Chapter – 02
A few days before Cheong-a reported to work at Boksan University Hospital.
Bang!
With a loud crash, the doors to the Violent Crimes Unit flew open.
“Good morning! What a beautiful morning!”
A booming voice echoed through the office.
Every head in the room snapped toward the doorway, where Cheong-a stood, having kicked it open.
She strode in confidently, linking arms cheerfully with two bulky men on either side of her. Each wrist was cuffed—one handcuff per wrist—connecting her to the men.
The moment the team saw that, their expressions darkened.
The guys on either side were clearly criminals, yet somehow the one who looked worse off was the officer who had arrested them: Senior Inspector Kim Cheong-a.
Her hair was greasy, like it hadn’t been washed in days. Her old hoodie looked so grimy that dust might puff out if you smacked it. Heat packs—edges shriveled—were stuck all over her ankles.
“What the hell. Is she a hobo?”
“Why are you wearing handcuffs on both hands? Did you get arrested?”
Team leader Jeon Hong-nam, seated at the head of the office, squeezed his eyes shut. Oh Seong-min, sitting at the central table, clicked his tongue and shook his head.
Anyone could tell they were forcing down a flood of colorful thoughts.
Cheong-a, unbothered, grinned widely enough to show the dark cavern of her mouth.
“Sunbaes, I told you. I didn’t force these assholes to quit their drugs.”
“…You’re sure the evidence is solid, right?” Hong-nam cut in, suspicion heavy in his voice. “You didn’t just drag in a couple of innocent kids?”
“Oh, come on, Team Leader. I got them on video—handing over a white bag, taking cash. Even caught them doing sample testing. I picked up the drug bag too. Full of fingerprints.”
At that, every member of Violent Crimes Team Two swarmed the central table.
Their gazes bounced from the guy on Cheong-a’s right—the one wearing the silver cuffs—to the one on her left, who’d taken the bag.
Finally, their eyes landed back on Cheong-a.
“But… hmm. Did these guys switch their supply?”
“I was wondering myself whether it was really Cheonghwa-gang stuff. How’d you know?”
“Hm. Smells off.”
“…Smell?”
Cheong-a lifted each arm in turn, sniffing.
Each time she did, the arms of the criminals chained to her bobbed helplessly up and down.
“Oh, shit. Sunbae. I think I’m the one who smells. I was staking out Wang-gildong.”
“Wang-gildong?”
“You know. There. The landfill.”
For a split second, screams erupted from the team.
Everyone clutched their foreheads or pinched their noses as they hurriedly backed away from Cheong-a.
“You lunatic! Go wash up right now!”
“Yes, sir! Be right back. Please babysit these guys.”
When Cheong-a spun around, the two criminals flailed and spun with her, still chained together. She looked helplessly at Inspector Park In-gyu.
“Hyung… can you uncuff me first…?”
“……”
As Cheong-a disappeared into the duty room to wash, Hong-nam shuddered.
“Ugh. That’s brutal. Three days in a place like that…”
No one argued.
The two arrested criminals silently nodded in agreement.
It was only after a good while that Cheong-a returned, towel scrubbing at her hair.
She had ditched the filthy clothes and now wore dark pants and a comfortable T-shirt.
With her not-small height and long legs, she strode confidently, wet hair swaying with each step.
Her eyes weren’t particularly large or striking, but her small face held neatly arranged features—eyes, nose, mouth all perfectly balanced.
Her bare face, faintly flushed, carried a resolute expression that naturally drew attention.
Even Park In-gyu found himself unconsciously following her with his gaze.
But Cheong-a didn’t seem to notice. Or perhaps she pretended not to.
She scanned the now-empty office.
The druggies she’d risked her life to catch were gone.
“What? Sunbaes, where’d the kids go?”
“Kids, my ass. We threw them in holding. The evidence was airtight. Upload the video files today.”
“Yes, sir.”
Cheong-a poured herself a cup of instant coffee and sat at the central table, flipping through her notebook.
“By the way, Team Leader, before I grabbed those guys, I traced their movements. For months, the only places their routes overlapped were Boksan University Hospital and that landfill.”
“Boksan University Hospital?”
Silence settled over the room.
Frowning deeply, Hong-nam spun his chair toward In-gyu.
“Hey. That guy we caught last month—Jang Yun-hu. Didn’t he go there too? Applied for outside leave, said he had an appointment.”
“Yeah. Gastroenterology, I think.”
Cheong-a’s eyes widened.
“Oh! Hyung! These guys were seeing gastroenterology too. That’s suspicious! Is there really something going on there?”
Oh Seong-min crossed his arms and sighed heavily.
“This is tricky. It’s a hospital.”
There was clearly something there—but what, no one knew.
And uncovering it would take time.
Hospitals, however, hated having investigators hanging around. Especially ones who looked like criminals themselves—which, unfortunately, was the default appearance of violent crimes detectives.
To medical staff, detectives were harmful presences.
Useless to patients who needed peace of mind.
“Boksan Hospital’s especially bad,” Hong-nam muttered. “Without a warrant, they kick you out and tell you to wait outside.”
“Maybe that’s because you guys look scary.”
Cheong-a’s blunt comment made everyone glance at each other.
They examined one another’s menacing faces, clicking their tongues.
“…Sigh.”
The office filled with collective despair.
Then Hong-nam suddenly snapped his fingers, face lighting up.
“The point is—you just need someone who doesn’t look scary, right?”
“Huh?”
“Don’t ‘huh.’ Look at her. She doesn’t look scary.”
Three pairs of eyes followed his finger.
Cheong-a blinked, looking around herself.
“…Me?”
She closed her notebook, gripping the ends of the towel around her neck.
“If we stick this one in the hospital, it’ll work, right?”
“Wow. Team Leader. Perfect.”
Everyone but Cheong-a nodded enthusiastically.
“Hey, even if I’m good at undercover work, a hospital’s a bit much—”
“Exactly. So not undercover. You’ll get a job.”
“…A job? What can I even do at a hospital?”
The answer came a few days later.
[Sejeong Power Clean]
Ms. Park Bok-seon, you have been accepted as a final hire for the Environmental Services position at Boksan University Hospital. Please bring the required documents and report to the B1 office according to the training schedule below.
A few days later, Cheong-a received a text congratulating her on a job she’d never applied for.
“What is this, Team Leader?”
She waved her phone in front of Hong-nam, fury simmering behind her forced smile.
Ha. Ha. Ha.
At her laughter, Hong-nam laughed too.
“Even so, isn’t Park Bok-seon a bit old-fashioned? Bok-seon? ‘Ill-fated’? You should’ve gone with Da-bok-seon instead.”
In-gyu quietly stepped up behind her and whispered:
“Hey. That’s my sister’s name. I begged her to lend it to us for the undercover op.”
“…Gasp.”
Cheong-a’s lips trembled.
“Now that I think about it, it’s a very, very warm and kind name! I’ll serve Sister Bok-seon with my life!”
“Yeah. Fighting.”
Leaving behind a devastated Cheong-a, Hong-nam smiled warmly.
“Take care of things, Ms. Bok-seon. We scary types will guard the office.”
Splat. Splat.
Cheong-a scrubbed the floor hard with her mop, recalling the events from days before.
The floor shone brilliantly.
Her own reflection, by contrast, looked utterly miserable.
“…I’m going to die.”
She lifted her head, staring down the corridor.
The hallway stretched endlessly ahead—still not fully cleaned.
After submitting paperwork on her first day, nothing special happened.
They showed her how to clock in.
Where the cleaning supplies were kept.
That was the entire orientation.
Then she was immediately assigned her cleaning area.
The fifth floor of the hospital—
the section housing the gastroenterology professors’ offices and the endoscopy unit.
Wow. I’m insanely lucky.
That’s what she’d thought at first.
She could observe the most suspicious department up close.
But it didn’t take long to realize how wrong she was.
