Chapter 5
“Wow, that tough bastard. He finally cracked, though, right?”
“He didn’t have a choice.”
Wonyoung and Seunghyun looked gaunt. The other burly team members, who made the spacious SUV feel cramped, nodded in agreement with similar expressions. As time went on, the pressure to identify the higher-ups in the drug supply chain had intensified, even if it meant all-night interrogations. As a result, Seunghyun’s team had been taking turns in the interrogation room, repeating the same questions. The supplier was more stubborn than expected, but he finally began to crack during the third night of questioning.
The place where they received their drugs via a so-called dead drop was, surprisingly, not some clandestine location but the P Hotel. The supplier would book a room and leave the drugs, and then the dealer would quietly retrieve them using a keycard exchanged via courier. Since countless people came and went from hotels with their own luggage, a bag full of drugs didn’t arouse much suspicion.
Seunghyun’s team decided to use this to their advantage. Through the captured supplier’s contacts, they leaked information that a wealthy ability user was secretly looking for drugs. They had requested a fairly large deal from the start and hadn’t expected them to agree, but since the sellers didn’t seem to know their man had been caught, the deal was arranged smoothly. This morning, the location, time, and a keycard were delivered.
“They’ve got some nerve, huh? Who thinks of using a hotel?”
“They probably figured hiding in a crowd would be less conspicuous. It was unexpected for us, too. Detective Kang, are you ready?”
Kang Heechan was the only ability user in the Violent Crimes Unit’s Team 1. His ability had manifested while he was working as a police officer, and as a physical-type, he was naturally transferred to the VCU. Today, Heechan was to go undercover as the buyer and enter the designated hotel room. They had already requested the CCTV footage from the hotel. Since this was the first transaction, Seunghyun’s team needed to focus on identifying anyone watching from the vicinity.
“Yes, sir!” His voice was full of a rookie’s eagerness.
“It’ll be tough, but use your ability a little before you go in. You need to look desperate, like you’re suffering from backlash.”
“Understood!”
“We don’t know where they might be watching from, so don’t give anything away.”
Seunghyun patted Heechan’s shoulder, which was tense with nerves. Dressed smartly to pose as a wealthy man, Heechan flinched, his face turning red. It seemed Seunghyun’s words had hit the mark.
“We’ll be watching, so don’t worry. And don’t forget to call immediately if anything changes.”
“…Yes.”
Heechan took a deep breath, then activated his ability and crushed a dumbbell in his hand. His power was to explosively amplify the strength in one part of his body. After using it, his eyes turned a shade of green. This, too, was one of the conditions for the deal—which meant that the people watching were also somewhere in the hotel.
“Haa, I’m heading in.”
“Yeah, yeah, don’t be scared!”
At Wonyoung’s words, Heechan put on his sunglasses and nodded. Watching him get out of the car through the front window, Wonyoung clicked his tongue.
“Hey, that kid looks really tense. You think he’ll be okay?”
Seunghyun chuckled. “Worried after sending him in? This is how he’ll gain field experience.”
“Hah… Rookies are always a cause for worry, no matter what.”
“Since we sent him, let’s just trust him.”
“Well… yeah, I guess. What could happen when he’s just picking up the goods?” Wonyoung asked, scratching the back of his head. “By the way, what floor did they say?”
Seunghyun set his watch and prepared to leave.
“The twenty-first floor.”
As Seunghyun opened the door and stepped out, Wonyoung and several other detectives followed, scattering throughout the hotel. Seunghyun got on the elevator and pressed the button for the twenty-first floor. They had rented the room next to the transaction site to respond to Heechan’s call as quickly as possible. Seunghyun planned to wait there. There were about twenty minutes left until the meeting.
* * *
Yeonsu arrived in front of the P Hotel. She tried to avoid showing her face as much as possible, but in cases like this where the client insisted on a face-to-face meeting, she had to keep it covered. Nothing good ever came from revealing her face in this line of work. Yeonsu adjusted her hat and mask one last time and entered the lobby.
The man she had been hired to read was an ordinary person with no particularly noteworthy traits. The thought that she could tell the client the truth without hurting anyone made Yeonsu’s heart feel a little lighter as she entered the hotel.
Twenty-first floor.
As Yeonsu stepped out of the elevator and headed for the room, her pace quickened. If she could just finish this job, she could rest for a while. She didn’t know for how long, but during that time, she planned to try anything she could to slowly distance herself from her work with Seokjoong. He would oppose it at first, she was sure. But if she told him she’d found another job to earn money, she thought he might understand her decision.
Lost in thoughts of the future, she walked down the plushly carpeted hallway and soon found herself in front of the designated room. As instructed, Yeonsu quietly rang the bell four times and held the keycard from Seokjoong to the lock. The moment she heard the door unlock and began to open it, she spoke.
“The client who requested—Ah!”
The hotel room door was suddenly flung wide open, and a brutish force yanked her inside.
A sharp pain shot through Yeonsu’s back as she was shoved against the wall near the entrance.
“What is this—!”
Before she could even think of resisting, a hand seized her by the throat. Her hat fell to the floor, her long hair tumbling down. Cold fingers brushed past her ear as the black mask covering her mouth and nose was torn away.
“Long time no see, babe.”
The client was supposed to be a woman. Yeonsu’s eyes filled with horror as she recognized the person before her. Standing there was none other than Hwang Seungmin.
“Fucking bitch. I wondered where you disappeared to. So it was you.”
Seungmin’s eyes were heavily bloodshot. Seeing the murderous rage boiling within them, fear crept into Yeonsu’s gaze. The grip on her collar tightened, and she couldn’t breathe. Yeonsu clawed at the back of the hand choking her and managed to gasp.
“Ngh, st-stop…!” Yeonsu pleaded.
“I’ve been thinking,” Seungmin continued, his face so close she could feel his breath. Despite it being daytime, the strong stench of alcohol washed over her. “It was right after that day. The day Entertainment Patch started tearing me to shreds.”
“Hh… ngh… h-how—”
“How did I find you? The entertainment world is small, you know? It wasn’t hard to buy some information.”
Yeonsu’s face went white. Suddenly, Seungmin threw her to the floor.
Cough, cough. The breath she couldn’t take burst out all at once, followed by a fit of choking coughs and a flood of tears.
“How much did you get paid to drag someone’s life through the mud? Huh?”
“Ah, ngh…”
Seungmin grabbed a fistful of Yeonsu’s hair and yanked her pale face up. It felt like her scalp was being torn off. On top of the physical pain, tears streamed endlessly from the terror of being alone with a man who had clearly lost his mind.
“Let… go.”
“Is that all you have to say? You’re a tougher bitch than I thought. I expected you to be on your knees begging.”
Yeonsu had always thought her work might one day come back to her as karma, but the reality she now faced was far more terrifying than she had ever imagined.
“I, hic, I just… relayed what I read. Instead of doing this to me, why don’t you go find the one who hired you?”
Seungmin let out a crazed laugh. “Entertainment Patch? I would have, back in the day. But thanks to you, all my sponsors have dropped me. What am I supposed to do? That’s why I have to crush a small fry like you to feel a little better.”
In the end, he was taking it out on her because he couldn’t touch the one who was truly out of his reach. Yeonsu gritted her teeth. She couldn’t just let this happen.
“…You don’t know how I use my ability, do you?”
If he did, he wouldn’t have touched her. In an instant, Yeonsu’s eyes turned gold. Startled by the sudden change, Seungmin’s grip on her hair slackened.
“Fuck, what are you doing?!” he shouted in alarm as her demeanor changed abruptly.
Sifting through the man’s memories, Yeonsu spoke with vacant eyes. “You… you’ve killed someone, haven’t you?”
“…What?”
“Huiyeon-dong. The car accident. That was you, wasn’t it?”
He was too stunned to speak.
“Ha. You’re even more of a scumbag than I thought.”
As his deepest secret, unknown to anyone, spilled from Yeonsu’s lips, the man’s pupils trembled.
“How… how could you…”
In his panic, Seungmin didn’t even realize his grip on Yeonsu’s hair had completely loosened. Yeonsu backed away slowly, careful not to provoke him further. Soon, the cold hotel room door was at her back. She stealthily reached a hand behind her and wrapped her fingers around the handle. She had only one chance. Cold sweat trickled down her back.
