Chapter 11
Late at night. The research wing was dark.
In Yushin’s lab, the faint light of a small flashlight flickered.
Clink. Clink.
The metallic sound of someone fiddling with a drawer lock broke the silence. Cheonga took another deep breath to calm her anxious breathing.
“Ugh… why isn’t this working?”
No matter how she wiggled the hairpin she’d inserted into the lock, it wouldn’t open.
Picking a lock like this should’ve been a piece of cake.
Cheonga had learned this skill, called pin-ticking, as soon as she transferred to the Incheon Central Police Station.
A petty thief had demonstrated it once, and to everyone’s surprise, Cheonga had picked it up instantly.
She was even faster and more accurate than the thief. She had used it a few times at crime scenes.
But now…
The lock on Min Yushin’s desk drawer showed no sign of yielding.
A strong sense of suspicion welled up inside her.
What could he be hiding that required such an intricate lock?
Grumbling in frustration, she shoved the hairpin into the lock once more.
Step. Step.
Cheonga’s gaze snapped toward the lab door. The rhythmic sound of footsteps echoed through the quiet corridor.
She quickly turned off her flashlight and held her breath, listening intently.
“…”
This floor wasn’t like the wards that operated 24/7.
The fifth floor, which housed only the testing rooms and labs, was empty at this hour, lit only by emergency lights.
Cheonga’s eyes stayed fixed, trying to detect any stray light that might escape from the dark doorway.
The footsteps stopped.
A large silhouette appeared in front of the lab door.
A perfectly shaped hand reached out and tap, tap—knocking on the lab door. Raising the other hand to the earpiece in his ear, a response came after a moment.
[Confirmed. Signal detected at 4.]
“This is Professor Na Seung-yeon’s room, 503.”
[Okay. Confirmed.]
Earlier that day, an anonymous sales rep from a small pharmaceutical company had visited the gastroenterology department at Boksan University Hospital. He had greeted the professors individually and handed out promotional materials with the company’s stickers.
It was a typical promotion kit, known to be pricey, containing a tonic and two vitamin capsules. But inside one of the vitamin capsules, a listening device had been hidden.
Yushin’s role was simple:
He needed to match each listening device to the professor’s room and set up a monitoring system.
Late at night, in the stillness, he lightly knocked on the professor’s office door.
Then Chamkka would check to see if the bug was functioning properly.
If the knock wasn’t detected, it meant there was no bug in the room—either it had already been taken or discarded.
Knock. Knock.
[….]
“Room 505? No response?”
[Ugh. Noise is still there, but no knock detected.]
Yushin smirked.
“This is Yang Dong-jun’s room. Maybe he already took it or brought it home.”
[Why would he take it home?]
“He’s the kind of guy who’d even steal the hand cream from the hospital. Tell the kids to give him ten promotion kits tomorrow if they send them again. More than he can handle in one go.”
[Okay, got it.]
“All right, so that’s all checked for today. I should head home. Ah, I’m exhausted.”
[You sit at a desk all day and you’re tired?]
“Do you want to die? I’m killing myself reading specialty textbooks day and night just to pretend I know what I’m doing as a professor.”
Yushin continued muttering as he walked.
“Do you think endoscopy is easy? Suddenly they put me in a medical professor’s seat, and I can’t even show that I don’t know anything. Every day, I have to practice pretending I’m good—”
His voice trailed off as he reached the door.
He stopped and frowned at the door.
“Chamkka.”
The voice was small, low, almost inaudible.
[What? Why the serious tone?]
Yushin closed his mouth, pulled out his phone from his pocket, and sent Chamkka a message:
“Someone’s in my room.”
The phone light blinked quickly, and a reply came:
“Chamkka: Are you serious? Is there something important in your room?”
“Nope. Nothing. I’m just raising a meerkat in my room these days.”
A faint smile tugged at one corner of Yushin’s mouth as he tapped on the panel.
“Chamkka: You can’t even take care of a plant, and now a meerkat? Wait… so the meerkat’s there?”
“Our meerkat should be off work by now. I need to check inside to see who it is.”
“Chamkka: Possible? You’re terrible at fighting lol.”
“Can’t really deny that. My only real weapon is a scalpel.”
“Chamkka: lol legendary name.”
Yushin put his hand in his pocket and pulled out Blade #11 wrapped in foil. With practiced hands, he removed the packaging and held the blade between his fingers.
He was ready to strike at the carotid artery if needed.
If it failed, he had a backup plan: break the collarbone to disable the arm.
But what if they were left-handed?
Two opportunities, and then he would likely be overpowered.
Sighing at his endless worry, Yushin exhaled deeply.
“You’ll send backup before I die, right?”
“Chamkka: lol yes yes, security team will come, just come back alive.”
Yushin quietly turned the doorknob without making a sound, holding his breath. Slowly, cautiously, he opened the door.
The room was dark.
Only the emergency exit light behind him and faint moonlight seeping through the blinds lit the space.
The air felt unfamiliar. A sweet but strangely familiar scent filled the room—something he’d never smelled in his own room.
Yushin scanned the room.
Stacks of papers and documents were neatly arranged. A gleaming table, a neatly arranged sofa—and on it, a dark silhouette.
‘What…?’
As he carefully stepped closer to examine the sofa:
Clink.
The blade slipped from Yushin’s relaxed fingers, hitting the floor with a small metallic sound.
What he saw was Cheonga curled up at the edge of the sofa, hugging a dry rag, eyes closed.
“…”
Yushin stood for a long moment, watching her chest rise and fall irregularly.
After a while, he tapped his earpiece to disconnect the line and tucked it into his pocket. Then he slowly approached and crouched in front of Cheonga.
His lips thinned slightly as he studied her.
“Hey. Park Bok-sun. If you’re pretending to sleep, wake up. I need to change clothes before leaving.”
But there was no response.
After a brief pause, Yushin smirked and stood up.
Grabbing the hem of his lab coat, he flung it onto the sofa with a soft thud.
“Just in case you’re awake… I’m not wearing underwear, so don’t open your eyes by accident.”
He reached for his waist. His heartbeat was loud enough to be heard across the room. How long did she plan to pretend to sleep?
In an instant, he untied his belt and pulled off his pants, tossing his lab coat pants beside the sofa where Cheonga lay.
He quickly grabbed the pants from the hanger and put them on. Then he moved toward Cheonga again.
Her hair, either from exhaustion from cleaning or from pretending to sleep, clung to her face in a messy tangle.
‘What time is it now… just be a little careful.’
His hand reached out unconsciously to remove the hair from her lips.
The moment his fingertips touched her mouth, Cheonga’s eyes snapped open.
Their eyes met.
She raised her hand to brush her lips, murmuring softly:
“Right now…”
“Oh, the hair was sticking.”
Yushin’s eyes softened as he smiled.
“Tough day cleaning?”
“Cleaning… hmm… I must’ve… dozed off.”
Cheonga shot up, and her eyes inadvertently scanned Yushin’s bare upper body, while his eyes followed hers.
“Uh… hello? Why… why are you… naked? Exercising? Then I… I’ll just go?”
She awkwardly bowed and left in a hurry.
Yushin crouched there, staring at the lab door she had disappeared through.
“…This is insane.”
He picked up the scalpel blade from the floor, chuckling to himself. Then he retrieved his earpiece from the discarded pants, reconnected, and called Chamkka.
