Chapter 15
“You little bastard. I told you to set the fog, and you set my age to forty.”
[…]
At that, Chamkkae’s mouth snapped shut, and an awkward silence filled the space.
Then, a loud burst of laughter followed.
[Oh! Damn it. How did you know? Hahaha! I was just trying to keep it realistic, reeealistic. Who’d believe a professor at your age… Wait… is that what the code says?]
“Yeah. The magpies called me grandpa.”
[Hahahahaha! Ahahaha!]
“Hey, cut it out, 29. Connect me to number 29!”
Annoyed by Yushin’s nagging, Chamkkae clicked the mouse, replying.
[Ah, so funny. I’ll connect you right away, and I’ll also show you how to decode it.]
“I’ll send a text.”
[Okay. Connecting now.]
A short electronic beep started from the in-ear earpiece on the other side.
Click. Crackle.
Then thump. Thump. The rapid heartbeat of Cheonga followed.
Yushin walked very quietly to hear it better and pulled out his phone to start composing a message.
“Forget the numbers and words. That’s probably just a prearranged combination between the two of you.”
“There’s no way to figure it out right now.”
“Read the Morse code backward.”
Soon, Chamkkae’s reply arrived.
“Chammkae: MIAQDSHIANYDNRNATENASDAWRNAUPERE What is this??”
“You idiot. It’s French.”
“Chammkae: Min Yushin a quarante ans, un grandpere?”
“Yeah, shut up.”
For a moment, there was no reply from Chamkkae.
He was probably running a translation.
Sure enough, a little later, a new message arrived, flooded with Chamkkae’s laughter.
“Chammkae: hahahahahahahahahaha crazy Min Yushin 40-year-old grandpa hahahahahahahaha”
“Chammkae: Wow, but how did you figure this out? There’s no extended French code either.”
“My life working in the same company as idiots who can’t figure this out just by looking at it is pathetic.”
There was no further reply from Chamkkae.
On the other side of the message, he was probably squinting his eyes and flipping Yushin the middle finger, cursing. Very likely.
‘Can see it without looking. Transparent bastard.’
Yushin furrowed his brow and slouched onto the central sofa in the lab. Then he closed his eyes and listened carefully to the sounds coming from the earpiece.
Between the rapid, pounding heartbeat, Cheonga’s voice occasionally echoed.
[…Damn it! …So nervous… here… suspicious…!]
Every time Cheonga’s voice came in short bursts, Yushin’s lips curved into a subtle smile.
“This is ridiculous, seriously.”
Crack.
The sound of a bottle cap opening echoed in the quiet lab.
Cheonga popped two vitamins into her mouth and downed them with a drink in one gulp.
“Ah.”
It had already been several days since she had been raiding Yushin’s energy supplements in the lab every dawn.
‘No reason to refuse the generosity he offers.’
She wiped her mouth clean and recalled the call she had made last night from a payphone to Yeonhee.
[Unnie, just in case, I was checking the integrated narcotics management system. And one ship popped up with treatment records at Boksan University Hospital!]
She said that not only in Incheon, but drug users nationwide had visited Boksan University Hospital.
[They visited twice. Professor Yang Dongjun. And Professor Min Yushin.]
−Then… at least one of them is probably a *straw line, right?
[Could be both.]
Yeonhee was indeed talented.
Not only that, but her perspective when investigating cases aligned perfectly with Cheonga’s approach to solving them.
Thanks to that, Cheonga was able to pinpoint two targets in Boksan University Hospital to focus on.
‘I’m lucky. They’re right there, in rooms that reek of filth. Hah.’
Thinking that, Cheonga slowly surveyed Min Yushin’s filthy lab again today.
“What exactly are you trying to hide, making your room look like this every single day, sir?”
She tossed the empty energy supplement bottle into the trash and headed to Yang Dongjun’s lab to finish the morning cleaning.
Yang Dongjun wasn’t exactly neat either.
On the central table were leftover instant noodles and pickled radish. Hangers held worn lab coats, and several cups of cold coffee were scattered across the desk.
Yet compared to Min Yushin’s room, this place was heaven.
‘I’m thinking this is impressive, and it’s still a mess.’
Cheonga shook her head and rolled up her sleeves. Just as she reached to grab a cup on the desk, her gaze lingered on Yang Dongjun’s desk for a long moment.
What caught her eye was a sheet of paper with wrinkled coffee stains. It was yesterday afternoon’s outpatient patient list.
“Huh…?”
Normally, she would have ignored it.
It wasn’t unusual to have patient lists on a desk.
But among the small print, one name caught Cheonga’s attention.
XX/XX 10:30 / 900213 / 9002132 / M / Byun Nahoon / cc. Dysphagia
Born February 13, 1990. Name: Byun Nahoon. The patient’s diagnosis: dysphagia.
In Cheonga’s mind, the face of Byun Nahoon, who had grimaced and swallowed nervously years ago when she worked in the narcotics unit, flashed.
He had been one of the *droppers she had been tracking back then.
“Huh? Why is this guy’s name here…?”
Her contemplation lasted only a few seconds.
Cheonga threw the coffee cup aside and dashed out of the lab.
She sprinted down the corridor. There was something she needed to check immediately.
She headed straight to the general trash collection area behind the hospital.
There was no time to hesitate thinking it was dirty.
Gloves on, she began digging through the mountain of trash, constantly checking her watch.
Current time: 5:30 a.m.
When the janitors started their morning work and she came here, it was always empty. At 6 a.m., the garbage truck would arrive and take all the trash.
She needed to find the trash bag from Yang Dongjun’s room before that.
Time was short.
Sweating profusely while tossing and sifting through dozens of trash piles, Cheonga’s eyes suddenly lit up.
“Found it!”
She dragged the familiar trash bag, presumably from Yang Dongjun’s room, to a corner, untied it, and started digging through it.
Inside were a considerable number of shredded document pieces.
Cheonga examined each fragment, looking for the patient list from Yang Dongjun’s records.
She sifted through the tiny pieces, scanning for letters. But finding a name in the shredded paper wasn’t easy.
“Ugh. Damn, they really shredded it well!”
She memorized the letters on the vertically cut pieces and mentally pieced them together with other fragments.
After a while, she managed to find a few names.
“Ahn Ijoo. Choi… Eokgyu. Jo Areum…”
All were names she had seen in the records from her narcotics investigation days.
“…These bastards.”
Cheonga let out a deep sigh and clenched the paper fragments in her hand.
“They were building a line here, huh?”
[Ring, ring.]
[Ring, ring, ring.]
Yushin’s phone rang mercilessly as he entered the hospital’s underground parking lot. He glanced at the caller ID and answered.
Chammkae’s breathless voice poured out from the Bluetooth speaker.
[Mess! Mess! Why aren’t you responding! This is urgent!]
Yushin, focused on parking while keeping his eyes on the rearview mirror, answered casually.
“Speak quietly. I’m parking, it’s a Bluetooth speaker.”
[It’s an emergency…!]
Chammkae’s voice lowered but sounded desperate, like shouting.
“What? Did the coin drop?”
[No, it’s not that. Are you kidding me? The meerkat just identified the straw!]
Bang!
Momentarily distracted, his foot slipped off the brake. Yushin’s car crashed harshly into the wheel stopper on the parking floor, making a loud noise.
With the heavy sound, Yushin grabbed the back of his neck.
*Straw: An insider who delivers drugs or a leak route, often in medical or pharmaceutical fields.
*Dropper: A slang term for a middleman or courier in the drug trade.
