🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 2
A few days before Cheong-a started working at Boksan University Hospital.
BANG!
The door to the Violent Crimes Unit flew open with a thunderous crash.
“—Good morning! A very good morning to you all!”
A booming voice reverberated throughout the office.
Every pair of eyes in the room turned toward Kim Cheong-a, who had kicked the door open with her heavy boots.
With her arms linked companionably through those of two burly men, she strode into the office with a spring in her step. A pair of handcuffs dangled from each of her wrists, connecting her to the men on either side.
The sight immediately soured the expressions of everyone on the team.
The two men beside her were criminals, yet somehow, the person who looked worse off was the police officer who had brought them in.
Her hair was so greasy and matted that it looked as though she hadn’t washed it in days. Her shabby hoodie was so filthy that it seemed a single tap would send clouds of dust flying. Even her ankles were plastered with heat packs whose edges had shriveled up.
“—What the hell? Are you a beggar?”
“—And why are you wearing handcuffs on both wrists? Were you the one who got arrested?”
Team Leader Jeon Hong-nam, seated at the head of the office, squeezed his eyes shut. Sergeant Oh Seong-min, sitting at the central table, clicked his tongue and shook his head.
Anyone could tell that they were desperately holding back a string of curses.
Cheong-a, however, seemed entirely unbothered. She flashed a wide grin, revealing the hollow of her mouth.
“—Senior, I told you I hadn’t gone off my meds!”
“—…You’ve got solid evidence for this, right? You didn’t just drag in a couple of innocent people for nothing?”
Team Leader Jeon Hong-nam interrupted, his voice tinged with anxiety as he eyed Cheong-a’s confident expression with suspicion.
“—Oh, come on, Team Leader. These two were happily exchanging little white bags and money. I even got a video of them sampling the merchandise. And I collected all the drug packets with their fingerprints still on them.”
At her explanation, every member of Violent Crimes Team Two crowded around the central table.
Their gazes first settled on the man wearing a silver bracelet on Cheong-a’s right, then shifted to the man on her left who had received the bag.
Finally, they turned toward Cheong-a herself.
“—But, ahem. Did they switch drugs or something?”
“—I was already wondering whether this stuff really came from the Cheonghwa faction. How did you know?”
“—Ahem, ahem. Something smells fishy.”
“—Huh? Smells…?”
Cheong-a raised her arms one after the other and sniffed.
Each time she moved, the arms of the two criminals handcuffed to her bounced along with hers.
“—Ah, damn it, Senior. I think I’m the one who stinks. I was staking out Wang-gil-dong.”
“—Wang-gil-dong?”
“—You know, that place. The landfill.”
A chorus of horrified cries erupted from the team.
Some clutched their foreheads while others covered their noses, all hastily retreating from Cheong-a.
“—Hey, you little—! Go wash yourself right now!”
“—Yes, sir! I’ll be back in a bit. Please take good care of these guys.”
When Cheong-a spun around, the two criminals handcuffed to her stumbled after her, forced to make a wide turn as well. She then glanced at Sergeant Park In-gyu with a troubled expression.
“—Hyung, can you take these handcuffs off me…?”
“—…”
Watching her disappear into the sleeping quarters to wash up, Team Leader Jeon Hong-nam shuddered.
“—Good grief. That woman is something else. How in the world did she spend three days in a place that stinks like that…?”
Nobody contradicted him.
Only the two captured criminals quietly nodded in agreement.
It was quite some time before Cheong-a finally returned to the office, rubbing her hair dry with a towel.
She had discarded her grimy clothes and changed into dark pants and a comfortable T-shirt.
Every time she strode forward on her long legs, her damp hair swayed. She wasn’t exactly blessed with large, striking eyes, but her small face had delicate, well-proportioned features, with her eyes, nose, and mouth arranged neatly together.
Her rosy, makeup-free face and resolute expression had a certain charm that naturally drew people’s attention.
Sergeant Park In-gyu, too, found himself following her with his gaze for quite some time.
Cheong-a, however, either didn’t notice or pretended not to.
She swept her gaze around the now-empty office. The two druggies she’d gone through so much trouble to catch were nowhere to be seen.
“—What’s going on? Senior, where’d the kids go?”
“—Kids, my ass. We put them in the holding cells. The evidence is as clear as day. Make sure you upload the video files before the end of today.”
Cheong-a answered with a simple, “Yes, sir,” and prepared herself a cup of instant coffee.
Settling into a seat at the central table, she pulled out her notebook and flipped through its pages.
“—By the way, Team Leader, I tracked their movements before we swooped in. For the past few months, the only places where their routes overlapped were Boksan University Hospital and that landfill.”
“—Boksan University Hospital?”
Silence fell over the office for a moment.
Jeon frowned deeply, swiveled his chair around, and turned to In-gyu.
“—Hey, wasn’t Jang Yun-ho, the guy we arrested last month, going there too? He put in a request to leave because he had a doctor’s appointment.”
“—That’s right. Wasn’t it gastroenterology or something?”
Cheong-a chimed in, her eyes widening.
“—Oh, hyung! These guys went to gastroenterology, too. That’s suspicious! What if there’s really something going on there?”
At that, Oh Seong-min folded his arms and let out a deep sigh.
“—This is a problem. Of all places, it had to be a hospital.”
There was clearly something suspicious going on, but they had no idea what it was.
Figuring that out would take time.
Unfortunately, medical facilities generally weren’t fond of having police officers stationed on their premises. This was especially true of detectives from the Violent Crimes Unit, whose intimidating appearances made it difficult to tell them apart from the criminals they arrested.
To the medical staff, detectives were nothing but a nuisance.
They were hardly the sort of people who could help patients in need of peace and emotional stability.
“—Boksan University Hospital is even worse than most places. If we don’t have a warrant, they kick us out and tell us to wait outside.”
“—Maybe that’s because you seniors look so scary.”
Cheong-a’s reply hit a little too close to home.
The members of Team Two exchanged glances, taking in one another’s menacing mugs before clicking their tongues and shaking their heads.
“—…Sigh.”
Sighs piled up throughout the Violent Crimes Unit’s office.
A moment later, Team Leader Jeon Hong-nam suddenly snapped his fingers as he looked at Cheong-a, his face brightening with an idea.
“—So the point is, we just need someone who doesn’t look scary, right?”
“—Huh?”
“—Don’t give me that. Look at her. We’ve got someone right here who doesn’t look scary.”
Three pairs of eyes turned toward the person Jeon was pointing at.
Cheong-a, seated at the table, looked around in confusion as she realized everyone was staring at her.
“—…Me?”
Looking thoroughly incredulous, she closed her notebook and gripped both ends of the towel hanging around her neck.
“—We can just put her in the hospital, right?”
In response to Jeon Hong-nam’s question—
“—Wow, Team Leader. That’s perfect.”
Every member of the team nodded in agreement.
Everyone except Cheong-a.
“—Come on, even if I’m good at undercover work, a hospital is a bit much.”
“—Exactly. That’s why you’re not going undercover. You’re getting a job.”
“—A job? Is there even anything I can do at a hospital?”
The answer to that question became clear a few days later.
Sejeong Power Clean: Congratulations, Ms. Park Bok-seon! You have been selected as the successful candidate for the Environmental Services position at Boksan University Hospital. Please bring the required documents and visit the office on Basement Level 1 according to the training schedule below.
A few days later, a text message informing Cheong-a that she’d been accepted for a job she’d never even applied for arrived on her phone.
“—What is this, Team Leader?”
Cheong-a stood in front of Jeon Hong-nam and waved her phone at him. Behind her forced smile lurked a murderous fury.
“Hahaha…”
As Cheong-a laughed through gritted teeth, Hong-nam joined in with a laugh of his own.
“—I mean, seriously. Park Bok-seon? What kind of old-fashioned name is that? Bok-seon? Bok-seon? You should’ve called her Da-bok-seon instead. At least that sounds lucky!”
A low voice whispered from behind her as In-gyu quietly approached.
“—Hey, that’s my older sister’s name. The one we went to all that trouble to borrow because we needed you to conduct an undercover investigation.”
“—Gasp!”
The corners of Cheong-a’s mouth trembled violently.
“—Now that I think about it, it’s a very, v-very lovely name! I’ll take excellent care of Sister Bok-seon!”
“—Yeah, sure. Good luck.”
Leaving Cheong-a looking as though she was about to burst into tears, Hong-nam nodded with a genial smile.
“—We’re counting on you, Ms. Bok-seon. We’ll stay here and guard the office, since the rest of us look so terrifying.”
Squish, squish.
Cheong-a vigorously scrubbed the floor with a mop as she recalled what had happened a few days earlier.
The floor gleamed, polished to a brilliant shine. Reflected in it was her own appearance, which had become increasingly grimy in direct contrast.
“…Haah. I’m going to die.”
She raised her head and stared toward the end of the corridor. The stretch she still had to clean seemed to go on endlessly into the distance.
When she’d first reported for work, submitted her paperwork, and officially started her new job, there hadn’t been much to it.
Her orientation consisted of learning how to clock in and where the cleaning supplies were kept.
After that, she’d been assigned her cleaning area right away.
The fifth floor of the hospital, specifically the section containing the gastroenterology professors’ offices and the endoscopy rooms.
Wow. I’m really lucky, aren’t I?
That had been her first thought.
After all, she’d been given the perfect opportunity to observe the gastroenterology professors, the people she suspected the most, from right under their noses.
But it hadn’t taken her long to realize that she’d been sorely mistaken.
