lost its strength. Frustrated, Hye-jun turned right around. As she tried to run away, Dojin pushed her against the wall, as if he couldn’t stand it anymore. Thump.

With her back pressed firmly against the wall, Hye-jun was suddenly trapped, facing both the office and Sa Dojin. It was awkward seeing other team detectives glancing over here while they were on their phones, wondering what was going on.

“Excuse me, Captain. There are a lot of eyes on us.”

“Where did you go?”

“I, um, I was going to the restroom…”

“I asked where you went. You weren’t home for the entire week.” How did he know?

Hye-jun, puzzled, tilted her head, attaching the condition of “no way” to the various hypotheses popping up in sequence, and clarified as best she could. In reality, she had gone to rest as if running away with her father, but to explain the mechanism behind how that happened, she couldn’t avoid reflecting on the situation where she went to the hotel with Sa Dojin the day before, so she added a bit of spice instead of being honest.

“I just went on a trip by myself to get some air. I didn’t get the calls because I wasn’t checking my phone properly while resting.”

“Where?”

“I went to a resort area.”

“I asked where.”

“Uh… Saipan? Those places are perfect for playing and eating.”

Of course, it was Gangneung, not Saipan, but she thought there was no need to explain that in detail.

That is, she thought so exactly three seconds ago.

“Do you take the Yeongdong Expressway to get to Saipan these days?”

As soon as she heard his question, all sorts of thoughts burst like water balloons. It meant her mind had gone blank.

Does he know what he’s asking? Or is he just testing her? Even though Dojin had been calling her all week, there hadn’t been any attempts at contact beyond that. She had thought if it were work-related, he would have let her know through the team members, so she kept ignoring him. So she felt a little more relieved on the second day than the first, and a little more relieved on the third day than the second, but at the same time, a little more anxious.

Taken aback, Hye-jun could only blink, unable to say anything. Although there wasn’t much change in Dojin’s expression, his lips trembled as if he were suppressing quite a lot.

“Why are you so surprised? If I go to the situation room and just track the car’s movements, it comes right up. A police officer who even speeds very well on the highway, I see.” Hye-jun’s eyes widened in horror. This wasn’t testing. He was saying this knowing exactly what had happened.

Except for special situations like tailing a suspect, Hye-jun had never committed a traffic violation on the road. Driving over the speed limit this time was also a first. It wasn’t because her sense of law-abiding was so strong, but because she feared that if she started breaking the trivial things as a police officer, she would have the urge to break the important ones too. She was not just a mere constable. She was in a position where, if she set her mind to it, she could easily do so.

But that day, without realizing it, she picked up speed. She felt like she had to get as far away as possible from Seoul, where this man was.

“Do you know how busy the situation room is? Calls come in without rest; what do you expect them to do if you make them do something like that?”

“Who said I used Central Government personnel? Do you think I’m as incompetent as Team Leader Nam?”

“Yes, I guess I’m a bit incompetent. But it’s even more of a problem if you didn’t get help from the Central Government situation room!”

“I checked the card records, too. It seems you rested well at the Daegwallyeong rest area. Why did you go to a bookstore in downtown Gangneung that afternoon? You could have just pretended to look without actually looking.” That day, she had bought The Little Prince.

Usually, when she had a day off, she would read materials about cases, but this time, she read only that thin book day and night. Until the paper wore out. Until the letters became faint. She looked at it all day for several days as if she were determined to make it that way. Since she had read it so obsessively, she could now recite which sentences were on which page.

That book didn’t seem to be for children. Rather, it was a fairy tale for adults. The more she read the text, the more new parts she saw. At first, she was the lonely Little Prince, then she became the foolish rose who mistakenly thought everyone would be afraid of her because she had thorns, and then she became the fox asking, “Please, tame me.”

The fox’s words, that if she tamed him, his life would be as bright as the sunrise, pierced her heart. She particularly read, and read, and read that part until it wore out, as Sa Dojin, who had asked her to go watch the sunrise, suddenly popped into her head. But once she closed the book, it was reality again. She wasn’t stupid enough to believe in such flowery songs. Sa Dojin was not a person who could do that. Primarily, he didn’t like her, and secondarily, he had too much to lose to afford to do anything with a man.

Not wanting this conversation to reach that point, she changed the subject.

“A current police officer without a warrant? That’s illegal, you know.”

“I even checked the lodging list. Isn’t check-in history basic among basics? Was the view of Gangneung Port nice?”

“Wow, the hotel cooperated… That’s illegal too. You’ve done all sorts of crazy things.”

“I haven’t even started on the real crazy things yet. But Team Leader Nam Hye-jun keeps making me want to start. Can you handle it?”

She had thrown out the sharp subject of illegality, but Dojin wasn’t concerned at all.

As for the matter of contact, it was true that she didn’t have much to say herself. She didn’t know what to talk about, so she purposely didn’t pick up, even though she watched the calls coming in every single moment. Even so, it made no sense for a current police officer to commit all sorts of illegal acts without batting an eye and then be this shameless about confessing them. She was about to point that out with a sense of duty.

Swoosh. Moving one step closer as if narrowing the space that was already intimate, Dojin lowered his eyes arrogantly and continued, his voice heavy and suppressed.

“You idiot, Saipan?”

He seemed unable to control his anger. Even though he had such a deadpan expression, his complexion was so strange that it was all visible. Hye-jun, with goosebumps on her back, forgot everything she was about to say and slightly parted her lips. Dojin gently lifted the open chin with his palm to close her mouth and added softly.

“You should at least be familiar with the destination before you go on a trip.”

“I’ll be careful from next time. So, could you move aside? Everyone is only looking here.”

She wasn’t saying this to deflect; the number of gazes watching from across the hallway was increasing in real-time. Although she knew that because of the distance, the conversation they were having wouldn’t be clearly audible to them, she still felt guilty and anxious. Although he was facing away, there was no way Dojin wouldn’t notice that curiosity-filled atmosphere. Even so, he didn’t seem to care, pinning Hye-jun down.

“How did it feel to share a room with an old man? Your taste is truly consistent.”

“He’s my father.”

“I’m waiting this time only. Next time, whether you’re in Saipan or Hawaii, I’m going to barge into that room, so know that. Never go on a trip with another man besides me again. And I’m only putting up with it this time, too.” Since he’s my father…

She wanted to ask how her father could fall into the category of “another man,” but she didn’t want to drag the conversation out and let the people of the Metropolitan Investigation Unit see this interesting situation for even a second longer. Glancing once at the team members in the Team 1 office and Captain Yeom, Hye-jun whispered, pushing Dojin’s shoulder with both hands.

“What do you mean, ‘another man’? Do you think you’re something special just because we slept together once?” Dojin, who hadn’t budged at all, gave a wry smile, tilted his head, and asked back with ease.

“Once? I ejaculated in your hole six times.”

Hye-jun’s face, recalling the events of that night, turned rapidly red. If she hadn’t fainted midway, the number of times that came out of this man’s mouth might have increased even more. She tried her best to regain her composure, but it wasn’t easy. Her voice trembled as she retorted. Sa Dojin, who was sharp, would surely have sensed it.

“I mean for one night.”

He, who had slowly straightened his waist, offered a solution.

“Then let’s have this conversation again after we do it until you become something. When is good for the second time? Today?”

“As if it’s up to you.”

“How long do I have to explain that it’s obviously me? No, forget it. I don’t want to confirm how much more lacking you are, Team Leader Nam. Let’s see each other after work today. Around 9 o’clock…” One of Hye-jun’s various strengths was that she was agile. While Dojin was momentarily distracted by checking his wristwatch, she squeezed her body out to the side and ran straight toward the central passage. Dojin, who watched her back disappear in front of him with a baffled expression, moved to chase her immediately. Just then, the Team 4 leader, who had been waiting in front of the captain’s office door with a cell phone, bowed politely with a troubled look. He had a face that looked like he had secured meaningful clues or tips during that short time.

Tsk, he clicked his tongue, let out an annoyed sigh, and gestured as if to tell him to follow him in.

The two men who entered the captain’s office, not far away, disappeared from view.

The Metropolitan Investigation Unit members who watched the sequence of events whispered among themselves. Team 1 was no exception. Captain Yeom, who was peeling and chewing on the skin of a processed sausage from the snack box, said to the members of Team 1, slyly.

“Hey, why are they like that today? Are those two finally dating?”

“Ugh.”

The team members groaned in pain at the same time. They didn’t forget to cast subtle looks of reproach toward Captain Yeom, as if to tell him to say something that made sense. Captain Yeom looked bewildered.

“What’s with that look you guys have? What are you going to do if I’m right?” Hwang Si-woo, who had been quiet, offered his opinion politely. Both Captain Yeom and the members focused.

“I think our team leader did something wrong? That is exactly the behavioral pattern of someone who committed a crime. Have you ever seen the team leader running away like that in front of the captain?” Kim Gang-san added credibility to those words.

“The fact that the captain went out of his way to find her and press her is also like that. And the fact that the team leader was restless today, too. I suspect they might have caused some big trouble.” Ma Jeong-eun, who had been deep in thought, raised an objection, as if she didn’t agree.

“Senior Nam isn’t the type to run away just because she did something wrong, you know? She’s the type to talk back and stand her ground? Haven’t you watched the war for a day or two?” Yoon Tae-wan provided supporting fire, as if to agree with this.

“That’s right. Do you guys not know Team Leader Nam that well? If our team leader is running away, it’s not a normal situation. Didn’t the captain catch her like a rat when we weren’t around? Ah, Captain Sa, really. At times like this…”

The investigative opinions were sharply divided. As if to say that both sides made sense, they couldn’t easily reach a consensus and remained puzzled.

Captain Yeom, who had been listening quietly, peeled another sausage and muttered listlessly.

“Hey, you’re all wrong. I’m telling you, they look like they’re dating. Even if I look incompetent, I’m a detective with a whopping 30 years of experience, and retirement is right around the corner, you brats… Wait. Huh? Hey, are you not listening?”

“You should say something that makes sense. We’re just talking for laughs, what are you going to do if the Captain is serious like that?” Ma Jeong-eun protested bravely. Other team members kept clashing over their opinions, but as if they had no disagreement on this point, they nodded their heads earnestly and sat down straight at their desks again.

“Good grief. I’ve never seen two people who didn’t fall for each other while fighting and bickering like that. Do you know how many couples among your seniors got married after making that much of a fuss? You guys just wait and see. Whether I’m right or wrong.” Grumbling, Captain Yeom threw the sausage skin and stood up.