IMTS 19

Chapter 19

Cheong-a grabbed a passing nurse and asked in a trembling voice,

“E-excuse me, ma’am!”

“Yes?”

“Did Professor Min Yushin just mention… a transfer…?”

The nurses in lab coats all nodded in unison.

“Yes. The professor has been officially transferred to Gumi as of today.”

“T-thank you…”

Cheong-a bowed her head and expressed her gratitude. Then she hurried toward Yushin’s room.

“Ha…!”

A bitter laugh escaped her at the scene before her eyes.

The hellish state of the lab had been instantly transformed into pristine order.

The piles of books that had once towered like the Mireuksa Stone Pagoda were now neatly arranged on the shelves. The stacks of papers that had rolled around the room, even the lab coats on the sofa, had completely disappeared.

Even the heavy dumbbells had been carefully packed and removed, leaving her utterly dumbfounded.

Cheong-a’s eyes landed on the clock.

“It’s not even 7 yet.”

The time she had spent trapped in the on-duty room hadn’t been long. And yet, it was already time for him to have cleaned up all that mess and left?

She thought of the hours she herself had spent tidying this room every day. Seeing it perfectly clean in an instant left her stunned.

So he could clean the room this quickly…

‘He did it on purpose. He messed it up on purpose?’

Only then did Cheong-a realize Yushin’s true intentions. All the daily mess in the room had not been to hide anything.

It had merely been a trick to make it seem like there was something in the room, to keep her there.

“A madman… a complete madman.”

A loud laugh of disbelief escaped her.

Cheong-a glanced around the room and headed to Yushin’s desk. She noticed that the lock on the third drawer, which was always firmly shut, had disappeared.

Reaching for it, she found a single piece of paper inside. On it, in a wildly crooked handwriting, was written:

I’ll enjoy the buckwheat tea.
But that’s not swelling.
I’m naturally big lol

Cheong-a’s ears flushed red once more without resistance.

“Is he seriously a madman?”

For a moment, holding the note, she tore it to shreds with a roar. Then, horrified, she screamed:

“Ah! No! Snap out of it, Kim Cheong-a!”

She sobbed as she gathered the torn pieces. If she had wanted to compare the handwriting or check for fingerprints, she shouldn’t have destroyed the note…

Cheong-a carefully collected the ripped paper in her hands, crying.

“Ugh… I really hate Min Yushin.”

Clatter, clatter.

The Line 1 train was always shaky, but today it seemed especially unstable. Perhaps it was just her stomach making it feel worse.

Cheong-a had just resigned from Seojeong Pavarklin and bolted out of the hospital. Her phone in her back pocket kept vibrating nonstop.

“Ha…”

It was Park In-gyu calling. Unrelenting, he had already tried multiple calls. But answering wasn’t exactly possible.

“Ah, stop calling, hyung.”

She had been warned about eavesdropping. She had no way of knowing where her information could leak, so sharing her location over the phone was out of the question.

[Park In-gyu: Hey! I heard you quit? lol Coming back today? To celebrate your resignation, bro’s buying soju at Ogyeop ㄱㄱ]

Cheong-a muttered to herself instead of replying:

“Yeah, sorry. You drink alone. I’ll be late today.”

She boarded the Line 1 train bound for Chang-dong, heading to the main office in Jongno, not the central police station.

Cheong-a, in a pale sky-blue jumper, a short white tee, and wide black slacks, stared blankly at the café entrance.

Sunlight poured into the café. She was the only one with a gloomy face and dull clothing.

Hands buried deep in her pockets, she put a straw in her mouth and sipped her Americano, fidgeting with her hands in her pockets.

“Ha…”

She had a mountain of things to investigate, and time was crawling. The unusually bright sunlight and delicious coffee only made her more restless.

Ding-dong.

The wind chime at the café entrance jingled, followed by the click-clack of high heels.

Cheong-a lifted her head, straw between her teeth.

A woman in a form-fitting office outfit with a roomy cardigan looked around. Upon spotting Cheong-a, her smile stretched from ear to ear.

“Unni~!”

It was Inspector Yeon Hee from the main office, her curls bouncing as she ran toward Cheong-a, cheerfully shaking a black device from her cardigan pocket.

“Noise?”

“Yeah! I turned it on so they can’t eavesdrop. Hand over the bug you brought.”

Instead of asking how she’d been, they jumped straight to checking for eavesdropping and exchanging devices—somewhat comical, really.

Cheong-a gave a bitter smile and slid her phone across the table.

Yeon Hee checked the black device and phone alternately, then frowned.

“Unni, this only eavesdrops during calls. Hmm…”

“What do you mean?”

“Uh… did you not know there was a bug on you?”

“What?”

Cheong-a jumped up, patting herself all over.

Nothing unusual. She had brought nothing from the hospital except the shredded note Min Yushin had written.

Yeon Hee held the device close to Cheong-a and scanned her body.

From the pants pocket to the jumper, the device flashed faster the higher it went. When it reached her chest, it blinked furiously.

“….”

“What’s wrong with this?”

“Unni, did you put a bug in your clothes? Who could have done that? Suspicious!”

“Yeon Hee, talk sense.”

“Or… did you eat it?”

The absurdity made Cheong-a laugh.

“Why are you doing this? I barely ate today. Just a single energy supplement at dawn… ugh!”

Her face went pale, staring at Yeon Hee.

“Whoa… I think I really ate a bug…”

“Why would you eat that?”

“I thought it was a vitamin.”

Cheong-a always took anything considered healthy, no matter how harsh. Knowing this, Yeon Hee shook her head sympathetically.

“But I took that every day…”

“….”

Cheong-a clutched her head, furious.

Damn Min Yushin!

He had tricked her into taking the energy supplement disguised as a bug to eavesdrop!

Now it was clear why Min Yushin and Yang Dong-jun had been in the medical office together this morning. They had used the chaos to extract her information.

A madman.

A crazy Min Yushin!

Cheong-a drained the remaining Americano in one gulp. Yeon Hee muttered as she watched the device:

“Oh. The signal disappeared. Maybe it got disabled by the coffee.”

“….”

Yeon Hee tapped Cheong-a’s phone to unlock it.

Even without knowing the password, it was quickly disarmed by her expert hands, revealing all information and the developer screen.

“Eating the bug proves something happened at the hospital, huh?”

“Yeah. Yang Dong-jun was the straw. I overheard the meeting place and code of the drug dealers… vaguely.”

Yeon Hee opened the app on the phone, speaking casually.

“What’s with that vague hint? If you confirmed it, why not form a team and go after them?”

“There’s another problem.”

Yeon Hee looked straight at her.

“What problem?”

“Min Yushin.”

Her big eyes blinked at Cheong-a, then she smiled mischievously.

“Ah, Unni, he’s not suspicious at all.”

“Yeon Hee…”

Cheong-a sighed, clutching her head.

“Min Yushin is the one who made me eat the bug.”

“……What?!”

Yeon Hee hurriedly pulled up the BokSan University Hospital website and accessed the government network to check Min Yushin’s information.

Her eyes scanned quickly.

“This is weird… Why? What could a bright young professor possibly want?”

“He distributed bugs disguised as energy supplements through a pharmaceutical company. Dozens… maybe hundreds. They were piled like mountains in every professor’s office.”

“…What?”